Moving the body The skeleton et Animals’ bodies are supported by a skeleton. Insects and other arthropods have a skeleton dove — con the outside oftheir body. This is called an vertebral cour seapula exoskeleton semen pues * Your skeleton i inside your body. It is made of bones. You do not need to remember the names of all of these bones, but you may know some of them already, = Bron de Bones are hard and strong. They contain a lot of calcium. If you do not have enough calcium — ypu, in your diet, your bones may not grow properly. Bones contain living cells, so you also need protein in the diet to build strong bones. femur - Joints Bones cannot bend, Movement in the skeleton can only take place where two bones meet one another. These places are called ‘Some joints work like the hinges on a door. ‘They let the bones move back and forth in one direction, in the same way that a door ‘opens and closes. These are called hinge joints, The human skeleton Joints in the arm You have several different joint: joint, the elbow joint, the wrist joint and all the joints n your arms, ‘These include the shoulder in the fingers, ‘The photo is an X-ray Of someone's arm. Can you pick out the humerus, radius and ulna? You should also be able to find the hinge joint at the elbow, and the ball-and-socket joint at the shoulder. | scapula shoulder blade) — balhand-socket joint rads hinge joinesin Bngers cleesai hinge joint teon tina oS hand bones * finger bonesMuscles Bones and joints cannot move themselves, You use muscles to move ‘bones at joints. “Muscles are made of specialised cells. These cells are able to make themselves shorter. This is ealled contraction, Muscles use energy to contract. Like all cells, they get this energy from nutrients, especially glucose. The energy is released from glucose by respiration. The more you ask your muscles to contract, the more energy they use, and therefore the more glucose they use. Muscles can produce a strong pulling force when they contract. Many of your muscles are attached to bones, by tough cords called tendons. When the muscle contracts, it pulls on the tendon, which pulls on the ‘bone. This makes the bone move at a joint. This diagram shows the muscles that move the army bones at the elbow joint. First, look at the biggest muscle in the di This is the biceps. (Biceps is an unusual word, because it ends in an s even though it is singular. ‘One biceps, two biceps) “Bi means two, This muscle is called the biceps because it has fwo tendons that attach it to the scapula. The longer, thinner muscle in the diagrams the triceps, Bending the elbow joint ‘Think about what happens when you bend your ‘arm at the elbow. Tobend the arm, the biceps contracts (gets shorten and the ceps relaxes, ‘When you decide to bend your arm, your brain sends an electrical impulse along a neurone, to your biceps muscle. ‘The cells in the biceps muscle respond to this electrical impulse by contracting. This makes the whole muscle ing get shorter. force The biceps muscle is firmly fixed to the scapula at ‘one end and the radius at the other end. So when it gets shorter, these bones are pulled closer together. ‘The elbow bends, as shown in the diagram. The contracting biceps pulson| the tendon, so ‘the radius moves upwardsStraightening the elbow joint Now think about how you straighten your arm at the elbow joint. It’s important to remember that muscles can only pull. They cannot push. Muscles ean generate a force by getting shorter: OT, en heome contracting, But they cannot generate a force by getting longer. {pc yeah nines So the biceps cannot push the arm straight again, You need and the biceps elas another muscle to pull the arm straight, The contracting —— ‘The muscle that does this is the triceps muscle. This diagram. ‘scepspllsonthe tendon so the una shows how it does this, moves downwerds When a muscle is not contracting, it relaxes. This is all that muscles can do — they can either contract or relax. Antagonistic muscles ‘You can see that the biceps muscle and the triceps muscle work as a team. + To bend the arm, the biceps contracts and the triceps relaxes. + To straighten the arm, the triceps contracts and the biceps relaxes. ‘Two muscles that work together like this are called antagonistic muscles. When one of them contracts, it moves the bones at a joint in one direction. When the other muscle contracts, it moves the bones in the other direction.