Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a gas, chemical formula CO2, which contains the elements carbon and oxygen. It can be simply made by burning almost any organic compound (methane, alcohol, leaves, ducklings) in air. It is a component in the atmospheres of many planets, including the Earth, Mars, Venus and several others in the Solar System.Scientific information
Carbon dioxide, as analysed by mass, contains:
- 27.29% carbon
- 72.71% oxygen
It can be isolated from air as a colourless gas (density 1.9 kg m3), or as a white solid (“dry ice”) which sublimes at atmospheric pressure at about 195K. The liquid phase is inaccessible without resorting to higher pressures (>5.1 atmospheres)
It exists as a linear molecule in the gas phase. This fact, combined with the bosonic character of 16O, leads to the absence of lines corresponding to odd rotational quantum numbers in the infra-red combined vibration-rotation spectrum of the most common isotopic form of the gas, as predicted by nuclear spin statistics.
Unscientific information
Carbon dioxide is a gas. It’s in the air a bit, and I think it’s in your breath when you exhale. Trees like it.
It’s quite bad, and causes global warming somehow, so we should use our cars less. But it also makes fizzy drinks fizzy, so it can’t be that bad.
Dry ice rocks. You can put it in water and, like, white smoke pours out of the beaker, and you can pretend you’re in a horror movie or a chemistry lab or something.