Khan Academy on a Stick
Advanced respiratory system physiology
Place your hand on your ribs and inhale deeply. You’ll notice that your chest expands and your back straightens. As this occurs, air is rushing through your windpipe and branches off to either your left or right lung. After 20 to 30 more branch points, oxygen in the air ends up in the alveoli where it diffuses into the liquid that surrounds the alveoli, and slips into the blood. This microscopic gas exchange occurs rapidly, oxygen is taken into the body and carbon dioxide is removed from the body, and then you exhale. Learn more about the intricate and fascinating respiratory system in these videos!
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Alveolar gas equation - part 1
Find out how to calculate exactly how much oxygen is deep down inside your lungs! Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
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Alveolar gas equation - part 2
Find out how to calculate exactly how much oxygen is deep down inside your lungs! Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
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Henry's law
Explore the relationship between partial pressure of a gas and the concentration of the gas molecule within a liquid. Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
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O2 and CO2 solubility
Get an intuition for why carbon dioxide is so much more soluble than oxygen when it goes into water. Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
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Graham's law of diffusion
Find out whether oxygen or carbon dioxide has a higher rate of diffusion (Hint: It pays to be small!). Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
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Fick's law of diffusion
Learn all of the different ways to maximize the amount of particles that diffuse over a short distance over time. Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
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Oxygen movement from alveoli to capillaries
Watch as a molecule of oxygen makes its way from the alveoli (gas layer) through various liquid layers in order to end up in the blood. Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
Gas exchange
If you think of your lungs as a mini factory, you can think of the gases as goods that your body trades. Humans need oxygen for important metabolic activities. For example, when you exercise, your breathe more because your body needs more oxygen! These metabolic activities produce carbon dioxide, which is something your body needs to get rid of to avoid blood acidity. So, keeping with the example of your lungs as a factory, oxygen is an import good, and carbon dioxide is an export good! Learn more about the specific mechanisms of this “goods exchange” in the tiny air sacs of the lungs: the alveoli.
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Peripheral chemoreceptors
Find out how the your body uses special cells that are peripheral to the brain (outside the brain) to sense levels of O2, CO2, and pH. Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
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Central chemoreceptors
Find out how the your body uses special cells that are central to the brain (inside the brain) to sense levels of CO2 and pH. Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
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The respiratory center
Find out how the respiratory center collects information from all over the body and then helps regulate your breathing. Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
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Sneeze, cough, and hiccup
Learn how our brain receives information from mechanoreceptors and then responds by controlling muscles in a well-coordinated system, and how all of this can lead to a sneeze, a cough, or even a hiccup! Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.
Breathing control
Luckily, we can breathe without thinking which means that we have autonomic control of breathing. If we couldn’t, we would risk dying if we went to sleep (look up Ondine’s curse)! There are times when the body wants more oxygen (like during heavy exercise), and when the body wants less (like when we’re resting). How does our body automatically seem to know when to inhale more, and when to inhale less? Also, if we do have autonomic control of breathing, how is it possible to also have conscious control of our breathing? These questions get to the fundamentals of breathing control.