Kinetic Gas Theory
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After discussing the statistical basis of the law of mass action, the lecture turns to developing a framework for understanding reaction rates. A potential energy surface that associates energy with polyatomic geometry can be realized physically for a linear, triatomic system, but it is more practical to use collective energies for starting material, transition state, and product, together with Eyring theory, to predict rates. Free-radical...more
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The lecture opens with tricks ("Z-effective" and "Self Consistent Field") that allow one to correct approximately for the error in using orbitals that is due to electron repulsion. This error is hidden by naming it "correlation energy." Professor McBride introduces molecules by modifying J.J. Thomson's Plum-Pudding model of the atom to rationalize the form of molecular orbitals. There is a close analogy in form between the molecular orbita...more
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In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry takes on Knapp and Michaels's influential article, "Against Theory." The historical context of the piece is given and key aspects of the theorists' critical orientations, specifically their neo-pragmatism, are defined. A lengthy discussion of the relationships between, on the one hand, intention and meaning and, on the other hand, language and speech follows with reference to Saussure, deconstruction, an...more
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The most prominent chemist in the generation following Lavoisier was Berzelius in Sweden. Together with Gay-Lussac in Paris and Davy in London, he discovered new elements, and improved atomic weights and combustion analysis for organic compounds. Invention of electrolysis led not only to new elements but also to the theory of dualism, with elements being held together by electrostatic attraction. Wöhler's report on the synthesis of urea re...more
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This lecture traces the development of elemental analysis as a technique for the determination of the composition of organic compounds beginning with Lavoisier's early combustion and fermentation experiments, which showed a new, if naïve, attitude toward handling experimental data. Dalton's atomic theory was consistent with the empirical laws of definite, equivalent, and multiple proportions. The basis of our current notation and of precis...more
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Geography is very important in ecology. Two major systems have been designed to model this, island biogeography and metapopulations. The idea of metapopulations is more recent, and has emerged as the dominant theory. Metapopulations are populations in multiple neighboring areas. The population of a species in any individual area may go extinct, but the metapopulation still survives. The theory of metapopulations has gained momentum in rece...more
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Smith explains that a theory of change in the social sector is roughly equivalent to a combination of the business model and strategy in the for-profit world. You need to identify a change and have a hypothesis about how to make it happen, she says. This is more complex in the social sector because, in additional to market forces, you have to deal with regulatory forces, emotional forces, social forces, and political forces, she adds. A se...more
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In this lecture, Leonard Susskind continues his discussion of Einstein's theory of general relativity. He also gives a broad overview of the field of tensor calculus and it's relation to the curvature and geometry of space-time.
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After pointing out several discrepancies between electron difference density results and Lewis bonding theory, the course proceeds to quantum mechanics in search of a fundamental understanding of chemical bonding. The wave function ψ, which beginning students find confusing, was equally confusing to the physicists who created quantum mechanics. The Schrödinger equation reckons kinetic energy through the shape of ψ. When ψ curves toward zer...more
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Momentum and its conservation during collisions is introduced. Kinetic energy can decrease or increase during collisions. When kinetic energy is conserved, we call it an elastic collision. The momentum vector, internal forces, external forces and the conservation of momentum are discussed. Professor Lewin does some air track experiments where the released energy is from a compressed spring; kinetic energy increases but momentum is conserve...more
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Part 1 - Putting a Price Tag on Life: Today, companies and governments often use Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarian logic under the name of “cost-benefit analysis.” Sandel presents some contemporary cases in which cost-benefit analysis was used to put a dollar value on human life. The cases give rise to several objections to the utilitarian logic of seeking “the greatest good for the greatest number.” Should we always give more weight to the hap...more
