general

A breathing gas is a mixture of gaseous chemical elements and compounds used for respiration. Air is the most common, and only natural, breathing gas - but a range of pure gases or mixtures of gases are used in breathing equipment and enclosed habitats such as scuba equipment, surface supplied diving equipment, recompression chambers, submarines, space suits, spacecraft, medical life support and first aid equipment, high-altitude mountaineering and anaesthetic machines. Oxygen is the essential component for...

Read more about basic principles of gas exchange in the Boundless open textbook.