The theory of atomic structure that has just been outlined, like
everything in theoretical physics, is capable of expression in
mathematical formulæ; but like many things in theoretical physics, it
is also capable of expression in the form of an imaginative picture.
But here, as always, it is necessary to distinguish sharply between
the mathematical symbols and the pictorial words. The symbols are
pretty sure to be right, or nearly so; the imaginative picture, on
the other hand, should not be taken too seriously. When we consider
the nature of the evidence upon which the above theory of the atom is
based, we can see that the attempt to make a picture of what goes on
has led us to be far more concrete than we have any right to be. If
we want to assert only what we have good reason to believe, we shall
have to abandon the attempt to be concrete about what goes on in the
atom, and say merely something like this: An atom with its electrons
is a system characterised by certain integers, all small, and all
capable of changing independently. These integers are the multiples of
_h_ involved. When any of them changes to a smaller integer, energy
of a definite amount is emitted, and its frequency will be obtained
by dividing the energy of _h_. When any of the integers concerned
changes to a larger integer, energy is absorbed, and again the amount
absorbed is definite. But we cannot know what goes on when the atom is
neither absorbing nor radiating energy, since then it has no effects in
surrounding regions; consequently all evidence as to atoms is as to
their changes, not as to their steady states.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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