What is the difference between breathing and respiration?

This was a question I was commonly asked when assisting GCSE science students in year 9/10. 

Breathing is simply taking air in through your nose/ mouth and down into lungs (and then breathing it out again). - I would act this out. 

In the air you breathe in, there is about 21% oxygen. This diffuses from the lung into blood and is carried around the body. Respiration is the process of cells using this oxygen to create energy. This is done inside the cell, in little energy factories floating in the cell called mitochondria. 

JE

Related BMAT (BioMedical Admissions) University answers

All answers ▸

On complete combustion in air, a sample of an unknown hydrocarbon yielded 176 grams of CO2 and 108 grams of H2O with no additional products. Which one of the following might be the formula of the hydrocarbon? (Relative atomic masses: H=1, C =12, O =16)


In the age of modern healthcare, every time a patient dies after a routine operation or procedure, it’s a case of medical error.


What is in the BMAT exam?


The gases X & Y react with each other to produce gas Z according to the equation: 2X + Y ->2Z. 100cm3 of gas X was mixed with 10cm3 of gas Y, in a freely moving sealed gas syringe The reaction went to completion. What was the final volume of the syringe?