Digestive System Lab

The goal of this lab was to visualize the actual length of the digestive tract. We roughly measured our mouth esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine length by measuring different parts of our body and representing them with different colored string for each part. The take aways was to learn more about the digestive system and the size of each section. The total length of my digestive system is 868 centimeters.

Digestive Organ	Color and Length (cm)
Mouth	13.8-purple
Esophagus	43-purple
Stomach	16.5-burgundy
Small Intestine	636- white
Large Intestine	159-purple
TOTAL	868

I am 159 centimeters and my digestive tract is 868 centimeters which is about 5.5 times bigger than my actual height. I think that my digestive system is able to fit inside my abdomen because it coils really tightly and becomes compact enough to squish into the tight space. I think it takes about 24 hours for food to move through my entire digestive system. Actually, it averages for 50 hours for the entire process but can take from 24-72 hours. The different factors include the amount and type of food eaten, water consumption, amount and type of liquid consumed, stress level and exercise done. Digestion is when food is broken down into smaller pieces and absorption is when the body takes away the nutrients and water needed. Major digestive organs include liver, pancreas, and gallbladder. Absorption takes place within the small and large intestine, rectum and anus. I would like to learn more about why our digestive system is so long in length.