What are some examples of partial pressures?
1 Answer
Nov 1, 2015
The best example is the pressure exerted by the air we breathe.
Explanation:
By Dalton's law of partial pressures, the total pressure is the sum of the partial pressures of each component in the gaseous mixture. At the moment, you and I are breathing air at a pressure of around 1 atmosphere (if you lived in Denver, would this be true?). This is composed of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, and some (increasing quantity) of carbon dioxide. Therefore we are breathing pressures of 0.78 atm