Achiral - the property of a molecule (or object) that is superposable on its mirror image
Chain isomer - isomers that have the same functional groups but different carbon skeletons
Chiral - the property of ‘handedness’, that is left and right hands cannot be placed on each other so that all parts coincide
Chiral carbon - a carbon atom bonded to four different atoms or groups of atoms
Direction of propagation - the direction that the light pass through
Enantiomer - stereoisomers whose molecules are non-superposable mirror images of each other
Functional group isomer - isomers that have the same molecular formula but contain different functional groups
Isomer - different compounds that have the same molecular formula
Isomerism - a phenomenon that compounds possess the same molecular formula but their atoms are arranged in different ways
Optically active - the property of a substance to perturb plane-polarized light
Plane of symmetry - an imaginary plane that bisects a molecule in such a way that the two halves are mirror reflections of each other
Plane-polarized light - after a beam of ordinary light passes through a polarizer, the light's electric field (and the magnetic field perpendicular to it) oscillates only in one plane and this resulti
Position isomer - isomers that have the same carbon skeleton and functional group but differ only in the position of the functional group
Stereoisomerism - a type of isomerism in which atoms are linked in the same way but have different spatial arrangements
Structural isomerism - a type of isomerism in which atoms are linked in different orders
Superimposable - the ability for an object to be placed over another object
Superposable - all parts of any two objects coincide simply by putting one object on top of the other