15.2 Energy in simple harmonic motion  (Page 4/8)

A practical application of the concept of stable equilibrium points is the force between two neutral atoms in a molecule. If two molecules are in close proximity, separated by a few atomic diameters, they can experience an attractive force. If the molecules move close enough so that the electron shells of the other electrons overlap, the force between the molecules becomes repulsive. The attractive force between the two atoms may cause the atoms to form a molecule. The force between the two molecules is not a linear force and cannot be modeled simply as two masses separated by a spring, but the atoms of the molecule can oscillate around an equilibrium point when displaced a small amount from the equilibrium position. The atoms oscillate due the attractive force and repulsive force between the two atoms.

Consider one example of the interaction between two atoms known as the van Der Waals interaction. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to discuss in depth the interactions of the two atoms, but the oscillations of the atoms can be examined by considering one example of a model of the potential energy of the system. One suggestion to model the potential energy of this molecule is with the Lennard-Jones 6-12 potential :

A graph of this function is shown in [link] . The two parameters $\epsilon$ and $\sigma$ are found experimentally.

From the graph, you can see that there is a potential energy well, which has some similarities to the potential energy well of the potential energy function of the simple harmonic oscillator discussed in [link] . The Lennard-Jones potential has a stable equilibrium point where the potential energy is minimum and the force on either side of the equilibrium point points toward equilibrium point. Note that unlike the simple harmonic oscillator, the potential well of the Lennard-Jones potential is not symmetric. This is due to the fact that the force between the atoms is not a Hooke’s law force and is not linear. The atoms can still oscillate around the equilibrium position $x_{\text{min}}$ because when $x<x_{\text{min}}$ , the force is positive; when $x>x_{\text{min}}$ , the force is negative. Notice that as x approaches zero, the slope is quite steep and negative, which means that the force is large and positive. This suggests that it takes a large force to try to push the atoms close together. As x becomes increasingly large, the slope becomes less steep and the force is smaller and negative. This suggests that if given a large enough energy, the atoms can be separated.