Oxygen is highly reactive, in proportion to the concentration. More oxygen means you need to breath less, but it's also destructive eventually, e.g. faster aging, things reacting, spontaneous fires, etc.
A human a rest is consuming about 100 Watts, up to maybe 400W with peak exercise. Our lungs are more than capable of extracting enough oxygen from our atmosphere to support that - in fact we can somewhat tolerate half that concentration.
If it's easier, think of cars. They need O2 to burn gas - they still taking in the nitrogen and what not; it just means having to aspirate and compress more gas to get enough O2 molecules. Sure, you could be more efficient by feed it pure O2, rust and autoignition issues not withstanding, but then you'd have to carry your own O2. Much better to just "steal" it from the atmosphere. This is also a reason jet engines are so much more efficient than rockets - they're "stealing" the majority of their energy.
Even better, our body does not absorb all the O2 from the air we breathe. In fact, the body only takes about 3-4 points of that 20%, meaning you breathe out 16% O2. This is why artificial respiration can keep someone alive.
Also, it is an overabundance of CO2 that causes us to breathe in and not a lack of O2.
Biology is fun!
One quick hit of O2 isn't going g to harm you. It probably isn't going to help either unless you have a reduced blood O2 level from illness or being at a high elevation or something.
Breathing 100% oxygen for more than a day or two can cause oxygen toxicity and actually harm your lungs.
Your comment was removed due to low karma
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/stupidquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
More like: At what percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere would we be totally fucked? 25%? 35%
Just imagine never holding a piece of metal that isn't rusty or looking like Mick Jagger in your 30s.
Oxygen is highly reactive, in proportion to the concentration. More oxygen means you need to breath less, but it's also destructive eventually, e.g. faster aging, things reacting, spontaneous fires, etc. A human a rest is consuming about 100 Watts, up to maybe 400W with peak exercise. Our lungs are more than capable of extracting enough oxygen from our atmosphere to support that - in fact we can somewhat tolerate half that concentration. If it's easier, think of cars. They need O2 to burn gas - they still taking in the nitrogen and what not; it just means having to aspirate and compress more gas to get enough O2 molecules. Sure, you could be more efficient by feed it pure O2, rust and autoignition issues not withstanding, but then you'd have to carry your own O2. Much better to just "steal" it from the atmosphere. This is also a reason jet engines are so much more efficient than rockets - they're "stealing" the majority of their energy.
Good one! It’s like “if the Earth is 70% water, how do we manage without gills?”
To be fair if it was mixed around evenly like the air is... We'd probably need something like gills
That is fair.
Even better, our body does not absorb all the O2 from the air we breathe. In fact, the body only takes about 3-4 points of that 20%, meaning you breathe out 16% O2. This is why artificial respiration can keep someone alive. Also, it is an overabundance of CO2 that causes us to breathe in and not a lack of O2. Biology is fun!
There’s only 5% chicken and 15% noodles in this “chicken noodle” soup. Why don’t we call it soup soup soup?
Fun fact. Breathing 100% oxygen is bad for you.
but it feels SO GOOD!.
Why though? I've breathed it a few times in a lab and it felt like my lungs were PURIFIED.
A few times, but not 24/7 for years. Oxygen is extremely reactive and would cause us to age more rapidly.
One quick hit of O2 isn't going g to harm you. It probably isn't going to help either unless you have a reduced blood O2 level from illness or being at a high elevation or something. Breathing 100% oxygen for more than a day or two can cause oxygen toxicity and actually harm your lungs.
Can u eli5 me as to how it can HARM me?
https://web.archive.org/web/20160304185511/http://humanphysiology.tuars.com/program/section4/4ch7/s4ch7_7.htm
I'm gonna pretend I understood all the sciency words on that page
20% of the planet's atmosphere is a heckin ton of oxygen, my guy.
70% of Nitrogen is even more of a heckin ton tho
21% is all you need, it's enough to breathe in and be absorbed in your lungs for processing.
[удалено]
Your comment was removed due to low karma *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/stupidquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
"Earth gravity accelerates objects at 9.8 meters per second. How can we survive the pressure created by gravity?" Because we evolved to?
We compensate by only using 20% of our brains.
You don’t need all that oxygen…
The air also contains a little bit of plutonium, but humans are actually healthiest with zero plutonium in their bodies. The more you know.
We evolved to fit the world, not the other way around. We wouldn't be us if we couldn't survive.
More like: At what percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere would we be totally fucked? 25%? 35% Just imagine never holding a piece of metal that isn't rusty or looking like Mick Jagger in your 30s.
We need oxygen, but no one said we need a ton of it.
Cause that’s all we need. 100% oxygen would kill us
Because that is how God designed our bodies to work. 🙂