How does oxygen help us? like the obvious? i know we breathe it and why it happens, but why do we need oxygen?

Question

meaning like energy? i have to answer a question about how life would be different on a planet with a lessened percent of oxygen.

Answer 1

:EDIT: Ben H just took it out of the bag.

Answer 2

Our bodies can't function without oxygen.  That is the reason we breathe it.  One of the major things that happens is that when the brain is deprived of oxygen, we suffer brain death.  That, of course, isn't the only reason, but it is the most immediate reason.

Answer 3

We would all be dead. Then you wouldnt have to answer the dumb essay question.

Answer 4

Oxygen binds to the red blood cells due to the hemoglobin and is carried to the cells for cellular respiration which is a process that REQUIRES oxygen.

I guess you could think of it like a car and gasoline.  If you took a car off the street and put soda pop in the tank and tried to run it it wouldn't work right?  This is because the vehicle, like our bodies, requires a specific fuel.  The vehicle requires gasoline and the body requires oxygen.

On a planet with lessened percent of oxygen the life forms would have to either be more efficient with their energy production/conservation or perhaps they would not require oxygen at all and get their energy by other means (ie. think plants).

Answer 5

Oxygen is key to the cellular respiration process. The cells take it in through the mitochondria. It produces ATP energy. Without it, our cells probably couldn't carry out the roles that it does- making proteins, etc.