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Stereocenters

Started by cemented
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cemented

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I am going a problem with cholestrol and I am having some problems determining the stereocenters, specifically, the Carbon on the bottom left hand corner with a OH group, how is this a stereocenter considering it has CH2 flanking both of its sides?
Any help would be appericated
 
It's not just the carbons immediately adjacent to the chiral carbon that must be different in order for the carbon to be chiral. Everything past those two CH2's counts too, so treat everything on the molecule left and right of the chiral carbon as a single large group, and you'll see that both sides are different.