What is the name of this hydrocarbon

Depending on the strictness of your teacher you can name it as either of the following:
2-methyl-propane or iso-propane

Answer : The name of the given hydrocarbon is, 2-methylpropane.

Explanation :

The basic rules for naming of organic compounds are :

First select the longest possible carbon chain.For the number of carbon atom, we add prefix as 'meth' for 1, 'eth' for 2, 'prop' for 3, 'but' for 4, 'pent' for 5, 'hex' for 6, 'sept' for 7, 'oct' for 8, 'nona' for 9 and 'deca' for 10.A suffix '-ane' is added at the end of the name of alkane.If two of more similar alkyl groups are present, then the words 'di', 'tri' 'tetra' and so on are used to specify the number of times these alkyl groups appear in the chain.

In the given hydrocarbon, the longest possible carbon chain number is 3 that means we add prefix 'prop' and suffix '-ane' and a substituent present at 2nd position of the longest carbon chain. So, the name of given hydrocarbon will be, 2-methylpropane.

Hence, the name of the given hydrocarbon is, 2-methylpropane.

How do we find the answer?

Ci think not