Nitrogen for Kids
NY-truh-jen · Nonmetal
I wonder… Why are bags of chips so puffy?
Nitrogen is the gas you breathe in the most, even though your body doesn't use it. It's all around you right now!
Quick facts
- Atomic number
- 7
- Symbol
- N
- Atomic mass
- 14.007
- Type
- Nonmetal
- Discovered
- 1772
- Discovered by
- Daniel Rutherford
- Name means
- Named after niter, a salty mineral
- At room temperature
- Gas
How nitrogen was discovered
Part 1 of 3
A puzzling jar
In 1772, a medical student in Scotland named Daniel Rutherford did an experiment. He burned a candle in a sealed jar of air until the flame went out.
Part 2 of 3
Strange leftover air
He took out a gas called carbon dioxide. But most of the air was still in the jar! A new candle wouldn't burn in it, and animals couldn't breathe it. He called it “noxious air,” which means harmful air.
Part 3 of 3
Not so harmful after all
Today we call it nitrogen. It isn't really harmful. It makes up most of the air you breathe! It just can't keep a fire or a living thing going all by itself.
What is nitrogen used for?
Fresh, fluffy chips
Chip bags are filled with nitrogen. It keeps chips fresh and makes a soft pillow so they don't get crushed.
Plant food
Farmers use nitrogen fertilizer to help crops grow big and healthy.
Speedy ice cream
Liquid nitrogen is so cold it can freeze ice cream in seconds, with lots of spooky fog.
Fun facts about nitrogen
How much of the air?
About 78 out of every 100 parts of the air are nitrogen.
How cold is liquid nitrogen?
Liquid nitrogen is −196 °C (−320 °F). That's colder than anywhere on Earth's surface has ever been!
What does lightning do?
Lightning helps turn nitrogen in the air into natural plant food that falls with the rain.
Inside a nitrogen atom
Nitrogen has 2 electrons on its inside track and 5 on its outside track.
Quiz yourself
1. What gas puffs up a bag of potato chips?
- Helium
- Nitrogen
- Oxygen
Show the answer
Nitrogen. Nitrogen keeps chips fresh and cushions them so they don't break.
2. About how much of the air is nitrogen?
- 1 out of 100 parts
- About half
- 78 out of 100 parts
Show the answer
78 out of 100 parts. About 78 out of every 100 parts of air are nitrogen. Oxygen is only about 21.
Try it at home (with a grown-up): Color the air
Grown-up needed! Only do this with a grown-up right next to you, the whole time.
You'll need
- A grown-up to show your grid to
- Graph paper (or draw a 10 × 10 grid of squares)
- 3 colored pencils or crayons
What to do
- Count out 100 squares in a 10 × 10 grid. Pretend this is a sample of air.
- Color 78 squares with your first color. That's nitrogen!
- Color 21 squares with your second color. That's oxygen, the part you need to breathe.
- Color the last 1 square with your third color. That's all the other gases put together.
- Look at your grid. Which gas is the boss of the air?
Safety rules
- This one is very safe: just paper and colored pencils.
- Keep pencil tips away from your eyes.
Draw it
Draw a puffy chip bag and the nitrogen molecules bouncing inside it.
Riddle
“I'm most of the air you breathe, and I keep your chips crunchy. What am I?”
Explore nitrogen with animations, read-aloud and a drawing pad
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