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"Linus Pauling, Crusading Scientist." 1977. Produced for NOVA by Robert Richter/WGBH-Boston. Solving the Chemical Bond. (1:42)

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Linus Pauling: You know I'd begun to think about the theory of the chemical bond very seriously in 1926, '27, after quantum mechanics was discovered. And in 1928 I published a paper, a preliminary paper and said that I would write more later on. I didn't write anything more for three years because the problem turned out to be such a hard problem, the mathematical problem, that I couldn't solve it and time went by. Finally in December 1930, one day I thought of a way to get around the mathematical difficulties, a simplification which made it very easy to get results. And I was so excited and happy I think I stayed up all night making, writing out, solving the equations which were so simple that I could solve them in a few minutes. Solve one equation and get the answer and solve another equation about the structure of octahedral complexes such as the ferrocyanide ion in potassium ferrocyanide or square-planar complexes such as in tetrachloroplatinate ion and various other problems. I just kept getting more and more euphorious as time went by. And it didn't take me long to write a long paper about the nature of the chemical bond, and that was a great experience.

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Date: 1977
Genre: sound
ID: 1977v.66
Copyright: More Information

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