Quiz - 17 - Diving Knowledge Workbook - Diving Physiology

[Akimbo]

FYI: This thread motivated me to ask this question that others may also find the answers enlightening: CO Poisoning Question

 

[Akimbo]

I think that "biologically inert" is a genius term. IMNSHO it's very much technically correct.

I was under the impression that Nitrous Oxide was produced in the body through biochemical reactions at the cellular level? Not debating, just curious.

 

[Storker]

I was under the impression that Nitrous Oxide was produced in the body through biochemical reactions at the cellular level? Not debating, just curious.

May well be, but in minute amounts. And definitely not by breaking the N≡N bond in noticeable amounts. A triple bond is ridiculously strong.

 

[Akimbo]

May well be, but in minute amounts. And definitely not by breaking the N≡N bond in noticeable amounts. A triple bond is ridiculously strong.

If my understanding is correct, even in minute amounts, it makes "biologically inert" an incorrect term unless you include "for all practical purposes". Kind'a tedious.

 

[Storker]

If my understanding is correct, even in minute amounts, it makes "biologically inert" an incorrect term unless you include "for all practical purposes". Kind'a tedious.

Dude, I'm an engineer. "For all practical purposes" is good enough for me.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

I like B and C, but thats not an option so...C!
edit. I thought that you got sleepy with CO poisoning....guess not

 

[TMHeimer]

Dude, I'm an engineer. "For all practical purposes" is good enough for me.

YEAH! Musician here. All these posts are why I just studied the PADI manuals (what they say is always right) and hoped test questions were clear....

 

[elmo]

I think that "biologically inert" is a genius term. IMNSHO it's very much technically correct.

Are you forgetting that biology includes a whole lot of non-animal organisms? Nitrogen fixation is carried out by microbes and is essential to pretty much all plant and animal life.
Diazotroph - Wikipedia
"Metabolically inert" is a much better term used to describe N2.

Ed: fix typo

 

[NAM001]

I don't know how Nitrogen is handled and processed by industries but it certainly used in the human body. We don't absorb it by breathing, but it is reactive in other ways: "Nitrogen occurs in all organisms, primarily in amino acids (and thus proteins), in the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and in the energy transfer molecule adenosine triphosphate. The human body contains about 3% nitrogen by mass, the fourth most abundant element in the body after oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. The nitrogen cycle describes movement of the element from the air, into the biosphere and organic compounds, then back into the atmosphere."

I remember one time decades ago when I was applying anhydrous ammonia to a field by plowing it into moist soil from a big tank behind my tractor when the hose broke on a turn spraying a cloud of it upwind of me. I almost panicked thinking I needed I exit that tractor and run to get upwind before it burned my eyes and lungs killing me on the spot. Then I caught myself and turned the rig around to park the tractor upwind and exited calmly to turn the valve off.

View attachment 592075

i have done the same. panic vs logical thinking and cool application of the fix

 

[Aviyes]

I always associate liquid Nitrogen with functioning like an inert gas in terms of respiration. It was a big part of the safety lecture for my universities composites lab to never use the autoclave alone, as if there was a Nitrogen gas leak we would have no idea until we passed out and most likely died from lack of Oxygen.