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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1997  > March  >
Information • Textbooks • Media • Resources
Teaching with Technology
A Spreadsheet Template for Quantum Mechanical Wavepacket Propagation
John C. Hansen
Chemistry Department, Southwest State University, Marshall, MN 56258

Donald J. Kouri
Departments of Chemistry and Physics, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5641

David K. Hoffman
Department of Chemistry and Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011

Cover
March 1997
Vol. 74 No. 3
p. 335
Abstract
A spreadsheet template has been developed which can propagate a one-dimensional quantum mechanical wave function through a specified time-step. Repeated propagation results in a sequence of graphs which can be interpreted as "frames" of a movie. The wave function is represented by a set of its values on an evenly spaced grid. The initial state and the potential energy function may be set by the user. The spreadsheet calculation uses a recently developed method based upon distributed approximating functionals (DAFs). Although the template has been prepared on Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, the method should be readily portable to any commonly-used spreadsheet program. The template is used to demonstrate wavepacket motion in a harmonic potential. Subsequent publications will focus on using the methodology to demonstrate other important quantum phenomena in an educational setting.
More Information
*  Citation
 Hansen, John C.; Kouri, Donald J.; Hoffman, David K. J. Chem. Educ. 1997 74 335.
*  Keywords
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 July 29, 1999
June 23, 2005
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