An NMR teaching method and apparatus incorporating pieces representative
of chemical fragments. Each piece has the number of sides corresponding
to the number of bonds present around the central atom. Bonds to hydrogen
are curved while bonding sides are flat. The presence of concavities and
convex tabs on the bonding sides indicates bonding of the respective
piece to a mating piece that causes splitting of the NMR peak. The shape
of concavities on each piece is indicative of the chemical fragment of
the respective piece while the shape of the convex tab of the respective
piece is indicative of the chemical fragment of the mating piece. First
and second bonding indicators can be used to replace the convex tabs.
When presented with a spectrum, a student user can select the necessary
pieces using data from the spectrum. Once selected, the student user can
then assemble the pieces to determine the identity of the unknown
molecule in the NMR spectrum.
