When physicists began to explore the world of the atom more precisely in an attempt to understand its structure and the laws which govern its behaviour, they soon encountered serious difficulties. Our intuitive concepts, based on our daily experience of the macroscopic world around us, turned out to be totally wrong on the atomic scale; the atom was incomprehensible in classical physics. To unravel these new mysteries, it was therefore necessary, after long trial and error, to develop entirely new concepts, the concepts of quantum mechanics. What are the main steps that led us to this modern vision of the atom? Where is atomic physics currently? What is its contribution to the development of our knowledge and where is it heading? |