What gases in Earth's atmosphere would you expect to find as molecules and which as individual atoms?

Answer 1

The only somewhat significant gases that occur as pure elements will be #"Ar"# and trace amounts of #"Ne"# and #"He"#.

All other gases that contribute a significant amount to the atmosphere's composition will be molecules.

Well, recall that there are seven elements that occur naturally diatomic, which means they occur in nature as two-atom molecules. These seven are

  • #"H"_2#

  • #"N"_2#

  • #"O"_2#

  • #"F"_2#

  • #"Cl"_2#

  • #"Br"_2#

  • #"I"_2#

    Of these seven, the first five are gaseous at standard conditions, and of those five, there are only two that exist to a significant extent in Earth's atmosphere:

    • #"N"_2# (#78.0%#)

    • #"O"_2# (#21.0%#)

    The remaining #1%# is taken up mostly by argon, #"Ar"# (#0.9%#), and the rest are trace gases, such as #"CO"_2# (#0.093%#), #"Ne"# (monatomic, #0.0047%#), #"He"# (monatomic, #0.0013%#), and others such as #"CH"_4# (methane), #"N"_2"O"# (nitrous oxide), and #"O"_3# (ozone).

    Below is a neat little pie chart of gaseous abundance in Earth's atmosphere:

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Answer 2

While noble gases like helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), and xenon (Xe) exist as individual atoms, gases like nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), hydrogen (H2), and fluorine (F2) are typically found in Earth's atmosphere as molecules.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.

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