Year 1 - Respiratory System

Question 1

What is oxygen needed for?

Answer 1

Aerobic respiration (which releases energy from our food)

Question 2

What is carbon dioxide?

Answer 2

It is a waste product of respiration, which must be exhaled from the body

Question 3

What is haemoglobin?

Answer 3

Protein in erythrocytes that transport oxygen

Question 4

What are ham groups?

Answer 4

Iron-containing molecules in haemoglobin that actually bind oxygen

Question 5

What can each haemoglobin molecule carry?

Answer 5

Four oxygen molecules

Question 6

Why do erythrocytes have no nucleus?

Answer 6

To fit in more haemoglobin

Question 7

Why is the surface area of erythrocyte cell membrane due to the biconcave disc?

Answer 7

For oxygen to diffuse across

Question 8

Why are erythrocytes tiny and flexible?

Answer 8

So they can squeeze through the narrowest of blood capillaries to deliver oxygen

Question 9

5% of carbon dioxide…

Answer 9

Is transported dissolved in the plasma

Question 10

10% of carbon dioxide…

Answer 10

Is transported as carbaminohaemoglobin

Question 11

85% of carbon dioxide…

Answer 11

Is transported as hydrogen carbonate ions in the plasma

Question 12

What is carbonic anhydrase?

Answer 12

Enzyme that catalyses the reaction between carbon dioxide and water to form carbonic acid

Question 13

What does carbonic acid break down and why?

Answer 13

It breaks down into hydrogen carbonate ion and a hydrogen ion because it is unstable

Question 14

Where do hydrogen carbonate ions go after being formed the erythrocyte?

Answer 14

They diffuse back into the plasma

Question 15

What is the reaction that forms hydrogen carbonate ions?

Answer 15

They are reversible, which means carbon dioxide can be reformed to be exhaled

Question 16

What are the lungs?

Answer 16

An organ that exchanges oxygen and carbon dioxide with the blood

Question 17

What is the trachea?

Answer 17

Allows are to pass to and from lungs

Question 18

What are the bronchi?

Answer 18

Tubes (right and left) branching off from the trachea and into the lungs

Question 19

What are the bronchioles?

Answer 19

Airways in the lungs that lead from the bronchi to the alveoli

Question 20

What are the alveoli?

Answer 20

Tiny sacs, found at the ends of the bronchioles, that are the actual site of gas exchange with the blood

Question 21

What are the characteristics of the walls of the alveolus?

Answer 21

Is only one cell thick, keeping diffusion short

Question 22

What are the pleural membranes?

Answer 22

Two membranes surrounding the lungs. The gap between the membranes is filled with pleural fluid.

Question 23

What are the ribs?

Answer 23

The bones in the chest that protect the heart and lungs.

Question 24

What is the diaphragm?

Answer 24

Large, flat muscle at the bottom of the thoracic activity that helps with breathing

Question 25

What is inspiration?

Answer 25

Proper term for breathing in (inhalation)

Question 26

What is expiration?

Answer 26

Proper term for breathing out (exhalation)

Question 27

What happens when you breathe in?

Answer 27

The diaphragm contracts and external intercostal muscle contract

Question 28

What happens when you breathe out?

Answer 28

The diaphragm relaxes and intercostal muscles contract

Question 29

What is the proper name for “chest cavity”?

Answer 29

Thoracic cavity

Question 30

Volume increase so the pressure decreases in the thoracic cavity…

Answer 30

To below atmospheric pressure, so air moves in to lungs

Question 31

Volume decreases, so pressure increases in the thoracic cavity…

Answer 31

To above atmospheric pressure, so air moves out of lungs

Question 32

What is pulmonary surfactant?

Answer 32

A mixture of phospholipids and proteins that coats the inside of alveoli, breaking the water layer’s surface tension and thus preventing alveoli from collapsing towards the end of exhalation

Question 33

What is the feature of water that means pulmonary surfactant is needed?

Answer 33

High surface tension

Question 34

What is ventilation rate?

Answer 34

Number of breaths per minute

Question 35

More carbon dioxide is generated by aerobic respiration when we…

Answer 35

Exercise

Question 36

What is the unconscious trigger for an increase in ventilation rate?

Answer 36

A rise in blood carbon dioxide concentration

Question 37

What does a rise in blood carbon dioxide concentration lead to?

Answer 37

It leads to a fall in pH (more acidic), which leads to an increase in our ventilation rate

Question 38

Why does the higher ventilation rate will return carbon dioxide concentration to normal?

Answer 38

So the ventilation rate can go back down to normal (negative feedback)