Respiratory pathway

When breathing, air enters the lungs through a large entrance, the trachea, and eventually branches into
smaller and smaller segments until reaching the smallest elements of the lungs, the alveoli. Each of these
thin elements is in close proximity to blood in pulmonary capillaries, which are the smallest and thinnest
of the blood vessels. With each of the alveoli in close proximity to a pulmonary capillary, the distance for
gas exchange is very short, which thus shortens the time by which complete gas exchange occurs. The
human lungs control gas exchange from our environment into the bloodstream by means of pressure and
concentration gradients.