So what I want you guys to do is look at the following molecule and analyze if it's in the most stable position. In fact, don't even analyze it. I'm already telling you. It's not in its most stable conformation. Can you tell me why it's not in the most stable? Because what I have is this. I have an axial position and I have an equatorial position. Right? I have 2 different groups. I have a big group and a small group. Okay? No matter what, if I flip this molecule, I'm always going to have one equatorial and one axial because the equatorial becomes axial and the axial becomes equatorial. So no matter what, I have to have one of them in the axial position. Do you agree with me? At least something has to be axial. But right now, I have the wrong group in the axial position. I have the big group. Instead, I should have the small group in the axial position. So what we want to do is we want to draw a chair flip to accommodate the equatorial preference. What that means is that I want to show that now I'm going to draw the opposite chair and then I'm going to draw the CH2CH3 now in the equatorial position.
So what that means is that I want to draw a chair that has this corner facing down, so I'm going to draw it like this. Okay? So now what that means is that this corner, basically I had these were 3 carbons away or like 1 in if this was my number 1, then this would be 2 and this would be 3. Well, now I'm going to make that this is my 1, which means that that 2, 3, my 3 would be over here. Okay? So what that means is that now this equatorial position that was a methyl on the 3 is now going to be axial facing down. Why is that? Because remember that the axial position always follows the corner. In this case, the corner is facing down, so I would put it there. Okay. And now since my number 1 is here, I would now place this one equatorially. And this would actually be a much more stable conformation. Why? Because of the fact that you're going to be able to have the larger group, the bigger group in the equatorial position and the smaller group in the axial position.
Alright? So, some of you guys might be wondering, Johnny, but how do you know to pick those carbons? So for example, let me see if I can add myself back. Alright, there we go. So some of you guys might be wondering, Johnny, why didn't you go around the other way? Why didn't you say that this was your 2 and this was your 3 and then draw the CH3 here? And honestly, it doesn't matter. In fact, I'm going to have an entire section where I'm just going to talk about how those two chairs are the same thing and it doesn't matter exactly how you draw it as long as you're being consistent. Okay? But just so you know, it would still give me the same thing where the CH3 would be axial, the ethyl would be equatorial, and this one's way more stable. Alright? And you should be used to drawing; you should get used to drawing chair flips because some professors really want you to be able to do that. All right? So let's go ahead and move on to the next topic.