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Re: Elliptical orbits and Sommerfeld



On Thu, 31 Jul 2003, Craig Lucanus wrote:

Thanks for the welcome on behalf of the list John :) I realise atomic
physics has moved on and,yes, I got the hits too, but it's hard to find
anything on this and my world is barren when it comes to (old) references
offline.

Thanks Jack. I think an alternative way for me to ask the question is:

Why didn't Sommerfeld choose orbits in the same shell (same 'n')to have
the same average radius from the focus (be they elliptical or circular).
This would mean electrons in any orbit would have the same average PE and,
if their total energy (KE+PE)is equal, they would have the same average KE
too. What was the guiding principle (or mathematics)?

The short answer is: the action.
For more details see Richtmeyer & Kinnard <Introduction to Modern
Physics>, McGraw-Hill (1947). (I'm embarrassed to say that my copy has
Sid Bludman's name inscribed on the front cover.) From there you may have
to go back to the original references.
--
"Don't push the river, it flows by itself"
Frederick Perls