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Life Processes in Animals

How the chest moves

Put a hand on your chest and breathe in. Your chest moves.

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The idea

The diaphragm is a curved sheet of muscle under the lungs.

The chest at rest. The diaphragm curves up like a dome.
Step 1 of 3
  1. The chest at rest. The diaphragm curves up like a dome.
  2. Breathing in: the diaphragm moves down. The ribs move up and out.
  3. Breathing out: the diaphragm moves up. The ribs move down and in.

To breathe in, the diaphragm moves down. The ribs move up and out. To breathe out, both move back.

This changes the space inside the chest. When the chest is bigger, air flows in. When the chest is smaller, air flows out.

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This track

  1. 0 Start here
  2. 1 Digestion, absorption and egestion
  3. 2 One path, and a job at every stop
  4. 3 Saliva and starch
  5. 4 Ruminants and birds
  6. 5 Checkpoint: what a body does with food
  7. 6 Breathing is not respiration
  8. 7 Lungs, gills and moist skin
  9. 8 Getting food and oxygen around
  10. 9 What a body cannot use has to leave
  11. 10 The path of air
  12. 11 How the chest moves
  13. 12 Gases swap at the alveoli
  14. 13 Villi give food a way in
  15. 14 Checkpoint: the breathing path, the chest and villi
  16. 15 The big picture
  17. 16 Track quiz

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