Wednesday, February 01, 2006
People need to go to greater effort to entertain me while I'm at work. So, as a result of this deficit, I've been wandering the spider intarweb.
And I've found out how breathing a pure nitrogen atmosphere causes asphyxiation. Hey, it's even work relevant (kinda). But in essence it's because the breathing reflex is based on carbon dioxide buildup, and not lack of oxygen. So, if you breathe in nitrogen, you keep breathing out carbon dioxide, so the breathing reflex doesn't work...
From an engineering point of view, it's a very poorly designed control system.
And I've found out how breathing a pure nitrogen atmosphere causes asphyxiation. Hey, it's even work relevant (kinda). But in essence it's because the breathing reflex is based on carbon dioxide buildup, and not lack of oxygen. So, if you breathe in nitrogen, you keep breathing out carbon dioxide, so the breathing reflex doesn't work...
From an engineering point of view, it's a very poorly designed control system.
