What Is the Longest and Most Complex Chemical Equation Known?

[benzun_1999]

i know this must be very stupid but can anyone tell me the longest and the toughest chemical equation?

-benzun
All For God.

 

[ShawnD]

The Schroedinger Equation is a pretty tricky one.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/SchroedingerEquation.html

I don't even know what half of those symbols mean :D

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Originally posted by ShawnD
The Schroedinger Equation is a pretty tricky one.

are you sure it's a chemical equation?

 

[benzun_1999]

Originally posted by ShawnD
The Schroedinger Equation is a pretty tricky one.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/SchroedingerEquation.html

I don't even know what half of those symbols mean :D

i accept that these are tough but they are not chemical equations.

 

[Chemicalsuperfreak]

Chemistry doesn't work that way. "Tough" is to subjective.

 

[Monique]

Do you mean compound or reaction?

 

[FZ+]

Anyone want to write down the equation for DNA? Pretty tough, eh?

 

[Mike H]

Well, the equation for DNA is kind of simple.

(Purine/pyrimidine + deoxyribose + phosphate) _{n}

Where n is the number of bases in your DNA strand.

The point is, I could write down a chemical reaction showing the functionalization of a C-H bond. Looks simple, right? One of the challenging topics in synthetic organic chemistry is how to accomplish that with stereochemical specificity. I could write down the equations governing various phenomena in solid state NMR, but actually putting them to use to determine a membrane protein structure de novo does not qualify as a trivial extension of such equations. As Chemicalsuperfreak already mentioned, chemistry doesn't work this way. If you'd like to ask what are the challenges in chemistry, that's different. There are plenty, rest assured.

 

[benzun_1999]

I mean...

Originally posted by Monique
Do you mean compound or reaction?

I mean reaction.

A simple example,

2H2+O2--->2H2O

 

[benzun_1999]

Originally posted by Chemicalsuperfreak
Chemistry doesn't work that way. "Tough" is to subjective.

Ok i accept tell me the most complicated equation.

 

[Chemicalsuperfreak]

Originally posted by benzun_1999
Ok i accept tell me the most complicated equation.

Basically that's the same question. You can make an equation as tough as you want it to be. But there's no point. Real chemistry isn't about solving equations stoichiometrically like you do in freshman chemistry.

 

[Monique]

I'd have to disagree, some chemical reactions are very complicated when it comes to the transfer of bonding energies from one atom to the next, creating intermediates, until a new structure is formed.

I still remember organic chemistry and it was really really tough to figure out what the reaction would be like with two given molecules.

 

[Monique]

A lenghty reaction would be the biosyntesis of fatty acids, which is composed of 7 discrete steps.

 

[Monique]

How about not reactions, but actually molecular machines? I think that ATP synthase is an amazing molecular turbine. I have got a very high grade animation of it (based on crystalogical structures), unfortunately I am unable to share it :((