• DragonTypeWyvern
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    5 days ago

    Yes, in this sense.

    Clicking the mechanism converts the manual input to a mechanical or electrical output.

    If you pushed the lead down entirely by hand it wouldn’t be a mechanical pencil, which is exactly why you pushing or flipping a plastic cover into place entirely with your own muscle power makes it a manual shutter.

    When you type on a mechanical keyboard, what, precisely, do you think is happening? Are you literally outputting a letter by pressing your finger down? For that matter, what do you think a mechanical keyboard does?

    Fucking Google it.

    I do love having to explain basic terminology to a relatively well educated yet stupendously deaf audience.

    Really restores my faith in humanity.

    We’re not fucking cooked, and the mental infantilization of the population is not complete.

    • MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 days ago

      mechanical /mĭ-kăn′ĭ-kəl/ adjective

      Of or relating to machines or tools.
      "mechanical skill."
      
      Operated or produced by a mechanism or machine.
      "a mechanical toy dog."
      
      Of, relating to, or governed by mechanics.
      

      You’re using the second definition and everybody else, including me, is thinking of the first or third. I would call anything that has a mechanism integrated into it, such as a manual slide that covers a camera, no matter how simple, to be mechanical. A playground teeter totter is pushing the definition, but I’d say it’s technically mechanical.