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
All three describe the same structure in different ways. The third is the most simple, counting up all the atoms in the molecule and just listing how many there are of each.
The second one is a little more complicated and describes the molecule in terms of the carbon backbone, listing which atoms are attached to each carbon. So 3 hydrogens on the first carbon, 2 on the second etc.
The first one is basically the same as the second but assumes that you don’t need to know how many hydrogens are on each carbon in the chain because its always pretty much the same. So only the functional group, the COOH is separate
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