This "online textbook" is designed to provide a thorough, in-depth treatment of this topic at the first-year college or advanced-HS levels, with a special focus on the underlying concepts. Please note that some of these pages require a standards-compliant browser such as Firefox, Opera or Safari; |
Click one of the six lesson titles immediately below on the left;
you can also go directly to any sub-section within a lesson.
1- Quanta: a new view of the world
Max Planck and Albert Einstein |
Light as electromagnetic radiation |
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Standing waves in the hydrogen atom The hydrogen spectrum explained |
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The wave function and its physical meaning Why doesn't the electron fall into the nucleus? Quantum numbers of electrons in atoms |
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5- Atomic electron configurations
Atoms that have only one electron |
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6- Periodic properties of the elements
How the periodic table is organized |
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Among the many sources the author drew upon, special mention should be made of Pimentel and Spratley’s Understanding Chemistry, S. Brush’s Introduction to Concepts and Theories in Physical Science, P. Atkin’s Quanta, P. Davies’ The Forces of Nature, and the inspired writing of Toulmin and Goodfield in The Architecture of Matter. |