THE SKELETON COMPOSED OF BONES

There are 206 bones in our body. You may think that this is too many, but with the example we will give, you will understand how necessary it is to have that many bones. Let's consider the fingers. If each of your fingers consisted of only one bone, you would not be able to hold this book as you are doing now. This is because a stiff bone cannot be bent and will eventually break if you force it too hard. Since you would not be able to bend your fingers, you would not be able to grasp or catch hold of objects either. Neither would you be able to write or eat. What enables you to hold this book easily and maybe to drink your fruit juice at the same time is the existence of 27 interconnected bones, including those of your fingers, in your hand. As previously stated, there are 206 bones in our bodies, which are connected to each other like those in the hands. Each of these bones is situated in their places according to an intelligent plan. It is thanks to this perfect plan that you can bend your body forward, kneel and turn your head to the side. But make no mistake: you cannot do all these things just by using your bones, because bones cannot be bent. There are joints at the connection points of your bones. Thanks to these joints, you can easily bend your arm, raise your leg and use your fingers. Let us give you an example in order to help you better understand how important joints are for the motion of our bones:Suppose that you made a wooden puppet. What should you do to move its arms? The arms of the puppet will surely not move unless you place a joint where the arms are connected to the shoulder. How will you make its legs movable then? You have to use an articulating piece again where its legs join the trunk. Only then can you move the wooden puppet's arms and legs. Likewise, if you separate the wood you have used for arms and legs into two pieces and place articulating pieces, or joints, between these pieces, then the puppet's arms and legs will also be bendable at the elbows and knees respectively. As may be clearly understood by this example, having many bones and joints placed between them where necessary enables us to move easily.