CHEM1111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Standing Wave, Electron Density, Wave Function
20 Jul 2018
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Document Summary
Electrons can be thought of as 3d standing waves. An electron in an atom is a 3d standing wave. The lowest energy level for any standing wave is the fundamental. Hydrogen has only one proton- less electromagnetic attraction- lower fundamental. An electron wavefunction in itself is not that informative. The quantity we are interested in is the probability of finding the electron at a particular point in space ( electron density), which is given by the square of wavefunction. 2 is always positive, so the probability of finding an electron is positive, regardless of the sign of the wave. Analogy: light (which also moves in a wave). We cannot measure the amplitude, but we can measure the intensity (brightness), which is the square of the amplitude ( photon density). Intensity: the more photons hitting a point at any given moment, the brighter the light. Must square the amplitude to ensure a positive value (no such thing as negative brightness)
