CIS AND TRANS ISOMERS IN CYCLIC COMPOUNDSLike double bonds, rings may be seen as rigid units about which cis and trans isomers are possible. We use cyclopropanes to illustrate this point, as the three-membered rings are especially inflexible, possessing well-defined three-dimensional shapes (shown, this time, in space-filling mode).
cis-1,2-dimethylcyclopropane trans-1,2-dimethylcyclopropane
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