Organic Chemistry: Alkanes, Alkenes, Alkynes

One of the greatest things you can do in life is to teach something truthful and useful to someone. On a sunny afternoon, my dear lab partner Jose and I were studying for our organic chemistry class when I noticed that I wasn't sure of the correct pronunciation of the word alkyne. I almost called it an alkene. (In my opinion, knowning the right pronunciation for a word is the pride and joy of a true scholar. In organic chemistry, it is an elementary tool to be familiar with the series of open-chain hydrocarbons: alkane, alkene and alkyne.) Later that day, I went to Merriam-Webster On-line and heard the pronunciation a couple of times. With my fancy for poetry I made the following phrases as a pronunciation devise:

1. How plain of an alkane to have a single bond.
2. How keen of an alkene to have a double bond.
3. How kind of an alkyne to have a triple bond. 

© Celia A. Escalante 2007

By the way, a good way to remember that an alkane has a single bond is to count the e's. An alkene has two e's, thus, it has two bonds. An Alkyne has 3 bonds, but it's not hard to make a connection by association: notice that it's the only word that has a "y" (e.g. y=3 or y=25 in the alphabet and 2-5=-3, etc.) My name is Celia A. Escalante I am a Miami-Dade College Alumnae and is presently in the Bachelors program at Florida International University. E-mail me your subject-related questions at celiaescalante@yahoo.com or visit my web page at www.geocities.com/celiaescalante I'm the author of Mood Rollercoaster available on Amazon.com and founder of MiamiBulletin.com.