• Question: What is the level of nitrogen in the athosphere of the Earth

    Asked by kieranandbrandon to Anna, Jonathan, Samantha, Sam on 29 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Samantha Weaver

      Samantha Weaver answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      The atmosphere of the Earth (air) is made up of approximately 78% nitrogen. The rest is mostly oxygen (21%) with Argon (just under 1%), carbon dioxide (tiny amount less than 0.05%) and water vapour (about 1%) making up the rest.

      (These numbers are rounded up which is why it doesn’t add up to 100%!!)

    • Photo: Jonathan Kay

      Jonathan Kay answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      What Samantha said.

      The carbon dioxide level is increasing, and that’s part of the argument about global warming.

      There are very small amounts of other gases as well. For example helium makes up 0.00052% by volume. That’s the gas that’s used in party balloons and makes you talk like a duck. It’s also used in powerful magnets like the ones used for medical imaging. If we’re not careful we might run out of it.

    • Photo: Angharad Davies

      Angharad Davies answered on 30 Jun 2012:

      Liquid nitrogen is useful because it’s very very cold and can be used to freeze things ultra-quickly, and keep them extremely cold. For fun, scientists can use it to make ice-cream!

    • Photo: Sam Chilka

      Sam Chilka answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      Sometimes when people are very ill, they need to breathe air which has a higher concentration of oxygen than the air in the atmosphere. In this medical situation, they would breathe with a mask, and the level of nitrogen would be lower, and the level of oxygen would be higher, than the normal levels in the atmosphere.

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