Esophagus Research Paper
The esophagus (say: ih-SOF-eh-guss) is like a stretchy pipe that's about 10 inches (25 centimeters) long. It moves food from the back of your throat to your stomach. But also at the back of your throat is your windpipe, which allows air to come in and out of your body. When you swallow a small ball of mushed-up food or liquids, a special flap called the epiglottis (say: ep-ih-GLOT-iss) flops down over the opening of your windpipe to make sure the food enters the esophagus and not the windpipe.
Digestive System Diagram
If you've ever drunk something too fast, started to cough, and heard someone say that your drink "went down the wrong way," the person meant that it went down your windpipe by mistake. This happens when the epiglottis doesn't …show more content…
have enough time to flop down, and you cough involuntarily (without thinking about it) to clear your windpipe.
Once food has entered the esophagus, it doesn't just drop right into your stomach.
Instead, muscles in the walls of the esophagus move in a wavy way to slowly squeeze the food through the esophagus. This takes about 2 or 3 seconds.
See You in the Stomach
Your stomach, which is attached to the end of the esophagus, is a stretchy sack shaped like the letter J. It has three important jobs:
1.to store the food you've eaten
2.to break down the food into a liquidy mixture
3.to slowly empty that liquidy mixture into the small intestine
The stomach is like a mixer, churning and mashing together all the small balls of food that came down the esophagus into smaller and smaller pieces. It does this with help from the strong muscles in the walls of the stomach and gastric (say: GAS-trik) juices that also come from the stomach's walls. In addition to breaking down food, gastric juices also help kill bacteria that might be in the eaten food.
Onward to the small intestine!
22 Feet Isn't Small at All
The small intestine (say: in-TESS-tin) is a long tube that's about 1½ inches to 2 inches (about 3.5 to 5 centimeters) around, and it's packed inside you beneath your stomach. If you stretched out an adult's small intestine, it would be about 22 feet long (6.7 meters) — that's like 22 notebooks lined up end to end, all in a
row!
Digestive System Diagram
If you've ever drunk something too fast, started to cough, and heard someone say that your drink "went down the wrong way," the person meant that it went down your windpipe by mistake. This happens when the epiglottis doesn't …show more content…
have enough time to flop down, and you cough involuntarily (without thinking about it) to clear your windpipe.
Once food has entered the esophagus, it doesn't just drop right into your stomach.
Instead, muscles in the walls of the esophagus move in a wavy way to slowly squeeze the food through the esophagus. This takes about 2 or 3 seconds.
See You in the Stomach
Your stomach, which is attached to the end of the esophagus, is a stretchy sack shaped like the letter J. It has three important jobs:
1.to store the food you've eaten
2.to break down the food into a liquidy mixture
3.to slowly empty that liquidy mixture into the small intestine
The stomach is like a mixer, churning and mashing together all the small balls of food that came down the esophagus into smaller and smaller pieces. It does this with help from the strong muscles in the walls of the stomach and gastric (say: GAS-trik) juices that also come from the stomach's walls. In addition to breaking down food, gastric juices also help kill bacteria that might be in the eaten food.
Onward to the small intestine!
22 Feet Isn't Small at All
The small intestine (say: in-TESS-tin) is a long tube that's about 1½ inches to 2 inches (about 3.5 to 5 centimeters) around, and it's packed inside you beneath your stomach. If you stretched out an adult's small intestine, it would be about 22 feet long (6.7 meters) — that's like 22 notebooks lined up end to end, all in a
row!