How many psi to break a bone

Want to see how the damage for a given force varies with the direction? Get small wooden dowels of the same dimension and subject them to the same force applied in different ways for example, drop the same weight on the end of one dowel and the middle of another. Use eye protection and other safety measures. Want to see pictures of a fracture, a weird type of splint, and healing bone?

Materials are often characterized by the ultimate strength which is the stress or pressure required to cause fracture or breakage. This stress can be caused by compression, tension, or shear. The answer for the strength of bone can probably be found in any physics textbook it's a pretty popular subject.

This might be in unfamiliar units though. What is this value in terms of psi or atmospheres? That depends on the bone.

It is very easy to fracture a small bone, especially if the pressure is applied across the weakest point. I'm not sure exactly how much pressure is needed, but I can tell you that as little as 25 pounds of pressure applied to one of your small bones will cause a fracture. Give someone a stern hit to the side of the neck and carotid artery and you could hit the vagus nerve. When this nerve is struck, it can cause severe dizziness and possibly knock someone out.

On average, the human femur requires 1, pounds per square inch to be cleanly broken, while a weaker bone, such as the clavicle, takes considerably less force to break.

Many factors influence how easily a bone is broken. This pressure corresponds to being at an altitude of nearly m 2, ft below sea level! The maximum depth reached by anyone in a single breath is feet He also holds the record for the deepest dive without oxygen — reaching a depth of feet Skip to content Popular. If you're in the market for a short answer, it takes about 4, newtons of force to break the typical human femur.

But in general terms, there is no real answer, as the amount of force required depends on the bone itself, its position in the body, and the angle of attack. The femur, or thigh bone, is the toughest bone in the body to break. It's the largest and thickest bone, for two things, and it's also protected by all those leg muscles. The collarbone , conversely, is relatively small and close to the surface of the skin, and therefore is one of the most commonly broken bones.

In addition to the amount of force applied, the angle of blow can make all the difference as to whether a particular bone will break. The dense outer layer of your bones is made from columns of collagen and calcium phosphate, almost link a bundled collection of twigs.