AIR

MADE BY-
BHAVIKA
DEEPIT
KRUTIKA
LAKSHAY
MALIKA
MEKHLA
 INDEX

DEFINATION OF AIR
USES OF AIR
COMPUNENTS OF AIR
OXYGEN
CARBON DIOXIDE
METHANE
ARGON
NEON
NITROGEN
POLLUTION OF AIR
 DEFINATION OF AIR

Air is the Earth's atmosphere. It is the clear gas in which living things
live and breathe. It has an indefinite shape and volume. It has
no color or smell. It has mass and weight. It is a matter as it has mass and
weight. Air creates atmosphere pressure. There is no air in
the vacuum and cosmos.
Air is a mixture of 78.03% nitrogen, 20.99% oxygen, 0.94% argon,
0.03% carbon dioxide, 0.01% hydrogen, 0.00123% Neon,
0.0004% helium,.[1]
Most living things need the oxygen in the air to live. In the human body,
the lungs give oxygen to the blood, and give back carbon dioxide to the
air.
 USES OF AIR
Air has many uses. Some of them are as follows:
1. Air contains oxygen, which is essential for life. All living things
respire by breathing in air. The air we breathe in is inhaled air. The air
we breathe out is exhaled air.
2. Air supports burning or combustion. The oxygen present in air is
essential for burning. We burn fuels to cook food, generate heat and
electricity, run industries and drive vehicles. The presence of nitrogen
reduces the activity of oxygen. If air contained mostly oxygen, even
small fires would turn into huge explosions!
3. The nitrogen present in air is essential for the growth of plants.
Plants take in nitrogen directly from the air or from the soil.
4. A layer of ozone gas present high up in the atmosphere protects us
from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun. Also during daytime, the
atmosphere prevents excessive heat from the sun from reaching us. At
night, the atmosphere traps the surface heat and prevents it from
escaping.
5. Moving air, called wind, has great force. It enables the movement of
sailboats and gliders. It runs windmills, which are used to generate
electricity. Wind also helps in the dispersal of seeds.
6. Compressed air is used in a number of ways. It is used to fill tyres.
Many machines make use of compressed air. For example, machines used
in mining and digging and the drill used by dentists work on compressed
air.
7. Carbon dioxide is taken from air by plants for photosynthesis, the
process of making their food. The air we breathe out contains carbon
dioxide. Exhaled air can be tested for the presence of carbon dioxide.
 COMPUNENTS OF AIR
There are many compunents of air such as-
OXYGEN
CARBON DIOXIDE
METHANE
ARGON
NEON
NITROGEN . The common name given to the atmospheric gases used
in breathing and photosynthesis is air. By volume, dry air contains
78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen,[1] 0.93% argon, 0.039% carbon
dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Air also contains a variable
amount of water vapor, on average around 1%. Although air content
and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers, air suitable for the
survival of terrestrial plants and terrestrial animals currently is only
known to be found in Earth's troposphere and artificial atmospheres.
 OXYGEN

Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a

member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table and is a
highlyreactive nonmetallic element and oxidizing agent that readily
forms compounds (notably oxides) with most elements.[1] By mass,
oxygen is thethird-most abundant element in the universe,
after hydrogen and helium.
Oxygen is an important part of the atmosphere, and is necessary to
sustain most terrestrial life as it is used in respiration. However, it is too
chemically reactive to remain a free element in Earth's
atmosphere without being continuously replenished by
the photosynthetic action of living organisms, which use the energy of
sunlight to produce elemental oxygen from water.
 CARBON DIOXIDE

Carbon dioxide (chemical formula CO2) is a naturally

occurring chemical compound composed of
two oxygen atoms each covalently double bonded to a
single carbon atom.

The environmental effects of carbon dioxide are of significant interest.

Carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas, absorbing heat
radiation from Earth's surface which otherwise would leave the
atmosphere. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary source of
carbon in life on Earth and its concentration in Earth's pre-industrial
atmosphere since late in the Precambrian eon was regulated
by photosynthetic organisms.
 METHANE

Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CH

4 (one atom of carbon and four atoms of hydrogen). It is the
simplest alkane and the main component of natural gas. The relative
abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel. However, because it is
a gas at normal conditions, methane is difficult to transport from its
source.
Atmospheric methane is a potent greenhouse gas (per unit, more so
than carbon dioxide[4]).
 ARGON
Argon is a chemical element with symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in
group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third most
common gas in the Earth's atmosphere. Nearly all of this argon is derived
from the decay of potassium in the Earth's crust.
Argon is produced industrially by the fractional distillation of liquid air.
Argon is mostly used as an inert shielding gas in welding and other high-
temperature industrial processes where ordinarily non-reactive substances
become reactive; for example, an argon atmosphere is used
in graphite electric furnaces to prevent the graphite from burning. Argon
gas also has uses in incandescent andfluorescent lighting, and other types of
gas discharge tubes.
 NEON

Neon is a chemical element with symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is

in group 18 (noble gases) of the periodic table. Neon is a colorless,
odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about
two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered in 1898 as one of the
three residual rare inert elements remaining in dry air,
after nitrogen, oxygen, argonand carbon dioxide are removed. Neon
was the second of these three rare gases to be discovered, and was
immediately recognized as a new element from its bright red emission
spectrum.
 NITROGEN
Nitrogen, symbol N, is the chemical element of atomic number 7.
Nitrogen is a common element in the universe, estimated at about
seventh in total abundance in our galaxy and the Solar System. On
Earth, the element is primarily found as the free element; it forms about
80% of the Earth's atmosphere. Many industrially important
compounds, such as ammonia, nitric acid,
organic nitrates (propellants and explosives), and cyanides, contain
nitrogen.
Nitrogen occurs in all organisms, primarily in amino acids (and
thus proteins) and also in the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). The human
body contains about 3% by weight of nitrogen, the fourth most
abundant element in the body after oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen.
The nitrogen cycle describes movement of the element from the air, into
the biosphere and organic compounds, then back into the atmosphere.
 POLLUTION OF AIR

Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulates, biological

materials, or other harmful materials into the Earth's atmosphere,
possibly causing disease, death to humans, damage to other living
organisms such as food crops, or the natural or built environment.
The atmosphere is a complex natural gaseous system that is essential to
support life on planet Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air
pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well
as to the Earth's ecosystems.
Indoor air pollution and urban air quality are listed as two of the
world’s worst toxic pollution problems in the 2008Blacksmith
Institute World's Worst Polluted Places report.[1]