MU Chemistry 210 WS97
Interactive Exercise Nr. 1



The place to start this adventure is Brucat's web site of Pictures of Atomic Orbitals at the University of Florida. Check out the AOs for main quantum numbers n = 1 - 3. Notice the spherical nodes in the s-AOs with n>1. Look at the p-AOs 2p and 3p. Both have a node plane (they are p-AOs and l=1) and 3p also has a node sphere in addition! Check out the set of five d-AOs. They come in different shapes. Can you draw them?



I also found a site where you can download a Mathematica program that allows you to draw three-dimensional representations of atomic orbitals. If you are a Mathematica enthusiast, you might try that out. Otherwise skip it.



Another University of Florida web site that shows the Hydrogen Atomic Orbitals.



Quicktime movies for the visualization of atomic orbitals introduce you to isosurfaces and much more. Check this out in the evening as the time for downloading is significant!



Let me know if you can find other sites on the web that help learning about atomic orbitals, molecular orbitals, hybridization and bonding. If you bring a site and it get's posted, I will acknowledge you by name.