# Sp^2 hybrid orbital lobe separation

1. Aug 28, 2010

### inverTap

1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data
Show that the sp2 hybrid wavefunctions given by the below equations produce a three-lobed charge distribution 120deg apart

2. Relevant equations

sorry if the image is hard to read, I was having issues with the formatting otherwise

3. The attempt at a solution

So basically I am not even sure where to start. I'm new to this kind of physics. Obviously I need to substitute in the orbital wavefunctions into the first equations, but in all honesty I don't even know what the I,II, and IIi notations mean. Nor do I know what exactly I'm trying to solve for here. I'm possibly thinking that I'll need to integrate $$\psi$$I and it will come out that both theta and phi are zero. Then maybe for the next one phi is 120 and then the next one it is 240. If someone could just point me in the right direction here I would greatly appreciate it, I've just run out of ideas here and am very new to the field.