What is the difference between arteries veins and capillaries

The heart pumps the arterial blood rhythmically, giving the arteries a pulse you can feel externally. The arteries branch several times as they reach into every millimeter of your body; as they do, they get smaller and smaller and eventually become capillaries. Capillaries are the tiny vessels that connect arteries to veins.

Once the venous blood reaches our lungs, the waste is expelled out of our body through exhalation and then reoxygenated again upon inhalation. Next time you prick your finger and spill a drop of blood, think about the journey that drop of blood has been on! You may even want to thank it for working so hard and traveling so far, just for you. A blood clot is part of a normal and lifesaving process in our body that stops bleeding when a blood vessel is damaged.

These carry mixed oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. Arteries have no valves in them except at the base of the pulmonary trunk and aorta. Valves are present in veins. These valves prevent the backflow of blood. There are no valves in them. Arteries have high blood pressure. Veins have low blood pressure. There is falling pressure in them. In arteries, waves of blood pressure or pulse due to heartbeat can be detected.

There is no pulse. The human body's arterial system branches out from one main artery, the dorsal aorta. Like veins, arteries have three layers: an outer layer of tissue, an inner layer of epithelial cells and a layer of muscle in between. Arteries deliver oxygenated blood to the capillaries, where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place.

An artery's muscle helps it expand and contract in rhythm with the heart beating to keep blood moving through the system. Capillaries connect veins and arteries to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. Thin and weak, capillaries are only as thick as one epithelial cell.