1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
5 seconds doesn’t seem like a long time, 5 seconds just passed in what feels like no
time at all.
But what if the world lost oxygen for 5 seconds?
You might think that you could hold your breath for 5 seconds and life would go on as normal.
I mean, realistically, most people could hold their breath for 5 seconds, in fact, most
people can hold their breath for at least 30 seconds.
But if oxygen entirely disappeared for 5 seconds, that’s another story.
Oxygen is necessary for life on earth as we know it.
Oxygen is not only in the air we breathe.
Oxygen is in water.
Oxygen also makes up 45 percent of the earth’s crust.
Concrete relies on oxygen.
Vehicles with internal combustion engines need oxygen.
There are countless ways that life would be affected if the world lost oxygen for 5 seconds.
Today, life’s biggest questions asks, what If the world lost oxygen for 5 seconds?
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Nitrogen is the most abundant gas in the universe, but oxygen is the most vital to us.
Life as we know it could not exist without oxygen.
If the world lost oxygen in the air we breathe for 5 seconds, we likely wouldn’t even notice.
I mean maybe we might think it’s a bit weird when we cant take a breath, but we wouldn’t
die from it.
the oxygen would come back after 5 seconds, and that works out to be no more than 4 breath
attempts.
There definitely wouldn’t be mass suffocation occurring across the globe, if that’s what
you’re picturing.
But I’m not just talking about oxygen in the air, oxygen exits all around us.
If the world lost oxygen for 5 seconds, at least it would be a pretty amazing thing to
witness.
First, as soon as the oxygen was gone, the sky would become black.
We see blue skies because of oxygen particles in the atmosphere.
Without oxygen, there are fewer particles in the air, meaning fewer particles for light
to bounce off of.
This would result in a dark sky, with an extremely bright sun, and that bright sun would be nasty
as hell.
While the world lost oxygen for 5 seconds, everyone outside would suffer from devastating
sun burns.
Without oxygen, we would have no ozone layer.
The ozone layer protects us on earth from the devastating effects of the sun.
And molecular oxygen in the air also protects our skin from UV light.
Anyone outside or sun tanning on a beach while the world lost oxygen would get 2nd or even
3rd degree sun burns.
If that doesn’t sound scary enough for you, 5 seconds without oxygen would result in everyone’s
ears exploding.
Yes, your ear drum depends on oxygen.
Without oxygen, there would be far less air pressure, 21 percent less to be exact.
Whenever there’s a change in pressure, people can experience barotrauma.
You know when you’re on an airplane and the air pressure suddenly changes, and your
ears pop?
Yeah that would be way worse if there we lost oxygen, even for 5 seconds.
In fact, people wouldn’t just lose hearing or experience ear popping, ear drums would
explode.
7 billion people’s ear’s exploding simultaneously?
That definitely wouldn’t be pleasant.
And While everyone’s ear drums are exploding, they’d have to also get out of the way of
falling infrastructure and debris.
Oxygen binds the molecules in concrete together.
Without it, structures that are made out of concrete like the hoover dam, the panama canal,
the pantheon, and the burj khalifa would crumble and essentially be reduced to dust.
And after this happens, Millions of people would be stuck under the weight of the dust
from the concrete buildings.
And its not just concrete structures that will be affected.
Any untreated metal on earth would become fused together if the world lost oxygen.
Most metals have a layer of oxidation on them to prevent them from welding together.
Without the oxidation layer, metals would instantly bind to each other.
If you were driving at the time that the world lost oxygen, your vehicle would come to a
standstill while you cry from the pain of your exploding ears.
Vehicles that have internal combustion engines rely on oxygen to function.
Without it, they would simply stop working.
Without oxygen, there can’t be fire, and without fire, theres no way for engines to
burn fuel which allows them to start or keep running.
While every fire on earth simultaneously went out, Cars across the globe would stop in their
tracks.
Every car that wasn’t an electric car would be affected.
This wouldn’t be so bad for the people on the ground but what about airplanes?
There’s an average of 100 thousand flights per day, thousands take place every hour.
In the event that the earth lost oxygen for 5 seconds, the thousands of airplanes and
helicopters that were flying at the time would fall from the sky and hit the ground.
Some of these airplanes might be able to glide for the 5 seconds, but many would drop like
flies, instantly killing those aboard the plane, and also those who were unfortunate
enough to be underneath them when they crashed.
But honestly, planes wouldn’t have anything to crash into in the first place, because
the ground on earth would crumble.
Oh yeah, I forgot that little detail.
Maybe I should have lead with that.
Oxygen makes up 45% of the earths crust.
Without it, the ground below us would crumble and we would all free fall into the earth’s
core.
And lets not forget water, good ol’ h2o.
Water is made up of 1/3 oxygen.
Witthout oxygen in a water molecule, there is only hydrogen.
When oxygen is removed from a water molecule, hydrogen turns into gas, and expands in volume.
Water makes up around 71 percent of the earths surface.
Oceans hold around 96.5 percent of the earths water.
Without oxygen, every body of water would essentially evaporate instantaneously, and
without an ozone layer, the hydrogen would float up into space.
All of this wouldn’t necessarily suck that much because its not like we would be alive
when it happens, Human beings are also made up of mostly water.
Human beings and other living things would essentially vaporise without the presence
of oxygen.
Essentially, without it, our world would be an extremely dry hot place.
Thankfully, there is no way that this would ever happen.
At least, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t.
But it is fun to think about isn’t it?
For now, I’m charlotte dobre and you’ve been watching life’s biggest questions,
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