AIR

Hello internet. The last time I posted, it was about water. Today I'm going to talk about air.

Now, when people say "air", they mean oxygen (usually). But when they say "air" as in "the air in Earth's atmosphere", it's a lot more than oxygen. Air is mainly composed of mainly nitrogen, oxygen, and other trace gases (carbon dioxide, argon, methane, etc.). Let's talk about nitrogen first.

Liquid Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element with symbol N and atomic number 7. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and constitutes 78.09% of the Earth's atmosphere. Nitrogen is a common element in the universe, estimated at about seventh in total abundance in our galaxy and the Solar System. Nitrogen is far less common on the rocky planets of the inner Solar System, and it is a relatively rare element on Earth as a whole. One of the most interesting factors of nitrogen is its liquid form. Liquid nitrogen acts as a cyrogenic liquid. Liquid nitrogen boils at -195.8°C. Liquid nitrogen is sometimes used as a refrigerant, like the purpose as dry ice (more on that later).

Liquid oxygen. Beautiful, huh?

Now then, we move on to oxygen. Oxygen is essential for life, but a wise man said "There are many things are good, but too much of those things are bad". Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς (oxys) ("acid", literally "sharp", referring to the sour taste of acids) and -γόνος (-gοnos) ("producer", literally "begetter"), because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless, odorless, tasteless  gas with the formula O₂. This substance is an important part of the atmosphere, and is necessary to sustain most terrestrial life. As a liquid, oxygen is a beautiful pale blue liquid. If you want to learn about carbon dioxide, click here. If you want to learn about argon, click here.

Interesting fact of the day: On December 16th, 1811, the mighty Mississippi river began to flow backwards due to a powerful earthquake.