Elements of the Human Body

CE27HE27OE27NE26PE25SE24CaE25KE24ClE24NaE24MgE24FeE23FE23ZnE22SiE22CuE21BE21IE20SnE20MnE20SeE20CrE20NiE20MoE19CoE19VE18 Wh
at are you made of per centimeter?
Off to the chemist

Suppose you wanted to make a person from raw elements. What would be on your
shopping list?

If you had a ray gun that could reduce a human being to elements, you’d have a whole lot of
hydrogen and oxygen from all the water — approximately ten gallons worth — plus a bunch of
carbon and nitrogen. You could just barely make a brick out of the remaining couple dozen
elements. Here’s the whole order:

CHEMICAL INGREDIENTS OF THE HUMAN BODY

Oxygen 65% Potassium 0.4%
Carbon 18.5% Sulfur 0.3%
Hydrogen 9.5% Magnesium, Iodine, Iron 0.3%
Nitrogen 3.2% Sodium 0.2%
Calcium 1.5% Chlorine 0.2%
Phosphorous 1.0% Everything else 0.1%

“Everything else” is aluminum, boron, chromium, cobalt, copper, fluorine, manganese,

molydenum, selenium, silicon, tin, vanadium, and zinc.

Pre-Activity Questions:

1. Name the 4 main elements that make up 95% of an organism.

2. Name 3 elements your body needs trace amounts of to function properly.

3. Why is the table of elements important?

4. Explain how the elements contribute to human cells.

What Are You Made of?

In this activity you are going to work with a group to determine how much of each element is in
one group member compared to his/her height.

*For our purposes we are only using height as a measurement factor, not body type or mass.*
Procedure
Gather materials needed for the lab. *meter stick, marker, colored pencils, calculator, and one
large piece of paper.
Choose which person from your group will be outlined. Have this person lay down on the paper
on the floor. Trace around the person with a marker. Be as accurate as you can when tracing
the person.
Measure the height of the person using the meter stick. Record the data below.

____________ height in centimeters

Using the height of the measured group member, calculate the number of centimeters needed for
the percentage of each element. Use the equation below to find your number of centimeters
and record the amount in the data table.

% of element = __ X_(cm)___

100 Height (cm)

Element Percentage Amount in Element Percentage Amount in

of Element cm of Element cm
Oxygen 65% Potassium 0.4

Carbon 18.5 Sulfur 0.3

Hydrogen 9.5 Magnesium, Iodine, 0.3

Iron
Nitrogen 3.2 Sodium 0.2

Calcium 1.5 Chlorine 0.2

Phosphorous 1.0 Everything else 0.1

After calculating all the elements measure the correct amount of centimeters on your outline and
color that amount to represent each element. Make a key that shows what color represents
each element.

Analyzing Data
Create a bar graph below to represent your data. Use the same colors as you did on
you outline.

Analysis Question:

Considering the formula used to calculate the data for your graph, how do you
think your data would compare to other groups?