Question

1. What are possible causes of gender differences in muscle strength and the potential difference in the time to peak force and onset of fatigue

2. Postulate on the possible causes and potential advantages of the differences in the force generation by different muscle finger types

Answer 1

Sex differences in human physiology are distinctions of physiological characteristics associated with either male or female humans. These can be of several types, including direct and indirect. Direct being the direct result of differences prescribed by the Y-chromosome, and indirect being a characteristic influenced indirectly (e.g. hormonally) by the Y-chromosome.

The following further generalizations have been made regarding male-female skeletal differences:

Males in general have denser, stronger bones, tendons, and ligaments.
Female skulls and head bones differ in size and shape from the male skull, with the male mandible generally wider, larger, and squarer than the female. In addition, males generally have a more prominent brow, an orbital with rounded border, and more greatly projecting mastoid processes.f
Males have a more pronounced Adam's apple or thyroid cartilage (and deeper voices) due to larger vocal cords.
In males, the second digit (index finger) tends to be shorter than the fourth digit (ring finger), while in females the second digit tends to be longer than the fourth (see digit ratio).
Males have slightly larger teeth than females and a greater proportion of the tooth in males is made up of dentine, whereas females have proportionately more enamel.
Finally, contrary to popular belief, males and females do not differ in the number of ribs; both normally have twelve pairs.
Muscle mass and strength
Females in general have lower total muscle mass than males, and also having lower muscle mass in comparison to total body mass;males convert more of their caloric intake into muscle and expendable circulating energy reserves, while females tend to convert more into fat deposits.As a consequence, males are generally physically stronger than females. While individual muscle fibers have similar strength between male and female, males have more fibers as a result of their greater total muscle mass. Males remain stronger than females when adjusting for differences in total body mass, due to the higher male muscle-mass to body-mass ratio. The greater muscle mass is reported to be due to a greater capacity for muscular hypertrophy as a result of higher levels of circulating testosterone in males

.Gross measures of body strength suggest that women are approximately 50-60% as strong as men in the upper body, and 60-70% as strong in the lower body. One study of muscle strength in the elbows and knees—in 45 and older males and females—found the strength of females to range from 42 to 63% of male strength. men have significantly higher hand-grip strength than women, even when comparing untrained men with female athletes] Differences in width of arm, thighs and calves also increase during puberty.

males build muscle faster than females do. This is because guys have more testosterone (a male hormone), which helps form muscle. Since women naturally have less testosterone, they build muscle at a slower pace. Girls can build strong muscles by exercising regularly and eating a balanced diet.
gender differences in response to fatigue. hat females have higher muscle endurance than males. Possible explanations lie on differences in muscle mass, substrate utilization, muscle morphology and neuromuscular activation.

2
one needs to control the total torque exerted by all fingers such that the glass remains either vertical (in this case the torque magnitude about the point of thumb contact should equal zero) or at a controlled angle that is suitable for drinking and preventing the liquid from being spilled. Usually, the requirements for grip force stabilization allow for some laxity, while the requirements for total torque production are highly specified. As in the example of drinking from a glass, the grip force needs only to be larger than the slip threshold and smaller than the force that would break the glass. In contrast, the torque applied to the glass needs to be precisely controlled since any error will lead to rotation of the glass and spilling of the liquid.