In this video learn all the basics of Gas Exchange in Humans. I'll cover parts of the lungs, and then focus in on the Alveoli and it's role in letting you BREATHE.

Gas Exchange in Humans is a really simple process heavily reliant on good old fashioned diffusion. However, before explaining gas exchange having some background knowledge of the Lungs is extremely valuable so lets quickly go over that.

The sacs that hold everything are called the lungs, which are pushed up and down by the diaphragm. This pipe here is the Trachea, it's where the air you breathe enters the lungs, the Trachea branches of into two pipes called the Bronchi, these then branch of into smaller pipes called bronchioles. When you zoom into a bronchiole you'll find the Alveoli these small air sacs are where gas exchange actually occurs.

If you zoom into the alveoli and look at a single alveolus you'll find capillaries, tiny blood vessels that connect veins to arteries. Here the oxygen you just breathed in has filled your alveolus and created a very steep concentration gradient making the oxygen diffuse into the capillary's oxygenating your blood by attaching to the red blood cells and the carbon dioxide that had developed in the blood is diffused into the alveolus where it will get breathed out.

That's basically it.

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