It is a known fact that water is made up of oxygen and hydrogen,
however, when we go underwater, why do we require an oxygen cylinder and why
are we unable to breathe under water? In contrast, fishes can live only in
water although they also breathe oxygen for their survival. Have you thought
about this mystery?
Everyday Chemistry
- Why Can't We Breathe Underwater?
We have all grown
up watching films that shows actors using oxygen cylinder under water. But do
you know why we are unable to breathe under water while fishes live in water
while they also need oxygen for survival? Read on to uncover this mystery...
Why can't we
breathe underwater?
If hydrogen and
oxygen gas come together, they form H2O. The reason we cannot breathe liquid
water is because the oxygen that is used to make the water is bound to two
hydrogen atoms, and we cannot breathe the resulting liquid. The oxygen is
useless to our lungs in this form.
Fish
"breathe" oxygen dissolved in water with the help of their gills. It
turns out that extracting the oxygen is not very easy as air has approximately
20 times more oxygen in it than the same volume of water. Also, water is a lot
heavier and thicker than air and hence it takes a lot more work to move it
around. The main reason why gills work for fish is the fact that fishes are
cold-blooded and this reduces their oxygen demands. Warm-blooded animals like whales
breathe air just like we humans do as it is hard to extract enough oxygen using
their gills.
Humans cannot
breathe underwater because our lungs do not have enough surface area to absorb
enough oxygen from water, and the lining in our lungs is adapted to handle air
rather than water. However, there have been experiments with humans breathing
other liquids like fluorocarbons. Fluorocarbons can dissolve enough oxygen and
our lungs can draw the oxygen out.
The most important
thing to understand here is how the same chemicals react in different ways with
one another. For instance, if you combine carbon, hydrogen and oxygen together,
one reaction can give you glucose, which is C6H12O6 and the same
chemicals in another reaction can give you vinegar, which is C2H4O2.
http://humantouchofchemistry.com/why-cant-we-breathe-underwater.htm
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