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In lugnet.starwars, Shaun Sullivan writes:
> In lugnet.starwars, Jason J. Railton writes:
> > In lugnet.starwars, Mark Chittenden writes:
> >
> > Small quadraped animals (dogs, for example) have reversed knees on the back
> > legs, for running. Very large ones (elephants, or dinosaurs like
> > diplodocus) have/had reversed knees on the front legs, for better balance.
> > The only quadraped that walks with four forward knees is two men in a
> > pantomime horse, but that's how AT-ATs walk.
>
> Weeelllll, technically, that's not right. All mammals have knees that bend in
> the same basic direction - as long as you have a consistent definition for a
> knee. In most mammals, though, the thigh bone is much shorter and compacted
> into the body, with a much elongated shin and, usually, a much elongated
> "foot".
>
> This picture shows it pretty well:
>
> http://www.specificbreeds.com/html/skeleton.html
>
> If you look at the outline, you can see why it is that we don't really notice
> the knee, per se - it is hidden in the structure of the upper leg and body.
>
> Take your dog, for example. What you are calling its "knee" is actually its
> ankle (analogizing to human anatomy). It's foot is long and thin, and doesn't
> really touch the ground - instead, your dog walks, basically, on his toes
> only.
Bad form, but I'm replying to my own message - 'cause I forgot to tie it into
Star Wars.
I did a quick study a couple of years ago on the AT-ST. If you check out the
pictures from the movie, you can see that the AT-ST does indeed have a knee
that faces the correct direction ... plus an ankle ... plus a toe joint ...
plus one extra one between the ankle and toe:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=22976
1 = thigh
knee joint
2 = shin
ankle joint
3 = foot section 1
new joint
4 = foot section 2
toe joint
5 = toe
The AT-AT also has this small, body-packed upper leg section. The legs of the
AT-AT actually attach to the body near the center, but there are small leg
sections, hidden behind the lifting brackets, that extend either forward or
backward. Attached to these are the long, vertical leg sections. In that
sense, the AT-AT *does* have backwards knees on the rear legs.
Anyway, just some points of interest.
-s
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: It's perfect!
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| (...) Weeelllll, technically, that's not right. All mammals have knees that bend in the same basic direction - as long as you have a consistent definition for a knee. In most mammals, though, the thigh bone is much shorter and compacted into the (...) (21 years ago, 8-Jan-03, to lugnet.starwars, lugnet.build.mecha)
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