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Chirality: A Relational Geometric‐Physical Property
Author(s) -
Gerlach Hans
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
chirality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.43
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1520-636X
pISSN - 0899-0042
DOI - 10.1002/chir.22216
Subject(s) - chemistry , chirality (physics) , property (philosophy) , physical property , nanotechnology , stereochemistry , epistemology , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , physics , chiral symmetry breaking , materials science , philosophy , nambu–jona lasinio model , quark
The definition of the term chirality by Lord Kelvin in 1893 and 1904 is analyzed by taking crystallography at that time into account. This shows clearly that chirality is a relational geometric‐physical property, i.e., two relations between isometric objects are possible: homochiral or heterochiral. In scientific articles the relational term chirality is often mistaken for the two valued measure for the individual (absolute) sense of chirality, an arbitrary attributive term. Chirality 25:684–685, 2013 . © 2013 Wiley Periodicals Inc.