Can someone explain what the (+M) means in this reaction:
NO2 + OH(+M) -> HNO3(+M)
It looks like whatever M is a catalyst (maybe metal?) but usually catalysts are written over the arrow. Also, why it is associated with OH on the left and HNO3 on the right? (Although that may be just an illusion--...
@BuckThorn I was interested in the general formulas, but I was not able to find a derivation of them. An example of the formulas can be found at Chapter 12 of Atkins' Physical Chemistry (I think it is Chapter 12, it is the one that has the name of vibrational and rotational spectroscopy)
@Mithoron Can you post an example? You might raise this at meta.
@MetalStorm As far as I remember the formulas are borrowed from classical mechanics (to first order; there are also vibrational corrections, perhaps this is what you mean?). So if you look up "inertial moment", starting from the general formula you should be able to derive the expressions for particular cases. It's not usually complicated. I can't find my copy of Atkins at the moment unfortunately.
The Periodic Table
The Periodic Table