What are skeletal formulas or skeletal structures (of organic compounds) ?

1 Answer
May 9, 2018

These are formulaic representations that DO NOT illustrate hydrogen....

Explanation:

We know say that n-butane is C4H12..we could write it long hand...H3CCH2CH2CH3...alternatively, we could write it as...

...alternatively, we could write it as...

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The second representation is the skeletal formula....the zig-zag represents a methylene unit, i.e. CH2CH2...and of course with more complicated structures we could insert heteroatoms, and carbocycles, and heterocycles appropriately.