To cough, you inhale about 2.5 L of air at ambient

Last updated: 7/5/2022

To cough, you inhale about 2.5 L of air at ambient temperature and pressure. The epiglottis and vocal cords shut, trapping the air in the lungs where it warms to body temperature and compressed to about 1/3 the volume. Suddenly opening the epiglottis and vocal cords releases the air explosively. Estimate the gas pressure in the lungs prior to its release. it varies a bit from cough to cough, but we can estimate ~2.5 atm ~ 4.3 atm ~0.31 atm ~ 3.1 atm ~1.3 atm