Markovnikov's rule states that, in
chemical reactions found particulary in
organic chemistry, when a a
hydrogen halide[?] reacts with the
carbon-carbon double bond[?] of an unsymmetrical
alkene, giving an
alkyl halide[?], the
hydrogen adds to the
carbon of the alkene
functional group that has the greater number of hydrogen
substituents[?], and the
halogen adds to the carbon on the other end of the double bond which has a smaller number of hydrogen substituents.
The rule may be summed up by quoting that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, in that a carbon rich in substituents will get more substituents and the carbon with more hydrogens attached will get the hydrogen in case of many different organic addition reactions[?].