# how much money are we made of? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 22, 2003, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768 "2003-05-22T08:12:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/1 "2003-05-22T08:12:58Z")
a friend of mine (seriously) wants to know how much money could be made if we took all the carbon out of our bodies and turned it into paper and then banknotes of course. What would be the best currency, exchange rate wise? Would a fat man actually be worth much more? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/2 "2003-05-22T08:19:41Z")
[$4.50](http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/worth.asp) according to this source. ---
**Author:** ![DrLiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DrLiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrLiver)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/3 "2003-05-22T09:42:20Z")
I don’t see how you could turn a human body into banknotes, but if you could print your own banknoes I guess you would just make one of a gazillion dollars or whatever…so I’m not sure what you’re asking exactly… as for the $4.50 I dont understand why they would take only the elements of the body and then use the skin separatly…because if you want to use only the elements, then use it for the skin, which I suspect wouldn’t add much value and still stay under $1. (from the site on “don’t ask” post, they said the elements are worth less than one dollar and the skin $3.50, but I’m sure your body would be worth a lot more as pet food; or even more on the internal organ black market… ---
**Author:** ![Paradigm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Paradigm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paradigm)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/4 "2003-05-22T09:54:09Z")
If you completely annihilated a body into electrical energy, you could sell it for much more than $4.50 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/5 "2003-05-22T10:10:00Z")
[really sick joke] Is he a Nazi or something? [/] You are asking what value of physical currency can be produced from a human body? My back of the envelope calculation: Assume a human weighs 100kg and is 20% carbon (by weight). Assume only carbon matters, as we use water in the convertion process. Assume bills are made of cellulose or other carbohydrate of chemical proportions CH[sub]2[/sub]O. (I know, I know.) A bill weighs approx 1g. The highest denomination bill ever produced was $100,000. So 100 x 0.2 x ((12+16+2)/12)=50kg of bills. 50,000g \* $100,000/g = **5 billion dollars!** Much better than $4.50 🙂 (Though doubt this is legal…) ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Sherbet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@Mr\_Sherbet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Sherbet)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/6 "2003-05-22T10:10:19Z")
$4.50? I paid at least 100 times that… and that was only each hour! ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/7 "2003-05-22T10:11:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Paradigm \* > \*\*If you completely annihilated a body into electrical energy, you could sell it for much more than $4.50 > 😃 \*\* The question didn’t specifiy if you wer allowed to use 100kg of antimatter 🙂 Or did you just mean burning a body completely? ---
**Author:** ![chilvarez69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@chilvarez69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chilvarez69)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/8 "2003-05-22T11:08:27Z")
Hi. im the friend who asked the question in the first place. What i wanted to know was not pure energy (which i figured could power the world for nearly a day, using a heavy person, and no waste energy). this i know would be worth a fair bit. Shade was there but remember you can use any currency. also i was wondering the blood has a lot of metals in it, how many coins of what value could you make? Anybody know what prices kidneys are going for these days? ---
**Author:** ![chilvarez69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@chilvarez69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chilvarez69)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/9 "2003-05-22T11:16:30Z")
Also usiong nanotechnology could you turn all the carbon into diamond??? ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/10 "2003-05-23T10:11:14Z")
Let me get this straight - we can sell the body parts, or print currenct on them, but not totally convert to energy? Are we allowed to add as much energy as we like in the conversion process? If so it’s obviously unlimited. I don’t think you’ll find a bank note of much higher value than the $100,000 (There are much higher denominations, but in 1930s deutcshmarks and similar). Of course the government could print $1,000,000,000 notes if it wanted to… ---
**Author:** ![hermann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b487fb/32.png) [@hermann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hermann)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/11 "2003-05-24T00:15:42Z")
I’d put in my 2 cents, but then I’d be down to $4.48 ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/12 "2003-05-24T15:15:05Z")
I read around 1970 the chemicals in the body were worth 19 cents. But the organs are worth quite a bit, if only we could sell same. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/13 "2003-05-24T15:45:33Z")
Isn’t this just a round about way of asking what the largest denomination of bill in the world is? ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-are-we-made-of/176768/14 "2003-05-24T21:22:36Z")
“largest denomination of bill in the world is?” Jay Leno said the US was going to make a $1M one…