Explain why it is not possible to draw a skeletal structure for methane.

Video transcript

Welcome back, everyone. Which of the following cannot be represented by a scal structure. We are given four answer choices. A ethane B methanol C methane and D ethylene. So let's begin this problem. Let's analyze each structure individually. Starting with ethane. Ethane as the name suggests is an L cane. And Ethane is simply a two membered L cane with a formula C to six. And we can basically state that there will be two carbon atoms with three hydrogen bonded to each carbon. Now, can we represent Ethane with a scalar structure? Yes, we can. And the reason why we can is simply because that hydrocarbon has two carbons. Whenever we draw a scalar structure, a solid line represents two carbons, one on the left side and one on the right. So we have to understand that we need to have at least two carbon atoms within a hydrocarbon to draw a skeletal structure. So Ethane would not be the correct choice, right. B is methanol, it is not a hydrocarbon, it ends with OL which means that it is an alcohol and specifically it is derived from methane, which is ch four but one of the hydrogen atoms is replaced with hydroxy. Can we draw a bond line structure? Even though we have one carbon atom, we can actually draw it. Because if we add o on the other side of the line, we understand that on the left, we have one carbon which represents the metal group. So methanol is not the correct answer as well. C is methane, which is the simplest l came with a formula CH four. And this is where we have our correct answer. As we previously discussed. If we only have a one carbon, then we simply cannot represent such a hydrocarbon with a skeletal structure. Because whenever we draw a solid line, it immediately involves two carbon atoms for a hydrocarbon. In this case, we only have one carbon. So we cannot really represent it with a dot Right is klo structure always requires us to draw a line which immediately gives us two carbon atoms. So we can state that methane is the correct choice. And finally, ethylene is a king, it has AC C double bond and each carbon has two hydrogens because we have two carbons. Well, we definitely can represent this by Akal structure, a double bond with two carbon atoms on each end and each carbon will have two hydron. So we can also exclude option D and conclude that option C methane is the only answer that is needed for us. Thank you for watching.