Page 82 - A Chain of Miracles

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A A Chain of Miracles
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THE DENSITY OF AIR
The density of air, ideal for respiration, is yet another ex-
actly perfect aspect of the atmosphere.
Air pressure is 760 mmHg, and its density works out to be
1 gram per liter at sea level, where its viscosity is 50 times greater
than water’s. These values might appear irrelevant, but are actu-
ally vital for human life because, as Michael Denton puts it, “The
overall composition and general character of the atmosphere—
its density, viscosity, and pressure, etc.—must be very similar to

what it is, particularly for air-breathing organisms.” 36
When we breathe, our lungs use up energy in order to
pump the air in and out. Like all forms of matter, air is resistant
to movement. But thanks to the properties of the gaseous at-
mosphere, this resistance is very weak, making it easy for our
lungs to inhale and exhale. If that resistance were stronger, our
lungs would begin to struggle. You can easily grasp this with an

experiment: It’s easy to draw water into a syringe, but harder to
draw honey, because honey has a higher density and lesser flu-
idity.
If the atmosphere’s values of density, fluidity, and pressure
were altered by even a fraction, inhaling would become as hard
as drawing honey into a syringe. One could argue that the sy-
ringe’s needle could be made wider, in other words, the lung’s
airways could be enlarged. But if we did that in the case of the
capillaries in the lungs, the result would be to reduce the size of

the area in contact with air, with the result that less oxygen and

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