Easy EK Organic Chemistry Question: What the heck is, "1,3 primary & 1,2 primary?"

[Gauss44]

In the EK Organic Chemistry lecture book on page 32 (the page after the free radical reaction), there's this purple diagram showing the likelihoods of different products. The two last products are labeled, "1,2 primary" and "1,3 primary." What does "1,2 primary" and "1,3 primary" mean?

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[popopopop]

Looks like they did a short hand of naming 1-chloro-3-methylbutane and 1-chloro-2-methylbutane. Why? No idea, never learned it that way.

 

[jaybird12]

The "tertiary", "secondary," and "primary" are describing the alkyl radical intermediates of those products. There are two products (1-chloro-3-methylbutane and 1-chloro-2-methylbutane) who had primary alkyl radicals.

 

[DrknoSDN]

Yes, it's just shorthand saying there are 2 different ways to form primary products. One is has functional groups on carbons 1 and 2. The other they are on carbons 1 and 3.