organic prob...help me please?

Question

2) The max # of isomers of a compound with one stereocenter is:
a) 1
b) 2
c) need structure to predict
d) 4

is it B or C?

Answer 1

hey,

the total number of hypothetically possible stereoisomers will not exceed 2n, where n is the number of tetrahedral stereocenters...

so when we apply this formula of 2^n
we get 2 raised to the power of 1
answer is 2

The above answer is not alwsy true,,...
mind it......
it always depends on the structure........
so, the correct option and most appropriate answer is

c) need structure to predict

hope this is the best answer..
all the best.....

Answer 2

Well, one thing that helped me with this was knowing the number of switches. 1 or 3 switches creates an isomer. An even number of switches makes something that would be the same. Basically, any time you make two switches you have the same compound again.

With this being only one stereocenter write out a compound that illustrates this and see. If you have molecular models, that's even better. I'm not going to give you the answer outright- but I encourage you to try it and see. The molecular models are best, because you can make two molecules and move things around and see if you can make them superimposable.

The other way to try it is if you are handy with the Fischer projections... write them out in that form and make some switches and see if you get the same or different molecule. The R & S nomenclature was a nightmare for me, but I think this will help you find the answer, too, if you don't have models to use.

Answer 3

need structure to predict.
if its saturated compound then it has two isomers corresponding to D L
unsaturated compound may have four isomers
so we need structure to predict the number of isomers.