d00bleA
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Group theory- inorganic chemistry
Hey everyone
I made some videos on youtube about how to find point groups. Then I made some more about how to find reducible representations from small molecules
and then find the sets of irreducible representations these are comprised of.
Currently these are the only group-theory videos on youtube! So I was wondering what you guys think I should do to make them better. I am already
planning on getting a tablet and re-doing some of them!
I found group theory to be really interesting but it seemed like the majority of the people in my class really struggled with it so I thought I would
make it easier for the students that have to take it next year!
Oh yeah here is a link to one of them. There are 10.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mean9EHUwAc
PS. Recently I was thinking about doing a video using the Mercury program and some intersting .cif files. I have a few but they are all on Palladium
pincer compounds, so everything is c2v lol. If anybody has some .cif files that are interesting, please share!
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DJF90
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Group theory is pretty important in chemistry, particularly when considering molecular vibrations (i.e. IR and Raman spectroscopy). From the first
couple of minutes I watched of the video you linked to, I would say you've done an excellent job in explaining it. I will advise you get a graphics
tablet though, but you do a pretty good job using a mouse. I'll watch the rest of them later when I have time.
Thanks alot!
[Edited on 15-4-2011 by DJF90]
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DDTea
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Seriously, thank you for this. I love Group Theory, but it is a painfully abstract subject to learn. Any new approach to explaining it is highly
appreciated. As DJF90 mentioned, it simplifies a lot of the work in MO calculations and has a lot of applications to spectroscopy. One of the big
problems, I think, is explaining group theory in meaningful terms to people: i.e., presenting a problem, solving it using a more traditional approach,
and then showing the alternative solution using group theory.
"In the end the proud scientist or philosopher who cannot be bothered to make his thought accessible has no choice but to retire to the heights in
which dwell the Great Misunderstood and the Great Ignored, there to rail in Olympic superiority at the folly of mankind." - Reginald Kapp.
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DJF90
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I also found it very difficult to learn at first, and I think d00bleA really simplifies things by the large amount of examples and actually showing
the operations. Seeing some things for the first time (e.g. C3 axis in Td molecule) took me a while to figure out on my own.
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d00bleA
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Hey guys thanks for the positive reinforcement!
I just got the drawing tablet I ordered so I think I am going to celebrate tomorrow by doing a big long problem on the Oh point group! It is going to
take about 3 or 4 videos just looking at the size of the character table!
DJF90- I know what you mean. Oh has a C3 axis also that people miss occasionally. Some of the trickiest groups are ethane-substituted compounds imo.
But really if you guys can give me ideas for good problems I will totally make videos on them.
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DJF90
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I'll have to take the time to watch all your current videos to see what I think is missing, but I'll try and get round to it soon. Good shout on the
C3 in Oh, totally forgot about that one. Perhaps now you've done the videos showing examples of the operations (rotation, reflection, improper
rotation etc) you could go through a couple of molecules to elaborate the different point groups. If you really wanted to, you could go on to show how
the ideas of group theory can be applied to spectroscopy, e.g. How a Td molecule has A1 + T2 normal modes and what they look like, how to tell which
are IR or Raman active and how to tell if there are coincidental peaks in the two specta.
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