Digestive System Lab

1. My main takeaways from this lab was the how long the digestive system was and how much of it consisted of the small intestine. From the name, you wouldn't expect the small intestine to be the largest/longest part of the digestive system, but when measured, it turned out to be 4 times our height, while the large intestine length measured to be approx. our height.

2. My digestive system in total is about 9 meters long, which is about 30 feet. This is almost six times my height. I think that the digestive system is able to fit inside of your body because it is folded over so many times, and then sort of squished down and coiled up to fit in the allocated space.

3. I think it takes about 9 hours for food to move through your body. After checking online, it turns out that it actually takes about 24 to 72 hours for food to move through your entire body, and 9 hours alone for it to go through your stomach and small intestine. It then spends majority of the time in the large intestine.


4. Digestion is different than absorption. Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breaking down of food into smaller components that can be absorbed into a blood stream, while absorption is when nutrients from ingested food are absorbed. Absorption happens primarily in the small intestine, while digestion happens mainly in the stomach.


5.I think that it would be interesting to learn in greater detail about how nutrients are absorbed and how the stomach breaks down the bolus.