Numbers:
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:
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.