we often take a lot of things in our body for granted like breathing for example we're not even aware of it but we're breathing all the time unconsciously that is made possible by your respiratory system and these are the structures that make up the respiratory system you have your nostrils the nasal cavity the fings larynx trachea the two broni the left and the right lungs and the diaphragm in the series of videos we'll focus on the different structures of the respiratory system their functions and how they're involved in the breathing mechanism first let's start with the upper respiratory system the upper respiratory system is made up of the nasal cavity the nostrils the fings and the larynx the nostrils are the openings through which we breathe in Air so air enters the body through the nost from the nostrils air passes through a passage known as the nasal cavity so the nasal cavity is situated directly behind the nostrils and it is The Passage through which air enters the body within the nostrils you have very tiny hair and a layer of mucus now this hair and mucus are very important because they trap the microorganisms dust and other particles entering our body through the air they make sure that these microbes don't enter our body which could cause a lot of diseases as the air passes through the nostrils it is warmed up as it enters the body from the nasal cavity air enters the fings the faing is like the top part of your throat situated behind the nasal cavity the fings is a common passageway for both food and air because it's a common passageway for both food and air the f has a structure known as the epiglottis the epiglottis is a flap-like structure that closes the trachea when we swallow food so that food doesn't enter the trachea so that food enters only the esophagus which is also situated somewhere here so the epiglottis is very important to prevent food from entering the tracha because that could cause obstruction or a blockage in your Airway that could lead to breathing problems below the fings at the end of the fings Bas basically is located the larynx the larynx is also known as the voice box because it contains vocal cords and when the vocal cords vibrate the muscles attached to the vocal cords they contract and relax which causes the vocal cords to vibrate this produces sound the vocal cords and the larynx basically that is what helps us talk sing shout all the things that we can do with our voice that is thanks to the larynx or the voice box now from the larynx air enters the trachea and the trachea the broni the lungs the alveoli that make up the lungs and the diaphragm they are part of the lower respiratory system we'll talk about that in another video