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As I mentioned in an earlier post, my mom passed away a short time ago. So, being the phlegmatic-melancholy with control issues I’m am, I just can’t let it go. I’ve been turning over my experiences and relationship with Mom and I remembered this little exchange.

When I was young and still knew EVERYTHING my mom used to say, “Boy, I’d like to buy you for what you’re worth and sell you for what you think your worth”

I always thought it would be a very expensive transaction either way.

I was thinking about my “true value” the other day and I decided to break it down for her.

Here is what I was able to come up with.

The normal 70 kg adult human body is made of the following components.
42 kg water = 60%
12 kg fat = 17%
12 kg protein = 17%
4 kg remainder = 6%

I broke into American standard and went to a super store (I figured she’d get a better day this way).

42 kg of water is about 42 liters of water. Liter bottles cost about a buck. That’s $42.00.
12 kg of fat is about 26 pounds. Crisco sells for about $1.49 lb. That’s about $38.74
12 kg of protein, about 26 pounds. Lean beef sells around $4.00 lb. That’s about $104.00
4 kg is about 8 pounds of other stuff. Let’s be generous and say $5.00 lb. That’s another $40.00.

So, that means I worth about $383.00 “on the hoof.”

That didn’t sound so good so, I thought I’d check out my elemental value instead.

According to John Emsley, The Elements, 3rd ed., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998, broken down the body is comprised of the following elements.

oxygen 43 kg
carbon 16 kg
hydrogen 7 kg
nitrogen 1.8 kg
calcium 1.0 g
phosphorus 780 g
potassium 140 g
sulfur 140 g
sodium 100 g
chlorine 95 g
magnesium 19 g
iron 4.2 g
fluorine 2.6 g
zinc 2.3 g
silicon 1.0 g
rubidium .68 g
strontium .32 g
bromine .26 g
lead .12 g
copper 72 mg
aluminum 60 mg
cadmium 50 mg
cerium 40 mg
barium 22 mg
iodine 20 mg
tin 20 mg
titanium 20 mg
boron 18 mg
nickel 15 mg
selenium 15 mg
chromium 14 mg
magnesium 12 mg
arsenic 7 mg
lithium 7 mg
cesium 6 mg
mercury 6 mg
germanium 5 mg
molybdenum 5 mg
cobalt 3 mg
antimony 2 mg
silver 2 mg
niobium 1.5 mg
zirconium 1.0 mg
lanthanium 0.8 mg
gallium 0.7 mg
tellurium 0.7 mg
yttrium 0.6 mg
bismuth .05 mg
thallium 0.5 mg
indium 0.4 mg
gold 0.2 mg
scandium 0.2 mg
tantalum 0.2 mg
vanadium 0.11 mg
thorium 0.1 mg
uranium 0.1 mg
samarium 50 ug
beryllium 36 ug
tungsten 20 ug

That’s still about 70 kg of elements.

Most of the elements were in quantities so small I couldn’t find a vendor to sell them. So, I searched for a chemistry set that might have most of them. The most expensive chemistry set I could find on-line was the Chem C3000 for $249.00.

I really miss Mom. She wasn’t well educated but before the illness her intellect was keen. I may be working through this on and off for a while. You’ll just have to bare with me.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 3:55 am and is filed under Elemental Truths, Nudge, behavior, communication, counseling, personal development, sanguine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.