Saturated fatty acid tails?

Question

How is it possible for a saturated fatty acid tail to form a "U" like this?

http://chembiofinderbeta.cambridgesoft.com/Search.aspx?SearchCriteriaId=5&SearchCriteriaValue=stearic%20acid

if it was a true saturated tail, wouldnt it be linear?

Answer 1

it is linear... there are no branching. what you think is tails is just the linear segment looped to conserve space for the picture. it is an uninterrupted segment. look for other pictures of the compund and you will find them linear.