• Question: what noise does pure oxygen make when it is lit

    Asked by jackh13 to Dilwar, Lou, Rachel, Simon, Susan on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Simon Langley-Evans

      Simon Langley-Evans answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Tricky question and I have to think hard about this.

      The classic test of a gas to tell if it is oxygen is to put a glowing splint into the gas and see if it relights. If it does it is oxygen. This doesn’t make a noise as usually when we do it there is too little oxygen to cause an explosion.

      If you light pure oxygen (don’t EVER do this) then it will explode so there will be a very loud bang (plus a massive fireball). Similarly if you light oxygen and hydrogen together there will be a loud explosion and lots of heat and water produced.

    • Photo: Louise Brown

      Louise Brown answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Mixing oxygen with hydrogen is how they send rockets into space! Think about how loud it is when a rocket takes off!!!!!

      So I can imagine lighting oxygen would be very very loud!

    • Photo: Susan Skelton

      Susan Skelton answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Hi jackh13!
      Oxygen, by itself, will not burn. If it did, our atmosphere (which is 20.9% oxygen) would have burned up a long time ago.

      But oxygen is very good at oxidising other materials. For something to burn, the reaction requires a fuel (the thing that burns) and an oxidizer like oxygen. Without the fuel, though, no combustion will take place no matter how high the concentration of oxygen is.

      However, since oxygen is so good at oxidising other materials, any fire will burn faster if there is more oxygen in the air. This is why hospitals don’t allow people to smoke near oxygen canisters – it could cause a huge explosion.

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