Simple elementary question chiral molecule

[jonjacson]

Homework Statement

Find if a molecule is chiral or not. It is 2-chloropentane

Homework Equations

IF the mirror image is superimposable to the molecule it is not chiral.

The Attempt at a Solution

Well I wrote the structural formula in 2D and I thought it was not chiral.(bottom )
But the book wrote a 3d image and concluded it is chiral.(top part of the image)
How can I know, a priori, that the molecule is not in a plane?

http://imgur.com/a/32omH

 

[TeethWhitener]

The chiral carbon in this example is an sp³ carbon, which means that it adopts a tetrahedral geometry (so it's nonplanar). For simple chiral molecules like this, you can usually identify the stereocarbon as the carbon with 4 different substituents bonded to it. This doesn't always work: some chiral molecules are axially chiral rather than chiral at a single carbon (see the helicenes for an example), and some compounds may have multiple stereocenters arranged in a way that makes the overall compound achiral (see meso compounds for an example).