Respiratory system is made up of the organs in the body that help us to breathe.

Just remember that the word respiration is linked to breathing.

Breathe in and out. Notice your chest and belly moving and feel the soft air passing
from the nose. Listen to the quiet sounds of breathing in and out. Imagine the air
moving from the nose into the throat, through the air tubes, and into the airsacs. The
parts of the respiratory system that are in charge of supplying oxygen are the nose,
nasal passageways, windpipe, lungs, and diaphragm. In the nose and nasal passages,
the entering air is made warm, damp, and clean of unknown particles. Next, the air
moves down through the trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, and alveoli.

Trachea is the empty tube that serves as passageway of air into the lungs.

Bronchi are the two branching tubes that connect the trachea to the lungs.

Bronchioles are the hairlike tubes that connect to the alveoli.

Alveoli are the airsacs that allow gas exchange in the lungs.

Have you experienced being in a jam-packed train? You almost certainly could not wait
to get out where there are fewer people so you could freely move. This is analogous to
the process that makes air move in and out of your lungs. The air molecules are either
crowded outside and tend to get into the lungs where there are fewer air
molecules (inhalation), or they tend to get outside because they are too crowded inside
the lungs (exhalation). When you breathe in, your diaphragm muscle contracts
downward and rib muscles pull upward causing air to fill up the lungs. Can you explain
why? Well, when your diaphragm goes lower and ribs shift up, they provide more
breathing space in your chest. This also reduces the force on your lungs so the air
will move in from the outside. Breathing out is a reverse process. Your diaphragm
loosens up and the ribs and lungs thrust in, causing the gas to be exhaled.

Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oMFAMqSlq4

Questions
1. What does each part of the constructed lung model represent?
2. What happens as you pull down the balloon at the bottom of the model?
3. What happens as you push up the balloon?
4. How does the movement of the diaphragm cause the air to go in and out of the
lungs?
5. What might happen if you prick the balloon?
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
The respiratory system is composed of organs that are in charge of gas exchange. It
includes the nose and nasal activity. The inner surface of your nose is lines with hair,
which filter dirt from the air that you breathe. They stop the dust from entering your
lungs. The moisture in your nose traps even the smallest particle of dirt.
The nasal cavity plays an important role in breathing. It is divided into the right and
left passageways. It contains many blood vessels that help warm the air that you
breathe as it passes through the cavity before it reaches the lungs. Moisture is added
to the air you breathe by special cells in the walls of the nasal cavity. Thus, air is
warmed and moistened as it enters your lungs.

PHARYNX
The pharynx is a short passageway of food and air. In mammals, it is where the
digestive tract and the respiratory tract meet.

TRACHEA AND THE BRONCHIAL TUBES

The trachea, or windpipe, is a long, ringed tube through which air passes to and from
the lungs. Touch the front of your throat gently and you can feel the trachea. The
bottom of the trachea splits into two branches called bronchi, one entering the left lung
and the other the right lung. These bronchi divide into twigs called bronchioles. These
twigs then open into little bags called alveoli. We have 300 million alveoli or air sacs in
each lung. Alveoli are the basic functional units of the lungs.

LUNGS
The lungs are about the size of a pair of footballs. They are delicate organs that are
well protected by the ribs. They serve as a pick-up place for oxygen and a drop-off
place for carbon dioxide. These organs are always busy working, breathing in and out
the oxygen and carbon dioxide, respectively, that enters and leaves the body.

MECHANISM OF BREATHING
When you take a breath, muscles attached to the ribs contract and pull upward and
outward. The diaphragm, a muscle between the chest and the abdomen contracts and
pulls down the bottom region of your chest. Both of these actions cause the chest to
expand. When your chest expands, it provides more room for the air in your lungs, so
the same amount of air moves in a larger space. This causes the air pressure inside the
lungs to decrease. As a result, the air pressure in your lungs becomes lower than the
air pressure outside your body. This difference in pressure forces air to rush into your
lungs without much effort.

QUESTIONS:
1. What happens to the lungs during inhalation?
2. How does the diaphragm help in breathing?