The Atmosphere
Heard that Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe?
That's true, but then, why is there very little hydrogen gas in Earth's atmosphere?
1: It reacts with oxygen to give water, as rain.
2: Its density is very low, so other denser elements take up Earth's atmosphere instead.
3: It is very reactive, so it does not come close to other elements in the Earth's atmosphere.
4: It gains velocity very easily, so it mostly escapes out of Earth's gravitational field, leaving the Earth's atmosphere.
One of the 4 reasons above is not correct, so which one of them is it?
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
1 solution
Hydrogen is indeed very reactive, with metals and nonmetals at high temperatures.
However, Earth's atmosphere is actually not that hot. Sometimes, it can go under 0ºC!
Hence, the wrong reasoning is 3.
1 is correct, as hydrogen and oxygen make a compound which is water, and that falls as rain into the ocean and sea.
2 is correct, as hydrogen is the least densest element, so other denser elements take it up with more space.
4 is correct, as hydrogen is very light, and able to gain kinetic energy very easily and escape the gravitational force of Earth, reaching outer space.
Fun Fact: Earth loses about 3kg of Hydrogen every second!