epimers, enantiomers, diastereoisomers confusion:s - pic attached

Hi,

So my lecturer says that the two carbohydrates attached are..
Epimers and enantiomers

But I can't see how they are Enantiomers as they aren't mirror images are they?

Any help would be appreciated as I'm really struggling with this idea
Thanks in advance(:

They are mirror images

Enantiomers are like your left and right hands, they are mirror images but if you tried to place one on top of another, they just don't match.

But if something's a mirror image, surely if you try to placed one on top of the other it has to match?

I'm so confused right now haha

Have a look at this picture

thank you.

Have you got a link for the pic pls? It won't open from here for some reason :s

http://bcs.whfreeman.com/thelifewire8e/content/cat_010/f03002.jpg

I just Googled it

Thanks mate.

I think I've just realised why I've been struggling with this idea...

Because the top part (CHO) if you take the atoms individually, they don't make a mirror image...

But if you take the molecules in their Fischer Projection (i.e CHO)... then the mirror image thing does make sense.

Am I correct?

Yes, it is the molecule (chiral carbon atom and four different groups around it) and its projection that are mirror images to each other. So you have to look at a whole molecule, not just the CHO part