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
Hand (unit) not decimal but is in base 4, so subdivisions after the radix point are in quarters of a hand, which are inches. Thus, 62 inches is fifteen and a half hands, or 15.2 hh (normally said as "fifteen-two", or occasionally in full as "fifteen hands two inches"). "Hands" may be abbreviated to "h", or "hh". The "hh" form is sometimes interpreted as standing for "hands high." When spoken aloud, hands are stated by numbers, 15.0 is "fifteen hands", 15.2 is alternately "fifteen-two" or "fifteen hands, two inches," and so on. To convert inches to hands, the number in inches is