Ever since I was a kid I always wondered how people are not suffocating from staying in their house. Like if all windows are closed how does air get in? Wouldn’t we just breath up all the available air in a matter of hours and die? Same goes for cars too. If I’m on a long road trip and the windows are closed how am I still alive?
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There’s a concept called partial pressures, where the effective pressure driving the flow of a gas can be calculated as the portion of the pressure that a single gas represents.
So, if indoor and outdoor pressures are similar, but oxygen concentration is lower indoors, a pressure proportional to the difference in concentration will force oxygen into the house.
This even applies when total pressure goes in the opposite direction. So, if 5% higher pressures inside, but oxygen concentration is 10% lower inside, even as air flows out, oxygen will flow in.
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