Trying to say something like “the solutions to differential equations often include parameters that can take different integer values, and quantum numbers come from those parameters in (approximate?) solutions to the Schrodinger equation” in a way that makes sense to high school students seems difficult but not impossible, and I’m willing to at least try. 🤷‍♂️
And then I can get into the usual cookbook stuff that students would need to answer the homework problems at the end of the textbook chapter. (Also, unless I’m badly mistaken, almost nobody does chemistry by actually working directly with the Schrodinger equation.)
Trying to say something like “the solutions to differential equations often include parameters that can take different integer values, and quantum numbers come from those parameters in (approximate?) solutions to the Schrodinger equation” in a way that makes sense to high school students seems difficult but not impossible, and I’m willing to at least try. 🤷‍♂️
And then I can get into the usual cookbook stuff that students would need to answer the homework problems at the end of the textbook chapter. (Also, unless I’m badly mistaken, almost nobody does chemistry by actually working directly with the Schrodinger equation.)