Interpreting the Symbolism of Chemical Structures, or, Finding Your Way Around a Molecule

Many people find chemistry intimidating, and much of that feeling comes from the extensive symbolism used in the field. By symbolism I mean the formulas and structures and everything conceptual that is implied by them (there’s a lot of symbolic math in chemistry too, but we won’t worry about that). We encounter signs and symbols all the time, but they are familiar. We cease to think about them; we just react. Our system of traffic signs is one example of symbols with specific meanings and implications. Fail to stop at a stop sign and you might hit another vehicle, but we hardly think about this-we just do it.