Welcome to the Respiratory System

All animals need oxygen to live. Land animals get oxygen from the air. Without the oxygen in the air we cannot survive more than a few minutes. Breathing happens automatically, we do not have to even think about it.

We breathe in order to take oxygen into our bodies and get rid of carbon dioxide. The oxygen is carried in the blood to all the body's cells. The air we breath out has 100 times more carbon dioxide than the air we breath in.

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Nose and Nasal Cavity

The respiratory system is made of body parts that are in charge of your breathing. It includes your nose and nasal cavity. You inhale air though your nose. As you inhale, small specks of dirt are trapped by many tiny hairs in your nose. This cleans the air. The hairs stop the dirt from going further in your body. The moist inside surface in your nose traps even smaller pieces of dirt. The nasal cavity, the air passage behind the nose, plays an important role in breathing. The nasal cavity is divided into a right and left passageway. The tissue that covers the wall of your nasal cavity contains many blood vessels. Heat from the blood in the vessels helps warm the air as you breath. Moisture is added to the air you breath by special cells in the walls of the nasal cavity. The air is warmed and moistened before it reaches your lungs.

You usually cannot see the air you breathe out. But on cold days the air you exhale is visible. This is because your breath contains water vapor, as well as carbon dioxide. As the water vapor meets cold air, it condenses and turns into tiny droplets of liquid water which look like white puffs of steam.

2.

Windpipe and Bronchial Tree

The windpipe (trachea) joins the the the upper respiratory tract to the lungs. If you gently touch the front of your throat you can feel the trachea. The bottom of the trachea splits into two branches called bronchi. One enters the right lung and one goes to the left lung.

The bronchial tree's job is to spread the air from the trachea over a very wide area as quickly as possible. The air passing through the windpipe divides into two branches. These divide into twigs called bronchioles. These twigs open into little bags called alveoli.

We have about 300 million alveoli (air sacs) in each lung. The alveoli gives our lungs a huge surface for absorbing oxygen from the air.

When you breathe in your chest muscles pull your ribs up and out. Your diaphragm, the muscle under your chest, moves down. Your chest expands and your lungs fill with air. When you breathe out, the muscles relax. Your ribs move down, and your diaphragm moves up to squeeze air out

3.

Lungs

Lungs provide the breath of life. Our lungs are about the size of a pair of footballs. They fill our chest from the neck to the ribs. The lungs are protected by our ribs. The lungs are the pickup place for oxygen and the drop off place for carbon dioxide. The lungs are always working, breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide.

Blood is pumped into the lungs from the heart through the pulmonary arteries. Blood with oxygen leaves the lungs through the pulmonary veins and travels to the heart. Oxygen is the fuel that makes all the body processes run.

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