Beverly Bolar, age 10, of Cleveland, Ohio, for her question:

How many bones are in a person's body?

The skeleton of the average person is made from 206 separate bones. The backbone is made from a string of nubby little bones called the vertebrae. The skull is a sturdy shell, fitted neatly together from 21 flat bony plates, plus a lower jawbone that is attached with two movable joints. There are 32 separate bones in each arm and hand and the two large hip bones are shaped somewhat like curved fans. Almost all the bones of the skeleton are linked together with joints and pliable ligaments.

Some readers are puzzled about the number of ribs a person is supposed to have. They are told that Eve was created from one of Adam's ribs    and suspect that a woman has one more rib than a man. But this is not so. The average person has 24 ribs and the average man has the same number as the average woman.