What is air made of?

Question

what percentage of the air we breathe is actually oxygen? When we exhale, what is that? Why when we give artificial respiration how does that benefit the recipient--isn't that carbon dioxide we're exhaling into their lungs?

Answer 1

Oxygen makes up about 21 percent of air.

We don't use every bit of oxygen that we inhale. In fact, we only use about one fourth of it. The rest is exhaled along with carbon dioxide and the other components of air that we do not use.

The reason we only use such a small percentage of the oxygen we breath in is because only a small percentage of air comes in contact with our alveolar sacs in the lungs, which are responsible for oxygen diffusion.

Mouth to mouth resuscitation will provide the person with oxygen. It's not the most efficient way to, but it's better than nothing.

Answer 2

Air is a mixture of gases & water vapour.
Oxygen maybe only 20%, Nitrogen is 78%,
Argon, Carbon Dioxide, Hydrogen, etc. less that 1%.

The breath you exhale still contains some oxygen.

Answer 3

Air is made of approximately
78% nitrogen
21% oxygen
1% trace elements

We exhale CO2 which is a waste product of cellular respiration

I am not 100% sure about the artificial respiration except that we do still have some O2 in our lungs which we can exhale but other than that I am not sure...

Answer 4

The earth's atmosphere is approximately 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 0.9% argon, 0.03% carbon dioxide and the rest is hydrogen, helium, krypton, and other gases.

We exhale air which with a reduced amount of oxygen and an increased amount of carbon dioxide.

When we give artificial respiration, we still exhale a significant amount of oxygen which hopefully helps revive the patient.

Answer 5

The air is made up mostly of nitrogen - around 80%. The remaining 20% is mostly oxygen with small amounts of other gases such as argon and carbon dioxide.

Oxygen is itself poisonous - if you were to breathe 100% oxygen it would probably kill you within 48 hours.

Answer 6

All the people saying 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, and 1% other are correct. Whoever said oxygen is poisonous and breathing 100% oxygen will kill you in 24 hours is wrong. When someone has a lung disease we give them supplemental oxygen to increase the amount they breathe in to over 21%. Sometimes we have to give people 100% oxygen to make sure they get enough through their lungs and into their bloodstream, to the brain and other organs. We give extra oxygen to help people...it won't kill them.

Answer 7

Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity. It contains roughly (by molar content/volume) 78% nitrogen, (normally inert except upon electrolysis by lightning[1] and in certain biochemical processes of nitrogen fixation), 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, trace amounts of other gases, and a variable amount (average around 1%) of water vapor. This mixture of gases is commonly known as air

Answer 8

The atmosphere is about 21% oxygen and about 0.04% cargon dioxide. The rest is nitrogen and argon and a few trace gases.

When you exhale, it's about 16% oxygen and 4% carbon dioxide. There's still plenty of oxygen in that.

Answer 9

78% nitrogen
21% oxygen
1% other gases

Answer 10

OK, first of all, this does not qualify as "Biology." Biology is the study of living things, and air is not living. The earth's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, so our body finds a way to inhale the oxygen. When we exhale, it is carbon dioxide. And during CPR, the carbon dioxide is not used for the recipient to inhale, but to clear up the air passages.