This has finally illustrated to me the difference between linearly and circularly polarized light. The phrase: "can be thought of as", is surely worthy of discussion some other place. I still need to stew over the 1/4 wave plate and circular polarization business.
Light was not shed on an...
To help make it clear, it's the oxygen on the ethyl group that gives it the priority. Replace the OH with H and it becomes 3 ethyl nitromethane. On the other hand, lose a carbon at the ethyl and it becomes 3 nitrotoluene, so hopefully that clears everything up!
Having watched a dropped cube of ice sublime to nothing at the bottom of the freezer of my refrigerator in my kitchen over the course of a week, I would like to know why comets don't do this. Presumably the tail is the product of sublimation, but how long can that go on? How can Halley's Comet...