Hearts Function

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

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"Your heart beats all your life, pumping up to 25 liters of blood every minute. Like all pumps, it has a power source - the heart muscle - and valves to make sure that blood flows in the one, right, direction." The heart has 4 spaces called chambers. The 2 upper ones are small with very thin walls. Those are called the right and left Atria. These are the parts of the heart, where blood first flows through.

The Atria has thin walls, which is good because they only use a precise amount of energy they need, to be able push the blood the ventricles beneath.

Under the Atria, you find the 2 Ventricles. These are the real "power-houses" in the heart. The Ventricles' walls are made of a very string muscle called Cardiac.

The left ventricle is a bit larger than the right ventricle. The reason for that is because the left ventricle has to be able to produce a much bigger force, as it has to push around the blood in the body.

And the reason for that the right ventricle doesn't do the same thing as the left ventricle, is because blood needs to get to the lung too, not only to the body. It is the right ventricles job to pump blood to the lungs.

To produce a big force, a lot of muscle is needed, so that's why the left ventricle has extra thick walls.

Connected to the heart we have tubes called blood vessels.

There are 3 types of blood vessels: * An Artery (arteries) -Pulmonary Artery - Transports blood to the lungs.

-Aorta - Transports blood to all body parts * A Vein (veins) -Pulmonary - Transports blood back to the heart * A Capillary (capillaries) -Capillaries form through arteries. They...