JustinM.Dragna

do you have a link to some information on this? what exactly do you mean by "form nets with itsself?"

I've taken a decent amount of organic chemistry courses as an undergraduate, and the one question that was never touched on is, why does carbon form so many compounds? Does anyone have a good answer to this?

A nucleophile is electron rich, and an electrophile is electron poor. If you're looking at a molecule and you want to know which part is nucleophilic, look at the dipole moment. The part that is most negative will be the nucleophile. For instance, something like ethanol will be nucleophilic at the oxygen atom, or an alkene would be most nucleophilic at the double bond. On the other hand, if you want to find the electrophilic part of an atom just look for the positive part of it. For example, ethanol is electrophic at the C attached to the oxygen atom since the oxygen atom is electron withdrawing(at least in this case).

not looking for a laymans book. I'm looking for a book that does a good job of explaining the math and physics. My problem with quantum mechanics is that there isn't a good place to start. I managed my way through a quantum physics course last semester, and i'll be taking the quantum chemistry one this fall. A good break down of of the linear algebra involved is really what i'm looking for.

Quantum mechanics makes me want to cry. Does anyone have any suggestions on good books that really break things down. I believe this is one of the few subjects that i would willingly buy a book with dummy in the title such as "quantum mechanics for dummies." Unfortunately there isn't a book out there with this title. In fact i haven't found any books that attempt to really break quantum mechanics down. I have Griffiths, a dover book on problems in quantum mechanics, and i've read over the Schaum's outline. Does anyone have any suggestions? thanx. -justin

This is an odd question. I wouldn't expect any great difference between them. The different boiling point is one. There would probably be a small difference in the acidity of the hydrogen on the oxygen too. I think you could account for that by the difference in the dipole moment. 1-prop would probably be a little bit more acidic than 2-prop because the extra methly group next to the carbon with the hydroxyl group(what's that carbon called? alpha or beta?) on it destabilizes the conjugate base by "pushing" electrons onto the already negatively charged oxygen atom through sigma bonds. Of course it's not that much of a difference considering that 1-prop has an ethyl group donating electrons as well, but then there isn't that much of a difference between the two compounds. Another difference would be that 2-prop has more symmetry elements than 1-prop. For instance 2-propanol has an obvious sigma or mirror plane. This would make the NMR spectra for them differ a good deal. I can't really think of too much more to say, but i feel like i gave a pretty good rant. I hope this helps you out.

I need a good method for blowing up fruit.

Hello, I am also pursuing an understanding of quantum mechanics. I definetly agree that all of the textbooks i have seen give poor explanations of the mathematics behind quantum mechanics, but then again they are physics books. It still doesn't help poor, confused souls like us. I am currently trying to wade my way through Griffiths. I hear it's one of the better books for people without a lot of math background. He dedicates a full chapter to explaining linear algebra. I didn't really find it particularly enlightening, but I'm not much of a mathematician so it could just be me. Anyway, I've been searching around for some good books. If you stumble upon any key me in. -Justin