https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/vogel3.html (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/vogel3.html)
https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/vogel3.html (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/vogel3.html)
When I was young, a class was taught called "Theoretical organic chemistry", where they applied some the stuff they taught in quantum chemistry (such as Hartree-Fock) to organic chemistry.
I 'd not say (serious) organic chemistry is a mathematically a step down to general chemistry. Hell, they even don't have the mathematical tools to solve multi electron problems ... hence the approximative methods.
You're right about that one- Physical organic chemistry for example is definitely not a step down from gen chem math-wise :) .
You know, I read back over my rant up there and it sounds like maybe it was a little on the "bitching" side- Not the intent. Even though p.chem was a real bitch, I'm not bitching about having to take it. Also, even though it seems like it would be cool if there were a way to teach the separate subjects more blended together, I'm not sure if it would work out very well to really do it that way- Chemistry overall is quite a behemoth of knowledge and I think it really does kind of need to be built up the way it generally is in the undergraduate curriculum.
I recently took a pre-college course, but once we got to the point of learning about orbitals, I got the fuck out of there!
Point well made- In fact it was, to some large extent, SWIM's personal drive to learn about the topics covered on the Hive for example that eventually led to becoming a chem major. With enough desire you really can teach yourself a lot about this kind of stuff. And when it comes to actually carrying out syntheses, its all about the experience. Having the underlying knowledge of whats going on can really help to decide what to do when weird shit happens (quite frequently..) but as far as technique, one can only learn so much without actually doing it yourself. SWIM probably learned more about technique from his own experimentations prior to entering college (well, gen chem was taken care of prior to this) then he learned in all the sophomore organic chem labs.
-SpicyBrown