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Cardiovascular System

The cardiovascular system contains the heart and blood vessels. The blood vessels are responsible for transporting blood to other parts of the body. Look at the attached link to see how this works. (1) http://www.innerbody.com/anim/card.html

Heart

The heart provides blood to different parts of the body. The size of an adult heart is about the size of two fists. Also, it weighs close to 10.5 ounces and is shaped like a cone. The pericardium, a liquid filled sac, surrounds the heart. Arteries carry the blood away from the heart, and veins bring blood back to the heart. The aorta is the major artery and the major vein is the vena cava. (4)

The heart has 17 different major structures. These structures include many arteries, tissues, and valves. A description of each structure can be found at: http://www.cardioconsult.com/Anatomy/ (3)

Fun Facts (2):

A heart beats about 100,000 times a day and 35 million times a year.

An aorta is almost the diameter of a garden hose, but it takes ten capillaries to equal the diameter of a strand of human hair.

The heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood in one lifetime.

Blood Flow through the Heart

Imagine you're traveling inside the body, picture yourself in a raft making your way through the red-blood rapids. As you journey you are in oxygen pour blood that is coming from the body and pouring into the right atrium of the heart via the superior vena cava. Before you know it you're wisked through the right atrium and down the tricuspid valve and into the right ventricle. Just as quickly as you arrived the right ventricle pumps you into the lungs via the pulmonary valve where you see the blood release it's waste gases (no need to carry what we can't use on our trip) and picks up the ever useful oxygen. The blood-rapids are really moving now! You're rushed through the left pulmonary veins and before you can even get your bearings you're in the left atrium, rushing through the mitral valve and into the left ventricle. Before your raft even stops spinning you are cast upward through the aortic valve and out the aorta to ride the now oxygen rich blood to the many areas of the body. All of that in about one second! Your heart is clearly the hardest working muscle in the body.

Blood Vessels

The blood vessels are complex systems of tubes that provide blood to the different body parts throughout the body. Four types of vessels include: arteries, veins, capillaries, and sinusoids. (5)

Here's an interesting fact about blood vessels: There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in each human! (6)

And next time you eat a meal high in fat, remember this: When you eat a very fatty meal, blood becomes more viscous. When blood was drawn from atheletes, it looked like milk because of all the fat globules! (7)

References

(1) http://www.innerbody.com/anim/card.html

(2) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/eheart/facts.html

(3) http://www.cardioconsult.com/Anatomy/

(4) http://biology.about.com/library/organs/heart/blheartintro.htm

(5) http://biology.about.com/library/organs/heart/blblood.htm

(6) http://www.hightechscience.org/funfacts.htm

(7) http://www.athleteproject.com/member/exercise_physcs.htm