Question

A stranger at a restaurant says the salt you're sprinkling on your food is made up of sodium and chloride. Therefore, you are putting an inorganic compound on your food. Why is the stranger correct?

A) It contains sodium

B) It lacks carbon, oxygen and hydrogen

C) All compounds are inorganic

D) It is not found in living organisms

Answer 1

An organic molecule is any molecule containing at least one carbon atom bonded directly to a hydrogen.  Therefore, since table salt lacks both the necessary carbon atom and carbon-hydrogen bond, it is inorganic, that is, not organic.