Random thought

Soldato
Joined
3 May 2012
Posts
9,977
Location
Wetherspoons
Forgive my obvious lack of scientific knowledge through this post, I am sure some of you guys that are smarter than I am can pick up the slack.

I was on my walk today thinking about breathing.

So, we all think of the energy our bodies use as the food we eat, you eat a biscuit, it contains X calouries which is the energy your body uses, you burn X amount of calouries a day.

But, what about oxygen?

I guess most of us know that Oxygen is full of energy, if you take a bottle of pure oxygen, its highly flammable. I am guessing its possible to measure the amount of energy burning oxygen creates (in joules maybe?)

I am guessing then the same thing is happening in your body when you breath in, your body takes the Oxygen to your organs and muscles etc, where it is burned (sort of) and produces co2. This, then just like burning pure oxygen, must release energy that we can measure?

So, if I am on track so far....

Could we then find out the average volume of oxygen a human breathes in, say during a day. And then can we work out the equivalent amount of energy that is used?

And then, can we somehow compare that to the amount of energy we get through food, eg 2000 colouries a day = an amount of energy, vs the amount we get through breathing?
 
Is well known and established fact that breathing properly and performing’ breathing exercises’ increase s overall well being and imprints cognitive and physical performance
 
Forgive my obvious lack of scientific knowledge through this post, I am sure some of you guys that are smarter than I am can pick up the slack.

I was on my walk today thinking about breathing.

So, we all think of the energy our bodies use as the food we eat, you eat a biscuit, it contains X calouries which is the energy your body uses, you burn X amount of calouries a day.

But, what about oxygen?

I guess most of us know that Oxygen is full of energy, if you take a bottle of pure oxygen, its highly flammable. I am guessing its possible to measure the amount of energy burning oxygen creates (in joules maybe?)

I am guessing then the same thing is happening in your body when you breath in, your body takes the Oxygen to your organs and muscles etc, where it is burned (sort of) and produces co2. This, then just like burning pure oxygen, must release energy that we can measure?

So, if I am on track so far....

Could we then find out the average volume of oxygen a human breathes in, say during a day. And then can we work out the equivalent amount of energy that is used?

And then, can we somehow compare that to the amount of energy we get through food, eg 2000 colouries a day = an amount of energy, vs the amount we get through breathing?

I can see you've got some misunderstanding here. Oxygen isn't flammable, it's an oxidizer, which is one of the two things needed in combustion. "Burning" is just a chemical reaction between a fuel and oxygen that happens to release energy. That energy is released when the oxygen bonds with the fuel. The calorific content of the fuel is just how much of the fuel can bond with the oxygen.
 
I guess most of us know that Oxygen is full of energy, if you take a bottle of pure oxygen, its highly flammable.


Umm.. no.

Oxygen is highly reactive, but you can't normally burn oxygen. Things can burn in the presence of oxygen (under normal conditions before any chemist comes in).
 
You have some fundamentals wrong. Oxygen isn't flammable and doesn't "have" energy. It's an oxidiser (heh).

A good video on how weight loss vs our biology:


 
Someone for the love of God hurry up and make a joke using the word oxymoron before my head explodes. I would but I can't think of a way of doing it without implying OP really is a moron (which isn't what I think and would be insulting anyway), yet I still want to make the joke. Help :o
 
Is this one of those cases where you wish you could go back in time and administer a clip round the ear to your younger self followed by the words "pay attention in school you lazy little snot" ?

It would be an oxymoron though: because if you did it, the need to have done it would no longer apply.
 
Forgive my obvious lack of scientific knowledge through this post, I am sure some of you guys that are smarter than I am can pick up the slack.

I was on my walk today thinking about breathing.

So, we all think of the energy our bodies use as the food we eat, you eat a biscuit, it contains X calouries which is the energy your body uses, you burn X amount of calouries a day.

But, what about oxygen?

I guess most of us know that Oxygen is full of energy, if you take a bottle of pure oxygen, its highly flammable. I am guessing its possible to measure the amount of energy burning oxygen creates (in joules maybe?)

I am guessing then the same thing is happening in your body when you breath in, your body takes the Oxygen to your organs and muscles etc, where it is burned (sort of) and produces co2. This, then just like burning pure oxygen, must release energy that we can measure?

So, if I am on track so far....

Could we then find out the average volume of oxygen a human breathes in, say during a day. And then can we work out the equivalent amount of energy that is used?

And then, can we somehow compare that to the amount of energy we get through food, eg 2000 colouries a day = an amount of energy, vs the amount we get through breathing?


Energy is released by making new bonds and absorbed to break a bond.


Oxygen exists O2 so breaking it into O to react takes some energy


Then that O is combined with a C to make co2.

O2 has 2 bonds co2 has 4 so overall energy is released. Your body then does a lot of insanely complicated stuff to harvest that energy but the basic is no oxygen you breath costs energy rather than providing it.

The energy comes from the glucose


M2U2-Fig2.30%20Single%20Double%20Triple%20Bonds.png



*awaits @Nitefly for corection
 
Is this one of those cases where you wish you could go back in time and administer a clip round the ear to your younger self followed by the words "pay attention in school you lazy little snot" ?

It would be an oxymoron though: because if you did it, the need to have done it would no longer apply.
My man :cool:
 
OP did you know
The People from Bajau Tribe Can Hold Their Breath Underwater for 13 Minutes, they actively fish as well don't just stay still for 13minutes.
you probably can't even hold your breathe for 2minutes
 
Probably because they've trained for it
their bodies adapted to have a bigger spleen.

I wonder if it's in their genes are just how their body grows from them holding their breathe a lot and training it like a muscle.

your spleen basically stores oxygen rich blood cells and releases them when needed.

there's another tribe whos eyes adjust to see better under water (moken people I think)
their pupil can go smaller than a normal humans I think it was 1.5mm vs 2.4mm
 
Back
Top Bottom