Human body quiz

HOW MUCH BLOOD PASSES THROUGH AN ADULT HEART EACH TIME IT BEATS?

• 15 ml

• 70 ml

• 50 ml

• 150 ml

Answer explanation

In a normal healthy adult, the heart beats 60-100 times in a minute. With each beat, the heart pumps 70 millilitres of blood out of the heart. It can move 5 to 7 litres of blood in one minute and 7600 litres per day. Hence about 70 ml of blood is pumped into the arteries during each heartbeat.

HOW LONG ARE ALL THE BLOOD VESSELS IN THE BODY IF YOU PUT THEM ALL IN A LINE?

• 100,000 km

• 10,000 km

• 1000 km

• 100 km

Answer explanation

If you were to lay out all of the arteries, capillaries and veins in one adult, end-to-end, they would stretch about 60,000 miles (100,000 kilometers). What's more, the capillaries, which are the smallest of the blood vessels, would make up about 80 percent of this length.

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE OXYGEN THAT WE BREATHE IN DO THE LUNGS ABSORB?

• 54%

• 33%

• 10%

• 21%

Answer explanation

Oxygen only plays a small part in our breathing. The air we breathe contains 21% oxygen, but our bodies only use 5%, the rest is exhaled. Children and women are faster breathers than men because their breathing rate is higher. Humans exhale up to 17.5 ml of water per hour.

HOW MANY CELLS ARE THERE IN THE HUMAN BRAIN?

• 71 billion

• 171 billion

• 7 billion

• 77 billion

Answer explanation

There are roughly 171 billion cells in the average male brain according to new research, including about 86 billion neurons . Neurons are cells that help transmit signals throughout the brain. There are also 85 billion other cells in the brain, called glial cells, that help support the neurons.

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE BRAIN DO WE USE?

• 1%

• 10%

• 100%

• 50%

Answer explanation

Various theories on the origin of this myth exist, but there is no significant evidence to suggest that we only use 10 or any other specific or limited percentage of our brains. On the contrary, all existing data shows that we use a 100% of our brains.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN YOUR HEIGHT IF YOU MESURE HOW TALL YOU ARE IN THE MORNING AND AGAIN IN THE EVENING?

• ~ 10 mm

• ~55 mm

• ~ 15 mm

• ~ 50 mm

Answer explanation

On the average, upon getting up in the morning, we are about 1 cm taller than during the day; in the evening happens the opposite, with a variation of about 2/3 cm throughout the day.

HOW MANY BONES ARE THERE IN AN ADULT BODY?

• 270

• 200

• 206

• 220

Answer explanation

Adults have between 206 and 213 bones. Babies are usually born with 270 bones that grow together and fuse into their adult skeleton. It might be surprising to learn that some people have more bones than others.

WHAT IS THE WORLD RECORD FOR THE NUMBER OF BONES ONE PERSON HAS BROKEN IN THE LIFETIME?

• 233

• 433

• 333

• 133

Answer explanation

The record for the most broken bones in a lifetime is held by Evel Knieval, the famous motorcycle stuntman, who sustained 433 fractures by the end of 1975, when he retired from major performances.

HOW FAR DOES FOOD TRAVEL THROUGH THE BODY?

• 7 m

• 8 m

• 9 m

• 10 m

Answer explanation

This long tube of organs makes a pathway for food to travel through the body. An adult's digestive tract is about 30 feet (about 9 meters) long.

HOW MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF BACTERIA LIVE IN OUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEM?

• over 100 trillion

• over 10 trillion

• over 1000 trillion

• over 1 trillion

Answer explanation

Our gut harbours a complex community of over 100 trillion microbial cells which influence human physiology, metabolism, nutrition and immune function while disruption to the gut microbiota has been linked with gastrointestinal conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease and obesity.