https://wh0.github.io/2020/01/02/scissors.html
Which emoji scissors close
2020/01/02
Ah, scissors. They're important enough that we have an emoji for
them. On your device, it appears as [?]. Unlike the real world tool it
represents, the emoji's job is to convey the idea, especially at
small sizes. It doesn't need to be able to swing or cut things.
Nevertheless, let's judge them on that irrelevant criterion.
Methodology
Conveniently, the emojis studied in this post depict the scissors
from a viewpoint parallel to the axis of the hinge. This allows us to
simulate swinging the blades with basic image rotations. I collected
a dataset of emojis from different vendors from Emojipedia. In the
following experiments, I swing the blades around the hinge until the
handles collide with each other.
The evaluation is all subjective.
Left handed scissors
It turns out that some vendors depict left handed scissors, where the
top blade swings counterclockwise. I've put these in their own
bracket.
Messenger
[scissors-m]
[scissors-m]
You get use out of about half of the blade. It's not great.
Samsung
[scissors-s]
[scissors-s]
These scissors achieve about the same, with half of the blade being
usable. But these ones look like they are better at poking than
Messenger's, so I gave them a slight lead.
JoyPixels
[scissors-j]
[scissors-j]
These are very good! It's probably within the margin of experimental
error that they don't close all the way. JoyPixels receives the gold
medal in left handed scissors.
Right handed scissors
Now on to the main event, the most popular type of scissors.
Microsoft
[scissors-m]
[scissors-m]
Microsoft's emoji have a heavy black outline. In my professional
opinion, the outline is not part of the scissors depicted. And even
with that concession, the handles collide very early. You couldn't
cut with these. I get frustrated just looking at the image of the
closed position.
Apple
[scissors-a]
[scissors-a]
These scissors look very heavy duty. But you can't cut very far at
all.
Google
[scissors-g]
[scissors-g]
Actually it's not very clear if these are right handed or left
handed. But these close very little.
Facebook
[scissors-f]
[scissors-f]
The handles on these collide very close to the hinge, so they barely
close at all. If you could file those parts down, you could close
them a lot more:
[scissors-f]
But you couldn't, because is the only file you can get in emoji, so
this altered version doesn't count.
WhatsApp
[scissors-w]
[scissors-w]
These are pretty good. They almost fully close. WhatsApp gets third
place.
emojidex
[scissors-e]
[scissors-e]
These close perfectly! emojidex gets second place though, because the
shading doesn't inspire confidence in the blade geometry.
LG
[scissors-l]
[scissors-l]
These also close perfectly. First place goes to LG!
Non-conducive depictions
Twitter
[scissors-t]
[scissors-t]
These are left handed.
This depiction is highly simplified, so much so that it's not clear
how the handles would interact with each other. They appear to
transition seamlessly from the blade, such that the two handles
occupy different depths in the image. Supposing that the handle
materials could "overlap" in the closed position, we would be able to
swing these to the point where one handle pokes into the opening of
the other handle. Even if we allow the handles to overlap, they don't
close all the way. They'd be uncomfortable too, with the place where
you actually apply pressure being only half as thick as they should
be.
OpenMoji
[scissors-o]
These are right handed.
These scissors start out with the handles already overlapping. We
could apply the same lenient overlapping-handles rule from the
Twitter experiment, but these don't even have the hinge drawn. I
traced out the outline of the back blade to judge where would be a
good place to put a hinge.
[scissors-o]
In order to have the hinge centered on the metal part on both sides,
it would probably have to be about where the handle starts.
[scissors-o]
With all guesswork and alterations to the experiment, these close
pretty well.
My last post was about either How to transport a convex object on a
camel or Android Studio's "Code contains easter egg" inspection. Find
out which.
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