Chapter Five Concept 5.1

a long polymer chain.

a straight chain

Information From: Pearson Prentice Hall, BIOLOGY Exploring Life textbook

Carbon Skeltons and Functional Groups:

"The most important elements that are needed for living things are nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and CARBON." carboncarboncarbon, what's the story behind this "significant" element? And why is it so important?

-carbon can form with one or more other carbon atoms, producing varieties of carbon skeltons.

Organic Molecules: a carbon based molecule.

Inorganic Molecules: non-carbonic based molecule.

eg.) water, oxygen, ammonia., etc.

-carbon can also bound with other elements.

Hydrocarbons: organic molecules that are composed of only carbon and hydrogen.

-hydrocarbons are important to fuels. eg.) methane, natural gases, etc.

-in the body, enegery stored in fat molecules contain long hydrocarbon chains.

Functional Group: a group of atoms within a molecule that interacts in predictable ways with other molecule. 

Hydrophilic: attraction of water molecules. "water-loving"

-most organic molecules that contain hydroxyl groups are hydrophilic.

a branched chain:

Monomers and Polymers

Monomers: large molecules that are built from many smaller molecular units.

Polymers: cells that link monomers together in long chains. 

-a polymer can be straigh chain of monomers or branching chains or chains that fold back. 

-every cell has thousands of different kinds of polymers.

*all these polymers are built from collections of fewer than 50 kinds of monomers.

-Life's large molecules are classified into fourn main categories: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucelic acids.

Building and Breaking Polymers

-each time a monomer is added to the chain, a water molecule is released. (dehydration reaction)

-many molecules in our food are polymers.

-our cells berak down monomers to produce energy.

-Reverse of dehydration is called hydrolysis reaction.

Concept Check 5.1

1. Draw a molecule that has three-carbon skeleton and a hydroxyl group on the middle carbon. (C3H8O) 

       H

H-  -O-  -H

H-C-C-C-H

H-  -H-  -H

2. Explain the connection between monomers and polymers.

Monomers are built up of very small molecular units whereas polymers are made up of monomers linked together in long chains. 

3. What molecule is released during construction of a polymer? What is this reaction called? 

A water molecule released during the construction of a polymer, which causes a reaction for the polymer loses water, which is dehydration.

4. Draw at least three ways in which five carbon atoms could be joined to make different carbon skeletons.

a) Straight Chains.

C-C-C-C=C-C

b) Branched Chains.

    C

     |

    C

     |

     |

C-C-C-C

c) Ring [Thinking on the first "C" on top forming a hexagon]

C=C-C=C-C=C-

(sorry Mr. Jacobsen, I currently have no program on my own computer to make these diagrams)