Biology Forum Molecular Biology Is ethane a carbohydrate? why or why not?

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    • #446
      Judy
      Participant

      🙄 ❓ can someone please help me on this question pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee???

      thanks ,
      Judy

    • #19957
      mith
      Participant

      carbohydrate means carbon-water. Does ethane have carbon? Does the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen equal 2?(h2o)

    • #19958
      biostudent84
      Participant

      No it is not. It does not follow the definition of carbohydrates

      http://www.biology-online.org/dictionar … &submit=Go

    • #19961
      robotics
      Participant

      This is just chemistry, not really biology.

      Ethane is just a straight chain alkane. Alkanes are characterized by being saturated hydrocarbons, they contain only hydrogen and carbon atoms. They are saturated in the sense that they all have single bonds connecting all atoms in the compound.

      Additionally, alkanes are known to have the general formula C(n) H (2n+2).

      If n = 1
      CH4

      If n = 2
      C2H6

      If n = 3

      C3H8

      And so forth. The naming of compounds follow a set of rules designated by chemists known as the IUPAC. Carbon chains are named with the parent prefix being:

      1 = meth — eg: methane (alkane)
      2 = eth — eg: ethanoic acid (carboxylic acid)
      3 = prop — eg: propanoate (ester)
      4 = but — eg: butene (alkene)

      After four, the normal system is used. Pent (pentagon, Hex (Hexagon), etc.
      5 = pent
      6 = hex

      And so forth.

      Hope that helps.
      Lawrence

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