Glucose

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les is mirror images of each other, basically saying that the molecules’ hydroxyl group and hydrogen molecule were reversed. Therefore, glucose and galactose are stereoisomers of each other. Since fructose is a ketohexose and does not have the same order in its straight chain projection it cannot be a stereoisomer of glucose or galactose.
Within the subclass of isomers to stereoisomers there are two are more subclasses, which are enantiomers and disasteomers. They are both stereoisomers, but the difference between them is that enantiomers are mirror images of each other, and disasteomers are not. Glucose also has two enantiomers and many other disasteomers. The complete number of stereoisomers of a molecule can be determined by a simple formula. The formula to find the amount is 2^X where X is the total number of chiral centers the molecule holds. In glucose’s circumstance, there are four chiral centers (c-2 C-3, C-4, and C-5), and if one plugs 4 into 2^4 they attain 16. Thus, there are 16 stereoisomers both enantiomeric and disateomer...