Prosthetic Limb

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Definition

A prosthetic limb is a replacement or substitute for a limb normally attached to a living being.

"In medicine, a prosthesis, prosthetic, or prosthetic limb (Greek: πρόσθεσις "addition") is an artificial device extension that replaces a missing body part. It is part of the field of biomechatronics, the science of using mechanical devices with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems to assist or enhance motor control lost by trauma, disease, or defect". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosthesis

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Prosthetic Limbs

How does a person control a prosthetic hand? How does an artificial arm or leg work? What kinds of artificial limbs are there?

Getting Started

Try to use a clothespin to substitute for fine motor hand functions like picking up coins or counting and moving sheets of paper. Could you unzip a zipper or tie a shoelace? Try using chopsticks. Both tools can be viewed as kinds of prostheses - not too different from the look of a prosthetic claw hand.

If you were born without your hands or lost them in an accident, how would you pick up things? If you lost a foot in an accident, how would you walk? What characteristics would the ideal artificial hand have - what would you need to be able to do with it to live normally? What about a foot?

What would your ideal prosthesis look like? How would it work? What kinds of prostheses do you think exist right now? Is it possible that you've seen someone with a prosthetic limb and haven't even noticed it? Why?

http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/agesubject/lessons/newton/prosthetic05.html