Homework 1: Due Weds Oct. 1 before 8:30am in my mailbox (in the chemistry mail room
on the first floor of Bagley just outside the main office)
For some of you this will be review. For others parts will be new. You should still work all of it!
Note: All Levine Problems are listed for both 5
th
OR 6
th
Ed (but you only need to do one)
All students should make sure they have 24 hours access to a copy of Maple. I VERY
STRONLGY recommend you run it in “Classic Worksheet Maple” mode rather than the
Document worksheet mode (it is faster AND more stable). On some versions (e.g. Mac) this
means running it in “Worksheet” rather than “Document” mode. If you have a choice of using a
Mac or a PC—USE A PC. Undergraduates will need their own copy of Maple, or (as a
secondary, less desirable alternative) finding a campus lab with Maple that is open during hours
compatible with their class schedule.
Levine Problems: (Use Maple when possible)
5
th
Ed Problems: 1.7, 1.8, 1.29
6
th
Ed Problems: 1.9, 1.10, 1.30
Additional Problems: from basic units to Diff Eqns and Fourier Series, don’t judge them all by
the first few (they get harder!)
1) A review of some freshman chemistry relevant to quantum:
a) Calculate ν, and the energy (in eV) per photon for radiation of wavelength 500 nm.
b) What is the wavelength of a photon with twice this energy?
c) For the waves in (a) and (b) express the units in terms of reciprocal centimeters (cm
-1
[sometimes still called wavenumbers])
d) What ‘color’ are these photons?
e) What is the energy in eV of a photon that would be absorbed by a C=O carbonyl
stretch?
f) What kind of instrument would you use to record a spectrum containing the peak in
part e)?
g) What are general (easily memorized) formulae for converting
i) a photon energy in nm to an energy in eV?
ii) a photon energy in cm
-1
to an energy in eV?
2) A review problem from a freshman physics textbook: Suppose that a 100W source
radiates 600 nm light uniformly in all directions. Assuming that the human eye can
detect this light if only 20 photons per second enter a dark-adapted eye with a 7-mm
diameter pupil, how far from the source can the light be seen? Why do you think can’t
we see this far in the “real world”?
