Eli5 how is it that hydrogen is explosive to fire and oxygen stokes it. However 1 hydrogen 2 oxygen isn’t explosive?
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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.
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