Respiratory System Facts

I have collected some interesting respiratory system facts for kids, that will give them an insight, into what all it takes to enable the simple process of breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide! As you will see, it is not that simple. Our respiratory system is one of the most sophisticated biological systems in nature, designed to enable the most important life process of aerobic cellular respiration. Aerobic respiration is the process by which our body produces energy from food. The oxygen supply, needed for this cellular level energy production mechanism, is supplied by the efficient respiratory system. It is one of the most important human body systems.

When you take a deep breath, air enters your lungs and your chest expands. Your lungs sift oxygen through the air and diffuse it into your blood, from where it is supplied to various cells of your body. When you exhale, the carbon dioxide from the blood is expelled out by the lungs. Thus, with every breath taken in, the blood is purified with oxygen and with every exhaled breath, waste products like carbon dioxide are exhaled out with water vapor. This in short, is what happens during every 'breathe in-breathe out' respiratory cycle.

Respiratory System Facts for Kids
Our respiratory system is made up of many organs that work together, like musicians in a symphony, to make us breathe. Let's get started with our respiratory system fun facts

• Every minute we breathe, we take in 13 pints of air! That is we breathe about 6.15 liters of air every minute.
• We breathe about 9 to 20 times every minute. Through every breath, we breathe in about half a liter of air.
• We inhale and exhale air about 22,000 times per day and in the process, transport about 300 cubic feet of air (which is about 8.5 cubic meters of air)!
• Human breathing mechanism is called tidal breathing, as air comes out the same way it goes in.
• We exhale about half a liter of water vapor in a whole day.
• Breathing is initiated by the diaphragm, which is a stretchable muscle under the lungs. When it contracts, the volume of the chest cavity rises and the air pressure drops. That is what enables the high pressure air outside, to enter the lungs and makes them expand like balloons.
• When the diaphragm expands, lungs are emptied of air and we exhale it outside.
• When air passes through the nose and into the nasal passage called the windpipe, it gets filtered, moistened and heated.

Respiratory System Facts about Lungs
Here are some interesting respiratory system facts, especially about the lungs. The lungs are the main parts of the respiratory system, which enable the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. Following are some interesting facts about lungs.

• Lungs are dense networks of connected tubules, that transport oxygen from air to nourish the trillions of cells in our body.
• The air breathed in, is taken through increasingly minute tubes to about 700 million minuscule air bags called the alveoli. They are the places where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged with minute blood capillaries through diffusion. For more on this read 'Organs of the Respiratory System'.
• People with asthma have difficulty in breathing because the air tubes in their lungs become narrow and constricted, due to which, enough oxygen is not supplied through the lungs!

Hope these human respiratory system facts have aroused your curiosity about the intricate workings of the human body. It is great to know what all it takes to make every single breath possible!