Certain hip prostheses are essentially ball and socket joints with the materials of such characteristics that most of the wear must occur in the socket. For the most common movement, walking, the applied force and the axis of rotation are substantially constant in direction. It is shown that the direction in which wear takes place in the socket is not necessarily the direction of the applied force and the relationship between the two directions is investigated theoretically. The results should be applicable to any ball and socket joint where both the force and the axis of rotation are constant in direction.
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