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Blood is definitely a vital issue. Sure, we all have it, but it's hard to imagine how much (unless you're a heart surgeon). Let's see if we can't find out... Our first strategy was to search Yahoo! for the words "human blood amount." Unfortunately, the results were pale and uninspiring. Next, we spent several anxious moments adjusting our search terms. Finally, after a fair amount of fussing, we came up with "amount human blood quarts," figuring that the last term would help narrow the field. The results were much more promising and we spotted several useful sites, including
a page from the PBS show NOVA titled "Electric Heart" and an entry on blood from the InfoPlease Almanac. Both sites claim that the human body contains approximately 6 quarts (or 5.6 liters) of blood. The PBS site goes on to offer several other interesting tidbits: - In one day, your blood travels nearly 12,000 miles.
- Your heart beats around 35 million times per year.
- Your heart pumps a million barrels of blood during the average lifetime -- enough to fill three supertankers.
Wow. That's a lot
of mileage for six little quarts.
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