HELP?? People who are good with Chemistry Please Look??

Question

In Chemistry class our teacher said that the element hydrogen is so reactive to oxygen that if oxygen comes in contact with it, the hydrogen will burst into flames. So if thats true, how can hydrogen bond with oxygen to create H20???

Answer 1

combustion is simply oxidation of a compound.  here, hydrogen is oxidized by oxygen.  molecules of hydrogen come in pairs of hydrogen atoms (H2), just like oxygen (O2).  when two hydrogen molecule react with a molecule of oxygen, the reaction produces a lot of energy (flames) and two water molecules.  the chemical equation for the reaction is 2 H2 + O2 => 2 H2O