Carbon dioxide puts your lights out

We have a video blog this week, illustrating two classic behaviours of carbon dioxide (or CO₂). CO₂ can smother anything that requires oxygen. In the video, it smothers candle flames, but it can smother a person just as easily. Any gas other than oxygen would do the same. CO₂ is also heavier than air, so, if there is a leak, it fills a confined space from the bottom up. You could be knee-deep in CO₂ and you might not know without a detector. This can be seen as the bottom candle goes out first, then the middle and finally the top candle; and again as the CO₂ “pours” down over the last candle. Watch the video. It’s illuminating!