Hands Up... to the Shoulder Trivia Quiz

Answer: Shoulder

The shoulder connects your upper arm to your torso (body) and it is one of the largest and most complex joints in the human body. This joint is created when the humerus (the bone in your upper arm) comes together with your scapula (or shoulder blade).

They fit together like a ball and socket. A good way to picture this is to form a fist with your left hand and then wrap your right hand around it. This joint allows your arm to rotate, what we call your range of motion.

Answer: Elbow

If you look at a door, the opposite side to the handle, you will see it is connected to the wall frame by a couple of metal plates called hinges. These hinges allow the door to be moved back and forth without falling off the wall. The elbow works in a similar way, which is why it is called a hinge joint.

The elbow connects the humerus (that big bone in your upper arm) with the ulna and the radius (those two big bones in your forearm). The main purpose of the elbow is to allow you to flex the arm and also extend it, which lets you to do such things as reaching for objects.

Answer: Wrist

The wrist is made up of eight small bones. These are called carpal bones and they connect your hand to the radius and the ulna (those two long bones in your forearm). These bones come in different shapes - square, oval and triangular - and they're designed in such a way to make your wrist both strong and supple. Unlike your elbow, which has a single joint, the wrist has three joints and this gives it a wider range of movement.

Answer: Upper Arm

The upper arm is the link between the shoulder and the forearm. It contains a major bone called the humerus and muscles such as your biceps and triceps. It aids with different types of movement. These include:
- Bringing two body parts close together. For example, your upper and lower arms. This is called flexion
- Increasing the space between body parts. A good example is extending your elbow and there's no points for guessing that this movement is called an extension.
- Moving your arm away from the centre of your body. This is called abduction and
- Just the opposite, shifting your arms back to the centre of your body. Perhaps folding your arms is an example. This is called adduction.

Answer: Knuckles

Each finger on a human's hand will, generally, have three joints. These joints are called knuckles. The thumb is different, it only has two joints or knuckles. These knuckles will allow our fingers to bend in such a way that we can do a range of motions, including gripping things. Without knuckles our fingers would be stiff and all we'd be able to do with them is slap things or poke at things.

Answer: Forearm

The two main bones in your forearm are the ulna and the radius and, without listing them, your forearm has more muscles than your upper arm. The forearm connects your arm to your wrist and the muscles within it help the flexing of the wrist, the movement of your fingers and allow you to point the palm of your hand toward your face.

Answer: Thumb

The scientific name for your thumb is the pollex. It is that shorter, fatter digit on your hand and it is opposable. Opposable means that it can turn back on your fingers. This makes it the perfect partner for gripping objects. It has the ability to move more freely than your fingers.

While your fingers have three joints, the thumb only has two and the joints are, just like your elbow joint, hinged.

Answer: Finger

Your fingers have three joints and each of these joints is a hinged joint. The fingers are the joints that you consciously use more than any of the other joints in your body. We use our fingers to grip things, to point, to send signals (a peace sign is a good example) and do intricate tasks, like I am right now, typing out this quiz.

The bones in your fingers are called phalanges and there are twelve of them (not counting the thumb as a finger, which has another two). Your fingers also have names. The one nearest your thumb is called the index finger, the next is the middle finger, then the ring finger and the small one at the end is your pinkie.

Answer: Fingernails

The fingernails look like little bits of shell that sit at the end of your fingers. They look simple, and they don't look like they do much, however, they are extremely important. First of all, they give strength and protection to the end of your fingers, making it one of the toughest areas of your body. They prevent foreign matter getting into the nail bed, they help us to scratch, and they can also be used to pick things up.

I won't go into the parts of a nail because there are many of them however, I will tell you that they grow, on average, one centimetre every 100 days. There are a number of things that affect this rate of growth, for example, if you are young and you are a male, your nails will tend to grow faster. Likewise, if it is summer, they will also tend to grow quicker.

Answer: Palm

Apart from calling it the flat side, it can also be described as the underside of the hand. It is the connection between the wrist and the fingers and, because of this, it contains seventeen of the thirty four muscles that are responsible for moving your fingers.

The skin on your palm is different to other areas of your body. For one, it is glabrous, which means it doesn't have any hair and the other thing is that it cannot tan. The skin here is remarkable in another way. It is very durable which is another way of saying that it is a little tougher but, at the same time, it is sensitive to touch.