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Topic: HydrogenLike atom  (Read 7223 times)

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Offline nobOdy98

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HydrogenLike atom
« on: March 23, 2008, 09:08:00 PM »
I am royally stuck on a problem in my quantum class.

Here is the question:
Write Down an expression for the radial distribution function of a 3s electron in a hydrogenic atom and determine the radius at which the electron is most likely to be found?


I am completely lost on this problem and am not even sure where to start.  ???

Offline FeLiXe

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Re: HydrogenLike atom
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2008, 03:42:19 PM »
the radial distribution function is the wave function integrated over phi and psi
for an s-orbital you just have to multiply the function by 4 r^2 pi
the global maximum of this will be the second answer
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Offline nobOdy98

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Re: HydrogenLike atom
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2008, 12:01:37 AM »
Why am I leaving out the r component in the integration?

Offline Yggdrasil

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Re: HydrogenLike atom
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2008, 12:34:41 AM »
Your wave function is function that depends on three variables, r, phi and psi.  By integrating over phi and psi, you obtain a wavefunction that depends only one value, r.

If you were to integrate over all possible values of phi, psi, and r, you would 1 by definition because the probability that your electron is somewhere is one.

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