[SHREY PATEL]

Question: Which one is more basic in nature- Me₃N or Et₃N ?
(where Me denotes Methyl and Et denotes Ethyl group.)

My Attempt:
I think Me₃N is more basic as if we consider the reaction:
Me₃N + H⁺  Me₃NH⁺
In the product, the positive(+) charge is on Nitrogen atom.
So now we will check for stability of (+) charge.
Using the concept of hyperconjugation, Me has more no. of α-Hydrogen than Et.
So more hyperconjugation in case of Me.
Thus more Stabilisation of (+) charge.
This shows Me₃N is more basic.

But answer is Et₃N.

Please clear my concepts and help me where am I wrong.
Thank you

[Babcock_Hall]

What about taking an empirical approach?  In other words by experiment which one is more basic?  One other thing to consider is that measurements of basicity in the gas phase sometimes provide different answers than in solution phase.

[SHREY PATEL]

I am just a highschool student and I dont have access to either of the compounds...so cant find it out experimentally
In the question, there is nothing mentioned about the phase, so is it to be taken in gaseous phase by default?
I am thinking if Inductive effect could be the reason.
but i am confused, whether inductive effect will dominate or hyperconjugation?

[Babcock_Hall]

What I meant was that you look up a tabulated quantity.  Which quantity correlates with acid strength?  I would assume that the question referred to aqueous solution, unless it was specified as something else.

[SHREY PATEL]

Okay! got it 
Thank you

[wildfyr]

Hyperconjugation is taught in high school? I never heard of it until grad school, yeesh.

[krishnaraj]

That's India!

[krishnaraj]

What I meant was that you look up a tabulated quantity.  Which quantity correlates with acid strength?  I would assume that the question referred to aqueous solution, unless it was specified as something else.

OP is preparing for an exam where such questions are asked without providing any relevant data, ideally we are looking for a solution which compares the basic reason behind order of basicity being higher or lower

[Babcock_Hall]

@OP,
Are you familiar with the inductive effect?

[krishnaraj]

Yes he is, the major confusion was why hyperconjugation is not playing a role (which is usually more dominant than inductive effect) but then we realized N doesn't have the vacant p orbitals needed for hyperconjugation so inductive effect would be observed which gives the correct answer. Your last message was what we were looking for, but we ended up finding this out since this post took longer since it had ambiguity in the form of the answer. Thanks a lot for confirming our train of thought