How to draw Newman projections

How to draw a Newman projection

To draw a Newman projection, we will imagine viewing the molecule from one carbon to the next carbon atom directly along a selected C–C bond, as shown below, and follow the rules:

• The front carbon atom is shown as a point with three other bonds:

• The rear carbon atom is shown as a circle with three other bonds:

• Put the two carbons together to get the Newman projection of the staggered conformation:

• From the staggered conformation, fix the front carbon in place, and rotate the rear carbon by 60° to get the eclipsed conformation:

Practice the 60° rotation in the interactive model above to move from staggered to eclipsed.