Organic

Question by Cowbandit: How do you tell if a compound is organic?
Well my bio teacher told me that if a compound has 2 or more carbon atoms, then it is organic. Therefore, she said that something like methane wouldn’t be organic. However, I’ve been searching around the internet for a formal definition, and I’ve come up upon people saying that all an organic compound needs is carbon bonded with hydrogen or something of that nature. Thus methane would be organic?

So i just want to clarify on what makes a compound organic. If just by looking at its formula, how can you determine whether the molecule is organic or not?

Best answer:

Answer by Dream
Yes methane is organic, ANE on the end meaning it’s in the family of alkane single carbon to carbon bonding it’s a natural gas.
Alkane – single carbon to carbon bonding
Alkene – double carbon to carbon bonding
Alkyne – triple carbon to carbon bonding
yes what is your teacher thinking about i don’t know but it’s a organic compound. Methane’s molecular formula is CH4 so there are 1 carbon and 4 hydrogens. If you burn methane in the presence of oxygen you will be getting carbon dioxide something interesting.

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