Download 7-3 Human Body Amazing Facts

Muscular System- Interesting
Facts
 The body has about 650
muscles.
 The largest muscle in your
body is the gluteus maximus
(the buttock).
 The body’s most flexible
muscle is your tongue.
 The word muscle is a Latin
term meaning “little mouse”.
People thought bulging
muscles looked like a little
mouse running under your
skin.
 It’s easier to smile than
frown. It takes less than 20
facial muscles to smile, and
twice as many muscles to
frown.
 A muscle strain is when a
muscles pulls too hard and
damages some of its fibers.
 A muscle tear is like a strain
but the muscle fibers split.
 A joint sprain is when a joint
moves too far and its parts
become swollen, stiff, and
painful.
 Some headaches are caused
by problems with the
muscles. For instance,
spasms in the neck can
restrict the flow of blood to
the head.
Circulatory System
1. During a typical day, the
adult heart pumps out
about 2,000 gallons of
blood. That is enough blood
to fill 50 bathtubs.
2. The heart pumps about 5
quarts of blood each
minute.
3. When you exercise, your
heart beats faster, 150
times each minute.
4. If all of your blood vessels
were taken out of your
body and laid end to end,
they would stretch 62,000
miles. That’s the same
distance of going around
the earth 2 ½ times!
The Digestive System
1. An adult stomach can hold
up to 4 pints of food and
beverages.
2. Most food stays in the
stomach for 1 to 4 hours.
3. In a year, an adult eats ½ a
ton of food and needs
about 185 gallons of water
(50 bathtubs full).
4. The brain plays a vital role
in hunger and thirst.
5. In 1822, William Beaumont,
an American doctor,
experimented on a patient
with a permanent hole in
his stomach.
6. Your stomach begins to
contract and make juices as
soon as you see or smell
food.
7. Your small intestine is about
20 feet long. If it was
straight instead of bend,
you would be about 26 feet
tall.
8. The liver is the largest organ
inside of the human body. It
weighs an average of 3 to 4
lbs. It has the amazing
ability to repair and regrow
parts of itself if it is injured.
9. Fresh urine doesn’t have
much of a smell but old
urine smells like ammonia
(because of the bacteria
that starts to break it
down).
10. In your lifetime, you make
about 12,000 gallons of
urine. It’s enough to fill a
large swimming pool.
11. In the US, there are about
76,000 million cases of food
related illnesses each year.
12. If you don’t chew your
food well, the pieces are
too solid to be digested and
most of the nutrients are
wasted.
Excretory System
1. When kidneys become
diseased or fail, the
blood is not filter
properly and waste
builds up. A kidney
dialysis machine must be
used to do the job of the
kidneys’ job.
2. Fresh urine does not
have much of an odor,
but old urine smell like
ammonia (because of the
bacteria starting to break
down the urine).
3. Urine is mostly water and
salts.
4. You make about 12,000
gallons of urine in your
lifetime, enough to fill a
large swimming pool.
5. Your bladder can hold
about 1 pint of liquid,
although it can stretch to
hold twice as much.
6. You feel the need to
urinate when there is
about 1 cup of urine in
your bladder.
7. All of your body’s blood is
filtered by the kidneys
every 10 minutes.
8. So, your blood is filtered
about 150 times per day!
Nervous System
1. The brain is made of
many microscopic nerve
cells with trillions of long,
wire-like fibers and
connections.
2. At birth the body is only
4% of its adult size, but
the brain is already about
33% of its adult size at
birth.
3. During a stroke, a lack of
blood to the brain,
maybe caused by a
blocked artery, results in
brain cells dying. It may
take someone a long
time to recover from a
stroke because the
undamaged parts of the
brain have to learn to
take over for the
damaged parts.
4. The cranium or skull
bone protects the brain
from knocks and blows.
The hair and skin on the
head help to prevent the
brain from getting too
hot or too cold.
5. The average adult brain
weighs about 3 lbs. The
largest human brain
weighed in at 6 lbs and 6
ounces. There is no link
between brain size and
degree of intelligence.
6. The brain registers pain
from other parts of the
body so that you know
when you are hurt.
However, the brain itself
has no pain sensors!
7. Brain waves can be
detected by sensors on
the head, which can
switch a device on and
off. These sensors allow
some people that are
paralyzed to control
devices such as
computers, just by
thinking!
8. Nerve signals pass along
the nerves at speeds of
up to 400 feet per
second!
9. Squids have huge nerve
fibers that can be easily
studied, cut, and joined
together to help
scientists learn more
about how nerves work.
10. The spinal cord is about
18 inches long and as
thick as your pinkie.
11. Nerve cells for pain
travel slower than those
for touch. That’s why
when you stump your
toe, you feel your toe
touch something, then a
split second later you feel
the pain.
12. Laughter is good for
you because it reduces
the levels of a stress
hormone, like adrenaline.
13. In 1964, Randy Gardner
achieved a world record
by staying awake for 11
day!
14. Fredrick Banting and
Charles Best discovered
insulin, a hormone
produced by the
pancreas. They also
found that animal insulin
can be used to treat
diabetes, a condition in
which the body cannot
easily control the levels
of sugar in the blood.
15. In 2003, Terry Wallis,
who was 39, woke up
after being in a coma for
19 years. His first word
was “Mom”.
16. The adrenal glands
make epinephrine, which
gives the body a burst of
energy by increasing the
heart rate and blood
flow. This allows the
body to react quickly to
danger or stress, by
running away or facing it.
This is called “flight or
fight.”
17. There are more than 30
main hormones in your
body that control a
variety of functions.