• Question: How many atoms are there in the entire population?

    Asked by anon-249583 on 9 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Sophie Arthur

      Sophie Arthur answered on 9 Mar 2020:


      Wow! What a question. I have no idea to be host. But when you think that there are over 37 trillion cells in our bodies and there are nearly 8 billion people already on the planet, that is already a number with A LOT of zeros. 23 zeros in fact!
      Scientists have also estimated that there are 100 trillion atoms in each cell. So it’s 100 trillion x 37 trillion x 8 billion and that is just the number of atoms in the humans on the planet, let alone anything else.
      My very rough estimate for the number of atoms just in the humans on the planet is 2,960,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. I don’t even know what that number is!

    • Photo: Ioana Grigoras

      Ioana Grigoras answered on 9 Mar 2020: last edited 9 Mar 2020 6:20 pm


      For a person of 70kg, there are approximately 7 * 10^27 atoms (that is like 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms). If you multiply that number by the number of the world’s population (7 billions, give or take), you’d get to 49 * 10^36 atoms (so 49,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) for the entire population, but obviously this is a broad approximation because there are so many variables!

    • Photo: Nuru Noor

      Nuru Noor answered on 9 Mar 2020:


      Super cool question 👍 I don’t know the answer but I’m going to keep an eye on this thread because I want to know now too!

      That’s the great thing about science and research – you get to learn new things everyday!

    • Photo: Sarah Clarke

      Sarah Clarke answered on 9 Mar 2020:


      Tough question! The simple answer is I have absolutely no idea – other than to say it will no doubt involve a lot of zeros! I’m sure someone who is better on the physics side of things will be able to help out with that one!

    • Photo: Samir Hopestone

      Samir Hopestone answered on 10 Mar 2020:


      I have absolutely no idea! I will keep an eye on this thread though because the answer interests me!

    • Photo: M S

      M S answered on 12 Mar 2020:


      A lot

    • Photo: Kate Mitchell

      Kate Mitchell answered on 12 Mar 2020:


      I thinks its about 50000000000000000000000000000000000000… (that’s 5 x 10^37)

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