We can use the spring analogy below to illustrate why combustions in strongly electronegative media are exothermic, or heat-emitting. Let the ball in the middle symbolize the electrons, drawn either toward oxygen at the left, or carbon and hydrogen at the right. The stronger spring to the left represents the greater electronegativity of oxygen, and the weak spring at the right, the lesser electronegativities of carbon and hydrogen.

If water and CO₂ were to react to form methane and O₂, electrons would be moved away from oxygen, against oxygen's natural electronegativity. This corresponds to using energy to push the ball to the right, thereby stretching the strong spring. This energy is stored in the spring (or in the methane molecules) as potential, or latent, energy.