Final answer:
About 1 liter of blood enters the kidneys per minute, producing 125 mL/min of filtrate in males and 105 mL/min in females. Around 180 L/day is filtered in males and 150 L/day in females, with only 1-2 liters of urine excreted each day.
Step-by-step explanation:
Volume of Blood Entering and Filtered by the Kidneys
The human heart pumps approximately 5 liters of blood per minute under resting conditions. About 20 percent of this, which is roughly 1 liter, enters the kidneys every minute to be filtered. This process is known as the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). A healthy male typically produces about 125 mL/min of filtrate, whereas a healthy female produces about 105 mL/min of filtrate.
Volume of Blood Filtered and Waste Excreted Per Day
When considering the volume per day, males filter about 180 liters and females about 150 liters of blood through their kidneys. Despite this large volume of filtration, the majority of the filtrate is reabsorbed back into the circulation, leaving only about 1-2 liters of urine to be excreted daily.
Autoregulatory mechanisms ensure that the kidneys can function under a wide range of blood pressures by adjusting the hydrostatic pressure in the glomeruli. Thus, the kidneys filter the entire volume of blood an estimated 300 times per day, with 99 percent of the water filtered being reabsorbed back into the circulation.