• Question: how dose the heart work [no essay]?

    Asked by tkmaxx creps to Samuel on 10 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Samuel Vennin

      Samuel Vennin answered on 10 Jun 2018:

      Haha! I spent the last three years of my life studying this question for my PhD! 🙂

      The short answer is it works like a double-pump (the same you use to inflate the tire of your bike): one that sends the blood to your muscles so that they can use the oxygen you breathed in; and the other one that sends this blood empty of oxygen (it has been consumed by your muscles) to your lungs so that it can be filled again with the oxygen you breathed in.

      Obviously, unlike for your bike tires, there is no one pumping the two parts of the heart manually. Instead, there is a muscle surrounding these two parts that we call the myocardium and that contracts and then relaxes to force the blood out of your heart and then in. An electrical signal that propagates through this muscle allows the contraction and relaxation.

      You have a very nice video of explanation at the following link if you want to know more about it:

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