How it works
Why is the sky blue, and why would 1,500 °C in the thermosphere not feel hot? These atmosphere trivia questions and answers start at the ground and climb, and every answer comes with its reason.
Read the full guide
From the ground up
What air is made of asks the shares of oxygen and carbon dioxide and what holds the air down. The five layers climbs from the tropopause to the exosphere, with the coldest place on Earth on the way. The ozone layer has its discovery in 1913, the Dobson unit and a layer that would be 3 millimetres thick at sea level.
Pressure, light and deep time
The weight of the air and Measuring the air cover pressure, from Torricelli's barometer to a diver ten metres down. Light, heat, sound and wind has blue skies, red sunsets and the jet streams. How the air came to be runs from the first hydrogen to the Great Oxygenation Event.
- Light, heat, sound and wind needs the least science: sunsets, the speed of sound and ships on the horizon.
Questions and answers
What are some easy atmosphere trivia questions?
What holds the atmosphere around the Earth? About how much of dry air is oxygen? In which season are the jet streams strongest? The answers are gravity, about 21 percent and winter.
What are the five layers of the atmosphere?
From the ground up: the troposphere, to about 12 km; the stratosphere, to 50 km; the mesosphere, to 80 km; the thermosphere, to about 700 km; and the exosphere beyond that.
What is the atmosphere made of?
Dry air is 78.08 percent nitrogen, 20.95 percent oxygen, 0.93 percent argon and 0.04 percent carbon dioxide, with small amounts of other gases. Water vapor adds about 1 percent at sea level.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 7, 2026 in one of four English Wikipedia articles, linked under the question: Atmosphere of Earth, Ozone layer, Atmospheric pressure and Barometer. Readings and records that change are left out, and so is advice about the sun.