Month: October 2016

  • The Right Kind of Practice

    What single thing must you do to learn organic chemistry? Sam and I have given you the answer several times: practice solving problems. But is that all you have to do? Can you just open the book to a problem, work on it, and learn organic chemistry? Maybe you can, maybe you can’t. Not all practice makes perfect.

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  • SN2 Reaction Animation

    Predicting the outcome of an “opposite side attack” SN2 reaction can be confusing at first, but animations can help. Check out the SN2 animation at chemtube3D.com. To operate the animation, find the drawing of the chemical reaction and click on the forward reaction arrow.

    Try to understand the simple reaction from multiple perspectives: 1) the C seems to push its way through its 3 H neighbors to get from leaving group to nucleophile, OR 2) the 3 H neighbors seem to back away from the approaching nucleophile and move to the leaving group’s side of the molecule. You can rotate the animation as it plays so that you can see it from different angles.

    Another SN2 animation to watch: HS(-) + (S)-PhCHClCH3