If the brain were spread out it would cover how many square miles?

Answer 1

What an odd question. You will have to answer it yourself, after first answering these preliminary questions:

- How thick should it be when spread?

- If it goes down to a layer 1 atom thick, how far apart should the atoms be? In theory you could make all the atoms in your brain into a 2D 'web' which would cover probably billions of square miles.

Basically it's a question of maths, I did this level of difficulty when I was about 7 years old so I've forgotten some of it, but surely you can find out the volume of the average human brain on the internet? Once you know this, and how thick you want the layer to be, it's easy. Divide the volume by the thickness.

If you're going for the 'web of atoms' approach, the fact that this q was asked in the first place puts your ability to compute this into question. You will need the chemical composition of the brain (simplify this by using maybe 70% water and 30% proteins/fats) and the weight. Use molar masses to estimate the total number of atoms in the brain, decide how far apart you want them to be, what shape of web etc. and proceed from there.