Question

Why does hydrogen burn when placed in solution but not when placed directly on the water?

Answer 1

The reason (in short) is because water has “already burned”

The long answer takes a little more time to explain…

Any chemical reaction is just the exchange of electrons, often creating and breaking bonds, changing the properties of the reactants into something different, and usually more stable, which is called the product. Whenever you combust a hydrocarbon, for example methane (CH4) are setting up a chemical reaction that reacts oxygen with your hydrocarbon (in this case Methane) you get the products carbon-dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). The balances equation looks like this.

CH4 + 2 O2 → CO2 + 2 H2O

But this is only the combustion of a hydrocarbon. You are wondering about Hydrogen. That is a much easier equation

2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O

(H2 because hydrogen is a diatomic gas)

So as you can see, water is just hydrogen that has reacted with oxygen to be in a more stable state. This is why you can rest assured that the water you are going to drink later won't explode spontaneously in your stomach tonight

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