International A Level Biology / Muscles, movement and the heart

Core practical 17: spirometer traces and exercise

Edexcel International A Level Biology (YBI11), chapter 21: Muscles, movement and the heart, specification point 7.15. Part of the full course.

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A spirometer trace shows changes in breathing and oxygen use at rest and after exercise. You can use it to calculate ventilation and oxygen consumption, and describe how to carry out the practical safely.

More lessons in Muscles, movement and the heart

• How muscles, tendons, ligaments and the skeleton produce movement
• The structure of a skeletal muscle fibre
• Fast and slow twitch muscle fibres
• The sliding filament theory
• The myogenic heartbeat: SAN, AVN, bundle of His
• Reading ECGs
• Negative and positive feedback
• Cardiac output
• Controlling heart rate: the cardiovascular control centre
• Controlling breathing: the ventilation centre