<p>Molecular hydrogen gas (H₂) is diamagnetic. Knowing this, what doe

Question

<p>Molecular hydrogen gas (H₂) is diamagnetic. Knowing this, what does this suggest about the spins of the two electrons in the hydrogen molecule? Explain why. (Remember that the electron magnetic moment is 658 times that of the proton.)</p>
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<p>Below is what I have come up with as far as a solution to this problem:</p>
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<p>- One characteristics of diamagnetic elements is that there are no unpaired electrons, therefore there can be no unpaired electrons in the H₂&#160;molecule</p>
<p>-Knowing that H₂&#160;has two electrons, this means that these two electrons must be paired</p>
<p>- By the Pauli Exclusion Principle, we know that no two particles can occupy the same quantum state, therefore one electron must be spin up while the other is spin down</p>
<p>-This solution make sense considering diamagnetic molecules have no appreciable magnetic field, and if the electrons are in opposite spins the magnetic field created by each witll effectively cancel out the other&#160;</p>
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<p>I am unable to figure out how this is related the the electron magnetic moment of the proton. Please check that the above reasoning is correct and provide any guidance towards relating this principle to the electron magnetic moment of the particles. Thanks!</p>

Explanation / Answer

   Your reasoning is pretty sound. The magnetic moment of protons is not very significant because of their tiny values (protons do not have much of revolving motion and owing to their large mass, their spin is significantly slow). Hence H2 behaves diamgnetically.

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