Well, first of all, I have a questions. I’m working through the derivation of Schrondinger’s equations, and I was able to come up with the correct solution, but I’m stuck on the interpretation of one of the terms. In one of the earlier steps in deriving it, the wave function is being operated on by the Laplacian. I’m have a tough time understanding what the physical interpretation of that would be. Wave functions describe probability amplitudes of the electron location as a function of x and t, but applying the Laplacian doesn’t make sense to me. Can anyone help with this dilemma?
Thanks
BT
[quote]BlakedaMan wrote:
Well, first of all, I have a questions. I’m working through the derivation of Schrondinger’s equations, and I was able to come up with the correct solution, but I’m stuck on the interpretation of one of the terms. In one of the earlier steps in deriving it, the wave function is being operated on by the Laplacian. I’m have a tough time understanding what the physical interpretation of that would be. Wave functions describe probability amplitudes of the electron location as a function of x and t, but applying the Laplacian doesn’t make sense to me. Can anyone help with this dilemma?
Thanks
BT[/quote]
Sounds like what I’ll be doing next week…
That’s what I’m doing next term 
I would post your question on http://www.physicsforums.com/
That site is basically the “T-Nation” of everything science/math related. Post-docs and profs post a lot there as well.
If I recall correctly (a few years ago now) it represents the kinetic energy.
[quote]madquarker wrote:
That’s what I’m doing next term
I would post your question on http://www.physicsforums.com/
That site is basically the “T-Nation” of everything science/math related. Post-docs and profs post a lot there as well.[/quote]
Yes, go there.