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Browse materialsMIT 5.61 · Fall 2017

Physical Chemistry

Art: Alembert, Jean Le Rond d', 1717-1783 Diderot,…, Plate xviii chymie cn69m494r dr26xz05s dl full size, 1751 · Public domain

Instructor: Prof. Robert Field
Term: Fall 2017
Level: Undergraduate
What's inside: 36 videos · 9 problem sets · 4 exams · 13 solutions · 1 lecture note · 1 reading · 77 other files · 4 web pages
Materials open: Videos here · files on MIT OCW

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5.61 · Fall 2017 · Study here (this version)
5.61 · Fall 2007 · On MIT OCW ↗

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About this course

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 5.61 Physical Chemistry, Fall 2017, Prof. Robert Field — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

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Has MIT solutions 13 files in this course are named by MIT as solutions.

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Materials by section

Grouped by section, as MIT organized them. Not sequenced or ordered.

Lecture Notes

42 files

Assignments

18 problem sets

Exams

7 files

Other materials from this course

36 video transcripts

MIT OpenCourseWare, Prof. Robert Field, 5.61 Physical Chemistry, Fall 2017.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Fall 2017 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

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Physical Chemistry

Before you start

What's here, and what isn't

Not included here

Materials by section

Lecture Notes

Assignments

Exams

Other materials from this course

Lecture 1: Quantum Mechanics—Historical Background, Photoelectric Effect, Compton Scattering

Lecture 2: Wave Nature of the Electron and the Internal Structure of an Atom

Lecture 3: Two-Slit Experiment, Quantum Weirdness

Lecture 4: Classical Wave Equation and Separation of Variables

Lecture 5: Quantum Mechanics: Free Particle and Particle in 1D box

Lecture 6: 3-D Box and QM Separation of Variables

Lecture 7: Classical Mechanical Harmonic Oscillator

Lecture 8: Quantum Mechanical Harmonic Oscillator

Lecture 9: The Harmonic Oscillator: Creation and Annihilation Operators

Lecture 10: The Time-Dependent Schrödinger Equation

Lecture 11: Wavepacket Dynamics for Harmonic Oscillator and PIB

Lecture 12: Catch Up and Review, Postulates

Lecture 13: From Hij Integrals to H Matrices I

Lecture 14: From Hij Integrals to H Matrices II

Lecture 15: Non-Degenerate Perturbation Theory I

Lecture 16: Non-Degenerate Perturbation Theory II: HO using a,a†

Lecture 17: Rigid Rotor I. Orbital Angular Momentum

Lecture 18: Rigid Rotor II. Derivation by Commutation Rules

Lecture 19: Spectroscopy: Probing Molecules with Light

Lecture 20: Hydrogen Atom I

Lecture 21: Hydrogen Atom II. Rydberg States

Lecture 22: Helium Atom

Lecture 23: Many-Electron Atoms

Lecture 24: Molecular Orbital Theory I. Variational Principle and Matrix Mechanics

Lecture 25: Molecular Orbital Theory II. H2+, A2, AB Diatomics

Lecture 26: Qualitative MO Theory: Hückel

Lecture 27: Non-Degenerate Perturbation Theory III

Lecture 28: Modern Electronic Structure Theory: Basis Sets

Lecture 29: Modern Electronic Structure Theory: Electronic Correlation

Lecture 30: Time-Dependent Perturbation Theory I. H is Time-Independent, Zewail Wavepacket

Lecture 31: Time-Dependent Perturbation Theory II. H is Time-Dependent: Two-Level Problem

Lecture 32: Intermolecular Interactions by Non-Degenerate Perturbation Theory

Lecture 33: Electronic Spectroscopy: Franck-Condon

Lecture 34: Electronic Spectroscopy and Photochemistry

Lecture 35: δ-Functions, Eigenfunctions of X, Discrete Variable Representation

Lecture 36: Time Dependence of Two-Level Systems: Density Matrix, Rotating Wave Approximation