For our poster project, we incorporated the geometries of molecules into multivariable calculus. The idea for this project initially sparked since we are both chemistry majors and wanted to do something related to chemistry, but we did not know what. After brainstorming, we concluded that doing the different molecular geometries would be interesting since it involved shapes and angles. The relationship between molecular geometry in chemistry and multivariable calculus lies within the analysis of the molecular structures in a three-dimensional space.
Showing these molecular structures in a three-dimensional space helps us understand the spatial arrangement of the atoms in the molecule. In addition, various topics of multivariable calculus overlap with the molecular geometry of the atom, including vectors, partial derivatives, and coordinate systems. Vectors are present in the making of molecular geometry in the way that vectors represent the direction in molecular geometry, specifically the bond angles in the different basic molecular geometries. Partial derivatives are also present in our project in the same way that changing a variable that controls the bond angles of the molecule’s geometry will affect the overall molecule and the properties that make up a specific molecule. Finally, with the use of coordinate systems, we can display the molecular geometry with accurate spheres, and polar coordinates are helpful to get the precise positions of the atoms in the molecule.
