Students in John Hilken's Coordinated Science classes at St. Mary Catholic Central High School recently completed a lab involving the electrolysis of water.
In the experiment, electrolysis was used to separate water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas.
Nine-volt batteries supplied the electrical energy required to break the chemical bonds between hydrogen and oxygen in the water molecule, a news release said. Water displacement was used to collect the two gases in test tubes.
Each student group then used a lighted match to show that the hydrogen "explodes" as it leaves the test tube.