Health and medicine: O2 and CO2 solubility

Get an intuition for why carbon dioxide is so much more soluble than oxygen when it goes into water. Rishi is a pediatric infectious disease physician and works at Khan Academy. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.

Health and medicine

The medical world can be a confusing place. Patients, their families, and even students entering health fields might feel overwhelmed by the large vocabularies and complicated explanations. We hope to make understanding the medical world a bit easier. Look around! These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.

Gas Exchange

If you think of your lungs as a mini factory, you can think of the gases as goods that your body trades. Humans need oxygen for important metabolic activities. For example, when you exercise, your breathe more because your body needs more oxygen! These metabolic activities produce carbon dioxide, which is something your body needs to get rid of to avoid blood acidity. So, keeping with the example of your lungs as a factory, oxygen is an import good, and carbon dioxide is an export good! Learn more about the specific mechanisms of this “goods exchange” in the tiny air sacs of the lungs: the alveoli.

Topic: Science

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