Is is possible to crush a human bone with your bare hands? and if you can, how much pressure would you have to be able to generate to do it?

It only takes 2.5 pounds of pressure, properly applied, to break a human longbone.

Like say, my shin bone? My niece and nephew regularly sit on my legs while they are set in a way that should break them, and they way a lot more than 2.5 pounds. Maybe if the 2.5 pounds is being thrust at the bone fairly quickly, which would make it a lot more than 2.5 pounds.

Remember that pounds is a weight which makes it a force. If the mass is accelerating then the force is greater than the gravitational force of the mass.

I have been told that human bones can handle more force than granite or marble of the same size.

Maybe the MBs should show this one to put the matter to rest.

i'm thinking they should as well because i'm really curious to know if it is possible.

my dad went to the doctor's the other day or a muscle injury and he did this test and it showed that he could produce 80lbs of pressure just by squeezing his fist as hard as he could. this makes me wonder if it is possible that he could crush a bone with that much force; 80lbs is A LOT of force.

Chris, I said 2.5 pounds of PRESSURE (read PSI). I also said APPLIED CORRECTLY. I used to be a Paramedic and a Navy Corpsman. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. The human body is incredibly strong AND incredibly fragile.

Indeed.. The reason a bone can take phantasic amount of stress is that most often that stress is spread out over the entire bone..

BUT, if the stress is gathered into a single point, then the situation is something completely different.. F.I. You don't need much force to split a human bone using a hammer and a chisel, due to the force being gathered along the chisels sharpened edge..

Phineas, Ok, ok. I'm not saying that it couldn't be done, I just have a hard time seeing it done. I have used my leg to lift 10 to 15 pound barbells. Yes they were resting on the middle of my shin. It would seem to me that I put 5 or 6 times the amount of pressure you suggest directly onto a bone with no breaks.

I do, however, study physics and would like to point out that, pressure ultimately is force. I'm sure you already know that Force = mass * acceleration. To apply pressure, you have to have acceleration (even if the object applying the pressure is not actively moving). That makes it a force, so what I said still stands.

The way I heard it is that it only takes 2 pounds of pressure to break the skin. But I have a hard time believing that too. I would think that it would take LESS than 2 pounds. I guess it's just something that will need to be tested to be confirmed.

I don't think you can because its difficult to use a substance to crush itself.

However much force a human exerts on the bone being crushed, his own bones will have to absorb that much force in return due to Newtons 3rd law. You also have the problem that the crushing force of flesh is much less than that of bone so the soft tissue of a person's hand is likely to crush before bone being squeezed.

It is possible to break bones by muscle action alone. Back when tetanus was common, people would break their own bones with the violent uncontrolled contraction of their muscles from the effects of the tetanus toxin.

quote:

It only takes 2.5 pounds of pressure, properly applied, to break a human longbone.

Um no. It takes 550 pounds of force applied over one inch center to break the average human male's femur.