Monday, May 9, 2011

What do I know about the Human Body... not too much actually.

Honestly, the only time I can remember studying a system in the human body was back in 5th and 6th grade. In 5th grade we learned about our heart and how it works. Then in 6th we learned about the digestive system and how many calories a whale eats in one day. I can remember doing a project where we used the total number of calories a whale eats each day (which I believe is north of a million) and then figured out how many cheeseburgers and French fries that would amount to. Considering we eat about 2,000 calories each day, think about how much food 1,000,000 calories would be. I'll give you a hint, its a lot.

So what can I tell you about the digestive system?Well, I can tell you it begins with the consumption of food. It is then broken up into smaller molecules by stomach juices that are made in the liver and I believe also in the pancreas. The broken down molecules eventually make there way to the small intestine. From there it is broken down further and turned into waste. I think from there we all know what happens. Also throughout this process all the nutrients and other good things that are broken apart are put to good use and absorbed into cells. This process is what gives us energy to do things, this is why we need food.

I can briefly talk about the heart and how it functions. In 5th grade we did a lab, and we found out exercise made our heart beat faster. Then we took it even further and had to draw a diagram of the heart and where it pumps blood. I found out that human blood is blue until it comes in contact with oxygen, which as a 5th grader I found mind-blowing. I always wanted to see blue blood, and every time I got a cut I thought there was a chance it would be blue for a second before would come in contact with oxygen. Sadly, I have since realized this is impossible because the second it leaves my body it is exposed to air. Anyways from what I can remember there are things called ventricles, a right one and a left one. I think those pump blood one has un-oxygenated blood and the other has oxygenated blood. Then there is the renal artery, which I think we talked about this year, and I think that carries impure blood to the kidneys. Anyway that's all I can tell you about the human body and how it works.

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