What is helical?

Helical means something has a spiral shape, kind of like when you twist a rope or climb a staircase that goes around.

Imagine you have a piece of string and you twist it into a corkscrew, that’s helical! It’s the same shape as the thread on a screw, or the way your hair might curl if it was really tight.

Think about climbing stairs in a big building. If the stairs went straight up, they’d be like steps in a ladder. But helical stairs go around as you climb, kind of like walking around a pole while going up. Each step is slightly turned so you circle the center.

Another example is a spring inside a pen or a watch. When you press down on it, it coils up tightly, that’s helical too! It's just like if you took a long strip of paper and twisted it into a spiral.

So helical means something twists in a spiral shape, kind of like climbing stairs around a pole or curling up like a spring.