Kunal Chawla On Do We Breathe Out Oxygen? Yes

    • Kunal Chawla
    • Publish Date: Aug 22 2017 2:20PM
    • |
    • Updated Date: Aug 22 2017 2:20PM
Kunal Chawla On Do We Breathe Out Oxygen? Yes


When I was in school I learned that, "we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide." As I learned more, I discovered that that statement is mostly wrong.

Have a look at this graph, which shows the things that make up the air around us. 


Air mostly contains Nitrogen. 78% of every breath we inhale has Nitrogen gas. The strange thing is that our body just does not use this gas at all. We will soon see that we breathe out almost all of the Nitrogen that we took in.

About 21% of the air around us is oxygen. Thus about 21% of every breath we take is also oxygen. Now unlike Nitrogen, our body really needs oxygen. We all know that we eat food to get energy. Oxygen is needed to convert the food we eat into energy for our body.


So this statement, "we breathe in oxygen," is wrong. The more accurate statement would be that we breathe in the air around us. And that air contains mostly Nitrogen and some Oxygen.

Now let us look at what we breathe out or exhale. Here is a chart that shows the mixture of gases we breathe out.



The biggest section in the chart, shown here in blue, represents Nitrogen. About 78% of the air we breathe out is Nitrogen. As you can see this is similar to the amount of Nitrogen we inhaled. Our body does not use Nitrogen gas present in the air around us.

Now the green section in this graph is really interesting as it tells us that we breathe out oxygen. With every breath you and I exhale, oxygen gas is coming out of your body. 


About 16% of every breath we exhale is oxygen. Compare this with the oxygen we took in; remember from our first graph that 21% of each breath we inhale is oxygen. So our body uses some of the oxygen inhaled (to convert food to energy) and then breathes out the rest.


We also breathe out carbon dioxide. 6% of every breath we exhale is carbon dioxide. Therefore this statement , "we breathe out carbon dioxide," is wrong. A more accurate statement would be that "we exhale mostly nitrogen, some oxygen and a little bit of carbon dioxide."


Now that I am a teacher, I realise that some of the things I had learned in school were wrong. I have also learned that learning continuously is a part of life. In that spirit, I am now curious about the following:

 - Why does Nitrogen exist in the air, especially when we don't need it?

 - What would I breathe in if I were on Mars?

 - What would happen if the level of oxygen on earth increased from 21% to 50%?


What are you curious about?


About the author

Kunal Chawla is the co-founder of ChaleesMin.School — an online space that helps middle school students in India master science topics in 40 minutes or less. Kunal has also made online courses with Google, Udacity and MIT that have reached over 2 million learners worldwide. 


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Comments

Himanshi Dhawan Saffron Public School

I am astound to know this! It was taught of us that we breathe in oxygen. People like Kunal Chawla are justifying the very famous saying of Gautam Buddha, "Don''t follow the teacher and the curriculum blindly".

Hemalatha.G Sethu Bhaskara Matriculation Higher Secondary Scho

Wow! I was aware that we breath out oxygen just because we inhale it. But this process is so interesting. That''s amazing! There are do many things we learn wrongly from our school! I learnt somewhere that the shape of earth is not exactly spherical. I''m not sure, but that feels great!

Hemalatha.G Sethu Bhaskara Matriculation Higher Secondary Scho

What if humans where able to see ultra rays?

Aikya Oruganti Epistemo Global - Vikas Leadership School

intresting

Aikya Oruganti Epistemo Global - Vikas Leadership School

but is it proved

Ronit.R National Hill View Public School

The question that bothers me a lot is what if the level of nitrogen decreases and carbon-Di-oxidee decreases and the level of oxygen increases

JONATHAN HENRY AIR FORCE SCHOOL JALAHALLI EAST

Ther would practically be no change.But if nitrogen content in the air is decreased it would affect the growth of plants of plants and eventually us as the plants need nitrogen for the development of their protien.

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