When listening to a heartbeat it consists of two thumps. Is it contracting twice very quickly or is the second thump caused by something else?
In: Biology
There are two beats, the first squeezes the blood from the atria to into the ventricles, the next squeezes the ventricles to force the blood throughout the body.
The atria serve as holding tanks for the ventricles ensuring that blood can continue to flow into them throughout the cycle, and then prime the ventricles to ensure they’re full before their cycle
The ventricles are the high pressure pumps which actually do the work of sending the blood around your body. If you just had ventricles your blood would have to stop flowing briefly as once the system is pressurized it wouldn’t have anywhere to go until the ventricle begins refilling, but in our system the atria expand to give the blood somewhere to flow to.
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