Note 3 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
The structural formula for benzene, C6H6, is one which it is difficult and inconvenient to reproduce in type. On that account, it is customary to indicate this formula by a plane hexagon, thus .
It is understood, in all such cases, that the figure represents six carbon atoms arranged in a closed ring, with alternate double and single bonds, and with a hydrogen atom attached to each carbon. The printing of some other group as OH, CH3, adjacent to an angle of the hexagon means that this group replaces the H atom in the compound which is being illustrated.