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TEACHING WITH CLASSIC PAPERS

A classic learning opportunity from Fenn, Rahn, and Otis (1946): the alveolar gas equation

Division of Biostatistics, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, and Departments of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics and of Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado

Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: D. Curran-Everett, Div. of Biostatistics, M222, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, 1400 Jackson St., Denver, CO 80206 (e-mail: EverettD{at}njc.org)

Abstract

The alveolar gas equation, the focus of a classic paper by Fenn, Rahn, and Otis, provides a framework for understanding the mechanisms involved in pulmonary gas exchange as well as the limits of human performance. The classic 1946 paper by Fehn, Rahn, and Otis gives your students an opportunity to learn about the alveolar gas equation from the physiologists who pioneered it and demonstrates that mathematics and data graphics are fundamental tools with which to learn respiratory physiology. In this essay, I outline avenues of discovery by which your students can explore the alveolar gas equation. Meaningful learning stems from inspiration: to learn, you must be inspired to learn. If anyone can inspire learning in respiratory physiology, it is Wallace Fenn, Hermann Rahn, and Arthur Otis.

Key words: altitude; pulmonary gas exchange; respiratory physiology; teaching

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