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How many equivalent hydrogens does ethanol have?

Answer 1

Brooklyn Barber

Ethanol has three sets of equivalent hydrogens.

The structure of ethanol is

The molecule contains six #"H"# atoms. Some of them are different from each other.

For example, there are three equivalent #"H"# atoms on the #"CH"_3# group.

They are different from the hydrogens on the #"CH"_2# group.

And the #"H"# atom on the oxygen is different from all the others.

One way to check whether certain #"H"# atoms are equivalent is to replace each #"H"# atom with a group like #"Cl"# and see if you generate the same compound.

Replacing any #"H"# atom in the #"CH"_3# group gives #"ClCH"_2"CH"_2"OH"#.

Replacing any #"H"# atom in the #"CH"_2# group gives #"CH"_3"CHClOH"#.

Replacing the #"H"# atom on the #"O"# gives #"CH"_3"CH"_2"OCl"#.

Here is the NMR spectrum of ethanol.

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Answer 2

Christian Anderson

Ethanol has three equivalent hydrogens.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.