Aaron Maynard, age 13, of Boys Town, Nebraska, for his question:

Isn't it true that oxygen does not burn?

Several young science students report that they have read or been told that oxygen is not flammable and will not burn. This startling statement is a sloppy job of translating the language of science into everyday speech. It is misleading and dangerous. For example, suppose a student tried to prove it by poking a lighted match into a sample of oxygen gas. This innocent experiment would start a fast and furious blaze that might burn down the building    including everything in it.

In everyday language, burning is a hot, bright blaze, rapidly consuming its fuel to ashes. In the language of science, the same process is a chemical reaction called oxidation, or more precisely, oxidation reduction. The substances involved either gain or lose electrons. In the process, their molecules are converted into other substances. Oxygen is an energetic electron grabber because it needs two more electrons to complete its outer shell. It can do this by forming chemical bonds or in the process called oxidation.

Chemists refer to a fast blazing fire as combustion. In everyday language, a flammable substance is prone to burst into flames. Certainly pure oxygen gas is both flammable and highly combustible. This is why hospitals allow no sparks or flames near patients in oxygen tents. One little spark could start a fierce fire. The result is just as disastrous whether we call it oxidation, burning or combustion. Fancy terms can fool people, but they make no difference to chemical reactions. ,

Obviously the statement that oxygen does not burn is a mistranslation of scientific terms. It also is misleading, because so much evidence seems to prove it to be true. By weight, oxygen makes up one fifth of the atmosphere, almost half the solid crustal rocks and more than 80 per cent of the world's water. Yet these abundant sources of oxygen are not blazing away in flames. This is because they are not in the form of pure undiluted oxygen gas.

The oxygen gas in the air is diluted with four parts of nitrogen, a lazy gas that discourages burning and other chemical reactions. In the solid crust, oxygen atoms are combined in molecules of silicates and dozens of other minerals. Oxygen also combines with hydrogen to form molecules of water, the enemy of fire. All these chemical compounds solve the oxygen atom's need for electrons by sharing or borrowing those of other atoms. But pure oxygen gas is still hungry for electrons    highly combustible and eager to engage in oxidation.

This process may be the fast blaze of combustion, or a slower form of oxidation that creates gentle heat energy without flames. Our body processes use various types of slow oxidation. Outdoors, slow oxidation changes iron to rust. Combustion is more dramatic. But when oxygen is involved in either fast or slow oxidation, it takes electrons and forms oxide chemicals with other atoms.