The right lung has three sections (lobes), and the left has two sections (above the heart). Picture your lungs as two well-branched tree limbs, one on each side of your chest. When you breathe out, the lungs recoil and return to their typical size. When you breathe in, your muscles create a negative pressure - less than the atmospheric pressure that helps suck air in. To push the air in and out, your diaphragm and other muscles help create pressure inside your chest. Your lungs take in about 1.5 gallons (gl) or 6 liters (L) of air per minute. This large surface area is necessary to process the huge amounts of air involved in breathing and getting oxygen to your lungs. The alveoli cover a surface of more than 1,399 feet (ft) or 130 square meters (m2). These tiny alveoli structures, taken together, form a very large surface area to do the work of your breathing when you’re resting and exercising. The alveoli pick up the incoming energy (oxygen) you breathe in and release the outgoing waste product (carbon dioxide) you exhale.Īs it moves through blood vessels (capillaries) in the alveoli walls, your blood takes the oxygen from the alveoli and gives off carbon dioxide to the alveoli. pumping blood through your lungs (perfusion)Īlthough tiny, the alveoli are the center of your respiratory system’s gas exchange.
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