Chirality vs. Stereogenic.

[girl22]

On AAMC 3 one of the bio questions explanations states that "stereogenic carbon atom (chirality center)" but everything I've read says that cis trans isomers can be stereogenic, but they're not chiral so how can does the aamc saying stereogenic=chiral make sense?

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[medic86]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereocenter

This explains it pretty well.

 

[bambam92]

cis/trans or E/Z designation is a matter of stereochemistry. R or S designation for chiral/stereo centers is a matter of right versus left handedness…completely different matters.

 

[clairephillips]

I want to start by saying that I had organic chemistry 13 years ago. I was just looking up the answer to this to see if I could understand it after reviewing it recently. I'm nowhere near ready to take the MCAT... lol. What I understand is that cis/trans isomers are not just in alkenes, but also in cycloalkanes. These types of cis/trans isomers can be chiral/stereogenic while alkenes can't. An example of this would be the difference between cis-1,2 dimethylcyclohexane and trans-1,2 dimethylcyclohexane, which are chiral. For those with more knowledge of o-chem, can you please verify?