Oxygen Facts About The Air That Is Found All Around Us

Oxygen is found as the eighth element in the periodic table, and well, you can't really find it because it's a colorless gas!

Oxygen makes for 21% of Earth's atmosphere. Since oxygen has no color, many people classify it as inert, but it is one of the most reactive elements in the non-metallic elements class.

While you are reading this article, you are constantly breathing in oxygen, and it is done involuntarily, without you even realizing it! Can you imagine the significance of an element that is part of our lives involuntarily every second of our life?

Well, we will let you know about the magical nature of this life-giving element that helps sustain life on Earth and makes Earth the only planet in the solar system to support life.

For more similar oxygen facts, do read our other articles on why do we need oxygen and oxygen cycle for kids.

Where it is found?

Oxygen, a word synonymous with life, has been one of the most famous periodic table elements. The word oxygen is derived from the Greek word Oxys and Genses, which means acid producer.

Scientists claim that 70% of Earth's free oxygen levels come from green algae and cyanobacteria's photosynthesis, overtaking plants and trees' contributions. In fact, most say that it was cyanobacteria that gave the first oxygen on the planet by taking in carbon dioxide and exhaling oxygen.

Oxygen molecules have their designated atomic number to be, atomic weight to 15.99 u, melting point to be -361.82 F (- 218.79 C), and boiling point as -297.31 F (- 182.95 C).

It is said that oxygen gas is the third most abundant nature's element, but since oxygen is equally reactive, it has made it a tad bit rare in the earth's atmosphere.

But where is the element oxygen found? Let's have a look.

Oxygen is an abundant element that's found in the air all around us. The oxygen content is around 50% of the mass of Earth's crust. In fact, oxygen makes up a significant part of water, so you can estimate the abundance of oxygen on Earth. Moreover, oxygen also makes up 65% of body mass.

Not many people know this, but oxygen was discovered years ago by a German chemist of Swedish origins, Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Still, since he did not publish his work, Joseph Priestley in 1774 got recognition for discovering the abundant element oxygen.

He had discovered the element by experimenting with red mercuric oxide. Joseph Priestley had also set several experiments to see if plants could produce oxygen or not. Today, however, both Priestley and Scheele are given credits for discovering the abundant element, oxygen.

Did you know that even consuming too much oxygen can hurt you? Yes!

Although we humans require the presence of oxygen in the human body, excess supply of this element will break into reactive ions that are negatively charged. These ions would bind to iron, and hydroxyl radical would be created, which would damage lipids present on cell membranes.

But the human body is smart enough to keep enough stock of antioxidants as well to nullify daily oxidative stress.

The oxygen cycle is how nature gets a regulated and uninterrupted supply of oxygen. The process says that aerobic organisms that need oxygen get it through photosynthesis, and the carbon dioxide released by them would, in turn, again be used in photosynthesis.

Uses

Oxygen belongs to the non-metallic class of elements, including many noble gases and halogens.

It was said that thousands of years ago, the density of oxygen was just 30%! Fresh water at sea level has dissolved oxygen concentration.

But this element, although now in greater density, must be content replenished in our planet's atmosphere by the process of photosynthesis. To purify oxygen, a gas having no characteristic odor or color, fractional distillation of liquefied air is used.

With such diverse forms, let's know some of the oxygen element's uses apart from sustaining life on Earth and Earth's atmosphere.

Supplement of oxygen in living organisms is needed for aerobic respiration in the human body, creating energy from the food we eat. For humans with breathing ailments, oxygen supply at home is critical. Oxygen is also used in surgical procedures for those patients who are got paralyzed or have heart-lung machines attached to their bodies.

Oxygen is compressed into oxygen tanks by mountaineers to help them climb high altitudes and bear with decreased oxygen and atmospheric pressure.

Oxygen is used to kill anaerobic bacteria. Oxygen acts as a sterilizing agent when these bacteria are exposed to the gas.

In steelmaking, oxygen converts carbon to carbon dioxide in a blast furnace's high temperature. The carbon dioxide thus produced allows more pure iron compounds to be formed. In fact, many metal applications that have high-temperature working procedures have oxygen used. One such application is welding torches.

Liquid oxygen is often used as an oxidizing agent for several space applications like rockets and missiles. This liquid oxygen reacts with liquid hydrogen to create the required take-off thrust. The spacesuits used by astronauts have pure oxygen in them.

Oxygen also finds use in water purification and sewage treatment plants where it is forced into water to multiply the bacteria production that metabolizes the waste products present in water.

Oxygen also makes its presence evident in generators and vehicles to produce energy in case they lack proper electrical supply.

Certain hydrocarbon compounds can be degraded using oxygen by heating them. The combustion in them liberates the carbon dioxide and water inside that sometimes even produce chemical compounds such as propylene, ethylene, and other hydrocarbons.

Properties

Oxygen is found as gas in air, in liquids like fresh water, and sometimes even in solid forms. What makes this element that makes up about 20-21% of Earth's atmosphere the life-giver? Let's unearth some of its properties to understand.

Oxygen is naturally found as a molecule and comprises mainly two oxygen atoms strongly bonded together. Since oxygen had low boiling and melting points, the state of matter of oxygen is gaseous at room temperature.

Firstly, all the oxygen atoms have a boiling point of -297.31 F (- 182.95 C). And a melting point of about -361.82 °F (-218.79 °C).

The atomic number for oxygen atoms is eight, and their atomic weight is 15.999 u.

Natural oxygen would be found in nature as stable isotopes of 16 O, 17 O, and 18 O.

The oxidation state or electric charge of oxygen atoms is -2.

At standard pressure, oxygen would be composed of two oxygen atoms that combine to give dioxygen (O2). This O2 is tasteless, odorless, and colorless. You would find oxygen to be in the gaseous state under standard temperature and pressure.

Another crucial form of oxygen, ozone forms the critical ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. This layer protects the planet from the sun's harmful UV radiation.

Ozone is, in fact, a pure oxygen molecule, and since it's pure oxygen, it won't burn but instead support the burning of other substances.

Ozone is highly reactive, and this explanation can be accounted to one of the three oxygen atoms (O3) to be an atomic state. Therefore once reacted, this atom would relocate from the original O3 molecule leaving behind the normal molecular oxygen.

Fun Facts About Oxygen

None of us can imagine life without oxygen, right? How can we when every second we need this element? There are a lot many hidden facts behind this unique life-giving element, so go ahead and treat yourself to some of the fun facts about oxygen!

Sometimes in cases of hyperventilation instead of oxygen, you may require carbon dioxide! Yes, when blood requires carbon dioxide to prevent the alkaline nature, the pH of blood increases, causing the brain's blood vessels to become narrow, and this slows down the blood to cause hyperventilation.

When oxygen levels first showed signs of a significant amount of oxygen around 2.4 billion years, life had still not appeared on the face of the Earth.

Did you know that around the same time, around 2.4 billion years ago, there was the occurrence of the Great Oxidation event that had oxygen levels exceeding today's oxygen levels too and then crashing down to low amounts?

In South Africa, geoscientists have discovered 2.95 billion-year-old rocks that show characteristics that would have been only possible if free oxygen had formulated the rocks!

90% of Earth's crust is made up of mainly five elements, namely, iron, calcium, silicon, and aluminum, and the weight of these elements comes from oxygen present in them.

Do you know that oxygen can look blue too? Yes! Although not in the gaseous state, liquid oxygen is of magnetic pale blue color. Even solid oxygen is found to be in pale blue color.

Most of us know that trees provide us with oxygen, but did you know that oxygen can also be made artificially as well? Depending on the quantity of oxygen required, specific laboratory procedures have been specified to prepare oxygen. One of the popular methods is the thermal decomposition of salts such as potassium nitrate and potassium chlorate.

With all the industrialization and globalization, there's a sad possibility that oxygen could run out! Killing too much plant life has caused some highly polluted countries to actually buy oxygen!

Oxygen is found in more amounts in cold water than warm water because oxygen atoms are closely packed in colder environments. In fact, it is hard for oxygen to dissolve in warm water as compared to cold water.

Oxygen makes up an integral part of the protein and DNA of the human body. Moreover liver is the only organ that uses the most oxygen (20.4%), followed by the brain (18.4%) and the heart (11.6%).

Fish breathe in oxygen from water by using their gills, and they get plenty of oxygen because water seems to have a higher concentration of oxygen overall. The blood vessels present in gills absorb oxygen as water gushes through the fish's gills.

Did you know that when a woman is pregnant, the baby in her womb does not breathe oxygen! Don't worry; that does not mean the baby is deprived of it for nine months; in fact, the umbilical cord connecting the baby and mother does the breathing for the fetus. What a beautiful natural phenomenon, right?

The planet Mars also seems to have oxygen but not much for sustaining life. It has 1.9% argon, 94.9% carbon dioxide, 2.6% nitrogen, and merely 0.174% of oxygen.

NASA has now started on a mission to explore more about oxygen on Mars. The mission is termed MOXIE (Mars Oxygen) which would experiment on producing oxygen on Mars through the scientific process of electrolysis.

The primary focus is on exploring oxygen content on mass and how efficient the electrolysis process will be in producing oxygen. Further plans of planting trees and constructing a nuclear reactor on Mars are also in the pipeline for NASA.

Not just NASA but other scientists are also looking at different properties of oxygen. The benefits of oxygen content in different water bodies are being studied with the rapid surge in algae growth in many water bodies where fertilizer runoff is drained out. In such places, oxygen levels become high, in turn harming the ecosystem.

Scuba divers need oxygen when they go diving, but it's not just oxygen that they use. Professional scuba divers use nitrox, a combination of nitrogen and oxygen that contains only 40% oxygen and 60% nitrogen.

The reason nitrox is essential for divers is because it prevents them from having any fatigue and other medical conditions that could be prominent in deep waters due to high pressure. Divers using oxygen higher than 21% actually need the training to avoid toxicity!

Can it be more astonishing that nowadays people not only pay to buy water bottles but also to have oxygen bottles? Yes!

People buy oxygen bottles to get themselves portable oxygen in highly polluted towns and cities. For instance, most people have an oxygen purifier to purify the badly polluted air in China.

However, due to its overhead expenses, most citizens prefer to wear a simple mask to protect themselves and their bodies.

The choice is to breathe in purified air having fresh, clean air containing 97% of oxygen and other minor numerable gases or to have polluted air in their body containing 78% of nitrogen, 21% of oxygen, and other minor gases.

This indeed points to a severe fact that given our limited resources, we better abide by the laws of nature if we want to live and sustain our lives; if not, we might run out of the very source that gives life on Earth, the oxygen.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions oxygen facts about the air that is found all around us then why not take a look at do plants need oxygen to survive, or why do cells need oxygen?