2006-11-09 23:11:02 · 4 answers · asked by Tina 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
Polymer is "poly"-"mer", which means "many units".
Thus a polymer is a molecule made from a bunch of smaller building block molecules.
A fat is typically made of glycerol + 3 fatty acids. Basically, it has 4 building blocks. "4" isn't a big enough number to consider it to be many, especially compared to proteins.
Proteins are made of a set of ~20 different kinds amino acids in a long, specific sequence. For example, one part of the hemoglobin protein has ~100's of amino acid units in it. This puts the "many" in "poly".
2006-11-10 02:59:22 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Proteins are much much longer molecules and are made up of a certain combination of well known "monomers"... specifically: amino acids. Lipids are not long enough to be considered polymers.
2006-11-09 23:52:06 · answer #2 · answered by metatron 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i did not study tat lipids are not polymers....the only thing i know bout lipids are they are made up of three fatty acids and one glycerol molecule....maybe it is not considered as polymer because of its contents...it is not as big as protein
2006-11-09 23:52:16 · answer #3 · answered by emikato_913 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You should try your textbook.
2006-11-09 23:14:00 · answer #4 · answered by T J 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋