<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
On 10/12/2012 10:59 AM, wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:CA765D0D95A04D449667AFA14377899C5560D74BBF@MERCERMAIL.MercerU.local"
type="cite">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
<style id="owaParaStyle" type="text/css">P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}</style>
<div style="direction: ltr;font-family: Times New Roman;color:
#000000;font-size: 12pt;">
Hi Dr. Pounds. I've done the variational method problem, but my
energies are coming out with smaller magnitudes than the exact
lowest energy, which violates the variational principle.
However, they're all negative, so does that mean it's okay,
since negative values with low magnitudes are numerically larger
than those with higher values?<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Yes. Think about graphing the energies. The exact energy will be
the lowest on the negative energy axis and the other values will
approach it from above.<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Andrew J. Pounds, Ph.D. (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pounds@theochem.mercer.edu">pounds@theochem.mercer.edu</a>)
Associate Professor of Chemistry and Computer Science
Mercer University, Macon, GA 31207 (478) 301-5627
</pre>
</body>
</html>