What is the minimum number of carbon atoms required for a hydrocarbon to be classified as an alkene?

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The question asks for the minimum number of carbon atoms for a hydrocarbon to be classified as an alkene.
Option 1: "1" — A one-carbon hydrocarbon is methane, which is an alkane, not an alkene. It cannot contain a carbon–carbon double bond, so this is incorrect.
Option 2: "2" — Ethene (C2H4) is the simplest hydrocarbon containing a C=C double bond, which defines an alkene. Therefore, this is the correct minimum, since you need at least two carbons to have a double bond between carbons.
Option 3: "3" — Propene (C3H6) is indeed an alkene, but it is not the minimum; it has three carbons, which is more than the smallest possible alkene. This makes it technically correct as an alkene, but not the minimum case, so this choice is not the best answer to the question about the minimum number.
Option 4: "4" — Butane-derived structures like butene exist (C4H8), which are alkenes, yet, similar to option 3, this is not the minimum number of carbons needed to form an alkene. This is thus not the correct minimum.
In summary, the key idea is that an alkene requires at least one carbon–carbon double bond, which first appears when you have two carbon atoms connected by that double bond, i.e., C2H4. Any choice claiming fewer than two carbons cannot host a C=C bond, so options 1, 3, and 4 fail to capture the minimum explicitly. The smallest possible alkene is ethene with 2 carbons, so option 2 is the correct minimum.

2254 CHEM 0101 SEC2010 HW 7

What is the minimum number of carbon atoms required for a hydrocarbon to be classified as an alkene?

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