Question: If there was one tree left on earth and you were 2 m away from it... How long could you survive on that little oxygen?

Asked by pas0002 to Eleanor, Mia, Sam on 5 Sep 2013.

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  1. Photo: Sam AskinSam Askin
    answered on 5 Sep 2013:

    Hey pas0002 that’s a really interesting question! I had a bit of a look around. The answer is a bit tricky because we don’t breathe pure oxygen, which is what trees make. We breathe mostly nitrogen and only just over 20% oxygen. So Let’s say that the air has no oxygen, but has the nitrogen and carbon dioxide and other things in it we normally breathe. If the oxygen from the tree mixed with the air to make just the right mix we usually breathe then…

    We could probably survive a while! An average tree that is big and say 12m tall, 2 tonnes (I have found this online) will produce about 100kg of oxygen per year. As a human, you will breathe about 9.5 tonnes of air a year. Wow, I didn’t know that! But only 23% of that is oxygen. This means we use a tiny bit less than 6kgs of oxygen per day! So how far will that tree get us…

    At 6 kg per day oxygen, we could survive next to that tree for about 1 hour! Yikes! Hold your breath!

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  2. Photo: Mia ZericMia Zeric
    answered on 5 Sep 2013:

    Pas0002, well done on coming up with such a complicated question.
    I honestly think that Sam got most it. I also think that the answer to this question will depends also on the amount of oxygen that was already available in the air!
    If you stood downwind of the tree or went and climbed into its branches you might survive a little longer – but would you want to in a world with only one
    tree? :S

    If it was just you and the tree and normal amount of gasses, the tree would outlive you but you would still live for a LONG LONG time! 🙂

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Comments

  1. Photo: SamSam
    commented on 5 Sep 2013:

    This question was so good it made me keep thinking even after I answered it… And I just wanted to make something clear about my answer. That 1 hour you could survive would be if the tree had produced a whole day of its oxygen. If there was NO oxygen in the air and you and the tree started from scratch… You would die pretty quickly because you use oxygen way faster than the tree produces it! About 20 times faster!

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  2. Photo: MiaMia
    commented on 5 Sep 2013:

    Pas0002, can I add another parameter? Is there water around?

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    • Photo: pas0002pas0002
      commented on 6 Sep 2013:

      Hey Mia! Thanks for your answer! To your question yes there is a lake about 10m away 🙂 sorry I forgot to mention that :S

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