The lungs are pair of spongy, air-filled organs that are situated on either side of the chest (thorax). The trachea (windpipe) transports inhaled air to the lungs via tubular branches known as bronchi. The bronchi divide further into smaller and smaller branches (bronchioles), eventually becoming microscopic. The main function of the lungs is to help oxygen from the air we breathe enter the red cells in our blood. The oxygen is then carried around the body by red blood cells and used by the cells in our bodies.
- If the lungs are removed from the body, the lungs can survive longest than any other organ.
- Our left lung is smaller than our right lung. This is to make room for our heart.
- Our right lung takes in more air than the left lung.
- The normal lungs of an adult can weigh approximately 1000 g.
- If all the alveoli from both lungs were spread flat, they would cover an area nearly the size of a tennis court.
- Lung volume in infants is about 250 ml, and it increases up to 6000 ml in the adults.
- The height of a normal adult lung is about 27 cm at full lung capacity, but in the range of normal breathing, it is approximately 24 cm in height.
- Our lungs inhale about two million liters of air every day and 13 pints of air every minute. It is large enough to cover a tennis court.
- The lungs are by design kept in the rib cage and are also connected to our spinal chord and backbone.
- More oxygen is inhaled when we yawn.
- You have enough capillaries in your lungs (about 300,000,000) that if you stretched them in a line end to end, the line would stretch about 1300 miles (2092 km).
- The lung consists of 5 lobes. The right lung has three lobes known as superior, middle, and inferior lobes. The left lung has two lobes, superior and inferior.
- The breathing in children are much faster than in adults.
- Our brain controls breathing as it tells how much to breathe and when to breath.
- Our lungs can float on water as it is just like bags filled with air. Our lungs contain about 1 liter of oxygen even when we have exhaled. These are the only organs in our body that can float.
- The air we breathe is about 21% oxygen, but our lungs just use 5% of oxygen, and the rest of the o2 is exhaled.
- An adult breathes about 12-18 times per minute.
- The amount of water we exhale every day is about 408 ml.
- The warm air we exhale is around 6% water vapor. As we breathe out, it mixes with the surrounding air and cools down.
- Inhaling water vapor can provide immediate relief and help people breathe more easily. Similarly, inhaling steam adds warmth and moisture to the air we breathe and which may improve breathing and help loosen mucus inside the airways of the lungs.
- We breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.
- Around 70 percent of waste is eliminated through our lungs just by breathing.
- When babies are in the womb, the lungs of the fetus contain fluid. When an infant is taken out of the womb, it starts breathing after 10 seconds.
- Lungs help in talking to. When we exhale air from the lungs, it comes through the trachea and larynx and reaches the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are closed and the air flows between them, the vocal cords vibrate, and a sound is made.
- It’s a myth that our lungs are hollow, and in actual it is filled with blood.
