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what are the four major inorganic compounds essential to human functioning

by Zora Ratke Published 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago

The following section examines the four groups of inorganic compounds essential to life: water, salts, acids, and bases. Organic compounds are covered later in the chapter. Water As much as 70 percent of an adult’s body weight is water. This water is contained both within the cells and between the cells that make up tissues and organs.

Inorganic compounds are important in the body and responsible for many simple functions. The major inorganic compounds are water (H2O), bimolecular oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and some acids, bases, and salts. The body is composed of 60–75% water.

Full Answer

What are inorganic compounds essential to human functioning?

Inorganic compounds essential to human functioning include water, salts, acids, and bases. These compounds are inorganic; that is, they do not contain both hydrogen and carbon. Water is a lubricant and cushion, a heat sink, a component of liquid mixtures, a byproduct of dehydration synthesis reactions, and a reactant in hydrolysis reactions.

What are the 4 types of organic compounds and their functions?

The four types most important to human structure and function are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleotides. Before exploring these compounds, you need to first understand the chemistry of carbon. What makes organic compounds ubiquitous is the chemistry of their carbon core.

What is the fourth type of organic compound important to humans?

The fourth type of organic compound important to human structure and function are the nucleotides ( [link] ). A nucleotide is one of a class of organic compounds composed of three subunits: Nucleotides can be assembled into nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) or the energy compound adenosine triphosphate.

What are the four types of compounds that make up the human body?

The four types most important to human structure and function are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleotides. Before exploring these compounds, you need to first understand the chemistry of carbon.

What are the 4 inorganic compounds?

The following section examines the four groups of inorganic compounds essential to life: water, salts, acids, and bases.

What are the inorganic compounds that are essential to human functioning?

Inorganic compounds essential to human functioning include water, salts, acids, and bases. These compounds are inorganic; that is, they do not contain both hydrogen and carbon.

What are the major inorganic compounds?

Inorganic compounds include water, sodium chloride, potassium hydroxide and calcium phosphate. Water is the most abundant inorganic compound, making up over 60% of the volume of cells and over 90% of body fluids like blood.

What are the 4 examples of inorganic molecules?

Examples include carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbides, and the following salts of inorganic cations: carbonates, cyanides, cyanates, and thiocyanates.

What is the most important inorganic compound to life?

Water is considered the “universal solvent” and it is believed that life cannot exist without water because of this. Water is certainly the most abundant solvent in the body; essentially all of the body's chemical reactions occur among compounds dissolved in water.

What are the four main classes of organic compounds?

Organic compounds, which are the compounds associated with life processes, are the subject matter of organic chemistry. Among the numerous types of organic compounds, four major categories are found in all living things: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.

What are the examples of inorganic compounds?

Examples of common everyday inorganic compounds are water, sodium chloride (salt), sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), calcium carbonate (dietary calcium source), and muriatic acid (industrial-grade hydrochloric acid). Inorganic compounds typically have high melting points and variable degrees of electrical conductivity.

What compounds are found in the human body?

The human body is approximately 99% comprised of just six elements: Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorus. Another five elements make up about 0.85% of the remaining mass: sulfur, potassium, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium.

Which compound is inorganic?

Carbon compounds such as carbides (e.g., silicon carbide [SiC2]), some carbonates (e.g., calcium carbonate [CaCO3]), some cyanides (e.g., sodium cyanide [NaCN]), graphite, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide are classified as inorganic.

How many inorganic compounds are there?

Although about 19 million known carbon compounds have been found in organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry contains only about 500,000 known compounds.

What are the major inorganic biological elements of the cells?

The inorganic ions of the cell, including sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg2+), calcium (Ca2+), phosphate (HPO42-), chloride (Cl-), and bicarbonate (HCO3-), constitute 1% or less of the cell mass. These ions are involved in a number of aspects of cell metabolism, and thus play critical roles in cell function.

What's the most important inorganic molecule?

WaterWater, which is the most important inorganic molecule for life has a very peculiar behaviour when it becomes solid. Ice floats on top of liquid water as a result of its hexagonal packing within its crystalline structure.

What are the examples of inorganic compounds?

Examples of common everyday inorganic compounds are water, sodium chloride (salt), sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), calcium carbonate (dietary calcium source), and muriatic acid (industrial-grade hydrochloric acid). Inorganic compounds typically have high melting points and variable degrees of electrical conductivity.

What is the most abundant and important inorganic compound in living material?

Water is the most abundant inorganic compound making up over 60% of the volume of cells and over 90% of body fluids like blood.

What compounds are found in the human body?

The human body is approximately 99% comprised of just six elements: Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorus. Another five elements make up about 0.85% of the remaining mass: sulfur, potassium, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium.

Which compound is inorganic?

Carbon compounds such as carbides (e.g., silicon carbide [SiC2]), some carbonates (e.g., calcium carbonate [CaCO3]), some cyanides (e.g., sodium cyanide [NaCN]), graphite, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide are classified as inorganic.

What are some examples of organic compounds?

In contrast, only a handful of inorganic compounds contain carbon atoms. Carbon dioxide (CO 2) is one of the few examples. An organic compound, then, is a substance that contains both carbon and hydrogen. Organic compounds are synthesized via covalent bonds within living organisms, including the human body.

How many carbons are in glucose?

Using the periodic table, the atomic weight of carbon (C) is 12.011 grams (g), and there are six carbons in glucose, for a total atomic weight of 72.066 g. Doing the same calculations for hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O), the molecular weight equals 180.156g (the “gram molecular weight” of glucose).

What is the difference between a mole and a compound?

The mole of an element is its atomic weight, while a mole of a compound is the sum of the atomic weights of its components , called the molecular weight. An often-used example is calculating a mole of glucose, with the chemical formula C 6 H 12 O 6.

How much water is in the human body?

Water. As much as 70 percent of an adult ’s body weight is water. This water is contained both within the cells and between the cells that make up tissues and organs. Its several roles make water indispensable to human functioning.

What are some examples of colloids?

Familiar examples of colloids are milk and cream. In the thyroid glands, the thyroid hormone is stored as a thick protein mixture also called a colloid.

Water

As much as 70 percent of an adult’s body weight is water. This water is contained both within the cells and between the cells that make up tissues and organs. Its several roles make water indispensable to human functioning.

Salts

Recall that salts are formed when ions form ionic bonds. In these reactions, one atom gives up one or more electrons, and thus becomes positively charged, whereas the other accepts one or more electrons and becomes negatively charged.

Acids and Bases

Acids and bases, like salts, dissociate in water into electrolytes. Acids and bases can very much change the properties of the solutions in which they are dissolved.

What are the two atoms that make up an organic compound?

Carbon dioxide (CO 2) is one of the few examples. An organic compound, then, is a molecule that contains both carbon and hydrogen .

What are the basic units for building larger molecules?

Dehydration Synthesis and Hydrolysis. Monomers, the basic units for building larger molecules, form polymers (two or more chemically-bonded monomers). (a) In dehydration synthesis, two monomers are covalently bonded in a reaction in which one gives up a hydroxyl group and the other a hydrogen atom.

What are the elements in room air?

The room air you breathe is a gaseous mixture, containing three discrete elements—nitrogen, oxygen, and argon—and one compound, carbon dioxide. There are three types of liquid mixtures, all of which contain water as a key component. These are solutions, colloids, and suspensions.

How much water is in the body?

As much as 70 percent of an adult’s body weight is water. This water is contained both within the cells and between the cells that make up tissues and organs. Its several roles make water indispensable to human functioning.

Where are organic compounds found?

Created by living things, they are found throughout the world, in soils and seas, commercial products, and every cell of the human body.

What are functional groups?

Five functional groups are important in human physiology; these are the hydroxyl, carboxyl, amino, methyl and phosphate groups ( [link] ). Functional Groups Important in Human Physiology. Functional group.

How many amino acids are in a protein?

Just 20 different amino acids contribute to nearly all of the thousands of different proteins important in human structure and function. Body proteins contain a unique combination of a few dozen to a few hundred of these 20 amino acid monomers. All 20 of these amino acids share a similar structure ( [link] ).

Where are carboxyl groups found?

They are involved in dehydration synthesis and hydrolysis reactions. Carboxyl groups are found within fatty acids, amino acids, and many other acids. Amino groups are found within amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

What is carbon's affinity for covalent bonding?

Carbon’s affinity for covalent bonding means that many distinct and relatively stable organic molecules nevertheless readily form larger, more complex molecules. Any large molecule is referred to as macromolecule (macro- = “large”), and the organic compounds in this section all fit this description.

How many electrons does carbon have?

Recall that carbon atoms have four electrons in their valence shell, and that the octet rule dictates that atoms tend to react in such a way as to complete their valence shell with eight electrons. Carbon atoms do not complete their valence shells by donating or accepting four electrons.

What are carbon and hydrogen?

Rather, carbon atoms tend to share electrons with a variety of other elements, one of which is always hydrogen. Carbon and hydrogen groupings are called hydrocarbons. If you study the figures of organic compounds in the remainder of this chapter, you will see several with chains of hydrocarbons in one region of the compound.

What makes organic compounds ubiquitous?

Recall that carbon atoms have four electrons in their valence shell, and that the octet rule dictates that atoms tend to react in such a way as to complete their valence shell with eight electrons. Carbon atoms do not complete their valence shells by donating or accepting four electrons. Instead, they readily share electrons via covalent bonds.

Where are organic compounds found?

They are found throughout the world, in soils and seas, commercial products, and every cell of the human body.

How many carbons are in a glycerol backbone?

A glycerol backbone at the core of triglycerides, consists of three carbon atoms. Three fatty acids, long chains of hydrocarbons with a carboxyl group and a methyl group at opposite ends, extend from each of the carbons of the glycerol.

How many amino acids are in a protein?

Just 20 different amino acids contribute to nearly all of the thousands of different proteins important in human structure and function. Body proteins contain a unique combination of a few dozen to a few hundred of these 20 amino acid monomers. All 20 of these amino acids share a similar structure ( Figure 2.24 ).

What is carbon affinity?

Carbon’s affinity for covalent bonding means that many distinct and relatively stable organic molecules nevertheless readily form larger, more complex molecules. Any large molecule is referred to as macromolecule (macro- = “large”), and the organic compounds in this section all fit this description.

What are carbon and hydrogen groups called?

Carbon and hydrogen groupings are called hydrocarbons . If you study the figures of organic compounds in the remainder of this chapter, you will see several with chains of hydrocarbons in one region of the compound. Many combinations are possible to fill carbon’s four “vacancies.”.

Why is the human body nonfunctional?

In a similar way, without enzymes to catalyze chemical reactions, the human body would be nonfunctional. It functions only because enzymes function. Enzymatic reactions—chemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes—begin when substrates bind to the enzyme. A substrate is a reactant in an enzymatic reaction.

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