• Question: when you get a cut why wouldnt your whole body split and you dont bleed masses amount of blood

    Asked by ace12 to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      Your skin is fairly flexible, so it usually doesn’t get wider if you pull at it. Cuts are also usually only on the surface, so the rest of your body underneath doesn’t split.

      You stop bleeding due to a process called clotting – “platelets” in the blood flow into the hole and gum together to stop the bleeding. Some people have a genetic condition that stops clotting, which can make being cut very dangerous – the Russian emperors used to have this problem because they passed the condition down through their genes (old royal families used to marry each other, which meant that genetic diseases stayed in the family, which is called “inbreeding”).

    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      Our bodies are made from pretty tough stuff. Think of us like a sponge, with lots of linked bits all through it – if you cut it – it doesnt split. If we were like a balloon – which doesn’t have any linking bits inside – we would split and blow up! A cut to your skin only cuts small veins, so the amount of blood that can be lost is only small. As Sam says, in time your blood will clot, and seal the cut.

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