Johnny Galbraith - Marist College
The Mathematics of Chemistry Part II: Chemical Reaction Dynamics
(You Can't See the Molecules so I Will Show You the Math)
One of the most interesting things about chemistry is what happens when atoms or molecules come together and form different molecules. In order for this to happen, these atoms or molecules must first collide. Unfortunately, there is no way to see these collisions so we must mathematically model what we think might be happening during a collision. This talk will start with the most basic hard sphere collision model and gradually correct for molecular structure and interaction and touch on ways in which we can actually "see" collisions and thus test our models.
All chemical principles will be built from the ground up, but a basic knowledge of calculus will be helpful. Although the subject matter is quite different, in many ways this is a continuation of last year's mathematics seminar "The Mathematics of Chemistry: Using Computers to Do My Dirty Work."
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