Hydrogen compounds are only required to contain carbon. However, most of them also contain hydrogen, and because it is the carbon-hydrogen bond which gives this class of compounds most of its particular chemical characteristics, carbon-hydrogen bonds are required in some definitions of the word "organic" in chemistry. Millions of hydrocarbons are known, and they are usually formed by complicated synthetic pathways that seldom involve elementary hydrogen. Compounds of hydrogen are often called hydrides, a term that is used fairly loosely. The term "hydride" suggests that the H atom has acquired a negative or anionic character, denoted H, and is used when
Law of multiple proportions or with 18.31 grams of hydrogen to produce undecane, for a ratio of hydrogen masses of 121:120, which is hardly a ratio of "small" whole numbers. The law fails with non-stoichiometric compounds and also doesn't work well with polymers and oligomers. Law of multiple proportions In chemistry, the law of multiple proportions is one of the basic laws of stoichiometry used to establish the atomic theory, alongside the law of conservation of mass (matter) and the law of definite proportions. It is sometimes called Dalton's Law after its discoverer, the British chemist John Dalton, who published it in the first