What makes a ball and socket joint

How to Build a Knee School Project. How to Make a Working Heart Model. Description of the Anatomy of a Human Finger.

How to Build a Goniometer. Characteristics of Aquatic Plants. How to Make a Model of an Ear for Children. How to Shrink Rubber Bands. Two main components make up a ball-and-socket joint: a bone with a spherical head and a bone with a cup-like socket. The hip joint is somewhat less mobile than the shoulder, but is an overall stronger and more stable joint. The added stability of the hip joint is necessary to bear the weight of the body resting on the legs while performing actions such as standing, walking, and running.

National Athletic Trainers' Association. Continue Learning about Functions of Joints What motions does the elbow help with? Besides extending and flexing, the elbow helps with supination, which is rotating the hand so th How does my knee joint work? Anatomically, the knee joint is considered two separate joints. The metacarpophalangeal joints in the finger are examples of condyloid joints. Saddle joints are so named because the ends of each bone resemble a saddle, with concave and convex portions that fit together.

Saddle joints allow angular movements similar to condyloid joints but with a greater range of motion. An example of a saddle joint is the thumb joint, which can move back and forth and up and down, but more freely than the wrist or fingers Figure 6.

Figure 6. The carpometacarpal joints in the thumb are examples of saddle joints. Ball-and-socket joints possess a rounded, ball-like end of one bone fitting into a cuplike socket of another bone. This organization allows the greatest range of motion, as all movement types are possible in all directions.

Examples of ball-and-socket joints are the shoulder and hip joints Figure 7. Improve this page Learn More. Skip to main content. Module The Musculoskeletal System.