Paper cut

A paper cut occurs when a piece of paper or other thin, sharp material slices a person's skin. Paper cuts, though named from paper, can also be caused by other thin, stiff materials.

Although a loose paper sheet is usually too soft to cut, it can be very thin (sometimes as thin as a razor edge), being then able to exert high levels of pressure, enough to cut the skin. Paper cuts are most often caused by paper sheets that are strongly fastened together (such as brand new paper out of a ream), because one single paper sheet might be dislocated from the rest. Thus all the other sheets are holding this dislocated sheet in position, and the very small part held away from the rest can be stiff enough to act as a razor.

Paper cuts can be surprisingly painful as they can stimulate a large number of skin surface nociceptors (pain receptors) in a very small area of the skin. Because the shallow cut does not bleed very much, the pain receptors are left open to the air, ensuring continued pain. However, the cut can also be very deep, in which case a puddle of blood pools around a longer gash. This is exacerbated by irritation caused by the fibers in the paper itself, which may be coated in chemicals such as bleach. Additionally, most paper cuts occur in the fingers, which have a greater concentration of sensory receptors than the rest of the body.

Paper cut bug

In the Ubuntu Linux-based operating system a paper cut bug is defined as "a trivially fixable usability bug that the average user would encounter on his/her first day of using a brand new installation of the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop Edition." The analogy is with a paper cut; small, not seriously damaging, but surprisingly painful. The use of the term has since spread to other software projects.

History

The first "paper cut" campaign was in June 2009, and each such release has been accompanied by a paper cut project. Initially the project was intended to have Ubuntu developers and users identify and fix one hundred minor bugs that negatively impact the Ubuntu user experience and complete the work to be included in the release of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. The intention was that each of these bugs would require no more than a day's work for a competent programmer.

The first ten of the original paper cuts were:

Paper cut (disambiguation)

A paper cut is a minor injury caused by paper.

Paper cut may also refer to:

In music:

See also