ABSTRACT
This chapter considers Schrodinger's model of hydrogen atom and analyzes in details the quantum wave mechanics approach to the motion of the electron in the hydrogen atom. The stationary Schrodinger equation is not easy to solve as it stands, and the whole problem looks rather complicated when expressed in terms of Cartesian coordinates. An essential difference between Bohr's and Schrodinger's models is that there are three quantum numbers, n, l, m, rather than the one number n describing a state of the electron. Moreover, in Bohr's model the atom is, at each instant, in one and only one energy state, that is., at each instant, the state of the atom is definite, but according to Schrodinger's model, the atom can exist in a superposition of states. In other words, the atom can be simultaneously in more than one energy state at a given instant. This is clearly incompatible with Bohr's model.
