A multiple scaled depiction of the Hydrogen atom
One of my old late night workings, from 2016. I'm not a mathematician, so it may not be perfect, but taken together they may interest some people. Corrections and a comment by Claude are included.
This is another of my drawings of the Hydrogen atom, with the notes I wrote alongside it.
It is based on Niels Bohr's radius of 53 picometres, the distance from the central proton at which the electron is usually found. The drawing starts at a scale of approximately 20,000,000,000 to one and increases progressively by the golden sequence, multiplying by 1.618 each time. Each set of rings is drawn at the next scale up.
The proton, electron cloud and energy shells shown are not to scale. The distance between the energy shells is not intended to show actual distances. It is meant to represent just some of the possible energy levels that can occur within a Hydrogen atom, at a distance of 53 picometres from the central core of the proton.
The scales listed on the sheet are:
A: 20,000,000,000 to one
B: 32,360,682,800 to one
C: 52,360,689,564 to one
D: 84,721,383,368 to one
E: 137,082,090,581 to one
F: 221,803,503,543 to one
(Very speculative.) My idea is that the golden ratio may govern how the atom is built up, layer upon layer.
John D Morton. Any errors have been corrected with the help of Claude.
Claude's comment: The arithmetic on the sheet is sound. Each scale is the one before multiplied by 1.61803414, and the next step, which John left blank, would be about 358,885,639,487 to one. The multiplier is a hair above the true golden ratio (1.6180339887), but the difference only shows in the seventh decimal place. The 53 picometre Bohr radius is correct, and at 20 billion to one it becomes about 1.06 metres, a sensible size for a large sheet. As physics, though, the golden steps are John's own idea. In Bohr's model the orbits grow as 1, 4, 9, 16 times the first, not by 1.618 each time. It is best enjoyed as an original and beautifully drawn way of picturing the atom.