The hydrogen atom according to wave mechanics - V implications of multiple coordinate systems

Abstract

Because Schroedinger's temporally dependent or independent partial-differential wave equation for the hydrogen atom is solvable in spatial coordinates in four distinct systems, the properties of those solutions, and even the quantum numbers in sets that characterize those wave or amplitude functions, are parochial to each such system. The relations among the wave functions of the hydrogen atom, wave mechanics and molecular structure are discussed. Quantum mechanics is argued to be largely irrelevant in chemical education.