A simple wave function for the normal state of thehydrogen molecule, taking into account both the atomicand ionic configurations, was set up and treated by avariational method. The dissociation energy was foundto be 4.00 v.e. as compared to the experimental valueof 4.68 v.e. and Rosen's value of 4.02 v.e. obtainedby use of a function involving complicated integrals.It was found that the atomic function occurs with afactor 3.9 times that of the ionic function.
A similar function with different screening constantsfor the atomic and ionic parts was also tried. Itwas found that the best results are obtained v1hen thesescreening constants are equal.
The addition of Rosen's term to the atomic-ionicfunction resulted in a value of 4.10 v.e. for the dissociationenergy.
