Interesting facts about air

April 29, 2010 | In: Science facts


pamantul vazut din spatiu

Even though you can’t see it, air is not just empty space. Air is stuff!

Air is a fluid, like water. Although its invisible, air is made of tiny particle and molecules that have mass and weight. Mass is the amount of stuff something is made of.

The weight of air in a milk glass is about the same as the weight of one aspirin.

If you went out into space, you would explode before you suffocated because there’s no air pressure.

There is air in space, but very little of it. In fact, it is equivalent to a marble in a box 5 miles wide. Most of the gas is captured by the gravitational pull of other celestial bodies.Thanx M.Lerner
The Earth is wrapped in a layer of gas called atmosphere. Atmosphere is tied to Earth by gravitation, so that it cannot disperse in the space. It is 500 km (300 mi) thick, being made of a mix of about 10 gases, called air.

About 20 % of the Earth’s population breathes severely contaminated air, especially with carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide resulting from industrial processes.

Even though it doesn’t feel very heavy, air actually weighs a lot.

A column of air with a one square inch base reaching from sea level to the top of the atmosphere weighs about 14.7 pounds (6.6 kg), and a cubic yard (or cubic meter) of air at sea level weighs about 2 pounds (about 1 kg).

A recipe for air…

- 79 cups of nitrogen molecules

- 20 cups of oxygen molecules

- 1 cup of argon atoms

- A dash of other gases, including water vapor and carbon dioxide.

Mix all the ingredients together.

The result will be a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas with a density about 800 times less than water. Refreshing when stirred up and served cool on a hot day.

This means that walking along the beach, you have over 1000 pounds (450 kg) of air above your head and shoulders, and the air in the average high school gym weighs over three tons!


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