In human beings, many organs take part in the process of respiration. We call them organs of respiratory system. The main organs of human respiratory system are: Nose, Nasal passage (or Nasal cavity), Trachea, Bronchi, Lungs and Diaphragm.

The human respiratory system begins from the nose. Our nose has two holes in it which are called nostrils. There is a passage in the nose behind the nostrils which is called nasal passage (or nasal cavity). The air for respiration is drawn into our body through the nostrils present in the nose. This air then goes into nasal passage.

The nasal passage is separated from the mouth cavity (buccal cavity or oral cavity) by a hard, bony palate so that we can breathe in air even when we are eating food (and the mouth cavity is filled with food). The nasal passage is lined with fine hair and mucus (Mucus is secreted by the glands inside the nasal passage).

When air passes through the nasal passage, the dust particles and other impurities present in it are trapped by nasal hair and mucus so that clean air goes into the lungs. The part of throat between the mouth and wind pipe is called pharynx. From the nasal passage, air enters into pharynx and then goes into the wind pipe (or trachea).

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The trachea is a tube which is commonly known as wind pipe. The air coming from the nostrils during breathing passes through trachea. Trachea does not collapse even when there is no air in it because it is supported by rings of soft bones called cartilage. The upper end of trachea has a voice box called larynx.

The trachea runs down the neck and divides into two smaller tubes called ‘bronchi’ at its lower end. (The singular of bronchi is bronchus). The two bronchi are connected to the two lungs. The lungs lie in the chest cavity or thoracic cavity which is separated from abdominal cavity by a muscular partition called diaphragm.

The lungs are covered by two thin membranes called pleura. The lungs are enclosed in a ‘rib cage’ made of bones called ‘ribs’. We have not shown the rib cage in Figure 64 to keep the diagram simple.

Each bronchus divides in the lungs to form a large number of still smaller tubes called ‘bronchioles’. The smallest bronchioles have tiny air-sacs at their ends (see Figure 64). The pouch-like air-sacs at the ends of the smallest bronchioles are called ‘alveoli’ (singular alveolus).

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The walls of alveoli are very thin and they are surrounded by very thin blood capillaries. It is in the alveoli that oxygen is taken into the body and carbon dioxide is eliminated. In other words, it is in the alveoli that gaseous exchange takes place. The human lungs have been designed to maximise the exchange of gases as follows:

There are millions of alveoli in the lungs. The presence of millions of alveoli in the lungs provides a very large area for the exchange of gases. And the availability of large surface area maximises the exchange of gases. For example, if all alveoli from the two human lungs are unfolded, they would give an area of about 80 square metres (which is nearly the size of a tennis court!). The diaphragm is a sheet of muscle below the lungs. It helps in ‘breathing in’ and ‘breathing out’. The muscles of chest also help in breathing in and breathing out.

When we breathe in air, the diaphragm arid muscles attached to the ribs contract due to which our chest cavity expands. This expansion movement of the chest increases the volume inside the chest cavity. Due to increase in volume, the air pressure decreases inside the chest cavity and air from outside (being at higher pressure) rushes into the lungs through the nostrils, trachea and bronchi.

In this way, during the process of ‘breathing in’ the air sacs or alveoli of the lungs get filled with air containing oxygen. The alveoli are surrounded by very thin blood vessels called capillaries carrying blood in them. So, the oxygen of air diffuses out from the alveoli walls into the blood.

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The oxygen is carried by blood to all the parts of the body (This oxygen is carried by a red pigment called hemoglobin present in blood). As the blood passes through the tissues of the body, the oxygen present in it diffuses into the cells (due to its higher concentration in the blood).

This oxygen combines with the digested food (glucose) present in the cells to release energy. Carbon dioxide gas is produced as a waste product during respiration in the cells of the body tissues. This carbon dioxide diffuses into the blood (due to its higher concentration in body tissues).

Blood carries the carbon dioxide back to the lungs where it diffuses into the alveoli. When we breathe oil air, the diaphragm and the muscles attached to the ribs relax due to which our chest cavity contracts ant becomes smaller. This contraction movement of the chest pushes out carbon dioxide from the alveoli of the lungs into the trachea, nostrils and then out of the body into air. In this way the process of gaseous exchange is completed in the human respiratory system.

Please note that during the breathing cycle, when air is taken in (or inhaled) and let out (or exhaled), the lungs always contain a certain residual volume of air so that there is sufficient time ‘for the oxygen tot absorbed’ into the blood and ‘for the carbon dioxide to be released’ from the blood. Another point to be noted is that carbon dioxide is more soluble in water (than oxygen), so it is mostly transported in the dissolved form in our blood.