How Long Would Air Last In A Car (And Why)?

How Long Would Air Last In A Car (And Why)?

Exact Answer: 16 Hours

Air is one of the most essential things for every living thing on the planet to survive, without air the survival of every living being is impossible. There are a lot of things, which are necessary for the survival of living beings but without the presence of those things a human can somehow manage, but managing to live without air is impossible.

Air has many other gases along with oxygen in the atmosphere. Air is in general present everywhere along with, be it a closed area or an open place under the sky, it is everywhere, at some places i.e the closed area places the presence of air might be too less and in an open area the presence of air will be too huge.

How Long Would Air Last In A Car

How Long Would Air Last In A Car?

ObjectiveTotal Time
When a car is closely packed16 hours
When air-condition of the car is flicked9 hours

Air is one of the very unique things available to everyone, be it living beings or non-living beings and this is one of the most asked questions that for how much time air lasts in a closely packed area such as cars.

As, cars are the vehicle mainly used by humans to reach their way more easily, but it is closely packed if the car is locked from all its open sources i.e windows and doors then there is only a limited amount of air left into the car which later on turns into an air which comprises more carbon- dioxide than oxygen as human inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide while breathing.

inhaling carbon dioxide ultimately can be very dangerous for a human which gives them a sense of suffocation and even they may die due to strangulation if they didn’t get out of the car at the right time.

Air is mostly a kind of gas as the air which is presented in the Earth’s atmosphere is made up of different types of gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, and many more, approximately 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen along with a lot more of other gases.

Car

When it comes to a closed area the air cannot last long after a certain time, as the car is packed when the doors and the windows of the car are closed and therefore there is not any source left from where air can be supplied inside the car so after a certain period the car’s air turns into more carbon dioxide and less oxygen which increases every second.

The air in the car lasts up to 16 hours when it is closely packed and when the air-conditioner of the car is flicked then the air in the car lasts up to 9 hours only.

Why Would Air Last That Long In A Car?

By each passing second, the amount of carbon dioxide levels in the air present in the car increases and reach by 15% and if a person is inside the car which is closely packed then he/she will effectively die as soon as the carbon dioxide levels into the air of car reach to 15%. It nearly takes 15-16 hours or so that the air lasts into the car.

If any human is there inside the car then he/she will start feeling uneasy and will suffer difficulties in breathing by time and again and will ultimately die a lot sooner than 16 hours.

The air lasts up to 16 hours in a car because of the particles and compounds present in the air which holds all the particles together up to a certain time. In a closed car no fresh air is allowed to enter into the car and because of which the compounds and the particles of the air lose their oxygen-binding capacity and eventually the air ends up getting filled with carbon dioxide only which a human cannot inhale and ultimately they die.

Car

If the car is not closed, if there is any certain amount of continuous supply of air into the car is available then there would be no limit of the air to last long as the molecular particles of the air will continuously form bonds with oxygen and other gases.

Conclusion

The air present in any particular car lasts up to a maximum of 16 hours not more than that. If a person is sitting in a closed car he/she will effectively die after 16 hours even much sooner than that as the air completely gets filled with the carbon dioxide the person sitting in the car exhaling. If any person is sitting or doing anything in the car then he/she must leave any of the car windows open so that the supply of oxygen doesn’t get refrained into the car.

References

  1. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/259635
  2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/014070079390014Y
dot 1
One request?

I’ve put so much effort writing this blog post to provide value to you. It’ll be very helpful for me, if you consider sharing it on social media or with your friends/family. SHARING IS ♥️

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *