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Chemistry LibreTexts

Fundamentals

  • Page ID
    2010
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    • Chemical Change vs. Physical Change
      In a chemical reaction, there is a change in the composition of the substances in question; in a physical change there is a difference in the appearance, smell, or simple display of a sample of matter without a change in composition. Although we call them physical "reactions," no reaction is actually occurring.
    • Dexter Energy Transfer
      Dexter energy transfer is sometimes called short-range, collisional or exchange energy transfer which is a non-radiative process with electron exchange. Dexter Energy transfer although similar to Förster energy transfer, differs greatly in length scale and underlying mechanism.
    • De Broglie thermal wavelength
      The thermal de Broglie wavelength is roughly the average de Broglie wavelength of the gas particles in an ideal gas at the specified temperature.
    • Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer
      Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) is a special technique to gauge the distance between two chromophores, called a donor-acceptor pair. The limitation of FRET is that this transfer process is effective only when the separating distance of donor-acceptor pair is smaller than 10 nanometers. However, FRET is a highly distance-dependent phenomenon and thus has become a popular tool to measure the dynamic activities of biological molecules within nanoscale.
    • Ladder Operators (Creation/Annihilation Operators)
      Ladder Operators are operators that increase or decrease eigenvalue of another operator. There are two types; raising operators and lowering operators. In quantum mechanics the raising operator is called the creation operator because it adds a quantum in the eigenvalue and the annihilation operators removes a quantum from the eigenvalue.
    • Pressure
      Pressure ( pp ) is the force per unit area applied on a surface, in a direction perpendicular to that surface, i.e. the scalar part of the stress tensor under equilibrium/hydrosatic conditions.
    • Quantum Tunneling
      Quantum tunneling is a phenomenon where particles may "tunnel through" a barrier which they have insufficient kinetic energy to overcome according to classical mechanics. Tunneling is a result of the wavelike nature of quantum particles, and cannot be predicted by any classical system.
    • Stirling’s Approximation
      Stirling's approximation (or Stirling's formula) is an approximation for factorials. It is a good quality approximation, leading to accurate results even for small values of n.
    • WKB Approximation
      The WKB Approximation, named after scientists Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin, is a method to approximate solutions to a time-independent linear differential equation or in this case, the Schrodinger Equation. Its principal applications are for calculating bound-state energies and tunneling rates through potential barriers. The WKB Approximation is most often applied to 1D problems, but also works for 3D spherically symmetric problems.


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