About This Quiz
Students often complain that the subjects they have to study in high school won't be useful in life and are thus a waste of time. Teachers spend hours trying to explain the logic of studying subjects like chemistry, history or anatomy, listing the myriad professions that benefit from knowledge of these subjects. Still, many young people are not convinced, and they quickly forget the lessons learned.
Anatomy is a subject that, on its face, appears to be useful only to potential medical doctors. However, the truth is that knowledge of the human body is valuable in many other professions, and a general familiarity with human anatomy is useful to almost everyone. Artists need to know human anatomy to create images of humans in poses that are possible and realistic. Athletes find anatomical knowledge useful in building up their bodies for maximum efficiency. Even actors need to know how the body works to mimic the limp of an older person or the bouncy step of a youth. Of course, knowing a bit about anatomy allows anyone to understand their own body when they twist an ankle or sprain a wrist.
How well do you remember your anatomy lessons? It's time to put your knowledge to the test!
When the heart pumps blood, it's really only pumping blood away from the heart. This is a big job. Getting blood back to the heart is partially accomplished through this pressure and partially through muscle movements, which put pressure on blood vessels called veins, which push blood back to the heart.
While many medical terms are derived from Greek or Latin, the term "deep" is in fact just an English word, derived from Old English. One organ may be described as "deep to" another.
Humans have endoskeletons. An endoskeleton is made of hard compounds and is located within the body. This is the opposite of the exoskeleton, which is common in the insect world and is worn on the outside of the body. A hydrostatic skeleton is a flexible compartment inside the body that is filled with fluid, as with the red-knobbed sea star.
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There is a common misconception that the hand does not contain any muscles, but the truth is far more complicated. While the hand does contain many muscles, some actions of the hand are enabled by muscles in the arm, without which the hand could not grasp things.
The dermis, or skin, is the single largest organ human beings have. Skin isn't just larger in terms of area, as it covers almost the whole body, but it is also the largest organ by mass.
Commonly called the shoulder blade, the scapula is a large bone on the posterior side of the human body, making up one half of the socket of the shoulder joint. The bone provides structural integrity for the joint and a foundation for attaching operational muscles.
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The deltoid is a muscle in the shoulder, not the upper arm. The biceps brachii is the muscle of the upper arm most people think of when they think of the upper arm. Coracobrachialis is the smallest of the three, attaching the arm to the chest, and the brachialis similarly attaches the lower part of the arm.
Most adults have 206 bones, although the number may vary slightly, and it's a myth that women have two more ribs than men. This vast assortment of bones allows humans to do things many other animals cannot. Examples include performing complex tasks with an opposable thumb, swimming the breaststroke and dancing.
The talus is one of the bones in the ankle. More specifically, the talus is the bone right at the angle of the instep, allowing the graceful flexing of the ankle. It connects to the tibia and fibula in the leg.
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The brachial artery is an artery in the arm, carrying blood from the heart toward the hand. As it travels down the arm, it connects to the ulnar artery, which leads from the elbow to the hand, transmitting the blood on the second half of its journey to the hand.
Animal cells are constructed of 13 major parts. Those parts are as follows: cell membrane, vesicles, nucleus, nuclear membrane, cytoplasm, nucleolus, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, ribosomes, mitochondria, centrioles, cytoskeleton and vacuoles.
The ulna is one of the bones of the forearm, connecting from the elbow to the part of the hand closest to the little finger. The ulna is, conveniently, near the ulnar nerve, which controls the pinky and ring finger. If inflamed, it can cause hand pain.
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The ilium is the upper and largest part of the pelvis. Commonly referred to as the hip bone, the ilium and its surrounding anatomy is the reason for the iliac furrow, sometimes called Apollo's belt, which is a pair of muscle grooves possessed by muscular people.
The only real bone in the above list, the fibula is not a bone used for telling little lies, but rather a bone in the leg. More specifically, the fibula is the smaller of the two bones of the lower leg, found on the lateral side of the leg.
Derived from the Latin word "medius," meaning "middle," "medial" is the correct term for the inner side of a body part — the portion of one's knee closest to the other knee, for example. The opposite of medial is lateral, derived from the Latin for "to the side."
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Derived from the Latin for "closest," the same root as the word "proximity," "proximal" is a term describing a part of the body closer to the trunk of the body. For example, the shoulder is the proximal end of the arm.
The ossicles are three bones inside the human ear that allow us to perceive sounds. These bones are so small, their name literally translates to "tiny bones." There are three ossicles: the malleus (or hammer), the incus (or anvil) and the stapes (or stirrup).
Contralateral means something is on the opposite side of a structure, while ipsilateral means something is on the same side. Unilateral means something is only on one side of the body. Bilateral means something is located on both sides of the body.
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The word "ventral" describes the "belly side" of the body. Its Latin root is the word "venter," which literally translates to "belly." Dorsal is the opposite of ventral, as it comes from "dorsum," which means "back."
The three bones in each human ear are not considered to be part of the skull, since they are not attached to it. The skull has eight bones that form the case around the brain and 14 bones that make up the face. X-rays of young people can determine when growth has stopped by looking for fusion between these mostly non-moving bones.
Adults have 32 permanent teeth, including four wisdom teeth, whereas children have only 20 primary teeth. Children have 10 teeth on top and 10 on the bottom, which they will lose. Adults have 16 teeth on both their upper and lower jaws.
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The way the human eye works involves passing light through both a lens and a tiny aperture. The result of this is that the image is flipped upside-down when it projects against the back of the eye, where rods and cones receive the image and transmit it to the brain.
While it's not the only artery that supplies the brain with oxygen, the basilar artery is one of the most important. It is an extension of the vertebral arteries, and it in turn branches into smaller arteries that travel to different parts of the brain to supply oxygen.
The face has a very complex arrangement of bones, and two of the most useful are the maxilla and the mandible. The mandible is the lower jaw bone, allowing movement of the lower mouth (and thus teeth) and opening of the mouth. The maxilla is the bone forming the upper portion of the jaw and mouth, to which the upper teeth are attached.
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Just in case you've become complacent about anatomical terminology, anatomists threw this particular curveball to keep you on your feet. "Palmar" derives from the Latin for "palm of the hand," which seems pretty straightforward, even though dorsal just means "back."
Vertebrae are categorized into types, the three major ones being cervical vertebrae, thoracic vertebrae and lumbar vertebrae. These types of vertebrae are numbered; thus there would be a C1, T1 and L1. However as not all vertebrae exist in the same numbers, just because there is a T12 does not mean there is an L12 — and there is not.
The difference between an extensor muscle and a flexor muscle is that the extensor muscle's job is to open up the joint, while a flexor shortens itself when flexed, causing the joint to close. The triceps brachii are extensors, for example, while the biceps brachii are flexor muscles.
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The human head is expected to be able to rotate at least 60 to 80 degrees, on average. This allows it to turn to the side, While some people are genetically gifted or have remarkable flexibility, they are the exception, and restrictions on head movement involve skeletal construction.
The rectus femoris is one of the larger extensor muscles of the leg, and it is also a flexor of the hip. Located on the ventral (front) side of the body, it is bilateral (one on each leg).
An anatomical term used in art, "contrapposto" comes to us from Italy. Roughly translated as "counterpoise," it describes a dynamic pose often seen in Greek, Roman and Renaissance statuary and paintings. The line of the shoulders tips one way, and the line of the hips tips the other way, creating balance.
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While certain terms like "double-jointed" are popular in conversational English, they are not medical terms. "Double-jointed" implies that a joint works in two ways or that there is an extra joint — neither is true. The medical term is "hypermobility," which means the anatomy that typically restricts motion is a little more flexible.
Within a cell's nucleus there are several things, but the sort of "nucleus within the nucleus" is the nucleolus. The nucleolus is like the CPU of the cell. Comprised of proteins, DNA and RNA, it is the programming and decisionmaking structure of the cell. When it malfunctions, the body can become vulnerable to abnormalities like cancer.
The bones of the fingers are called phalanges, and one such bone is called a phalanx. Phalanges are divided into three categories: proximal, intermediate and distal. The finger bone in the middle of the finger is the intermediate phalanx. The other phalanges are the distal (fingertip) and the proximal (upper finger, connecting to the knuckle).
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The occipitofrontalis muscle is a large muscle on the head, connecting the base of the skull in the back to the face, across the top of the head. The muscle's front end is at the brow, allowing various facial expressions involving the forehead and eyebrows.
Cervical ribs are extra ribs some people are born with, coming from the cervical spine. They aren't meant to be there and can cause thoracic outlet syndrome by squeezing blood vessels or nerves in the inner shoulder. This causes pain and numbness in the arms and hands.