From: Don Petty (fdpetty@ilstu.edu)
Date: Wed Jan 29 2003 - 15:50:06 EST
You might be interested in checking out a web site designed by Mark
Winter (of the Chemistry Dept at the University of Sheffield, UK).
It's called "The Orbitron -- a gallery of atomic orbitals and
molecular orbitals on the WWW"). The URL is
<http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/orbitron/>.
It includes images representing atomic orbitals and molecular orbitals,
animated plots of wave functions, animated plots of electron density,
"dot-density" plots of electron density, and lots of radial
distribution functions.
Here's an excerpt from the text explanation accompanying the images for
the 1s orbital:
citation:
<http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/orbitron/AOs/1s/index.html>.
The OrbitronTM, a gallery of orbitals on the WWW, URL:
<http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/orbitron/>.
Copyright 2002, Mark Winter [The University of Sheffield]. All rights
reserved. Document served: Wednesday 29th January, 2003
- "The shape of the 1s orbital: For any atom there is just
one 1s orbital. Consider the shape on the left. The surface of the shape
represents points for which the electron density for that orbital is the
same - an isosurface. The image shows clearly the spherical shape of the
1s function. The orbital on the right is sliced in half to show
that there is no spherical node in the 1s orbital. Examine the electron
density plots to see that the electron density increases exponentially
towards the nucleus. While still spherical, the higher s-orbitals
(2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, and 7s) are more complex since they have spherical
nodes."
Sounds complicated -- but the images are worth thousands of
words. After you see the shape of the 1s, you can just click on
another link to compare the shapes of the 2s, 3s, 2p, 3p, etc.
Works great in the classroom if you have a big screen TV or monitor or a
projection system.
Don Petty
fdpetty@ilstu.edu
University High School
Laboratory Schools, College of Education
Illinois State University
Normal IL 61790
At 09:23:57 AM 1/28/2003, Fiona Rae wrote:
I wondered about that software. We
had subscribed to Chemplace but next year with its demise, we will be
looking for a replacement in the form of interactive software. Has anyone
got any yet?
-----Original Message-----
From:
tfalcone@comcast.net
[mailto:tfalcone@comcast.net]
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 6:22 PM
To:
channel-talkchemistry@learner.org
Subject: Re: [Channel-talkchemistry] (visualizing orbitals)
Has anyone had any luck with software that allows you to see how these
molecules look and their geometry? I know in biology, it helps me when I
use rasmol or chime plugins that alllow students to see structures of
hemoglobin etc.
Tina
----- Original Message -----
From: "Katie Johnson"
<johnson5@madison.k12.wi.us>
To:
<channel-talkchemistry@learner.org>
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: [Channel-talkchemistry] (visualizing orbitals)
> Regarding visualizing orbitals
> I went to the local craft store and found some styrofoam balls that
were "egg" shaped. One student (as a special project)
made a model with a
large round styrofoam ball (2s) and 6 of the egg shaped balls (2p) stuck
on at appropriate x,y,z axes. We then (using a hot knife) cut out a
section of the large round ball following a line around the
"equator" of the ball 1/4 of the way around and then from each
end point up to the top of the ball. We took a smaller round
styrofoam ball (1s) and cut its shape to match the hole and glued
it in. We tried to duplicate the composite orbitals graphic from
Addison Wesley's HS Chemistry Book. (4th ed. =3D page 248, 5th ed 3D page
365) Now as I talk about the orbitals I hold up a small ball for
the 1s and my model (with the cut out section facing away from the class)
and we talk about the 2s and 2p. Then I rotate the model to show
the 1s is inside. It seems to help.
> Katherine Johnson
> Chemistry Teacher
> Madison East High School
> Madison, Wisconsin
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