AP Chemistry : Organic Compounds
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Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Organic Compounds
Which of the following is the alcohol functional group?
-NH2
-COOH
-OH
-COH
-OR
-OH
The alcohol functional group is -OH
Example Question #1 : Organic Compounds
What is the most acidic functional group on the amino acid cysteine? Cysteine has the chemical formula 
Hydrochloric acid
Thiol
Alcohol
Carboxylic acid
Amine
Carboxylic acid
We know that by definition, all amino acids contain a carboxylic acid functional group (
The amino functional group is slightly basic, and the carboylic acid functional group is slightly acidic. The -SH functional group will also be acidic, but because sulfur and oxygen are in the same group on the periodic table, the -SH group will have similar acidic properties to an -OH group, and alcohols are less acidic than carboxylic acids.
Example Question #3 : Organic Compounds
Which of the following functional groups is an amide?
Amides contain both oxygen and nitrogen in the functional group. The oxygen forms a double bond with a carbon, and the carbon bonds to a nitrogen. This forms the structure 
Example Question #2 : Organic Compounds
Which one of the following organic functional groups does not contain a carbon-oxygen double bond?
Ester
Ketone
Aldehyde
Nitrile
Carboxylic acid
Nitrile
A nitrile group contains a carbon-nitrogen triple bond, while all of the other groups contain a carbon-oxygen double bond.
Nitrile:
Ester:
Ketone:
Carboxylic acid:
Aldehyde:
Example Question #3 : Organic Compounds
Which of the following is an organic compound?
Oxygen
Glucose
Water
Magnesium fluoride
Sodium chloride
Glucose
An organic compound is typically defined as one that contains carbon. Though there some small exceptions to this rule (for example, cyanide is not considered organic), in general most compounds follow it.
Though water, oxygen, and sodium chloride, may seem organic, they are not for they do not contain any covalent bonds to carbon. The only gievn compound that contains carbon is glucose, a sugar.
Example Question #1 : Organic Compounds
A chemist is trying to find the identity of a compound. She knows that the compound has a molecular weight of 
It is impossible to tell without more information
The simplest way to begin these types of problems is to assume that we are starting out with 100 grams of the sample compound. This allows us to simplify things, since we know the mass percentages of the elements that make up out unknown compound.
Next, we must convert amount of each element from grams into moles.
This gives us a formula of
Now, we need to simplify this formula by dividing each of the terms by the greatest common denominator, 3.33, which gives us:
This is our empirical formula. To obtain the molecular formula, we must first find the mass of our empirical formula, which is 
Next, we need to divide the molecular weight of the compound by the empirical weight to obtain an integer of 
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