which fat is most likely a solid at room temperature?
an unsaturated fat is less likely than a saturated fat to be a solid at room temperature.
^^The reason for that lies in difference of the structure of the two fats. Saturated and unsaturated fats are lipids, which are composed of a carbon backbone (called glycerol) attached to three "fatty acids" (a molecule) which is then attached to three chains of hydrocarbons (basically hydrogen and carbon atoms together). Imagine a bunch of these lipids lined up so that their hydrocarbon tails are parallel. With saturated fats, these hydrocarbons are fastened together by single bond. Thus they have "straight" tails so to speak and can condense well, creating solids. Unsaturated fats have kinked tails because there exist double bonds between some of the hydrocarbons in the chain. Therefore, the unsaturated fats don't coalesce as well and tend to create liquid fats at room temperature.
Credit to http://openstudy.com/study#/updates/546f8f48e4b0317956192109 @barreraa
Join our real-time social learning platform and learn together with your friends!