Question

Which of the following is true about Fischer projection?
A. The vertical lines are oriented away from you and the horizontal lines are oriented towards you.
B. The vertical lines are oriented towards you and the horizontal lines are oriented away from you.
C. Both the horizontal and vertical lines are oriented away from you.
D. Both the horizontal and vertical lines are oriented towards you.

Answer 1

Hint: The chemical compounds can be drawn into various structures. One of the structural representations of chemical compounds is through Fischer projection. It includes the three – dimensional representation of the compound using horizontal and vertical lines called wedge and dash respectively.

Complete answer:
Fischer projection is the method of representation of molecules in such a way that they tend to represent three dimensional structures of molecules. This is one of the methods to detect the chirality of the molecule and its orientation.
Fischer projection includes horizontal and vertical lines. These lines are in the form of wedges and dashes. The horizontal lines are called wedges; they are solid lines representing the bonds faced towards the viewer. The vertical line called dash is a dotted line that represents the bonds away from the viewer.
The Fischer projection of methane$C{H}_4$ is as follows:

The H – 1 and H – 2 are represented by horizontal wedges and are towards the viewer, while H – 3 and H – 4 are away from the viewer and are dash vertical bonds.
Hence, the true statement is the vertical lines are oriented away from you and the horizontal lines are oriented towards you.

So option A is correct.

Note:
Fischer projections are used to represent organic molecules that are commonly carbohydrate sugars, example glucose, and fructose. Simple amino acids can also be represented like alanine, glycine. The importance of this structure is that it can tell the optical activity by determining the chiral and achiral carbon centre.