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Laplace's Law: What It Is About, Where It Comes From, and How It Is Often Applied in Physiology
Laplace's Law: What It Is About, Where It Comes From, and How It Is Often Applied in Physiology
Laplace’s Law: What It Is About, a sphere has little in common with the
original shape.
Where It Comes from, and How It Is Another simpler form applies to spheri-
cal bubbles (typically, soap bubbles) with
T
here are two beautiful laws contrib- liquids contained in capillaries. sure P (actually, the difference between
uting to the mechanisms associated the inside and outside pressure, which
with intraventricular pressure build- What Is Laplace’s Law? most frequently is the atmospheric pres-
up. Both are significant in cardiac physi- The relationship is often and tradition- sure, as stated earlier) is given by
ology. The first one is physiological, born ally found in physiology textbooks when
P5T c 1 d
1 1
around 1914 after a series of experiments referring to hollow organs such as the (2)
R1 R2
were carried out in London by Ernest cardiac chambers, blood vessels, blad-
Henry Starling (1866–1927) and his col- der, stomach, uterus, lungs, or the like. where T is the already mentioned surface
laborators, while the second one is physi- It states that the intracavitary pressure tension in dynes/cm and R is the radii
cal, found in a monumental opera, La (Pic), more precisely the difference with expressed in centimeters. It is easily seen
Mécanique Céleste, authored by the French the external pressure (which frequently is that pressure is measured in dynes/cm2.
mathematician and astronomer Pierre Si- ignored as being constant and is usually However, (2) incorrectly assumes a uni-
mon Laplace (1749–1827) and published equal to the atmospheric pressure), is di- form tension value all around the 360°
in several volumes between 1790 and rectly proportional to the wall stress (Ws) of the studied point Q (Figure 1); more
1825 [1], [2]. and inversely proportional to the equiva- realistic is to consider tension T1 and T 2,
Here, we want to deal with the lat- lent radius (Req) or respectively, corresponding to each prin-
ter, first saying what it is all about, and cipal curvature radius, i.e.,
thereafter briefly searching in the regu- Pic 5 k Ws h/ Req (1)
T1 T2
lar physiology textbooks for its apparent P5 1 (3)
R1 R2
background and/or origin, and finally where k is a constant and h is the wall
mentioning its applications to better un- thickness. Another convenient way of and we will stick to the latter from now on.
derstand some pathophysiological behav- expressing it is by stating that the prod- When both the radii and tension val-
iors. Another note will tackle its math- uct PicReq is proportional to the Wsh (wall ues are equal, we have a sphere (such as
ematical derivations, for there are several, stress and wall thickness) product. The a bubble), and the equation simplifies to
including their historical chronology that equivalent radius is a concept trying to
2T
brings to light the question of who first reduce any cavity shape into a sphere P5 . (4)
R
really found the law, while a final note (quite a reduction, indeed, but models
always simplify things out); hence, you Figure 1 graphically clarifies the concep-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPUL.2011.942054
as a reader must work out a procedure to tual framework from which the spherical
Date of publication: 21 July 2011 do that and, obviously by and large, such and cylindrical cases are easily visualized
T
his book describes designing microsystems. Overall, Biomedical Microsystems is
the history, basics, Most of the important an interesting book that gives a quick
and recent important This book gives a topics needed to under- snapshot of a booming research area of
studies of biomedical mi- quick snapshot of a stand current trends in biomedical microsystems. Depending
crosystems. The content is biomedical microsystems upon the targeted research communi-
composed of introductory
booming research are included. ties ranging from clinical practitioners to
lectures in this field. area of biomedical Remarks on the mi- biomedical engineers, future expansions
Chapters 1–4 of the microsystems. crofluidics chapter: 1) a may include biology- or clinical-driven
book are well organized. more detailed descrip- microsystems design with a translational
It starts by detailing the tion of the Navier–Stokes impact on the society.
equations is necessary to understand John X.J. Zhang
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPUL.2011.941461
their importance. As the Reynolds University of Texas at Austin
Date of publication: 21 July 2011 number is one of the most important