Test Your Lunge Volume

You want to know how much volume is inside your lung? - Let's try!

Material:

- plastic tubing
- a large plastic bottle
- water
- kitchen sink or large water basin

Instruction:

1. Put a little bit of water into the water basin.

2. Fill the plastic bottle right to the top with water.

3. Put your hand over the top of the bottle (to stop water escaping when you turn it upside down).

4. Now turn the bottle upside down. Place the top of the bottle in the basin under the water before removing your hand.

5. Push the end of the tube into the bottle.

 

 

6. Take a big breathe into the plastic tube.

 

 

7. Breathe out as much air as you can in the tube.

 

 

8. Measure the volume of air your lungs had it them.

 

 

What happens with the bottle?

Explanation:

As you breathe out through the tube, the air from your lungs takes the place of the water in the bottle. If you made sure you took a big breath in and breathed out fully then the resulting volume of water you pushed out is equivalent to how much air your lungs can hold. Having a big air capacity in your lungs means you can distribute oxygen around your body at a faster rate. The air capacity of lungs increases naturally as children grow up. It can also be increased with regular exercise. So a child needs only a small bottle for this experiment, an adult needs maybe a bigger bottle.