re: #171 ggt

The only part of that I understood was “poly” and that’s because somewhere I learned it was either latin or greek for “many”

So “ene” as an ending means?

And what do you do to get ethyl (alone without an ending) alcohol?

Poly is “many” essentially building chains of similar molecules. Lots of that stuff in nature, especially with sugar molecules.

-ane (Methane, Ethane, Propane) 1, 2, or 3 linked Carbon atoms with a full set of Hydrogen and single bonds between the Carbon atoms

-ene (Ethylene, Propylene) 2, 3 linked Carbon atoms with full set of Hydrogen and double bonds between the Carbon atoms

If you take off a hydrogen and put on an -OH hydroxyl group you get alcohols. So, Methanol, Ethanol, Propanol.

And further complexities from there. Especially once you get more Carbons involved. Around six they start to form ring structures and you start delving heavily into organic chemisty (which I was awful with.)

BTW, I’m a Comp-Sci geek, not a chemist. I just picked this stuff up from college and working for plastic/oil companies for 20 years.