For a pchem thesis my advisor was seeing unexpected experimental results and asked me to try explaining from first principles. I started with Schrodinger's equation, let the math do the work, and wound up with a fairly reasonable match.
Looking back on it now, perhaps I had a few too many free variables (J Neumann – “with four parameters I can fit an elephant…”).
In any case, to me, it was so cool to see how such a fundamental equation connects to very complex experimental processes.
For a pchem thesis my advisor was seeing unexpected experimental results and asked me to try explaining from first principles. I started with Schrodinger's equation, let the math do the work, and wound up with a fairly reasonable match.
Looking back on it now, perhaps I had a few too many free variables (J Neumann – “with four parameters I can fit an elephant…”).
In any case, to me, it was so cool to see how such a fundamental equation connects to very complex experimental processes.