Carbon Dioxide

What is carbon dioxide? Why is it important?

Carbon dioxide is very important to our scientists. Our scientists use carbon dioxide as a tool for cleaning things and making products in better ways. But what is carbon dioxide? Do you know? Most of the time carbon dioxide is a gas. It is in the air around you. Plants use carbon dioxide. People breathe it out. Carbon dioxide is not dangerous by itself. Carbon dioxide is often written by scientists as CO₂. Writing carbon dioxide as CO₂ is useful because it helps us to see what is in carbon dioxide. The C means there is one atom of carbon and the O₂ means there are two atoms of oxygen. Atoms make up everything around us. Ask your teacher or do some research at the library if you have more questions about atoms.

Can you see carbon dioxide? Can you pick it up? Carbon dioxide is hard to see as a gas. These activities will help you "see" carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide can also be found as a solid. Solid CO₂ is called dry ice. It is very cold and is unsafe to touch. Liquid CO₂ can also be found. For example, some fire extinguishers use liquid carbon dioxide. To keep carbon dioxide as a liquid, it must kept at certain pressures and temperatures.

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