• Question: How many cells are there in our body?

    Asked by groomy99 to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 14 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      So – back of the envelope:

      A cell is about 5 micrometres across (can be bigger, can be smaller), so let’s say it’s spherical, that means one cell is about 10×10^-10 cubic metres.

      An average human body is maybe 1.5 tall, 0.5 metres across and is roughly a cylinder, which is (very roughly) about a cubic metre.

      Divide the two, and you get about 10^10 cells, which is 10000000000.

    • Photo: Catherine Rix

      Catherine Rix answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      I didn’t know this but I searched google and various websites say that we have about one hundred trillion cells in our body (one hundred million million) or 10^14 cells so a few more than Adams estimate

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Trillions!

      Depending on how old you are, and how healthy you are, it can vary between 50 and 75 trillion cells.

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