Free organic chemistry lessons
Everything alive is built on one tiny bond.
Start with a single carbon atom and work up to the molecules in you, your food, and the smell of bananas. Five short lessons, with molecules you can spin around.
Every lesson is open to everyone.
Five lessons to get you started
About 15 minutes each. Do them in order: each one builds on the last.
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Meet carbon
Why one atom with four hands builds diamonds, pencils and you.
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Sharing is bonding
Single, double and triple bonds, and how chemists draw them.
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Molecules in 3D
Why methane is a 3D tetrahedron, not a flat cross.
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Chains and names
From methane to octane, read and name carbon chains.
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Functional groups
The small parts that make vinegar sour and bananas smell sweet.
How each lesson works
See it
Short explanations next to drawings of real molecules, in the same notation chemists use.
Spin it
Drag 3D models around to see shapes that a flat drawing hides.
Check it
Quick questions at the end of each section tell you right away what stuck.
Save your progress with a username
Pick a username and a password, and we will remember which lessons you have finished, on any device.