Question

can someone explain to me why this isn’t working. logically it makes sense, but is there a better way to do it?

$('#n2').click(function() {
    if ($('#b0').attr('class') == 'box position0') {
        movedown2
    }
})​

Answer 1

You can do like below,

$('#b0').is('.box.position0'))

DEMO

or

$('#b0')[0].className == 'box position0'

Also you were missing function call ().

$('#n2').click( function(){ 
   if( $('#b0').is('.box.position0') ) {
     movedown2(); //Note the () added which was missing in your orig code
   } 
});