Finger Fact

The ratio between the lengths of one’s index and ring fingers is usually quite different in men and women. Men tend to have shorter index fingers than ring fingers; women tend to have their index fingers either the same length or longer than their ring fingers. I saw you checking.

Fingers Have No Muscles

Each finger consists of three bones called phalanges.  Tendons generally connect muscle to bone, and ligaments generally connect bone to bone. The tendons that control the bones in fingers are attached to seventeen muscles in the palm of the hand and eighteen in the forearm. Some are very small and help control each individual finger.

When rock climbers and others exercise, they are actually strengthening the muscles in hands and forearms, not fingers. The average grip strength for men ages 20 to 75 is 104.3 pounds for the right hand and 93.1 pounds for the left. Women averaged 62.8 pounds and 53.9 pounds respectively.

Several studies have shown that it is easier to handle wet objects when you have wrinkled fingers vs. smooth ones. Wrinkling skin in water is caused by constriction of blood vessels. If you sever the nerve to a specific part of your finger, that part will never again wrinkle when wet.  Now you have a handle on how fingers work.