Reduced Mass
Reduced Mass
):
(
Thus,
( )
The previous approach was to write (we use
.)
where
assuming that the electron was rotating about the nucleus. However, a
more accurate expression would be (using the diagram)
so from eq (1)
if we replace all occurrences of with the reduced mass . Essentially, with a reduced
distance to the centre of rotation ( instead of ), we can simply correct it using a reduced
mass. Note here that in our previous analysis where
,
so our previous
results related to the spectrum of the Hydrogen atom are still very good. But now, we can
make it better.