Talk:Air
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I have removed "Also, generically, that which is inhaled during breathing." This looks a bit crazy to me. If one inhales something other than the gases of the Earth's atmosphere - say, water - then that is not referred to as "air". I suppose that astonauts on other planets with breatheable atmospheres would quite possibly breathe in something which they might call "air", but I haven't met any such astronauts yet to ask them about their terminology. ;) -- Oliver Pereira 22:56 Nov 22, 2002 (UTC)
Are these percentages right? I've only seen %21 oxygen. Webster's says:
...modern science has shown that [air] is essentially a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, with a small amount of carbon dioxide, the average proportions being, by volume: oxygen, 20.96 per cent.; nitrogen, 79.00 per cent.; carbon dioxide, 0.04 per cent. These proportions are subject to a very slight variability. Air also always contains some vapor of water.
-- Ben FrantzDale Feb 22, 2004
Made into disambig
The page was turning into a mirror of Earth's atmosphere, so I nipped it in the bud and now it's a redirect. Feel free to reincorporate the following removed text into Earth's atmosphere.
Dry air is roughly 79% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, and 1% argon. Air may contain 0-7 % water vapor (the 79%, 20% and 1% become accordingly a little less), and less than 1% carbon dioxide. The composition of air changes with altitude; also exhaled air contains a greater percentage of carbon dioxide than what is inhaled, ca. 4.5%.
There is a more accurate chart athttp://education.jlab.org/glossary/abund_atmos.html. Pressure decreases with altitude; this is why aircraft have pressurised cabins. The air pressure inside aircraft cabins is maintained at a pressure higher than that outside, for the comfort of the passengers and crew, although for fuel efficiency reasons the pressure is still slightly lower than at ground level. With a decrease in total air pressure, the partial pressure of all the component gases (including oxygen) decreases. Mountain climbers must carry a supply of oxygen on their way up to the summit of high mountains to ensure the partial pressure of oxygen in their blood is maintained. |
--Ben Brockert 01:34, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)
Now its Disambig...
Now the page is disambiguious shouldn't we have Air (gases), Air (Compressed) and Air (Tarot) as links? Cokehabit 19:55, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)