Help Settle An Argument?

jcb33

jcb33

jcb33

Soldato
Joined
11 Apr 2003
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Notts
Hey all, was watching Total Recall last night with some of my friends, and when the planet was filled with oxygen, the sky turned blue, to which me and a friend thought would not happen.

However another friend said yes it would, oxygen would cause an ozone layer to form, and because oxygen has twice as many atoms as other things it causes the sunlight to refract in a way that turns the sky blue.

Now I could be mistaken, but I am thinking that the sky would remain the same colour.... Who would be right? Why?

Thanks!
Jcb33.
 
In a film which includes a woman with 3 breasts you and your friends were having a discussion about the ozone layer?
 
I like the bit at the end when the screen goes white - supposed to be when Quaid gets a lobotomy as the whole story has been a fantasy in his own mind.
 
Azagoth said:
If they filled the atmosphere with just oxygen then they'd most probably all die.
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True (in more than one way?)

no nitrogen in the atmosphere = KABOOM!

if an atmosphere was filled with just Oxygen, the smallest spark anywhere in the atmosphere would cause the whole thing to ignite

Nitrogen acts as a "buffer" to stop this happening. That's why our Atmosphere has like 76% Nitrogen

Go GCSE Science :)
 
marin said:
I like the bit at the end when the screen goes white - supposed to be when Quaid gets a lobotomy as the whole story has been a fantasy in his own mind.
Click to expand...

Although that is meant to be the case, i find it hard to believe its all a dream when some of the scenes in the film dont have quaid in them. You would hardly have a dream about something you're not involved in....surely it would all have to be first person and only show things he would see and hear?
 
Does Mars even have enough mavity (.38 that of Earth's) to keep the lighter elements down? I thought it wouldn't be capable for the same reason the Moon can't have an atmosphere: hydrogen, helium, oxygen, etc. just float into space.

edit: got that answer from the Wiki:
the Wiki said:
The scale height of the atmosphere, about 11 km, is higher than Earth's (6 km) due to the lower mavity.
Click to expand...
 
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David91 said:
True (in more than one way?)

no nitrogen in the atmosphere = KABOOM!

if an atmosphere was filled with just Oxygen, the smallest spark anywhere in the atmosphere would cause the whole thing to ignite

Nitrogen acts as a "buffer" to stop this happening. That's why our Atmosphere has like 76% Nitrogen

Go GCSE Science :)
Click to expand...

I think you'll find that's Hydrogen mate. Oxygen doesn't ignite. :)
 
Oxygen is an oxidant, not a fuel. It's not the Oxygen that combusts.

[Edit] Apparantly it will if it's very dense - but I still stand by my statement that an Oxygen filled atmosphere will not combust.
 
Tute said:
Oxygen is an oxidant, not a fuel. It's not the Oxygen that combusts.
Click to expand...

true, but in a pure oxygen environment things that would not normaly act as a fuel can act like it. Like an oxygen tank, if its empty, the metal casing/plastic tubing wouldnt ignite, but with oxygen in it, a spark will ignite it, with the oxygen being the oxidiser and the metal being the fuel.
 
Dist said:
true, but in a pure oxygen environment things that would not normaly act as a fuel can act like it. Like an oxygen tank, if its empty, the metal casing/plastic tubing wouldnt ignite, but with oxygen in it, a spark will ignite it, with the oxygen being the oxidiser and the metal being the fuel.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but it's not the Oxygen that burns. Like Telescopi said, it simply helps.

oxygen is highly flammable
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This is wrong. :)
 
the oxygen concentration doesn't have to increase much before spontaneous ignition becomes very likely - i can't remember the exact figure but its pretty low, possibly as low as 30% oxygen (lots of fires in earth history when O2 levels were higher).

as for the colour of the sky - thats a tricky one - the colour of the sky is due to Rayleigh scattering, which is elastic scattering by molecules/atoms smaller than the wavelength of light. Mars doesn't have the mavity of earth and its atmosphere is at a very low pressure and is made up of carbon dioxide AFAIK. Fill it with nitrogen and oxygen and maybe it will be bluer???
 
Azagoth said:
If they filled the atmosphere with just oxygen then they'd most probably all die.
Click to expand...

Yeah, AFAIK oxygen is poisonous is high concentrations.

EDIT: Apparently it depends on the pressure of the oxygen as well.
 
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