Comment on Utter nonsense
Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 21 hours agoomg i’m getting flashbacks from my org chem course. The exam regulary failed about 2/3 of students, i needed 3 attempts to pass, and i studied like stupid for it (the second attempt was sooo close to a passing grade, i was really annoyed at that).
tetris11@feddit.uk 20 hours ago
Thermal Physics was it for me. I aced every other module, but that one I had to take twice. I still have no idea what thermal physics is, and at this point I don’t want to know.
Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 19 hours ago
at least thermodynamics follow pretty static rules, that module was only an issue for me because it was a seminar where we had to work in groups, which i suck at.
I realized that organic chenistry you have to study until you get a feeling for how charge is distributed along a molecule to identify where and how it can react with other molecules, and what intermediarys (real or imagined) are formed, which boils down to learning as many reactions as possible. it’s a bit like learning a language with fucked up grammar.
fullsquare@awful.systems 18 hours ago
i’d say it’s more important to learn mechanisms because this way you can notice these patterns of reactivity easier. at some point you’d only get new reactions that are really just pieces of other reactions you know put in a new way
Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 15 hours ago
You’re right, that’s absolutely necessary to learn, to take the language metapher further it’s like learning to declination of verbs. I meant it really clicked for me when i started to get a feeling for charge distribution and how electronegativity of specific ligands changes it, especially to predict what will happen in cases where more than one reaction is possible.
ranzispa@mander.xyz 18 hours ago
Anything that involves statistical mechanics is just black magic. There should be a Nobel prize just for people who are able to wrap their mind around it.