Just by looking at the pictures, we can see that D doesn’t share the right-hand OH group every other compound has. So that’s not the answer. Next we see that B is missing the downwards-going carbon branch (and so is D). So that is not the answer, either. We’re left deciding between A and C. But A and B share the same squiggly mid-lane carbons. So the answer must be A.
The actual answer is B, not A. The atom of carbon connected with 1 hydrogen is at distance 1 from the hydroxyl group, which rules out A. D is not an acid and C has the wrong distance between the groups -OH and -COOH.
Good catch. I checked the answer sheet, and that is indeed the answer. (I though I had checked it before publishing, but apparently I checked it wrong). I’ll edit the post to reflect this, at least it’s a nice example on how the technique fails subtly.
The actual answer is B, not A. The atom of carbon connected with 1 hydrogen is at distance 1 from the hydroxyl group, which rules out A. D is not an acid and C has the wrong distance between the groups -OH and -COOH.
Good catch. I checked the answer sheet, and that is indeed the answer. (I though I had checked it before publishing, but apparently I checked it wrong). I’ll edit the post to reflect this, at least it’s a nice example on how the technique fails subtly.
Do you actually know the answer here, or are you just parroting a LLM?
I solved the problem, then doublechecked it with the LLM. In addition, you can check the logic by yourself.