Have you ever used a zipper?

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 08:17:52 GMT

aquaclaire@ecoevo.social — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 08:17:52 GMT

@grimalkina Mind-expanding thread and replies,
Will return to read more!

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 07:23:22 GMT

shelldozer@oldbytes.space — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 07:23:22 GMT

@grimalkina Yes indeed. As long as I could scribble a couple diagrams when doing so.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 07:06:06 GMT

fanf42@social.treehouse.systems — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 07:06:06 GMT

@grimalkina trying that with my teens for a couple of years now and they demonstrate a very high capacity at willingly circumvoluting the thing to show they were right from the start

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 03:30:59 GMT

grumpybozo@toad.social — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 03:30:59 GMT

@grimalkina @b0rk Only because I had to train my son intensively to get him able to operate most zippers one-handed.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:33:30 GMT

merc@techhub.social — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:33:30 GMT

@wlonk It really is. I really like how they organized it too. It reminds me a bit of a modern computer rack, or telephone rack's patch panel, with all these cables going into a certain area.

To me, that was one of the things that really made me appreciate the knowledge and skill that those sailors had.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:30:01 GMT

merc@techhub.social — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:30:01 GMT

@joepie91 @grimalkina Yeah, I was answering "more or less" to most of them. Mostly that comes from fixing them.

I've fixed enough broken zippers that I know how the teeth mesh, how the pull separates and joins the teeth, etc.

I've fixed a fair number of broken toilets, so I know how the plunger works, the float, the flapper, etc. Though, to be fair, I'd have to be sitting in front of a toilet with the lid off to properly explain it.

I've fought with broken can openers, so I know that mechanism. I also know a few of the alternate versions of can openers, which IMO are mostly worse designs.

I learned how pianos work, just because they're neat mechanical devices.

As for the heart, my mother unfortunately has persistent atrial fibrillation, so I know a bit about how the heart is *supposed* to work.

And... I took a course in semiconductor physics in university, and though it's been a few decades, I still remember the some of basics of a BJT and a MOSFET, including the quantum basis for what's happening.

As for an aqualung, I don't even know what that is. It sounds like SCUBA gear?

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:20:37 GMT

nxskok@cupoftea.social — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:20:37 GMT

@scy @grimalkina they also have one called "You (likely) don't understand how a sewing machine works"

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:16:57 GMT

wlonk@mastodon.transneptune.net — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:16:57 GMT

@merc I recently did a 1/57 scale sloop and it took about 6 feet of scale rope just for the standing rigging. It’s bonkers.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:11:56 GMT

merc@techhub.social — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:11:56 GMT

@cohentheblue @NuclearOatmeal @grimalkina IMO the magic in the sewing machine is how the bobbin and needle interact so that the top and bottom threads are connected.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:08:10 GMT

merc@techhub.social — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:08:10 GMT

@grimalkina @sinvega An archaeologist would probably label a cash register as "a ritual object", which isn't exactly wrong, but also not terribly useful.

Also, a modern-ish cash register has too much of the magic in one or more integrated circuits. Which means everything the operator touches goes into the IC, and sometimes when the IC decides it's time, the drawer opens, or something.

More interesting are purely mechanical things. The peak of interesting mechanical things is probably WWII, when they had entire artillery control computers on battleships that were made from hubs, gears, cams, etc.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 01:59:12 GMT

merc@techhub.social — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 01:59:12 GMT

@wlonk @grimalkina The sheer number of ropes they had on those ships is astounding. Each sail needs something like 5 ropes to control it, and there are 8+ sails.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:51:02 GMT

zombiecide@polyglot.city — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:51:02 GMT

@grimalkina but what if you could explain how you *think* a zipper works (from carefully repairing several of them) but you have no idea if what you came up with is mostly correct, though not complete, or a useful lie, because you never actually talk with people about zippers?

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:13:32 GMT

grimalkina@mastodon.social — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:13:32 GMT

@richlv oh I've seen and love that one

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 23:44:30 GMT

splitradix@assemblag.es — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 23:44:30 GMT

@grimalkina Very interesting thread, I've just ordered your book. Have you ever read "A Theory of System Justification" by John Jost? If not I feel it might be of interest.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 23:41:48 GMT

richlv@mastodon.social — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 23:41:48 GMT

@grimalkina Oooh, this is great.
Am I falling for some trap by bringing up "The science of cycology: Failures to understand how everyday objects work" (Lawson, 2006)?

https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03195929

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 23:20:16 GMT

nilace@curloftheburl.nylarea.com — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 23:20:16 GMT

@grimalkina Love this post! (p.s. zippers are a fantastic invention of the kind that leaves me thinking: "How could anyone think of this?")

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:55:20 GMT

mjhersh@hachyderm.io — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:55:20 GMT

@sidereal @grimalkina Same here! As soon as I read your post it, it made perfect sense. I already knew everything I needed to know to understand it. But I NEVER would have come up with that idea on my own.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:30:32 GMT

rx13@infosec.exchange — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:30:32 GMT

@grimalkina
Yes, but probably only because I've got young children and it's one of those early age curiosities

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:19:08 GMT

ewen@social.ewenbell.com — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:19:08 GMT

@grimalkina

This is true from my experience. When you do get a chance to ask more detailed questions from people with extreme beliefs, they often stumble.

They are also the most resistant to actually digging into those ideas of course. That's often how they got there in the first place, by outsourcing the thinking.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:13:45 GMT

ewen@social.ewenbell.com — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:13:45 GMT

@grimalkina

I have been lucky to know people who own boats, and occasionally get on the water for a sail. It's magic when you put up a big sheet of canvas and watch the wind move around the surface. That same sail can catch the wind to push the boat along, or cut the wind to pull it forward.

That a yacht can sail INTO the wind at all makes perfect sense from the physics, but absolutely no sense to my brain. It still feels improbable and weird. It's not intuitive at all. I understand on a very superficial level, but totally do not believe it deep down.

So it feels like magic.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:03:05 GMT

billd@universeodon.com — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:03:05 GMT

@grimalkina Zippers? I’m still figuring out buttons.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 21:43:19 GMT

k9ox@mastodon.radio — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 21:43:19 GMT

@grimalkina
I figured out how a zipper worked by looking closely. This might have been on the zippered coat I wore in grade school.

I might have been older when I understood the “strength in numbers” offered by the regular interlock when a zipper broke down from years of use.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 21:41:29 GMT

fgbjr@indieweb.social — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 21:41:29 GMT

@grimalkina It's unfair to include sewing machines because they work by magic. Especially four-thread sergers.

Reply to Have you ever used a zipper? on Sat, 22 Aug 2026 21:32:48 GMT

isaackuo@spacey.space — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 21:32:48 GMT

@grimalkina Oh, that IS fun!

First off, no I can't explain how a zipper works. I understand the principle to a degree, but the specific geometries that work or don't work are beyond me.

But sewing machine, can opener, flush toilet (both US style and UK style), heart pumping, piano, aqualung pressure regulation - I just happen to know all of those and have had need to fix most of them.

Not transistor, though. Relay, yes. Transistor, no.