Solvent effects change reaction outcomes because the solvent is not a passive container. It surrounds every reactant, orients around charges, and stabilizes some molecular arrangements more than others. Swap ethanol for acetonitrile or water for dimethyl sulfoxide and the same reactants can show a different rate, yield, or even product. The actors did not change. The rules of their world did. The silent line above the reaction arrow Textbooks write the solvent as a shorthand above the arrow: H2O, EtOH, THF, DMF, DMSO. That placement makes it look like a condition, not a participant. In reality solute molecules are almost never bare. Ions sit inside ordered shells of solvent molecules.…