It happened long ago, I did not a witness this event, but it must
have been a magnificent occasion when M. Carbon first met a bunch of
bouncy, giggly, light mademoiselles Hash. It took just a fraction of
a second and he selected the first four closest to him and they bound
calling themselves Methane.
The picture above shows Carbon atoms in traditional black bound to Hydrogen atoms in white. After a short while, a pair of Carbons grabbed a bunch of H and took the name of Ethane. Then everybody went wild ... the threes (Propane) and the fours (Butane) and the fives (Pentane). You see them here in order of seniority, then, when they already dreamed of Hexane, Heptane, Octane, Nonane all the way to heaven, some unknown and not understood force intervened. Nobody could explain it except, maybe, some German physicists with strange eating habits and proclivity for bizarre sexual practices. The thing turned on itself and became round (actually hexagonal) but who gives a hoot when the linear progression stopped being linear and progressive.
The sun still came down like honey on "Our Lady of the Harbor" but people were disillusioned to learn that when they had something which they thought they got it, the Universe told them that they "ain't got it!"
