Physics for Health Sciences

Nawal Nayfeh
Summer “006-2008
Experiment 5
Relationship of skeletal muscles to bones
(Rotational Dynamics and Levers)

- Malaki ang connection ng physics sa health sciences.

Like in Nursing, they study Body mechanics for ease and protection against muscle/bone
injuries when lifting or moving things / persons. In there, physics is applied. When giving
Nasogastric tube feeding, or administering Intravenous therapy, physics is also applied, in
terms of the height of the feeding . Intravenous feeding.

Also, in Orthopedics. Like in tractions, or immobilization of fractured limbs, physics is

also applied to immobilize the injury and promote healing.

- To understand the science behind many of the procedures it helps. Physics covers sound
and light waves, the science behind sonograms, CAT scans, MRI's, and x-rays for starters.
Then theres understanding the science of nuclear medicine, and that also falls in the
physics category. Understanding forces, and how they act on a human body, electricity,
and even simple gravity, go far in understanding the potential and actual injuries people
suffer from accidents. Nursing is more than just working with the here and now of the
patient, it's also understanding how you got there, and where you can expect to go in
future. It may not be useful everyday, but it will be comforting to patients if you can
explain the science behind the tests. Otherwise, you will look like an uneducated person
and won't inspire much confidence in your patients.

Objectives:
To investigate the movement produced as a result of the forces applied by different skeletal
muscles on bones. The Bone-muscle system will be simulated by a set of lever arms and springs,
pivoted at a point “o”. The only motion produced by the skeletal muscle forces is rotational. To
effectively do that we will:

1. Explore the concepts of torque and rotational equilibrium,

2. Study the three classes of lever
3. Calculate the mechanical advantage of a lever arm (MA)
4. Apply the concepts of torque and rotational equilibrium
5. To a model of the human biceps muscle and elbow joint.

Theory and Background

The relationship of skeletal muscles to bones, where the muscles are connected to bones in such
a way that they control and determine the motion of the bones. When this muscle contracts it
applies a “pull” force on the bone that will act to rotate the radius T the motion is described as
that of a lever system that is composed of a lever-arm, a pivot “o”, and weights (including the
weights of the arm).The bones serve as levers arms, and joints act as fulcrums for the levers.
To understand how to analyze such a physical situation. The three fundamental principles that
needed to be understood before we can utilize our knowledge of lever-systems include the
concept of rotational equilibriumlever classes concept of torque.

Equilibrium

Force

For an object to be in equilibrium, two conditions must be met. The first condition of equilibrium
is that the vector sum of the forces acting on the object be zero:

Torque

The second and final condition for equilibriumis that the sum of all torques acting on the object
must also be zero.

Torque is the tendency of a force acting on an object to rotate it about some axis, as illustrated in
the Figure. The torque, τ, due to a force, F, acting at a position r, away from the center of
rotation is perpendicular to both r and F and is given by:

The magnitude of the torque is given by:

The direction of the torque can be found from
the right-hand rule for the cross product.

Levers

Class-1 levers
In class-1 levers, the fulcrum is located between the applied force, F, and the load,
W. A crowbar is an example of a class 1 lever.

Class-2 levers
the fulcrum is at one end of the bar with the load situated between the fulcrum and the
applied force. A wheelbarrow is an example of a class 2 lever.

Class-3 levers
In class-3 levers, the fulcrum at one end with the load at the other, and the force applied between
the two ends.Many movements in the human body are examples of class3 levers, as we shall see.

From the condition of rotational equilibrium, we can show that for all three types of levers the
force, F, required to balance a load of weight W is given by:

The mechanical advantage,

MA
The mechanical advantage ,MA, is defined as the
ratio of the output force (load) to the applied force
(effort) it is a measure of how easy it is to use the lever.
The larger M, the more you can lift or move with the same amount of force.
MA is calculated by:
 Body Dynamics
There are several examples of lever systems in the human body. Figure 4 illustrates three of these
examples. The first of these is the movement of the head with respect to the spinal cord. The
second example illustrates the foot as lever system that is pivoted on the ankle. The third
example shows the most important muscles responsible for producing motion of the elbow are
the biceps and the triceps

Equipment
Meter stick, Mass-hanger, Masses, Fulcrum stand spring scale, and clamp for securing fulcrum
stand.

Experimental Procedure

Part 1: Class 1 levers

Part II Class 2Levers