Sugar (source code)
= Sugar
{wiki}
In chemical usage, <sugars> commonly means small <carbohydrates>, including single-unit <monosaccharides> and two-unit <disaccharides>. <Glucose>, <ribose>, and <deoxyribose> are <monosaccharides>. <Cellulose> is instead a <polysaccharide> assembled from many <glucose> units. The distinction counts chemically linked units; it does not classify every <carbohydrate> by sweetness or biological role. See https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/3-2-carbohydrates[Clark, Douglas and Choi, Biology 2e, 3.2: carbohydrates].
A useful first description of a <monosaccharide> asks how many <carbon> <chemical atoms> it contains and what its open-chain structure is. <Ribose> is an <aldopentose>, a five-<carbon> <aldehyde> <sugar>; <glucose> is an <aldohexose>, with six <carbon> <chemical atoms>. A <Fischer projection> then records the <stereochemistry>, information missing from the <molecular formula>. See https://openstax.org/books/organic-chemistry/pages/25-1-classification-of-carbohydrates[McMurry, Organic Chemistry, 25.1: carbohydrate classification].
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