system
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human
If the Bohr model is wrong, why is it still used in educational science programs? Also how do electrons actually move around protons?

Sorry for posting two questions although they are kind of related. I was watching *Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman* on the Science Channel and they were talking about dancing blackholes and how their movement is very similar to that of electrons and protons. The show then proceeded to present a Bohr model of the atom with electrons orbiting a proton. From what i learned from chemistry is that the Bohr model is wrong and electrons do not orbit protons in that sense but can be anywhere within the electron cloud. If this is true why do so many educational programs still use it? Also after thinking about this i was wondering how exactly do electrons move about a proton since the program did say that dancing blackholes moved very similarly.
gpt
It's not so much that the Bohr model is useless, it's just that we have a better, more refined model. A good science program teaches not just where we are today in science, but shows the evolution of the concept to put our current knowledge in context. Thus, chemistry usually begins with the Greek origins of the concept of an atom, then go through JJ Thompson and Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr before introducing the most current model.

With physics, most of the older theories aren't completely inaccurate. They are simplifications, they make assumptions, they are approximations, and/or they are only valid for a limited range of phenomena, but they do work. They can't explain everything, but the things they do explain, they tend to explain pretty well. The most obvious example is Newtonian mechanics, which falls apart at high velocities or subatomic scale, but is a pretty good approximation of everything in between. Our current model may explain more than the Bohr model, and refine our knowledge further than the Bohr model, but there are still some phenomena that the Bohr model can adequately predict. It introduces the concept of discrete energy levels to students.