Science Common Sense

1708 - Why did Bohr propose the hydrogen atomic model, successfully explaining the hydrogen atom spectrum.

Niels Bohr proposed the hydrogen atomic model in 1913 because the existing models at the time couldn't explain why the hydrogen atom only released light at specific energies.

Imagine you have a guitar string that can vibrate at different frequencies, creating different notes. Similarly, the electrons around the hydrogen atom vibrate and create different energies.

The existing models said electrons should release energy at any frequency, but Bohr suggested that electrons can only vibrate at specific frequencies, which is why hydrogen only releases light at those specific energies. This explained the spectrum, and his model was a big breakthrough in science.