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Asked by FinnC the genius to Greg, Jen, Laura, Mobeen, Paul on 8 Mar 2016.
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Laura Haworth answered on 8 Mar 2016:
I don’t know the exact number but we must be made up of billions and billions of them!
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Paul O'Mahoney answered on 8 Mar 2016:
Like Laura said, billion and billions, and maybe even more billions!
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Greg Melia answered on 8 Mar 2016:
Okay then, quick calculation coming up here:
We’re about 70% made of water, so we won’t be too far out if we assume that we’re made entirely of water.
I’m going to use a special chemical unit called a mole. This is a unit that has 6*10^23 molecules of any chemical in it, that is 602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules.The molar mass of water is 18 grams (so says Google). That means that 6*10^23 molecules of water weigh 18 grams.
I weigh 72 kg, and 72 kg / 18 grams = 4000, so there are 4000 moles of water in my body (or there would be if I was made up entirely of water.)
There are 4000 * 6*10^23 molecules of water in my body, and each molecule contains 3 atoms, so there are 3 * 4000 * 6*10^23 atoms in my body
That’s 7 * 10^27 atoms, or 7 billion billion billion atoms.
Just to write that again, there are roughly 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms in my body. You can probably give or take one or two billion billion billion atoms either way though! -
Jen Lowe answered on 8 Mar 2016:
The molar mass of water is 18.02g.
1000g/18.02g/mol = 55.49 mols
55.49*6.022*10^23(number of molecules in one mole of a substance, or Avogadro’s number)*3(the number of atoms in a water molecule) = 1.002*10^26 atoms in 1 kg water.
So assuming a human is mostly water-like, and weighs 60 kg…
1.002*10^26 * 60 kg = 6.0*10^27 atoms in a person
That’s 6 with 27 zeroes after it (a million has 6 zeroes after).
=a lot.
This is only an estimate and I got the first bit of the internet (but I do agree with it)
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