Science Fair Project On Lung Capacity

Have you ever wondered how breathing works? I have found out from over time that working your lungs can build your ability to breathe better during a workout. My science fair project is about your lung capacity and how it can change. I think it would be fascinating to find out what your own lung capacity is, and you can do that by measuring it with a balloon. I believe that learning more about your lung capacity will help to explain why athletes breathe better than non-athletes.

This section you will learn how the respiratory system works. Organs in your body are responsible for you to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide (zimmermann, Kim Ann). Red blood cells collect oxygen and bring it to the areas needed, while thats happening carbon dioxide is being collected and gets carried back to lungs and get exhaled (zimmermann, Kim Ann). When you breathe the air goes in through your nose or mouth and travels through different tubes that lead to your lungs (zimmermann, Kim Ann). There are lobes on each lung that are called alveoli, when the air gets to these the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide happens(zimmermann, Kim Ann). Many different diseases and/or conditions can occur, some diseases are influenza, bacterial pneumonia, etc… (zimmermann, Kim Ann).

Find your total lung

capacity by measuring it in many different ways. Taking the largest breathe possible is the closest to your TLC (miller, claude H). There are different ways to do this one is with a balloon (Measuring lung capacity). Take a balloon and stretch it out and take a deep breathe (Measuring lung capacity). Then exhale into the balloon don’t force your breathe, after that you pinch the end, do this a couple times (Measuring lung capacity). After all that measure the diameter and find the average of all of them, then you have an estimate of your lung capacity (Measuring lung capacity).
Learn how many breaths you take a minutes. New born babies can inhale and exhale about 40 times per minute and can slow down to about 20 to 40 times per minute while they are asleep (zimmermann, Kim Ann). For resting respiratory rate is 12 to 16 breaths per minute for adults (zimmermann, Kim Ann). During a hard workout adults can average 45 breaths per minute (zimmermann, Kim Ann).
To get a better lung capacity you must exercise. Exercising is the best way to strengthen your lungs (best, michael shiva). High intensity activities will strengthen your heart and lungs, this will make your delivery of oxygen more powerful (best, michael shiva). Non-athletes don’t train their lungs to work as well as a athletes would (self). The amount of air that moves in and out of your lungs is tidal volume (best, michael shiva). The size of your lungs limit your tidal volume (best, michael shiva). When your training you can strengthen your inspiratory muscles which can expand your chest captivity and your lungs can fill with more oxygen (best, michael shiva).
Having a good lungs is healthy for your body.

Your lung capacity depends on how big your lungs are (self). Average lung capacity for a young child is about 2.1 liters (Q&A; balloons and vital lung capacity). On average 3.6 liters of air is the vital capacity of a 14 year old (Q&A; balloons and vital lung capacity). A 20 year old has a lung capacity of 4 liters (Q&A; balloons and vital lung capacity). As you get older your bones become thinner including your rib cage, as a result of that your rib cage can’t expand anymore (martin, Laura J.). This process will prevent you from breathing enough air (martin, Laura J.). Symtoms of tiredness and shortness of breath can happen (martin, Laura

J.).
Based on my knowledge of Lung Capacity, I think that people that exercise will have a greater lung capacity than people who do not. In my experiment I plan to test the hypothesis by taking two people one who exercises and one who does not and each of them will blow into a balloon three times each and see who’s is larger. I predict that the person that exercises, balloon will be bigger than the other person’s balloon.