Question

Pick one part of the circulatory system and explain it.(what it is, why it is interesting, and how it changes your view of the system)

Answer 1

Circulatory system is responsible for flow of blood, gases, nutrients, hormones to the body cells and from the body cells. The important parts of circulatory system are heart, arteries, veins, capillaries, lungs.

Here, I will discuss about Heart which is the most important part of circulatory system. Heart is the pumping organ of the body as it pumps the oxygenated blood from heart to all parts of the body so that the body cells can get sufficient oxygen and nutrients for their normal functioning. Body cells gives out carbon dioxide into the blood because of which blood becomes deoxygenated. The deoxygenated blood from lower part of body and from upper part of body enters right atrium of the heart via inferior venacava and superior venacava respectively. From right atrium this deoxygenated blood enters the right ventricle. From right ventricle the deoxygenated blood goes to lungs for a oxygenation via pulmonary artery. In the lungs the carbon dioxide from blood is removed and oxygen is added to the blood via the gaseous exchange taking place in alveoli of the lungs. The blood now becomes rich in oxygen and is called as oxygenated blood. This oxygenated blood now enters left atrium of the heart via pulmonary vein. From left atrium of the heart the oxygenated blood goes to left ventricle and from there this blood is pumped out to all parts of the body via aorta.

Generally arteries carries oxygenated blood and veins carries deoxygenated blood. Important part here is pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated blood from right ventricle to lungs and pulmonary vein carries oxygenated blood from lungs to left atrium. This is the important and interesting thing to learn. One more important thing to learn in heart is that the walls of left ventricle is thicker than the walls of right ventricle because left ventricle has to pump blood with more force and pressure into the aorta so that blood can be transported in the arteries. This changes my understanding of the heart in the circulatory system.