The bones of the hand articulate distally with the:
(a) ...

Question

The bones of the hand articulate distally with the:

(a) Carpal bones

(b) Ulna and radius

(c) Metacarpals

(d) Phalanges

Accepted Answer

Welcome back, everyone. Let's look at our next problem. The shortest metacarpal articulates with the scaphoid bone through a trapezium B lunate C hamate or D pisiform. So we're talking about the wrist where the metacarpal bones of the hand are meeting the wrist bones. And I'm gonna share just a really abstract diagram I like to use just to keep straight where everything is in the wrist. So I've got a drawing just with the, the sort of abstract representation of the two arm bones on the top. So the big fat radius and the thin ulna. So I've drawn this is your palmer side of your right hand, kind of trying to duplicate the orientation that seems to be drawn in anatomy textbooks. So the hand hanging down radius and ulna on the top. And then I have the numbers one through 81234 left to right and then underneath 5678 representing the eight carpal bones and then underneath five lines representing the five metacarpals. So thumb on the left, pinky on the right. So our question asked about the shortest metacarpal. So of course, that's going to be the thumb or not the thumb itself but the medoc carpal leading to the thumb. And this is asking about the scaphoid bone and how does it articulate with the scaphoid bone? So my favorites, Mnemonic for keeping track of the wrist bones because it helps us keep track of the names and the order they go in because it can be tricky to keep straight. Are you starting on the thumb side or the pinky is the one that says so long to pinky here comes the thumb because it can help us remember that when we start with our first four, on the top that we end up on the pinky side. And when we then go back on the ones close to the metacarpals, we end up with the thumb. So we're asked about the scaphoid bone, which is our s so in our little diagram s comes first, it's number one. So the scaphoid bone is below the radius and it does not directly articulate with that metacarpal belonging to the thumb. We have our bone number eight, that's between the two of them. So we know that bone number one is the S scaphoid. And when we follow our mnemonic number eight would be the last word thumb. So it's one of the Ts and the way to remember which T is, which thumb has that um sound. And so does the trapezium bone. So that will help us remember that the T for thumb stands for trapezium. And that's going to be our answer that that metacarpal bone articulates with the scaphoid through choice A the trapezium. Let's look at our other answer. Choices. We have choice B lunate. So that starts with an L that would be bone number two on our diagram kind of corresponding with the word along. So the lunate bone we can see is next to the scaphoid bone but would not be the bone that articulates with the mear shortest metacarpal. Instead, it articulates with the 2nd and 3rd metacarpal or I should say it's in the region of the 2nd and 3rd metacarpal, it doesn't actually articulate with them. Whereas we're looking for the bone that's between the scaphoid and the metacarpal. So that's why choice B is not our correct answer. Choice is hamate. So we want the bone that corresponds to the H in here, which is going to correspond to that bone number five. And that's the one that corresponds with the or articulates with the fifth metacarpal. So the wrong side of the hand from the scaphoid. So that's not our correct answer. And then choice D pisiform with this, you could use our little mnemonic and that would be P for pinky. And that's that bone number four, which I drew slightly. Uh I drew the number four slightly like a super script to the first three numbers with a circle around it to remind me that the pisiform bone sort of sits on top of bone number three, which is the triquetra. So it's not, it's kind of not in a line with the others. It's the sesam bone so small and round and kind of embedded in the tendon there. So actually it doesn't articulate um with any of the metacarpal bones at all. So that's not our correct answer either. So again, when we look at our answer choice, and again, one reason why I use this sort of abstract diagram rather than draw it a little better is if you're faced with a question like this on a test, you don't have a picture to rely on this kind of stylized diagram. Could be a quick way to just draw it out. You're on a test, you want to speed along and just help you keep your self oriented with regard to all these little wrist phones that you have to keep straight. And with that, we've worked through that the shortest metacarpal articulates with the scaphoid bone through choice. A the trapezium. See you in the next video.

The bones of the hand articulate distally with the:
(a) Carpal bones
(b) Ulna and radius
(c) Metacarpals
(d) Phalanges

Key Concepts

Articulation

Metacarpals

Phalanges

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