Screwdriver

What is Screwdriver?

A hand tool with a shaped tip — commonly flat-blade or cross-head — that engages the matching slot in a screw to turn it. Match the tip to the screw or you risk stripping either one.

The five clues

Engineerdle #54 described Screwdriver with five clues, revealed one at a time from hardest to most direct. Each clue points at a different property of the concept.

1. 01A hand tool defined entirely by the shape it needs to fit.
2. 02Its tip comes in two dominant shapes, one flat and one cross-shaped.
3. 03Using the wrong size on a stripped head is a classic workshop frustration.
4. 04It turns a fastener by converting your wrist's rotation into torque on the slot.
5. 05The everyday tool you reach for to drive a screw in or out.