• Question: hi, how many cells are in an animal's body

    Asked by josephwozniak to Matt on 21 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 21 Nov 2013:

      Hi Joseph

      There are about 30 trillion cells in a human body and we aren’t really that big. If you take a blue whale which weighs 170 tonnes, which is 2428 times the weight of a person weighing 70kg, and multiplied those numbers you get a cell number of 72 quadrillion!

      Cell number depends on size, most cells are roughly(ish) the same size, so if you want to know total cell number you need to know the weight of the animal.

      I hope that makes sense!

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