QUESTION = Why don't we inhale close to (or all of) our lung's capacity worth of air when we breathe naturally?

GENERATION = Our lungs expand and contract with the action of breathing, and when we close our mouths and nose we're only letting out a small amount of air at a time. It takes a large amount of air to fill our lungs. That's why we can't just just "pop" our lungs and take in air, we have to use our vocal cords to move air out of our lungs and into our mouths. We can't just take in air without using our vocal cords, so our lungs are filled with air that we can't take in, and our mouths are filled with air that we can't move. So we can't just "pop" our lungs and take in air, we have to use our vocal cords to move air out of our lungs, and we can't just "pop" our mouths and nose and take in air without using our vocal cords. That's why you can't just "pop" your lungs, you have to use your vocal cords to move air out of your lungs. We can't just "pop" our mouths and noses and take in air without using our vocal cords, because we have to use our vocal cords to move air out of our lungs. 

RETRIEVAL #0 = Exhalation---but ventilated alveoli, such as a pulmonary embolism or smoking, excessive ventilation of the alveoli, brought on in relation to perfusion, in people with chronic obstructive lung disease, and “shunt dead space,” which is a mistake between the left to right lung that moves the higher CO2 concentrations in the venous blood into the arterial side. The anatomical factors are the size of the airway, the valves, and tubing of the respiratory system. Physiological dead space of the lungs can affect the amount of dead space as well with factors including smoking, and diseases. Dead space is a key factor for the lungs to work because of the differences in pressures, but it can also hinder the person. One of the reasons we can breathe is because of the elasticity of the lungs. The internal surface of the lungs on average in a non-emphysemic person is normally 63m2 and can hold about 5lts of air volume. Both lungs together have the same amount of surface area as half of a tennis court. Disease such as, emphysema, tuberculosis, can reduce the amount of surface area and elasticity of the lungs. Another big factor in the elasticity of the lungs is smoking because of the residue left behind in the lungs from the smoking. The elasticity of the lungs can be trained to expand further. Section::::Brain involvement. Brain control of exhalation can 

RETRIEVAL #1 = Respiratory system---against the diaphragm which consequently bulges deeply into the thorax (Fig. 8). The end-exhalatory lung volume is now well below the resting mid-position and contains far less air than the resting "functional residual capacity". However, in a normal mammal, the lungs cannot be emptied completely. In an adult human there is always still at least 1 liter of residual air left in the lungs after maximum exhalation. The automatic rhythmical breathing in and out, can be interrupted by coughing, sneezing (forms of very forceful exhalation), by the expression of a wide range of emotions (laughing, sighing, crying out in pain, exasperated intakes of breath) and by such voluntary acts as speech, singing, whistling and the playing of wind instruments. All of these actions rely on the muscles described above, and their effects on the movement of air in and out of the lungs. Although not a form of breathing, the Valsalva maneuver involves the respiratory muscles. It is, in fact, a very forceful exhalatory effort against a tightly closed glottis, so that no air can escape from the lungs. Instead abdominal contents are evacuated in the opposite direction, through orifices in the pelvic floor. The abdominal muscles contract very powerfully, causing the pressure inside the abdomen and thorax to rise to extremely high levels. The Valsalva maneuver can be carried out voluntarily, but is more generally a reflex elicited when 

RETRIEVAL #2 = Lung---with only around one sixth of the alveoli of the adult lung present. The alveoli continue to form into early adulthood, and their ability to form when necessary is seen in the regeneration of the lung. Alveolar septa have a double capillary network instead of the single network of the developed lung. Only after the maturation of the capillary network can the lung enter a normal phase of growth. Following the early growth in numbers of alveoli there is another stage of the alveoli being enlarged. Section::::Function. Section::::Function.:Gas exchange. The major function of the lungs is gas exchange between the lungs and the blood. The alveolar and pulmonary capillary gases equilibrate across the thin blood–air barrier. This thin membrane (about 0.5 –2 μm thick) is folded into about 300 million alveoli, providing an extremely large surface area (estimates varying between 70 and 145 m) for gas exchange to occur. The lungs are not capable of expanding to breathe on their own, and will only do so when there is an increase in the volume of the thoracic cavity. This is achieved by the muscles of respiration, through the contraction of the diaphragm, and the intercostal muscles which pull the rib cage upwards as shown in the diagram. During breathing out the muscles relax, returning the lungs to their resting position. At this point the lungs contain the 

RETRIEVAL #3 = Respiratory system---composition of the dry outside air at sea level, where the partial pressure of oxygen is 21 kPa (or 160 mm Hg) and that of carbon dioxide 0.04 kPa (or 0.3 mmHg). During heavy breathing (hyperpnea), as, for instance, during exercise, inhalation is brought about by a more powerful and greater excursion of the contracting diaphragm than at rest (Fig. 8). In addition the "accessory muscles of inhalation" exaggerate the actions of the intercostal muscles (Fig. 8). These accessory muscles of inhalation are muscles that extend from the cervical vertebrae and base of the skull to the upper ribs and sternum, sometimes through an intermediary attachment to the clavicles. When they contract the rib cage's internal volume is increased to a far greater extent than can be achieved by contraction of the intercostal muscles alone. Seen from outside the body the lifting of the clavicles during strenuous or labored inhalation is sometimes called clavicular breathing, seen especially during asthma attacks and in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. During heavy breathing, exhalation is caused by relaxation of all the muscles of inhalation. But now, the abdominal muscles, instead of remaining relaxed (as they do at rest), contract forcibly pulling the lower edges of the rib cage downwards (front and sides) (Fig. 8). This not only drastically decreases the size of the rib cage, but 

RETRIEVAL #4 = Lung---that can be inhaled and exhaled. The maximum volume of breath that can be exhaled is called the vital capacity. In particular, how much a person is able to exhale in one second (called forced expiratory volume (FEV1)) as a proportion of how much they are able to exhale in total (FEV). This ratio, the FEV1/FEV ratio, is important to distinguish whether a lung disease is restrictive or obstructive. Another test is that of the lung's diffusing capacity – this is a measure of the transfer of gas from air to the blood in the lung capillaries. Section::::Other animals. Section::::Other animals.:Birds. The lungs of birds are relatively small, but are connected to 8 or 9 air sacs that extend through much of the body, and are in turn connected to air spaces within the bones. On inhalation, air travels through the trachea of a bird into the air sacs. Air then travels continuously from the air sacs at the back, through the lungs, which are relatively fixed in size, to the air sacs at the front. From here, the air is exhaled. These fixed size lungs are called "circulatory lungs", as distinct from the "bellows-type lungs" found in most other animals. The lungs of birds contain millions of tiny parallel passages called parabronchi. Small sacs called "atria" radiate from the walls of 

RETRIEVAL #5 = Breathing---atmospheric pressure is 50 kPa, a doubling of the volume of the lungs results in a pressure gradient of the only 25 kPa. In practice, because we breathe in a gentle, cyclical manner that generates pressure gradients of only 2–3 kPa, this has little effect on the actual rate of inflow into the lungs and is easily compensated for by breathing slightly deeper. The lower viscosity of air at altitude allows air to flow more easily and this also helps compensate for any loss of pressure gradient. All of the above effects of low atmospheric pressure on breathing are normally accommodated by increasing the respiratory minute volume (the volume of air breathed in – "or" out – per minute), and the mechanism for doing this is automatic. The exact increase required is determined by the respiratory gases homeostatic mechanism, which regulates the arterial and . This homeostatic mechanism prioritizes the regulation of the arterial over that of oxygen at sea level. That is to say, at sea level the arterial is maintained at very close to 5.3 kPa (or 40 mmHg) under a wide range of circumstances, at the expense of the arterial , which is allowed to vary within a very wide range of values, before eliciting a corrective ventilatory response. However, when the atmospheric pressure (and therefore the atmospheric ) falls to below 75% of its value at 

RETRIEVAL #6 = Lung---Lung The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in humans and many other animals including a few fish and some snails. In mammals and most other vertebrates, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart. Their function in the respiratory system is to extract oxygen from the atmosphere and transfer it into the bloodstream, and to release carbon dioxide from the bloodstream into the atmosphere, in a process of gas exchange. Respiration is driven by different muscular systems in different species. Mammals, reptiles and birds use their different muscles to support and foster breathing. In early tetrapods, air was driven into the lungs by the pharyngeal muscles via buccal pumping, a mechanism still seen in amphibians. In humans, the main muscle of respiration that drives breathing is the diaphragm. The lungs also provide airflow that makes vocal sounds including human speech possible. Humans have two lungs, a right lung and a left lung. They are situated within the thoracic cavity of the chest. The right lung is bigger than the left, which shares space in the chest with the heart. The lungs together weigh approximately , and the right is heavier. The lungs are part of the lower respiratory tract that begins at the trachea and branches into the bronchi and bronchioles, and which receive air breathed in via the conducting zone.