Abstract
MODELS for the representation and elucidation of physical phenomena have played an important part in the advancement of science. Mathematicians, who employ the method known as “the ignoration of co-ordinates,” may be satisfied with either a kinetic or a static model for an atom or a molecule, but the physicist and especially the chemist will, as a rule, prefer a static model. Sir J. J. Thomson 1 has done much to bridge the gap between chemistry and physics by making a serious attempt to show how, on the electronic theory of matter, atoms may be linked together to form the stable system which constitutes a molecule. To avoid the difficulties inherent in the view that the electrons are in orbital motion, he is led to postulate a more complicated law of force than that of the inverse square of the distance. For example, he considers the result of assuming a repulsion varying inversely as the cube of the distance superposed on the ordinary electrostatic attraction between a positive charge and an electron. Such a law of force may be adjusted to meet the requirements of the quantum theory. Dr. Irving Langmuir2 has shown that a model of a static hydrogen atom may be obtained possessing many of the properties of the Bohr atom with its circling electrons, if it be assumed that, in addition to the Coulomb force between charged particles, there exists a “quantum force” given by
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References
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ALLEN, H. The Hydrogen Molecule. Nature 112, 340–341 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112340a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112340a0