if we are mostly made of carbon and hydrogen(both of them looks like rocks in their solid form)why do we look and feel vastly different?

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if we are mostly made of carbon and hydrogen(both of them looks like rocks in their solid form)why do we look and feel vastly different?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

The shape of a molecule is a major factor in how the substance behaves.

Pure carbon arranges itself in a regular lattice.

Pure hydrogen doesn’t arrange itself at all, it’s a gas.

When you combine the two, you can get all kinds of different shapes and sizes. Carbon will string together with other carbons in long chains, and hydrogen seals off the edges. The carbon can form double or triple bonds, which change the shape of the chain. Adding nitrogen or oxygen in different places changes the shape too.

Long chains of carbon with hydrogen all around will interact with each other very differently from carbon that’s in basically a crystal with other carbon. The hydrogens around the outside keep the chains from bonding, and the long chains slide against each other. Basically it acts like oil.

You can also get very complex and specific shapes. Enzymes are (relatively) huge molecules made of a few basic elements, structured so that they can be little machines in your body. Smaller molecules fit in to parts of them. They can be sensors, they can be portals through barriers, they can put molecules together or take them apart. Not because of the elements they’re made of, but because the way they’re bonded together makes the long chain fold into the necessary shape.

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