"Butyric acid is one of the byproducts that results after butyric anhydride
reacts with oxygen in the air (or acts as a corrosive when reacting with the
oxygen in water).  Not all the butyric anhydride reacts, of course."

Butyric anhydride does not react with oxygen in the air.  Nor does it act as a corrosive when reacting with oxygen in water.  What actually happens is one molecule of butyric anhydride reacts with one molecule of water in either air or water and forms two molecules of butyric acid.  Butyric acid is not one of the byproducts it is the only product of such hydrolysis.   Butyric acid is mildly corrosive, if in water solution about equal in corrosive power to vinegar, but stinks pretty bad.  It is the smell of rancid butter because rancid butter contains butyric acid.


" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner."  Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists.   "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong."  H. L. Mencken

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