Air

[boris_73]

if Air contains 78% nitrogen and only 21% oxygen why are we not nitrogen based life forms instead of being oxygen based life forms is it because the gasses have different weights so nitrogen is much higher up in the atmosphere

[YT2095]

Nitrogen is largely "Inert" and doesn`t form many coumpounds like Oxygen can or carbon.

most Nitrogen compounds are great for Pyro, that really WOULD make smoking bad for your health!

[LucidDreamer]

Oxygen is a key component cellular respiration. Cellular respiration is the process where food is broken down into energy. Oxygen plays its part by being the last component in a chain where an electron is passed down a line of increasingly more powerful oxidizing molecules. It is necessary to have a very powerful oxidizing agent that the end of the chain and oxygen it a more powerful oxidizing agent than Nitrogen.

[boris_73]

Oxygen is a key component cellular respiration. Cellular respiration is the process where food is broken down into energy. Oxygen plays its part by being the last component in a chain where an electron is passed down a line of increasingly more powerful oxidizing molecules. It is necessary to have a very powerful oxidizing agent that the end of the chain and oxygen it a more powerful oxidizing agent than Nitrogen.

yes i knew that, but still how come the other 78% of nitrogen has no effect on us

[swansont]

yes i knew that, but still how come the other 78% of nitrogen has no effect on us

 

Go SCUBA diving and don't decompress and I think you might change your assessment of "no effect on us"

[swansont]

Nitrogen is largely "Inert" and doesn`t form many coumpounds like Oxygen can or carbon.

 

To be more precise' date=' it's N[sub']2[/sub] that's more or less inert, due to the triple bond - there are few reactions that would release energy. Nitrogen compounds are important for many reactions, but AFAIK N₂ is the product, not a reactant.

[LucidDreamer]

yes i knew that, but still how come the other 78% of nitrogen has no effect on us

Ah, then as the others have pointed out N2 is rather inert. Also, animals do not produce the enzymes to use it in the capacity that oxygen is used. If we had a set of enzymes that used the gas N2 then we would see more of an effect (ignoring NO and other non N2 nitrogen-based reactions).

[boris_73]

Go SCUBA diving and don't decompress and I think you might change your assessment of "no effect on us"

thats due to the high pressure under taken the further you dive down they also use helium in some case's thats why you need nitrogen for scuba diving thats completly different to standard atmospheric pressure

[Primarygun]

Plant likes to get more nitrogen for their growth, like making the protein.

Therefore, it needs to absorb the nitrogen essentially by itself.

It obtain it from ammonia but not gas form. It's because nitrogen has a very strong bonding and large amount of energy is required to split it.