WEBVTT - Which Computer Keys Wear Out First?

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.480
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff. From how Stuff works a brain stuff,

0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:09.880
<v Speaker 1>it's Christian Seger here. If you spend a lot of

0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:13.000
<v Speaker 1>time using a computer, you have undoubtedly noticed that over

0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.400
<v Speaker 1>time some of the letters on your keyboards start to disappear.

0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.960
<v Speaker 1>That leads to the question which keys on a keyboard

0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.639
<v Speaker 1>tend to wear out the fastest. Since keys wear out

0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.080
<v Speaker 1>because of use, it's logical to assume that the keys

0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:29.800
<v Speaker 1>that wear out the fastest are the ones we use

0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:33.159
<v Speaker 1>most heavily. So which ones are they? Back in the

0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:37.080
<v Speaker 1>days before computers, when typewriters and type setting machines were

0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.560
<v Speaker 1>used to put words on paper, that was a fairly

0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.319
<v Speaker 1>easy question to answer. As a trade publication called The

0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:49.600
<v Speaker 1>Inland Printer noted, back in it was widely accepted that

0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.120
<v Speaker 1>the most used key on keyboards was the space bar,

0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:57.320
<v Speaker 1>followed by the letter E. Some sources still adhere to

0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.400
<v Speaker 1>that convention. A Microsoft product marketing off she told Business Insider,

0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:06.000
<v Speaker 1>for example, that the most used key was the space bar,

0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:09.720
<v Speaker 1>followed by the E and then the backspace key. But

0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.600
<v Speaker 1>if you really want the definitive answer, the source best

0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.000
<v Speaker 1>equipped to give it might be someone who replaces computer

0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:22.080
<v Speaker 1>keys for a living. Patrick Halcrow is owner and operator

0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.640
<v Speaker 1>of Laptop dash keys dot com, which supplies keys and

0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:31.440
<v Speaker 1>parts needed, along with repair instructions to people who need

0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:35.800
<v Speaker 1>to fix their broken laptop keyboards. Halcrow explains in an

0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:40.160
<v Speaker 1>email that these days, habits have changed. That's because a

0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.880
<v Speaker 1>lot of people who were once casual computer users have

0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:48.040
<v Speaker 1>switched to using smartphones and tablets with touch screens to

0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.560
<v Speaker 1>write emails and check out social media and videos, and

0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:55.720
<v Speaker 1>the people who still use laptops are mostly either workers

0:01:56.080 --> 0:02:01.720
<v Speaker 1>or computer gamers. As Halcrow says, gamer mostly order replacements

0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:06.160
<v Speaker 1>for the W, A, S, and D keys, as well

0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:09.919
<v Speaker 1>as the arrow keys. That's because these specific keys are

0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:14.240
<v Speaker 1>used for player movement in RPG type games as well

0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.960
<v Speaker 1>as vehicle control in driving type simulators. People who use

0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:23.200
<v Speaker 1>desktop and laptop computers for work, in contrast, tend to

0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:27.359
<v Speaker 1>replace the vowel keys A, E, I, O, and you,

0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.880
<v Speaker 1>and the space bar and the arrow keys, which Halcrow

0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:35.560
<v Speaker 1>said are the keys pressed most often when typing. According

0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:39.959
<v Speaker 1>to Halcrow, people tend to replace keys mostly because of aesthetics.

0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.160
<v Speaker 1>They don't like the look of a keyboard where some

0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.080
<v Speaker 1>of the letters are worn off, and not because of

0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.800
<v Speaker 1>wear and tear on the underlying mechanism. When there is

0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.040
<v Speaker 1>actual damage, he says, it's not because of wear and tear,

0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.919
<v Speaker 1>but rather it's accidental. Think of your pets knocking a

0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.280
<v Speaker 1>laptop off a table or children breaking off the keys,

0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.760
<v Speaker 1>and this is the case with all accidents, breaking the

0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:13.760
<v Speaker 1>actual key mechanism is more unpredictable. Today's episode was written

0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.160
<v Speaker 1>by Patrick J. Keiger, produced by Dylan Fagan, and for

0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.160
<v Speaker 1>more on this and other topics, please visit us at

0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:32.120
<v Speaker 1>how stuff Works dot com.