How many neutrinos pass through our body every second?

1 Answer
Apr 24, 2016

About 600 trillion

Explanation:

Approximately 6.33*10^14 neutrinos pass through 1m^2 per second from a source 1AU (astronomical unit) away

The average adult human body has a surface area between 1.6 and 1.9m^2, generally greater in males than females. We can take the average as 1.75m^2.

However, not all of the body is exposed directly to the sun. We can approximate that about half of it is face-on, which is 0.88m^2.

Putting these numbers into a calculation

(6.33*10^14"neu"/(m^2s))*0.88m^2=5.57*10^14"neu"/s

This is a very rough guess, but based on this I'd say between around 600 trillion neutrinos per second pass through us.