On Tue, 10 Sep 1996 dasher@netcom.com (Anton Sherwood) Wrote:
>Help! What does _steric_ mean? Something relating to
>volume, obviously.
Steric means the space filling properties of a molecule. If all molecules had
an exact shape and were perfectly rigid, things would be pretty
straightforward, but of course they are not, a Nanotechnology engineer would
ignore this at his peril. It's not always a disadvantage however, just as in
our Macro world, if something doesn't quite fit you can often give it a good
whack and make it fit. Chemists also have a term called "Steric Hindrance",
it refers to the slowing of a chemical reaction because some part of a
molecule mechanically gets in the way. This is very important in large
biological molecules and depending on the circumstances it can be a help or a
hindrance to the Nanotechnology engineer, but either way he must have a
understanding of it. There is a lot more about it in Nanosystems.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
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