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The air inside our lungs moves in and out because of the movement of the diaphragm as well as the ribs and chest cavity. When we breath in our ribs push out and our diaphragm contracts to create a larger cavity inside your lungs. This causes an area of low pressure which therefore forces air down our trachea into our lungs. When we breath out the opposite happens (diaphragm relaxes and ribs pull in) which creates a smaller cavity in our lungs what therefore forces the air out of our lungs once respiration has taken place.

It should be noted that during inspiration as the intercostal muscles expand the rib cage and the diaphragm (more important for volume change) moves inferiorly, this creates negative pressure in the thoracic cavity relative to the atmospheric pressure.. consequently due to the pressure gradient, air can move into the lungs via the trachea. The negative pressure that is caused here is the main propellent of air. Whereas expiration, when the diaphragm and intercostal muscles return to resting position, thus restoring pressure to its normal levels is a passive process. The pressure gradient returns to normal and air can be expired.

The importance of the negative pressure created by the intrapleural cavity cannot be stressed enough.

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15y ago

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