It's everywhere (yes, everywhere)

Question

Here are 16 words which can be divided into 4 groups of 4 each.

    PLASMAS  HUM      EPIC     BENZ
    OBSC     MUND     COND     HIST
    GRAVEST  CONS     EXT      CAROT
    ARC      OVERT    PROF     FOLDER

Can you group each word into the 4 groups, and find the two-word phrase which connects to all 4 of the groups?

Stiv · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-04T11:41:44.117

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I believe this connect-wall can be resolved as follows:

Group 1: -ANE
ARCane, MUNDane, HUMane and PROFane

Group 2: -ENE
CAROTene, BENZene, OBSCene and EPICene

Group 3: -OL
PLASMASol, CONSol, EXTol, FOLDERol

Group 4: -ONE
GRAVESTone, OVERTone, CONDone, HISTone

What do these 4 groups have in common? These are:

Hydrocarbon suffixes used in ORGANIC CHEMISTRY.

- Compounds ending in '-ANE' have single C-C bonds between all carbon atoms;
- Compounds ending in '-ENE' have at least one -C=C- carbon double bond;
- Compounds ending in '-OL' contain a -C-OH functional group (alcohols);
- Compounds ending in '-ONE' are 'ketones', with the -C=O functional group.

This ties in with the title, of course, since:

Organic chemistry lies at the very core of all carbon-based living organisms and life as we know it! Pretty much everything, everywhere...

edited Jun 04 '20 at 11:41

answered Jun 04 '20 at 11:38

Stiv

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Gah! You are too quick. Just sniped. +1 – hexomino Jun 04 '20 at 11:39
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Sorry @hexomino! This came up literally just after I posted my own question so I was onto it from pretty much the very first second this time! – Stiv Jun 04 '20 at 11:42
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@Stiv Beside nice answer, nice formatting plus cool hyperlinks. – Always Confused Jun 04 '20 at 13:05
@Stiv great job! Had this idea sitting in an organic chemistry class and decided to try it out. The checkmark is yours! – titaniummorro Jun 05 '20 at 06:57
Ah, so inspired by a true story! Well it worked well - a nice themed puzzle @titaniummorro – Stiv Jun 05 '20 at 07:05

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 04 '20 at 12:59

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Group-1:

Suffix -ANE viz MUNDANE, PROFANE, ARCANE, HUMANE,

Group-2:

Suffix -ENE viz. BENZENE, CAROTENE,

Group-3:

Suffix -ONE viz HISTONE, OVERTONE, CONDONE, GRAVESTONE

Group 4:

Suffix -OL viz. PLASMASOL, FOLDEROL, EXTOL

answered Jun 04 '20 at 12:59

Always Confused

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It's everywhere (yes, everywhere)

2 Answers2