To test the limits of the human hand, the team took the arms off eight cadavers, and rigged them to a machine to stress test different parts of the hand. They then attached fishing line to the tendons in order to manipulate the hands. From there, they attached the arms to a swinging pendulum, and set them to swing into a padded dumbbell.
Left, good. Right, not so good.
Stress sensors on various parts of the hand allowed them to measure impact and, by swinging the arms from different angles, they were able to measure damage sustained. They had the hands smack into the dumbbell in three different ways, a clenched fist, an unclenched fist and an open-hand slap.
This can also do work, though.
Unsurprisingly, the clenched fist was the best. The thumb reinforced the fingers in a way that reduced the risk of breaking, while maintaining a comparably forceful impact. The slap and unclenched fist both had a higher risk of deforming the bones in the fingers and palm, increasing the likelihood of permanent damage.
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