long chain
- noun
- Specialized
- Plastics are typically composed of molecules of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen chemically bonded together to form long chains known as polymers.
- together to form long chains
Doesn't isn't starch just a long chain of sugars?
- Doesn't isn't starch just a long chain of sugars?
- If you eat a potato, you're getting long chain polymers of glucose like starches.
- All of them are long chains of starch which breakdown into sugar.
- So you mentioned sugars, you mentioned fermentation, so presumably short and long chain fatty acids.
Examples
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Fats are described as saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated depending on the nature of the bonds in the long chains of carbon molecules.
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Amylose is an insoluble carbohydrate made up of long chains of glucose molecules.
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And carbohydrates, those are the things which are basically long chains of sugar.
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And these amino acids link up into long chains called proteins.
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It's composed of long chains of a sugar called chitin embedded in a protein matrix.
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Fats are described as saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated depending on the nature of the bonds in the long chains of carbon molecules.
Academic text (2004) -
Plastics are typically composed of molecules of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen chemically bonded together to form long chains known as polymers.
Academic text (2005)
Synonyms
A very large group of atoms joined together in a long chain like in proteins or plastics
How Long
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is a straightforward composition of 'long' (denoting extended length) and 'chain' (a linked sequence, here of atoms), so a learner who knows both words can infer a sequence of atoms that is lengthy. This is a literal, domain-specific use following ordinary English modifier + noun patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so it should be clear to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The noun long chain comes from the image of a real chain made of many links in a long line. In chemistry, each link is like an atom, so a long chain means 'many atoms joined together' in one molecule.