Chapter 4 Learning Objectives:
After studying this material you should be able to:
1. Explain how carbon’s electron configuration determines the kinds and numbers of bonds that carbon will form.
2. Describe how carbon skeletons may vary, and explain how this variation contributes to the diversity and complexity of organic molecules.
3. Describe what a hydrocarbon is and why we have found hydrocarbons to be valuable.
4. Distinguish among the three types of isomers: structural, geometric, and enantiomers and give an example of each.
5. Name and be able to identify the major functional groups and describe the chemical properties of the organic molecules in which they occur.