Question

If a polymer is made of ten monomers, how many water molecules will be needed to break all the bonds? Why?

Answer 1

nine assuming you are breaking only the bonds where the water molecule is released when the bonds are formed.

Explanation:

lets break the problem like this. Following is a diagrammatic representation of 10 monomer polymer

`A_1-A_2-A_3-A_4-A_5-A_6-A_7-A_8-A_9-A_10`

here each polymer bond is shown as "`-`"

polymer bond is formed when `-OH` group from 1st monomer and `H` group from 2nd monomer is removed as `H_2O`

now to separate the two monomer you require only one water molecule.
`A_1-A_2 +H_2O →A_1 + A_2`

for three monomer polymer we have 2 bonds so we require two water molecules. now for 10 monomer polymer we have 9 polymer bonds so we require 9 water molecules.