Lab week 6 - READ ALL OF THIS PLEASE!!!

The idea that electrons have

certain locations radially from the nucleus of an atom brings to mind a picture of
orbiting planets around the Sun. A simple model and yet so profound because
like the planets, the orbits for the most part are very stable. We don't find the
Earth moving over to the orbital path of Jupiter. We know that a tremendous
amount of energy would be required to let that happen. The consequences
would obviously not be good for us. We learned in physics part one that forces
exists because of energy. The capability of doing work results in trying or
realizing changing the state of motion of a body. Either the forces balance or
they don't, thus giving way to acceleration.
In this week's lab, we study how we could predict where an electron would be
as far as it's radius from the nucleus, aka what primary quantum number is it in,
example n=1, 2,3 etc. In my supplement section you will find the Aufbau table.
You can see from that table that n = 1 is the same thing as K =1. For those of
you who took chemistry before (know K is the shell value), that n =1, is the first
possible radial location of an electron from the nucleus for the atom to be stable.
Often referred to as the first Bohr radius in hydrogen. Being that close to the
nucleus means the force of coulombic attraction to the protons in the nucleus is
HUGE! That means the potential energy is HUGE! That means is would take a
lot to get the electron to leave the atom from that location. Alternately, electrons
in higher orbits, where n = 4, 5, 6 etc., are less bound and influenced by the pull
of the protons in the nucleus, and are thus more easlily removed because it takes
far less energy to do so. Consider the electrons in the inner orbits blocking or
shielding the electrons in the outer orbits. So what does that tell us about where
the electron might be at any given point in that one orbit, or if it were in the
second orbit n=2, or third n=3?
IMPORTANT!!!! So in order to deal with this question, we think of a model. We
think of something more familiar to us. Imagine, that you have a particle in a very deep well.
This is also called the particle in a one dimensional box model. The particle is way down at the
bottom and you want to know where along the bottom it is located and if possible the probability
it could be higher up than the bottom. We know for it to be higher up somebody or something
would have to be lifting it. That means using a force and using some energy. The particle is kept
there by gravity just as the electron is kept in orbit by the protons in the nucleus. BUT we also
know the electron is moving and has momentum. [BTW, recall physics I where you were asked
why the moon does not crash into the Earth....AHA....same principle, do you see that? ]. So
imagine the particle in this well is moving about on the bottom floor of the well. Also, imagine
we are not talking about gravitational pull by coulombic attraction. We want to figure out where
it could be at anytime. Recall from what I said above, that the very act of using light to look at
atoms causes the atom to change as far as it giving energy to the orbital electrons. So that means
we could only statistically predict where the particle in the well might be. The question about is
it in the middle more than near the walls, or some other place? We would like to think for now,
the particle cannot be outside the walls, no tunneling allowed right now. No cheating.
SO HOW already you ask do we do this lab already
professor? You need to use Excel NOT WORD! You need to make several columns n, x,
PSI,x,PSI^2. (yes there are two columns labeled x for making the format of PSI and PSI^2
easier. You need to know how to write a function using Excel formulation.
SEE ATTACHMENT CALL EXCEL FORMULATION

The wave function PSI, is written in Excel language as =SQRT(2) *SIN(((A2*3.14*B2))) and
PSI^2 as =(SQRT(2)*(SIN(((A2*3.14*B2)))))^2
For those who need more help, see the starter file I attached. I WILL SAY AGAIN, you
need to use EXCEL! You need to fill in the rest for n = 2 and n =3 in like manner I did n =1
with the same step increments for x. Just keep going done the n column to finish the table. You
should have enough savy to see how to cut and paste the PSI and PSI^2 so that you populate the
cells to compute the values. You should see PSI having some negative values when n = 2 and n =
3. Study it an see how I am trying to teach you how to arrange your data. Then you can see how
I applied these formulas above to each and every PSI and PSI^2 cell to get the values I did.
Now, you are to take it from here. You need to graph the curves for PSI and PSI^2 for n = 1,2
and 3. I want you to put three curves for PSI at n = 1,2 and 3 all on one graph and do the same
for PSI^2 (all on another graph, but one graph. It should look like the second attached file. You
are to configure the the axes to get what I get and label them accordingly (umm, yes, I tell you
what to label them). THIS IS a very important lesson not only in using Excel to plot functions,
but to draw up graphs so that your audience can understand what you wrote and what you are
trying to convey to them. This is my way of supplementing the APA version 6 edition which
DOES NOT cover topics like this. I am preparing you for how you would make an Excel slide
as you would do for yourself. your professor, your publisher, your audience or your employer.
You might have to play with the settings before you get it right. AND so, what about the
physics here? You will observe once you get it plotted, that PSI^2, which is the probability, has
values 0 to 1. When it is zero you should guess that is where the electron is NOT going to be
most of the time. Take a guess what value 1 means. You should be looking long and hard at
where the max and min points are on the curves you get. Projecting those points down or up to
the x axis tells you where along L the probability of where you would find the electron. If you
get stuck formatting your graphs then take a look at the second file I have attached here. Note
the PSI has negative values or n =2 and n =3 so that is why I plotted it the
way I did.
MAKE NO MI STAKE! You must do your own graph using
Excel graph or deductions will be made. I am trying to teach
you about quantum physics, or as I like to call it, quantum
mechanics. I am interested in seeing how you can configure
your own graphs and how you interpret the information you
have on your graphs. In the end you should go away with the
conclusion the probability of finding the particle in a certain
place has discrete results. You might find the particle very
unlikely to be near the walls of the box. This is like saying
the electron has a probability of being in a certain orbital
location. You will begin to think that maybe it is not as clear
the orbits are like beads on a wire but rather, like the
electrons can be in several places at any given time. This is
what physicists and chemists call the cloud theory. Imagine
how complicated this must get the more complex the atoms
get in structure. Hydrogen is pretty easy, try doing this even
for Boron. Thus there are more complex ways of dealing
with higher order atoms. Those techniques are outside the
scope of this course and are usually done in hight level
undergraduate and graduate level physics classes.

Energy of a Photon
http://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom/properties-of-sunlight/energy-of-photon