[redsox5]

I recently synthesized DEET (N,N-Diethyl-meta-Toluamide) and analyzed it via NMR.  Is it correct that all of the peaks are singlets (even though my particular spectra has overlapping heptane peaks for the CH3's around 1.164 ppm)?  If they are all singlets, how are there any coupling constants at all (b/c "a coupling constant is the separation on an NMR spectrum between adjacent peaks in a multiplet")?

How does equivalency work? If 3 Hydrogens are equivalent, does that mean they affect the Hydrogens on an adjacent atom as if they were one Hydrogen (especially with regard to splitting)?

If that is the case, then the only thing that would indicate that there are 3 H's is the integration of their peak.  Is that true?

For the CH2 and CH3 hydrogens (next to the Nitrogen in DEET), it seems to me like there should be splitting for the CH2-CH3 hydrogens, and so the peaks that identify these nonequivalent H's should not be singlets. Is the absence of more than one peak for these two sets of H's coincidental overlap?

Thank you very much for your *delete me*!

[AWK]

Sigma Aldrich shows proton and C-13 spectrum of DEET
http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/ProductDetail.do?D7=0&N5=SEARCH_CONCAT_PNO%7CBRAND_KEY&N4=32570%7CFLUKA&N25=0&QS=ON&F=SPEC