• Question: what is the strongest muscle

    Asked by 08caseb to Alan, Caspar, Murray, Sarah on 24 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      The Masseter, more commonly known as the jaw muscle is recognised by the guiness book of records as the strongest muscle in the human body. However there is some debate about this. Some scientists say that relative to size, the tonggue and the external eye muscles are the strongest in the body, while others say it is the heart or the uterus!

    • Photo: Alan Winfield

      Alan Winfield answered on 24 Mar 2011:

      I don’t know the answer to that but I seem to remember someone saying the jaw muscles – the ones we use for biting and chewing – are really really strong. But I do know that the joints and muscles in the jaw are unusually complicated because you can make your jaw move sideways as well as up and down. The reason I know this is that someone I know showed me a robot head that he’s made – that has a working artificial jaw! The robot head is used to do research in how we speak.

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