Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-1/a3/c/i/solution

A diatomic molecule has vibrational normal mode: the bond stretch. For hydrogen chloride, opposite longitudinal displacements change the electric dipole moment, so the mode has vibrational infrared activity. The following original sketches show one phase of this motion and the three water modes; arrow lengths are schematic, not mass-weighted amplitudes.
Figure 1.
Original sketches of the hydrogen chloride stretch and the three molecular vibrations of water
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