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JEE Advanced levelNumerical answerDifficulty 3 of 3el259

Count all stereoisomers (geometrical and optical together) of the constitution of the preservative shown, treating every double bond that can show cis-trans isomerism. Give the number as an integer.

Numerical answer type, tolerance 0.5.

Answer: 4

The compound shown is sorbic acid, hexa-2,4-dienoic acid. Both C=C bonds have two different substituents on each carbon, so each can be E or Z, with no stereocentres: 2 x 2 = 4 stereoisomers (checked by RDKit enumeration).
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