[alancalverd]

Tell the guys working on fusion reactors!

[Kryptid]

Even H2 can change into something else quite easily.

Such as?

[hamdani yusuf]

Even H2 can change into something else quite easily.

Such as?

H2O. The reaction only needs a small spark.

[Kryptid]

H2O. The reaction only needs a small spark.

Yes, but that requires the presence of oxygen. H₂ is exceedingly stable by itself.

[hamdani yusuf]

Helium is more stable in the same situation. Why is it?

[alancalverd]

There is no evidence of H2 spontaneously decomposing. There is a big difference between stability and reactivity.

[hamdani yusuf]

There is no evidence of H2 spontaneously decomposing. There is a big difference between stability and reactivity.

Why is Helium less reactive than H2?

[paul cotter]

Fully populated 1s shell.

[hamdani yusuf]

Fully populated 1s shell.

Do you think that electrons shared by H2 don't fully populated 1s shell?

[paul cotter]

Hamdani, I have no intention of getting into a long winded discussion that goes nowhere. I don't want to sound mean or nasty but you really need to get some credible textbooks on scientific matters and consign youtube to the trash can, where it belongs. I am not saying that all such videos are bunk but many of them are and unless you know the subject matter thoroughly you are open to being misled. Bottom line: hydrogen has a vacant 1s orbital and is reactive and helium has no 1s vacancies and is inert..

[Kryptid]

Fully populated 1s shell.

Do you think that electrons shared by H2 don't fully populated 1s shell?

Technically, it's a sigma orbital.

There's also the issue of product stability. A bond between a hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom (bond order 1.0) is far stronger than one between a helium atom and an oxygen atom (bond order 0.5). It's easy enough to know the reason for this if you look into the literature. So I now have to ask: are you actually trying to educate yourself, or are you trying to find fault?

[hamdani yusuf]

So I now have to ask: are you actually trying to educate yourself, or are you trying to find fault?

I'm trying to find research gaps. That's the first step of any scientific research. Without any research gap, there will be no job for researchers.

[hamdani yusuf]

There's also the issue of product stability. A bond between a hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom (bond order 1.0) is far stronger than one between a helium atom and an oxygen atom (bond order 0.5). It's easy enough to know the reason for this if you look into the literature.

I asked Gemini about bond order.

The concept of bond order specifically applies to covalent bonds between two atoms of the same element. In the case of a hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom, they form a polar covalent bond.

Here's a breakdown:

Bond Order: This refers to the average number of bonding electron pairs shared between two atoms. It typically applies to multiple covalent bonds between similar atoms, like in O2 (oxygen molecule) or N2 (nitrogen molecule).
Polar Covalent Bond: This type of bond arises due to unequal sharing of electrons between atoms with different electronegativity values. Oxygen is more electronegative than hydrogen, so it attracts the shared electrons more towards itself, resulting in a partial negative charge on oxygen and a partial positive charge on hydrogen.
Therefore, instead of a specific bond order, the bond between hydrogen and oxygen is described as a polar covalent bond.

[alancalverd]

That's the first step of any scientific research. Without any research gap, there will be no job for researchers.

Research is the penultimate tactic for solving a problem, prayer being the last. Career researchers are not parasites like priests, but scavengers among the debris of ignorance.

Almost all worthwhile science derives from an unexpected observation. Have you made one?

[paul cotter]

"Scavengers among the debris of ignorance". That one gave me a hearty laugh, nice eloquence there, that is one to remember. Thank you, Alan.

[hamdani yusuf]

What IS activation energy, really?
This video shortly mentions about HeH+ at 20:10 timestamp.

[hamdani yusuf]

Almost all worthwhile science derives from an unexpected observation. Have you made one?

That depends on how you put the threshold for "worthwhile", as well as whose perspective the observation is thought as "unexpected".

[alancalverd]

Any advance in human understanding that derives from an unexpected observation, is worthwhile to someone. 

Let's begin with your perspective. What unexpected observation have you made?

If nobody else expected it, we can deduce that the subsequent understanding is globally worthwhile.

[alancalverd]

What IS activation energy, really?

Without wasting time looking at the video, I guess it is the energy you need to supply to a system in equilibrium to trigger it into another state.
Suppose you live in a valley at 1000 ft above sea level, and there's a nicer valley at 500 ft on the other side of a 1500 foot  hill. Then the activation energy required to move house is 500 ft x g per unit mass.

[hamdani yusuf]

Let's begin with your perspective. What unexpected observation have you made?

There's no way I can guarantee that nobody else has expected my observations. But at least I know they deviate from some mainstream textbooks.
I've made many experiments using laser and microwave transceiver, and some results that I think are unexpected by most people are as follows.
Non-diffractive edge and non-diffractive slit using total internal reflection.
Polarized diffraction by the edge of abortive polarizers.
Blocking mechanism of microwave by partial polarizers.
Conjoined twin polarizers.
Polarization twister of microwave.
Electrodynamic balance.