View source for Chemical Bonding - Roshan Hanoomanjee

Alright! so here is my final idea. I have always struggled as a chemistry student to understand what exactly is happening during a chemical reaction. Now I know there are programs that will explain this to you, or even show a stick figure of what is happening, but that seems not to answer why certain binding sites are favorable over others!? Now my fellow chemist (I fear I'm the only one) wonder no more, at least about bonding. I wish to design an animation that shows a person what how the molecule is separated and bonding, but in addition to this, I wish to show the energy of the reaction, that is to say, it will show you what the energy is between each step. I also want to show what would happen (i.e. the change in energy) if you placed the reactant on the "wrong" binding site. If it's easier, think about solitaire, when you put through the correct move, the program allows for it, but if you don't, then the program rejects your input. In the real world, you can do whatever you want until you get caught, and so that is what I want to show. If you do an chemically illegal move, what the consequences would be. Although it might me a little complex to understand right now, try being the organic chemistry student who is told that statistical mechanics will explain everything! Most students don't want to get a degree in Physics before they can understand chemistry. Hopefully this program will help explain via animation what is happening.

Okay, after speaking to a few of my peers, I have decided that the best course of action to get this projected completed (or close to) is to work only on Benzene and it's interaction. And just to clear things up, this program is designed for individuals who have an idea of what is being added to what; an example of this, is a person who is told to make an animation for everyone to see online. Much like us, this person would need some knowledge of computers; having said this, now it might make sense to understand that this program is aimed for students who have some knowledge of organic chemistry. The reason that I'm slimming it down to just benzene is because it is one of the key molecules in organic chemistry and there are over one thousand known reactions with benzene. Finally, I was thinking of making this a kind of "open" platform, that way people can add/correct material on the website. That's all for now.