omly: peacock tail feather (glassware)
omly ([personal profile] omly) wrote2007-01-18 01:50 pm
Entry tags:

Too Much Redhat/Dacapo

I just realized that I am using/thinking of the command "grep" synonymously with the verb "grok".

[identity profile] mollydot.livejournal.com 2007-01-19 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Questions always lead to more questions.... what's density functional theory and catalytic surface?

[identity profile] omly.livejournal.com 2007-01-19 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
a catalytic surface is a surface of a catalyst
a catalyst is a substance that facilitates a chemical reaction, making it happen faster, at a lower temperature and/or more selectively
density functional theory is a type of calculation of quantum mechanics where you calculate chemical properties from the interacting wavefunctions of each of the electrons of each of the atoms involved
a wavefunction can be thought of as the mathematical expression of the probability of an electron being at any location; integrated over all space/infinitiy it would be one because the electron has to be somewhere