Q1
ORIGINAL
A weather balloon contains of air. Estimate the volumes of nitrogen and oxygen in the balloon.
[2 marks]
Total for this question: 2
All AQA GCSE Chemistry topic questions
AQA GCSE Chemistry · Topic 4.9
Chemistry of the atmosphere questions
Practice questions covering chemistry of the atmosphere from this specification. Every question below is the real AQA question as it is printed on the paper, with its mark scheme.
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6 questions on Chemistry of the atmosphere, each with its mark scheme and worked method. Reveal the answer when you have had a go.
- Q2ORIGINALScientists use gases released by modern volcanoes and the present atmospheres of Mars and Venus when developing a theory of the Earth's early atmosphere. Explain why this evidence is useful but cannot make the theory certain.
[3 marks]
Total for this question: 3
- Q3ORIGINALPut algae, plants and animals in the order in which they appeared in the account of atmospheric development, and state the atmospheric change that made the final group possible.
[3 marks]
Total for this question: 3
- Q4ORIGINALExplain why fossil fuels are a long-term carbon store only while they remain unburned.
[2 marks]
Total for this question: 2
- Q5ORIGINALExplain why the natural greenhouse effect is necessary for life but an increase in greenhouse-gas concentrations can still be a concern.
[3 marks]
Total for this question: 3
- Q6ORIGINALOne data set contains one week of weather from one town. Another contains years of global temperature measurements from several independent organisations. Which is stronger evidence for a climate trend? Give two reasons.
[3 marks]
Total for this question: 3
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Printable question pack — 4.9 Chemistry of the atmosphereAll 100 questions across 10 specification points — 94 more than the 6 above — with the full mark scheme. Guest accessible · browser print.Real past-paper questions
24 questions shown as printed, 10 reference-only · newest series first
Question and mark-scheme extracts © AQA. Reproduced for educational use; the original paper is linked on every question. Contact hello@oscarsongtutoring.co.uk for removal.
AQA 8462 · June 2025 · Paper 2F · Q6 · 6 marks
6 marks
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[06.5] Knowledge of the changes of the atmosphere over time was known by fewer than half of the students.
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The Earth's atmosphere has changed over time. Carbon dioxide decreased between 4.5 and 3.0 billion years ago. Nitrogen percentages were: 4.5 bya 4%, 4.0 bya 34%, 3.5 bya 62%, 3.0 bya 75%, 2.5 bya 78%.
AQA 8462 · June 2025 · Paper 2H · Q4 · 7 marks
7 marks
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[04.1] Just over 40% of students scored both marks on this item. A further 40% were able to state that the percentage of nitrogen in the early atmosphere increased. A common mistake for those students who thought that nitrogen decreased was that it decreased because there has been less volcanic activity over time. A small number of pupils referred to nitrogen levels increasing because ammonia reacted with oxygen and because it is an unreactive gas. © 2025 AQA
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The Earth's atmosphere has changed. Carbon dioxide percentages were 98% at 4.5 bya, 54% at 4.0 bya, 30% at 3.5 bya and 21% at 3.0 bya. From 2.5 to 0.5 bya, carbon dioxide fell 18% to 1% while oxygen rose 1% to 19%.
AQA 8462 · June 2025 · Paper 2H · Q9 · 14 marks
14 marks
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[09.6] Around two-thirds of students gained at least one mark for this high demand interpretation question. The most common answer was for linking carbon dioxide to climate change. Many students did not gain this mark as there was a need to mention that the production of hydrogen causes this, if further detail was given. Mant talked about hydrogen producing carbon dioxide, which is incorrect and did not gain credit. The next most common response was for the idea that nitrogen was abundant in the atmosphere.
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Ammonia is made from nitrogen and hydrogen. Hydrogen is produced by CH<sub>4</sub>(g) + H<sub>2</sub>O(g) ⇌ CO(g) + 3H<sub>2</sub>(g); the forward reaction is endothermic. The Haber process uses nitrogen from air.
AQA 8462 · June 2024 · Paper 2F · Q2 · 6 marks
6 marks
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[02.1] This was well answered with nearly all students identifying the effect on the rate of global warming.
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A power station has four coal furnaces. Each burns 3000 kg coal per minute and produces 100 kg SO<sub>2</sub> and 7000 kg CO<sub>2</sub> per minute. These quantities scale directly from zero to four furnaces.
AQA 8462 · June 2024 · Paper 2F · Q7 · 10 marks
10 marks
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[07.5] This question proved to be easier than that for the concrete bridge with over 50% of students gaining one mark and over 35% gaining both marks. Responses which did not gain credit again included those that failed to make a valid comparison or those that simply quoted data from the table.
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Pre-stressed concrete contains high-carbon steel bars. Limestone, mainly calcium carbonate, is used to produce concrete. Plain concrete costs £75/m<sup>3</sup>, density 2300 kg/m<sup>3</sup>, strength 600 units; pre-stressed concrete costs £225/m<sup>3</sup>, density 2500 kg/m<sup>3</sup>, strength 3000 units.
AQA 8462 · June 2024 · Paper 2H · Q5 · 12 marks
12 marks
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[05.4] Over one-third of students gained all three marks. However, some students appeared to believe that the other 80% of the air was hydrogen. Some tried to involve the relative atomic masses, even though these were not provided. A few unnecessarily converted the volume of hydrogen to moles and then the moles of oxygen to volume, not realising that the mole ratio is the volume ratio for gases. This did score full marks if correct.
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For each 1 dm<sup>3</sup> burned: hydrogen releases 11.9 kJ, 0.00 g CO<sub>2</sub>, 0.75 g water vapour and 6.6x10<sup>-4</sup> g nitrogen oxides; natural gas releases 37.1 kJ, 1.83 g CO<sub>2</sub>, 1.50 g water vapour and 4.9x10<sup>-4</sup> g nitrogen oxides.
AQA 8462 · June 2023 · Paper 2F · Q1 · 6 marks
6 marks
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[01.1] Just over three quarters of students identified the correct planet, with the other distractors being roughly equally selected.
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This question is about oxygen. Scientists think there was little or no oxygen in the Earth's early atmosphere. Some scientists think that 1100 million years ago the atmosphere contained 16% oxygen and 4% carbon dioxide. Oxygen is produced when manganese dioxide is added to hydrogen peroxide solution: hydrogen peroxide -> water + oxygen.
AQA 8462 · June 2023 · Paper 2F · Q5 · 9 marks
9 marks
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[05.3] A fifth of students correctly completed the sentence using radiation. The most commonly seen incorrect responses included rays, energy or named incorrect types of electromagnetic radiation.
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This question is about greenhouse gases and climate change. The percentage by mass of water vapour in the Earth's atmosphere is 0.25%.
AQA 8462 · June 2023 · Paper 2F · Q6 · 9 marks
9 marks
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[06.6] Over 60% of the students were able to successfully complete the sentence. A common incorrect response was to include burning.
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Coal, oil and natural gas are used to generate electricity. Coal/oil/gas are solid/liquid/gas and are transported by train/pipeline/pipeline. Their sulfur percentages by mass are 5%, 1% and 0.001%, and the relative quantities of solid particles on burning are high, medium and low respectively.
AQA 8462 · June 2023 · Paper 2H · Q4 · 8 marks
8 marks
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[04.3] Over half of the students scored both marks. Students who gained only one mark usually did so because they simply stated that more cattle farming causes an increase in methane concentration, but did not explain that this was a result of an increased demand for food.
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This question is about greenhouse gases and climate change. Carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases. In the past 50 years, there has been an increase in: the world population; the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; the concentration of methane in the atmosphere; the mean temperature of the atmosphere at the Earth's surface. Most scientists think this information can be used to explain climate change.
AQA 8462 · June 2022 · Paper 2F · Q3 · 8 marks
8 marks
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[03.8] The answer required the idea of limited evidence or that it was billions (or millions) of years ago. Lack of proof or data or that it was a long time ago were insufficient. Just over 20% of the students answered this question correctly.
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Estimated early atmosphere/current atmosphere percentages: nitrogen 1.8/X; oxygen 0.2/20.95; carbon dioxide 96.0/0.04; other gases 2.0/0.92.
AQA 8462 · June 2022 · Paper 2F · Q4 · 13 marks
13 marks
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[04.4] Students found this question challenging, with fewer than 15% of students recognising that yeast must be added.
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Ethanol has formula C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>5</sub>OH and can be made by fermentation. Fuel E5 is 5% ethanol/95% petrol by mass; E10 is 10%/90%. Energy content: ethanol 30.0 MJ/kg, petrol 46.4 MJ/kg.
AQA 8462 · June 2022 · Paper 2H · Q4 · 16 marks
16 marks
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[04.1] The vast majority of students wrote detailed answers to this question and the full range of marks was awarded although relatively few answers were awarded full marks. About 1 in 10 students scored all four marks, while a quarter scored three. Students often neglected to state the crude oil must be heated to begin the separation process. Some students failed to score the second marking point in the mark scheme because their description of a temperature gradient was not in the context of gases rising through a fractionating column or fractionating tower. A handful of students illustrated this idea by referring to a labelled diagram. The idea of fractions collecting at different levels in the fractionating column was well understood but many described the collection of fractions without mentioning condensing and so could not access this mark. Some students incorrectly suggested that petroleum gases would condense at the top of the column. The idea that the separation of crude oil is based on differences in boiling points was an accessible mark but many failed to mention boiling points or simply quoted boiling point ranges from the table.
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Crude-oil fractions include lubricating oil (300-350 °C), naphtha (90-200 °C) and petroleum gases (<25 °C). Kerosene molecules have 11-15 carbon atoms and heavy-fuel-oil molecules 20-40.
AQA 8462 · June 2022 · Paper 2H · Q6 · 3 marks
3 marks
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[06.2] As in 06.1 the gas (carbon dioxide) was sometimes not explicitly identified. There were no algae or plants this early and many students negated correct responses about dissolving in oceans or carboniferous sediments with a further comment about photosynthesis. As a result, only around 20% of students scored both marks here.
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This question is about the chemistry of the Earth's atmosphere.
AQA 8462 · November 2021 · Paper 2F · Q1 · 9 marks
9 marks
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Mars today has 95.97% CO2, 1.89% N2, 0.15% O2 and 1.99% other gases. Earth today has 0.04% CO2, 78.09% N2 and 20.95% O2.
AQA 8462 · November 2021 · Paper 2F · Q8 · 9 marks
9 marks
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Oil combustion releases products containing carbon and sulfur. Solar energy is considered as an alternative.
AQA 8462 · November 2021 · Paper 2H · Q1 · 9 marks
9 marks
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[01.4] Two thirds of students identified one reason, usually the fluctuation in output, but very few students could give two reasons.
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Oil combustion releases carbon- and sulfur-containing products. Solar energy is considered as an alternative.
AQA 8462 · November 2020 · Paper 2F · Q2 · 8 marks
8 marks
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This question concerns atmospheric pollutants from fuels, diesel engines and high-temperature car engines.
AQA 8462 · November 2020 · Paper 2F · Q10 · 10 marks
10 marks
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Hexane and hexene each contain six carbon atoms; ethane and ethene each contain two. This question compares alkane and alkene formulae, bromine-water reactions and bonding.
AQA 8462 · November 2020 · Paper 2H · Q3 · 10 marks
10 marks
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[03.3] This part was not very well answered by many, usually because they focused exclusively on structure and bonding at the expense of reactions, which could indicate that they didn’t read the question carefully enough or didn’t refer back to the question when constructing their response. Structure and bonding were well understood, but few of the reactions were mentioned. Additionally, students often reversed their answers because they confused ethane and ethene or the formation of their handwriting made it unclear whether a compound name ended ‘ane’ or ‘ene’. The command word ‘compare’ demands that students mention both compounds to access level 2 and there were some imprecise comparisons such as ‘ethane undergoes complete combustion whereas ethene undergoes incomplete combustion’. Because of these points, rather fewer than half of students were able to access level 2.
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Hexane and hexene each contain six carbon atoms; ethane and ethene each contain two. This question compares alkane and alkene formulae, bromine-water reactions and bonding.
AQA 8462 · November 2020 · Paper 2H · Q6 · 8 marks
8 marks
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[06.1] A number of students knew that this was incomplete combustion but far fewer mentioned insufficient oxygen. Some thought the soot was a product of a reaction involving the limestone.
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This question concerns soot, sulfur dioxide, acid rain and oxides of nitrogen from fossil fuels and car engines.
AQA 8462 · June 2018 · Paper 2H · Q3 · 11 marks
11 marks
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[03.5] 39% of students seemed aware of the timescale under consideration here, namely the atmosphere of billions of years ago, or that there was a lack of evidence or proof. Many merely asserted that there was no-one there (to make measurements).
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Gas X is obtained from methane and combined with nitrogen to make ammonia at about 450 degC and 200 atm. This question also concerns atmospheric evolution.
AQA 8462 · June 2018 · Paper 2H · Q7 · 12 marks
12 marks
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[07.5] This was generally well answered, although ‘2N’ was a common incorrect response. Students need to remember that gases such as nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen normally exist as diatomic molecules. 61% of students achieved both the marks.
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This question is about car-engine pollutants, catalytic converters and nitrogen dioxide decomposition.
AQA 8462 · sample1 · Paper 2F · Q5 · 3 marks
3 marks
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This question concerns greenhouse gases, climate change and atmospheric carbon dioxide.
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