How do you read Newman projections?

1 Answer
Jun 12, 2016

You are looking down the barrel, down the shaft if you like, of a #C-C# bond.

Explanation:

Some people are better than others in translating 3D molecular geometry to 2D representations on paper. I must confess I am not particularly good at it. The solution?

Buy a set of molecular models. Or if money is short buy some toothpicks and some plasticene from a toy shop. (Do toyshops still sell plasticene? They did 5 years ago when I was buying some for a 5yo!).

Such models are always allowed in tests and exams. And the first person to recommend their use would be your organic professor. If you look on his (or her) desk there will always be a set of such models, with which the prof will have a fiddle when a thought presents itself.

You have still got to make the model, and you still have to transfer that 3D geometry to paper. This is non-trivial.