Hand (unit) inches for the handsbreadth; Mortimer gives the same, three inches for the Hand's-breadth, and four for the "Handful, or simply, Hand", but adds "The hand among horse-dealers, &c. is four-fingers' breadth, being the fist clenched, whereby the height of a horse is measured", thus equating "hand" with both the palm and the fist. Similarly, Wright's 1831 translation of Buffon mentions "A hand breadth (palmus), the breadth of the four fingers of the hand, or three inches", but the "Encyclopædia Perthensis" of 1816 gives under Palm (4): "A hand, or measure of lengths comprising three inches". Today the hand is used
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Suite Part II: Let It Grow", a song from the 1973 Grateful Dead album Wake of the Flood, includes the line "As well to count the angels dancing on a pin." In the comic book "The Crow" by James O'Barr, the main character asks this question to one of his victims before killing them, answering himself, "Depends on the tune". The song "Velodrome" from Minnesota rapper Dessa's 2018 album Chime, references this question in the first verse asking, "Aquinas, call on me/ How many angels on the/ Head of your pin?" How many angels can dance on the head of