Blog Post #4- Man from the South

In this story, Man from the South, the soldier is going to potentially lose his pinky finger. If he were to lose his pinky this would be devastating for the functional use of his hand. The pinky plays a vital role in our functional grip strength and losing that finger would wreck havoc on the solider's grip.
    In the story, if the soldier lost the bet and he lost his pinky he would have a difficult time gripping his canteen for drinking. Grasping his large canteen would be difficult without his pinky finger due to the importance of the pinky in a functional, cylindrical grasp. Some scholars say that loss of your pinky can result in a loss of 30-50% of your grip strength. While he could grip his canteen with two hands, this may require him to stop and spend valuable time he could be performing other tasks.  I even tried to grasp a large vase at home without the use of my pinky and it was incredibly unstable. After adding my pinky to the grasp again, it was a much more stable and secure.
    One modification for the soldier grasping his canteen would be adding a handle. The addition of a handle would allow the soldier to functionally grasp the canteen without the use of the lost pinky. This would also allow the soldier to only use one hand to drink and could save him time from having to use two hands for stabilization. I believe adding a handle, similar to a coffee mug, would allow the soldier to easily grip his canteen for drinking.