Schedule

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Wednesday
Jan 18
2023

Velocities!

The average velocity, most probable velocity, and average relative velocity

Reading

Ch. 10 of Free Energy, pgs. 220-225

Wednesday
Jan 25
2023

Light Waves in a Box!

How light in a blackbody radiator must conform to Maxwell’s equations for electromagnetism.

Reading

Ch. 11 of “Free Energy” pgs. 240-242

Friday
Jan 27
2023

The Planck Distribution

How the energy density of a blackbody radiator (i.e. lightbulb) is determined by the average energy per photon times the number of modes.

Reading

Ch. 11 of “Free Energy” pgs. 242-246

Friday
Feb 03
2023

Expectation (i.e. Average) Values

How to calculate expectation (i.e. average) values when the eigenvalue equation fails.

Reading

Ch. 12 of “Free Energy” pgs. 270-275

Monday
Feb 06
2023

Proof of the Expectation Value Equation

How the wavefunction of an operator can be expressed as a linear combination of another operator’s wavefunctions.

Reading

Ch. 12 of “Free Energy” pgs. 270-275

Monday
Feb 13
2023

Freewaves and the Particle in a Box

How to incorporate potential energy into quantum mechanics, and the use of boundary conditions to solve wavefunctions.

Reading

Ch. 12 of “Free Energy” pgs. 277-281

Wednesday
Feb 15
2023

Barriers and Tunneling Phenomena

How to set up and interpret the finite barrier problem, as well as examples of tunneling phenomena in organic and bio chemistry.

Reading

Ch. 13 of “Free Energy” pgs. 285-290

Friday
Feb 17
2023

The Finite Box

More systems with flat potentials.

Reading

Ch. 13 of “Free Energy” pgs. 290-294

Friday
Feb 24
2023

The Uncertainty Principle Part 1

Introduction to the uncertainty principle via decomposing wavefunctions into momentum waves (i.e. Fourier Transformation).

Reading

Ch. 13 of “Free Energy” pgs. 298-303

Monday
Feb 27
2023

The Uncertainty Principle Pt. 2

How commutators determine the existence of uncertainty in quantum mechanics.

Reading

Ch. 13 of “Free Energy” pgs. 303-305

Friday
Mar 03
2023

The 2D Rigid Rotor

More on 2D rigid rotor properties, the Hamiltonian, wavefunctions, and boundary conditions.

Reading

Ch. 14 of “Free Energy” pgs. 321-326

Friday
Mar 03
2023

Rotation in 3D

Rotation in 3D- Separability of the 3D kinetic energy operator.

Reading

Ch. 14 of “Free Energy” pgs. 326-330

Friday
Mar 17
2023

Hydrogen Radial Wavefunctions

The solution(s) to the radial Schrodinger Equation for the hydrogen atom.

Reading

Ch. 15 of “Free Energy” pgs. 352-356

Monday
Apr 24
2023

Enzyme Kinetics

Enzyme kinetics, specifically the Michaelis-Menten paradigm.