Thus far the carbohydrate formulas you have seen show all of the carbon and hydrogen atoms. In most cases, these will not be the structures you encounter. When drawing straight chain formulas the central carbon atoms are not labeled with a "C". The straight chain of glucose would therefore look like:
The same is done when drawing carbohydrates in the cyclized or ring form except that, in some instances, H atoms are also left out. The ring may also be shown from an angle to emphasize the orientation of hydrogen and hydroxyl groups. While biologically significant, the orientation of these groups will not be important during this experiment. Each of the structures below can be used to represent glucose.
