Does air in your body make you heavier?

Question

My daughter has a question, she asked if she takes a deep breath of air and holds it in would it make her heavier or lighter? I am assuming or thinking that it would make her heavier but wasnt sure so I am trying to anwer her question correctly.

Answer 1

Air is matter. Matter has mass. If you breath in air you are breathing in stuff with mass. You in turn become more massive (heavier). Of course the weight you gain is very very small. For example:

Say you inhale 1 liter of air. The density of air at ambient conditions is 0.075 pounds per cubic foot. There are 28.3 liters per cubic foot therefore l liter per breath of air x  1 cubic foot per 28.3 liter x 0.075 pounds per cubic foot =  0.0026 pounds of air per breath. That is 0.00017 oz. Not too much.

Answer 2

It makes you heavier, but as the lungs and chest expand it makes you less dense. (matter-wise, not mentally).    You could test this in two ways.  First with a very precise scale that could measure the difference in weight (mass) for the same person with lungs full, and with lungs empty.   Air weighs about 1.25 grams/liter and the difference between full and empty lungs is about 4 liters of air for most people - so you would expect a 5 gram difference in weight for an average person. (This is a very tiny differnce)

Now you can test the density difference in a swimming pool.  Fill your lungs and float (most people will float with lungs full of air).  Then Exhale.  As you Exhale you should start to sink.  You are expunging a few grams of air making you 'lighter', but you are shrinking your volume as your lungs deflate so are displacing less water.  A tiny change in weight but a much larger corresponding reduction in volume makes you more dense and you sink.

Answer 3

no it wouldn't because it's air. the air technically never leaves your body. you keep the air splitting it in half throwing out the carbon dioxide. you always keep air inside your body. the carbon dioxide in a gas form weighs nothing so keeping it in your body wouldn't really make a difference

Answer 4

ok, how much do you think a single particle of air weights? its 10x8-10, thats tiny. In theory yes it will make you heavier, but not enough for any scale to notice.

Answer 5

  Under water it would make you lighter,in the atmosphere it wouldn't make any difference unless you inhaled hydrogen then you would be lighter.