Does Air Have Mass And Volume

If there is no wind we do not notice the air. But billions of molecules of gas constantly hitting the people and everything else on Earth.

For example, a typical molecule of nitrogen at room temperature has a speed of 1660 km/h. These gas molecules full of energy keeps Earth’s gravity, otherwise it would just go into space (and some go, especially they easiest, who from the top of the boundary layer of the atmosphere fly away in an unknown direction). The air on Earth contains 78.08% of nitrogen molecules, then 20.95% of oxygen molecules, and the rest are other gases.

Weight of air is measured by the size of the pressure which it operates on objects on Earth. In any average point of the Earth’s surface, air pressure on every square inch is force of about 0.85 kg. However, the higher altitude, the air is rarer. High in the mountains, at 5486 meters, the air pressure is twice smaller, only 0,428 kg/cm2. What is an atmospheric pressure?

Living world on Earth has evolved to be comfortable to live on the surface or close to it, with air pressure just as many as it is. Some ocean animals and plants have evolved to withstand much more pressure in the depths under the joint weight of the atmosphere and ocean.

Other planets have an atmosphere that weighed different, or almost have no atmosphere. For example, Mercury has a rare, barely discernible atmosphere composed mainly of gaseous sodium. Venus is shrouded in a thick layer of deadly gas carbon dioxide. If a man tried to walk by a plain on Venus would feel like to walk on the bottom of the pool. Weight of air would literally devastating – over 75 kg/cm2.

Jupiter, the gas giant in the outer part of the solar system, has an atmosphere whose air pressure is even higher – 86.8 kg/cm2. In contrast, the air on Mars, which is also composed mainly of molecules of carbon dioxide, is very rare. If a man standing on the surface of Mars, the atmosphere would be on every square inch of his body work by force of barely 0,058 kg. Read also this article Microbes In The Atmosphere – Bacteria Control Weather!