The Vibrations of Molecules - I : The Simple Harmonic Oscillator©
George L. Hardgrove Chemistry Department St. Olaf College Northfield, MN 55057 United States mail to: hardgrov@stolaf.edu
Abstract
This pair of documents provide a basic introduction to simple harmonic motion and permit students to explore the effect of mass and force constant on this motion. The horun.mcd document permits students to create a simple animation of the harmonic motion of a diatomic molecule. The instructional document gives a foundation to harmonic motion in terms of Legrange's equation of motion. Elementary differential calculus is required. Mathcad 6.0+ is required to use the horun.mcd document. Student active learning is supported by a set of questions that direct their exploration of the harmonic oscillator concepts.
Keywords
Audiences: Upper-Division Undergraduate Pedagogies: Computer-Based Learning Domains: Physical Chemistry Topics: Mathematics / Symbolic Mathematics, Quantum Chemistry
Documents
File Name Description Software Type Software Version horun.mcd Instructional and Computational Mathcad Document Mathcad 6 hoin_new.mcd Instructional and Computational Mathcad Document Mathcad 6 horun.pdf Read-Only Document hoin_new.pdf Read-Only Document
Comments to: George Hardgrove at hardgrov@stolaf.edu
©Copyright George Hardgrove, 1996, 1997. All rights reserved. You are welcome to use this document in your own classes but commercial use is not allowed without the permission of the author.