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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
I have NO IDEA what those clues mean, but based purely on the model, I'm going to guess Boric Acid?

 

Correct!

 

Boric acid is really good ant bait. They take it back to the colony and it wipes 'em all out.

 

~modest

Posted
How the heck can you just look at a representation of a molecule and know what it is? :eek_big:

 

Do you just know them (memorized), or is there a way of deducing it?

 

It's all based on trends that you pick up after a while.

The way I figured it out:

The smallest atoms are obviously Hydrogen, because they are terminal, and are only bonded to one thing. So far, that gives you [ce]H3[/ce].

Next, I looked at what the hydrogens were attached to. Based on the geometry and the number of bonds, it was most likely oxygen. It was an assumption, but a safe one. So that gives you [ce]O3H3[/ce].

That made the rest easy, because based on bonding/geometry trends, the central atom could be Boron or Phosphorous. Phosphorous didn't make sense to me in this instance, but Boron would make it Boric Acid.

:)

  • 2 weeks later...

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