Conquer Club

Scientists claim that water is 2 parts Hydrogen and 1 part Oxygen.

How can two very explosive gasses make up water?

'Cause most molecules have different properties to their component elements.

This is only coming from shakey GCSE level chemistry but as elements (O2 and H2) they are short of two electrons (O2 having only 6 in the outer shell, not a stable 8), they will then need to react to form bonds which will allow them to become stable. This is why they are flamable as many of these reactions produce heat. Water leaves each of the atoms with a full outer shell, making it stable.

Another good example of this is sodium and chlorine, two of the most unpleasently reactive elements, bring 'em together and you get table salt.

You didn't do the electrolysis experiment in school?

Balsiefen wrote:'Cause most molecules have different properties to their component elements.

This is only coming from shakey GCSE level chemistry but as elements (O2 and H2) they are short of two electrons (O2 having only 6 in the outer shell, not a stable , they will then need to react to form bonds which will allow them to become stable. This is why they are flamable as many of these reactions produce heat. Water leaves each of the atoms with a full outer shell, making it stable.

Another good example of this is sodium and chlorine, two of the most unpleasently reactive elements, bring 'em together and you get table salt.

Yeah. Then at A-level you find out that's all bollocks and that they simplified it for the benefit of morons and junkies who'd whinge they were being discriminated against if they didn't make the courses piss-takingly easy.

The Viking wrote:You didn't do the electrolysis experiment in school?

Health and fucking Safety man. Health and fucking Safety...fascistii.

in college my chemistry prof ignited a balloon filled with 100% hydrogen from 10 feet with a candle and it blew into a big fireball.
he lit another balloon filled with 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen (perfect ratio to form that stable element water) and it created a concussion wave and explosion that would knock you off your feet.....

He would be fired as soon as someone discovered his name in England.

I personally would of loved to of seen / heard / felt it.

DaGip wrote:Scientists claim that water is 2 parts Hydrogen and 1 part Oxygen.

How can two very explosive gasses make up water?

You're right. It's a lie fed to us by the NSA.

OnlyAmbrose wrote:

DaGip wrote:Scientists claim that water is 2 parts Hydrogen and 1 part Oxygen.

How can two very explosive gasses make up water?

You're right. It's a lie fed to us by the NSA.

Exactly! It just doesn't make any sense! How on earth can all these payed off scientists conceive of such an elaborate hoax and get the majority of people on the planet to believe for one second that Hydrogen and Oxygen, when combined, make a stable solvent like water? Something smells fishy around here...

the question you have to ask is: why would anyone bother making that up? it would be the most retarded lie ever to invent, especially seeing as some scientist is just gonna work it out and blow their cover anyway.

you could also ask how these two explosive gases are part of the make up of sugar. or how hot water is so scalding, yet when water is cooled, it doesn't burn you! when the hydrogen and oxygen combine they lose their combustible qualities, because in bonding their outer shells are filled and they lose their unstable condition.

Pedronicus wrote:He would be fired as soon as someone discovered his name in England.

I personally would of loved to of seen / heard / felt it.

Very common experiments in the US done by a large amount of professors. They are known as standard experiments ... at least at the community college where I live and the university which I go to...

I'm gonna go ahead and go with "No" because you failed to specify the nature of the parts, and default for that claim would be mass. Since oxygen atoms are approximately 16 times the mass of hydrogen atoms, the correction proportion would be 2 parts Hydrogen to 16 parts Oxygen, or in pure mathematical terms 1 part Hydrogen to 8 parts Oxygen. So you're right... that 2/1 stuff is a lot of baloney.

Yes, but I think 1 unit of volume weighs more. For example, one liter of oxygen weighs about 16 times as much as one liter of hydrogen. At least I think that's how it works, I actually don't know. I think they exploded because water is a compound, not a mixture, so just putting them togethor won't make them bond.

i'm not sure whether this topic has been posted by a scientist who's just trying to test everyone and see if they know, or if it's been posted by a complete moron with a 14 year old's understanding of science.

superkong wrote:i'm not sure whether this topic has been posted by a scientist who's just trying to test everyone and see if they know, or if it's been posted by a complete moron with a 14 year old's understanding of science.

13...but who's counting?

DaGip wrote:Scientists claim that water is 2 parts Hydrogen and 1 part Oxygen.

How can two very explosive gasses make up water?

Technically, only hydrogen is explosive.


Oxygen is a prime need for fire. It does not burn, burning IS when Oxeygen is combined with other substances.

Energy is released whenever 2 atoms combine.

DaGip wrote:

superkong wrote:i'm not sure whether this topic has been posted by a scientist who's just trying to test everyone and see if they know, or if it's been posted by a complete moron with a 14 year old's understanding of science.

13...but who's counting?

Then education REALLY HAS gone down the tubes. We learned this stuff in second grade! (SERIOUSLY ... in public school in CA!!!)

So your teacher went right from teaching you how to spell water to explaining about it's components.

Hmm? - Ok. I think I got. - Carry on.

Nikolai wrote:I'm gonna go ahead and go with "No" because you failed to specify the nature of the parts, and default for that claim would be mass. Since oxygen atoms are approximately 16 times the mass of hydrogen atoms, the correction proportion would be 2 parts Hydrogen to 16 parts Oxygen, or in pure mathematical terms 1 part Hydrogen to 8 parts Oxygen. So you're right... that 2/1 stuff is a lot of baloney.

The mass of the atoms has no relevance in this case: the weight of a olecule is not directly tied to the weight of its constituent atoms.

It's a long while since I did chemistry, but I believe one of the reasons that certain mixtures cause an explosion or implosion is precisely because the volume taken up by the new compound is larger/ smaller than that taken up by its constituent atoms.

Actually I'm fairly sure that water molecules tend to be H4O2, but chemists tend to be a trifle lazy in the writing of chemical equations, and rather than double everything wlse up they use "H2O".

BTW a standard experiment in the UK when I was at school to show the explosive nature of a hydrogen/oxygen mix was to fill up a tin can (over a bunsen burner) with H. The tin had a hole drilled in the top, and you'd set light to the escaping hydrogen. Air would be drawn into the base of the tin, and when the proportion of oxygen was right the whole thing woujdl go BANG and the tin would shoot up in the air.

Or you could just watch a Saturn 5 launch. "Assuming they were real".

DaGip wrote:Scientists claim that water is 2 parts Hydrogen and 1 part Oxygen.

How can two very explosive gasses make up water?

Funnily enough, oxygen isn't explosive, just flammable. And when hydrogen explodes, it reacts with the oxygen around it (heat is the catalyst, you see) and creates water.

NaCl anyone? Deadly when separate, used in practically all food when put together.

MeDeFe wrote:NaCl anyone? Deadly when separate, used in practically all food when put together.

That was in one of the first posts in the thread... Actually, the first post after the original post.

MeDeFe wrote:NaCl anyone? Deadly when separate, used in practically all food when put together.

I don't put salt on my food. If it's cooked with it, fine, but I don't put it on myself, so your claim is bunk.

hecter wrote:

MeDeFe wrote:NaCl anyone? Deadly when separate, used in practically all food when put together.

That was in one of the first posts in the thread... Actually, the first post after the original post.

So? If I missed it a lot of others must have as well.

Hologram wrote:

MeDeFe wrote:NaCl anyone? Deadly when separate, used in practically all food when put together.

I don't put salt on my food. If it's cooked with it, fine, but I don't put it on myself, so your claim is bunk.

that post is so anal it's untrue