title: Chirality: a relational geometric-physical property.
abstract: The definition of the term chirality by Lord Kelvin in 1893 and 1904 is analyzed by taking crystallography at that time into account. This shows clearly that chirality is a relational geometric-physical property, i.e., two relations between isometric objects are possible: homochiral or heterochiral. In scientific articles the relational term chirality is often mistaken for the two valued measure for the individual (absolute) sense of chirality, an arbitrary attributive term.
authors: Department of Chemistry, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany.
authors: Hans
authors: H
authors: Gerlach
keywords: chirality: homochiral or heterochiral; sense of chirality; space inversion invariant