BOHR, NIELS - NAMING "THE PRINCIPLE OF CORRESPONDENCE"

Über die Serienspektra der Elemente. (Vortrag gehalten am 27. April 1920 in der Sitzung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft in Berlin).

Braunschweig, Vieweg & Sohn, 1920. Contemp. Hcloth. Stamp on titlepage. In "Zeitschrift für Physik", Bd. 2. IV,478 pp. (Entire volume offered). Bohr's paper: pp. 423-469. A very faint dampstain to right margins.

First edition of this fundamental paper in which Bohr for the first time gives name to a theory, which was for the first time used in his work "The quantum theory of line Spectra" from 1918, but now for the first time called "Korrespondenzprincip" (The Principle of Correspondence) and explained in the offered paper. The principle was introduced "in order to obtain the necessary relation to the ordinary theory of radiation in the limit of slow vibrations we are therefore led directlyto certain conclusions about the probability of transition between two stationary states in this limit.".

The "Principle of Correspondence" is the physical priciple that the behaviour of atomic and other systems should approximate to that predicted by classical physics in certain specific circumstances where quantum effects are expected to be unimportent. Bohr used the principle to explain his theory of the hydrogen atom, which among other things successfully predicted many features of the spectrum of light emitted by energetic hydrogen atoms. The principle formed an importent component of the early quantum theory of Bohr, Sommerfeld and others.

Betty Schultz: 17.

Order-nr.: 48726