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In the 60s-70s, the Cambridge University main computer used germanium transistors, which grew whiskers that shorted them out. Part of preventive maintenance was to open the cabinets and tap the circuit boards with a rubber hammer.

You are saying that you had to shave your computers regularly. TIL.

Is the metal perimenopausal? Trying to eliminate the easy answers first.

As someone who knows absolutely nothing about #3, static electricity makes my hair stand up on end and fray if there's enough of it, maybe it's the same process with tin?

*zinc

Tin "rots" where it super expands, changes color, and becomes brittle. Though several metals grow protruding crystals, silver will do it, too, for instance.

Ah, dendrites. The curse of my Hammond C3.

After googling zinc whiskers (which I was unfamiliar with), I also learned that whiskers are a distinct phenomenon from dendrites (which I was also unfamiliar with). So much learning when I should be asleep.

I stopped listening to Zinc Whiskers after their second album "Neutrino Capture" (one of my favorite pastimes is turning unfamiliar jargon into a hipster's opinion of a band you've never heard of)

You really should have given Neutrino Capture more time, the song „The Mysteries of DUNE“ keeps getting better every time I listen to it

Let me guess, you also liked "Predicted Germanium," didn't you? Typical 🙄

I think I need a little bit of context for number 3.

there is no context zinc will just randomly grow hair and become a problem

4 (The Arcane) - where did that extra sock go?

This is why quantum computers cool their electronics to near absolute zero with depressurized shaving cream. Kills two birds with one stone

@saeedwkhan.bsky.social

I suspect zinc whiskers are the result of crystallization. Why it randomly hits some and not others has to do with exposure to the right seed crystal in the right environment.

And why zinc? Is it zinc qua zinc, or as a component of manufacture under electronic certain conditions? If a zinc obelisk were struck my lighting would it become a monolith monster? Questions abound!

Well, the manufacturing might be part of the conditions, but more likely the electrostatic conditions inside of DC circuitry. As of seed crystals, it could be where it is mined from, dust in the environment or dust encountered in manufacturing.

What do mean zinc grows whiskers?! Zinc is a cat?!

The Wikipedia article on metal whiskers is quite a read.

It's been a problem since the early days of electronics. When I worked in the semiconductor industry there was a lot of work to mitigate whisker growth.

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??" Alt text: https://explainxkcd.com/3115#Transcript

Metal + growing hair is not a new phenomenon, at least not in society

My hair got longer after listening to metal. Does that count as a valid experiment for peer review?