How to Write the Formula for Butanoic Acid (Structural and Molecular Formula)

To write the structure for organic molecule Butanoic acid. We’ll start by writing four Carbon atoms since it starts with "But" . We then look at the ending "-oic" followed by the word "acid".
When we see -oic acid we know that we have a carboxylic acid. This consists of a Carbon atom with an Oxygen atom double bonded to it and an OH group single bonded to it.
After making sure that each Carbon had four bonds we can count up the number of each type of atom to arrive at the chemical formula of C3H7COOH.
Note that the formula for Propanoic acid can be written two other different ways. These help show it's structure more clearly.
CH₃CH₂CH₂CO₂H
and
CH₃CH₂CH₂COOH
Butanoic acid is also called Butyric acid.
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