Though the
right lung has three lobes, the left lung, with a cleft to accommodate the
heart, has only two. The two branches of the trachea, called bronchi,
subdivide within the lobes into smaller and smaller air vessels. They
terminate in alveoli, tiny air sacs surrounded by capillaries. When the
alveoli inflate with inhaled air, oxygen diffuses into the blood in the
capillaries to be pumped by the heart to the tissues of the body, and
carbon dioxide diffuses out of the blood into the lungs, where it is
exhaled.