Talk:Oxygen

Oxygen-15 natural occurrence
Shouldn't oxygen-15 be listed as "trace" rather than "synthetic", since trace ammounts are produced naturally by lightning and in the sun. 174.103.211.189 (talk) 04:20, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

oxygen is not the most abundant element on earth. iron is
thought that should be changed 2605:A601:AA0D:F900:9CA4:FB25:36E:D726 (talk) 05:51, 6 January 2024 (UTC)


 * Oxygen is the most abundant specifically on Earth’s crust 99.17.2.140 (talk) 08:50, 16 January 2024 (UTC)


 * Define abundance. By number fraction, i.e., actual number of atoms, oxygen is by far more abundant over the entire Earth. There is a greater mass fraction of iron but that's simply because it's heavier. However, as stated in the article, there is a greater abundance of oxygen by mass in the Earth's crust and biosphere. Polyamorph (talk) 13:15, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

Lavoisier's contribution, "Sur la combustion en général", mentions neither "vital air" or "azote"
I've been doing some basic research into the etymology behind Oxygen, and found that Lavoisier's contribution states that:


 * This and other experiments on combustion were documented in his book Sur la combustion en général, which was published in 1777. In that work, he proved that air is a mixture of two gases; 'vital air', which is essential to combustion and respiration, and azote (Gk. ἄζωτον "lifeless"), which did not support either.

However when actually reading "Sur la combustion en général", neither "vital air" nor "azote" are ever mentioned:

https://www.academie-sciences.fr/pdf/dossiers/Franklin/Franklin_pdf/Mem1777_p592.pdf

The closest he came to defining either (as far as I could find) is the line:


 * Ainsi, pour résumer, l’air est composé, suivant moi, de la matière du feu comme dissolvant, combinée avec une substance qui lui sert de base et en quelque façon qui la neutralise

In English:


 * Thus, to summarize, air is composed, according to me, of the matter of fire as a solvent, combined with a substance which serves as its base and in some way which neutralizes it.

The wikipedia text that claims he called these "vital air" and "azote" stems from reference [18]: "The Encyclopedia of the Chemical Elements." https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofch00hamp/page/500/mode/2up


 * In 1777 he published his work on combustion under the title "Sur la combustion en general." Lavoisier showed that air is essentially a mixture of two gases, which he called "vital air" and "azote."

I don't disbelieve that Lavoisier started calling the two components of air "vital air" and "azote" at some point after his discovery, and the etymology of Oxygen aligns well with him mentioning that a lot of combustions produce acid later in the paper.

...But I'm not sure where Clifford A. Hampel, from "The Encyclopedia of the Chemical Elements," found the terms "vital air" and "azote". From what I can gather, it can't be found in "Sur la combustion en général".

Now this is all hyper-nitpicky for sure, and maybe I've overlooked a very important line in Lavoisier's paper and I'm all wrong here, but when I came upon this discrepancy I figured it might be worth pointing out. :-) Fiets38 (talk) 23:48, 16 June 2024 (UTC)