What’s an organic molecule and what makes carbon oh so cool? Full partial explanation in video, key points below. Sorry I don’t have time to do more today. And sorry dad that this is way more information than you wanted when you asked what distinguishes organic chemistry from general chemistry…

1. organic molecules are basically the molecules of life (mostly) – but they’re not really “different” from nonlife molecules – they’re just based on hydrocarbon skeletons, with sprinklings of oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur “heteroatoms” in functional groups 
2. carbon’s so cool for a number of reasons including…
   • it can form up to 4 bonds thanks to its 4 valence electrons
     • this allows for chains, branches, rings…
   • it’s pretty “generic” electronegativity-wise so it can “play nice” & form strong bonds to things to a lot of things 
   • because it’s in that middle, it can get swayed to be nucleophilic or electrophilic depending on what its bound to

more on atoms, molecules, & bonding: https://bit.ly/molecularintuition & https://youtu.be/uXo8axBmW34

& intermolecular attractions:  http://bit.ly/frizzandmolecularattractions

more on Noble gases: http://bit.ly/noblegasprize  ; YouTube: https://youtu.be/9ARuYLptWiI 

more on coal: http://bit.ly/carbonchemistryfranklin