These are 3 biological carbohydrates that are good to know. It has 6 carbons and in the process of glycolysis is split into two 3 carbon pyruvic acids. If the cell is aerobic it is eventually oxidized in the Krebs cycle to CO2 and water. The other 2 sugars have 5 carbons. Notice that deoxy ribose is missing the oxygen at the second position.
Sugars usually curl up into rings in water solutions.
Both starch and cellulose are polymers of glucose, with the number 1 carbon of one sugar attached to th e number 4 carbon of the next sugar. They are a group of compounds that do not like to associate with water, that is, they are hydrophobic. Two important groups of lipids, phospholipids and triglycerides, are based upon glycerol and fatty acids. Glycerol and phosphate are not in themselves lipids, but are parts of large lipid molecules. This is the fat that we store around our waists.