2016.01.05 Digestive System Lab

Today, we made a measured the length of our digestive system. The main organs of the digestive system are the mouth, the esophagus, the stomach, and the small and large intestines. We used different colors of ribbon to represent each organ in the digestive system. I chose blue ribbon to represent the mouth, green to represent the esophagus, pink to represent the stomach, white string to represent the small intestine, and red to represent the large intestine. Then I tied all the pieces together, resulting in a very long string, representing the length of my digestive system.

lengths and color of strings I used

all the string I used

The length of my digestive system turned out to be 8.336 meters. In comparison, my height is 1.524 meters, which means that my digestive system is almost 6 times my height. In order to fit such a long organ system in my body, it must be folded over and over again (especially the small intestine, which is the longest organ in the digestive system).

I though that it takes about 2 days for food to move through the entire digestive system. After searching online, I found that it takes a little less than 2 days (30-40 hours) for food to move through the entire digestive system, which is pretty close. Factors such as the composition of the food, gender, and stress levels all can affect the amount of time it takes for food to move through the digestive tract.

Digestion is the breaking down of food into little pieces (nutrients), while absorption is the taking in of these nutrients by the body. Digestion occurs in the mouth and stomach, while it is the intestines that absorb nutrients from the digested food.