What is oxygen? Detailed answer

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What is oxygen? Detailed answer

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What is oxygen?

Often we have to read about something without which "man cannot live." But what a person really cannot live without is without oxygen. Without oxygen, a person can survive only a few minutes.

Oxygen is the most abundant chemical element in the universe. Almost half of the earth's crust is oxygen, and in the air it is more than one-fifth of the total volume. Once in the lungs, it reaches all the cells of the body with the help of red blood cells. In the body, it burns food, producing the heat necessary for human activities.

Oxygen combines very well with other elements. This reaction is called "oxidation". With rapid oxidation, combustion occurs. Almost any oxidation releases heat. When burning, heat is released very quickly, the temperature rises sharply, and a flame appears.

So, on the one hand, we are dealing with combustion - rapid oxidation, as a result of which fire appears, and on the other hand, with oxidation, which processes food in the human body and supports the life support process. We see slow oxidation everywhere. Metal rusts, paint dries, alcohol turns into vinegar - all this is oxidation.

The air we breathe is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. Therefore, pure oxygen can be obtained from the air. Air is cooled to very low temperatures, at which it becomes liquid. This temperature is below minus 180 °C. When the temperature of the liquid air begins to rise slightly, the air begins to boil. First, nitrogen evaporates, and oxygen remains. Many lives were saved for patients with weak lungs when they were given pure oxygen to breathe.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Why were the stairs in the towers of medieval castles twisted clockwise?

The spiral staircases in the towers of medieval castles were built in such a way that they were climbed in a clockwise direction. This was done so that in the event of a siege of the castle, the defenders of the tower would have an advantage during hand-to-hand combat, since the most powerful blow with the right hand can only be delivered from right to left, which was inaccessible to the attackers. However, if most of the men in the family were left-handed, then they built castles with a reverse twist - for example, the fortress of the Earls of Wallenstein in Germany or Fernyhurst Castle in Scotland.

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