There are two main infrared (IR) spectrophotometers: dispersive IR spectrometers and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers. In a dispersive IR spectrometer, a beam of infrared radiation produced by a hot wire is divided into two parallel equal-intensity beams using mirrors. One beam passes through the sample, while another is a reference beam. The beams then move through the monochromator, which separates the radiations into a continuous spectrum of different frequencies. The...

Hydrocarbons such as alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes show characteristic C–H stretching absorption bands. These IR stretching frequencies depend on the hybridization of the involved carbon atom and can be explained in terms of the s character of each hybridized atomic orbital.
Among the sp, sp2, and sp3 hybridized orbitals, sp orbitals have the maximum s character (50%). Consequently, the electrons are held more closely to the nucleus, resulting in stronger and shorter C–H bonds that stretch at a...

The Doppler effect has several practical, real-world applications. For instance, meteorologists use Doppler radars to interpret weather events based on the Doppler effect. Typically, a transmitter emits radio waves at a specific frequency toward the sky from a weather station. The radio waves bounce off the clouds and precipitation and travel back to the weather station. The radio frequency of the waves reflected back to the station appears to decrease if the clouds or precipitation are moving...

The earth's gravitational field produces a 'twisting force' perpendicular to the angular momentum of a spinning mass (such as a spinning top) that causes the mass to 'wobble' around the gravitational field axis in a phenomenon called precession. Similarly, the magnetic moment (μ) of a spinning nucleus precesses due to an external magnetic field directed along the z-axis. The precession of the magnetic moment vector about the magnetic field is called Larmor precession, and the angular frequency...

Group polarization is the strengthening of an original group attitude following the discussion of views within a group (Teger & Pruitt, 1967). That is, if a group initially favors a viewpoint, after discussion the group consensus is likely a stronger endorsement of the viewpoint. Conversely, if the group was initially opposed to a viewpoint, group discussion would likely lead to stronger opposition.

The Doppler effect and Doppler shift were named after the Austrian physicist and mathematician Christian Johann Doppler in 1842, who conducted experiments with both moving sources and moving observers. Consider an observer standing on a street corner, observing an ambulance with a siren sound passing by at a constant speed. The observer experiences two characteristic changes in the sound of the siren. Initially, the sound increases in loudness as the ambulance approaches and decreases in...