How many cells do you have?

A small eukaryotic cell is about 10 μm (10 x 10-6, or 10-5 m.) in diameter.

Your body has 10 trillion (1013) cells (chapter 15).

Total length of your cells lined up end-to-end:
(1013) x (10-5 m.) = 108 (100 x 106) m.

The earth's circumference is 40 million (40 x 106) m.

100 / 40 = 2.5: your smallest cells can wrap around the earth 2.5 times.

This is a conservative estimate; most of your cells are bigger than 10 μm - up to 100 μm.

Home
©
Copyleft Peter Chen