Step 1: Understand what an alkane is. An alkane is a type of hydrocarbon that consists only of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) atoms, with single bonds between the carbon atoms.
Step 2: Know that alkanes have a general formula of CnH(2n+2), where 'n' is the number of carbon atoms.
Step 3: Identify the simplest alkane by starting with the smallest value of 'n'.
Step 4: For n = 1, the formula gives us C1H(2*1+2) = CH4.
Step 5: Recognize that CH4 is called methane, which is the simplest alkane because it has only one carbon atom.
