Numbers:


Did you know?

Each hand contains (plus or minus… everyone is different, and everyone counts these things differently…)
  • 29 major and minor bones (many people have a few more).
  • 29 major joints.
  • At least 123 named ligaments.
  • 34 muscles which move the fingers and thumb:
  • 17 in the palm of the hand, and
  • 18 in the forearm.
  • 48 named nerves:
  • 3 major nerves.
  • 24 named sensory branches.
  • 21 named muscular branches.
  • 30 named arteries and nearly as many smaller named branches

Finger strength:

The muscles which power the fingers are strong – strong enough for some people to climb vertical surfaces supporting their entire weight at times by a few fingertips. The muscles which accomplish this feat are stronger than you might imagine, for the biomechanics of the handrequire that the force generated by the muscles which bend the fingertips must be at least four times the pressure which is produced at the fingertips.

Thumb movement
The thumb is controlled by 9 individual muscles, which in turn are controlled by two (median, ulnar nerves) major nerves of the hand. The thumb moves in such a complex fashion that there are 6 separate descriptive terms just for particular directions of movement of one thumb joint – the basal joint, at the base of the thumb. The human brain has the largest cortical represenation for the thumb.