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This textbook emphasizes the fundamental ideas of quantum theory as they relate to mainstream areas of chemistry such as bonding and spectroscopy; elementary ideas on the use of symmetry are also encompassed. Quantum chemistry focuses on the application of quantum mechanics in physical models and experiments of chemical systems. It is also called molecular quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics (QM) developed over many decades, beginning as a set of controversial mathematical explanations of experiments that the math of classical mechanics could not explain. It began at the turn of the 20th century, around the same time that Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity, a separate mathematical revolution in physics that describes the motion of things at high speeds. Unlike relativity, however, the origins of QM cannot be attributed to any one scientist. Rather, multiple scientists contributed to a foundation of three revolutionary principles that gradually gained acceptance and experimental verification between 1900 and 1930.
