# Do I have this right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 19, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-have-this-right/644553 "2012-12-19T18:03:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Dodgy_Dude)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-have-this-right/644553/1 "2012-12-19T18:03:22Z")
I was looking at this chart of the [Composition of the human body](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_of_the_human_body). Let’s assume an average adult human weighs about 150 pounds. The human body is about 70-75% water so 75% of 150 pounds = 112.5 pounds of water 1 gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds 112.5 pounds of water in the average human ÷ 8 pounds per gallon = 14.0625 gallons of water in the average person. So if we used the “percent of mass” column in the above link to arrange the chemical composition of a human being on a table, is this what would we have? 14 gallons of water 27 pounds of carbon 3 pounds of nitrogen 2 pounds of calcium 1.6 pounds of phosphorus 6 ounces of potassium 6 ounces of sulfur 3 1/2 ounce of sodium 3 1/2 ounces of chlorine 1 ounce of magnesium and about 3 1/2 ounces of about 50 trace elements