Ok i know its a stupid Question but I've always wondered???

Hydrogen is the lightest and flamable, in other word, can be burned, element in its natural form, which is gas. Once it ‘s been turned into liquid itself, hydrogen does not hold its characteristics well because of the temperature is being used to keep the liquid form. So hydrogen, itself, already not stable.

Oxygen, on the other side, have most its characteristics in liquid or gas form. It is not flamable in the sense that it can not cause fire. But it can be burned and is needed for the existence of fire. So Oxygen is a little more stable.

Now once Oxygen and Hydrogen combine together, because Hydrogen is very light, and Oxygen is heavier (it really involves all the atoms, especially electrons), Hydrogen tends to assume some characteristics of Oxygen. This includes the stable condition.

Although after combined, they show to be very stable and hold very tight to each other, there was a explosion during the process of combining. As we know, water is the molecular compound, H2O, which means two molecules of hydrogen and a molecule of Oxygen in the mixture. In the normal process of making true water, an estimated amount of Hydrogen and Oxygen gases are put into tank with the ratio of 2:1. However, it is only estimated, so sometimes one gas can be a little more than the other. Also, they are both put in tank in very small amount at the time, then add some more. So the reaction would be slow and controllable.

If the two gases are put in at the same time, exact Hydrogen and Oxygen at the ratio of 2:1, and large amounts, they can become Water Bomb. Thus, water does reach a flash point (just not when heated).

Your question is not stupid. It is very interesting and very smart. Normal people would not care to think out of the box or would not know more than they should. You should reward yourself for being brave enough to ask. But this is the important thing: I recommend you not to try the Water Bomb because it requires very detail and exact conditions. It should only be done in lab with supervisor. The explosion can be big…

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I’m not very good with chemistry but here goes

Oxygen is not a flammable element, and if I remember right, hydrogen is the most stable element in the periodic table.

Water (H2O) evaporates when heated because the bonds are broken by the physical reaction and they become separate hydrogen and oxygen elements once again.

I could be totally wrong on this, it’s been awhile since I took chem. classes. Btw, this is not a stupid question just tricky!

As Water is the combustive product oh Hydrogen (and Oxygen) then it has already burnt.

As to why it’s so stable?

Covalent bonds form exceptionally easily and require a significant amount of energy to break. As Oxygen is such a strong Lewis Base, the covalent bond is biased to the Oxygen centre. this makes the Hydrogen centre slightly electropositive (and the Oxygen correspondingly electronegative).

As a result there are weak (van der Waals type) bonds between the non-bonding electron pairs on an oxygen atom of one molecule and the electropositive Hydrogen atoms on other molecules. This is also known as Hydrogen bonding and serves to explain why water is a liquid at Standard Temperature & Pressure (STP: 298.15K & 760mmHg).

Hydrogen (H2) and Oxygen (O2) molecules have high Internal Energy. This is one of the reasons they are so reactive with each other. When they combine to form Water (H2O), a lot of heat is released. The reaction product, Water, has relatively low Internal Energy.

Since much of the energy has already been given up (lost as heat released), Water does not contain enough Internal Energy to be very reactive with hydrogen, oxygen, or many other substances.

There are of course many other chemicals that will react with water, such as sodium metal, acetic anhydride, etc. These chemicals contain enough Internal Energy to react with water, and they form products which are low inergy, so that there is an “advantage” to reating with water. That is, they form reaction products which are lower energy than what they started with.

There are no stupid questions, only inquisitive morons.

Water doesn’t burn because water is more than simply hydrogen and oxygen mixed together. Hydrogen and oxygen go through chemical changes to become water, and that means that water has different chemical properties than hydrogen and oxygen.

Seriously, though, it’s not a dumb question. It was actually a really good one. Never be afraid to ask questions!

To rephrase Strangerbarry’s answer: It has already burned.

Oxygen is not itself flammable. Oxygen enables flammable chemicals to burn. Oxygen will not burn without something flamable present, just like flamable chemicals won’t burn without oxygen present. (Oversimplified for Earth conditions!)

When something burns, it combines with oxygen. Carbon burning produces carbon dioxide (or sometimes carbon monoxoide, if conditions are right). Sulphur burning produces sulphur dioxide. Hydrogen burning produces dihydrogen oxide, also known as water.

Water is the result of burning, so doesn’t burn itself.

Oxygen isnt really a flammable material, but is required for the presence of combustion. To illustrate my point, look at sodium and chlorine, sodium is highly reactive and even dangerous to skin, whereas chlorine is a poisonous gas, but when combined, they make what we put on our food, Table Salt. The chemical properties of a molecule are usually different from its constituent elements, like water and sodium chloride (salt)

Go with Strangerbarry’s answer.

When you burn pure hydrogen, the resulting product of combustion.

If you burn a pure hydrocarbon with a sufficient supply of oxygen, you get CO2 and H20, niether of which will burn because they already have.

water is the end product of combustion. Combustion is the chemical process whereby a substance combines with oxygen, releasing heat as a result. Water has already undergone this process.

I believe it is because when the two elements are joined they become something else with completely different characteristics. They no longer have all of the extra electrons floating around. Yes water can be broken apart to its base pieces, but it is something altogether different when it is water. Sort of like your house. Yes, wood is flammable on its own. but once it has paint and stucco on it, it becomes the sum of all of its parts.