Blood Pressure and Blood Flow
The blood pressure at your heart is approximately 100 mm Hg. As blood is pumped from the left ventricle of your heart, it flows through the aorta, a single large blood vessel with a diameter of about 2.5 cm. The speed of blood flow in the aorta is about 60 cm/s. Any change in pressure as blood flows in the aorta is due to the change in height: the vessel is large enough that viscous drag is not a major factor. As the blood moves through the circulatory system, it flows into successively smaller and smaller blood vessels until it reaches the capillaries. Blood flows in the capillaries at the much lower speed of approximately 0.7 mm/s. The diameter of capillaries and other small blood vessels is so small that viscous drag is a major factor.
Sustained exercise can increase the blood flow rate of the heart by a factor of 5 with only a modest increase in blood pressure. This is a large change in flow. Although several factors come into play, which of the following physiological changes would most plausibly account for such a large increase in flow with a small change in pressure?
A. A decrease in the viscosity of the blood
B. Dilation of the smaller blood vessels to larger diameters
C. Dilation of the aorta to larger diameter
D. An increase in the oxygen carried by the blood
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