Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Chemical formula for Olive oil which would you choose?

CHRIS25 - 6-4-2014 at 13:10

Olive oil is a mixture of triglycerides: glycerin molecules with three attached fatty acids. In the case of olive oil, the fatty acid most commonly found attached to the glycerin is oleic acid. The chemical formula for a triglyceride with three oleic acids is C60H104O6.

OR

Wolfram Alpha C19H22O6

thesmug - 6-4-2014 at 13:40

What exactly are you asking?

gdflp - 6-4-2014 at 13:56

@thesmug

I think he's asking which formula is the correct one.

@CHRIS25

It's most likely the first one, Wolfram Alpha has lots of bugs. One of the compounds the second formula describes is gibberellic acid.(Useless knowledge I have for some unknown reason)



[Edited on 6-4-2014 by gdflp]

thesmug - 6-4-2014 at 14:02

Oh ok then yes, the first one. I recognized that also but thought it might be some sort of isomer. Gibberellic acid is a growth hormone and a really effective one at that. You can make bizarre looking plants if you spray the seeds/water with gibberellic acid!

CHRIS25 - 7-4-2014 at 02:10

Yes thankyou. the wolfram alpha formula is for gibberellic acid which is nonsense - I will no longer trust wolfram alpha, pity, I used it quite often as a double check on any research I did.