Monday, September 23, 2013

Carbohydrate structure





Then I reminded you that carbohydrate literally means the
Water of Carbon and if we took a water molecule, broke it apart we got an -H and an -OH, for each carbon I had you add it's "water"

The question was really asking which of the following are carbon based molecules.  The four main organic biomolecules we are made up of are lipids, carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids.
For this question we spend a while talking about the answer choices.  A is just wrong, Carbon is not Trivalent (which means it has 3 valence electrons), B is a correct statement but does not answer the question.  C not only is an incorrect statement, even if it WAS true, that also does not answer the question.  D speaks to the nature of Carbon and its ability to form bonds (4 in fact) with other atoms.
First I had you build the basic ring structure with 5 of the carbons and an oxygen.
You then added the extra carbon to form the functional group
Remember the term 
Carbohydrate literally means the hydrate (water) of carbon, so if you tore a water molecule apart into OH and H, added it to each carbon you would be almost at a glucose molecule!!!



\And then you built the entire molecule!


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