Talk:Orbital overlap

Problems with this article
This article is far too narrow and overlaps with other articles. Orbital overlap is just a number; the value of an integral in fact. These values are the elements of the overlap matrix. We already have that article that defines overlap. The use of overlap by Pauling and others is just one application of overlap. He did not invent orbital overlap. Maybe this article should be merged to overlap matrix. -- Bduke   (Discussion)  02:25, 24 February 2011 (UTC)


 * I agree with a merger, although perhaps in the opposite direction. At the moment, Wikipedia makes no connection between the simple physical picture here and the mathematics at overlap matrix. And neither defines the term overlap integral, although it is mentioned in two lines on the dab page Overlap. So it would be best to have a single article relating all these aspects. But I would merge overlap matrix to here and name the merged article Orbital overlap, since the physical idea of orbital overlap is a simpler concept (for most readers) than the mathematics to describe it. Dirac66 (talk) 23:53, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
 * I agree, so I have added the appropriate mergeto and mergefrom templates.- Bduke   (Discussion)  02:26, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
 * There are no further comments after five months, so I have gone ahead. This is a start since all is now on the same page, but more explaining is required to knit together the two parts. For example, we have not yet identified the basis vectors with orbitals. Nor have we identified the overlap matrix elements with overlap integrals. Dirac66 (talk) 18:01, 18 December 2012 (UTC)