Home / Bohrs Atomic model and Quantam mechanics Bsc concept / QUANTUM THEORY AND BOHR ATOM: Rutherford model laid the foundation of the model picture of the atom. However it did not tell anything as to the position of the electrons and how they were arranged around the nucleus. Rutherford recognised that electrons were orbiting around the nucleus. But according to the classical laws of Physics an electron moving in a field of force like that of nucleus, would give off radiations and gradually collapse into the nucleus. Thus Rutherford model failed to explain why electrons did not do so. Neils Bohr, a brilliant Danish Physicist, pointed out that the old laws of physics just did not work in the submicroscopic world of the atom. He closely studied the behaviour of electrons, radiations and atomic spectra. In 1913 Bohr proposed a new model of the atom based on the modern Quantum theory of energy. With his theoretical model he was able to explain as to why an orbiting electron did not collapse into the nucleus and how the atomic spectra were caused by the radiations emitted when electrons moved from one orbit to the other. Therefore to understand the Bohr theory of the atomic structure, it is first necessary to acquaint ourselves with the nature of electromagnetic radiations and the atomic spectra as also the Quantum theory of energy