Question

What is air? Name the major constituents of air. Also give their volume proportions in air.

Answer 1

Hint:Air is a matter with composition of a variety of substances and these substances are present in different compositions in air. Many different gases are present in the air.

Complete answer:
Matter is defined as an object or substance that has mass and which can be felt by any of our five senses. Example: air, food, stone, cloud, water, sand, etc. All the matters are made up of particles. The size of particles in a matter is extremely small as a few masses of matter can have millions of tiny particles.
A pure matter has all the constituent particles same in their chemical nature or we can say a pure substance consists of a single type of particle. On the other hand, mixtures are constituted by more than one kind of substance. So, air is a matter which is not pure but rather is a mixture of different types of substance such as gases, water vapour, etc.
The composition of air is divided into three categories namely major component, minor component and trace components. Major components of air are composed of nitrogen gas, oxygen gas and water vapour. Minor component of air consists of argon and carbon dioxide gas. Substances like helium, neon, krypton, methane, carbon monoxide, oxide of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, ammonia, ozone, etc all form the trace component of air.
The percentage compositions of constituents of air are as given below:

Name of the constituent	Its percentage composition in air
Nitrogen gas	\[78.1\% \]
Oxygen gas	\[20.9\% \]
Carbon dioxide gas	\[0.03\% \]
Argon	\[0.9\% \]

Rest trace elements are present in very little composition in air.
Note:
Air is a homogeneous mixture and can be separated into its components by fractional distillation process. During fractional distillation, air is subjected to increasing pressure and low temperature, and then allows warming up slowly in the fractional distillation column. Gases get separated at different heights.