Chemical Thermodynamics

Chemical Symbols

 It is not practical to draw the ball and stick model or the space filling model every time a chemical is mentioned. So instead chemists have developed various shorthand representations. The most condensed is to simply use symbols to represent chemicals. The symbol H2O represents a water molecule.    This shorthand is not that useful for large molecules because it does not indicate how the various atoms are arranged. It is easier to visualize chemicals with the ball and stick model, but these are too cumbersome to draw. So the compromise is to replace the ball in the ball in stick model with a letter representing the atom. So hydrogen atoms are replaced by the letter H, and oxygen atoms are replaced by the letter O. Lines then connect the symbols to show chemical bonds. Since carbon often forms the backbone of large molecules, it is generally depicted by a line that bends. The hydrogen atoms connected to this assumed carbon are also assumed. This technique is shown for alanine in figure 6.3.

Figure 6.3: Alanine





next: matter, heat and temperature

home: Intelligent Design and the origin of life