Fig. 12. Examples of the analysis of the time course of contractile component length changes. Length changes of the whole muscle (solid line) and the calculated changes in length of the contractile component (dashed line) and the series elastic component (dotted line) are shown in A. The length changes applied to the whole muscle at shortening amplitudes of 5 (top traces), 10 (middle traces) and 15 % L_max (bottom traces), where L_max is the length at which active force production is maximal, are shown in B, while C shows the calculated length changes of the contractile component only, at the same shortening amplitudes as in B. All recordings were made on the same muscle (L_max 4.8 mm).