Molecules and the Chemical Bond

<p>MOLECULES and the Chemical Bond is about understanding Schrödinger's equation for chemical systems. </p><p>In his famous Lectures on Physics Richard Feynman quotes Paul Dirac on what it means to understand an equation. I understand what an equation means said Dirac if I have a way of figuring out the characteristics of its solutions without actually solving it. That hits the nail on the head! It's precisely what Conceptual Valence Bond Theory does for Schrödinger's equation. </p><p>A physical understanding of an equation adds Feynman is a completely unmathematical imprecise and inexact thing but absolutely necessary for a physicist. It unfolds in MCB in two stages described by Newton as a stage of Analysis (a union of observations and inductions) and a stage of Synthesis (use of inductions accepted as first principles to explain observations). </p><p>The book's chief vehicle for creating an intuitive understanding of solutions of Schrödinger's equation is the world's largest - and to the author's knowledge virtually only - library of line drawings of exclusive orbital models of chemical species' electron density profiles. </p><p>By focussing attention on fundamental physical principles and by avoiding use of atomic orbitals and thereby mathematical complexities associated with Schrödinger's equation (the only source of atomic orbitals) the book's essays provide a scientifically sound student-friendly introduction to modern valence theory. </p><p>Repetition of fundamental ideas here and there is intended to make individual essays understandable and interesting each by itself so that readers may examine them in any order in leisurely walks so to speak in the big garden that is valence theory picking bouquets to their liking. </p>