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Margaux Kearney's picture

Action potentials cont'd

I thoroughly enjoyed our class discussion thursday about action potentials and how they can be compared to batteries. I've only taken Intro Bio so far, so I only had the perception that action potentials were electrical impulses that traveled down an axon from one neuron to the next. I never even considered electricity traveling the speed of light, so i didn't know that this concept was incorrect with respect to action potentials. I didn't ask to observe any summaries of observations!Seeing that my view of action potentials has changed, what about chemical impulses (message traveling from one neuron to the next via synapses)? Is there an analogy for them? Are they "chemical impulses" or is that incorrect? Also, this has been bothering me for a while: a battery does not last forever unlike electrical outputs that provide electricity to electronical devices. Could this loss of "power"( battery running out) be compared to the strength of an action potential down an axon? from one neuron to the next?

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