Valentine hearts come in all sizes, but a real heart, the one inside the human body, doesn’t look anything like them. Make a fist with your hand. That’s about the size and shape of your heart. Your heart is not very large, but it is very important, for it keeps you alive by pumping blood all through your body.
An adult’s heart is about 5 inches long, 3’/2 inches wide, and 21/2 inches thick, and weighs less than one pound. Your heart lies on a slant near the middle of your chest, and is wider at the top than at the bottom. The top points to your right shoulder, and the bottom points to your left side. It is this bottom part that you feel beating.
The only people whose hearts are generally larger than average are athletes. The constant exercise they do makes their heart muscle cells bigger and stronger.
Your heart beats about 70 times a minute, and more than 100,000 times a day for every day of your life!
