What would be the effect of having ‘nerves of steel’ on the ability to bend your elbow?
Keywords:
Idiom, Biology, Physics, Material properties, Biomechanics, Nerves of steelAbstract
This article makes assumptions of the consequences of having coaxial steel cables for nerves. Where regular nerves are very flexible, for coaxial cables this is not necessarily the case since it is steel that has to be bent. It is found through calculations on the required momentum, taking the yield stress of steel into account, that having coaxial steel cables for nerves adds about 45 nN per axon through the elbow to the force required to lift the lower arm. Through calculations in two ways on the number of nerves that go through the lower arm, it is found that this number is around 2.4x107 so that the total additional force required to lift the lower arm is about 1.1 N.
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