Biology 2601A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Skeletal Muscle, Myofibril, Myosin Head
18 Dec 2015
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Document Summary
Evolution has led to maximal performance increasing for locomotion. Many animals rely on contractile muscle tissue for locomotion. Jelly fish & rotifers have striated muscle tissue. As size increases the force per unit body weight decreases. Muscle attached to skeleton, modifies the force exerted, skeletal lever system. Along length sarcomere: smallest unit of muscle contraction. Modify the force by modifying load, and distance to fulcrum. Shorten lever one (our arm of the teeter totter) then you are decreasing the load output. The closer the fulcrum is to what you want to move (or crush) the greater the force you will exert on it. Animals like crab maximize lever arm one for speed or force. The most powerful type of animal forces are bites. As there is an increase in size we lose force (figure 1: volume increase by power 3, area increase by power 2 decrease in force as mass increases.
