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NOVEMBER 2, 2012
NUMBERS
Life in 2012 is all about numbers. The news is full of references to millions, billions, and sometimes even trillions. As Illinois senator Everett Dirksen is said to have once remarked, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” In the world of medicine, amazingly large (and small) numbers surface regularly. Say what you want, but we contend that it’s the exceptional human brain that can comprehend the concept of a million, and even more so a billion. As for trillions and beyond, it’s quite possible that even people who think they understand such numbers don’t really. And so, here are a few numbers of interest, and pictures to put them into perspective. • The average scalp has about 100,000 hairs • An active person can produce a quart or more of sweat per hour. At rest, the figure is as little as 1/12 of an ounce per hour. • Fingernails grow 300 to 400 percent faster than toenails. • Soon after conception an embryo’s new brain cells increase at the rate of 250,000 per minute. • 250 million sperm cells are produced per day. • 29 pairs nerve bundles branch out from the spinal column via a 30,000 mile network that relays info instantaneously to and from the brain The pallet contains 100 million dollars in 100 dollar bills. On the ground in front of the pallet is a small bundle, one million dollars, and a packet containing 10,000 dollars • In 2009, the United States federal, state and local governments, corporations and individuals, together spent $2.5 trillion ($8,047 per person) on health care. • If a person spent one million dollars a day beginning on the day Jesus was born, he would not yet have spent one trillion dollars. • One square inch of skin has 700 sweat glands, 100 sebaceous (oil) glands, and 21,000 nerve sensors for detecting pain, heat, and pressure.
• There are some 50 to 75 trillion cells in the entire body. • Cardiac muscle fibers contract and release about 100,000 times every day, beating some 2.5 billion times in 70-yr lifetime, pumping 1 million barrels of blood. • The nose can detect scents at concentrations as low as one part in 30 billion. • The circulatory system laid end to end would circle the earth 3 to 4 times (depending on body size). Of its 60,000 average miles, only 1,000 are visible to the eye, the remaining 59,999 too small to be seen with anything but a microscope.
• Red blood cells die (and are replaced) at the rate of about 2 million per second. • Red blood cells outnumber white roughly 700 to 1. • The human brain has a huge number of synapses. Each of its 100 billion neurons has on average 7,000 synaptic connections to other neurons. It has been estimated that the brain of a three-yearold child has about 1 quadrillion synapses. That’s 1,000,000,000,000,000 synapses. That is equal to about a half-billion synapses per cubic millimeter. This number declines with age, stabilizing by adulthood. Estimates vary for adults, ranging from 100 to 500 trillion. • Each cell has about 250 million molecules • The bronchial tree in the lungs contains more than 1,000 miles of branches. Gas exchange takes 0.25 seconds. • The average person eats more than 20 tons of food in their lifetime. About 6 pints of highly acidic gastric juice are produced each day. • “Clustered at the back of the eyeball — a kind of biological movie screen — are specialized nerve cells, each packed with up to 100 million molecules of light-sensitive pigment that convert light into electrochemical signals.” • The ear translates sound waves into fluid waves, Please see NUMBERS page 15
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