Organic chemistry game: IUPAC names, formulas and isomers
An organic chemistry game where molecules are built. You are given an IUPAC name —propene, butan-2-ol, ethanoic acid, 2-methylbutane— and put it together piece by piece: the number of carbons in the chain and one piece (double or triple bond, –OH, C=O, –NH₂, –CHO, –COOH or a –CH₃ branch) placed on the drawing, which is redrawn instantly along with its molecular formula. Other rounds: tap the carbon where numbering starts, give each carbon its hydrogens until all form four bonds and, on hard, build an isomer with the same formula.
Chemistry · Secondary, Sixth form
An organic name has three pieces: the prefix for the number of carbons (meth-, eth-, prop-, but-…), the ending for the family (-ane, -ene, -ol, -one…) and the locant that says where the group is. Every explanation separates the three, which is exactly how it is taught in secondary school.
The molecule may be drawn the other way round, so carbon 1 is not always on the left. The options include the name numbered from the wrong end (but-3-ene, propan-3-ol), the most common naming mistake, and the numbers appear over each carbon when you answer.
For the molecular formula you need to remember that every carbon forms four bonds: each double bond removes two hydrogens and the functional group brings its own. Counting on the drawing fixes the general formulas CₙH₂ₙ₊₂, CₙH₂ₙ and CₙH₂ₙ₋₂ without having to memorise them.
"The task is to build pent-2-ene. The student sets five carbons, picks the double bond and taps it between carbons 3 and 4: the game accepts it, because numbered from the other end it is the same molecule, and shows why the right name uses the lowest locant."
Prefer to learn without screens? Try this analogue version:
Make black balls for carbon, white for hydrogen and red for oxygen, and use cocktail sticks as bonds.
Build butane: four carbons in a row, and check each one has four sticks.
Swap a hydrogen on the second carbon for an –OH and name the molecule; then move it to the first carbon.
With the same balls as butane, build a branched chain: it is 2-methylpropane, its isomer.
If you like Carbon Chain, these activities work similar skills:
Inorganic nomenclature: oxides, hydrides, salts and acids with their names.
Another chemistry game: moles, molar mass and the limiting reactant with the reaction as a recipe.
A chemistry game on ionic, covalent and metallic bonding.
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Organic Chemistry
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