# Why is water heavier than air?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-water-heavier-than-air/828143>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 21, 2019, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-water-heavier-than-air/828143 "2019-01-21T08:53:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-water-heavier-than-air/828143/41 "2019-01-22T21:59:21Z")

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> [@Colophon](#):
>
> Well, carbon is lighter than both nitrogen and oxygen, so that shouldn’t be too surprising 🙂

Ah, yes. A suitable “gotcha”. Everyday folk think of carbon a that black stuff after a fire. So kind of dense. But with Science! we know it’s not really heavy.

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