Linear Water: Would We be Swimming in it?

TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

Table of Contents

Abstract Volume 3 Issue 5 (1998), S1430-4171(98)05248-9

Linear Water: Would We be Swimming in it?

William A. Shirley

Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037

Published online: 1 October 1998

Abstract. This report records a light-hearted (yet rigorous) study to determine the importance of the bend in the water molecule. We present the answer to what could be a rather open-ended question posed in a computational chemistry course to an advanced undergraduate student with access to a personal computer with one of several quantum chemical programs. We use commonly available computational chemical techniques as well as qualitative molecular orbital theory to probe the hypothetical question: If water were linear, what would be its nature?

Key Words: In the Classroom; computational; physical; water; quantum

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: wshirley@scripps.edu)

Article in PDF format (81 KB )