Q 01/05

Which bone, the longest in the human body, makes up roughly a quarter of a person's height?

A) Femur

B) Fibula

C) Radius

D) Ilium

Answer · why

A) Femur

The femur averages about 26.7% of a person's height in both men and women. That steady ratio lets anthropologists estimate how tall someone stood from...

Q 02/05

Which stirrup-shaped bone of the middle ear is the smallest and lightest in the human body?

A) Malleus

B) Incus

C) Stapes

D) Vomer

Answer · why

C) Stapes

The stapes takes its name from the Medieval Latin word for a stirrup. Classical Latin had no such word, because stirrups did not exist in the ancient ...

Q 03/05

Which muscle is the largest in the human body and keeps the trunk upright when standing?

A) Pectoralis major

B) Gluteus maximus

C) Erector spinae

D) Trapezius

Answer · why

B) Gluteus maximus

The gluteus maximus is far bulkier in humans than in other primates, whose flatter hips cannot hold them standing erect. Its most powerful action is h...

Q 04/05

Which stiffening of the muscles sets in after death because cells run out of the energy molecule ATP?

A) Livor mortis

B) Algor mortis

C) Pallor mortis

D) Rigor mortis

Answer · why

D) Rigor mortis

Rigor mortis happens because muscle fibres need ATP to let go, not to grip. Once the supply runs out the filaments stay locked together, and the stiff...

Q 05/05

Which Greek hero gives his name to the thickest tendon in the human body, at the back of the ankle?

A) Theseus

B) Achilles

C) Odysseus

D) Perseus

Answer · why

B) Achilles

Achilles was held by the heel when his mother Thetis dipped him in the River Styx, which left that one spot unprotected. The oldest known record of th...