Do Both Carbon Atoms in Ethane Rotate During Conformation Changes?

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Karan Punjabi
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Considering a Ethane molecule, it can have infinite confirmations but my question is in this molecule only one carbon atom rotate or both of them rotate? Please specify and give reason.
 
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Karan Punjabi said:
Considering a Ethane molecule, it can have infinite confirmations but my question is in this molecule only one carbon atom rotate or both of them rotate? Please specify and give reason.
Are you talking about rotational degrees of freedom where the rotation of the molecule in each of two directions picks up part of the molecule's total thermal energy?
 
jbriggs444 said:
Are you talking about rotational degrees of freedom where the rotation of the molecule in each of two directions picks up part of the molecule's total thermal energy?
I don't know about these conformations in detail. Just want to know that both molecules of CH3- rotate or one of the molecule rotates.
 
BvU said:
The word is conformations and the angle is the angle one carbon rotates over with respect to the other. So it's a relative angle.
Basically you want to say that one carbon atom rotates?
 
Look at it this way. Rotation is relative right? So if from "outside ", one carbon seems to be rotating then if I change my reference frame to the rotating carbon then the other carbon seems to be rotating!
In short, yeah only one carbon rotates.

Your question would become fairly more significant if we were drawing conformers of a compound which had two adjacent chiral carbons, but let's not go there unless you want to ;)
 
CrazyNinja said:
Look at it this way. Rotation is relative right? So if from "outside ", one carbon seems to be rotating then if I change my reference frame to the rotating carbon then the other carbon seems to be rotating!
In short, yeah only one carbon rotates.

Your question would become fairly more significant if we were drawing conformers of a compound which had two adjacent chiral carbons, but let's not go there unless you want to ;)
Yeah. My teacher told me the same thing that basically two of them rotates but we consider one of them