Butyric acid, for example, has C3H7COOH or CH3CH2CH2CO2H or C4H8O2 (This one also applies to ethyl acetate). Are there different methods for writing formulas?
In: Chemistry
Technically all three are the same thing, but that’s like saying 6/3 and 2 are the same thing. One is definitely preferred, but the other one may be appropriate in certain circumstances. The first one is the form I’d expect since it gives information about the structure of the molecule. The C3H7 part is a hydrocarbon chain and the COOH is the organic acid.
The second one tells me the same thing, but (unnecessarily IMHO since the carbons all have the maximum number of hydrogens attached) explicitly shows that hydrocarbon chain. That form could be useful though if it wasn’t full and you needed to show where the hydrogens were missing, or if it was branched and you wanted to show where the splits were.
The third one is too vague. There are way too many possible ways to arrange those atoms to tell me anything useful. It could be butyric acid, ethyl acetate, or even some weird carbohydrate.
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