Is our blood blue until it touches the air? Why?

Answer 1

I know you were once a princess but "blue bloods" is just an expression to explain the the color veins appear in a causasions skin as opposed to the color of veins in dark skinned individuals.

Unlike so many other expressions, this one is well documented.

It’s a direct translation of the Spanish sangre azul. Many of the oldest and proudest families of Castile used to boast that they were pure bred, having no link with the Moors who had for so long controlled the country, or indeed any other group. As a mark of this, they pointed to their veins, which seemed bluer in colour than those of such foreigners. This was simply because their blue-tinted veins showed up more prominently in their lighter skin, but they took it to be a mark of their pure breeding.

So the phrase blue blood came to refer to the blood which flowed in the veins of the oldest and most aristocratic families. The phrase was taken over into English in the 1830s. By the time Anthony Trollope used it in The Duke's Children in 1880, it had become common:

It is a point of conscience among the — perhaps not ten thousand, but say one thousand of bluest blood, — that everybody should know who everybody is. Our Duke, though he had not given his mind much to the pursuit, had nevertheless learned his lesson. It is a knowledge which the possession of the blue blood itself produces. There are countries with bluer blood than our own in which to be without such knowledge is a crime.


Why are veins blue?

The blood carried by veins is dark red due to its high percentage of CO2 as it returns to the heart (in contrast to the high levels of O2 in arterial blood, which is bright red). Veins appear blue because the subcutaneous fat in the skin absorbs lower-frequency light, permitting only the highly energetic blue wavelengths to penetrate and reflect off human skin.

So, you take dark red blood and filter it through pale yellow fat and you wind up with blue veins in pinkish colored skin.

Enjoy.

Answer 2

That's what my friend told me, actually he said it's colorless, then when you bleed it turns red because of the air and carbon dioxide. But I don't know if I can believe him.

I believe that it's blue when it stays on the inside, where it obviously should be. Take a look at the veins in your arms (cause their easiest to see)- it's not you veins that are blue- it's the color of the blood running through them. Blood only turns red when it hits the oxygen in our surrounding air, becoming oxidized- the oxygen in your body isn't enough to do it.

Answer 3

No one can realy answer what blood looks lke in our veins... there is still a debate whether blood lacking oxygen is blue or red. I'll go dark red with no oxygen and bright red with oxygen.

As I study both chemistry and biology at university, there is no or to be on the safe side very very very very few compounds of iron which gives a blue colour.

To read more about this, you can take a look at the following link as this would probably satisfy your query: http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec96/840084221.An.r.html

Answer 4

Our blood is blue when there is no oxygen in it. when it is exposed to the air it will be red. Not all but some of our blood in our bodies is blue as at the end of our bloods cycle the oxygen it had been carrying would have been used to feed the rest of our body.

Answer 5

human hemoglobin contains IRON (Fe), which causes its red colour. Hemoglobin + oxygen gives a bright red, and deoxygenized hemoglobin is dark red, so human blood is ALWAYS some shade of red. What you see in your forearms is your VEINS, not your blood.

BUT there are animals (certain crabs, actually) that have COPPER (Cu) instead of iron in their hemoglobin. The result is (oh yes!) BLUE BLOOD.

Answer 6

not neccesarily blue, but dark red, dark red blood is lacking oxygen meaning and it flows in veins going back to the heart to replenish its oxygen. when replenished the oxygen rich blood cells are bright red and flow in arteries. when you get a cut and blood is exposed to the oxygen outside, it turns bright red because the blood cells become bright red when exposed to oxygen

Answer 7

Without oxygen your blood is blue. That's why they always show arteries (carry oxygenated blood to body) as red and veins (carry blood back to lungs to get more oxygen) as blue. You can also see your blue veins in your wrists.

Answer 8

One word "Oxygen". Our blood needs to be oxygenized before it becomes red. As our blood is tntroduced to less presure, and the atmoshpere, a chemical reaction occours, causing our blood to turn red. Ever check out the veins in your underarm? blue.........

Answer 9

Human blood is always red -- sometimes dark red, sometimes bright red, but ALWAYS red. The idea that blood is blue until it hits the air is definitely untrue.

Answer 10

blood that has used up it's oxygen turns a deep purple color. Oxygen-rich blood is red. One of the components in blood interacts with the oxygen or carbon dioxide that replaces it, and changes the color.