[novice]

This is a really simple question, but is methyl benzene planar and thus aromatic?

From the point of view of the methyl group, their is a tetrahedral configuration, but when we consider aromaticity, we only look at atoms attached immediately to the ring right?

[prophecy]

The way I see it, is that methyl benzene is not planar, it's tetrahedral. (Prototype Geometry). The phenyl substituent is just replace by a proton (H), so therefore it's tetrahedral. Toluene (a.k.a methylbenzene) is aromatic because of the phenyl substiuent or benzene ring. We look for the ring, that's it; very simple, we just look at for that benzene ring, and that gives the compound or whatever it is "aromatic" properties. For example, female hormones like estrogen is aromatic, and male hormones like testosterone isn't because the molecule does not contain that aromatic ring. The class of compounds are called Arenes.

[prophecy]

Sorry, benzene is planar because of the hexagonal arrangement, but if you need more information there's a good website here: http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/react3.htm

[Yggdrasil]

This is a really simple question, but is methyl benzene planar and thus aromatic?

From the point of view of the methyl group, their is a tetrahedral configuration, but when we consider aromaticity, we only look at atoms attached immediately to the ring right?

This is correct.  When talking about aromatic rings, we say a molecule is planar if all of the sp² carbons in the ring lie in the same plane.  You are absolutely correct that the hydrogens on the methyl group will lie outside of this plane.

[novice]

thanks!