• Question: How many litres of blood is pumped each day from the heart?

    Asked by Lucy to Marta on 10 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Marta Varela

      Marta Varela answered on 10 Mar 2017:

      Hi Lucy.

      Interesting question… I don’t know off the top of my head, but let’s find out. The amount of blood each of the two ventricles (main chambers of the heart) pumps out every time the heart beats is called the stroke volume. I have just googled stroke volume and the normal one is about 70 mL (http://www.cvphysiology.com/Cardiac%20Function/CF002).

      Say your heart beats at 60 beats per minute:
      Volume of blood pumped by the heart each day =
      0.070 (L = 70 mL) x 2 (ventricles in the heart) x 60 (beats per minute) x 60 (minutes in an hour) x 24 (hours in the day) = 12,100 L approximately.

      This is means that, in 10 days, you would be able to fill a double-decker bus with all the blood your heart has pumped around!

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