@LordStryker even my professor says that electrons pump in and pump out when describing resonance
Thinking about it more I'm not sure if it's that big of a deal at least for organic chemistry and biochemistry. It might be somewhat of a bigger deal now if someone said that in a theoretical chemistry or p-chem class
@Dissenter I don't really consider it a big deal. We teach young students that electrons are particles (or have for years anyway) when they aren't. Its hard to properly describe electrons and their behavior. We have to come up with our own analogies and none of them will be completely correct. Some are better than others yes but... it isn't easy.
I would probably say something along the lines of parallel p orbitals which allows the electrons to be found among multiple nuclei; isn't it better to have more than one nuclei stabilizing electrons anyway?
Cuts to the chase and does away with the sex imagery
@Dissenter I think users like @ron and @Philipp live outside the Matrix where they've uploaded everything to their brain. They pop into the Matrix every once in a while to help those of us that live here with chemistry problems.
I know that in piperidine, the lone pair on the nitrogen can occupy either an axial or a equatorial position in the two chair forms. I also read that the axial position for the lone pair is preferred by a small margin in the gas phase (so intermolecular forces are minimized).
Now, this was pr...
"Perhaps, like in the "how many angels can you draw on the head of a pin" question, the discussion around the question might be as significant as the answer."