This one is not as daft as it sounds! The Earths atmosphere is a collection of gases and gases can be squashed, so why doesn’t gravity pull all the air down to the ground so the atmosphere is only a few metres thick?
Air stays where it is because of the movement of its molecules. In solids molecules don’t move much, in liquids they more a bit more, in gases they move around a whole lot. All of that movement fights gravity which is trying to pull the gases to the ground. Gravity is strong enough to stop the air escaping into space, but isn’t strong enough to battle against the movement of the molecules.
Thus an equilibrium is maintained and we get to live.
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