The heart is a muscle just a bit bigger than the size of your fist. It is located between the lungs, almost in the middle of the chest. It is the body's core muscle and the very first organ to form in the body after conception.
The cardiovascular system is made up of the heart and a system of blood vessels the circulatory system that help circulate blood. The blood provides oxygen and nutrients to all the organs and tissues in the body. It also delivers carbon dioxide to the lungs and the lungs then exhale to remove carbon dioxide from the body. At the same time, blood picks up waste products that are filtered out of the body by the kidneys.
The right and left sides of the heart are divided by a wall called the septum. The right side pumps blood to the lungs, where the blood picks up oxygen. The left side pumps blood to the rest of the body. Blood flows from chamber to chamber through the following valves, which keep blood flowing forward and prevent it from leaking backward:. After blood has travelled through the body, it comes back to the heart through the veins vena cava and enters the right atrium.
The blood is bluish in colour because it is low in oxygen. When the heart relaxes, the blood flows through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle.
The right ventricle contracts squeezes to send the blood through the pulmonary valve into the arteries in the lungs pulmonary arteries. The blood travels to the lungs, where it gets fresh oxygen and turns bright red again.
It returns to the left atrium through the pulmonary veins. Then it moves through the mitral valve to the left ventricle. Skip to content. Previous Previous. Next Continue. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Kids Expand child menu Expand. Learn Expand child menu Expand.
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There are also four valves in the heart, and these are there to make sure that the blood only goes one way, in or out. Imagine the chaos it would cause if the blood was going in and out all at the same time.
So how does the blood get around our bodies? Well when it leaves the heart it gets taken on a journey through arteries. Have you heard of the aorta and the pulmonary artery? Well these are super important for making sure our blood gets to the right place at the right time. But what about when the blood needs to go back to the heart.
Well here it is carried through veins. This is transported nicely through the pulmonary veins, while blood that comes from around the body goes flowing in through the superior vena cava this carries blood from your upper body , and inferior vena cava this carries blood from your lower body.
You must have felt your own heart beating, well this actually works from electricity. Yes really, electricity! Your heart contracts tightens up , and this makes all the chambers smaller and pushes blood back into the blood vessels.
When your heart relaxes again, the chambers get bigger and the blood comes back into your heart. Wow, sounds pretty complex. The heart weighs between 7 and 15 ounces about to grams which is about the same as a bottle of Heinz Ketchup!
Now this is quite unbelievable. This amazing bit of body machinery pumps about gallons liters of blood through your body, every single hour, which is about 2, gallons liters per day. Man it works hard. Getting the idea of how hard this little fellow works? Turn on your kitchen faucet all the way for 45 years and that is the same amount of blood that is pumped through your heart in a lifetime. What a waste of water too. Want to know how fast the blood pumps through your aorta?
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