Giraffe bending to drink. In a giraffe with its head 2.0 m above its heart, and its heart 2.0 m above its feet, the (hydrostatic) gauge pressure in the blood at its heart is 250 torr.Assume that the giraffe stands upright and the blood density is 1.06 * 10^3 kg/m3 . In torr (or mm Hg), find the (gauge) blood pressure (a) at the brain (the pressure is enough to perfuse the brain with blood, to keep the giraffe from fainting) and (b) at the feet (the pressure must be countered by tight-fitting skin acting like a pressure stocking). (c) If the giraffe were to lower its head to drink from a pond without splaying its legs and moving slowly, what would be the increase in the blood pressure in the brain? (Such action would probably be lethal.)
Fluid Pressure
The term fluid pressure is coined as, the measurement of the force per unit area of a given surface of a closed container. It is a branch of physics that helps to study the properties of fluid under various conditions of force.
Gauge Pressure
Pressure is the physical force acting per unit area on a body; the applied force is perpendicular to the surface of the object per unit area. The air around us at sea level exerts a pressure (atmospheric pressure) of about 14.7 psi but this doesn’t seem to bother anyone as the bodily fluids are constantly pushing outwards with the same force but if one swims down into the ocean a few feet below the surface one can notice the difference, there is increased pressure on the eardrum, this is due to an increase in hydrostatic pressure.
Giraffe bending to drink. In a giraffe with its head 2.0 m
above its heart, and its heart 2.0 m above its feet, the (hydrostatic)
gauge pressure in the blood at its heart is 250 torr.Assume that the giraffe
stands upright and the blood density is 1.06 * 10^3 kg/m3 . In torr
(or mm Hg), find the (gauge) blood pressure (a) at the brain (the
pressure is enough to perfuse the brain with blood, to keep the giraffe
from fainting) and (b) at the feet (the pressure must be countered by
tight-fitting skin acting like a pressure stocking). (c) If the giraffe
were to lower its head to drink from a pond without splaying its legs
and moving slowly, what would be the increase in the blood pressure
in the brain? (Such action would probably be lethal.)
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