Anatomy for Beginners (part 3) - Lets Keep it Together People - A Quick Look at How Our Joints Work
Posted: Sunday, May 10, 2009
by Connor Davidson
If you have not read the previous part and want to click here. Welcome back! Now I think we should have a look at our joints. Without joints daily live would be vegetables – not able to move any bones.
Joints are found all over the body here are but a few:
· Shoulder
· Hip
· Knee
· Ankle
· Wrist
· Elbow
· Jaw
Joints in our body fall into two basic categories – the hinge joint and the ball and socket joint. I will explain each individually.
The Hinge joint
The hinge joint is very simple: it is a joint which allows movement up and down only. Try moving your knee so that the leg moves up and down. Then try moving only the knee to make the leg move from left to right. This is the hinge joint.
The ball and socket joint.
The ball and socket joint allows movement in all directions. If you put your hand on your hip and move your leg in all directions keeping the leg straight you will see how free it moves. This is due to the structure. Consider this diagram:
If we say this is the hip joint the piece going into the cup shape is the leg.
Now we know what the types of joint we should look at what they consist of and what the parts do. Below is a list of the main parts of a joint:
· Ligament
· Tendon
· Cartilage
· Synovial Fluid
· Synovial Membrane
· Bone
Each of these parts works together to move and hold the joint. The diagram below shows the positions and how they look:
Ok that's where they are so what do they do?
The ligament holds bone to bone. The tendon (not on diagram) holds the muscle to bone. A very important aspect of the ligament is that it is elasticised so when bones move normally the ligament will not snap. However the ligament is not elasticised, which is very important – the bone would move only a short distance when the muscle contracted.
So that's a quick look at how the joints work. Stay tuned for the next part.
If you would like to read the next part click here
Connor Davidson 05/10/09
Connor Davidson 05/10/09
Pic credits: BBC and Google.
Connor Davidson is a UK based writer. He writes on wide variety of topics with his main interest being science, maths and engineering.
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Feel free to reprint these articles on your website by using the reprint button. If you have any questions or comments please post them below - I read all comments.
You can keep up to date with his writings by following him on twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Connor_Davidson.
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)I love Anatomy and physiology (a&p) it was my favorite class. We actually had cadavers for a semester.It is a good thing to enjoy.Thanks for the comment.
Connor,Not one of my favorite subjects, but I'm a learner, so you got me again. Keep 'em coming.Thanks for the comment.
You make it sound like the joints work so well, but as I get older they all start to hurt. lolWell, at least I can read this and see how my joints should be working, even if they aren't always that way.The sore joints as we get older is due to the wearing away of the cartillage.Thanks for the comment.
Hi Connor. You did a marvelous job in writing this series. I have read parts 1, 2, and 3. Thank you for writing this articles in Anatomy, truly enjoyable, easy to understand and well written.Best regards,Your fan,NeitaThanks for the comment.
Very well one, Connor! It's like being in a virtual classroom. Thanks for sharing this with us.Thanks for the comment.
Great article, Connor. At my age, our joints become very important and very much of a problem. Aching joints are an everyday occurence. Thanks for sharing.SandraThanks for the comment.
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