Your Heart’s 2.2 Billion Heartbeat Countdown – Use Them Wisely
exception: something that does not follow a usual rule or pattern
Did you know that most animals have about a billion heartbeats in their lifetime? A pygmy shrew has a resting heart rate of 1,300 beats per minute, much faster than a hummingbird’s or a human’s. It lives only for a year and a half, but its heart beats about a billion times.
As animals become larger, their heart rates become slower, and they live longer. For example, a cat is 100 times bigger than a mouse and has a heart rate one-third as fast. It also lives three times as long. Its heart averages 1.18 billion beats in a lifetime.
An elephant lives for 70 years and has a heart rate of 30 beats per minute. In a lifetime, it gets 1.1 billion beats.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Humans live about 70 years and have a heart rate of 60 beats per minute. In a lifetime, this adds up to 2.2 billion heartbeats, but that wasn’t always true. Clean water and modern medicine have helped us extend our lives, but throughout much of history, the average lifespan was just 30. And you guessed it, that adds up to just under 1 billion heartbeats.
Sample sentences
1. Although it rains a lot in Seattle, Sunday was an exception and the sun came out.
2. Most students in the class got good grades, but there were a few exceptions.
3. She follows a strict diet but makes an exception for her favorite dessert.
Read More:
the Heart Project
Does Every Species Get a Billion Heartbeats Per Lifetime?