
The eyebrow is an area of thick, delicate hairs above the
eye that follows the shape of the lower margin of the
brow ridges of some[
which?]
mammals. Their main function is to protect the eye, but they are also important to
human communication and
facial expression.
[1] It is not uncommon for people to modify their eyebrows by means of hair addition or removal, make up, or piercings.
Function
Physical
The main function of the eyebrow is to prevent moisture, mostly salty
sweat and
rain, from flowing into the eye. The typical curved shape of the eyebrow (with a slant on the side) and the direction in which eyebrow hairs are pointed, make sure that moisture has a tendency to flow sideways around the eyes, along the side of the head and along the nose. The slightly protruding
brow ridges of modern humans could also still play a supporting role in this process, in this way it helps them make expressions.[
citation needed] Together with the brow ridges, the eyebrows also shade the eyes from sunlight. Eyebrows also prevent debris such as
dandruff and other small objects from falling into the eyes, as well as providing a more sensitive sense for detecting objects being near the eye, like small
insects.
Psychological
Eyebrows also have an important facilitative function in communication, strengthening expressions, such as
surprise or
anger. Many makeup artists view eyebrows as a major feature in defining the face. The eyebrows shape the human face and give definition to one's eyes and forehead. Depending on the shape of the eyebrows, it sometimes can cause what is known as a false facial expression (such as a person's eyebrows shaped to seem as if the person was angry, but really isn't).
Identification
In a study published by
MIT, where subjects were asked to identify celebrities with either their eyes or their eyebrows digitally edited out, the subjects were able to recognize the celebrity 46% of the time with their eyebrows edited out, compared to 60% of the time with their eyes edited out. The findings indicate the importance of eyebrows in providing cues to an individual's identity.
Although in common usage, the human leg or leg can refer to the entire lower extremity or
limb of the
human body, including the
foot,
thigh and even the
hip or
gluteal region, the precise definition in
human anatomy refers to the section of the lower limb extending between the
knee and the
ankle.
Legs are used for
standing,
walking,
jumping,
running,
kicking, and similar activities, and constitute a significant portion of a person's mass.
In
human anatomical terms, the leg is the part of the lower limb that lies between the
knee and the
ankle,
[6] the
thigh is between the
hip and
knee and the term "lower limb" is used to describe the colloquial leg. This article generally follows the common usage.
The leg from the knee to the ankle is called the
cnemis (née'mis) or
crus. The
calf is the back portion and the
shin is the front.
Evolution has provided the human body with two distinct features: the specialization of the upper limb for visually-guided manipulation and the lower limb's development into a mechanism specifically adapted for efficient
bipedal gait. While the capacity to walk upright is not unique to humans, other
primates can only achieve this for short periods and at a great expenditure of energy. The human adoption to bipedalism is not limited to the leg, however, but has also affected the location of the body's
center of gravity, the reorganisation of
internal organs, and the form and
biomechanism of the trunk. In humans, the double S-shaped
vertebral column acts as a shock-absorber which shifts the weight from the trunk over the load-bearing surface of the feet. The human legs are exceptionally long and powerful as a result of their exclusive specialization to support and locomotion — in
orangutans the leg length is 111% of the trunk; in
chimpanzees 128%, and in humans 171%. Many of the leg's muscles are also adopted to
bipedalism, most substantially the
gluteal muscles, the extensors of the
knee joint, and the
calf muscles.