Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Reading Assignment 18

Most difficult part of the material

I dont really understand the Franck-Condon principle, especially the final paragraph in 12.7 about dissociating of molecules if the excited electronic state is not bound.

Most interesting part of the material

How the abundance of isotopes can be accounted for by the spectra of the vibrational states. THe spectrum for different isotopes will differ in the vibrational frequencies. What was more interesting was that we can see the relative abundance of each of the isotopes by looking at the intensities of the spectral lines.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Reading Assignment 17

Most interesting part of the material

That there will be more energy levels for molecules because of the extra degrees of freedom. I also found it interesting that these different states also emit different radiation corresponding to transitions between molecular and quantum states.

Most difficult part of the material

12.4 mainly how the orbital angular momentum is no longer conserved, though I do understand that a diatomic molecule will give rise to a force that is not centered.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Reading Assignment 16

Most difficult part of the material

12.3 on covalent bonds was hard to understand, especially when they start talking about antiparallel spins etc. ALso, how the Hartree theory relates to all, I'm not 100% sure.

Most interesting part of the material

It was interesting how we are now looking at the chemistry side of things, and how the physics we have been learning about applies to things like covalent and ionic bonds. I also understood the bits on indistinguishability in the H2 atom.