Chemistry Practice Test: Organic Chemistry Basics
- Organic Chemistry Basics
- 10 questions
- 13 minutes
This test covers the carbon compounds met in a first chemistry course: hydrocarbons, simple names, isomers and functional groups. Tip: the prefixes meth-, eth-, prop- and but- mean 1, 2, 3 and 4 carbons.
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Question 1
Why can carbon form so many different compounds?
Correct answer: C
With four bonds per atom and strong carbon-carbon bonds, carbon builds chains, branches and rings of almost any size. Carbon compounds are mainly covalent, not ionic.
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Question 2
What is the molecular formula of propane, the alkane with three carbon atoms?
Correct answer: B
Alkanes follow CnH2n+2, so for n = 3 there are 2(3) + 2 = 8 hydrogens. C3H6 fits CnH2n, the formula of propene, an alkene.
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Question 3
What is the name of CH3CH2CH2CH3?
Correct answer: B
The chain has four carbons joined by single bonds, so it is butane. Butene would need a C=C double bond, and pentane has five carbons.
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Question 4
Which feature makes a hydrocarbon an alkene?
Correct answer: D
Alkenes such as ethene (C2H4) contain a C=C double bond. A molecule with only single bonds is an alkane, and a hydrocarbon by definition has no oxygen.
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Question 5
Butane and 2-methylpropane both have the formula C4H10. What are they?
Correct answer: C
Isomers have the same molecular formula but a different arrangement of atoms: one is a straight chain, the other is branched. Isotopes are atoms of one element with different numbers of neutrons.
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Question 6
Ethanol has the formula CH3CH2OH. To which class of compounds does it belong?
Correct answer: A
The –OH group bonded to a carbon chain makes it an alcohol. A carboxylic acid has a –COOH group, which includes a C=O as well as an –OH.
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Question 7
Acetic acid, CH3COOH, gives vinegar its sour taste. Which functional group does it contain?
Correct answer: A
The –COOH group, with a C=O and an –OH on the same carbon, is the carboxyl group and makes the compound acidic. It is not a ketone, because the C=O carbon is bonded to an –OH, not to two carbons.
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Question 8
What are the products when a hydrocarbon burns completely in plenty of oxygen?
Correct answer: D
Complete combustion turns all the carbon into CO2 and all the hydrogen into H2O. Carbon monoxide and soot form only when oxygen is limited.
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Question 9
Which two kinds of compounds react to form an ester and water?
Correct answer: A
An acid and an alcohol join, releasing a water molecule, to give an ester; many esters smell like fruit. An alkene and hydrogen give an alkane instead.
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Question 10
Polyethylene, used in plastic bags, is made from many small molecules of which monomer?
Correct answer: D
The C=C double bonds of ethene open up and join thousands of ethene units into long chains. Methane has no double bond, so it cannot link up this way.
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