Saturday, February 5, 2011

That person you like is 72.8% water.


In a 70kg person, there is:
43kg oxygen
16kg carbon
7kg hydrogen
1.8kg nitrogen
1kg calcium
780g phosphorus
140g potassium
140g sulfur
100g sodium
95g chlorine
19g magnesium
4.2g iron
2.6g fluorine
2.3g zinc
1g silicon
0.12g lead
72mg copper
60mg aluminum
50mg cadmium
22mg barium
20mg iodine
20mg tin
20mg titanium
18mg boron
15mg nickel
15mg selenium
14mg chromium
12mg manganese
7mg arsenic
7mg lithium
6mg mercury
3mg cobalt
2mg silver
0.2mg gold

Oxygen is the most abundant element in the earth's crust and in the body. The body's 43 kilograms of oxygen is found mostly as a component of water, which makes up approximately 70% of total body weight.

(Raw data from Emsley, John, The Elements, 3rd ed., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998.)

2 comments:

Karl Lilje said...

This is fascinating!
I wonder what chocolate is made of, since I am at least 12% Lindt...

the sourcerer said...

oh that's funny! in my case not to mention the dilution due to single malt. . .