Success, learning physical chemistry

The book is designed for a broad spectrum of users practitioners of computational chemistry who are interested in gaining a broad survey or an entree into a new area of organic chemistry, synthetic and physical organic chemists who might be interested in running some computations of their own and would like to learn of success stories to emulate and pitfalls to avoid, and graduate smdents interested in just what can be accomplished by computational approaches to real chemical problems. 

Interactive science and technology centres have wrestled with the presentation of chemistry for some years. Exhibits based on chemical themes are difficult to design. They tend not to be as robust as physics-based exhibits, in that they require the refurbishment of chemicals. The time spans for phenomena that they might display do not usually occur within the attention span of the average visitor. These phenomena often do not have a visual impact. Where interaction is possible, this involves the manipulation of apparatus, even if under remote control, which requires skills that are not learned in a few seconds. For success, solutions of chemicals have to be readily mixed, any observations have to be safe, visibly clear, and unambiguous. The consequences of these prerequisites are that interactive exhibits with an overtly chemical content are badly under-represented in the many science and technology centres to be found in most technologically advanced countries. 

It is certainly very important to teach these ideas as theoretical, because although the models are successful and central to modern chemistry, it is not helpful if students think our models of atoms and molecules are precise realistic descriptions. Certainly the models introduced at secondary level fall somewhat short of this. As just one example, the notion that atoms contain shells of electrons should not be taken to imply either that there is any kind of physical shell which contains the electrons (as some students assume), nor that the electrons in a shell can always be considered as equivalent. Students who select chemistry as a subject for further study will soon run into problems if they develop fixed ideas along these lines. It is much better to teach that atoms often behave as though they have electrons arranged in shells, but to warn students that scientists have found this to be a simplification. This approach provides students with a more authentic understanding, avoids over-commitment to the model that might impede more advanced learning, and better reflects the nature of chemistry as a science. 

Abstract. Onsager s model to describe the behavior of molecules in liquids is put in the appropriate historical context of the evolution of chemistry. Some key aspects of the model that justify its success in the past decades are discussed, with emphasis on general features shared with many other good models we have in theoretical chemistry and that should be kept in mind for the development of further models congruence with physical principles, simplicity and robustness. The present and future evolution of this model is briefly considered, with the aim of learning better from this example how to exploit our studies for the advancement of theoretical chemistry. 

Perhaps the older brothers and sisters had to take care of each other. Their mother was determined to give young Dimitrij the opportunity to study science, and she tried, without success, to get him approved as a student at the University of Moscow. She traveled with him further to St Petersbmg. There he was given the opportunity to study mathematics, physics and chemistry and was so successfirl that he was offered the chance to travel in Europe to further improve his knowledge. In Heidelberg he learned spectroscopy from Bunsen and Kirchhoff At the age of 32, in 1866, he was appointed professor of chemistry at the University of St Petersburg. He wrote a book Principles of Chemistry and founded the Russian Chemical Society in 1868. Above all, however, he is remembered for The Periodic System of the Elements. 

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