Does the air we breathe in today different from the time of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago?

Question

Me and my class had an activity in Chem about elments involved in our environment. This question popped out and I have no idea what to write. Please help. TY

Answer 1

..back in the day when i was a chem student, i had this same question except it was about julius ceasar. It pertains to isotopic half lives of the elements in air.

The air you breath today actually has a very high probability of being the same air molecules that jesus himself breathed 2000 years ago. The chances are in fact about 80% that there is at least 1 molecule in the air you breath into your lungs, that jesus breathed out in his last breath.

If you are to work the numbers with the total number of air molecules present on earth, the volume of your lungs, the number of molecules in that volume, and then assume in 2000 years that the air has been evenly distrubuted across the planet, you will get the same result.

The half life of regular oxygen and nitrogen isotopes are extremely long, longer than the age of the universe. Theres verry little of them that will have decomposed since 2000 years ago.

Answer 2

Of course it is.

You can't probably imagine a world where machinery is forged by hand, to be manned by mules and ox and later horses.

No electricity, everything used nothing thrown away unless really refuse. Women made there own cloth, for linen, all linen, tablecloths, bedding, clothing. Sheep were very popular, china had and still do have silk worms.

No exhaust from anything, have you ever gone to the country away from a city after being there a while doesn't the air smell freer, easier to breathe?

Multiply that by thousands maybe more and the air the people of Jesus' generation was pure, hence they lived longer, I know they had a different calendar but they still lived longer if compared to the Roman calendars used today.

Research the web there must be sites for your project. Good Luck

Answer 3

Yes, today our air is full of pollutants, which is why so many people are snuffling, wheezing and itching with allergies of every kind. But on the other hand back then, while their air was pure, they had absolutely no decent sanitation, and combined with their lack of any knowledge about germs, viruses, antibiotics, and infection, they suffered from a slew of horrible conditions that led to much suffering and early death. All considered, I think I'm glad to belong to this time than that one.

I think you could create a rather unique theme along the lines that, in fact, while quality of air is obviously an important factor in health, it is only one component in a vast number of things that combine to make the overall living environment more, or less, beneficial to living things. Besides the more obvious types of pollution, look what we do deliberately to our atmosphere with chemicals around the home, and fertilizers in our yards and fields. But beyond that, in the area of medicine, we have eradicated or controlled many of the horrible diseases that ran wild back in those biblical times because of the lack of knowledge. We understand the basic principles of hygiene and disinfection, and doctors today are performing procedures and techniques that would never have been thought of in anyone's wildest dreams two or more thousand years ago. These things, too, have contributed to the greater health and longevity of people today, showing that in spite of their very much purer air back then, air quality itself could do very little to combat the other factors that robbed people of their health and often their lives in those times. Ignorance is as much an enemy as negligence. Unfortuntely in our present age, we have still not overcome negligence.

Answer 4

Well.... Think about all the stuff that we put in our air today - There are cars, trains, planes, power plants, factories... There are also different products that end up in the air like hairspray, cleaners... On the other hand, we have sophisticated technology to purify the air in our homes.

In Jesus's time, there were no chemicals or cars, etc... They still polluted their air - they burnt wood and stuff for heat and cooking purposes - but not as bad as we do today.

Answer 5

Of course, with all of this pollution problem going on and the greenhouse gases, the air we breathe has changed a lot. Plus, I don´t think Jesus ever drove a car.

Answer 6

The air is about the same as it was 2000 years ago. It may be somewhat cleaner now then it was than since we use cleaner fuels for our industries --- but we now have more people, animals, trees, etc.

The ancients did not know of a number of elements but they did work with them in their native states. People now were not all that different from what they are now.

Answer 7

Ofcourse the air we breathe now is different to a few thousand years ago..

We have advanced in technology so we have added many different pollutants to the atmosphere.

We now burn diesel, coal, gas, petrol and so many other chemicals and substances it's impossible to list them all.

All the stuff we burn and energy we use adds to the make - up of the air we all breathe.

There are also less trees so less carbon dioxide is absorbed and changed back into oxygen!

Answer 8

It's more polluted and hotter!
Now, we have industrialized the land, have less oxygen-giving trees, depleted the ozone layer, invented many fossil fuel-burning machines, polluted our waters so that when evaporated they add to the air pollution, more waste/bad management of it, etc...

However it is still the same air, we just made some "modifications" to it!

Answer 9

The word "pollution" did not exist back then. People suffered from few respiratory diseases because there were no toxins in the air. While itwas not pure oxygen like what is on submarines, it was pretty close to it.

Answer 10

There's a lot more industry today. A lot more cars, power plants, farm animals....more pollutants. So I'm going to say yes, the air is different.