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Comment by jeggers5 | Hacker News Reader

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jeggers5·

That's really interesting. Never thought about why my fingers do that!

I think this hypotheses is a little silly though.

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You think the hypothesis is silly? Why?

I don't think it's silly, but I do think that it will be extremely difficult to test. People that have damaged nerve endings of the fingers probably are not good grippers, even if their fingers are wet. The control and the feedback is simply not there.

People that have damaged nerve endings of the fingers probably are not good grippers, even if their fingers are wet

I guess you actually meant "even if their fingers aren't wet"? But why do you think it would be extremely difficult to test this hypothesis? All that would be needed is to get a large enough group of people and test their gripping ability on the same surface when their fingers are wet and when they aren't.

Well not exactly. I'd imagine that the wet surface will always have lower gripping ability. You want to know if the wrinkled fingers have better grip on a wet surface than unwrinkled fingers. You could wet the fingers and immediately test the grip (before wrinkles form), and then soak them in water until they wrinkle and do it again.

Sorry about the word weirdness, waking up.

The article states: Scientists have known since the mid-1930s that water wrinkles do not form if the nerves in a finger are severed

Would such a person not have good wet-grip because:

A) They don't have the ability to form wrinkles

B) They can't grip well because they can't feel their fingers

That's the point I was getting at.

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