Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: neilep on 11/06/2004 23:13:11
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I don't give a flying fig about palm readers...though I'm sure they are lovely people......but what exactly are the lines on my palms for ?....I need to know cos I want to know....are they for any purpose at all ?...and I suppose the same can be said for fingerpints eh ?
Your 'handy' answers (sorry) would be greatly appreciated and treated with love and kindness.
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Fingerprints are for traction. I suspect that palm lines are just a result of folding your hands too many times, just like laugh lines come from too much laughing. Stop laughing!
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....thanks for your advice Moosehole....I will now commence a period of non-laughter-activity......but i suspect there must be a more definitive answer regarding the palm lines eh ?!!....if fingerprints are really for traction then why do they not work when girlies hold car steering wheels ? *snigger...awaits the ensuing female abuse*
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Babies are born with lines on their palms, yet no wrinkles on their faces. Unless they do a lot of hand-wringing, but no smiling or frowning in-utero, then repetitive hand folding cannot be the mechanism !
Seriously, babies affected by Down's Syndrome (Trisomy 21) characteristically have only a single palmar crease. The cause / significance of this observation is unknown.
Chris
"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx
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quote:
Originally posted by chris
Babies are born with lines on their palms, yet no wrinkles on their faces. Unless they do a lot of hand-wringing, but no smiling or frowning in-utero, then repetitive hand folding cannot be the mechanism !
Seriously, babies affected by Down's Syndrome (Trisomy 21) characteristically have only a single palmar crease. The cause / significance of this observation is unknown.
Chris
"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx
Now that is really interesting Chris.....it just reaffirms the question that there must be a reason for the lines on the palm.....I suppose it's one of those things that we'll never know.........yet......though I do notice when looking at my palm whilst closing my palm that the folds are where the lines are....but I don't know if that's just because the lines are there, or are as a result because of the years of folding palms......perhaps even babies create the lines inside the womb..........Naaa !!..I reckon the lines are there because they are simply there !!!
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Hmm, yeah I guess so. There doesn't actually have to be a reason for all the parts of your body, unless you believe in the whole Creator thing or something.
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Further to the point I made above, here's a link to an item about babies born with learning difficulties - they were found to have simpler fingerprints and palmar creases. Here's the audio section :
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/html/shows/2001.12.02.htm#2
...and here's the transcript :
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/html/shows/2001.12.02.htm#full_length
Chris
"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx
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Maybe the palm lines are for better traction when holding on to tree limbs (we're primates after all). I bet monkeys who slip off branches a lot are thought of as stupid by other monkeys (because they may also have learning disablities).
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I'm with Moosehole's last comment, makes sense to me.
But why are ridges intrinsically grippy? Surely it's less surface area in contact so intuitively I'd have thought it should be less grippy. Is it to do with micro-vacuums or sweat being channeled away? I seem to remember something to do with insects having similar structures on their feet to aid grippiness.
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.....actually, I have now concluded that it's plumbing !!!..YEP...it's for when we sleep in the rain and to channel the water away so that our palms don't drown !![:D][:D]
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While it's true that if you have 2 flat surfaces rubbing against eachother, you'll get more friction if there is more area of surface contact, most natural surfaces are not flat. Ridges aid friction when there are bumps that can fit in the gaps between the ridges. That way, you get friction at an angle perpendicular to the motion. Here's a picture to demonstrate:
Flat:
__-______-_______ bumpy surface
_________________ finger or palm
Ridgy:
__-______-_______ bumpy surface
__/\______/\_____ finger or palm
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Yeah ... try pushing a heavy chest by sliding your hands over the top then try pusing from behind and you'll see it's easier.
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I don't know but I agree that it could be about grip. the ridges in the fingers come in handy when opening up a bottle of fizzy drink. I just wonder if apes or chimps have these as well...?
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Interesting old thread to be brought back to life.
Firstly, some of the features of the human body are not there because they necessarily perform a function, but because it was easier to build the human body that way, and there was no disadvantage to it being that way.
It could be that the lines could in part be 'seams' where different parts were joined as the body was growing in the womb.
In terms of fingerprints - I am not sure if it need only be a matter of grip (in fact, depending on context, such lines could be a disadvantage to grip - the same way as in dry weather, slick tyres without tread have better grip, but in wet weather a tyre with deep tread works better). I think there is probably as much advantage for fingerprints in terms of helping tactile sensation. It may help provide separation of regions to better localise sensations deriving from the skin. It is also possible that as you run your fingers along a surface, the ridges will create subtle vibrations as they first stick to, and then release from the surface they are running across, and maybe this vibration will help provide information about the surface.
With regard to palmistry, as Chris has mentioned, people with Down's syndrome (and many other congenital conditions) have all sorts of small corollary differences in their body, including (but not limited to) shapes and position of ears, and changes in lines on their hands. This is because as the embryo develops, lots of different changes are happening in the various different parts of the embryo, but for every embryo, the same changes will be happening at the same point of development. If, during some time in that development, something comes about to cause a hiccup in development, this can have many different and apparently unrelated changes to the body (such as maybe some problem with one's liver may happen at the same time as a particular crease on the hand is developing, and so looking at the creases on the hand may tell you something about embryonic development that might tell you something about the liver).
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With regard to palmistry, as Chris has mentioned, people with Down's syndrome (and many other congenital conditions) have all sorts of small corollary differences in their body, including (but not limited to) shapes and position of ears, and changes in lines on their hands. This is because as the embryo develops, lots of different changes are happening in the various different parts of the embryo, but for every embryo, the same changes will be happening at the same point of development. If, during some time in that development, something comes about to cause a hiccup in development, this can have many different and apparently unrelated changes to the body (such as maybe some problem with one's liver may happen at the same time as a particular crease on the hand is developing, and so looking at the creases on the hand may tell you something about embryonic development that might tell you something about the liver).
There appears to be an association between finger length and sexual orientation...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/695142.stm
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There appears to be an association between finger length and sexual orientation...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/695142.stm
Similar studies have been made to deal with sexual prowess and "dangerous" people. I don't believe any of it, although i did check my own finger length to make sure i was in all the right groups!