Symmetry Resources at Otterbein University

Welcome to the world of symmetry! The resources contained within this web site are designed to help students learn concepts of molecular symmetry and to help faculty teach concepts of molecular symmetry. The materials are designed for a variety of levels, so look around and see what we have to offer. Choose from the following pages:

• Symmetry Tutorial - An interactive point group symmetry tutorial. Guides students through all of the symmetry elements and operations, with interactive displays and animations.
• The Symmetry Gallery - A collection of over 120 unique molecules and polyhedra with interactive display of all symmetry elements and animation of all operations. The molecules are organized by point group, so you can select examples to demonstrate particular symmetry elements. Includes links to the chemical literature when available.
• The Symmetry Challenge - Using the same set of molecules from the Gallery, the Challenge includes a flow chart that details the process of determining the point group of each molecule. A great way to practice the point group determination process.

Updates: July 2024 - A few updated links and a new website for displaying crystallographic symmetry including interactive display of symmetry elements, Wyckoff positions, and a wide range of example structures from all 230 spacegroups. (Presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of the American Crystallographic Association, Denver, CO).

January 2021 - The NGL-based version is now live along with many additional updates. Note: this version may not be compatible with older versions of some browsers. If needed, the JSmol version of the site is available at https://symotter.org/jsmol.

October 2020 - A new version of the site using the NGL (WebGL-based) viewer for improved visualization and animations is undergoing testing.

June 2019 - The completely new version is now live. The number of changes are too numerous to list here, but the Symmetry Challenge is totally revamped and there are many new features in the Gallery and Tutorial. The website is much more responsive and should be easier to use on mobile devices. If for any reason you want to use the old version, it can still be found at Symmetry@Otterbein (old). A more complete discussion of the updates can be found at the Symmetry@Otterbein Blog.

System Requirements: All pages require a modern browser with Javascript enabled. These pages have been tested with Microsoft Edge (Windows, macOS), Safari (macOS, iOS), Chrome (macOS, Windows, iOS, Android) and Firefox (macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android). Note: The current website only works with Chromium-based versions of Microsoft Edge (released January 2020). Some issues have been observed with Safari versions prior to version 14.0.