right|thumb|The Bohr model of the atom, with an electron making instantaneous "quantum leaps" from one orbit to another with gain or loss of energy. This model of electrons in orbits is obsolete. A problem in classical mechanics is that an accelerating charged particle radiates electromagnetic radiation, causing the particle to lose kinetic energy. Circular motion counts as acceleration, which means that an electron orbiting a central charge should spiral down into that nucleus as it loses speed. In 1913, the physicist Niels Bohr proposed a new model in which the electrons of an atom were assumed to orbit the nucleus but could only do so in a finite set of orbits, and could jump between these orbits only in discrete changes of energy corresponding to absorption or radiation of a photon. This quantization was used to explain why the electrons' orbits are stable and why elements absorb and emit electromagnetic radiation in discrete spectra. Bohr's model could only predict the emission spectra of hydrogen, not atoms with more than one electron.
right|thumb|The Bohr model of the atom with an electron making instantaneous "quantum leaps" from one orbit to another with gain or loss of energy. This model of electrons in orbits is obsolete. A problem in classical mechanics is that an accelerating charged particle radiates electromagnetic radiation, causing the particle to lose kinetic energy. Circular motion counts as acceleration which means that an electron orbiting a central charge should spiral down into that nucleus as it loses speed. In 1913, the physicist Niels Bohr proposed a new model in which the electrons of an atom were assumed to orbit the nucleus but could only do so in a finite set of orbits, and could jump between these orbits only in discrete changes of energy corresponding to absorption or radiation of a photon. This quantization was used to explain why the electrons' orbits are stable and why elements absorb and emit electromagnetic radiation in discrete spectra. Bohr's model could only predict the emission spectra of hydrogen, not atoms with more than one electron