■ Even with kids running around with casts on their arms or adults hopping around on crutches, believe it or not, human bone, ounce for ounce, is stronger than steel. This idea might be surprising, but even more so is the fact that 1 cubic inch of bone can bear a load of up to 19,000 pounds—the equivalent of nearly five automobiles. Of course, keep in mind that load capacity and force delivered are two very different things. A powerful outside force delivered onto a bone very quickly could cause a fracture.
Numerous other factors come into play concerning whether a bone will break under a certain amount of force. The recipient’s age, lifestyle and build, not to mention the angle of the strike and the position of the body,…
