Now that's a faulty comparison. The difference between clips and magazines is far closer to the difference between a cable modem and DSL. Different ways of doing primarily the same thing.

A proper match for the modem/PC error is referring to a rifle as a "removable box magazine."

They do once you affix bayonets. (well, the bayonete is intended to go in things...)

I think it's important to correct terminology. Nothing makes me gnash my teeth as much as people referring to magazines as clips.

I can handle civilians making that mistake, as long as they don't get all pissy when they get corrected. Or worse, if they continue to use the term incorrectly after you've corrected them.

The best response I ever got after correcting someone on the clip/magazine issue was:

"Oh yeah? What makes you think you know everything?"

Here's a perfect example of what I was talking about. Based on Kage's comment, I looked up the phrase "beg the question". Looks like I've been using that phrase incorrectly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question

I could get all upset and defensive, or I could say, 'Well, you KNOW what I meant.' But the bottom line is I used a word/phrase/terminology incorrectly. Now I know better.

As I stated earlier, I'd rather be humble and correct, than proud and wrong.

If it makes you feel any better, here's what the wiki has to say on that:

"Modern usage"

More recently, "begs the question" has been used as a synonym for "invites the question" or "raises the question," or to indicate that "the question ought to be addressed." In this usage, "the question" is stated in the next phrase. For example: "This year's budget deficit is half a trillion dollars. This begs the question: how are we ever going to balance the budget?" Argument over whether this usage should be considered incorrect is an example of the debate between linguistic prescription and description.

That's a specific kind of clip, a stripper clip.That the object itself never enters the magazine and is not in contact with the weapon when it fires are not part of the definition of a clip. The Garand clip belongs to the sub-group of en bloc clips, which are directly inserted into the magazine of the weapon.

As far as I know, a magazine does not have to fully enclose the rounds -- that was just a comment on your use of the word "box" to describe the Garand clip.

A magazine in this context is a separate device or integral part of the weapon which holds the cartridges prior to them being fired and from which they are directly fed into the chamber. For the M1 Garand rifle, this is the depression undernearth the bolt. The only difference to the internal magazine of other rifles of the era which were fed with stripper clips is that the clip holding the cartridges together goes into the magazine as well. This doesn't change the terminology (other than "stripper clip" vs. "en bloc clip", obviously).

I actually have no idea whether the weapon would feed correctly if you inserted separate cartridges into the magazine without a clip, but you definitely can put the separate cartridges there.

Another kind of clip which might make this clearer is the moon/half-moon clip for revolvers. It, too, is inserted into the weapon with the cartridges and is only ejected when the cases themselves are ejected -- but the moon clip is clearly not a magazine, or a cylinder, or part of the chamber. It is, just like the definition of a clip goes, a device for holding the cartridges together.

Right, right. I understand that part. I was saying that when a weapon does have a magazine, you have to use it. As in, you can't cram rounds into the handle of a pistol without putting them in the magazine, but with the stripper clips you can use them or not. (Yes, I also understand that you can load them directly into the chamber, one at a time, but that's not what I was referring to) As opposed to the stripper clips, which you can use to load the magazine if you want to, but by no means do you have to use one. That's the point I was trying to make.
But I guess that's not really the distinction anyway, so it doesn't matter anyway.

Well, no, at least not as far as removable box magazines are concerned: those have a spring and a follower (or some other device with the same function) that push the cartridges to position such that the bolt can catch them and drive them into the chamber. A clip doesn't do this, all it does is sit there with the cartridges attached to it. In this way, removable box magazines would indeed be magazines and not clips according to the "concrete rule" you suggested.

A belt, though, could in a way be called a "kind of clip". Its function in a belt fed automatic firearm could be said to be largely analogous with the function of, say, an en bloc clip: it holds the cartridges together allowing speedy loading, the firearm manipulates the belt such that fresh cartridges are constantly ready to be engaged by the bolt (ie. the belt itself just sits there doing nothing but holding on to the cartridges), and the belt stays attached to the weapon throughout the firing process.

[Edit]All this confusion about the terms is difficult for me to understand since I see them as being so clearly separate. I just can't put my reasoning into words. Guess we'll have to wait for Raygun for real clarity.

But consider, for example, a removable box magazine for an M16A2. It is a container of ammunition which presents cartridges to the bolt to feed into the chamber, and a necessary component for the weapon to cycle properly. No one who knows the correct terms would call it a "clip" except perhaps to provoke a reaction.

Now consider an identical device, with the one difference that it is designed to allow and indeed require the cartridges to be inserted into it in the form of an en bloc clip -- the design is slightly altered so that the magazine only functions properly when the cartridges are attached to the clip.

For all intents and purposes the magazine is still the container of the cartridges and still presents the cartridges to the feedway. The clip is still only a device that holds the cartridges together allowing them to be inserted into the magazine, it just happens to sit inside the magazine while the weapon cycles. The magazine is still a magazine and the clip is still just a clip, even though the clip is now required for the operation. It's just become an en bloc clip instead of a stripper clip.[/Edit]

So the difference is the spring and follower?

That's the difference as I have always understood it as well.
Now apply that to the M1 Garand. I see the "clip" holding the cartridges and from which the cartridges are fed into the chamber. If there is an intermediate "magazine" stage in between the clip and the chamber, I can't see it in that video, since even after the weapon has been cycled once all the other cartridges are still residing in that clip with one in the chamber, I don't see any cartridges in any 3rd location.
Do you see why I'm confused?

So a magazine loads the ammo and a clip just holds ammo together? I thought that was what I tried to say earlier. Or is there a difference that clips must load into a magazine?

The en bloc clip is inside the magazine, so looking from the outside it is more intuitive (for me) to say that the magazine is the container in which the cartridges are held. The spring and follower of the magazine push the cartridges up to the feedway so the bolt can drive them into the chamber. The clip just holds the cartridges together, outside or inside the magazine.

There is no third location or intermediate stage. The magazine is the space into which the en bloc clip, and therefore the cartridges, are inserted. It is the container in which the cartridges and the clip are held. It is the device which presents the cartridges into the feedway.

And no, I don't see why you're confused.

In the case of stripper or en bloc clips, yes, that is exactly what they do. Revolvers don't have magazines in the same sense, so this doesn't hold for moon clips -- although their function is directly analogous. I can't recall any other types of clips, so I cannot rule out the possibility that this doesn't hold for all of them.

Ok, clip loads into magazine or cylinder. Magazine loads into chamber, cylinder rotates into firing position.

With that in mind, how do removable magazines fit in? Is it like revolvers with no clip, that the magazine is loaded by hand? One of the places I looked at mentioned removable magazines with built in clips (probably just to complicate the issue).

Well then what about the pistol? Why couldn't I call the magazine the "clip", and call the hollow space in the handle where the magazine goes, the "magazine", and I would have a situation which appears exactly the same as the M1?
Is the critical difference that the removable magazine of the pistol and the internal magazine of the M1 both perform a mechanic action of feeding a bullet into the chamber, where as the M1's clip does not actively do anything?

This is what I'm questioning in my above post. Is it that we should be focusing not on what holds the ammo, but rather what feeds the ammo?

If you watched the video linked in the OP, it shows inserting cartridges into a removable box magazine both individually by hand and as a group of cartridges from a stripper clip. Any magazine, removable or internal, box or otherwise, into which cartridges can be inserted with a stripper clip can also have cartridges inserted one by one by hand without a clip.

Or were you asking about something else?

Only if removable magazines have a use for a clip beyond it being a quicker way to load the magazine.

Quite possibly. Certainly that difference in function clearly separates the relation between a removable magazine and a magazine from that between a magazine and an en bloc clip.

I guess I'm wasting my time if that's all I'm saying... but even if it is, wouldn't that quite clearly separate clips from magazines if clips always go into magazines (or, in one special case, cylinders) or assist in filling them, but magazines never go into clips or assist in filling them?

None that I'm aware of.

emphasis mine.
So the M1's clip is a clip because it doesn't feed the ammunition, it just stores it. The internal magazine of the M1 also stores the ammo and the clip, but has the feeding mechanism so that's what makes it a magazine.

Is that the difference? Why didn't you say so?

No, because a clip can still be confused with a magazine if a magazine can be confused with a magazine receptacle.
Anyway, I think I've got it sorted now. It's not so much about storage as it is about feeding.

More likely because the question was so stupid you couldn't figure out how to explain such a basic concept.
That, and like you said, we have a bit of a language barrier.

Anyway, I promise I wasn't being deliberately obtuse, and I think I've got it all figured out now. Thank you! Sorry I was so frustrating.