So our body is 70% water but at rate does this water recycle?
2007-02-15 05:55:56 · 6 answers · asked by vipin j 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
The average person loses about 2.5 liters of water per day. That average person also has actually around 55% of his mass made of up water, so that works out to a total of around 37.5 liters altogether. So every day 1/15 of his total water is exchanged or so. (link 1)
Now... we could expand that all out into molecules, but that would make it an unholy mathematical mess which my calculator (at least) can't handle. So let's not.
The chance of retaining a particular 15th of your water in a day, if it were split into even 15ths would be 14/15. Over a year, the chance of having that same 15th would be a miniscule 1 in 86412492613.
But, of course, we don't just have 15ths, so we can progressively divide the water into smaller and smaller portions, and just make more checks. If we want to keep a particular 150th, that's 149/150, but we'll lose 10 times as many over a year. Still, our chances get better: only 1 in 40106600167.
If we keep doing this kind of subdividing, my calculator loses track around the seventh iteration or so, but it's interesting to note that the odds improve less and less with each one. So much so that I think it's pretty fair to say that allowing even a one in thirty billion chance of having the same one water molecule after even one year is pretty generous.
So my answer would be pretty categorically no. Unless something completely freakish occurs, no water molecule is going to be with you for even as long as a month or two, much less your whole life!
2007-02-15 06:38:24 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's theoretically possible, but the likelihood is tiny. Think about the amount of water that you consume every day (drinking water, juice, fruit and vegetables, everything contains water) and think about the amount that leaves your body (at least a few times a day). Every time you eat or drink, things are flushed from your body. Furthermore, water is used for energy and doesn't always stay in the H-O-H form. So, it's pretty unlikely that a water molecule would manage to stay in a person's body for 70 or 80 years.
2007-02-15 14:09:10 · answer #2 · answered by Katie B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would have to be one of the water molecules present in the original fertilized cell, so it's not as probable as the 2nd answerer makes it seem. On the other hand, if you want to define the beginning of life at birth, then the candidate water molecules would be all those that were in your body when you were born.
2007-02-15 14:10:29 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Theoretically speaking, yes. The odds of any particle molecule staying with you that long are small; but given the number of water molecules playing those odds, it is almost certain that at least one would be with you all the way.
2007-02-15 14:02:33 · answer #4 · answered by PoppaJ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At a guess i would say yes!
I would not bother asking Thames water though, they dont have any and know sod all about recycling water?
2007-02-15 14:01:33 · answer #5 · answered by Neill 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes. There are cells in our bodies that are not replaced (nerve cells)... so water in these will remain forever.. I'm not sure though..
2007-02-15 17:32:02 · answer #6 · answered by Pichka 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋