CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

Could someone please explain what H ψ = E ψ means?

The H is the Hamiltonian which is just an operator that acts on the ψ. The ψ describes the system mathematically and E is energy. In the review, the problem that was used as an example basically just gave you the H and you had to plug it into the equation and not solve. I think we just have to know what the terms mean.

Bryce Barbee wrote:The H is the Hamiltonian which is just an operator that acts on the ψ. The ψ describes the system mathematically and E is energy. In the review, the problem that was used as an example basically just gave you the H and you had to plug it into the equation and not solve. I think we just have to know what the terms mean.

Yes, during the review session the TA said that we just have to know what the variables mean/represent, but we won't be expected to solve mathematically.