Composition of Air (Edexcel IGCSE Science (Double Award))

Composition of air

Composition of the atmosphere

• The proportion of gases in the air has not changed much in 200 million years

• The composition of the atmosphere today is:

  • About four-fifths (approximately 80%) nitrogen

  • about one fifth (approximately 20%) oxygen 

  • small proportions of other gases including carbon dioxide, water vapour and trace quantities of the noble gases

The composition of the atmosphere

The atmosphere mainly consists of nitrogen and oxygen

Finding the percentage of oxygen

• The percentage of oxygen in air can be found by reacting a metal or non-metal with the oxygen in a fixed volume of air

• One way to carry this out is to burn a small amount of phosphorus in a bell jar that is sitting in a trough of water

• Initially the water levels are the same inside and outside the jar

Finding the percentage of oxygen

The percentage of oxygen in air can be determined by burning phosphorus in air and measuring the volume change

• As the phosphorus burns it uses up the oxygen inside the bell jar and the water level rises

• By making careful measurements of water levels before and after the experiment you can determine the percentage of oxygen in the air

• Phosphorus is very suitable for this experiment as it burns readily until all the available oxygen is used up

• A disadvantage of this experiment is that phosphorus is toxic, so it is hazardous and great care must be taken to handle it safely