Gauche conformations

[Elias Ruben 1O]

What exactly is a gauche conformation? Can molecules have multiple gauche conformations?

[Anthony_Imperial_1G]

Gauche is the second lowest conformation; they occur at 60 degrees and 300 degrees.
The anti-conformation is the lowest configuration because it is the maximum distance away between two molecules.

You can draw some examples of different newman models with different substituents so you can visualize it and hopefully understand it better.

[Jocelyn_Limas_2G]

To elaborate, at a UA session today, the UA explained that if the two substituents are "gauche" to each other in a stable conformation, that means that they're next to each other on the Newman projection. (I think they still follow the 60 or 300 degree rule though.)