How did Vladmir Markovnikov actually come to what we know as Markovnikovs Rule?

Submitted by aquaticlorax t3_121sxz2 in askscience

Hi, I'm an undergraduate bio taking organic chemistry and we recently covered Markovnikovs, after the lesson I went on to read a bit about Mr Markovnikov and learned he was alive long before the invention of many of the important equipment used in modern chemical analysis.

I asked my professor how a man alive during the mid 1800s to early 1900s was able to actually "do" this without the use of advanced technology we have today. She said she wasn't actually sure but that his Rule (until boron enters the equation of course) is a fundamental aspect of chemical reactions regardless.

Is it a situation similar to Gregor Mendel doing his pea study and accidentally stumbling onto a (in terms of Mendellian genetics) correct conclusion?

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Imaginary_Wolf_8698 t1_jdnio3u wrote

He was just building on the science of the time and came up with it theoretically. They already had a good understanding of molecular bonds, how to determine different elements in molecules, and a pretty good concept of what made molecules more stable. He just assumed the product would be the most stable form and worked out on paper what that structure would be with HBr and an alkene and we later confirmed it. I don’t think it was really “lucky”, it was right because he formulated it based on what other scientists before had experimentally confirmed about molecular structure and organic chemistry.

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Global_Lavishness_88 t1_jdou9od wrote

Maybe this is a stupid question, but how did they know much about bonds if they didn't even know what an atom is made out of? From what I know, bonds are determined by the electron probability clouds and depending on the atoms there can be different types of bonds. But they didn't even know what an electron is!

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Coomb t1_jdrprjg wrote

Can you give a complete physical description of why Lego blocks fit together in particular ways? What's the fundamental physical interaction(s), in detail, then make it so some Legos can fit with other Legos, and some Legos can't?

You can't. Actually, nobody can, because we don't have a coherent theory that is known correctly predict all of the interactions, at all of the scales, which are involved in two Legos sticking together. However, that doesn't prevent you from experimenting with Legos and observing that Legos come in a variety of sizes and shapes, and some of them can stick to other Legos in one particular way and some of them can stick in different ways. This is how people discovered things through experimental chemistry: they had atomic theory, which helped provide insight at an important level into the structure of everyday substances, but they didn't need quantum chemistry to experiment with bonding and breaking bonds and draw logical conclusions from experimental results.

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Tsunnyjim t1_jdpz35e wrote

It's more that he worked out through trial and error a principle that hadn't been thoroughly explored, and published the findings as a theory only.

When technology advanced enough to detect what was happening and prove the theory correct, he was given the credit with the name of the Rule

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