In an experiment, two unknown compounds (one an ether and the other an amine) of equal molecular mass were dissolved in water. the result of the experiment is shown in the table.
solubility comparison
unknown compound solubility (g/100 ml water)
a 4
b 0.25
which of the following correctly explains the identity of compound a and its solubility?
it is an amine; it contains a nitrogen atom that will allow nitrogen-hydrogen bonds to form while in water.
it is an ether; because the oxygen atom is within the carbon chain, so it is free to form oxy-hydrogen bonds to make it more soluble.
it is an ether; the high polarity of the oxygen-hydrogen bond makes it more soluble.
it is an amine; because the lower electronegativity of n than h makes it more soluble.

most historians agree that gabriel mouton, the vicar of st. paul’s church in lyons, france, is the “founding father” of the metric system. he proposed a decimal system of measurement in 1670. mouton based it on the length of one minute of arc of a great circle of the earth (now called a nautical mile, 1852 meters). he also proposed the swing-length of a pendulum with a frequency of one beat per second as the unit of length (about 25 cm). a pendulum beating with this length would have been fairly easy to produce, thus facilitating the widespread distribution of uniform standards. over the years, his work was revised, improved, and extended by a number of french scientists.

the political sponsor of weights and measures reform in the french revolutionary national assembly was the bishop of autun, better known as talleyrand. under his auspices, the french academy appointed several committees to carry out the work of developing a usable system of weights and measures for france. one of the committees recommended a decimalized measurement system based upon a length equal to one ten-millionth of the length of a quadrant of the earth’s meridian (i.e., one ten-millionth of the distance between the equator and the north pole).