I was reading Solomon's Organic Chemistry and came across the Dissolving Metal Reduction of 4-Octyne to (E)-4-Octene. (The same as can be found this question)
But the book states that the (E)-4-Octene is only produced in a 52% yield. This doesn't seem very impressive to me. What is the other 48%? If it's (Z)-4-Octene, can we really say that the reduction favors anti addition? If it's octane, I'd understand, but still would think you're losing a lot of product.
So does anyone know what the other products in the reaction are?