3 interactive concept widgets for Locomotion and Movement. Drag any slider, change any number, and watch the formula and the answer update live. Built so you understand how each NEET problem actually works, not just the final number.
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Compare skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscle across location, striations, control, nuclei, branching and fatigue.
A side-by-side comparator of skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscle across six features: location, striations, control, nuclei, branching and fatigue. Click each muscle type to highlight it.
Feature
Skeletal
Smooth
Cardiac
Location
Attached to bones; limbs, trunk, face
Walls of hollow organs: gut, blood vessels, uterus, bladder
Wall of the heart only
Striations
Striated (alternating light and dark bands)
Non-striated (no visible bands)
Striated (like skeletal muscle)
Control
Voluntary
Involuntary (also called visceral muscle)
Involuntary (like smooth muscle)
Nuclei
Multiple nuclei at the periphery of the fibre
Single central nucleus per cell
Single nucleus (occasionally two)
Branching
Not branched
Not branched
Branched; fibres joined by intercalated discs
Fatigue
Fatigues with sustained contraction
Does not fatigue easily
Never fatigues under normal conditions
Skeletal muscle: key facts
NEET fact
Skeletal muscle is the only voluntary muscle. It is also called striated or somatic muscle. It fatigues with use.
Try this
Step through the sliding filament theory of muscle contraction and watch the sarcomere bands change.
Walk through the 6 steps of muscle contraction from nerve impulse to relaxation. Watch the sarcomere SVG switch between relaxed and contracted states. See which bands change and which stay the same.
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Input
Nerve impulse
→
Output
Action potential in the sarcolemma
Nerve Impulse Arrives
Where
Motor nerve and neuromuscular junction
What happens
A motor neuron sends an impulse to the neuromuscular junction. The nerve terminal releases acetylcholine (ACh) into the synaptic cleft. ACh binds to receptors on the sarcolemma, triggering an action potential in the muscle fibre.
NEET fact
ACh is the neurotransmitter at the neuromuscular junction. Myasthenia gravis destroys these ACh receptors.
Try this
Explore the axial and appendicular skeleton with bone counts totalling 206, plus the types of joints.
Toggle between the axial skeleton (80 bones) and appendicular skeleton (126 bones). Click each bone group for the count and details. Switch to 'Joint types' to explore fibrous, cartilaginous and synovial joints with examples.
80
Axial skeleton bones
Forms the central axis: skull, vertebral column, ribs and sternum
22
Skull
8 cranial bones (protect brain) + 14 facial bones. The skull has a single mandible (lower jaw) that is the only movable bone of the skull.
Total skeleton: Axial (80) + Appendicular (126) = 206 bones
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Drag, slide and recompute on the next chapter's widgets.
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