I'm starting to understand. A mechanical keyboard is not one that follows mechanical laws, but one that uses springs? I think all kb that are classified as Mechanical have springs. This Apple keyboard, by virtue of using rubber domes to pop up that plastic slider after you depress the switches, is not mechanical because it doesn't use springs.
OK in all seriousness nobody seems to really agree on what the definition of 'mechanical keyboard' is. Besides 'not rubber dome over membrane' I guess. Because back in the day when most of these technologies were invented they weren't called 'mechanical keyboards' at all...they were just called 'keyboards'. Yet there's a huge variety of different mechanisms that can make a keyboard work. Some are good and others not, but they're all 'mechanical' in some sense of the word.
It was only after cheap rubber dome over membrane keyboards started taking over the industry that the distinction started to be made. Because while rubber dome over membranes keyboards are very cheap to manufacture they also have a lot of properties that keyboard enthusiasts don't like. Not the least of which is the fact that they don't actuate until you've bottomed out the keys, while most 'mechanical' keyboard actuate midway through the keystroke.
