Question
If you treat a conjugated linear pi system as a particle-in-a-box, this quantity equals: “a dimensionless pre-factor, times the length of the pi system squared, divided by the electron Compton wavelength.” For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this molecular property that, empirically, starts at 214 or 253 of its standard units, and then increases by 30 with each additional double bond.
ANSWER: lambda-max [or wavelength of maximum absorption; or wavelength of maximum absorbance; accept any descriptive answers that include the words wavelength AND maximum AND absorbance or absorption; prompt on any descriptive answers that include 1–2 of the words wavelength, maximum, absorbance, absorption; prompt on color by asking “what specific quantity?”] (215 and 260 are the starting values when applying the Woodward-Fieser rules.)
[10m] For large pi systems, the pre-factor is this integer divided by the number of pi electrons. This number appears in the denominator of a particle-in-a-box’s energy levels when they are written in terms of h.
ANSWER: 8 [or eight]
[10e] For an isolated hydrogen-like atom, lambda-max can instead be calculated using this formula derived from the Bohr atomic model. It predicts the Balmer and Lyman series.
ANSWER: Rydberg formula [or Rydberg equation]
Data
| Team | Opponent | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown A | Yale A | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
| Claremont A | Penn State A | 0 | 10 | 10 | 20 |
| Cornell A | WUSTL A | 10 | 0 | 10 | 20 |
| Georgia Tech A | Chicago A | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
| Georgia Tech B | McGill A | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Indiana A | Columbia A | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Iowa State A | Yale B | 0 | 10 | 10 | 20 |
| Johns Hopkins A | Houston A | 0 | 10 | 10 | 20 |
| MIT A | Harvard A | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Maryland A | Chicago B | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Minnesota A | North Carolina A | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| NYU A | Florida B | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| Northwestern A | Chicago C | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Ohio State A | Florida A | 10 | 0 | 10 | 20 |
| Purdue A | Imperial A | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
| Rutgers A | Illinois A | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Rutgers B | Minnesota B | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Stanford A | Duke A | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Texas A | Cornell B | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
| UC Berkeley A | Toronto A | 0 | 10 | 10 | 20 |
| UC Berkeley B | Columbia B | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
| Vanderbilt A | Michigan A | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Virginia A | Penn A | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| WUSTL B | South Carolina A | 0 | 10 | 10 | 20 |