science

When the Twerms Came

When the Twerms Came is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand When the Twerms Came rather than just read about it. In short: "When the Twerms Came" is a short story by British author Arthur C. Clarke that was first published in Playboy magazine, alongside illustrations by Skip Williamson.

Key takeaways

When the Twerms Came belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect When the Twerms Came to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of When the Twerms Came from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"When the Twerms Came" is a short story by British author Arthur C. Clarke that was first published in Playboy magazine, alongside illustrations by Skip Williamson. It deals with an invasion of Earth one wet Tuesday afternoon by deadly Twerms.

Synopsis Fleeing from their mortal enemy the Mucoids, the Twerms are desperate to find a new place to live. They discover Earth and study its peoples, discovering their weak points. The Twerms choose not to focus their initial attack on centers of military power, instead choosing to send a small portion to attack a heavily populated city on a Tuesday afternoon. They unleash various weapons that cause psychedelics, severe itching, diarrhea, or tumescence onto the population, but only result in a small number of deaths, mostly heart related. The rest of the fleet attack Geneva, Basel, and Bern and learn the identities of every single owner of a Swiss bank account. The Twerms send the owners threatening letters, resulting in the successful conquering of the Earth.

Release "When the Twerms Came" was first published in the May 1972 edition of Playboy magazine, where it was accompanied by a comic strip drawn by Skip Williamson. Five years later in 1977 it was published in book form in The View from Serendip. It has subsequently been published in The Wind from the Sun and the More Than One Universe collections. The short story has been translated to French.

Themes "When the Twerms Came" deals with the theme of alien invasion, a scenario that per Gary Westfahl is not common in Clarke's works.

Reception The story has been described as "lighthearted". In an obituary for Williamson, Richard Sandomir of the New York Times described the story as a "silly, preposterous visual tableau, with one Twerm munching on a hot dog and another watching "The Mod Squad"."

References

External links When the Twerms Came title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with When the Twerms Came

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what When the Twerms Came claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to When the Twerms Came before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about When the Twerms Came ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of When the Twerms Came

In research: When the Twerms Came appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses When the Twerms Came in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: When the Twerms Came is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1972 English-language short stories, 1972 short stories, Fiction about alien invasions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for When the Twerms Came outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study When the Twerms Came in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what When the Twerms Came means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain When the Twerms Came out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is When the Twerms Came in simple terms?

"When the Twerms Came" is a short story by British author Arthur C. Clarke that was first published in Playboy magazine, alongside illustrations by Skip Williamson.

Why does When the Twerms Came matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study When the Twerms Came?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on When the Twerms Came.