2.  Organic Chemistry is the branch of chemistry that focuses on carbon containing compounds.  Saturated Molecules – molecules that are considered “full” because they only have single bonds throughout the compound  Unsaturated Molecules – molecules that have at least one double or triple bond

3.  Organic compounds can undergo some special reaction types:  Substitution Reaction – a special type of replacement reaction where one or more atoms replace another atom or group of atoms in an organic molecule.  Example:  CH 4 + Cl 2  CH 3 Cl + HCl

4.  Addition Reaction – a special type of synthesis reaction in which an atom or molecule is added to an unsaturated molecule and increases the saturation of the molecule. It results in double or triple bonds turning into single or double bonds.  Example CH 2 =CH 2 + H 2  CH 3 -CH 3

5.  Condensation Reaction – a double replacement chemical reaction in which two or more molecules combine to produce water or another simple molecule and a larger organic molecule.  Example: CH 3 N-H + HO-CH 3  CH 3 NCH 3 + H 2 O H H

6.  Elimination Reaction – a special type of decomposition reaction in which a simple molecule such as water or ammonia is removed from a larger organic compound.  Example H-C-C-H  H-C=C-H + H 2 O HHHH HOH

7.  Polymerization Reactions – a special type of synthesis reaction in which small molecules called monomers combine together to make giant molecules called polymers.  Example CH 2 =CH 2 + CH 2 =CH 2  -CH 2 -CH 2 -CH 2 -CH 2 -

8.  All of these reactions are extremely important to life.  Your body needs energy, so it turns to carbohydrates - organic molecules made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in the generic formula, C 6n H 10n+2 O 5n+1  The simplest carbohydrate is called a monosaccharide (n=1), which glucose (blood sugar) is the most common for us.  So to store energy, the body can link two monosaccarides together to make a disaccharide (like sucrose; table sugar) or many to make a polysaccharide (like glycogen).

9.  Proteins are extremely important for life as well.  They allow your cells to receive nutrients, make it possible to move, and are used to make many structures in your body.  They are also a polymer made up from thousands of small organic compounds called amino acids.

10.  To make proteins, we need more polymers in our body, DNA and RNA.  DNA is a polymer made up of nucleic acids, which is another small organic molecule.  DNA is stored in the nucleus of the cell to try to protect it and RNA is a copied version of DNA that is allowed to leave the nucleus.  When RNA is translated by the cell, it tells the cell what order to put the amino acids in to properly make a protein.  Both DNA and RNA use the amino acids cytosine, guanine and adenine. But DNA uses thymine and RNA uses uracil for their fourth base unit.