Heart Functions Essay

1.What do you notice about the sizes of the four chambers? Annotate the measurements you have recorded onto your drawing. The ventricles are much bigger than the atria and the left ventricle is bigger than the right ventricle. Left atrium wall: 0.4cm Left ventricle wall: 1.4 cm Right atrium wall: 0.2 cm Right ventricle wall: 0.6 cm 2.The left ventricle has a much thinker wall than the right ventricle; explain why this is. The left ventricle has a much thicker wall than the right ventricle because the left ventricle has to pump blood to the whole body while the right ventricle only has to pump blood to the lungs. 3.What is the function of the tendinous cords attached to the bicuspid and tricuspid valves? The tendinous cords attached to the bicuspid and tricuspid valves hold the valves in place and prevent them from turning inside out. 4.Explain how blood flow in the heart moves in one direction only and trace the movement of a single red blood cell through the heart. The valves in the heart prevent the back flow of blood on the heart because they close shut whenever the blood starts flowing in the wrong direction. A deoxygenated red blood cell coming from the body would enter the heart from the vena cava into the right atrium. It would then go into the right ventricle through the tricuspid valve. From the right ventricle, it would be pumped to the lungs through the pulmonary artery. The red blood cell would be oxygenated in the lungs and would return to the left atrium through the pulmonary vein. From the pulmonary vein, it would go through the bicuspid valves into the left ventricle and the left ventricle would pump it through the aorta to the rest of the body. 5.What is the function of the coronary arteries? The coronary arteries supply the cardiac muscle with the blood and in turn oxygen they need to contract.