| Questions | 5 |
| Topics | Capillaries, Central & Peripheral Nervous Systems, Mantle, Pulmonary Artery & Vein, Veins |
Capillaries are small thin-walled vessels that permit the exchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and waste between blood and the body's cells. This process of exchange is called diffusion.
The nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system) and the peripheral nervous system which is the network of nerve cells (neurons) that collect and distribute signals from the central nervous system throughout the body.
Mantle makes up 84% of the Earth's volume and has an average thickness of approximately 1,800 miles (2,900 km). It is dense, hot, and primarily solid although in places it behaves more like a viscous fluid as the plates of the upper mantle and crust gradually "float" along its circumference.
The two largest veins in the body, the venae cavae, pass blood to the right ventricle which pumps the blood to the lungs through the pulmonary artery. Blood picks up oxygen in the lungs and returns it to the left atrium via the pulmonary vein.
Veins carry blood back to the heart from the body. While arteries are thick-walled because they carry oxygenated blood at high pressure, veins are comparatively thin-walled as they carry low-pressure deoxygenated blood. Like the heart, veins contain valves to prevent blood backflow.