Triple bonds cause linear configurations | Organic chemistry | Khan Academy

I want to do a quick clarification on the video on alcohols. In one of the videos, I gave this example of this alkanol right over here. It has a triple bond between the five and six carbons, and I just want to clarify that in reality, it would not ever be drawn this way. That was an error to actually draw it this way.

The way I should have drawn it is this right over here. You see, the only difference between these two pictures is starting with the one carbon, two carbon, three carbon; everything looks the same. Four carbon attached to the hydroxy group, everything looks the same, and then we get to the five carbon. But instead of bending back up, we just keep going straight to the six carbon.

That's where we have the triple bond between the five and six carbon, and then we go straight again to the seven carbon that's attached to the two bromo groups. Then we get to the eighth carbon. The whole point why this right over here is that this is the correct way to draw it. The correct way to draw it is that triple bonds – this triple bond right here – forces a linear configuration.

So, on both sides of that triple bond, you would go straight out. So whenever you see an – well, actually, whenever you see any type of an alkyne drawn, the triple bonds should essentially straighten out. It should straighten out the molecule.