Difference between revisions of "Prosthetic Limb"

Revision as of 02:07, 31 January 2011

Definition

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

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