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Bohr atom

noun Physics.

See under Bohr theory.

Origin of Bohr atom

First recorded in 1920–25; after N. Bohr
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
bohr atom in Culture

Bohr atom

[(bawr)]

The simplest modern picture of the structure of the atom, according to which electrons move in orbits around the nucleus. The electron's orbits can exist only at certain well-defined distances from the nucleus. When an electron changes orbits, it does so in a sudden quantum leap. The energy difference between the initial and final orbit is emitted by the atom in bundles of electromagnetic radiation called photons.

Note

The Bohr atom is named after the twentieth-century Danish physicist Niels Bohr.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.