The amount of air moved in and out of the lungs in one minute is known as what?

• A. Alveolar ventilation
• B. Minute volume
• C. Tidal volume
• D. Vital capacity

Answer: (B)

When thinking about ventilation, the total amount of air moved in and out of the lungs in one minute is called minute ventilation. It reflects both how much air you take in with each breath (tidal volume) and how many breaths you take each minute (respiratory rate). So, minute ventilation equals tidal volume multiplied by respiratory rate. For example, about 0.5 liters per breath at roughly 12 breaths per minute gives around 6 liters moved per minute.

This is different from alveolar ventilation, which accounts only for the portion of air that actually reaches the gas-exchange areas (subtracting the air that stays in dead space). Tidal volume is the amount moved per single breath, not per minute, and vital capacity is the maximum amount of air you can exhale after a deep inhale, a single-breath capacity measure rather than a flow-per-minute value.