In anatomical terms where is the heart located

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What organs are located on the left side of your body below the rib cage? How can the heart beat when it is outside of the body? The human heart is a finely-tuned instrument that serves the whole body.

It is a muscular organ around the size of a closed fist, and it sits in the chest, slightly to the left of center. This delivers oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood to tissues and organs and carries away waste. The heart sends deoxygenated blood to the lungs, where the blood loads up with oxygen and unloads carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism. Together, the heart, blood, and blood vessels — arteries, capillaries, and veins — make up the circulatory system. In this article, we explore the structure of the heart, how it pumps blood around the body, and the electrical system that controls it.

Below is an interactive 3D model of the heart. Explore the model using your mouse pad or touchscreen to learn more. The heart consists of four chambers :. A wall of tissue called the septum separates the left and right atria and the left and right ventricle. Valves separate the atria from the ventricles. At rest, the heart might beat around 60 times each minute. But this can increase to beats per minute bpm or more. The left and right sides of the heart work in unison.

The atria and ventricles contract and relax in turn, producing a rhythmic heartbeat. Diastole: The ventricles relax and fill with blood as the atria contract, emptying all blood into the ventricles.

Systole: The ventricles contract and pump blood out of the heart as the atria relax, filling with blood again. When a person takes their blood pressure, the machine will give a high and a low number. The high number is the systolic blood pressure, and the lower number is the diastolic blood pressure. Systolic pressure: This shows how much pressure the blood creates against the artery walls during systole. Diastolic pressure: This shows how much pressure is in the arteries during diastole.

The heart enables the body to eliminate the unwanted carbon dioxide. The pulse is the same as the heart rate. When you feel your pulse, you feel the rush of blood as the heart pumps it through the body.

A healthy pulse is usually 60— bpm , and what is normal can vary from person to person. A very active person may have a pulse as low as 40 bpm. People with a larger body size tend to have a faster pulse, but it is not usually over bpm. Learn how to take the pulse here. A double-layered membrane called the pericardium surrounds your heart like a sac. The outer layer of the pericardium surrounds the roots of your heart's major blood vessels and is attached by ligaments to your spinal column, diaphragm, and other parts of your body.

The heart weighs between 7 and 15 ounces to grams and is a little larger than the size of your fist. In fact, each day, the average heart beats , times, pumping about 2, gallons 7, liters of blood. The inner layer of the pericardium is attached to the heart muscle. A coating of fluid separates the two layers of membrane, letting the heart move as it beats.

Your heart has 4 chambers.