The only way of mastering any topic in Organic Chemistry is doing lots of practice problems. And I know, seeing my students, that starting to work on a practice problem may be the hardest part as you don’t know where to start. It is difficult to visualize what where the double bond would be moved if you follow the five curved arrows crammed in one step. Here is the trick:
We are always told to think before doing something. Fair enough. But let me tell you, it is also strangely enough, that in Organic Chemistry, it is often better to draw and then think about what you did (not in the lab though). It is much easier to have a structure in front of you and check for errors and improvements.
Do the first step, take the pencil and you will see that the ball gets rolling.
You have all these Organic Chemistry Practice Problems waiting to be solved!
Erythro and threo are common terms in stereochemistry used for naming molecules with two stereogenic centers. The names derive from the saccharides erythrose and threose, so let’s draw their Fischer projection to understand the basis of this notation: … Read more
Carbohydrates, also known as sugars and starches, are one of the most important classes of compounds found in nature. Listing only a few examples would include the energy produced in our bodies by breaking down sugars, which are used in … Read more
Alkenes are the second group of hydrocarbons and differ from alkanes in that they have a double bond. The presence of a double bond brings up some important structural and functional changes. Let’s first mention that the C=C double bonds … Read more
In the previous post, we talked about the intermolecular interactions, their relative strengths, and correlation to the boiling and melting points of organic compounds. Using the chart with the order of intermolecular interactions, try to solve the following practice problems … Read more
In this post, we will talk about the melting and boiling points of organic compounds and their correlation with intermolecular forces such as dipole-dipole, London dispersion (also known as Van der Waals) interactions, and hydrogen bonding. We discussed these infractions … Read more
Dipole-dipole, London dispersion (also known as Van der Waals) interactions, hydrogen bonding, and ionic bonds are the main types of intermolecular interactions responsible for the physical properties of compounds. All of them are electrostatic interactions, meaning that they all occur … Read more
The dipole moment of a molecule and its overall polarity depends on the magnitude and direction of individual polar bonds and their dipole moments. Remember, for molecules with one polar bond, the molecular dipole is determined simply based on the … Read more
Before we go into the details explaining the bong lengths and bond strengths in organic chemistry, let’s put a small summary for these two properties right from the beginning as it stays relevant for all types of bonds we are … Read more
Ethers are named by both common and systematic nomenclature of the IUPAC rules. The common names are used for ethers with simple alkyl groups. To do this, we first identify the alkyl groups and arrange them in alphabetical order, followed … Read more
To determine the R and S configuration of a chiral carbon in Newman projections, we need to look through the bond such that the lowest priority group is pointing back. But first, one question – why would anyone need to … Read more
