How many carbon atoms are in a butane molecule?

1 Answer
Bio
Jan 18, 2016

4 carbon atoms.

Explanation:

Using the names of hydrocarbons you'll be able to find how many carbon atoms butane or any other molecule has.

No. of carbon atoms/ Name / Molecular formula:

  1. Methane #"CH"_4#
  2. Ethane #"C"_2"H"_6#
  3. Propane #"C"_3"H"_8#
  4. Butane #"C"_4"H"_10#
  5. Pentane #"C"_5"H"_12#
  6. Hexane #"C"_6"H"_14#
  7. Heptane #"C"_7"H"_16#
  8. Octane #"C"_8"H"_18#
  9. Nonane #"C"_9"H"_20#
  10. Decane #"C"_10"H"_22#

Using this data, you can see butane is in forth place therefore having only 4 carbon atoms in its chemical formula. The 'but-' in butane tells you number of carbon atoms in the molecule. You would need to know the data above in order to know how many carbon atoms there are in any molecule.

The chemical formula for butane is #"C"_4"H"_10#.

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