Body 101 · Lesson 2 · ages 9–12

Your Body, Layer by Layer

Peel your body apart one layer at a time, the way the clear plastic pages work in an old anatomy book. Tap any circle on the figure to find out what lives there.

Tap the circles, then play in the lab bench below
Layer 1 · The skeleton

Lab bench

206
A grown-up has 206 bones

A baby is born with about 300 bones, many of them soft and separate so the baby can squeeze, bend and grow. As you get older some of those pieces fuse together into single bones, so the count goes down, not up.

biceps triceps

A muscle can only pull. It can never push. That is why muscles always come in pairs. Press the button and watch which one does the work.

Sitting and reading a book
115,200
beats in a day, if it kept up this speed for 24 hours
milliseconds — your fastest so far

Tap to start, then wait. The moment the box turns green, tap it as fast as you can. What you measure is light reaching your eye, a signal racing to your brain, your brain deciding, and the order travelling all the way back down to your finger.

Ready when you are
0 slow breaths so far

Breathe in as the circle grows, out as it shrinks. This pace is deliberately slower than normal, which is why it calms you down. Sitting still, most children breathe about 20 times a minute, roughly 20,000 times a day, without ever deciding to.

The mouth

about 30 seconds

Whole trip, mouth to exit: 1 to 3 days
Tap the shade that matches
Pick a shade Your kidneys decide how much water to keep and how much to send out, and the colour of your pee is the report they hand you. Pale means you have plenty. Dark means your kidneys are saving water, so it is time for a drink.
180 L
of blood filtered every day, and only about 1.5 litres leaves as urine. The rest is cleaned and kept.

0
dead skin cells you have shed since this page opened

Drag it dark and watch the pupil open up

Turn the volume down first, then tap a note
Grown-ups usually stop hearing the highest one. Ears only get one set of hair cells, so keep music gentle.
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Try these

0 of 6 correct

Fancy a game on this lesson?

Every question from this lesson is in the Body 101 arena. Race the clock, duel someone at home, play as a team, beat the bosses, or practise with no timer at all.