Chemistry

[John86]

Im desperate. Mid-terms are coming up and I cant find a solid definition for the Rutherford-Bohr atom. Can anyone help?
Thanks,
Hiji

[IrishMike]

I believe thats the atom model with a small tight nucleous, and a large mostly empty electron cloud surrounding the nucleous. Discovered when Rutherford did his gold foil experiment.

[Marcellus]

The Rutherford atom is basically the modern definition of the atom (obviously we know more detail about it now, but it's very similar), a small, dense nucleus of protons (positive charge) and neutrons (no charge) surrounded by a 'cloud' of light electrons (negative charge).

For the develepment of our modern ideas about atoms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom#History_of_atomic_theory

And for Rutherford's gold scattering experiment:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_scattering

[John86]

Thanks, that cleared it up.

[Reenk Roink]

Hehe, the ORG as homework help.

[Papewaio]

Rutherford-Bohr atomic model was more like a solar system model with electrons in fixed orbits like planets.

Schrodinger's model uses quantum physics... the electrons have a probability cloud in which they are likely to be in... a bit more like looking at the position of minor planets in the solar system... they have a chance of being anywhere, but more likely to be found in certain locations (like for minor planets in the asteriod belt).

[doc_bean]

Is the Schrödinger model ever used in chemistry though ? Maybe in you go into nano-technology, it usually was just a side note in my chem courses.

[Ser Clegane]

Is the Schrödinger model ever used in chemistry though ? Maybe in you go into nano-technology, it usually was just a side note in my chem courses.

It's definitely used - you need it to describe the "shape" of the "orbital" or "probability cloud" of molecules which is important to better unserstand certain chemical reactions

[doc_bean]

It's definitely used - you need it to describe the "shape" of the "orbital" or "probability cloud" of molecules which is important to better unserstand certain chemical reactions

Now that you mention it .... :idea2:

But you don't really need to understand the theoretical model (and the math) to understand the 'electron clouds', that's probably why it slipped my mind. Hey it's been four years since I've had my last Chemistry course :oops:

[Ser Clegane]

But you don't really need to understand the theoretical model (and the math) to understand the 'electron clouds', that's probably why it slipped my mind. Hey it's been four years since I've had my last Chemistry course :oops:

Indeed - the "typical" organic chemist does not need to understand the complete theory and math behind it.
The quantum physics were more the realm of the guys in the "physical chemistry" department :help:

[Ice]

Indeed - the "typical" organic chemist does not need to understand the complete theory and math behind it.
The quantum physics were more the realm of the guys in the "physical chemistry" department :help:

I hated quantum physics. I was a more of a solution chemist.