READ THIS!-# of atoms in a human cell?

["Paul Boduch ", ES 1997]

On Fri, 10 Nov 1995, Alexander Berezin wrote:

> On Fri, 10 Nov 1995, Paul Boduch (ES 1997) wrote:
> 
> > 	Does anybody know the average number of atoms in a human cell? 
> > Could please e-mail it to me fast? I know for a fact that there's 10^27 
> > atoms in an average human body. If you knew the average # of cells, you 
> > could just divide that into 10^27 to come up with the answer.
> > 
> > 
> 
> VEIW OF A NON-BIOLOGIST (but knew some chemistry once):
> You better start with the Avogadro #, chemical composition of a cell
> (I guess, the average atomic weight is about 12 as we are mostly
> a mixture of H, O, C amd N) and average size of a cell, which 
> (again a guess) is about several microns.
> The answer has nothing to do with the weight of human body
> and likely about the same for all (animal) biostuff.
> Alex Berezin  
Sorry, it's been a while since I've done Avogadro # calculations and I 
don't have the data on the relative proportions of H, O, C, and N which I 
believe one would need to do the calculation. There's gotta be somebody 
out there who knows the average # of cells in a human body, so I don't 
have to pour through hundreds of bio books to find the answer. Anyone?