Chairs!the

tutorial

This is a hexagon.

With carbons it becomes

cyclohexane.

C

C

C

C

C

C

Each carbon has four bonds.

C

C

C

C

C

C

Two bonds are connected to other carbons in the ring.

C

C

C

C

C

C

Two bonds are not.

C

C

C

C

C

C

But cyclohexane is not flat.

Viewed from the side it looks like a chair.

mountainvalley

Chairs have mountains and

valleys, like this.

mountain

valley

Or like this.

Chairs constantly flip between the two

orientations.

mountain

valley

When chairs flip, mountains become valleys and valleys become mountains.

The trick is to know which mountain

became which valley and vice versa.

12

3

56

6

32

15

4

4

The numbers on both chairs go clockwise.

12

3

45

6

65

43

2

1

The orientation of the bonds also

changes, but up stays up.

1

1

up, mountain

up, valley

Down stays down.

3

3

down, mountain

down, valley

Downs on mountains are parallel to the bonds two steps

away on the chair.

1

12

2

11

22

down, mountain

down, mountain

Likewise, ups on valleys are parallel to bonds two steps

away.

1

1

11

22

2

2

up, valley

up, valley

Now, let’s play!

Chairs!