Applications of Henry’s law
- Sealing of soft drink bottles at high pressure increases the solubility of CO2 in soft drinks and soda water.
- When a diver goes underwater his body is subjected to high pressure. Due to this the body tissues absorbs more gases. The breathed in oxygen is required for cellular respiration to provide energy to the diver. But the nitrogen gets absorbed into the body tissues.
The pressure increases with the increase in depth. Therefore as the diver approaches the bottom of the water body the pressure increases. With this increase in pressure more nitrogen gets absorbed by the body tissues.
But as he approaches upward to come out of the water body the pressure starts decreasing with the decrease in depth. This in turn decreases the amount of nitrogen getting absorbed by the body tissues.
This causes bubbles of nitrogen in the body which in turn causes bends in the body of the diver.
They are difficult and can even cause threat to their life. To protect the divers from such situation the water utilized by scuba jumpers are loaded with diluted air containing 11.7% helium, 56.2% nitrogen and 32.1% oxygen.
- At high heights the fractional weight of oxygen is not as much as that at the ground level. This stimulates low concentrations of oxygen in the blood and tissues of individuals living at high heights or climbers. Low blood oxygen causes climbers to feel feeble and not able to think plainly, indications of a condition known as anoxia.
