What is air?

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Have you ever learned about what a gas is? A gas is the special state something is in when it’s not a liquid and it’s not a solid. Gases can be hard to understand because you usually can’t see them and you can’t hold them the way you could with things that are solid or liquid. With gases, you often might not even know when one is there!  

The air on Earth is made up of exactly that: Gases that you can’t see or feel, but are there even though you might not always realize it! 

The air in Earth’s atmosphere is made up of a few different gases. A tiny bit of it is made up of a variety of gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor (which is the name of the gas-state of water!), but most of it is made of nitrogen (about 78%) and oxygen (about 21%). While these two words might just sound like silly-sounding names, they are both types of elements, which refers to special types of substances that cannot be broken down into anything smaller. 

Having air in our atmosphere that is made up of these specific substances is part of what makes life on Earth possible! The oxygen in the air is what humans breathe in. When we breathe out, the air has become carbon dioxide. Plants then take in and use this carbon dioxide to help them make sugars to use for food, which they then release as the oxygen we can breathe! 

The air up there!

Have you ever seen pictures of astronauts in outer-space? Unlike here on Earth, there is no oxygen in outer-space for the astronauts to breathe so they must wear special suits with oxygen tanks to help them breathe! 

Do you know one of the biggest differences between fish and humans? – While both creatures need oxygen to breathe, fish use their gills to get this oxygen from water, while humans (and lots of other creatures) use their lungs to get this oxygen from air! – Neat!!