Resources for Teaching and Learning Physical Chemistry
Michelle M. Francl •Bryn Mawr College
What's this? Once it was state of the
art for physical chemistry calculations. Learn more here.
Contents
For Students: Using Mathematica; Review Materials; Interesting and Useful Odds & Ends; Culture of Chemistry (the who, what, when, where and why of chemistry!)
For Instructors:Using Mathematica; Exercises to Enliven Lecture; Interesting and Useful Odds & Ends; Culture of Chemistry (the who, what, when, where and why of chemistry!)
Using Mathematica and other symbolic algebra programs
- A notebook introducing many of the basic skills needed in physical chemistry, including plotting, data manipulation, fitting of lines.
- Useful tidbits: Small notebooks focussed on modeling a single skill. Modify them for your particular problem.
Review Materials
- Short (4+ pages) reviewing key concepts in Quantum Mechanics. All in PDF.
Just Stuff
- need a sheet of graph paper? Try this collection.
- need a laugh?
Exercises to Enliven the Lecture
- Mathematica-based guided inquiry materials: A large, peer-reviewed collection of exercises using symbolic math engines (including Mathcad and Mathematica) is available at the Journal of Chemical Education's website in the JCE SymMath library.
- Exploring Exotic Kinetics: An Introduction to the Use of Numerical Methods in Chemical Kinetics [1.5 M], M. M. Francl J. Chem. Educ. 2004 81 1535. The use of numerical methods to solve systems of partial differential equations for chemical kinetics is introduced. The principles of numerical integration are briefly presented. The Runge-Kutta algorithm is used to explore two simple mechanisms as well as an autocatalyzed system (Lotka-Volterra) which exhibits oscillatory and chaotic kinetic behaviors. An exercise for mastery based on the Gray-Scott mechanism for glycolysis is included.
- The Partition Functions and how it "functions" [3.9 M] M. M. Francl J. Chem. Educ. 2005 82 175. This notebook provides an introduction to the partition function for beginning physical chemistry students. Exercises include an optional short exploration of Stirling's approximation and an investigation into the shape of the rotational-vibrational spectrum of HCl. The notebook introduces the concept of a partition function, what information it might provide about energy distribution within a system and how to extract that information. The first exercises could be used to introduce statistical mechanics to students. The HCl spectrum exercise can serve as a capstone for a section on statistical mechanics. Three exercises to test students' mastery of the material are included.
- P-chem with a Purpose modules: (PDF versions of the materials and solutions are available upon request from the author.)
- Materials and Nanotechnologoy: Pulling Gold Nanowires
- Buckyballs: A Simple Quantum Mechanical Particle on a Sphere Model
- Thermodynamics of Proteins: Calculating the Entropy of a Helix-Coil Transition in a Small Antibacterial Peptide using Statistical Mechanics
- Raman Spectroscopy: Detecting forged medieval manuscripts
- Exotic Kinetics: Oscillating Reactions in the Troposphere
- Archeometry: Using Amino Acid Racemization to Determine the Age of Artifacts
Culture of Chemistry: The Who, What, When, Where and Why of Chemistry
Chemistry, even physical chemistry, is not a world unto itself. Chemistry is woven firmly into the fabric of the rest of the world, and various fields, from literature to archeology, thread their way through the chemist's turf. Browse the vignettes below, feel free to hang them in the hallway, or reproduce them on problem sets or exams, subject to the limits on the copyright provided, of course!
To see a list of the various vignettes indexed according to keywords, click here.
- Culture of Chemistry vignettes
- What is the Curta? How were numerical calculations done before electronic calculators and computers?
- Ludwig Boltzmann is famous for more than the eponymous equation beloved by statistical mechanicians.
- What was the Invisible College and what does it have to do with Robert Boyle?
- Winning a Nobel prize is not the most fun there is in science, at least according to Maria Goeppert-Mayer.
- Thermodynamics is not dead. What's the connection between human sweat, frog skin and thermo?
- What drove physical chemists in the 19th century to learn Dutch? van der Waals' Ph.D. thesis!
- Lattices make particles distinguishable. What does this have to do with a 55 gallon drum full of M&Ms?
- How did Kurt Vonnegut know about the phases of ice and their various properties?
- What Nobel prize winner played semi-pro baseball?
- Quantum mechanics giving you a headache? Take an aspirin.
- What do Laplace and Napoleon have in common?
- The words of chemistry: historical roots of chemical language
Michelle Francl's Home Page
Physical Chemistry in Context An NSF funded project to link introductory physical chemistry with the primary literature, embedded in a strong historical and sociological context.
This page is maintained by Michelle M. Francl, mfrancl@brynmawr.edu. Last updated 9 February, 2005.