Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: Kittyjon on June 06, 2016, 01:27:33 PM
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Last semester I learned a bit about organic compounds and how there are a lot of them, can someone name a few common/important organic compounds/elements made of carbon? Thanks I appreciate it if I get some responses!
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There are no elements made from carbon, you mean compounds. Anyway, there is realy tons of those, starting from simple like
methane (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane) or acetone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone) through more complex like agent orange (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic_acid) or penicilin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin) to crazy complex structures like taxol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paclitaxel) or my personal favorite maitotoxin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitotoxin).
I think you will learn more about organic compounds in next classes you take?
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Asking "how many organic compounds are there" is like asking "how many birds are there". There are A LOT. And the "importance" of any one of them depends on who you're asking.
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Asking "how many organic compounds are there" is like asking "how many birds are there".
I am pretty sure that there are several orders of magnitude more organic compounds than birds ;)
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Considering that every protein and polymer is an "organic compound", and practically there is no limit to the number of different unique arrangements you can make - (e.g., even if we restrict ourselves only to polyethylene), then the number of organic compounds is for all intents and purposes infinite in number.