Rules of the Day 1-14-08

1. THE POINT of this class and of organic chemistry is synthesis - making new molecules such as pharmaceuticals. We learn and understand mechanisms to allow the prediction of reactions as well as their regiochemistry and stereochemistry. A second point of the class is to learn organic chemistry concepts that will be important for your later education (i.e. biochemistry).

2. Each reaction is a chemical "tool", to be used to construct molecules. Learning mechanisms provides a means for you to understand the reactions.

3. The best way to learn how to use the different reactions for synthesis is with a "roadmap".

4. The most important question in chemistry is: "Where are the electrons?" The answer is that electrons are generally in higher amounts around the more electronegative atoms (e.g. F, Cl, O, N) of a molecule. Knowing where electrons are allows you to understand chemistry as opposed to simply memorizing flashcards. See today's "pictures of the day" (POTD) for a more in-depth explanation of how you should think about molecules so that you truly understand them.

5. The seven golden rules of organic chemistry explain most of what we will learn about organic chemistry

6. "Understanding Where Electrons Are and knowing how to apply the Golden Rules of Chemistry will make Organic Chemistry class as simple as possible, and will give you Organic Chemistry intuition"............Fortune Cookie Saying

Understand and learn. Do not only memorize!

7. "Organic Chemistry is like a fatal viral infection of your grades. There is no cure, just prevention by never falling behind!" …….. A Guy with a Trumpet and a Computer

8. "Organic is really hard if you try to memorize it instead of trying to learn and understand it"............The Organic Vampire Monkey

9. "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler"...........Albert Einstein

10. "The only real valuable thing is intuition"...........Albert Einstein

11. "Education is what's left after what you've learned has been forgotten" ……James Conant

Homework: Start making a Roadmap for 310M reactions. Read: The first half of Chapter 13 in the book, THEN read the "NMR theory web handout" Work Problems: 13.1-13.2 in the book. I know I have not covered any of this material, but if you do this homework BEFORE Friday's class, the lecture will make a LOT more sense to you!!!!!! TRY IT!!!!!!