>> Hello, and welcome to the Penguin Prof Channel.
I am hanging out here just to sort of warm us
up into this new playlist, this is our FabioChem playlist.
And we were chatting about why organic chemistry is
so difficult, and why, you know, kind of how to think
about it as a new language.
And one of the things that is so challenging about it is
that you're talking about things that are so small,
things that nobody can actually see.
And, you know, it's very unclear how to get a sense
of how molecules actually behave in three dimensions,
when all your textbooks and even, you know,
digital media, it's all just flat.
And it makes things very confusing.
So I thought we would start this video series
with a discussion of molecular models.
Which you will buy as part of your Ochem kit.
And can you like just start us off and talk
about why these models are so important in organic chemistry?
>> Yes. It's essential not to be afraid
of your molecular model set.
That's the very first thing you get with your textbook.
And start playing with that.
It's like Legos.
You can just build the stuff, build molecules.
And that's actually, every organic chemist's dream,
to have micro tweezers and put atoms together
as if they were molecular models.
And they give you a very good, very precise kinesthetic idea
of how the molecules behave.
So for example, if you are in an organic chemistry class,
at this point, your professor has told you
that if you have a molecule like ethane, which looks like this,
that is a sigma single bond between the two [inaudible].
And they would have told you that rotation
around that single bond is easy.
And they will have even associated a number,
123 keto calories per mole, whatever that means.
And if you draw ethylene, which has a double bond,
a sigma [inaudible], and it looks like this, they told you
that rotation around the double bond is impossible.
Why? What do you do?
>> Right. Because when you just draw it and it's all new,
it's like, well, I don't know.
How would you know that this is rotatable and that isn't?
>> So you build your molecular model.
You take these are two CH3 units,
so you make ethane exactly this way, and this is ethane.
And then you try and you go whee, you see.
It's very easy to rotate.
>> Can I see?
I like the sound effects.
I think we should go whee when you do this.
That's awesome.
Okay, so that's this guy.
>> If you build the model for this guy,
you need a double bond now and the SP-2 carbon.
So you build that this way and this way.
And now you have ethylene.
You see that this is that model.
And if you try to rotate.
>> Can I try?
>> It's easy to see that you won't rotate unless you.
>> Unless I break it, which I'm not going to do.
That's really cool.
>> You have to break the pi bond.
>> Huh. This is actually a fantastic example
of why molecular models are essential.
And one thing that I will say is, learn to love them.
It's something that you don't see on paper.
But in three dimensions with your kit,
it's absolutely obvious.
>> And then when you look at the two dimensional presentation,
you will know that it doesn't rotate.
Why? Because you build it.
>> The plan is that Fabio is going
to be doing some more videos having to do with more,
you know, detailed information about how to use your kits.
And I think that will be coming up next.
>> We'll start showing you what all the pieces are
and how to use them.
>> Excellent.
So stayed tuned for that.
Please click like share and subscribe.
And we'll see you in the next video.
Thank you so much for visiting Penguin Prof Channel
and the FabioChem playlist.
Bye bye.