What does polymers mean?

'Polymer' means many monomers.

From Classical Greek

'Poly' means 'many'.

'mer' is the suffix for ; monomer. ( Mono being 'one'.)/.

Eg.

Ethen is a monomer. with the formula 'H2C=CH2' .

There is a 'double bond' between the two carbon atoms.

One of these two bonds breaks open and recombines with another monomer.

H2C=CH2 + H2C=CH2 = -CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-

This representation is usually shown as -(-CH2-CH2-)- (n)

The 'n' is a number that can be huindreds, thousands or millions of monmers combined to form the chain .

The above example is 'polyethylene' , commonly known as 'polythene'.

Other examples '-(-CHCl-CH2-)-(n) , polyvinylchloride (PVC)

'-(CH(phenyl)-CH2-)-(n) polystyrene.