Chapter 1 - Measurement

Problem 5
Question
During the night each breath contains about 0.3 L of oxygen (O2 , 1.43 g/L at
room temperature and pressure). Each breath out contains 0.3 L of carbon
dioxide (CO2 , 1.96 g/L at room temperature and pressure). In the course of an
8-hour sleep how much weight in pounds is lost from breathing?

Answer
For each breath, the total mass loss is:

∆M = +MO2 − MCO2 = VO2 · dO2 − VCO2 · dCO2 ,

where V is the volume of each breath, and d the density of the given gas. The
change in weight for each breath is this mass times the acceleration due to
gravity: ∆W = g · ∆M . Plugging our values in, we find

∆W = 1.6 × 10−3 N = 3.5 × 10−4 lb.

For the total weight loss, we need to count the total number of breaths during
sleep. Assuming a normal resting breathing rate of r = 6 breaths/min, and a
total time of T = 8hr = 480min, the weight lost is:

∆W × r × T = 1.0lb.