Question

It has been said that the right and left hands are enantiomers. you can superimpose your palms and thus is not it a paradox?

Answer 1

Can you superimpose your hands if your hands are BOTH palm up? Or palm down?

The fact that you can superimpose your hands as they face each other is not what makes them enantiomers. The question is, can the mirror images be superimposed?

Answer 2

you can't rotate your hands.

Answer 3

@JFraser you are true, but it is very famous example about hands that are enantiomers.

Answer 4

yes, hands are enantiomers, because when both your palms are face-up, your hands DO NOT overlap

Answer 5

therefore it is not a paradox

Answer 6

@aaronq !!!! we can rotate our hands.

Answer 7

@JFraser but we can superimpose our hands on each others. here is the point.

Answer 8

but then you are looking at the palm of one hand and the back of the other. That is not superimposing.

in order to superimpose your hands, you'd have to see both palms up, and have each thumb and finger line up. they do not.

Answer 9

Do this for me. hold both hands out, palms up

Answer 10

Now SLIDE, not rotate, your left hand on top of your right hand.

Answer 11

do your thumbs overlap? i didn't think so

Answer 12

when you rotate your hands to place your palms together, you are not superimposing an object on its own mirror image

Answer 13

I dont know how to mean it. at last by rotating these two objects i mean both hands, we can superimpose them.

Answer 14

that's not superimposing. that's just the creation of the mirror image. your right hand is the mirror of your left hand, because of our bilateral symmetry. clasping your hands so your palms touch is not superimposing the mirror images. If you want to superimpose your hands, you have to place the back of one hand in the palm of the other, so you are looking at either BOTH palms or BOTH backs, not one of each.