
The chemical reaction is the formation of rust. During that time, the air has to stay trapped so you can monitor by how much the volume of your sample decreases, and to prevent fresh air from replenishing the oxygen in you sample.

In order to measure the oxygen content of your air sample, you will trap a defined volume of air in a 15 mL tube and run a chemical reaction that uses up the oxygen within about 40 minutes. \( \newcommand\)Ī chemical reaction that uses up the oxygen in air trapped in a 15 mL tube
