Module 1 : Atomic Structure
Lecture 4 : The Schrodinger Equation
 

(4.3)

 

(4.4)
 

(4.5)
 

The first equation, Eq. (4.3) corresponds to an ordinary second order differential equation similar to Eq. (2.1). Equations 4.4 and 4.5 are a little harder to solve and you will learn how to solve them in your mathematics courses.

 
The solutions to these are listed in Table (4.1) and you may like to verify that the radial part (R = Rnl (r) where subscripts indicate quantum numbers) satisfies Eq. 4.5 while the angular part jointly satisfies Eqns (4.3) and (4.4), i.e, the functions depending on ) of Table 4.1satisfy equation Eq. (4.4) while the functions of or e ) satisfy Eq.(4.3).
The formula for energy E of Eq. (4.5) is; which is the same as Bhor's result. For the hydrogen atom, E depends only on the principal quantum number n.