I was watching ABC’s “Who wants to be a Millionaire” the other day. I believe it was either the 250K or maybe even the 500K question:
What is the most naturally abundant gas on Earth?
My immediate response while watching was nitrogen…my reasoning being that was since the Earths’ atmoshpere is 78% nitrogen. Of the four distractors, two were laughable, the other two were nitrogen and hydrogen.
The contestant in the chair said that he happened to know that hydrogen is the first element listed on the periodic chart, and since the elements are listed in order of lightest to heaviest, then hydrogen must be the lightest. He further speculated that since hydrogen is the lightest, then it must also be the most abundant. So, he chose hydrogen.
I’m sitting in my chair thinking “No way, how could there possibly be anything more abundant than nitrogen, since the atmosphere that surrounds the entire globe is comprised of 78% of it?”…I mean, what could compare to that?
But, he was right, the answer was hydrogen.
My question…where is all this hydrogen hiding? How could there be anything more abundant than 78% of our entire atmosphere??
I forgot to mention…Is all of the hydrogen hiding in the oceans? As the “H” in “H2O”?? Even then, it seems to me that there’s more atmoshpere than water on Earth, right? Or not?
JJ Richard
Wow. That’s interesting. I would have liked to see exactly how the question was worded. If we’re talking gas in gaseous state, it’s nitrogen, no question. The only other place gas could hide on the earth besides the atmosphere is underground, and I doubt there’s all that much there. IMHO, we can’t count dissolved gases - that would then be aqueous hydrogen, not gaseous.
H in H[sub]2[/sub]O is different. Hydrogen in compounds can’t be considered gaseous hydrogen. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that hydrogen (in compounds, like water) is the most abundent element on earth, but that sounds like a different question than what you described.
Ah, perhaps that’s it! Perhaps the question was “element”, and I thought “gas”! If indeed that is what happened, then that would be a logical explanation??
I saw that episode too. As I recall it, the question referred to the entire universe, not just Earth. I’m not positive of that, but that’s the way I remember it.
I would. Almost 90% of the mass of the water molecule is oxygen, which is therefore the most abundant element in the oceans. Nitrogen is the most abundant in the atmosphere. In the earth’s crust, aluminum is most abundant. I can’t find the exact figures, but I think that in the mantle, iron is most abundant (oxygen is not too far behind). Encyclopedia Britannica says
Are you sure? I’d always understood that oxygen was the most abundant in the crust. After all, virtually every mineral has some oxygen. Some have a lot of oxygen. Not all have aluminum.
(source: Gunter Faure, Principles and Applications of Geochemistry).
Note that the units are weight percent. Considering the light weight of oxygen compared to the next four abundant elements, the molecular percent (“parts per hundred”) would be MUCH greater.
Alas! I don’t have a handy estimate for bulk earth, but it would be a toss-up between Iron and Oxygen, since both are very abundant in the Mantle (as olivine, pyroxene, and spinel), which makes up most of the planet. (And Iron is the principle constituent of the core.) But, like I’ve said, I’m lacking the official estimate right now.
Damn, but I hate it when I’m wrong. You are right. Oxygen [461,000 ppm] and silicon [282,000 ppm] are both more abundant in the crust than aluminum [82,000 ppm].
On “Who Wants to be a Millionare” about six months ago, they did ask the question “What is the most abundant gas in the earth’s atmosphere?”
a) Hydrogen
b) Nitrogen
c) Oxygen
d) Carbon
I thought the contestant might think it was oxygen, since many people do not realize the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen. He did not know the answer so he used a “phone a friend” lifeline to call his buddy who is a high school science teacher. The science teacher’s advice was a riot: “It is definitely NOT nitrogen or oxygen. So I am certain it is either hydrogen or carbon, but I am not sure which one.” The contestant ended up guessing one of those two and of course, got it wrong. Just goes to show that you shouldn’t believe everything they teach in high school.
Well, it’s ionized gas. Plasma is electrons and nuclei floating around separately. Very different from your average gas where you have whole neutral atoms (electrons bound to nuclei) flying around. One major difference is that plasma can flow along magnetic fields but not across it - since each particle is charged, its path is bent if it tries to cross magnetic lines.
Anyway, I can understand thinking oxygen is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere, but carbon? People think carbon is a gas? Or did they say “most abundant element” and thought, since there’s a lot of CO[sub]2[/sub] around, it must be it?
