A carbon dioxide molecule in gravity free space may be viewed as three roughly equal masses with carbon in the middle and two oxygens in equilibrium on either side. Ignore the possible bending of the system in a transverse direction perpendicular to the line of the molecule. A) Assume vibrations along the line of the molecule and find the three normal modes (normal coordinates) and normal frequencies, assuming spring constants k and masses m.
B) Look up the values for the wavelengths of these frequencies and evaluate the spring constant (approximately) for your problem.