Question about plants and oxygen say in outer space?

Question

Ok my friend & I got into a debate about how much oxygen a plant can give off. I said my plants n my room make me feel calm & stuff b/c of the extra oxygen n the room. He says that's balony. I told him I got that idea from Men's Health so it's gotta b legit. I also told him n my olddddd science book that there was an experiment (thank gosh we couldn't do it 4 moral reasons!!!!) where u put a mouse n a glass jar & watch it pretty much lose oxygen and go to sleep (or more accuartely go to sleep b/c of the carbon the mouse sends out by breathing) then later after it goes to sleep you're supposed to put a plant in the jar and then the mouse will wake up. that's what the drawing showed. Like I said it was at the end of the book and you KNOW you never get 2 the last half of the book by the end of the school yr.

So 2 questions- was I right about the plant n my room helping me to breathe better?

Second question via Spacecamp movie, can a plant(s) bring enough Oxygen to keep every1 alive?

Answer 1

Okay a few things...

1. Your uplifted feeling could have been from the increased oxygen, but it was unlikely, as the one single plant in your room would increase ambient O2 by (at best) 1-2% by mass-per-volume.

2. Oxygen DOES make you feel better...In fact it can get you high.  But that's raw O2 for a few minutes.  Ever see "Fight Club" ?  When Tyler Durden explains how potential airplane crash victims would suck down massive oxygen quantities...it WOULD make them high.

3. In regards to "keeping everyone alive"...that's hard to answer...We'd need to know a few things about the enclosed area in which you'd like to keep people alive...How many people we talkin ? Are they sedentary or moving ? What type of plants ? What size ?  A 30 foot Douglas Fir (a conifer tree) can suck down about 5 tons of CO2 per year mid-latitudes.  That's about 3 tons of O2 emitted per year.  Sounds like alot...but it would barely support 1 150 lb dude for barely 6 months.

Crazy **** to thank about.

Answer 2

Yes i do believe you were right about the plant thing in your room. It's very true and i dont remember where i heard it but houses with plants around do make it nicer in there. (sorry not sure what it was)

About the plant i dont think it is true. A plant's cellular respiration isn't as strong as say a tree. maybe a few trees could keep one or two people alive... No idea lol

Answer 3

the plant in your room will not produce a significant amount of  O2 to have an effect on you. additionally any additional O2 it produces will not be contained to your room. it may make you feel better though. satisfaction, stress reduction etc. are things that have a huge impact on your health. the mouse jar experiment is also bogus it most likely is an illustration of concept. it would not actually work. plants do produce our O2 but there are many many more plant then animals. some very serious experiments have been done to determine if this can be reproduced in a closed system. biosphere 2 is an example of this they had a small group of scientists living in a sealed environment that had to sustain itself on only energy like our planet does from the sun. it works but on a very large scale biosphere 2 also had tons of equipment to help circulate air and provide other functions.

it is very possible that the plant does make you feel better but it is very unlikely it is due to the extra O2 it produces.