The Digestive System Lab

1. In this lab, the class made models of our own digestive systems by measuring and cutting yarn to represent lengths of different parts of the system and taping the pieces of yarn together to form one long string. My main "takeaways" of this lab was to understand how long the hollow tube in our digestive system really was. It differs for everyone due to their height and several other factors.

Data Table:

2. My height is 1.5494 meters (61 inches). The length of my digestive tract in meters is 8.3729 meters, which means my digestive tract is approximately 6.8235 meters longer than my height. The digestive system is able to fit inside the abdomen because it is coiled up.

3. I think it takes about two days for food to move through your entire digestive system. From the Mayo Clinic (Mayo Clinic) digestion takes about 24 to 72 hours for healthy adults. My guess is close to what the actual value was. Some factors that influence the time it takes is how frequently you eat, how much you chew your food, and what you eat.

4. Digestion is the breakdown of food into smaller particles while absorption is taking in needed nutrients, water, etc.

5. I want to learn about how exactly the food is broken down and what processes occur in the digestive system.