whats the shorthand notation for saying, for example, "the second carbon in the molecule"? i know when speaking its "carbon two" but how do we wright this? ie, where does the little 2 go? or is it C-2 ?

 

(i dont believe i forgot this )

If i'm not mistaken (and I probably am!) is it not C1- C2-C3.... where all the numbers are subscripts i.e the little 2!!

[math] C_2, C_3, C_4 [/math] etc

 

yeah, i thought so but for some reason it looked odd when i wrote it... still not sure. what if i wanted to say the ketone group that is based on the fourth carbon? that would look like

 

[math] C_4O_2 [/math],

 

which would be confusing neh?

 

dus anyone know the notation?