Consider your hands. They are very similar structures, the fingers of each hand extend from the top edge of each palm, while the tumbs extend from the side.
Organic molecules can be chiral if they contain one or more chiral centers .
A chiral center is defined as an sp3 hybridized carbon that is bonded to four different groups. The other carbons in this structure are not chiral centers. They are all sp3 hybridized, but each is bonded to at least two hydrogens. If a molecule possess chiral centers the posibility of stereoisomers exists. Return to the Introduction.