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Re: Organic
Re: Organic -- Henry	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: mbeychok ® 09/21/2005, 19:25:42 Author Profile Mail author Edit

Henry: As a simplistic definition from the viewpoint of chemistry, organic chemical compounds are those that contain carbon. Inorganic chemical compounds are those that contain no carbon. Milton Beychok Modified by mbeychok at Wed, Sep 21, 2005, 23:24:56

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Re: Re: Organic
Re: Re: Organic -- mbeychok	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: devitg ® 09/21/2005, 22:30:05 Author Profile Mail author Edit

how about a organic steel? , it have Carbon.

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Re: Re: Re: Organic
Re: Re: Re: Organic -- devitg	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: mbeychok ® 09/21/2005, 23:19:40 Author Profile Mail author Edit

devitg: If I put some carbon (which is an organic material) into a tin can which is inorganic, that does not make the tin can organic. Likewise, if I put some carbon into a an inorganic glass jar, that does not make the glass jar organic. The fact that some steels contain carbon does not mean that the steel is organic. Please let us not carry this dialogue on any further. It is too trivial. Milton Beychok

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Organic
Re: Re: Re: Re: Organic -- mbeychok	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: Henry ® 09/29/2005, 19:35:32 Author Profile Mail author Edit

Just received these replies, thank you very much. Unfortunately,I don't agree that it is trivial. I need to be clear on a definition. (I thought all steel had carbon?) How about fibre cement board. This has cement and cellulosic fibres. I believe this would be considered "Organic" How about water based paint?

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Re: Organic
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Organic -- Henry	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: mbeychok ® 10/04/2005, 15:33:09 Author Profile Mail author Edit

Henry: First, let me repeat what I said in my original response to your question: "As a simplistic definition from the viewpoint of chemistry, organic chemical compounds are those that contain carbon. Inorganic chemical compounds are those that contain no carbon." Let us assume that we have just cooked a pot of stew that was made using beef meat, potatoes, carrots, onions and peas ... all of which are composed of organic molecules containing carbon. Then we add to the stew some table salt which is sodium chloride, an inorganic chemical that does contain carbon. Adding the salt doesn't change the fact that the stew is primarily organic. It simply means that we now have a mixture of organic and inorganic ingredients in the stew. Similarly, steel is primarily composed of iron which is an inorganic material. Then we add some carbon (which is organic) and perhaps other ingredients to impart certain physical properties to the iron and we now call that mixture steel. In other words, steel is a mixture of inorganic and organic materials ... just like our stew. We could list many other examples of things that are mixtures of organic and inorganic components. But having mixtures doesn't change the basic definitions I gave you in my original response. Milt Beychok

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Re: Organic
Re: Re: Organic -- mbeychok	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: willers ® 10/25/2005, 15:48:44 Author Profile Mail author Edit

A more complicated definition would be a material whose components are primarily carbon with hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, with the carbon having a hybridized bonding pattern. This would mean things like methane, octane, and cellulose are organic, while carbon steel, calcium carbonate, and carbon tetrachloride are not. There are some grey areas, though. Like organo-metallics and even carbon dioxide, but this is close. I like the simple definition better. Simple is generally that way. D Willers

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