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If human body was reduced to the most basic elements of the periodic table, how much of each element would be there ?

93% of the human body is made up of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. Since most of the human body is water (approximately 53%) , oxygen comprises a significant 65% of the entire body’s mass fraction.  .Hydrogen, also being a component of water in greater abundance than oxygen (chemical formula of water being H2O) as well as its presence in organic tissue, due to its low atomic mass comprises only 10% of the body weight. Carbon, the key building block in organic tissues comprises of 18% of the bosy weight.

Further, only 3 more elements have a mass fraction greater than 1%. Nitrogen, with its abundance in DNA and amino acids (proteins) comprises of 3%. Calcium present in bones and teeth comes slightly over 1%. Also, phosphorus present in human DNA comes in at 1%.

An entire list of elements with their corresponding percentage can be found here :




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