Carbon dioxide partial pressure

[gkangelexa]

Homework Statement

Carbon dioxide partial pressure:

a. increases in the blood as it travels from the systemic venules to the inferior vena cava

b. is greater in the blood in the systemic capillary beds than in the alveoli of the lungs.

The Attempt at a Solution

The answer is b. I understand why b is true, but I don't understand why a is not true...

Can anyone help?

 

[chemisttree]

I'm going to take a crack at this one even though I'm only a chemist pretending to be a biologist!

I assume that the amount of free CO2 in the blood is affected by hemoglobin and pressure, to wit...

Hemoglobin-CO2 <-------------> Hemoglobin (free) + CO2

with higher pressure favoring the left side of the equilibrium and lower pressure favoring the right.

Stuff flows from high pressure to low, soooo...