Eli5 how is it that hydrogen is explosive to fire and oxygen stokes it. However 1 hydrogen 2 oxygen isn’t explosive?
In: 2
Because water is already exploded hydrogen.
That’s what happens when hydrogen burns/explodes, it combines with oxygen to make water, in a process called oxidation, and this releases energy. Once it has combined with Oxygen to form water, there’s no longer any energy to be released
The properties of molecules comes largely from the outer electrons of the atoms and how they are arranged. When atoms are combined in molecules those electrons and their composition are changed so the molecule has different properties than the atoms it is made out of.
Hydrogen is explosive because it binds with oxygen and in the process two hydrogen pairs and an oxygen pair are broken up, ~~which releases energy~~, the now single oxygens bind with two free hydrogen atoms *which releases energy*, and forms water molecule for each hydrogen atom.
Hydrogen is explosive to fire in that it is very reactive to oxygen. It takes just a little nudge to get it to react. That nudge can be a spark, heat, or fire. Once you get it going, it is self sustaining until it either runs out of fuel (hydrogen) or oxygen.
If there is no oxygen present (and nothing else to react with), it won’t burn. Say you were to take all of the oxygen out of the air and have hot hydrogen and a spark, since the rest of the air is basically nitrogen, it wouldn’t burn.
The chemical reaction between pure oxygen and hydrogen is quite violent and generates a lot of energy. That is why it can make great rocket fuel. It was used in the space shuttle for example. It’s not much used anymore due to some technical challenges of working with it though, but it gives you an idea of how violent the reaction can be.
1 hydrogen and 2 oxygen is very explosive. Get a bunch of hydrogen and oxygen gas together and light a match and watch the fun.
The end product of this explosion will be water. Once the hydrogen and oxygen has burned/exploded into water, the explosion has already happened and the resulting water won’t explode any more. Much in the same way that you can burst a balloon, which will make a loud pop sound. But once it’s been burst, sticking a pin in the remaining shreds of balloon will not cause another pop.
Hydrogens are like women and Oxygens are like men. The Oxygens and Hydrogens would rather be together than hanging out with their own kind.
When pairs of hydrogens encounter pairs of oxygens, all it takes is a little spark and then a ton of energy is released and then everything settles down in a “two girls for every guy” configuration called “water”.
Since the oxygens in water already have hydrogens, they’re not going to release any energy to change things (and they don’t have much energy left anyway). Hydrogens in water similarly already have their oxygens and aren’t interested in changing things.
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