Olin Lathrop wrote:
> Sean Breheny wrote:
> > I think that the problem here is that some people are defining
> > "handspan" to mean the width or length of one's hand and others, I
> > think, may be referring to the maximum distance from finger-tip to
> > finger-tip with arms held wide open.
> 
> That would make it a arm span or two arm spans. In any case I specifically
> defined handspan to be 4 inches in my example. Even if it were two yards,
> that only changes things by a factor of 18. Two yards is still a long way
> from two soccer fields.

You're confusing "hand" (4 inches, the nominal width of the palm, typically
used only for measuring the height of horses), with "handspan", which is
the distance between the tips of the outstretched thumb and little finger
of one hand.

My handspans are 9.5" (right hand) and 10" (left hand). I'm right-handed,
and my theory is that the dominant hand tends to be a little more muscular
and therefore a little less loose-jointed than the other hand.

-- Dave Tweed
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