When in school, our teacher told us that the area of the lungs equals that of a tennis court. Actually, the lungs have a lot of tiny balloon-like structures in them, about 300 of them, called alveoli. These are attached to branches of the airways and clustered together and packed in the lungs. They have blood capillaries passing through their walls that take up oxygen from and release carbon dioxide into the alveolus when we breath.
The surface area that we give as the surface area of the lungs is actually the total surface area of the alveoli spread out, i.e. The surface area over which gaseous exchange is occurring. This is estimated to be about 160m2 which is like 80 times the area of our skin.
Imagine that!!
The surface area that we give as the surface area of the lungs is actually the total surface area of the alveoli spread out, i.e. The surface area over which gaseous exchange is occurring. This is estimated to be about 160m2 which is like 80 times the area of our skin.
Imagine that!!