system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If I inhaled pure oxygen, would I be able to hold my breath longer than if I was just breathing the air around me?
gpt
The drive to breathe comes not from a lack of oxygen but from the accumulation of CO2 in the body. This is why you wouldn't be able to hold your breath for any longer in the scenario you describe. For breathing, the most important thing is how much CO2 you need to get *out*, not how much oxygen gets in. This is also why carbon monoxide poisoning is so dangerous, because your body doesn't really have a way to notice that no oxygen is being drawn into the bloodstream.