[orbsycli]

Yesterday I was driving on some road, when i came to a stoplight.
I sat there for a while, and ripped out my lungs. I inverted them and realized it looks exactly like a tree.
The light turned green and i quickly shoved my lungs back into myself, and I started to think.

now we all know I didn't really do this, just something i thought about.
the similarites of trees and lungs...
invert the lungs and you will see a tree standing there.
as we inhale o2, we exhale co2 (i hope that's correct, i know it's something like that.)
a tree, the complete opposite.
there is a trunk, some veins, and cappilaries stretching as far as they can. both in lungs and on trees, acting as a transportation of nutrients to the both the tree, and the lungs.

there is no real significance to this thread, that's why i tossed it in the water cooler. just wanted to point it out.

[Fishteacher73]

The continual division of trunk to branch to limb to leaf is mirrored by the continual division of the lungs from bronchia to bronchioles to alveolar duct to alveolar sacs and alveoli. This is medically called aborial (tree-like) branching. The mechanics of both concern gas exchange and the form can be seen to fit the function. This design can also be represented mathematically by fractals.

So, yes....tres and lungs are alike...in many ways.

[TeleMad]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

I inverted [the lungs] and realized it looks exactly like a tree.

Anatomists noticed this too, that's why the branching-tubes (primary bronchi, secondary and tertiary bronchi, bronchioles, etc.) structure is called the bronchial tree.

[Turtle]

___Ahh the tree! Orby, your ripped out inside out lung-tree is my ripped out outside in cave-tree. Your lungs & the cave have a branching boundry which is air-filled & they posess trunk, branch, stem, & leaf. The tree however is below as it is above & is water filled.
___The mathematics of fractals (a contraction of 'fractional dimension') describe the boundrys of ripped out lungs, caves, trees, clouds, leaves, mountains, coastlines & shows that they all get longer when you use a shorter ruler. How long do you need that lung to reach?