Whee!

(Sorry I am a bit excitable right now.)

Look! Look! Course outline for my Inorganic 2 Course!

Content:
This course provides a detailed examination of the structure and bonding in main group and solid state compounds, including valence bond and molecular orbital theory for describing electronic structures, Hückel and Extended Hückel approximations. Structures of simple solids, including close packing of spheres and derived ionic lattice types; aspects of chemical crystallography, Bravais lattices, point groups, space groups, crystal planes, and X-ray diffraction; ionic interactions in gases and solution; descriptive chemistry and characterization of main group element compounds.

The first set of course notes is also out online, and the professor makes good his promise - sphere packing, ionic lattices, and basics of crystallography. *Squeals excitedly*

Well ok, some of the stuff is review (e.g. close-packings are taught in first-year), but as my first inorganic course has pointed out, "review" does not mean "easy".

Incidentally, has anyone heard of the Kepler Conjecture? Basically, it says that the maximum average sphere-packing density for monodisperse spheres is the same as that of cubic/hexagonal close-packings. Very cool, because it's not obvious*!

*Proceeds to wander off to read about monodisperse sphere packings, including random ones*

(Ok, I realize that googling the posted course outline can partly wreck my anonymity; I trust you readers with your judgement).

*Not obvious to me, that is. If you happen to be a physicist or an engineer**, however...
**Kind of like this.