Why is there so little oxygen in air?

Why is there so little oxygen in air? I really want to know. Why, as one of the most complicated forms of life on earth are we so dependent upon such an impure gas? And, if we have to be reliant on breathing, why is it that we rely on one of the lesser available elements in this gas. Surely we would be better off using something such as nitrogen, one of the more prevalant gases in air. In fact why do we need to breath? Why can't we just absorb ALL our necessary nutrients from our food, or better still just pick it up at birth?

 

better still why are we not green an absorb sun light

 

We don't absorb sunlight because we dont contain enough chlorophyll hence we aren't green. Perhaps you would didn't realise that this is why we aren't green!

 

Does it matter? It's worked fine so far, why re-invent the wheel?

 

well then you should know that we need oxygen to oxidize the carbohydrates to produce the energy to move and live

 

This leads to 2 questions.

1. Is living really worth all this effort in breathing, moving as such like.
2. Why are we stuck with such a peculiar method of transporting energy to our muscles (by the way i would like to add that i have an AK47 pointed at my head and i am scared?)

 

1)I don't know I never tried living any other way, though I here some dude in india has not eaten for 50 years, could be another conspiracy by our governments making us breath.

2)It all has to do with that first microganism, went down hill from there.

also threaten to shoot yourself will not make me type faster.

 

i must add i am not aiming at myself but being held against my will and being forced to drink increasing amounts of alchoholic substances. I have been trapped here since 6:30 last night and am looking for a method of escape which does not include breathing.

 

why not? lol xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Dont you have biology classes? The ratio of oxygen is not less or much. It's just right (thinking human centric, it might (have) be(en) too less or much for the dinosaurs). If there were more oxygen in the air, than nitrogen and CO2, then we would literally burn.

Oxygen is a very flammable gas. We burn the nutrients in food with it.
How?
Here's a simple answer: We eat and digest the nutrients and send them to our bowels. With the chemicals in it, bowels break these food particules into much smaller forms which are absorbed by the cells. These cells use the oxygen in blood and mix it with water (it also has oxygen it it), glucose (sugar) and CO2 and turn it into ATP (a chemical form of energy) and send and store it in the mitochondria that they have ("a cellular battery"). Thats why food with glucose -sugar- give us rather more energy.

By the way, oxygen is not relatively less in nature. Almost everything can bind with oxygen becuase oxygen has very loose atomic binding (less cohesion within) and gives out its subatomic elements (electrones i suppose) easier than most other atoms.The action of giving out an atom's elements to another one is called forming a molecule. For eg. oxygen gives out its elements (or carbon attracts oxygen's elements) and they form the gas carbondioxide. That is
1 carbon and (di=two) oxygen atoms= CO2

Now a question for you: What happens if a Hydrogen atom, attracts 2 Oxygen atoms. What do we call it?

Ps: There's a hint in bowels

And a word of advice: dont go with the question "WHY?" go with the question "HOW?"

 

I have no idea but I don't think it would be very stable

 

actually i asked the question wrong it should be 2 hydrogen atoms attracting 1 oxygen :&

 

Hehehe.

Then you'd get water. Or Dihydrogen Oxide if you want to be all scientifical

Good old GCSE science.

 

it's kinda amusing how everyone's just ignoring this guy...
does anyone know if he's still alive?
jaz

 

Yeah he's alright ... I know him. He's just a bit of a nob.

 

ok cool thats alright then.

 

Here's a question for you.
If there is so little oxygen then where do we get the oxygen to fill all of those tanks?

 

there isnt so little oxygen. 70% of the Earth is covered with water.

 

*scratches head confuzzedly*

 

well, water means H2O where O stands for an oxygen atom.