fuck explaining like im 5 explain like im the dumbest 2 year old youve ever met. every explanation ive read (even on this sub) doesnt make sense. neither does the hand example
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Have a look at the letters p and d:
You can rotate the p to turn it into a d. If you wanted to make a set of magnetic fridge letters, you wouldn’t need to separately make p’s and d’s, you could just make extra p’s.
Have a look at b and d:
No matter how you rotate b, you can’t turn it into d. You’d have to flip it over, which is cheating for a fridge magnet.
So b and d and p and q all have kind of the “same” shape, but not really – you have to make the shape AND its mirror image, because the shape is not the same as its mirror image.
the shape of these letters is “chiral”. It’s not the same as its mirror image.
Similarly, n and u are (the same) chiral shape. We don’t have any *use* for the mirror image, but nonetheless, it’s not the same as its mirror image. If you want to make some “n” fridge magnets, you have to be careful not to make the mirror image my mistake.
However, the letters v, w and c are *not* chiral: each of these is the same as its mirror image – as in, if you make a “mirror image” c by mistake, it’s okay, you just rotate it upside-down on the fridge and find that the “mirror” c is exactly the same shape as the “original” c.
That’s two dimensions, but in 3D, there’s the same idea. Shapes might, or might not, be the “same” as their mirror images. A chair is not chiral: a mirror image chair is the same shape as the original chair. But a computer keyboard is chiral – if someone gave you a “mirror image” keyboard, you’d send it back and ask for a “proper” one.
Some molecules come turn out to be not the same as their mirror images. Then, instead of one molecule, there are actually two with the same chemical formula, but the structures are mirror images.
They’ll have (in their pure form) the same melting point, boiling point, colour, crystal structure etc – but they’ll react differently with other chiral molecules. Since almost every organic molecule in our bodies is chiral, that can make a big difference to (for example) how effective a molecule is as medecine or nutrition.
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