I know what I am doing, just start exercise.

Chemical Structures

This exercise was written as an aid to understand the molecular and electronic structures discussed in Chapter 10 of your textbook, Chemistry: A Molecular Approach by Tro.

The exercise has numerous three-dimensional, interactive figures illustrating the molecular and electronic structures for which you are responsible. In each figure, you will be able rotate chemical structures with your mouse and become significantly more confident in your knowledge of this area of chemistry.

Students of my Chemistry class at Temple College Taylor Center are strongly encouraged to do this exercise.

You will need java installed on your computer if it is not already present. Java should already be installed on all the lab computers. If you see eight white atoms on a black background in the figure below, you have java installed.



If you see the eight atoms, place the cursor over the atoms, press and hold the left button down, and move the mouse. You should be able to spin the atoms in any direction.

Installing java

If the figure above has nothing in it, you need to install java. Don't worry it is quite easy and free.

1. Go to the java download page.
2. There are several links. Click on the "Download J2SE JRE."
3. Agree to the license agreement.
4. Click the appropriate link for your computer. For most of you, it will be Windows. Warning - if you have a dial up computer connection to the internet, the download could take 1-2 hours.
5. Follow the instructions for installation.
6. When the installation is completed, refresh this web page. The refresh button is at the top of your browser. You should now see the eight atoms in the figure.

Exercise

The exercise is best done in order of the chemical structures from least complex to most complex. One page will lead to the next in the intended order.

Start exercise


The following links are in the recommended order. You may go to each individually.

Linear

Trigonal Planar

Tetrahedral

Trigonal Bipyramid

Octahedral

Compounds with Double Bonds

Compounds with Triple Bonds


URL: http://www.rretc.com/chemistry/ChemStructures.html
Copyright (c) 2006 with Michael Keyes (michael.keyes@rretc.com)
Feel free to use for single-user educational purposes only. All other purposes, please email.