Benzene

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because the C(6)H(6) formula indicateda high degree of unsaturation, but does not display the reactivity characteristic of
such compounds.
In 1865, German chemist Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz proposed thatbenzene is structurally a planar hexagon in which the six carbon atoms are joined byalternating single and double bonds. Because this simplistic structure could not accountfor all of the unique properties of benzene and its derivatives, German chemist JohannesThiele suggested in 1899 that the bonds between carbon atoms exhibit resonance. That is,each bond oscillates between being a double and a single bond (see aromatic compounds).
In modern chemistry, benzene is generally considered to have six identical carbon-carbonbonds, each lying somewhere between a single and a double bond. This has been verifiedby studies showing that the carbon-carbon bond distance in benzene is 0.139 nanometers,which lies between the single carbon-carbon bond distance of 0.154 ...

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