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Why is a single bond saturated?

Answer 1

#"Saturation"# is a bit of an old-fashioned term, that is still widely used.

A carbon is said to be #"saturated"# if it possesses the MAXIMUM number of #C-H# bonds. #"Ethane"#, #C_2H_6#, is saturated. #"Ethylene"#, #C_2H_4#, is unsaturated; #"acetylene"#, #H-C-=C-H#, is also unsaturated.

Formally, we say that #"ethylene"# and #"acetylene"# possess #1^@# and #2^@# of unsaturation respectively, i.e. each degree (each double bond or ring junction) represents 2 hydrogens LESS than the saturated molecule.

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Answer 2

Ryan Andrews

A single bond is saturated because it involves the sharing of one pair of electrons between two atoms, resulting in the maximum number of bonds that can be formed between those atoms.

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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.