Oxygen is a critical chemical element in our lives that keeps our body running, and anything you expect to be true. So, what if we lost oxygen for 5 seconds? It turns out that the consequences are disastrous, not hilarious.
The Effects
Even though you can hold your breath for more than 5 seconds, the loss of oxygen for that time can greatly harm your health. Have you ever experienced your ears being uncomfortable when the plane is climbing? Well, the feel is generally the same, although it is much more painful. The sudden pressure loss can rupture your eardrum, which can hinder your ability to hear! Therefore, don’t expect to hear anything after that!
Also, you should’ve got severe sunburns if you were outdoors at that time. That’s because ozone is the protective layer of UV rays. Without that, all animals risk sunburns!
Furthermore, all non-electric vehicles would stop working because oxygen is an essential element of combustion. Cars would stall amid the street, and planes would fall from the sky. Rockets would fail to launch, and we would lose a good chunk of electricity. So, the lack of oxygen really causes inconvenience, but that is the least of our worries.
Non-surprisingly, water evaporates without oxygen. This is because water is H2O, which is what you learnt at school. If you took the oxygen out, it would lose a whopping 87.5% of its mass! Even worse, the hydrogen remaining would fly off into space due to its state at this temperature. But, this is not the worst for Earth, because the loss of oxygen can easily damage it irreversibly!
Do you remember the composition of Earth’s crust back at school? It’s 46% oxygen! So, without the element, the crust would collapse along with the mantle because it is also mostly oxygen. Now that you can stand firmly on the ground, see rocket launches and airplane landings, it’s all thanks to the element.
Also, remember that the atmosphere is 21% oxygen. Although the figure isn’t as abundant as nitrogen’s, it is the most significant gas on Earth. Without that, animals, plants, and even buildings would suffer to live. Oh, don’t forget that more than half of our mass is oxygen, so we would be immediately deceased upon the oxygen loss.
Other Properties
You see, our Earth would be distinctly different without oxygen. So, many people may be curious about what other properties this powerful element has.
First of all, there are two well-known allotropes of oxygen, which are oxygen and ozone respectively. They are all gases at room temperature. Also, as said before, oxygen is the crucial ingredient of combustion. Have you ever seen a video of Barium Burning Underwater? It didn’t produce any flames because there is no oxygen there. This is also the reason why we need special equipment to breathe underwater.
Oxygen has 2 natural isotopes, both of which are stable. Moreover, they are a step to a supernova of a massive star. It fuses oxygen into sulfur and silicon, and they can fuse iron and nickel. It is also a quite active element, so it can catch on fire quite easily with a heater. You can deeply feel that in This Video.
So, be grateful that oxygen exists at all, and it doesn’t go absent for even a second.
Credits
- What if, “What If the World Lost Oxygen for Five Seconds?”, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdt85jgRHt0
- Bright Side, “What If the Earth Lost Oxygen for Just 5 Seconds?”, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLbLqz6Dt6s