CATAGORY: Mechanics
QUESTION: The radius bone in a forearm has an average effective
cross-sectional area of 1.33 x 10 to the -4 meters squared.  How much
compressive force can it withstand before fracturing?

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  There is a maximum compressional STRESS that bone can withstand
  Your text book should have the value that you need to use in a table
  or in the text book Lets call that value STRESS(bone).  The stress
  is related to force ansd area via
  
  (1)       STRESS(bone) = F/A
  
  Where F is the maximum force and A is the cross sectional area of the
  bone. Solving for F gives
  
  (2)     F = STRESS(bone) A
  
  In your case A =1.33 x 10^4 m^2 but without the value for
  STRESS(bone) that is as far as we can go. So find the maximum
  STRESS(bone) in your text and multiply by the cross sectional
  area A and that will give you F. Make sure you get the right
  units. If A is meters squared then STRESS(bone) (or whatever your
  book calls it) should be Newtons per meter squared.