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How is oxygen naturally found?
Oxygen is the most abundant of all elements found in nature. It occurs both as a gas and also as part of a large number of compounds. Oxygen gas is found mainly in the atmosphere, which contains approximately 21% oxygen by volume, along with 78% nitrogen and small amounts of other gases.
How did Joseph discover oxygen?
Priestley carefully studied the physical and chemical properties of many gases. Priestley was one of the first scientists who discovered oxygen. In 1774, he prepared oxygen by heating mercury oxide with a burning glass. He found that oxygen did not dissolve in water and it made combustion stronger.
Can you see oxygen?
There are few gases that humans can see. Actually, gases aren’t invisible: many are quite brightly coloured. Other gases in the atmosphere (particularly oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour) also absorb light, but at ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths that we can’t see.
How was oxygen first discovered?
An English chemist, Joseph Priestley, independently discovered oxygen in 1774 by the thermal decomposition of mercuric oxide and published his findings the same year, three years before Scheele published.
Can oxygen be made?
Oxygen can be produced from a number of materials, using several different methods. The most common commercial method for producing oxygen is the separation of air using either a cryogenic distillation process or a vacuum swing adsorption process. Nitrogen and argon are also produced by separating them from air.
How rare is oxygen in the universe?
Oxygen is the 3rd most abundant element in the Universe: about 1% of all the atoms, by mass.
Where is oxygen found and how is it obtained?
The oxygen that is found in the air is produced by photosynthesis. Without plants, there would be very little oxygen in the air. In the solar system, only the Earth has a high percentage of oxygen.
Where is oxygen found in its naturally occurring form?
In nature, singlet oxygen is commonly formed from water during photosynthesis, using the energy of sunlight. It is also produced in the troposphere by the photolysis of ozone by light of short wavelength and by the immune system as a source of active oxygen.
Who discovered oxygen first?
Oxygen was discovered for the first time by a Swedish Chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, in 1772. Joseph Priestly, an English chemist, independently, discovered oxygen in 1774 and… published his findings the same year, three years before Scheele published.
Where is oxygen found most common?
Oxygen is one of the basic chemical elements. In its most common form, oxygen is a colorless gas found in air . It is one of the life-sustaining elements on Earth and is needed by all animals.