| 主权项 |
1. An arterial elasticity simulator for demonstrating to a user having a mouth, lungs, and hands concepts of cardiovascular physiology including blood, the heart, a heart valve, and arteries, and focusing on the beneficial effects of elastic arteries, the simulator consisting essentially of:
an input port adapted to be placed in the mouth of the user who can blow air from the user's lungs into the input port in a linear input direction, the input port having an input cross-sectional area; a tubular-shaped expandable member having an input communicatively coupled or integral with the input port for receiving air from the input port, an output, and a flexible wall disposed between the input and the output, defining an expandable cross-sectional area, and transferring air in the linear input direction from the input to the output; an output port communicatively coupled or integral with the output of the expandable member for allowing air to flow out of the expandable member in an output direction, the output port having an output cross sectional area that is smaller than the input cross-sectional area of the input port so that air leaves the output port at a slower flow rate than air enters the input port; and a one-way valve disposed between the input port and the input of the expandable member and constraining air to flow in the linear input direction into the expandable member and through the output port, and not in a reverse direction, wherein the input port, the expandable member, and the output port are all disposed linearly along a common center line, the lungs and mouth of the user simulate the heart, the one-way valve simulates the heart valve, the air simulates the blood, and the expandable member simulates the arteries of the cardiovascular physiology. |
