Yeah, I've been searching through my textbook and the int4rnet for nearly an hour now, and I still can't find the answer!

Here's the question:


Arrrrgh, I'm guessing maybe acids and bases, but I haven't found any info to back it up. Maybe I'm just tired. Maybe I just procrastinated for too long. Maybe both.

Either way, I'm going to shoot myself in the foot if this turns out to be really simple.

abiotic and biotic lol

Experience has shown me that here will be a passasge in your textbook that will have the exact same phrase, more or less, with the blanks filled in.

Failing that, we cannot really give you a good answer, as it simply asks to divide the broad group "chemicals" into two dichotomous categories. My first stab might be organic and inorganic.

Often in bold, no less.



That's what I said, more or less (except smrater), but I was joking. Maybe I'm so smrat I got it right anyway.

You don't know my Biology teacher - I swear she is the devil himself, and seems to take pleasure in making the lifes of her students miserably bleak. She wouldn't write a straight-forward question if it came up and bit her.

How about you get a plane ticket to North Carolina and come have a look if you don't believe me - IT'S NOT OBVIOUS. This book is a very irritating [fundamentalist] Christian textbook which has to cite a verse prectically every 5 lines.

GET ON WITH IT!!!




So "smrat" that you misspelled it twice in your desperate rush to make your opinions heard.

I WANT HELP NOT QUIPS! (please .... )

[Nota Bene: I apologize for the crabbiness factor, I get way too into my homework.]

nottheking probably has it right. Major categories of chemicals would organics and inorganics (although that is a dopey question)

Organics contain carbon. Inorganics don't and have a mineral origin. Example of organic would be fat. Inorganic would be iron (I'm wrong here, iron isn't a compound, use water instead).

Cookie. Now.

/hands Run a cookie

However, after looking through my textbook again, it doesn't look like that's the answer. This question talks about chemicals found within the "human body." How could they be anything but Organic?

Besides, this section of the chapter starts of with "Living organisms make organic compounds." There's not even a mention of inorganic - in fact, "inorganic" isn't even cited in the index. /slaps forehead with book

I agree though, this is a dopey question. Are you people sure it's not acids and bases?

Scratch that idea. You're probably right. The next question says "What is the most abundant inorganic compund in the body?"

/shoots ihmself for not reading next question sooner

Wow, either this book sucks, I'm braindead, or both.

They might be calling non-organic instead of inorganic. I'd say the book sucks.

Most abundant inorganic compound: water

Err, now that I think of it, I was wrong earlier. Iron isn't a compound. Compounds need more than one element. Well, chalk that one up to dopeyness on my part.

Thanks. I was just thinking that might be it, since water makes up, what, about 60% of the body? Makes me wonder why we all don't just fall apart [I realize that statement makes me sound incredibly stupid].

We don't fall apart because all the water is trapped inside something. Cells, blood vessels, lymph tissue etc.

I'm hopeless - I seem to have reached another snag, altohugh infairness to myself, the question seems to be phrased very poorly. This is a continuation of the "What is the most abundant inorganic compund in the body?" question.



What exactly do you tihnk is my Teacher's definition of "properties"? That could be just about anything. Does she mean its states of solid, liquid, gas (only 3 of course though) or something about the actual chemical makeup.

I fond this site: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/data.html It has tons of info though. Am I just supposed to pluck five of those, because that doesn't sound right.

Really? I can't believe I spelled the word "smart" wrong twice in a row! How ironic™!

Sorry, I don't have anything for you except what I posted the first time. Hopefully the extra posts will draw more people to the thread, maybe even one who has an answer for you. You never know.

http://www.oceansonline.com/water_props.htm
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/8a.html

These are better pages for you to look at. If you need me to explain anything on there or how it relates to the body just post in here and let me know what grade (of school) this is for,

Wow, thanks, you're being awfully kind about this. Yeah, I'm in 10th grade, guess I should know a bit more about this stuff, but then I was always more of an English/History person.

I'll get back to you.

Wow....that's....

Do they teach you about evolution in your school or is that considered sacrilegious?