Could the body function if we instead of having lungs with a lot of small aveoli, had one really big aveoli?
1 Answer
Mar 25, 2018
The body could not function if it had only one big alveolus.
Explanation:
Alveoli are the tiny sacs at the ends of the respiratory tree.
Each alveolus has an average diameter of about 200 µm.
A typical pair of human lungs contains about 700 million alveoli, with a total surface area of about
That's 42 times the surface area of a typical 18-year old boy and 47 times for a girl.
Even if a single alveolus covered your whole body surface, it would not be big enough to do its job.
Your cells would get at most 3 % of the oxygen they need.
You would die.
