What If the World Lost Oxygen for Five Seconds？如果地球上氧气消失5秒，会怎样？
Imagine if all the Earth’s oxygen disappeared. Not forever, just for say, 5 seconds? Would we just hold our breath? What would happen to the atmosphere? What would happen to the environment? Here’s what would happen if the world lost oxygen for just 5 seconds.想象一下如果地球上所有的氧气都消失了。不是永远，就5秒钟？我们能屏住呼吸吗？大气会发生什么变化？环境会怎么样？如果世界失去氧气只有5秒钟会发生什么。Take a nice deep breath. Feel how satisfying that is? What you’re breathing in is oxygen, that takes up roughly 21% of our atmosphere, with 78% being nitrogen. Although it’s not the most abundant gas in our atmosphere, it is the most important. Without oxygen, plants, animals, water and us humans wouldn’t be where we are today.深呼吸一下。感觉有多满意？你呼吸的是氧气，它占我们大气的21%，其中78%是氮。虽然它不是我们大气中最丰富的气体，但它是最重要的。没有氧气，植物，动物，水和我们人类就不会成为我们今天的样子。5 seconds may not sound like a whole lot of time to be without oxygen. Most of us can go at least 30 seconds without taking a breath, so…It would happen too fast for your body to even notice. Your breathing would actually remain normal. But as for everything else? Not so much.5秒听起来不像是没有氧气的时间。我们中的大多数人可以至少30秒不呼吸，所以…这些发生得太快，以致我们的身体甚至都不会注意到。你的呼吸会保持正常。但是对于其他的事物呢？就不一定了。In just 5 seconds, the Earth would look completely different. Without oxygen, you can say goodbye to the Hoover Dam, the Pantheon Dome and anything else made out of concrete. These structures would instantly collapse. Oxygen acts as a special binding agent to concrete. Without it, concrete is just dust.在短短的5秒钟内，地球看起来就完全不同了。没有氧气，你就可以告别胡佛大坝、万神殿穹顶和其他任何混凝土建筑。这些建筑会立即崩塌。氧对混凝土起着特殊的粘合剂的作用。没有它，混凝土只不过是灰尘。Speaking of buildings, any untreated metal would be instantly be fused together. This is because there’s a layer of oxidation on metals that prevents them from welding together. Without that layer, metals would instantly bind to each other.说到建筑物，任何未经处理的金属都会立即熔合在一起。这是因为金属表面有一层氧化层阻止它们焊接在一起。如果没有这一层，金属会立即相互结合。If you happen to be relaxing at the beach at the time expect a severe sunburn. The ozone layer, our protection against the sun’s UV rays, is made of oxygen. Three oxygen atoms that have bonded to create ozone. Take away the oxygen, and the Earth would get extremely hot. There would nothing protecting us from the sun’s UV rays.如果你当时正好在海滩上放松，那就可能会被严重地晒伤了。臭氧层是由氧气构成的，是我们抵御太阳紫外线的保护层。三个氧原子结合形成臭氧。没有了氧气，地球就会变得非常热。没有什么能保护我们免受太阳紫外线的伤害。In addition to a sunburn, our inner ear would explode. Losing oxygen means losing 21% of our air pressure. A change in air pressure that drastic is equivalent to being at sea level and dropping down 2000 meters instantly. Our ears wouldn’t have enough time to adapt.除了晒伤，我们的内耳还会爆炸。失去氧气意味着失去21%的气压。气压的剧烈变化相当于处于海平面，瞬间下降2000米。我们的耳朵远没有足够的时间去适应。Having a good time yet? Well, don’t expect it to last long. Without oxygen, there’s no fire – the combustion process in vehicles won’t be able to occur. Any mode of transport that isn’t electric will automatically fail. Planes will fall from the sky, and millions of cars will be stopped in their tracks.感到刺激了吗？好吧，别指望会持续很久。没有氧气，就没有火 — 汽车的燃烧过程就不会发生。任何非电动的运输方式都会自动失效。飞机将从天而降，数百万辆汽车就会停在路上。The sky would be completely dark. Before it hits the earth, light from the sun bounces off multiple particles in the air. Without oxygen in the atmosphere, there are less things to bounce off, and the sky will appear dark… almost black.天空将是一片漆黑。在阳光照射到地球之前，它从空气中的多个粒子上来回反射。如果大气中没有氧气，反弹的物体就会减少，天空就会变得黑暗……几乎是黑色。Oh yeah, and while all this is happening, the Earth’s crust would completely crumble. That’s because Earth’s crust is made up of 45% oxygen. Without oxygen involved in the surface there wouldn’t be much left. The crust would crumble, and continue to crumble until there’s nothing left, sending you and everyone on the planet into a free-fall.哦，是的，当这一切发生的时候，地壳会变得粉碎。那是因为地壳由45%的氧气组成。如果地表没有了氧气，它就不会剩下什么了。地壳会碎裂，并持续变成粉末，直到什么都不剩，把你和地球上的每个人都扔到不知去向。Sound like fun? Probably not. But luckily you can take a deep breath of 21% oxygen knowing that this will never happen.听起来很是不是很刺激？但这些几乎不可能发生。但幸运的是，你还是可以深深地吸一口那21%的氧气，而且知道这永远不会发生。
