Can you name the straight-chain alkanes?

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Alkanes Quiz

by CharlesM

Created Sep 22, 2009 in Science
Featured Sep 29, 2009
Game Plays 51,011

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	Dirk:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:09 GMT		27 points
	This quiz makes me feel gassy...

	llewdor:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 06:00 GMT		5 points
	Great quiz, but the colour-scheme is terrible. I'm not confident this would even be legible on a CRT.

	sphenderson2008:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 06:35 GMT		1 point
	13/14 Of course I'd miss probably the most well known on the list, especially with how much King of the Hill I watch.

	geowiz85:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 06:38 GMT		1 point
	finally another quiz that puts my biochemistry degree to use

	davidr:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 07:10 GMT		9 points
	I wonder why they named 5-7 and 20 in Greek but 9 and 11 in Latin (the others from 8+ are both Latin and Greek).

	minor9th:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 08:40 GMT		-1 points
	Had to guess 20 and it gave it me even though I spelt it "icosane"

	gsroest:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 09:36 GMT		8 points
	i got some but ended up guessing things like "elevenane" and "twelvane." good thing i'm not a chem major

	gsroest:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 09:36 GMT		-4 points
	and now i just realized that eleven isn't even on the list. fail. i should read more carefully next time.

	gsroest:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 09:37 GMT		14 points
	oh wait. now i see it. double fail. sorry for the triple post

	Psycho:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 11:49 GMT		12 points
	More chemistry quizzes please!

	mjenks:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 12:55 GMT		1 point
	@davidr: Based on the alkenes, I'm guessing that ennene would have been too annoying to say, so they switched to Latin, at least for nonane. I'm guessing it was a similar rationale for eleven, though "hendecane/hendecene" would not have been as obnoxious to say. But, scientists go back and forth and mix Latin and Greek together all the time. Prime example is octopus.

	xandigee:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 13:15 GMT		1 point
	I can't believe I blanked on propane... Great quiz!

	orbit:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 14:22 GMT		5 points
	Regarding the prefixes, they're not just for alkanes, but all organic compounds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUPAC_numerical_multiplier

	Jordan117:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 14:57 GMT		1 point
	Propane and propane accessories.

	Landowns:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 15:30 GMT		-3 points
	I'm in Organic chem now and I only got 10/13...wow

	rockgolf:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 16:13 GMT		2 points
	Hank Hill scored 1 on this test.

	davidr:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 16:29 GMT		5 points
	@mjenks: "octopus" is straight from the ancient Greek: okto = eight, pous = foot.

	tonightmatthew:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 16:42 GMT		2 points
	I thought I had forgotten all of these, but once I got into it I remembered 19. Hooray.

	ScottTheNurse:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 16:55 GMT		2 points
	This is a great quiz! I would love a picture quiz like this where we get to correctly name organic structures with their IUPAC name.

	eriechic:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 18:32 GMT		3 points
	YAY! for more chemistry quizzes!

	Tebow:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 19:02 GMT		0 points
	ahh... Organic Chemistry!

	zifyoip:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 20:09 GMT		22 points
	"Enter an alkane (last names acceptable) in the box below." Good, because I can never remember their first names.

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	Prepostosaurus:	Sep 29th, 2009 at 22:58 GMT		8 points
	MORE SCIENCE QUIZES!

	Justin:	Sep 30th, 2009 at 04:19 GMT		2 points
	I have a test in organic chem on naming branched and cycloalkanes tomorrow!!

	Robert_Seth:	Sep 30th, 2009 at 04:35 GMT		1 point
	greek roots FTW!

	davidr:	Sep 30th, 2009 at 11:14 GMT		6 points
	@zifyoip: That's Mr Methane, to you!

	mjenks:	Sep 30th, 2009 at 14:17 GMT		1 point
	davidr: I was referring to the "Latinization" of "okto" to "octo". I consider anything that's had it's k turned into a c to be a Latin word.

	davidr:	Sep 30th, 2009 at 21:01 GMT		2 points
	@mjencs (oops): If you insist, though I think it's reasonable to say that `octopus' is Latinized Greek rather than a combination of Latin and Greek. `Television' would have been a better example: `tele' is Greek and `vision' Latin.

	LaStic:	Oct 3rd, 2009 at 20:40 GMT		2 points
	Not in any way inane

	tato58:	Oct 28th, 2009 at 22:11 GMT		1 point
	Pretty easy if you remember your roots. (Then, I have to admit that I couldn't get my brain to cough up pent-!)

	Dunk:	Dec 13th, 2009 at 02:32 GMT		1 point
	I give 1000 internet points to Prepostosaurus for his Jim Anchower avatar.

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	3_1415:	Mar 4th, 2010 at 01:51 GMT		-2 points
	this is a good quiz http://www.sporcle.com/games/3_1415/words_from_element_symbols

	magic1:	Jul 22nd, 2010 at 07:34 GMT		1 point
	i haven't done this since yr 12. 10/14. solid.

	zamboni:	Sep 19th, 2010 at 15:13 GMT		2 points
	Icosahedron... fine. Icosane... fail. I stink.

	PK9:	Oct 20th, 2010 at 00:07 GMT		1 point
	Stinking undecane. I guessed ondecane... shoulda remembered ununoctium :P

	kaze:	Feb 6th, 2011 at 10:20 GMT		2 points
	wow! the timer makes me forget what i have learned....!

	Acid_Snow:	Jan 5th, 2013 at 07:32 GMT		1 point
	As a final response to whoever asked it: most prefer Greek for 6 to avoid sex (you'd never see "sexane" or "sexadecimal"), and if you use hex, you might as well use hept. Also "quintane" is more annoying to say than "pentane." 8 and 10 pretty much the same, "enneane" for 9 would be awkward, and "hendecane" for 11 would be harder to remember. Trying to fit the Latin "viginti" into 20 would be tough ("vigane"? "victane"?), so they agreed on using the more familiar "icosa-" root.

	g8r1992:	May 2nd, 2013 at 17:53 GMT		1 point
	Nope.