Carbon: The Building Block of
Organic Compounds
7/31/2017
2
Organic compounds – compounds that
make up all living things.
Organic compounds always have carbon plus a
few other elements like hydrogen, oxygen, and
nitrogen, phosphorus, or sulfur.
Picture example (write the
formula)
5/13/2010
TISD Lesson
Non example (Inorganic)
5/13/2010
TISD Lesson
You are made of organic compounds!- your
hair, your skin, even your fingernails…
Nutrients
proteins
Carbon
Hydrogen
Nitrogen
Oxygen
carbohydrates
Carbon
Oxygen
Hydrogen
fats (lipids)
Hydrogen (lots)
Carbon
Oxygen
5/13/2010
TISD Lesson
5/13/2010
TISD Lesson
Chemistry of the Human Body
• Let’s see what Tim and Moby have to say about the
elements, atoms, and molecules that make up the
human body!
Examples of organic compounds
Carbohydrates
Lipids (fats)
Organic Building Blocks
A few amino acids are built by carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and
sulfur.
Mammals need about 20 amino acids to make the proteins they need.
Only 2 of these are amino acids containing sulfur.
Organic Building Blocks
We will end our organic building blocks
with the ultimate of building blockDNA.
We need just one more element to
build it: phosphorus.