What is the purpose? Do we not walk on mostly flat surfaces even when it’s not concrete? Why do we have them if they give so many people issues with their feet?
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The purpose of arches in the human foot is to absorb shock and distribute weight evenly across the foot.
For multiple reasons. I’m assuming you are flat footed and experience knee pain like most young adults in the west. It’s multifaceted. Our feet are designed as a second class lever so instead of being digitigrade (toe bones make the feet) we are plantigrade (the feet makes a base with the heel). This provides greater vertical weight support, is more energy efficient than bending your knees all day thanks to your heal and provides lateral leverage for turning and strafing.
That’s the foot, why the arch? The arch creates supination which acts as a spring across the posterior tibialis and the medial inner muscles of the calf. This is because we are bipedal upright primates. Quadrupeds use their abs to rotate their frontal plane which for them is head to toe but for Humans it’s back to front transversely. Our abs can’t rotate us well so we use our glutes, abductors and arches to turn in this plane regarding our legs. Our 5th toe also helps us strafe by dragging our leg in that direction when abducting our leg when the foot is pronated. Ignoring the arch, our feet are like most blade designs meant to drag the ground behind us efficiently to move us forward.
Scientists say that Humans evolved too quickly and the foot is a slap dash evolution for bipedalism from our former more hand-like appendages. Although true, it works fine when fully developed. In the west thanks to our sedentary lifestyles, overuse of shoes, lack of strength training and lifestyle factors like being obese the ligaments of the foot become stretched or cramped and no longer forms an ideal structure. Our feet were a quick fix for bipedalism so our ligaments don’t adapt for these factors.
Compare us to Ostriches and other bipedal birds who have evolved their foot for millions more years than Humans. All their weight bares on their 1st toe rather than the balls of their feet/heel and their 2nd toe replaces the need to supinate. Digitigrade feet are more dexterous than Human feet which decreases the margin of error in development. Considering all this, this is why Humans experience foot issues and in reflection I’d say the Human achieves many feats despite all of it’s compromises. It does the best with what it has and does.
The purpose of arches in the human foot is to distribute weight evenly across the foot and to absorb shock. The arches also help to propel the body forward when walking or running.
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