Chemical Elements that we can see

The Universe

Click here re Time & Relativity adapted from an email sent to a number of friends in June 2007.

Most of the chemical makeup of the universe (stars / suns, etc) is hydrogen (75%), a very combustible element, and at a lower level, helium (23%) with the fusion of hydrogen into helium producing both light and heat. These two elements, incidentally, have been located in our moon's very thin atmosphere. The next five most common elements are estimated as being: Oxygen (1%), Carbon (½%), then Neon, Iron and Nitrogen (at about 0.1% each).

Click here for a query in www.quora.com on the Makeup of the Sun, and its relationship to Fire.

Click here for some notes on the Makeup of the Moon plus estimates for the other 8 planets in our Solar System.

Finally, click here for the 12 constellations of stars (from NASA's perspective) using names formalized in Greek by Egyptian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy circa 150AD. The first constellation (or house) in Babylonian tradition is the star configuration in the east at the moment of sunrise on the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere, i.e. about March 21st, following which the days are longer than nights. Aries, the ram, originally thousands of years ago, has become Pisces, the fish, since about the time of Christ, with Aquarius, the water carrier, due to replace it.

The Earth's Atmosphere

The air in our atmosphere in contrast — all 5140 trillion tonnes of it — is very rich with nitrogen 78% and oxygen 21%, followed by argon 0.9% and carbon dioxide 0.03%, then very small percentages of other elements that include water vapor, dust particles, pollen, plant grains and other solid particles.
Contrasted with 1½ million trillion tonnes of water (click here for its placement) and 6 billion trillion tonnes of earth.

The Human Body

In the example below, the water content is 62% of volume, 60% of mass. Water H₂O is 88.8888…% oxygen with 8 protons & 8 neutrons, and 11.1111…% hydrogen 2x1 proton. Note, the water component is much higher in babies, about 75% or so, and then it becomes less as we age. It is also normally lower in women than in men.

Human Body	Atoms (volume)	Mass	Comment
Hydrogen	62%	10%	with about 41⅓% as being a part of the water volume
			and about 6⅔% as being a part of the water mass
Oxygen	24%	65%	with about 20⅔% as being a part of the water volume
			and about 53⅓% as being a part of the water mass
Carbon	12%	18½%	This figure remains fairly stable in adults
Sub-Total	98%	93½%
Nitrogen	1%	3%
Sub-Total	99%	96½%
Remaining 1% of volume, 3½% mass consists of (1) Calcium in teeth and bones about 1½%, (2) Phosphorus about 1%, and (3) about 15 trace elements: **Sulphur, Potassium and Sodium Chloride about 0.3% each, Magnesium about 0.1% then Iron, Iodine, Fluoride, Copper, Zinc, Chromium, Selenium, Manganese, Molybdenum, Vanadium and Cobalt. **Sulphur compounds produced by certain bacteria in the gut make up the source of the odour associated most with waste and decay.

Individual Elements of the Human Body

• Water. The average 70 kg male body has a water level at 60% of body weight (about 42 kgs or litres), while the female has 55% (about 38½ kgs or litres). Blood volume is approximately 5 litres.
  Blood plasma contains 93% water, Tissues 75-80%, Skin 64%, Bones 20-30% and Fat 10-15%.
  Click here for further background.
• Fat (about 50 billion fat cells) make up about 23% of the average male body weight (about 16.1 kgs including its water content), and about 28% of the female (about 19.6 kgs). They are 0.1mm in diameter the size of a pin prick.
• Bone makes up about 15% of our body weight (about 10½ kgs). The dominant cell within bone is the osteocyte (90-95%) of which there are about 42 billion. As mentioned previously, the water content of bone varies between 20-30%. The carbon content is about 36%, oxygen 28% (mostly as water), calcium 17%, phosphorus 6 to 7%, hydrogen 5% and nitrogen is 4%. Numerous trace elements follow. Click here for further background.
• Blood Cells are the most abundant cell in the body, about 80% of all cells. There are about 25 trillion red blood cells, about 600 billion white blood cells, and about 1 trillion platelets. In mass they make up about 4% of our body weight, or about 2.8kgs.
• Human hair and nails, composed of the keratin protein, carbon content is 45%, oxygen content is 28%, nitrogen 15%, hydrogen 7%, and sulphur 5%.
• Bacteria cells. There are perhaps 30 to 50 trillion (or more) of them in our body alongside the 30 trillion (or so) human cells in the average adult. However as single celled micro organisms they have no nucleus, they have primitive DNA and RNA for duplicating themselves, and each one weighs just trillionths of a gram. Well over 90% are thought to be in our lower gut, and the odd trillion or so live in our saliva. In total they make up perhaps 1% to 3% of our total body weight. They are about 70% water, they have differing amounts of carbon nitrogen and oxygen, and small amounts of phosphorus and sulphur.
  Viruses (RNA and DNA), another life form, weigh one thousandth of the weight of a typical bacteria cell and thus have minimal mass. At any given time, the average healthy human may have 5 viruses co-existing with the rest of their body.

Over to the Earth

Plant Life: In fruits and vegetables, the water percentage varies from, say, 74% in bananas to 96% in lettuces and cucumbers. Most vegetables have a water content above 90%.
Average oxygen percentage via water and carbohydrates is thus much higher at about 77%, hydrogen percentage remains steady at about 10%, while carbon percentage is accordingly lower, an average of 12%. Nitrogen percentage is about 1%, with various trace elements following.
With living trees, the wood content causes the carbon percentage to be higher, around 15 - 18%. With oven-dried wood the carbon percentage lifts to about 50%, and continues to increase as the wood ages and toughens in old timber buildings.

Earth Crust: Oxygen 46% Silicon 27% Aluminium 8% Iron 6% Calcium 5% with last 8% of the crust made up of many dozens of elements.

The solid inner core is almost entirely made of iron.

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