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plumbing system
Design a plumbing
system which can
distribute water to five
“cells” in your body in
under 30 seconds!
Your circulatory system controls the movement of blood through
your heart and throughout your whole body. The blood circulates
(moves) in a continuous, closed loop. The movement is generated
(started) by the pumping action of the heart.
Your house also has a circulatory system, but instead of blood, it
pushes water around. It is called the plumbing system and it is composed of pumps, pipes, and valves.
Both your body and your house have circulatory systems that operate using the same parts and concepts:
∙∙ A pump: the heart (body); a mechanical pump (house).
∙∙ Distribution vessels: arteries and veins (body); pipes (house).
∙∙ Control valves: valves in the heart (body); faucets and the toilet
lever (house).
∙∙ They transport both nutrition and waste: blood transports oxygen
and nutrients and removes cell waste (body); the plumbing system
carries both fresh and waste water (house).
One of the most important tasks of the circulatory system is to
deliver nutrition and remove waste through blood - to and from the
cells - at incredibly high speed. The size of your blood vessels controls the speed of blood flow: in large vessels the flow is slow, while
in small vessels it speeds up. This is because the same amount of
blood needs to move through under the same pressure (put out by
the pump of your heart). If the opening is smaller, the pressure will be
greater and it will be pushed through faster.
collect
PLASTIC TUBING
THICK STRAWS
THIN STRAWS
SCISSORS
TAPE
FIVE CUPS
BALLOONS
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MAKING MACHINES out of paper and sticks
1. Sketch ideas for your design, figuring out how the system will
experiment
work to fill up all the cells at the same time. This is necessary.
2. Use the materials listed to construct your plumbing system.
3. Check to see whether or not you have any leaks in your pipes.
Also check to see if you need to add any valves to control the
flow of “blood.”
4. Pour water into the entry part of your plumbing system and
watch how it flows!
What could you change about your plumbing system in order
reflect
for the ”blood” to flow to the cells more quickly? How about
more slowly? How does the size of your pipes affect the
speed of blood flow?
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