Chad (paper)

Chad (paper)

Chad refers to paper fragments created when holes are made in a paper, card or similar synthetic materials, typically computer punched tape or punched cards. "Chad" has been used both as a mass noun (as in "a pile of chad") and as a countable noun (pluralizing as in "many chads").

Chad was made famous in the highly contentious 2000 United States presidential election where many of Florida votes used Votomatic style punched card ballots. Incompletely-punched holes resulted in partially punched chads: either a hanging chad, where one or more corners were still attached, or a dimpled chad or pregnant chad, where all corners were still attached, but an indentation appears to have been made. These votes were not counted by the tabulating machines.

Chad is more commonly seen in mundane, everyday settings. When a hole punch of the functional or decorative type is used, it removes a small amount of paper - a chad. Chad are also common in stores, where holes are punched so that merchandise can be hung on pegs or clips. Chad are also the small strips, pieces of paper or shred waste that remain of the documents fed through a paper shredder. Chad can also be the result of punching holes in any sort of thin material, such as cloth, plastic, or even sheet metal.

Chad is sometimes used as confetti. This is generally harmless when using thin circular paper chad. The rectangular chad from punched cards is unsuitable due to the sharp corners and the toughness of the card stock risking eye injury.