When taking our subject’s different capacities, we found that her inspiratory capacity (IC) was 5.58 L, vital capacity (VC) was 5.85 L, functional residual capacity (FRC) was 1.74 L, and her total lung capacity (TLC) was 7.32 L. When comparing these numbers to the averages for a woman’s capacity we find that: her IC was more than double of that of an average woman (5.58 L compared to 2.4 L); her vital capacity was greater than average as well (5.85 compared to 3.1 L). However, when it comes to FRC we see our subject was slightly smaller than the average (1.74 compared to 1.8 L). When looking at her TLC we see that she is once again above par (7.32 L compared to 4.2 L). Factors potentially affecting these values include: if a person smokes, gender, asthma, emphysema, and tuberculosis. Residual volume, RV, is how the leftover air in one’s lungs after exhalation. It functions in preventing the lung from collapsing and keeping the alveoli open. Since the spirometer cannot measure the lungs internally, this value is predicted. When dead space equals 175mL, then the alveolar ventilation comes out to be 325mL. …show more content…
This allows one to measure their lung capacity. Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) on the other hand, measures a person’s airflow, or should I say, how much air they exhaled during a specific time of testing their FVC. The ratio of FEV1/FVC helps determine whether a person has a healthy set of lungs (expelling 80% of FVC per 1 second); if they have COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (in this case they expel substantially less than 80% of their FVC during a 1 second period); or if they have restrictive disease (causing them to have a decrease in FVC, but yet still allowing them to expel 80% or more of their FVC in 1