Many textbooks contain misleading statements implying that the radius of the electron’s orbit in a one‐electron atom or ion depends on the mass of the nucleus. It does not. The confusion arises because the symbol r, for relative coordinate, is sometimes incorrectly interpreted as the orbit radius. This confusion leads to incorrect answers to problems posed in these books.
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© 1985 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1985
American Association of Physics Teachers
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