(a) Explain the following phenomena with the help of Henry’s law.
(i) A painful condition known as bends.
(ii) Feeling of weakness and discomfort in breathing at high altitude.
(b) Why soda water bottle kept at room temperature fizzes on opening?
(i) Bends is a condition that occurs to sea drivers or scuba drivers. They have to breathe air under high pressure underwater. Nitrogen gas is not soluble at normal
pressure. In underwaters, they dissolve in the blood. Once the divers come up to the surface, the gases escape the blood by forming bubbles of N2 in blood. These
bubbles can block capillaries and obstruct the flow of O2, which forms the painful condition of bends.
(ii) At higher altitudes, atmospheric pressure is low and it reduces the solubility of oxygen in blood and tissues of people travelling or living at high altitudes. The lack of
oxygen causes weakness and unable to think properly, a condition known as anoxia.
(iii) When a soda water bottle is opened at room temperature and normal pressure conditions, the pressure inside the bottle reduces and solubility of CO2 reduces,
thus causing the gas bubbles to escape and soda water fizzing.