Saturated

[recon]

In my chemistry class today, the teacher gave us a quiz. There was this one question that asked why alkane is said to be saturated. My answer was that only substitution reactions can take place and not additional reactions. I found it surprising that it did not score at all. Can anyone tell me where I went wrong?

Thanks,
From the person who is too shy to talk to the teacher

[NaD]

Here's a link that might answer your question:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/organic/alkane.html

To quote:

They are called saturated hydrocarbons because there is a hydrogen in every possible location.

I haven't taken Chem for a long time now, so I'm not 100% sure if that's the correct justification, but I *think* it is.