ABSTRACT
Wolff ’s law is generally considered to be a philosophical statement to the effect that, over time, the mechanical load applied to living bone influences the structure of bone tissue. But Wolff ’s claim was beyond the philosophical statement; his claim was that it was rigorous or mathematical law. From the 19th to the 20th century many argued that the rigid or “mathematical” form of Wolff ’s law of trabecular architecture, that promulgated by Wolff,
is not valid. That view is endorsed here. The law compares things that appear to be similar but are not, namely, stress trajectories in a homogeneous isotropic elastic material and the trabecular architecture of cancellous bone-this comparison is referred to here as the
false premise.
