ABSTRACT
The use of classical mechanical analogs for quantum behavior holds a long and proud tradition in the development and application of quantum theory. In Bohr’s original formulation of quantum mechanics to explain the spectra of the hydrogen atom, Bohr used purely classical mechanical notions of angular momentum and rotation for the basic theory and imposed a quantization condition that the angular momentum should come in integer multiples of h¯. Bohr worked under the assumption that at some point the laws of quantum mechanics that govern atoms and molecules should correspond to the classical mechanical laws of ordinary objects like rocks and stones. Bohr’s Principle of Correspondence states that quantum mechanics is not completely separate from classical mechanics; rather, it incorporates classical theory.
