Visualizing the Bohr Atom
Imagine you are looking at a hydrogen atom. At the center, we have the positively charged nucleus. Revolving around it in the second orbit, where n=2, is our electron. This is the classic Bohr model setup, and it provides a beautiful, semi-classical way to understand atomic energy levels.
The Quantization of Angular Momentum
According to Bohr's famous postulate, the angular momentum of this revolving electron is not arbitrary; it is strictly quantized. It must be an integral multiple of 2πh. This gives us our first master equation:
From this equation, we can easily isolate the velocity v. We just move the mass m and the radius r to the denominator on the right side. This gives us the velocity of the electron purely in terms of its orbit radius:
Deriving the Kinetic Energy
Now, the question asks for the kinetic energy of this electron. We know the classic formula for kinetic energy is:
Let's substitute our expression for velocity into the kinetic energy formula. Squaring the terms inside the bracket gives us 4π2m2r2n2h2. Multiplying by 21m simplifies it beautifully:
KE=21m(2πmrnh)2=8π2mr2n2h2
The Bohr Radius Connection
We need our final answer in terms of the Bohr radius, a0. Remember, the radius of the n-th orbit is given by the formula:
For a hydrogen atom, the atomic number Z is 1, and here we are dealing with the second orbit, so n is 2. Therefore, the radius r is simply:
The Final Calculation
Now, let's bring it all together. We substitute n=2 and r=4a0 back into our kinetic energy equation.
Let's simplify this carefully. Squaring 4a0 gives 16a02. The 4 in the numerator cancels partially with the 8 in the denominator, leaving a 2. Two times sixteen is thirty-two. So we get:
KE=8π2m(16a02)4h2=32π2ma02h2
Comparing our result with the given expression KE=xma02h2, we can clearly see that x is exactly 32π2.
The question asks for the value of 10x. Multiplying by ten and substituting π=3.14, we get:
10x=320π2=320×(3.14)2=3155.072
Rounding to the nearest integer, our final answer is 3155.