Anatomy of ribs

The ribs provide protection for the respiratory organs and the upper part of the nutritional organs that they surround. The ribs are not created in the form of one bone, so that they are not heavy and so that damage, if it occurs, does not spread to all the ribs and so that they can easily move and expand the chest when the need for this is greater than usual, or when the insides are filled with food and air and a larger space is required for the drawn air. The ribs are not created in the form of one bone also so that the pectoral muscles, which help in the breathing process, and the organs adjacent to them can be located between them.

Since the chest surrounds the lungs, the heart and the organs that lie with them, their protection must be the most thorough, because damage that occurs to them has a strong effect on the entire body. At the same time, the fencing of the mentioned organs on all sides does not constrain them and does not harm them,

For this purpose, the seven upper ribs are created in such a way that they cover the insides underneath them and converge at the sternum, surrounding the dominant organ on all sides.

As for the ribs adjacent to the nutritional organs, they are created as protection from behind, where protective vision does not reach. In front they do not converge, but gradually, little by little, become smaller, so that at the upper ribs the distance between the protruding edges is closest, and at the lower ones this distance is the farthest. They are created in such a way that, while protecting the nutritional organs - the liver, spleen and others, at the same time expanding the space for the stomach and not putting pressure on it when it is filled with food and air.

The top seven ribs are called the sternal ribs. There are seven of them on each side, with the middle two larger and longer than the others, and the outer ones shorter; with this form it is easier for them to cover from all sides what they cover. These ribs, although they are curved, first slope downward, then seem to turn upward again and unite at the sternum,  as we will describe later, so that they cover a larger space. Each of these ribs has two processes, fixed in holes that go deep into the wings of the vertebrae; thanks to this, a double joint is created. In the same way, the seven upper ribs connect to the sternum. As for the five remaining ribs, the short ones, these are the bones of the back and false ribs. Their ends are created adjacent to the cartilages in order to protect them from fracture during impacts, and so that these bones come into contact with the soft organs and the abdominal barrier not with hard parts, but with a body that stands in softness and hardness between the bone and the soft organs.