>>11124079Here's the answer that nobody seems to be giving you:
1) Hydrogen gas prefers to be in the form of H2 molecules
2) Oxygen gas prefers to be in the form of O2 molecules
These molecules will happily bounce around and do nothing if left alone.
The activation energy that everyone is talking about is what you require to "split" these stable molecules into reactive ions, such as a single O atom. These ions are then able to interact chemically with the inert gas molecules to form H2O.
