Heart weight
In an adult man of average build, the heart weighs approximately 300 grams, about 80 grams more than that of an adult woman.
The blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus ) has the largest heart of any other living being. His heart, in fact, can weigh over 500kg and reach the size of a small car.
Heart rate and stroke volume
Every day the heart of an adult generates around 100, 000 beats, pumping a total of some 7, 500 liters of blood in a circle; blood that is distributed through the 100, 000km of blood vessels that feed organs and tissues.
In the course of life, a person's heart pumps around 200 million liters of blood, about 5.3% of the volume of water present in the Mediterranean Sea.
In the blue whale the aorta (the largest artery of the organism) has a diameter of 23cm; through it the animal's heart pumps about 7, 000 liters of blood per minute. When the blue whale is on the surface, its heart rate is 5-6 beats per minute, but when it goes deep, its heart slows down.
