Stratospheric Layer Lab Report

After calculating the two densities, we can clearly see that ozone that is created at ground level has a density of 2.114116859 g/L whereas the density of air, has a density of 1.29294086719 g/L. Because of this, the heavier ozone gas will sink in the less dense air. This is the main reason for why ozone created at ground level will not reach the higher stratospheric layer, nor will it fix our ozone problems by filling in the holes in our atmosphere with ground level ozone.

Even though ozone proves to be denser than air, ozone can be heated up and become less dense, causing the gas to rise. An analogy to describe my gases float is to observe how hot air balloons work. Hot air balloons rise when the air in the balloon is heated. This is because the hot air inside the balloon is less dense than the cool air outside. The heated air will rise simply because it is lighter than an equal volume of cold air. Buoyancy is the upwards force that the air exerts which helps the hot air balloon to stay in the air. This principle applies to other gases as well.

This means that the molecules would be more dispersed in the space it occupies which means that there is more space between them. This causes the density of the gas to decrease and therefore become lighter than the gas surrounding it.

With ozone, the sun comes into contact with the gas causing it to become significantly less dense than 2.114116859 g/L. The gas will continue to rise until the temperature is too cold, forcing the molecules in the gas to become less dispersed and denser. The ozone will then fall back towards the ground. This process repeats itself which creates convection