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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1998  > May  >
Chemical Education Today
Commentary
In Defense of Quantum Numbers
Robert M. Richman
Mount St. Mary's College, Department of Science, Emmitsburg, MD 21727-7799
Cover
May 1998
Vol. 75 No. 5
p. 536
Abstract
A recent paper has argued that the derivation of the periodic table using quantum numbers is a topic that should be eliminated from introductory chemistry courses because it is too abstract, mysterious, and esoteric. A rebuttal is offered based on the claim that it would be wrong to omit discussions of the inductive approach of Mendeleev and the deductive approach initiated by Schroedinger, because they compose the consummate example of that interaction of empirical and rational epistemologies that defines how chemists think.

See Letter re: this article.
More Information
*  Citation
 Richman, Robert M. J. Chem. Educ. 1998 75 536.
*  Keywords
 History/Philosophy, Teaching/Learning Theory/Practice, Periodicity/Periodic Table, Quantum Chemistry
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 June 23, 1999
June 23, 2005
Link to Letter added (May 2004).
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