Wednesday, 20 July 2016

organic chemistry - How many ether metamers are possible for C4H10O?



How many ether metamers are possible for $\ce{C4H10O}?$



According to me, the answer should be 2 but it was given 3. I know 3 structures can be made:


$$\ce{CH3—O—CH2—CH2—CH3}\tag{1}$$


$$\ce{CH3—CH2—O—CH2—CH3}\tag{2}$$


$$\ce{CH3—O—CH(CH3)2}\tag{3}$$



Structure 2 and 3 are metamers, but 1st and 3rd structures are positional isomers(?), then how the answer can be 3?



Answer



"Metamerism" is an extremely old, obsolete, and ill-defined property. It is also not educationally or synthetically useful. An additional, and pointless, way to categorise chemical compounds.


See this answer to the question "What is metamerism": https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/a/104576/17952


If you have to answer this in a test, do your best with whatever definition your teacher has provided. And tell him that he should stop teaching such nonsense.


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