Combustion Process - Continued.

Combustion of Hydrogen

As noted in the above figure, for complete combustion of hydrogen, the following reaction takes place.

Two molecules of hydrogen react with one molecule of oxygen to yield two molecules of water.

We can write the same equation in terms of atomic weights:

4 + 32 = 36 (using atomic weight of entities)

Dividing all quantities by 4 we get:

1 + 8 = 9

This tells us that one pound of hydrogen combines with eight pounds of oxygen to yield nine pounds of water.