XV.—The Importance of Professor Whittaker's Atomic Model and of other Atomic Models

Extract

The atom, even in its simplest form, must possess a most complicated structure. The aim of physical science is to find a hypothetical structure, and mode of its functioning, which will give a good account of atomic phenomena. When the phenomena are complicated, and only very partially known, hypothetical investigations are most uncertain and provisional, and make little attempt to work otherwise than by analogy or illustration. In such cases help is often obtained through the discovery of a general law which unifies a wide range of phenomena, and which may be followed by many diverse structures in their activities. Well-known examples are found in the law of conservation of energy, the law of least action, and, recently, the law of quantum action.