Hand (unit) Biblical exegesis the hand measurement, as for example in the Vision of the Temple, Authorized Version , is usually taken to be palm or handbreadth, and in modern translations may be rendered as "handbreadth" or "three inches". The hand is a traditional unit in the UK. It was standardised at four inches by a statute of King Henry VIII in 1540, but some confusion between the various types of hand measurement, and particularly between the hand and the handsbreadth, appears to have persisted. Phillips's dictionary of 1706 gives four inches for the length of the handful or hand, and three
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? The practical lesson to be drawn from the argument is not to use words like "there" in a loose, unscientific way, without specifying whether you mean "located there" or "occupying space there." In the humoristic magazine "Annals of Improbable Research", Anders Sandberg has presented a calculation based on theories of information physics and quantum gravity, establishing an upper bound of 8.6766×10 angels. Comparing medieval superstition and modern science, George Bernard Shaw wrote in the introduction to the play "Saint Joan" that "The medieval doctors of divinity who did not pretend to settle how many angels could dance on the point