Re: Odd nuclear question

[Michael McNaughton <mcnaught@lanl.gov>]

At 04:04 PM 12/2/99 -0600, you wrote:
>Someone asked me if the orbital speed of an electron depended on it's
>distance from the nucleus.  

According to the ancient and outdated Bohr theory, you begin with 2 equations:
mvr = nh/(2 pi) (quantization of angular momentum), and
e^2/(4 pi epsilon0 r^2) = m v^2/r (Coulomb force = centripetal force)

(m is electron mass, v is electron speed, n is the principal quantum
number, h is Planck's constant, e is electron charge, epsilon0 is
permittivity of free space, r is electron radius)

these are solved to give
r = epsilon0 n^2 h^2 / (pi m e^2)
v = e^2 / (2 n h epsilon0)

so r and v both depend on n.
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