Guest author, Thomas Kennedy, features a twice-monthly series, Quantum Leap, wherein he guides readers through the fascinating world of quantum mechanics. This is issue 013.
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*This issue is continued from Issue 012, “Uncertainty“
Note: Just as no map can equal a territory, no concept of an atom can possibly equal its nature. These models of the atom simply served as a way of thinking about them, albeit they contained limitations, as all models do.
Although the mathematical concept of the atom got better, the visual concept of the atom got worse. Regardless, even simplistic visual models can still prove useful. Chemists usually describe the atom as a simple solar system model similar to Bohr’s model, but without the different orbit shapes. The important emphasis for chemistry medium attempts to show the groupings of electrons in orbital shells. (The example above shows the first eleven elements.)
