Right now as you're listening to the sound of my voice, you're breathing air.

Air is all around you all the time.

When humans go into space or beneath the surface of the ocean, the one thing they absolutely

have to take with them is air. But what

exactly makes up air? How did it get that way and what was the air like on Earth

millions of years ago? Learn more about air, its composition, and its origin on this episode of Everything

Everywhere Daily. Air is probably the most ubiquitous thing that we experience in our lives.

Every minute of every day that we're alive, we are breathing air.

Over the course of a year, the average person will take between 6 to 8 million breaths.

And without air, none of us could survive for more than a few minutes.

So what exactly is air, this thing we experience every moment of our lives.

Air is simply the mixture of gases at standard temperature and pressure that's found on

earth.

That's it.

What that mixture consists of and why it is that way and how it changed over time is what the rest of this episode will be about.

Before I get too much into the composition of air, I should separately address one of the important elements that makes

up air.

Water.

If you take the entirety of the Earth's atmosphere, water vapor makes up about one quarter of

1%. The reason I'm addressing water first is that

unlike other gases in the atmosphere, water composition can vary dramatically

from place to place and over time. Water composition will vary depending on the humidity if you're inside a

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