Final answer:
Nucleic acids and carbohydrates both contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but they differ in structure and composition as nucleic acids also contain phosphorous, which carbohydrates do not.
Step-by-step explanation:
The comparison between nucleic acids and carbohydrates centers around their composition and structural elements. Both nucleic acids and carbohydrates contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but they differ in their overall structure and additional elements. For nucleic acids, the basic components are nucleotides, which comprise a five-carbon sugar (either ribose or deoxyribose), a phosphate group, and a nitrogen-containing base. One distinctive feature of nucleic acids like DNA and RNA is the presence of phosphorous in their structure, which is not found in carbohydrates. Conversely, carbohydrates consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen potentially containing additional elements like nitrogen, phosphorus, or sulfur, but commonly known as hydrates of carbon.
Carbohydrates have the general molecular formula of Cn(H2O)n, often referred to in a 1:2:1 ratio of carbon to hydrogen to oxygen, which is not the case for nucleic acids due to the additional nitrogen and phosphorus atoms. Among the statements provided, the correct comparison is that both nucleic acids and carbohydrates contain carbon, but only nucleic acids contain phosphorous.