How many carbons are in these bridged bicyclic rings?

Question

My books says that one of them is a 6 membered ring and the other is an 8 membered ring. But, when I count the carbons at the bridges, I count 7 and 9 carbons. I'm not why one of them had 6 and the other 8. I tried to not count the carbons in the bridge because that was the only way I would get 6 in the 6 membered ring, but the 8 membered ring only has 7 carbons that are not in the bridge. I'm really confused about how to count them. Can you please explain it?

https://postimg.org/image/tyhjxzsrt/

https://postimg.org/image/tyhjxzsrt/

Jordan · Accepted Answer

With the bridges, you are correct that there are 7 and 9 carbons, respectively. But the bridges aren't part of the ring which is why you get 6 and 8 carbon rings, with the extra carbon being in the bridge above the ring. As for how you are only counting 7 carbons in the 8 carbon ring, I'm not sure what it is that you are looking at wrong. If you just draw an octagon on a paper, each vertex represents a carbon, and that is what an 8 membered carbon ring looks like. You can imagine the ring as being flat (even though it really isn't), and then the bridge would be sticking up out of the paper connecting carbons #1 and #4. Hope that helps...

Also, reading your comment to Fire, don't cram, get some sleep. You'll remember more information. Good luck :)

Also, reading your comment to Fire, don't cram, get some sleep. You'll remember more information. Good luck :)

How many carbons are in these bridged bicyclic rings?

Trending Questions