\nIn my previous post<\/a> on organic chemistry, I introduced the topic and showed a few drawings. They were of this style:<\/p>\n
![](\"\/..\/butane0.png\")
<\/p>\n
Recall that carbon, which appears as C<\/strong> in the diagrams, makes four bonds. (Each bond is a line to another atom.) Notice that most of the bonds are between carbon and hydrogen (H<\/strong>).<\/p>\n Since bonds usually are between C<\/strong> and H<\/strong>, chemists often don’t draw the H<\/strong> atoms. They’re understood to be there unless a bond clearly goes to something else. In such cases, only the bonds between carbons or between carbons and other atoms are shown, like so:<\/p>\n With the hydrogens left out, the diagram becomes simpler to understand. For example, you can more easily tell the how many carbons it has.<\/p>\n Some people take simplification a step further, writing only sticks for the carbon skeleton. Each corner represents a carbon atom. Therefore, all three of the following diagrams show butane:<\/p>\n The simplified drawing styles really come in handy for showing molecules with features such as alcohol. Here’s an example:<\/p>\n How we know the molecule is<\/i> 2-pentanol<\/strong> will be covered in a future post:)<\/p>\n![](\"\/..\/butane2.png\")
<\/p>\n![](\"\/..\/butane3.png\")
<\/p>\n![](\"\/..\/pentanol0.png\")
<\/p>\n