What change would increase the rate of oxygen diffusing from lung alveoli into the blood?
A. A decrease in the pH of the blood entering the lungs
B. An increase in the hemoglobin concentration of the red blood cells
C. An increase in the partial pressure of oxygen in the blood entering the lungs
D. An increase in the humidity of air in the lungs
E. A decrease in the partial pressure of oxygen in the alveoli
Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
What type of thinking is required?
Gather Content
What do you already know about diffusion? What other information is related to the question?
Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
B. An increase in the hemoglobin concentration of the red blood cells
Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
· This question is asking you to identify the variable that affects oxygen diffusion.
What type of thinking is required?
· Analyze level:
o This is an analyze question because you have to break diffusion and the composition of blood into their component pieces to understand how they function.
Gather Content
What do you already know about diffusion? What other information is related to the question?
· Diffusion is a passive process that is driven by difference in concentration between two regions.
· The greater the difference in concentrations between the two regions, the faster diffusion will occur.
· Diffusion is the movement of a substance from high to low concentration.
· Oxygen diffuses from the alveoli of the lungs into the blood.
· Hemoglobin binds with oxygen and carries it through the circulatory system to the tissues.
Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
· Increasing hemoglobin would cause an increased uptake of oxygen in the alveoli.
· Lower concentrations of oxygen in the blood would speed up the rate of diffusion from the alveoli.
Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
· Analyze level:
o Answering this question correctly depended not only on distinguishing between X and Y, but on your ability to break down, or analyze, the factors that affect diffusion. If you got an incorrect answer, did you remember that hemoglobin has an affinity for oxygen, or that the binding of oxygen to hemoglobin would lower the concentration of oxygen in the alveoli? Did you have trouble breaking down the factors that affect diffusion to determine the correct answer?
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