-
Asked by Jamie to Colin, John, Kevin, Shikha, Triona on 7 Nov 2014.
-
Tríona O'Connell answered on 7 Nov 2014:
because it’s very humerus *badum tish*
(it’s probably due to that horrid unfunny feeling you get when you hit it off something at the wrong angle)
-
-
Kevin Motherway answered on 7 Nov 2014:
Humerous indeed. I think Triona has it nailed in terms of how it got its name.
Interesting your funny bone isn’t a bone. There’s a major nerve called the Ulnar Nerve running down your arm in a groove in your Ulna (one of the two bones that make up you lower arm). This nerve is really really close to your skin so when you give you elbow a good wallop it’s like somebody running a magnet over a cable sending data to a computer and the nerve gets a big hummmmmmmmmmmmmm going on in the signals going to your brain. It feels like your whole arm is vibrating. Funny? I’ve never found it that fun. Thankfully normal services resumes after a short time. You can get nerve damage though that can affect how your body perceives things. My dad and I were in car crash many years ago and one of the nerves running from his arm up to his brain got pinched and now he regularly gets that funny bone humming feeling in his arm without having to hit it off a wall. The nervous system in your body is a pretty incredible system, but like any wiring the signals can get mixed up from time to time. Great question and I had fun checking out the details.
-
Shikha Sharma answered on 16 Nov 2014:
Hi Jamie,
I believe the funny part of the “funny bone” is that it’s not a bone at all…It is a huge nerve called ulnar nerve that extends from your elbow to your hand. Usually nerves like that are protected under muscles but ulnar nerve lies directly under the skin of arm and not protected near the elbow except the thin layer of skin. So, when you hit your funny bone (which is ulnar nerve), you experience pain where the ulnar nerve works: down the forearm and into the ring and pinky fingers.
Comments