Karen Bergreen & Lois Swanson

The heart beats around 3 billion times in the average person’s life. About 8 million blood cells die in the human body every second and the same are born each second. It takes 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body. Red blood cells make approximately 250,000 round trips of the body before returning to the bone marrow, where they were born to die.

The right lung is slightly larger than the left. The highest recorded sneeze is 165km/hr. The surface of the lungs is roughly the same size as a tennis court. We lose half a liter of water a day through breathing. This is the water vapor we see when we breath onto a glass.

We eat about 500kg of food per year. 1.7L of saliva is produced per day. The esophagus is approximately 25cm long. Everyday 11.5L of digested food, liquids, and digestive juices flow through the digestive system but only 100ml is lost in feces.

The human eye weighs approximately 28 grams. Men are able to read fine print better than women. All Babies are born color blind. The reason our noses run when we cry is because tears from our eyes drain into our nose. It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

The smallest bone is the strapes bone which is located in the ear. Babies are born with 300 bones, Adults have 206 bones. Fingernails grow 4 times faster than toenails. Your femur (thigh bone) is stronger than concrete.

Your skin is the largest organ in your body. The feet have approximately 250,000 sweat glands. In one day, you shed 10 billion skin flakes, totaling 2 kilograms a year. The average woman has 17 square feet of skin. In her 9 th month of pregnancy a woman has 18.5 square feet of skin.

A Look Inside The Human Body (Internet). June Monmouth, IL: July 8, Available from: dex.htm Funshun.com Date accessed 7/8/09. Available from: body-facts.html