Chemistry / Unit 12 Chem 2478 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Determining an Organic Carbon's Oxidation Level
The idea
Determining an organic carbon's oxidation level means comparing how many of its bonds go to oxygen versus to hydrogen: replacing a carbon-hydrogen bond with a carbon-oxygen bond oxidizes that carbon, and the reverse replacement reduces it, without needing a full oxidation-number calculation for large molecules.
In practice
Methane's carbon, bonded only to hydrogen, is fully reduced; sequentially replacing each carbon-hydrogen bond with a carbon-oxygen bond carries that carbon through methanol, to formaldehyde, to formic acid, to fully oxidized carbon dioxide, each step trading one more C-H bond for one more C-O bond.
Where people slip
Applying this shortcut to a carbon atom bonded to other carbons, rather than only to the bonds it makes to hydrogen and oxygen specifically, misreads which bonds actually count toward the comparison.
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