-----Original Message----- From: Horace Heffner > In fact, some molecular orbitals exist in a figure 8 configuration, where the center of the 8 is the nucleus, thus guaranteeing constant nuclear traverses.
[JB:] Understanding the figure 8 configuration is perhaps the most important basic challenge in QM and it can also be said that most theorists are simply not "up to the task". However, I would add that "guaranteeing constant nuclear traverses" is a bit of a reach in this regard .... The following observation may or may not help with that understanding of 2p orbitals- but - if you think about a capacitor as being able to "pass" AC current, and current consists of, well it consists at least partly of electrons - then the nuclear-cap can be a decent analogy (i.e with the nucleus as a kind of capacitor)... but of course there is the argument that it is "not the same electron"... However, in Dirac's universe - is not the electron the epitome of "fungibility"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungibility When I wrote that word "fungibility" I was almost certain that it would not be in Wiki, but heck, it is getting pretty damn hard to come up with anything that is not in Wiki these daze... Jones BTW here is some interesting commentary on 2p orbitals that adds some credence to the idea that indeed it is "not the same electron" that crosses the nucleus ... http://winter.group.shef.ac.uk/orbitron/AOs/2p/index.html
