Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 BASICS AND HISTORY OF DISCOVERY OF ATMOSPHERIC CHEMICALS
- 2 THE SUN, THE EARTH, AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE
- 3 STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF THE PRESENT-DAY ATMOSPHERE
- 4 URBAN AIR POLLUTION
- 5 AEROSOL PARTICLES IN SMOG AND THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
- 6 EFFECTS OF METEOROLOGY ON AIR POLLUTION
- 7 EFFECTS OF POLLUTION ON VISIBILITY, ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION, AND ATMOSPHERIC OPTICS
- 8 INTERNATIONAL REGULATION OF URBAN SMOG SINCE THE 1940s
- 9 INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
- 10 ACID DEPOSITION
- 11 GLOBAL STRATOSPHERIC OZONE REDUCTION
- 12 THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT AND GLOBAL WARMING
- Appendix: Conversions and Constants
- References
- Photograph Sources
- Index
1 - BASICS AND HISTORY OF DISCOVERY OF ATMOSPHERIC CHEMICALS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 BASICS AND HISTORY OF DISCOVERY OF ATMOSPHERIC CHEMICALS
- 2 THE SUN, THE EARTH, AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE
- 3 STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF THE PRESENT-DAY ATMOSPHERE
- 4 URBAN AIR POLLUTION
- 5 AEROSOL PARTICLES IN SMOG AND THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
- 6 EFFECTS OF METEOROLOGY ON AIR POLLUTION
- 7 EFFECTS OF POLLUTION ON VISIBILITY, ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION, AND ATMOSPHERIC OPTICS
- 8 INTERNATIONAL REGULATION OF URBAN SMOG SINCE THE 1940s
- 9 INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
- 10 ACID DEPOSITION
- 11 GLOBAL STRATOSPHERIC OZONE REDUCTION
- 12 THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT AND GLOBAL WARMING
- Appendix: Conversions and Constants
- References
- Photograph Sources
- Index
Summary
The study of air pollution begins with the study of chemicals that make up the air. These chemicals include molecules in the gas, liquid, or solid phases. Because the air contains so many different types of molecules, it is helpful to become familiar with important ones through the history of their discovery. Such a history also gives insight into characteristics of atmospheric chemicals and an understanding of how much our knowledge of air pollution today relies on the scientific achievements of alchemists, chemists, natural scientists, and physicists of the past. This chapter starts with some basic chemistry definitions, then proceeds to examine historical discoveries of chemicals of atmospheric importance. Finally, types of chemical reactions that occur in the atmosphere are identified, and chemical lifetimes are defined.
BASIC DEFINITIONS
Air is a mixture of gases and particles, both of which are made of atoms. In this section, atoms, elements, molecules, compounds, gases, and particles are defined.
Atoms, Elements, Molecules, and Compounds
In 1913, Niels Bohr (1885–1962), a Danish physicist, proposed that an atom consists of one or more negatively charged electrons in discrete circular orbits around a positively charged nucleus. Each electron carries a charge of –1 and a tiny mass. The nucleus consists of 1–92 protons and 0–146 neutrons. Protons have a net charge of +1 and a mass 1,836 times that of an electron. Neutrons have zero net charge and a mass 1,839 times that of an electron.
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- Information
- Atmospheric PollutionHistory, Science, and Regulation, pp. 1 - 28Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002