How Do You Count Carbon Atoms In Organic Chemistry?
Organic chemistry is the science of molecules that are built around carbon atoms: natural gas, petroleum, plastics, alcohols and many other industrial chemicals. This branch of science has its own specialized vocabulary, including a method for naming molecules according to how many carbon atoms they contain. Learning the words organic chemists use to count carbon atoms is the first step to understanding how organic compounds are named. Step 1 Learn the prefixes that represent the numbers 1 to 10. One is “meth,” two is “eth,” three is “prop” (pronounced “prope”), four is “but-” (pronounced “byute”), five is “pent,” six is “hex,” seven is “hept,” eight is “oct,” nine is “non” (pronounced “known”) and ten is “dec” (pronounced “deck”). Step 2 Use a mnemonic technique if you have trouble remembering the prefixes. For example, you might want to substitute the prefixes for the numbers in the song “One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians,” and sing: “Meth little, eth little, prop little c
