Sunday, November 15, 2009

Why would common names continue more in organic chemistry than in inorganic chemistry?

You may have noticed that many organic compounds have two names. One is a formal name that follows the rules of organic naming. The other is an informal common name. Examples include (a) acetic acid and ethanoic acid and (b) adipic acid and hexanedioic acid. Although great effort has been put into establishing a uniform system of formal naming, establishing a uniform system of formal naming, usage of common names continues, especially in industry. Suggest reasons for this continuation. Why would common names continue more in organic chemistry than in inorganic chemistry?

Why would common names continue more in organic chemistry than in inorganic chemistry?
If your parents came from Poland, would you wonder why they still spoke Polish? When I began teaching, I wondered about how I would teach IUPAC nomenclature as it seemed a minor system of nomenclature. I thought CAS nomenclature was more commonly used. There are many naming systems, common, IUPAC, German, French, Italian, etc.





I think there is too much emphasis on IUPAC nomenclature. I think it is more important to learn the rules of systematic nomenclature, under which all nomenclature imperfectly falls. It is not difficult to realize the root of common names is the functional group present as the suffix, chloride, amine, alcohol, ether, acid, etc. If you see that pattern, then it is also easy to see that IUPAC has a slightly different system for their root names. However, in either system, you should be able to draw methyl ethyl chickenwire provided you can draw chickenwire (and give the locants).





So, there is this compound known since 1815 as cholesterine and now as cholesterol (according to wikipedia), how many chemists do you think will use this IUPAC name for it, (10R,13R)-10,13-dimethyl-17-(6-methylhep...


2,3,4,7,8,9,11,12,14,15,16,17-dodecahy... cyclopenta[a]phenanthren-3-ol? I'll further bet there are a lot more chemists and students that can draw the structure for cholesterol than can from the IUPAC name, 恶adnego?
Reply:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_che...
Reply:Mainly, the formal names tend to be really long and confusing.


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