25 April 2006

Saturday's Hand Study

Here's my bone study of the hand. The hand belongs to the radius bone of the lower arm. The wrist is the place where radius and ulna meet the upper bones of the carpus. There are eight bones in the carpus and the row next to the hand is wider. I read that the carpus serves as the shock absorbers for the hand. It makes sense too if you think about it. When you fall and try to break your fall, what is the part of the hand that gets beat up/scratched the most? I thought the shape of the carpus bones looked somewhat like the back of the rubber heel of dress shoes. The hand is usually thought of in two sections. The bottom section being the carpus and metacarpals (stationary) and the upper section the phalanges (moveable), both being equal in size. Just like the foot, the thumb only has one phalange while the other four fingers have two. The matecarpal in the hand start off in a boxlike shape at the carpus, then become a long rod, and then turn into a ball where the phalange meet the knuckles. The hand is just a little longer then one sternum length.

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