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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2006  > February  >
Chemistry for Everyone
If It's Resonance, What Is Resonating?
Robert C. Kerber
Department of Chemistry, State University of New York, Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3400
Cover
February 2006
Vol. 83 No. 2
p. 223
Abstract
The resonance terminology that accompanies use of more than one Lewis-type structure to describe delocalized bonding in molecules has been leading students astray for more than half a century. In this article I review the origin of the terminology and how the original usage has evolved to reduce confusion. I furthermore suggest that substitution of more easily understood terms that lack the gratuitous implications of the word resonance could finally eliminate the confusion.
More Information
*  Citation
 Kerber, Robert C. . J. Chem. Educ. 2006 83 223.
*  Keywords
 Aromatic Compounds; Covalent Bonding; First-Year Undergraduate / General; History / Philosophy; Misconceptions / Discrepant Events; Molecular Properties / Structure; Nomenclature / Units / Symbols; Organic Chemistry; Resonance Theory; Textbooks / Reference Books
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 1/5/2006
1/5/2006
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