Anthony Storace

Functional analysis of the role of the finger tendons

Abstract An approach to deriving the force equilibrium equations for a finger, based on the principle of virtual work, is presented. Ligament tension forces and bone contact forces do not appear in the equilibrium equations because they are workless constraints. Examples including normal and non-normal anatomy are given to illustrate the way in which useful information may be inferred from these equations, even though they are indeterminate and cannot be used to calculate the actual values of the tendon forces.