How do you number chair conformations?

1 Answer
Jun 1, 2018

Unambiguously…?

Explanation:

And so you got a chair conformation....three substituents AXIAL and three substituents EQUATORIAL on each FACE of the chair...
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Now of course, if the chair is substituted by other functional groups, the normal rules of organic precedence apply...

Clearly, the ipso carbon, whatever the substituent will be #C1#...

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For #"cis"-1,4-Bu^tC_6H_10CH_3# here the carbon that is substituted by #Bu^t# is #C1#...and clearly #C-Me# is #C4# on the given scheme....and we would anticipate, reasonably, that #Bu^t# would be disposed EQUATORIALLY....as indicated on the given diagram...

And if you cannot see this on paper, I urge you to make a model...