Comments on: How Many Chemical Entities in a Paragraph of Text http://www.chemspider.com/blog/how-many-chemical-entities-in-a-paragraph-of-text.html Building Community for Chemists Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:07:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Chris Singleton http://www.chemspider.com/blog/how-many-chemical-entities-in-a-paragraph-of-text.html/comment-page-1#comment-45028 Chris Singleton Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:28:48 +0000 http://www.chemspider.com/blog/?p=551#comment-45028 Here's my list: 1) Bisynol 2) Dichloromethane 3) 4-methylmorpholine 4) TPAP 5) Silica 6) Ethyl ether 7) Pet ether:ethyl ether 8) 1-(tert-butyldiphenylsilyloxy)-trideca-5,8-diyn-7-one Now I agree that DCM over moleculer sieves is something different, but without having an exact definition of 'entity' it would be difficult to say it is separate. Plus since pet ether doesn't occur by itself (only in solution) in this paragraph I wouldn't consider it a separate 'entity' for the purpose of this exercise. For example, if I write 'brine', should I include NaCl, H2O, and brine as individual chemical entities? I wouldn't, counting all three towards the final count of chemicals seems incorrect to me. Here’s my list:

1) Bisynol
2) Dichloromethane
3) 4-methylmorpholine
4) TPAP
5) Silica
6) Ethyl ether
7) Pet ether:ethyl ether
8) 1-(tert-butyldiphenylsilyloxy)-trideca-5,8-diyn-7-one

Now I agree that DCM over moleculer sieves is something different, but without having an exact definition of ‘entity’ it would be difficult to say it is separate. Plus since pet ether doesn’t occur by itself (only in solution) in this paragraph I wouldn’t consider it a separate ‘entity’ for the purpose of this exercise.
For example, if I write ‘brine’, should I include NaCl, H2O, and brine as individual chemical entities? I wouldn’t, counting all three towards the final count of chemicals seems incorrect to me.

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