# Can you straighten your third finger while keeping your pinky bent? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2005, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392 "2005-04-15T00:42:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MaddyStrut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@MaddyStrut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaddyStrut)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/41 "2005-04-15T14:04:15Z")
I can’t do it on either hand unless I hold the other fingers back with my thumb. They’re obviously not connected since I can do it if I hold the other fingers back. Now it’s bugging me. There has to be a way I can do this! I’m sitting in my office staring at my hands trying to make this work. I hope no one walks by. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/42 "2005-04-15T14:08:25Z")
> [@MaddyStrut](#): > > I can’t do it on either hand unless I hold the other fingers back with my thumb. They’re obviously not connected since I can do it if I hold the other fingers back. > > Now it’s bugging me. There has to be a way I can do this! I’m sitting in my office staring at my hands trying to make this work. I hope no one walks by. You can’t do it, you’ll just hurt yourself! Trust me, I’ve tried. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/43 "2005-04-15T15:14:47Z")
Yes, with both hands. It was a bit difficult at first, but it is already getting easier. I do not play piano, but I have practiced vulcan hand gestures. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/44 "2005-04-15T15:55:57Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > Just curous, for the people that can do it on the right, but not the left, are you all left handed? Just wondering, since I noticed that those of us who are right handed seem to be able to do it on the left, but not the right. No, it’s the reverse for me. I am right-handed, but I find it easy with my right hand but near impossible with my left. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/45 "2005-04-15T16:43:19Z")
Veteran piano player. I can do it with my left hand, not so much with my right. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/46 "2005-04-15T18:21:53Z")
Weird. My friends and I were just talking about this a couple of weeks ago and I was roundly mocked because I can’t do it all with either hand. In fact, I can’t straighten my pinkie with my ring finger completely folded either. (FWIW, I type pretty fast and often and do play the piano) Coincidentally, I also went to the hand and arm doctor last week (for an unrelated problem) and asked him about it. He said it’s totally normal because there are ligaments which are connected in some people. So whether or not you can do it is a genetic trait, not a matter of training. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/47 "2005-04-15T18:26:25Z")
Both hands baby! Probably from sax playing. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/48 "2005-04-15T19:36:47Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > The title says it all, but: Hold your hand out, palm facing you. Now bend the ring finger & pinky toward your palm. Now straighten just the ring finger without holding the pinky finger down. Can you do it? Not only can I do that, but with great concentration, I can also independently curl my ring finger and pinky (though when I do the pinky the ring finger “tries” to go along with it and I have make an effort to do so.) I’m sure part of it is congenital or genetic, but I think there’s a muscle training aspect of it, too. It probably doesn’t hurt that do sleight-of-hand tricks, spin my pen, and roll quarters between my fingers _a la_ Orsen Welles or Val Kilmer, so I’m used to doing very fine, independent motions with my fingers. I can also curl my tongue and do the Vulcan eyebrow thing, too. 😛 I cannot, however, stand on my head or do cartwheels, as much as I tried as a child. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/49 "2005-04-15T19:59:39Z")
I cannot curl my tongue. I can stand on my head. I can do the Vulcan eyebrow thing. I can do the “Live Long and Prosper” thing. ---
**Author:** ![RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RancidYakButterTeaParty)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/50 "2005-04-15T21:32:04Z")
Both. Been playing bass and guitar for about 16 years, so that definitely helps. /slight hijack/ Try this one: Hold out your hand with fingers pointing straight up, palm facing away from you. All fingers should be together. Try to separate just your pinky finger from the bunch, then the pinky and ring together…and so on with each group. Now try the other hand. Now try both together. My dad taught me this when I was about 13, and it helped my finger independence tremendously. ---
**Author:** ![Typically\_Sunday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Typically\_Sunday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typically_Sunday)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/51 "2005-04-15T22:17:49Z")
Another piano player. I can do it with both hands. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/52 "2005-04-15T22:34:26Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Both hands baby! > > Probably from sax playing. Me too. > [@Anaamika](#): > > I cannot curl my tongue. Nor can I, but that reminds me of a story… [hijack] Years ago I had a book of _Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!_ oddities - only this was a very strange book as it didn’t have Ripley’s cartoon panels, but the _actual photos_ of people that made it into the feature in the 1930s-50s era. And let me tell you folks, these were (with rare exceptions) the saddest, most benighted, most Gothic bunch of grotesques imaginable. It was like walking into a Flannery O’Connor novel illustrated with pictures by Diane Arbus. You knew that almost every one of these folks was a depression victim or a shut-in or an old carny or someone neglected and unsavory, at the end of his or her rope, coming into the Ripley’s office for their one chance ever at immortality. I remember there was only _one_ picture out of hundreds where the subject was even smiling: a guy who built a 10-foot tall bicycle and rode it all the way to the New York World’s Fair. Anyway…the picture that particularly freaked me was taken in the early 1930s of a dowdy, slightly popeyed young woman who appeared totally unremarkable except that _she could fold her tongue cleanly in half._ Well, that and her eyes, which were unearthly strange, enough to chill you half way to the grave. I can’t imagine she ever kissed a man with eyes like that. But imagine what she could have done if she had… [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/53 "2005-04-15T22:39:16Z")
Wait a sec, that’s 3 steps back from the from the wall, with my head against it - and then lift the chair? ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392/54 "2005-04-15T22:51:05Z")
> [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](#): > > Try this one: Hold out your hand with fingers pointing straight up, palm facing away from you. All fingers should be together. Try to separate just your pinky finger from the bunch, then the pinky and ring together…and so on with each group. > > Now try the other hand. > > Now try both together. I have no troubles with this one at all. And if I curl my fingers in and just try to raise my pinkies I can do that, though on my right hand the ring finger twitches outwards a bit as I straight the pinky. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-straighten-your-third-finger-while-keeping-your-pinky-bent/299392.md?page=2)