> > When you get that sort of situation where there's three oxygens, it's called a "ternary compound".
>
> Three /atoms/! I meant /atoms/!

Heh, okay. "Three oxygen" compounds, or supercharged oxy compunds, are called peroxides.


> So what's your record for inaccurate posts to the forum? I made a new one today -- four in a half hour!
>
> -A post that I didn't mean to post
> -A post that was supposed to get the previous post deleted but didn't
> -Another post to get the previous post deleted but forgot to mention that it should /itself/ be deleted as well
> -Calling atoms "oxygens"
>
> Gah.
>
> -SB

> > PS: With respect to my "no luck" post -- I actually made at least /six/ errors in that half hour. The fifth was saying that I only made four errors (when in fact I had made five at that point). The sixth was in my chemistry post, but it's pretty obvious -- I'll let you figure out what it was!

Well, I'll say... You're much too hard on yourself. Straightforward errors like this one?:

> > and CH3COOH is acetic acid (yes, the kind you get in orange juice).

You meant, "in vinegar". Right.

So what's the difference between C6H8O6 (an aromatic) and C6H8O7 then, the latter of which is
CH2COOH-C(OH)COOH-CH2COOH ? :-) I know what they *are*; I have just never referenced what the difference in their metabolic properties is supposed to be. In fact, I think I went through my entire college Chemistry curricula without realizing there was a difference... *sigh*

Both are also respectively known as 3-oxo-L-gulofuranolactone (enol form), and 2-hydroxy-1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid. Good gosh, I cannot stand extended nomenclature like this. Animals like rats, those ultralucky critters, have no problem synthesizing these compounds in their own bodies -- but *we* have to make sure to take them as nutritional supplements, gah.