How many Atoms are there out there in the universe?

[Mike]

How many Atoms are there out there in the universe?

Just to give you some perspective on how many atoms it might be:

• The number of atoms alone in the graphite in your pencil is about 25000000000000000000000 atoms.
  
• There are more atoms in a glass of water, than there are glasses of water in every ocean on earth.
  
• A human hair is about 1 million carbon atoms wide.
  
• A single drop of water contains about 2 sextillion atoms of oxygen (2 followed by 21 zeros, 2×1021) and twice as many hydrogen atoms.
  
• An HIV virion is the width of 800 carbon atoms and contains about 100 million atoms total.
• An E. coli bacterium contains perhaps 100 billion atoms, and a typical human cell roughly 100 trillion atoms.
  
• A speck of dust might contain 3x1012 (3 trillion) atoms.
  
• The number of atoms in 12 grams of charcoal (about 6 x 1023) is more than 1,400,000 times the age of the universe in seconds.

At this point you may be thinking "well how many atoms am I made up of?"


Well A 70 kg body would have approximately 7*1027 atoms. That is, 7 followed by 27 zeros:

7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Another way of saying this is "seven billion billion billion." Of this, almost 2/3 is hydrogen, 1/4 is oxygen, and about 1/10 is carbon. These three atoms add up to 99% of the total!


OK OK, So how many atoms are their in our universe:

Using the cosmic egg theory, the amount of atoms (or the energy equivalent) would be 1 followed by 89 zeros. That corrisponds to the primordial 'heavy' atom dividing by 2, 10 times in each of 27 steps. Yes that is 1 with 89 Zeros after it

Some other theories suggest that there are 4x10^79 hydrogen atoms in the Universe. But this is definately a lower limit calculation, and ignores many possible atom sources. That number is a 4 followed by 79 zeros.

Thats quite a few atoms isnt it

What I find even weirder is that there is more space in between the atoms than there are atoms. This means that you, me, and indeed everything largely consists of nothing.

Makes you think doesnt it

Mike ...

[smartsez]

makes me think? Makes me confused!!!

[Mike]

Originally Posted by smartsez

makes me think? Makes me confused!!!

I have a fascination with quantum mechanics and cosmology

If I won the lottery I would quit my job and do a PHD in one of them, I'd be Doctor Mike

Mike...

[Nutty_ZA]

That's really astounding facts when they are presented to you in this way... makes you realise how complex everything is and yet how insignificant we all really are...

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Nutty_ZA

That's really astounding facts when they are presented to you in this way... makes you realise how complex everything is and yet how insignificant we all really are...

It does make you think WOW doesnt it Even though we are complex we are made up of tiny simple things

On the outside I may look like Im doing nothing, but at a molecular level Im really quite busy

Mike...

[Nutty_ZA]

Originally Posted by Mike

On the outside I may look like Im doing nothing, but at a molecular level Im really quite busy

Mike...

I love that line... next time my boss catches me slacking off... I'm going to respond with that

Do you think he'll be impressed????

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Nutty_ZA

I love that line... next time my boss catches me slacking off... I'm going to respond with that

Do you think he'll be impressed????

Er...... No !

Mike...