However, we're also going to be talking about
the very important role of the respiratory system
in regulating our pH, and then also keep in mind that because we are bringing in
so many liters of air a day, ten thou-, around, roughly 10,000 liters a day,
and our lungs have such a large surface area, that the, this is a major site
of concern for our defense system, for our immune system.
And so the respiratory system is going to have
certain strategies that it uses to protect itself from pathogens.
And that's something we're not really going to focus
on, but keep in mind that that is
an important thing that, an important factor that
the respiratory system has to keep in mind.
Now, we're going to see many similarities of the respiratory system to
the cardiovascular system because, again, we're going to be talking about flow.
And so we're going to be talking about pressure gradients and that the
amplitude of that pressure gradient or that the amount
of the pressure gradient is going to be important, as well as the resistance.
And again, the, the resistance is going to be related to the radius of
the tube, and the radius is going to be to the 4th power.
So the radius is going to make a
huge difference in the resistance of the system,
and again, we'll be addressing that in similar
ways that we did for the cardiovascular system.
So just in a very low-mag view of the anatomy of the respiratory system,
it's going to start with the nose and mouth
where air enters the body, and then it's, the air
is going to enter the trachea, which is going to be
a tube that is, got surrounded by rings of cartilage.
And then the trachea will branch into bronchi
that are also surrounded by cartilage, and then
those will continue to branch more and more
until we get to what's called the respiratory
part of the lung, which we'll be talking about in a moment.
And then keep in mind also, we're going to be talking about the diaphragm, which is
going to be sitting underneath the lungs, and which is going to be skeletal muscle.