from this i have learned that i apparently have very small hands....

Me too... So to use this a a generalization would be completely inappropriate because everyone is different...

Clever way to measure things in a pinch, but unless you know your ACTUAL measurements, they will always be incorrect...

From experience, I know that from the tip of my index finger to the biggest crease in the first knuckle is 1 inch. Also, a quarter is an inch and a dollar is about 6 inches, but, if I remember right, it's a bit shorter.

Kind of neat - though as the article said, hand size may vary.

If you want to quickly find out if a shoe might fit you without taking off your shoes right away to try it on, hold the shoe up in between your inner elbow and wrist. That is approximately the size of your foot.

I think the first comment hand it right:

"Nice … but wait … only 300 millions people use these units ! The other 6 billions use meters."

:p

A while ago I measured the distance between the tip of my thumb to the tip of my pinky when the hand is outstretched, just so I could use it for this.

Like it says at the bottom of the article, all hands are different, so measure yours and use it for a ruler! :D (I would also think this would work for those using metric)

We all spent a few minutes finding our "own" measure for a yard. For one friend, it's from her nose to her fingers of her outstretched arm. For me, it's where my finger touches my same should comfortably, across my chest, to where my fingers can hold the fabric in a pincer. It's automatic for me to 'feel' that length now. For a seamstress, it's an almighty useful measurement!

This is good data!

Yep, my mom taught me the one from my nose (head turned to the right) to the ends of the fingers of the outstretched left arm. I thought it was a bunch of hooey until I measured it and it was pretty much right on.

The article already mentions that a foot is the length of an average foot, but did you know the word "inch" is somehow related to the word "thumb"? In Dutch, a thumb is "duim" and an inch also translates to "duim", so maybe we invented the whole Imperial system..

Yeah, nothing's worth doing for less than a billion people. /s

I have tried it alot of time .. an old trick... Well thanks for letting know others who do not know it..

I think everyone has their own methods of measurement in terms of how to use the finger.
nice tips.