If pure hydrogen and pure oxygen are both very flammable, why is water not?
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Hydrogen is flammable, meaning that in the presence of oxygen and given a bit of a push (eg a spark) it burns. Once it’s finished burning, it’s become water. This is, by very definition, the thing that no longer burns after you’ve ignited hydrogen. If water was flammable, then hydrogen burning wouldn’t stop with it but would carry on to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The reason why is “chemistry and quantum physics” – to do with how hydrogen and oxygen atoms hang on to electrons individually, in pairs and when combined. Essentially, the total amount of “electron and nucleus sticking together energy” in two molecules of H2O is a lot more than in two of H2 and one of O2, and things aren’t improved by taking one more O2 and ending up with two molecules of H2O2.
Also, oxygen is not flammable. Oxygen, in the presence of itself, stays as it is. Also kind of by definition – if it wasn’t fairly stable, then it wouldn’t just be chilling in our atmosphere.
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