this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2025
449 points (99.6% liked)

xkcd

12592 readers
333 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

xkcd #3115: Unsolved Physics Problems

Title text:

'Tin pest' makes more sense to me. Tin just doesn't want to be locked down in a shape like that. I get it. But why would any metal want to grow hair??

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3115/

explainxkcd for #3115

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 59 points 1 month ago (2 children)

A colleague of me did his PhD exactly on the last topic.

[–] BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org 42 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And does he know why? I've had to deal with it too often and it would be really nice to be able to expand RoHS to aerospace.

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 68 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Deep in the coating, where the Cu6Sn5 [Remark: intermetallic phase of Sn coating and Cu substrate] is present, the deviatoric strain was high. This indicates that the growth of the intermetallic phase causes plastic deformation of the tin coating.
[...]
A short (4 micrometre) radial gradient in hydrostatic stress was observed around the root of the whisker. This gradient together with long-range diffusion from specific regions could provide the driving force for whisker growth.

https://portal.research.lu.se/en/publications/tin-whiskers-experiments-and-modelling

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Oh, but of course! The deviatoric strain, yes.

[–] cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Did he found a cure for baldness?

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well, if you are willing to coat your head with copper and some tin on top, you can grow yourself some tin whiskers. Yet, I don't know if they make a good replacement for hair.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

shaving is gonna be an adventure

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 8 points 1 month ago

No, but those zinc ingots now have great mustaches!

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There is no cure for baldness, else Bezos would have a mane.

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Elon has hair plugs that admittedly look pretty good. I think Bezoa just lost his hair too quickly to fool anyone.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

hair plugs that admittedly look pretty good.

Nah, it also doesn't fool anyone. it looks like a toupee, except that he can't take it off.

[–] morphballganon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

It looks better than his natural hair did