Diplomate, American Board of Pathology

Posted St. Valentine's Day, 2000 The table below gives the amount of each chemical element found in the human body, from most to least abundant. For each element, there is the amount in mass units in an averge (70-kilogram) person, the volume of the element, and the length of the side of a cube that would contain that amount of the pure element. Volumes of solid and liquid elements are based on density at or near room temperature (where available). For the gaseous elements (oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, chlorine, and fluorine), I chose to use the density of each in the liquid state at the respective boiling point. Raw data from which this table was made are from Emsley, John, The Elements, 3rd ed., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998. This is a great trove of information, which I highly recommend for anyone wishing to learn more about the elements.
ElementMass of element
in a 70-kg person
Volume of
purified element
Element would
comprise a cube
this long
on a side:
oxygen43 kg37 L33.5 cm
carbon16 kg7.08 L19.2 cm
hydrogen7 kg98.6 L46.2 cm
nitrogen1.8 kg2.05 L12.7 cm
calcium1.0 kg645 mL8.64 cm
phosphorus780 g429 mL7.54 cm
potassium140 g162 mL5.46 cm
sulfur140 g67.6 mL4.07 cm
sodium100 g103 mL4.69 cm
chlorine95 g63 mL3.98 cm
magnesium19 g10.9 mL2.22 cm
iron4.2 g0.53 mL8.1 mm
fluorine2.6 g1.72 mL1.20 cm
zinc2.3 g0.32 mL6.9 mm
silicon1.0 g0.43 mL7.5 mm
rubidium0.68 g0.44 mL7.6 mm
strontium0.32 g0.13 mL5.0 mm
bromine0.26 g64.2 µL4.0 mm
lead0.12 g10.6 µL2.2 mm
copper72 mg8.04 µL2.0 mm
aluminum60 mg22 µL2.8 mm
cadmium50 mg5.78 µL1.8 mm
cerium40 mg4.85 µL1.7 mm
barium22 mg6.12 µL1.8 mm
iodine20 mg4.06 µL1.6 mm
tin20 mg3.48 µL1.5 mm
titanium20 mg4.41 µL1.6 mm
boron18 mg7.69 µL2.0 mm
nickel15 mg1.69 µL1.2 mm
selenium15 mg3.13 µL1.5 mm
chromium14 mg1.95 µL1.3 mm
manganese12 mg1.61 µL1.2 mm
arsenic7 mg1.21 µL1.1 mm
lithium7 mg13.1 µL2.4 mm
cesium6 mg3.2 µL1.5 mm
mercury6 mg0.44 µL0.8 mm
germanium5 mg0.94 µL1.0 mm
molybdenum5 mg0.49 µL0.8 mm
cobalt3 mg0.34 µL0.7 mm
antimony2 mg0.30 µL0.7 mm
silver2 mg0.19 µL0.6 mm
niobium1.5 mg0.18 µL0.6 mm
zirconium1 mg0.15 µL0.54 mm
lanthanium0.8 mg0.13 µL0.51 mm
gallium0.7 mg0.12 µL0.49 mm
tellurium0.7 mg0.11 µL0.48 mm
yttrium0.6 mg0.13 µL0.51 mm
bismuth0.5 mg51 nL0.37 mm
thallium0.5 mg42 nL0.35 mm
indium0.4 mg55 nL0.38 mm
gold0.2 mg10 nL0.22 mm
scandium0.2 mg67 nL0.41 mm
tantalum0.2 mg12 nL0.23 mm
vanadium0.11 mg18 nL0.26 mm
thorium0.1 mg8.5 nL0.20 mm
uranium0.1 mg5.3 nL0.17 mm
samarium50 µg6.7 nL0.19 mm
beryllium36 µg20 nL0.27 mm
tungsten20 µg1.0 nL0.10 mm

Notes

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 70% of total body weight. Oxygen is also an integral component of all proteins, nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), carbohydrates, and fats. Rubidium is the most abundant element in the body (0.68 g) that has no known biological role (silicon, which is slightly more abundant, may or may not have a metabolic function). Vanadium is the body's least abundant element (0.11 mg) that has a known biologic role, followed by cobalt (3 mg), the latter being a constituent of vitamin B12. The last of the body's elements to be discovered was fluorine, by Moissan in 1886.
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