Talk:Propan-1-ol
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Indeed u have the chemical formula for propanol C3H8O ... but surely it should be written C3H7OH ????
- both forms are correct: the first is just a count of each atom (which wikipedia uses across the board, because many of these are complicated molecules); the second form is a more structured form, and improves on the first form in that it shows the molecule is an alcohol, but with a more complicated molecule might complicate things past the point of comprehension for many. You can go further with CH3CH2CH2OH; all of these forms are recognised as 'correct' versions. There's also SMILES notation, which would write it as CCCO. Hope that helps! --Firien ยง 13:24, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
- C3H8O is the Hill system formula, which is a structure-neutral method of element enumeration. C3H7OH is fine for 1-propanol, but with 2-propanol you run into problems. This is why the Hill formula is preferred. ~K 15:36, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] format
Just thought i'd mention a picture on this page overlaps some words to the right and i can't see them. (I'm in 1024x768) A page format checker would catch problems like this, If you already have one please inform them it didn't work on this page.
- Can you say what browser you are using? I have checked this at 1024x768 on Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, both in display mode and in the "printable version", all of these look just fine to me. Also, which picture is giving the problem? Thanks, Walkerma 22:34, 17 November 2005 (UTC)
