CBSE Class 10 Answered
A person's pulse is the throbbing of their arteries as an effect of the heart beat. It can be felt in any place that allows for an artery to be compressed against a bone, such as at the neck, at the wrist, behind the knee etc.
Pressure waves move the artery walls; these waves are not caused by the forward movement of the blood. When the heart contracts, blood is ejected into the aorta and the aorta stretches. As the wave of distension travels towards the peripheral blood vessels, it becomes faster. The pressure pulse is transmitted fifteen or more times more rapidly than the blood flow. So each heart beat will give rise to a pulse. Therefore counting the pulse is counting the rate of heart beat.