The Ups and Downs of Cyclohexanes
Drawing cyclohexane chair forms can be a tricky business. While it’s often intuitive to pick out which groups are up and down when they’re axial
Read moreLevels of Mastery
Here’s an idea I’ve been playing with: levels of mastery. Growing up with video games, it’s an idea that is intuitively familiar, but not often
Read moreIntroduction to Oxidative Cleavage Reactions
The four posts on acid-base, substitution, addition, and elimination covered the 4 main reactions in organic chemistry I. In this second series of posts we go beyond these to introduce a
Read moreThe Many, Many Ways of Drawing Butane
Molecules Can Be Drawn In Lots Of Different Ways One of the skills you have to develop early in Org 1 is to learn the
Read moreHow Reactions Are Like Music
One of the joys of this video is watching the reactions of the audience as it is revealed that song after familar song – from
Read moreExploring Resonance: Pi-acceptors
Resonance In Organic Chemistry: What Are “Pi Acceptors” Last time we saw that π donors are atoms capable of forming a new π bond with
Read moreWedge And Dash Convention For Tetrahedral Carbon
How To Properly Draw Tetrahedral Carbons – And The Many Ways To Screw It Up There is a knack to drawing proper tetrahedrons. And some
Read moreIn Summary: Evaluating Resonance Structures
The Four Key Factors In Evaluating Resonance Structures Not all resonance forms are of equal importance. So how do we evaluate how “important” each resonance
Read moreHow to Succeed In Orgo: Collected Advice
The course syllabus is that sheet of paper you get on the first day of class that explains what the grading scheme is, the course
Read more10@10/10/10
This is a self indulgent post. Today, October 10, 2010, marks the 10th anniversary of the day I became an organic chemist. Life works in
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