Interesting Links
"The Failure of Classical Physics"
These links are focusing primarily on the interference patterns present during a double slit experiment. These pages describe the process using light waves, but identical interference patterns are present when electron beams are used.
Physics Applet Collection - These applets enable you to study simple physical systems in a playful way. They are idealizations of realistic scenarios, which follow the proper equations that also govern the real experimental systems. Included are many experiments discussed in class as well as others that are just fun to play with.
Double Slit Interference - This applet is more 'hands-on'. It allows you to alter aspects of the experiment including wavelength and distance between the slits.
Double Slit Interference Interactive Tutorial - This tutorial also allows alterations of the experimental parameters and has a slightly better representation of the interference patters.
Physics World, September 2002 - "A brief history of the double-slit experiment."
What is the most beautiful experiment in physics? This
is the question that Robert Crease asked Physics World readers in May - and more
than 200 replied with suggestions as diverse as Schrödinger's cat and the
Trinity nuclear test in 1945. The top five included classic experiments by
Galileo, Millikan, Newton and Thomas Young. But uniquely among the top 10, the
most beautiful experiment in physics - Young's double-slit experiment applied to
the interference of single electrons - does not have a name associated with
it...
"The Uncertainty Principle"
The American Institute of Physics has put together a wonderful series of the History of Physics. In particular is one on the life and science of WERNER HEISENBERG (1901 - 1976). Heisenberg was one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century. He is best known as a founder of quantum mechanics, the new physics of the atomic world, and especially for the uncertainty principle in quantum theory.
The eJournal website (always an interesting site) has put together a Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle Resources page that has a number of different links describing the physics behind the uncertainty principle.
"Hydrogenic Atomic Orbitals"
Hydrogenlike Orbitals - These animated orbitals are the angular part of the wave functions for the discrete stationary states of a one-electron atom plotted according to the equations presented by L. Pauling and E. B. Wilson, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, pp. 133-134. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1935.
Atomic Orbitals has a table containing representation of all possible orbitals in the first four energy levels of a hydrogen-like atom.
Atomic and Molecular Orbitals - This applet displays selected atomic and molecular orbitals, calculated from the wave function. The data for each orbital was produced by a Monte Carlo process. A coordinate was chosen at random, and the orbitals' probability function was calculated for that coordinate.
Back to Chemical Structures homepage.