| raymor |
07-04-2012 10:57 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuckOnThis
(Post 19042279)
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and there is plenty of oxygen, but how did these two elements bond together to create water? Most likely from the nuclear fusion of stars. No one knows for sure how it got here, could be a number of ways. My guess is when the earth was starting to form parts of it was big chunks of ice.
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It's called fire. (Or lesser heat, slower.) Sometime, turn a shot glass upside down in a bowl of water. Under the shot glass, put leads coming from a 9V battery. After a few minutes you'll see bubbles of oxygen and hydrogen rising in the water, into the inverted shot glass. Two hours later, carefully lift the shot glass and insert a match. It'll burn with a nice pop and leave tiny water droplets in the glass.
Oxygen is very good at combining with other molecules. Today's what fire, rust, and other forms of oxygen are. Oxygen doesn't like to be alone, so it aggressively combines with hydrogen, iron, or any of many other elements. As you said, there's plenty of oxygen and plenty of hydrogen, so they naturally combine. They combine a lot faster when they are hot.
Your car and your stove are powered by oxygen's tendency to combine with hydrogen and carbon - gas is a HYDROcarbon which combines with oxygen from the air.
Indeed you yourself are also fueled by pretty much the same reaction, but slower because the engine is hotter than you. Food is carboHYDRATE, carbon and hydrogen, combining with the oxygen you breath to create carbon dioxide and water.
Interestingly, that's also the problem with "clean" hydrogen fuel. Theoretically, hydrocarbons (gas) also burns cleanly, but at 10,000 burns per minute, with lubricating oil mixed in and all, you don't get laboratory cleanliness. |
