A technical mistake here:
“Fat is made of fatty acids—chains of carbon atoms linked via hydrogen bonds”. They are linked via covalent bonds, not hydrogen bonds.
For those who don’t know: covalent bond is a strong chemical bond that forms when two atoms provide one electron each to form an electron pair. These are, like, normal bonds that hold molecules together. They are shown as sticks when one draws a molecule. Hydrogen bond is much weaker intermolecular bond that forms when one molecule has an atom with unshared electron pair and the other has a hydrogen atom that sort-of has an orbital to fit this electron pair.
And also having a chain of carbon atoms is about “fatty” part, and the “acid” part means that at the end of this chain sits carboxyl group. I know that’s not the point of this post, it just hurts a little, I’m sorry.
(Many months later) Thanks for this comment, I believe you are right! Strangely, there do seem to be many resources that list them as being hydrogen bonds (e.g. Encyclopedia Brittanica: https://www.britannica.com/science/unsaturated-fat which makes me question their editorial process.) In any case, I’ll probably just rephrase to avoid using either term. Thanks again, wish I had seen this earlier!
Great post, enjoyed it!
A technical mistake here: “Fat is made of fatty acids—chains of carbon atoms linked via hydrogen bonds”. They are linked via covalent bonds, not hydrogen bonds.
For those who don’t know: covalent bond is a strong chemical bond that forms when two atoms provide one electron each to form an electron pair. These are, like, normal bonds that hold molecules together. They are shown as sticks when one draws a molecule. Hydrogen bond is much weaker intermolecular bond that forms when one molecule has an atom with unshared electron pair and the other has a hydrogen atom that sort-of has an orbital to fit this electron pair.
And also having a chain of carbon atoms is about “fatty” part, and the “acid” part means that at the end of this chain sits carboxyl group. I know that’s not the point of this post, it just hurts a little, I’m sorry.
(Many months later) Thanks for this comment, I believe you are right! Strangely, there do seem to be many resources that list them as being hydrogen bonds (e.g. Encyclopedia Brittanica: https://www.britannica.com/science/unsaturated-fat which makes me question their editorial process.) In any case, I’ll probably just rephrase to avoid using either term. Thanks again, wish I had seen this earlier!