• Question: is your heart actually a real heart shape of is it a different shape like a blob

    Asked by nrtyx to Alex, Amy, Andy, Georgia, Ollie on 18 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Amy Reeve

      Amy Reeve answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hello again 😀

      You’re heart isn’t the same shape as the hearts you see on greetings cards and stuff, although they are vaguely similar. Your heart is more or less the same size and shape as your fist 🙂

    • Photo: Andy MacLeod

      Andy MacLeod answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      Not quite.

      Hi nrtyx. The traditional heart symbol you see on valentines or playing cards doesn’t resemble the human heart that much, although there are some similarities.

      The human heart is split into two halves, each consisting of two chambers called “atrium” where the blood comes in and “ventricle” where the blood is pumped out. The right side of the heart pumps blood out to the lungs, where it picks up oxygen, before going BACK into the heart through the left side, where it’s pumped round the rest of the body, through a big blood vessel called the aorta. Because the left side of the heart has further to pump the blood, it has more muscle, and is bigger than the right, so the human heart isn’t exactly symmetrical, while the symbol is.

      The shape of the symbol probably came about from the two halves of the heart, but it’s easier to draw than the real shape. It’s usually red, the colour of blood, but also the passion that the heart represents. The way people use this symbol today has made the writers of the Oxford English Dictionary amend their entry, for use of “heart” as a verb. As in “I Heart Science!”
      <3
      http://bit.ly/mOQiWu

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