Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
In Parts I and II of this series (March(6); Ballinger and March(1)), we considered in detail the application of the Thomas-Fermi (T.F.) approximation to molecules with tetrahedral and octahedral symmetry. In these papers, following the work of Buckingham, Massey and Tibbs(2), who obtained results for CH4, we averaged the nuclear field over angles (the ‘smoothing approximation’) and considered the electrons as though they moved in the resulting central field. In this way, it was possible in (6) to carry through self-consistent (T.F.) calculations giving the electron distributions and potential fields in tetrahedral and octahedral molecules.