1. what is the total number of atoms in a molecule of each of the following compounds?
a.) stearic acid , CH3(CH2)16COOH
What does the (CH2) part mean? since it's in parenthesis?
and what does COOH stand for?
and why is there a 16 after the parentheses?
a.) stearic acid , CH3(CH2)16COOH
What does the (CH2) part mean? since it's in parenthesis?
and what does COOH stand for?
and why is there a 16 after the parentheses?
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The CH2 means that there's one carbon and two hydrogens. The parentheses followed by 16 means that there is carbon with two hydrogens 16 times (aka 16 carbons and 32 hydrogens). This is a simpler way of writing C16H32, and chemists prefer it, because it reflects the molecular structure. The COOH part means that there is a carboxylic acid group which consists of one carbon two oxygens and one hydrogen. Again, it's just the preferred way of writing CO2H. From there it's just simple math to find how many atoms there are. Hope that helps.