Mistake Master

Chemistry of Life

Six topics on the chemistry that life is built from. The structure of water and the hydrogen bonds that give it its properties, the elements of life and the functional groups that make carbon skeletons reactive, an introduction to macromolecules built by dehydration synthesis and broken by hydrolysis, the properties and structure–function relationships of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins, and the structure of the nucleic acids that store information.

Topics
Key relationships Not a formula-heavy unit — the reactions and building blocks to know
Dehydration synthesis
monomer + monomer → polymer + H2O (one water removed per bond formed)
Hydrolysis
polymer + H2O → monomer + monomer (one water added per bond broken)
Carbohydrates
monomer = monosaccharide (e.g. glucose)
Proteins
monomer = amino acid, joined N → C by peptide bonds
Nucleic acids
monomer = nucleotide, joined 5′ → 3′ by phosphodiester bonds
Lipids
NOT polymers — assembled from fatty acids + glycerol, not repeating monomers
Hydroxyl —OH
polar, hydrogen-bonds with water → increases solubility (alcohols, sugars)
Carboxyl —COOH
acidic — donates H+ to become —COO (fatty acids, amino acids)
Amino —NH2
basic — accepts H+ to become —NH3+ (amino acids)
Phosphate —OPO32−
negatively charged, energy-carrying (ATP, nucleic acid backbone)
Unit 1 tools
Challenge bank
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60 open-ended problems.

Read the question, work it out, then flip the card to compare your reasoning to the worked solution. Mark each card so you can return to the ones that still bite.

0 mastered · 0 to revisit · 60 total
Question
Tap card to reveal explanation
Worked solution
Tap card to return to question
Cumulative assessment

Test the unit.

Twenty mixed items pulled from across all 6 topics. Identifies which misconceptions still bite when you cannot see which topic the question came from.

20questions
6topics
15codes covered
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