What is the etymology of the word oxygen?
oxygen (n.) gaseous chemical element, 1790, from French oxygène, coined in 1777 by French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), from Greek oxys "sharp, acid" (from PIE root *ak- "be sharp, rise (out) to a point, pierce") + French -gène "something that produces" (from Greek -genes "formation, creation;" see -gen).
What is the root word of oxides?
word-forming element meaning "sharp, pointed; acid," from Greek oxys "sharp, pungent" (from PIE root *ak- "be sharp, rise (out) to a point, pierce" ). Also used as a combining form of oxygen.
Is oxygen an element or compound?
After hydrogen and helium, oxygen is the third- most abundant element in the universe by mass. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula O
What is the symbol for oxygen in the periodic table?
Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as well as with other compounds.
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What is the Greek word of oxygen?
The name "oxygen" was given by the French scientist, Lavoisier. It was derived from the Greek word "Oxygenes", which means "acid-forming". Chemistry.
Where did the word oxygen originate from?
The name comes from the Greek 'oxy genes', meaning acid forming.
What does the Greek prefix oxy mean?
sharp1. a combining form meaning “sharp,” “acute,” “keen,” “pointed,” “acid,” used in the formation of compound words: oxycephalic; oxygen; oxymoron.
Who discovered oxygen?
Joseph PriestleyAntoine LavoisierCarl Wilhelm ScheeleOxygen/Discoverers
When was the word oxygen first used?
Priestley, however, called oxygen "dephlogisticated air", and did not recognize it as a chemical element. The name oxygen was coined in 1777 by Antoine Lavoisier, who first recognized oxygen as a chemical element and correctly characterized the role it plays in combustion.
When was oxygen founded?
History. Oxygen was discovered about 1772 by a Swedish chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who obtained it by heating potassium nitrate, mercuric oxide, and many other substances.
What is the Latin word for moron?
moron (n.) Latin morus "foolish" is a loan-word from Greek. Adopted by the American Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded with a technical definition "adult with a mental age between 8 and 12;" used as an insult since 1922 and subsequently dropped from technical use. Linnæus had introduced morisis "idiocy."
Who named oxygen?
chemist Antoine LavoisierAmong them was the colorless and highly reactive gas he called "dephlogisticated air," to which the great French chemist Antoine Lavoisier would soon give the name "oxygen."
Who invented water?
Who discovered the water? It was the chemist Henry Cavendish (1731 – 1810), who discovered the composition of water, when he experimented with hydrogen and oxygen and mixed these elements together to create an explosion (oxyhydrogen effect).
Who invented oxygen and hydrogen?
1765-1774: hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen In 1766, however Henry Cavendish collected the bubbles therefore giving him the credit of the discovery.
Who discovered oxygen?
Oxygen was isolated by Michael Sendivogius before 1604, but it is commonly believed that the element was discovered independently by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, in Uppsala, in 1773 or earlier, and Joseph Priestley in Wiltshire, in 1774. Priority is often given for Priestley because his work was published first.
How is oxygen gas produced?
Oxygen gas can also be produced through electrolysis of water into molecular oxygen and hydrogen. DC electricity must be used: if AC is used, the gases in each limb consist of hydrogen and oxygen in the explosive ratio 2:1. A similar method is the electrocatalytic O. 2 evolution from oxides and oxoacids.
What are the uses of oxygen?
Common uses of oxygen include production of steel, plastics and textiles, brazing, welding and cutting of steels and other metals, rocket propellant, oxygen therapy, and life support systems in aircraft, submarines, spaceflight and diving .
How do paleoclimatologists measure oxygen 18?
Paleoclimatologists measure the ratio of oxygen-18 and oxygen-16 in the shells and skeletons of marine organisms to determine the climate millions of years ago (see oxygen isotope ratio cycle ). Seawater molecules that contain the lighter isotope, oxygen-16, evaporate at a slightly faster rate than water molecules containing the 12% heavier oxygen-18, and this disparity increases at lower temperatures. During periods of lower global temperatures, snow and rain from that evaporated water tends to be higher in oxygen-16, and the seawater left behind tends to be higher in oxygen-18. Marine organisms then incorporate more oxygen-18 into their skeletons and shells than they would in a warmer climate. Paleoclimatologists also directly measure this ratio in the water molecules of ice core samples as old as hundreds of thousands of years.
How does photosynthesis release oxygen?
Photosynthesis releases oxygen into the atmosphere, while respiration, decay, and combustion remove it from the atmosphere. In the present equilibrium, production and consumption occur at the same rate. Free oxygen also occurs in solution in the world's water bodies. The increased solubility of O.
How much oxygen is in freshwater?
At 25 °C and 1 standard atmosphere (101.3 kPa) of air, freshwater contains about 6.04 milliliters (mL) of oxygen per liter, and seawater contains about 4.95 mL per liter. At 5 °C the solubility increases to 9.0 mL (50% more than at 25 °C) per liter for water and 7.2 mL (45% more) per liter for sea water.
What is the formula for dioxygen?
At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula O. 2. Diatomic oxygen gas currently constitutes 20.95% of the Earth's atmosphere, though this has changed considerably over long periods of time.
What is the origin of the word "oxygen"?
Etymology. Borrowed from French oxygène (originally in the form principe oxygène, a variant of principe oxigine ‘acidifying principle’, suggested by Lavoisier ), from Ancient Greek ὀξύς (oxús, “sharp”) + γένος (génos, “birth”), referring to oxygen's supposed role in the formation of acids.
What is the atomic mass of oxygen?
oxygen ( countable and uncountable, plural oxygens ) The chemical element ( symbol O) with an atomic number of 8 and relative atomic mass of 15.9994. It is a colorless and odorless gas . Hypernym: chalcogen. Molecular oxygen (O 2 ), a colorless, odorless gas at room temperature, also called dioxygen . quotations ▼.
Overview
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as well as with other compounds. Oxygen is Earth's most abundant element, and after hydrogen and helium, it is the third-most abundant element in the universe. At st…
History of study
One of the first known experiments on the relationship between combustion and air was conducted by the 2nd century BCE Greek writer on mechanics, Philo of Byzantium. In his work Pneumatica, Philo observed that inverting a vessel over a burning candle and surrounding the vessel's neck with water resulted in some water rising into the neck. Philo incorrectly surmised that parts of the air in the vessel were converted into the classical element fire and thus were abl…
Characteristics
At standard temperature and pressure, oxygen is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas with the molecular formula O 2, referred to as dioxygen.
As dioxygen, two oxygen atoms are chemically bound to each other. The bond can be variously described based on level of theory, but is reasonably and simply described as a covalent double bond that results from the filling of molecular orbitals formed from the atomic orbitals of the indivi…
Biological production and role of O2
In nature, free oxygen is produced by the light-driven splitting of water during oxygenic photosynthesis. According to some estimates, green algae and cyanobacteria in marine environments provide about 70% of the free oxygen produced on Earth, and the rest is produced by terrestrial plants. Other estimates of the oceanic contribution to atmospheric oxygen are higher, while some estimates are lower, suggesting oceans produce ~45% of Earth's atmospheri…
Industrial production
One hundred million tonnes of O 2 are extracted from air for industrial uses annually by two primary methods. The most common method is fractional distillation of liquefied air, with N 2 distilling as a vapor while O 2 is left as a liquid.
The other primary method of producing O 2 is passing a stream of clean, dry air through one bed of a pair of identical zeolite molecular sieves, which absorbs the nitrogen and delivers a gas strea…
Storage
Oxygen storage methods include high-pressure oxygen tanks, cryogenics and chemical compounds. For reasons of economy, oxygen is often transported in bulk as a liquid in specially insulated tankers, since one liter of liquefied oxygen is equivalent to 840 liters of gaseous oxygen at atmospheric pressure and 20 °C (68 °F). Such tankers are used to refill bulk liquid-oxygen storage containers, which stand outside hospitals and other institutions that need large volume…
Applications
Uptake of O 2 from the air is the essential purpose of respiration, so oxygen supplementation is used in medicine. Treatment not only increases oxygen levels in the patient's blood, but has the secondary effect of decreasing resistance to blood flow in many types of diseased lungs, easing work load on the heart. Oxygen therapy is used to treat emphysema, pneumonia, some heart disorders (congestive heart failure), some disorders that cause increased pulmonary artery pres…
Compounds
The oxidation state of oxygen is −2 in almost all known compounds of oxygen. The oxidation state −1 is found in a few compounds such as peroxides. Compounds containing oxygen in other oxidation states are very uncommon: −1/2 (superoxides), −1/3 (ozonides), 0 (elemental, hypofluorous acid), +1/2 (dioxygenyl), +1 (dioxygen difluoride), and +2 (oxygen difluoride).
Water (H 2O) is an oxide of hydrogen and the most familiar oxygen compound. Hydrogen atoms are covalently …