Common Or IUPAC Nomenclature???

[GreekPre-Med]

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Hello all,

Some of Kaplan's Organic Passages use Common nomenclature, not something I am very familiar with except diethyl ether, sec butyl, etc. Due to their material being so out of date, does anyone know if the current MCAT uses common nomenclature in their exams?

sincerely

greek-premed

 

[QofQuimica]

Hello all,

Some of Kaplan's Organic Passages use Common nomenclature, not something I am very familiar with except diethyl ether, sec butyl, etc. Due to their material being so out of date, does anyone know if the current MCAT uses common nomenclature in their exams?

sincerely

greek-premed

You should know the common common names 😛 like benzene, acetyl, and formyl. Knowing the butyl isomers is probably helpful also. But you do not need to memorize extensive lists of common names. BTW, these common names are not "out of date"; IUPAC grandfathered many of them in, so it is actually acceptable to use either name (ex. acetone versus propanone) under IUPAC rules.

 

[MSHell]

(ex. acetone versus propanone) under IUPAC rules.

does anyone really use propanone? shouldn't it really be propan-2-one? common names stick around, oh, like for amino acids. you will be forever grateful for IUPAC nomenclature the day you realize how many areas of biochem and chem and the profs (old and young) don't care about IUPAC.

 

[QofQuimica]

does anyone really use propanone? shouldn't it really be propan-2-one? common names stick around, oh, like for amino acids. you will be forever grateful for IUPAC nomenclature the day you realize how many areas of biochem and chem and the profs (old and young) don't care about IUPAC.

No, I've never heard anyone refer to acetone as propanone outside of undergrad classes going over IUPAC names. 😛 We always call it acetone. You can call it 2-propanone if you want, but it's not really necessary, since the position of the ketone is unambiguous. (If you put the carbonyl at the 1-position, you'll have propanal aka propionaldehyde.)