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Why do we have nails? |
Have you ever had a band-aid on the end of one of your fingers, and discovered that without your nail it was suddenly harder to do simple things, like pick up a pencil from the table or a coin that fell on the floor? If so, you might already have some idea about why we have fingernails and toenails – they help us to do more things with our hands and feet! Not only do our nails make our fingers and toes more agile, but they also help protect them!
Use one of your nails to tap lightly on a different nail. Even though the material that makes up your nails feels unlike anything else on your body, it’s actually the exact same protein (keratin) that makes up your hair!
You’ve probably noticed that nails grow very slowly. In fact, your fingernails only grow about 0.1 millimeters per day. Use a ruler to look at how small a millimeter is – it’s just one-tenth of that! Believe it or not, but your toenails are even slower!!
World's Longest Nails!
According to Guinness World Records, as of 2008 the woman with the longest fingernails in the world has nails so long that they make up a total of 28 feet, 4.5 inches in length! The longest individual nail was on the right-hand thumb, and was 2 feet 11 inches long!! To reach this extraordinary length, these nails had been carefully grown and maintained for almost 30 years!
