What is an organic compound that is the primary component of natural gas?
sulfur
ethanol
magnesium
methane
Methane is an organic compound that is the primary component of natural gas. Its structure consists of a central carbon atom with four single bonds to hydrogen atoms (see Figure below ). In order to maximize their distance from one another, the four groups of bonding electrons do not lie in the same plane. Instead, each of the hydrogen atoms lies at the corners of a geometrical shape called a tetrahedron. The carbon atom is at the center of the tetrahedron. Each face of a tetrahedron is an equilateral triangle.