Muscular System

We have recently been talking about the muscle system. We learned that there are four properties of muscle which are excitability, contractility, extensibility and elasticity. We also learned that there are three types of muscle: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. Skeletal muscles are attached to bones and make up about 40% of our body weight. They are striated and are voluntary movements. It is hard to see distinct skeletal muscle cells because there is multi nuclei per cell. Smooth Muscle is found in the walls of hallow organs, in the eyes and in the skin. The cells are not striated and they have an involuntary rhythm. Cardiac muscle is striated but not as severe as skeletal muscle. Cardiac muscle has intercalated disks which is how you can tell from cell to cell. We also learned about how muscle attaches to bone through tendons and connective tissue.

I found an article that discusses smooth muscle. I found it interesting that we have over 600 muscles in our body. Muscles are even responsible for making you get sick, or throw up. The article goes into detail about the function of smooth muscle which I found very interesting.
Link: http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/muscles.html