Material Detail

The Website provides tools for calculating continuous symmetry measures online for any molecule given in pdb format, and uses Jmol for three-dimensional visualization. A number, on a scale from zero to 100, describes the distance of a given structure from perfect symmetry; or how much chirality it contains; or to what extent it resembles a polyhedron. The approach to all of these questions is based on the same general principle. That general principle is translated into a computational method for measuring the degree of symmetry point groups, from which several additional specific important measures are derived: Measuring the degree of the basic symmetry elements; Measuring the degree of polyhedral shape content; Measuring the degree of chirality. This website can be used by both researchers, teachers and students, and is part of an undergraduate course for chemistry students at the Open University of Israel.

Disciplines:

• Science and Technology  / Chemistry  / Inorganic

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