It is, of course, fascinating to wonder about the size of our internal organs. This was nearly the only thing our ancestors talked about before the advent of the internet, computers, electricity, and other newfangled inventions. Nowadays, we’ve diverted some of our attention to photos of puppies, kitten, and where to find the best Taco-Tuesday deals.
But we still care the size of our organs. As who would not?
It transpires that the average size of a human brain is 1350 cubic centimers. How big is that? And what is a cubic centimer?
Clearly the size of anything in cubic centimeters eludes us? We need a image of something we all readily know.
The large Slurpee cup. The volume of this well-known beverage is 651 cubic centimeters. Now we’re cooking with gas. Using this vital information, we can calculate the size of all sorts of innards into something we can all understand. And here we go.
HUMAN BODY PART SIZE CHART
organ…………………………….volume in large Slurpee cups
It’s as big as 2.074 large Slurpee cups
air……………………….9.22 (Not an organ, but it’s inside our body so I’m listing it.)
body, male………….92.17
brain………………….2.074
chimpanzee brain….0.59 (Chimpanzees are not humans. So, we do not possess chimpanzee brains. But it’s an enchanting fact.)
fat………………………18.43 (We’ve been drinking a lot of Slurpees.)
hair……………………..0.02
heart……………………0.46
homo erectus brain..1.23 (Home erectus is an ancestor for many of us and us it’s nice to know the size of forebearer Ogg’s brain.)
intestinal tract………2.76
kidneys…………………0.41
liver……………………..2.26
lungs……………………..1.19
muscle………………..35.33
pancreas……………….0.15 (This small organ does something.)
poop…………………….3.07 (What your “full of,” is this amount.)
skeleton………………10.56
skin………………………2.76
urinary bladder……..0.21 (Where does all that Slurpee go, if not there?)
urine…………………….0.77 (That’s bigger than our bladder! What the heck?)
Now you know. If your local eater bar or restaurant holds quiz show features the topic body-part sizes, you’ll win for sure.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
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