Properties of air

describes the basics of properties and composition of air for non science

1. Properties of Air Prof.Anu Swedha A Department of Microbiology, Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College for Women, Chennai

2. Air Air is something which we can only feel and not touch. Air is completely invisible and inevitable. It plays the most important part of our life that is being essential for breathing. Air  is a mixture of gases, 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen with traces of water vapor, carbon dioxide, argon, and various other components.

3. Definition of air Air is a homogenous mixture of different gases like oxygen, nitrogen, water vapor, carbon dioxide, etc. Air itself exists in gaseous form.  Air can be stored and is very vital for our breathing. Life does not exist in outer space due to the absence of air. The atmosphere of the earth contains air. Different types of gases are present in the air.

4. Properties Of Air 1. Air is colorless and odorless :  Air does not have any color of its own it is transparent. It neither has any smell of its own. But sometimes some gases mix with air to give us good or bad smell.

5. 2.  Air can be felt Air can only be felt as the wind. It cannot be seen or tasted but can be breathed. The air that goes into our body carries in oxygen and the air that comes out carries out carbon dioxide gas.

6. Air exerts pressure Particles of airflow in all directions and force are exerted which is called pressure. The closer we get towards earth the atmospheric pressure increases due to the weight of air particles .

7. Air occupies space Air, when blown, fills up the empty space therefore they occupy space. You can see this in the example of blowing a balloon. The more air you blow the more it will expand due to the volume occupied by air.

8. 6.  Air has mass Air has mass/weight There is a misconception that air might be a massless object. But, the air has weight and due to the gravitational pull of Earth, the air present at the surface of the Earth is denser than at high altitudes. That is why you find it difficult to breathe at higher altitudes.

9.     Air expands Air has a property to expand, on heating it expands and occupies space the more it expands the thinner it becomes.

10. Air is made up of gases Air consists of a number of gases like nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, argon, carbon dioxide, etc. The compositions might vary according to local conditions like volcanic eruptions, factories, and other human activities.

11. Composition Of Air: 1 . Nitrogen: About 78% of nitrogen is present in the air. It is a very vital component of air. It is inert in nature which is why it doesn’t affect us even though ~80% of the air we breathe is nitrogen. It is a very important component for plants and is fixated and recycled through the geochemical nitrogen cycle. 2. Oxygen:  About 22% of oxygen is present in the air. It is a vital component for sustaining life on planet Earth. 3. Argon( Ar ) : About 1% of argon is present in air. It is another inert gas . All these major gases (nitrogen, oxygen, and argon) make up around 99.6% of dry air in the atmosphere. 4. Other gases The rest 0.4% of air is covered by other minor gases like Carbon dioxide[~0.4 %], Neon[~0.08%], Helium [~0.005%], Krypton[~0.0001%], hydrogen[0.00005%], and trace amounts of xenon gas. 5. Other components in the air include  Sulfur dioxide, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide, iodine, carbon monoxide,  and ammonia

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