Abstract
When two or more atoms combine to form a new unit, that new particle is termed a molecule. The name is derived from the Latin word molecula, meaning “small mass”. A molecule is the smallest unit of a chemical compound which still exhibits all its properties, just as we have seen the atom to be the smallest unit of a chemical element. A molecule may be decomposed by chemical means into its component parts, i. e. into atoms. The great variety of materials found in the world of matter is a result of the enormous variety of possible combinations in which molecules may be constructed out of the relatively few types of atoms in the Periodic Table of elements.
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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Haken, H., Wolf, H.C. (2004). Introduction. In: Molecular Physics and Elements of Quantum Chemistry. Advanced Texts in Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-08820-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-08820-3_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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