Friday, April 1, 2011

Nitrogen In Our Air

The air we breath is (by volume) roughly 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.039% carbon dioxide, with small amounts of other gases. Why do you think that nitrogen is such a large component of our atmosphere? How do you think this amount of nitrogen affects our bodies?


18 comments:

  1. Nitrogen must've been around inside or atmosphere since the beginning of time. Since Nitrogen is stable inside our atmosphere, I believe that the lack of chemical reactions caused it to build up overtime. We must get nitrogen in our bodies by inhaling it, however animals (and humans) cannot absorb nitrogen it its gas form. Nitrogen helps build proteins, and therefore could help us live longer by healing cells faster.

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  2. I believe that nitrogen is such a large compnent in our atmosphere, because it is contained in every living organism including us. I also believe that nitrogen is volatile in most of its forms, it is unreactive with materials that make up the soild earth, and it is very stable in the presence of solar radiation. This amount of nitrogen helps our digestive processes.

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  3. I think that nitrogen has a big part in our atmosphere because first every living thing including humans have nitrogen in their bodies. Nitrogen serves as a building block to proteins, which we need because they make up our skin and hair.

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  4. Nitrogen is very important to all living things; both plants and animals. Besides oxygen, nitrogen is the gas that humans need the most to live. I believe this is the reason why we have so much of it in our atmosphere.
    The reason that nitrogen is so important to living things is that it helps us plantathize, wich means give off energy. (sweating for humans)

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  5. We probaly have had nitrogen in our atmosphere for a very long time. If we didn't have nitrogen in our air we would die we need it to live. Nitrogen helps us do regular body functions.

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  6. Nitrogen just like everyone else has commented is definitely in our atmosphere. It has helped us in manners we fail to acknowledge. For example, Nitrogen is good for preserving the freshness of packaged or bulk foods, assisting in the production of electronic parts, and it is good for the manufacturing of stainless steel. Nitrogen affects our bodies by helping us in our digestive system. Our digestive system is responsible for obtaining and processing food for the all of the cells in an organism.

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  7. Nitrogen is a big part in our lives because every living organism has nitrogen in it, even humans. Nitrogen serves many purposes like it's nonreactive with solid materials that make up Earth. Nitrogen is a big part in proteins because they provide material in amino acids which organisms need to live.

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  9. Nitrogen keeps us alive. I think it is in the atmosphere because of that. We encounter nitrogen in the food we eat. Some soil bacteria can fix nitrogen into a form that plants and animals can use to make amino acids and proteins.

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  10. I think that nitrogen is a large component to our earth because it makes up nearly all of the atmosphere. So in that case we need it to breathe. I think that nitrogen helps our bodies. I believe this because nitrogen is in the air and in our bodies so i think that we could breathe easily.

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  11. Nitrogen doesnt realy do anything to our bodies besides helping our digestive system. It is just acting as a filler for the air we breathe. If the atmosphere just consisted of oxygen then what would happen if you lit a match? everything would explode because pure oxygen is highly flameable.

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  12. Just as everyone commented nitrogen has been around just as long, if not longer, than we have. There is so much nitrogen because of all of the plants on the earth. If you think back to early times of colonization where there were many more trees than today, you would realise how much nitrogen is needed. I don't believe that mitrogen harms our bodies as long as we don't breathe it without oxygen.

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  13. Nitrogen is involved with the cycle of life. There has to be a lot of it. Its in plants, animals, humans, and organic matter. I think nitrogen helps our bodies function, another reason it's so abundant in our atmosphere

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  14. Nitrogen has been around since the beginning. It like oxygen is 1 thing that we need to live. There is a lot of nitrogen because of all the plants on the earth. I think that nitrogen is essential for our bodies to function.

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  15. Nitrogen, a stable gas, probably has the highest concentration in the air due to the lack of chemicals that it would react to. It may also be because animals and humans cannot absord nitrogen in its gas state so it had the ability to build up over time. Nitrogen probably doesn't have a large effect on our bodies though.

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  16. Well it might be alright because were not dead yet.

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  18. The reasons it is so abundant in our atmosphere are these 3 reason I found:
    1. nitrogen is volatile in most of its forms
    2. nitrogen is nonreactive with materials that make up the solid earth
    3. nitrogen is very stable in the presence of solar radiation.
    This large amount of Nitrogen doesn't affect us as much as one would think. It won't affect us as a whole as of now, but i can't predict the future. But it should have little to no affect

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