• Question: what gas's make up air

    Asked by chickenjoe to Callum, Gina, Katie, Michelle, Sam on 19 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Katie Howe

      Katie Howe answered on 19 Nov 2012:

      The air that we breathe is mostly made up of nitrogen (78%). 21% is oxygen which is needed for animals and humans in respiration and 0.03% is carbon dioxide which is needed for plants to make energy in a process called photosynthesis. The bit that is left is made up of rare gases like helium and argon and methane. Also air can contain a lot of water vapour but this depends on how hot and humid it is.

      In the last few hundred years the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been increasing which a lot of people are getting very worried about – you might have heard of carbon offsetting and carbon neutral. The reason why this is a problem is because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. This means that it can trap radiation from the sun and causes our planet to heat up just like the glass in a greenhouse. This can cause the polar ice caps to melt and lots of other problems for our planet.

    • Photo: Sam Godfrey

      Sam Godfrey answered on 19 Nov 2012:

      Air is made up of a mix of gasses. Nitrogen is the most common, being about 78% of air, then Oxygen at 21%. Next we have Argon and CO2 at 1% and 0.4%. There is also tiny amounts of loads of other gasses like Krypton, Helium and Hydrogen. Wikipedia has the full list here
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth

    • Photo: Callum Johnston

      Callum Johnston answered on 19 Nov 2012:

      Don’t forget methane! All those cows farting means methane makes up about 0.0002% of the gas in the air.

    • Photo: Michelle Linterman

      Michelle Linterman answered on 19 Nov 2012:

      The air in Earth’s atmosphere is made up of mostly nitrogen (nearly 80%), then some oxygen (20%), and then the rest is made up of small amounts of other gases like carbon dioxide and argon.

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