Editing Hand (unit) (section)

{{Short description|Unit of length}}
{{Other uses|Hand (disambiguation)}}
{{for multi|the handbreadth or handsbreadth|Palm (unit)|the handspan|Span (unit)}}
{{Infobox unit
| image    = Hand Units of Measurement.PNG
| caption  = The hand (2) and palm (3) measurements shown, among others, on a human hand
| symbol   = h
| symbol2  = hh
| standard = [[Imperial units|Imperial]]/[[US customary units|US]] units
| quantity = [[Length]]
| units1   = Imperial/US units
| inunits1 = {{ubl|{{val|4|u=in}}|{{sfrac|3}} ft}}
| units2   = [[SI]] units
| inunits2 = {{ubl|{{val|101.6|u=mm}}|{{val|10.16|u=cm}}}}
}}

The '''hand''' is a non-[[SI]] [[unit of measurement]] of [[length]] standardized to {{cvt|4|in|1}}. It is used to measure the height of [[horse]]s in many English-speaking countries, including [[Australia]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.equestrian.org.au/site/equestrian/national/downloads/2005/show_horse/EA%20measuring%20rules%20-%20update%202013.pdf |title=Equestrian Australia Measuring Rules Effective 1 July 2008 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=2008 |website=equestrian.org.au/ |publisher=Equestrian Australia Limited |access-date=17 August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130125000949/http://equestrian.org.au/site/equestrian/national/downloads/2005/show_horse/EA%20measuring%20rules%20-%20update%202013.pdf |archive-date=25 January 2013 }}</ref> [[Canada]], [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], the [[United Kingdom]], and the [[United States]].<ref name=omafra/> It was originally based on the breadth of a [[human]] hand.  The adoption of the [[Inch#Equivalents|international inch]] in 1959 allowed for a standardized [[Imperial and US customary measurement systems#Units of length|imperial form]] and a [[Metric system|metric]] conversion.{{CN|date=December 2023}} It may be abbreviated to "h" or "hh".<ref name=brander/>  Although measurements between whole hands are usually expressed in what appears to be decimal format, the subdivision of the hand is not decimal but is in [[radix|base 4]], so subdivisions after the [[radix point]] are in quarters of a hand, which are inches.<ref name=omafra/> Thus, 62 inches is fifteen and a half hands, or 15.2&nbsp;hh (normally said as "fifteen-two", or occasionally in full as "fifteen hands two inches").<ref name=omafra/>