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Without blood there is no vertebrate life. This liquid flows through veins and arteries to oxygenate and nourish the body, like sap in a tree. Here are some statistics
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How much blood does the average human body hold?
About 5 to 6 litres: less than a bucket-full!
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How much blood does an average human heart pump? |
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The heart pumps, on average, at a rate of 70 to 75 beats/minute. Each minute 5 or 6 litres of blood are circulated around the body. This means that on a normal day, some 10 tonnes of blood are moved - the equivalent of 120 tankfuls of fuel in the average family car
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How far is the blood pumped?
The combined length of arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules and veins is around 100,000 miles (Almost 4 times
round the earth!)
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Why does the blood have to circulate?
Every minute a two-way operation occurs:
- delivering oxygen and nutrients to the body's 75 trillion cells via the capillaries
- exchanging for wastes and carbon dioxide
The veins return the wastes and carbon dioxide before the blood is re-oxygenated for the next round trip |
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LEARNING GUIDE
This page is for information only. There are no tests on this background information.
But you could try the quiz below ..... |
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