Category Archives: Uncategorized

I had a simple objective I was trying to solve. I wanted to compare the energy levels of a satellite to that of an electron. I used a web page that calculated a satellite’s speed and height to create a … Continue reading →

I received the following letter and I wanted to respond. Hello, I recently purchased the Guide to Organic Chemistry Mechanisms With Conventional Curved Arrows. I will be taking my first organic chemistry course this fall and your guide looks as … Continue reading →

I had answered a post about why sodium loses its electron. Borek had also provided an answer that I generally agreed with, but I wanted to add more detail. As we go across the periodic table the nuclear charge increases … Continue reading →

This post in being picked up from here: You have to be careful here. This is about bond strengths, but you cannot use homolytic bond strengths. That is usually what you find in tables of bond strengths. A good measure … Continue reading →

A post had been made about enzyme thermodynamics in which the poster asked about entropic and enthalpic effects of ligands and enzymes. Below is my contribution to this discussion. Quote from: Doc Oc I read an interesting review a while … Continue reading →

If you drew a mug, with the word CAT on the side facing you, pretend there is a mirror, and draw the mirror image, you would get another mug with the handle reversed and the word TAC with the letter … Continue reading →

Among phenol, methanol and dimethyl ether which has the largest bond angle and is which the lowest? This was posted here. I think this is a VESPR type of question. In methane, the bond angles are all 109.5°, but in … Continue reading →

In my analysis of aldol condensations, it is difficult to find examples of acid catalyzed aldol reactions. I believe the difficulty arises from an unfavorable equilibrium in the reaction. Ketones and more so aldehydes are not very basic. Consequently, the … Continue reading →

I was answering an unrelated question about solubility of some heterocycles. While that was an interesting question, the pKa of the compounds were actually more interesting and got me thinking about this again. The key is the stereoelectronic effects. Which … Continue reading →