Difference between revisions of "Main Page"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Jump to: navigation, search
(New here?: links)
(New here?: link for edits by new contributors)
(5 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 23: Line 23:
  
 
== New here? ==
 
== New here? ==
<div style="float:right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em">{{Special:ContributionScores/10/7/nosort,notools}}<div style="font-size:0.85em; width:25em; font-style:italic">[[Special:ContributionScores|Lots of people]] contribute to make this wiki a success. Many of the recent contributors, listed above, have just joined. You can do it too! Create your account [[Special:UserLogin/signup|here]].</div></div>
+
<div style="float:right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em">{{Special:ContributionScores/10/7/nosort,notools}}<div style="font-size:0.85em; width:25em; font-style:italic">[[Special:ContributionScores|Lots of people]] contribute to make this wiki a success. Many of the recent contributors, listed above, have [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special%3AContributions&contribs=newbie just joined]. You can do it too! Create your account [[Special:UserLogin/signup|here]].</div></div>
  
You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at [[explain xkcd]]. Feel free to sign up for an account and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|comics]], [[:Category:Characters|characters]], [[:Category:Comics by topic|themes]] and [[:Category:Meta|everything in between]]. If it is referenced in an [[xkcd]] web comic, it should be here.
+
You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at [[explain xkcd]]. Feel free to [[Special:UserLogin/signup|sign up for an account]] and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|comics]], [[:Category:Characters|characters]], [[:Category:Comics by topic|themes]] and [[:Category:Meta|everything in between]]. If it is referenced in an [[xkcd]] web comic, it should be here.
  
*If you're new to wikis like this, take a look at these help pages describing [[mw:Help:Navigation|how to navigate]] the wiki, and [[mw:Help:Editing pages|how to edit]] pages.
+
* If you're new to wiki editing, see [[mw:Help:Editing pages|how to edit wiki pages]]. There's also a handy {{w|Help:Cheatsheet|wikicode cheatsheet}}.
  
*Discussion about various parts of the wiki is going on at the [[explain xkcd:Community portal|Community portal]]. Share your 2¢!
+
* Discussion about the wiki itself happens at the [[explain xkcd:Community portal|Community portal]].
  
*[[List of all comics]] contains a table of most recent xkcd comics and links to the rest, and the corresponding explanations. There are incomplete explanations listed [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|here]]. Feel free to help out by expanding them!
+
* You can browse the comics from [[List of all comics]] or by navigating the category tree at [[:Category:Comics]].
  
*We sell advertising space to pay for our server costs. To learn more, go [[explain xkcd:Advertise Here|here]].
+
* There are incomplete explanations listed [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|here]]. Feel free to help out by expanding them!
 +
 
 +
* We sell advertising space to pay for our server costs. To learn more, go [[explain xkcd:Advertise Here|here]].
  
 
== Rules ==
 
== Rules ==
Don't be a jerk. There are a lot of comics that don't have set in stone explanations; feel free to put multiple interpretations in the wiki page for each comic.
+
 
 +
Don't be a jerk.
 +
 
 +
There are a lot of comics that don't have set in stone explanations; feel free to put multiple interpretations in the wiki page for each comic.
  
 
If you want to talk about a specific comic, use its discussion page.
 
If you want to talk about a specific comic, use its discussion page.
  
Please only submit material directly related to and helping everyone better understand xkcd... and of course ''only'' submit material that can legally be posted (and freely edited).  Off-topic or other inappropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked.
+
Please only submit material directly related to (and helping everyone better understand) xkcd... and of course ''only'' submit material that can legally be posted (and freely edited).  Off-topic or other inappropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked.
  
 
If you need assistance from an [[explain xkcd:Administrators|admin]], post a message to the [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests|Admin requests]] board.
 
If you need assistance from an [[explain xkcd:Administrators|admin]], post a message to the [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests|Admin requests]] board.
  
 
[[Category:Root category]]
 
[[Category:Root category]]

Revision as of 14:16, 5 June 2015

Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!
We have an explanation for all 2 xkcd comics, and only 6 (0%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!

Latest comic

Go to this comic explanation

Chasing
Certain hybrid events can only happen in certain locations where all the conditions are present; chasers flock to the area in and around Kansas known as tumbleweed-colliding-with-possum alley.
Title text: Certain hybrid events can only happen in certain locations where all the conditions are present; chasers flock to the area in and around Kansas known as tumbleweed-colliding-with-possum alley.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by an exciting BOT on the run - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.

This comic is a scatter plot comparing how exciting it is to see various things with how possible it is to chase those things using a convoy of coordinated vehicles.

The least chasable are stationary places like the Grand Canyon or International Date Line. It makes no sense to chase them because they don't move around, you just go to their known locations. At the other end of the chasability spectrum are animals that move around rapidly, and fleeting astronomical and atmospherical phenomena like clouds, meteors, and aurora. However, some of these are difficult to chase because they're small and hard to detect from a moving vehicle, e.g. gnats.

Entity Explanation
The Grand Canyon Stationary place in Arizona. It's the largest canyon in the US (but not the world). It's very beautiful due to its depth and the color changes from different geological strata. So it's exciting to see and one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country.
Niagara Falls Stationary place on the border of US and Canada, between the state of New York and the province of Ontario. The waterfall is the largest in North America by width and water volume, making it very beautiful to watch.
Tourist attractions Other stationary places that attract many tourists (e.g. national parks, monuments, and historic places)
Tourist traps Stationary places that market themselves as tourist attractions, but don't really have much to offer and exist mainly to sell food and souvenirs.
Sand traps Pits of sand in golf courses. If your golf ball lands in one, it's more difficult to hit it out to the grassy portions (fairways or greens), which is why it's a "trap".
The International Date Line Jagged conceptual line running from the North to South poles around 180 degrees of longitude, used to separate the time zones that start and end each day. There's nothing to actually see at these locations, and it is intentionally mostly in oceans.
Meteors Also called "shooting stars". These are fleeting streaks of light that are visible when bits of rock or dust enter the atmosphere and burn up. These are generally rare, making them exciting to see, but there are meteor showers when many are visible due to the Earth passing through a large cloud of dust (usually the remnants of a comet). To astronomy buffs, these can be like natural fireworks shows. Because each meteor streak lasts for a fraction of a second, it's not generally possible to chase them, although if the rock is large enough it may survive to the ground and become a meteorite, which chasers may be able to find by tracking its path through the sky.
Rainbows A visual effect that occurs when sunlight is refracted by water droplets in the air, spreading the light into a spectrum of different colors.
Comets Comets are chunks of rock and ice that orbit the sun, usually in highly eccentric orbits that take them from the inner Solar System to the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud at the extreme outskirts of the Solar System. Few of them are visible to the naked eye. They're exciting to see because they're rare, and one of the few astronomical objects that looks like more than just a tiny dot because there's a glowing "tail". While they're moving very rapidly through the Solar System, from the Earth they don't appear to move much faster than planets. So there's no need to chase them; when near the Earth, it will be visible from much of the planet for days or weeks.
Sunsets Disappearance of the Sun below the horizon, should happen usually once every 24 hours (except close to the poles). Depending on weather conditions, they can sometimes be very pretty.
The Moon Earth's only natural satellite with a predictable orbit. Only 12 people (the Apollo astronauts) have actually visited it in person; the rest of us see it from about 250,000 miles away. Weather permitting, it's visible for all or part of most nights. It doesn't move quickly in the sky, so little chasing is necessary.
Unusual clouds
Regular clouds
Fog Atmospheric condition where water droplets are very dense near the Earth's surface, resulting in a visible haze. Very few people will chase fog.[citation needed]
Rain Water droplets falling from clouds. In most of the world, this is a pretty common occurrence. Unless the volume is extremely high, there's rarely much excitement due to them, but extreme cases may cause flooding that can be dangerous. The only people who typically chase them are weather reporters.
Aurora Impressive light displays that result from excitement of the Earth's magnetosphere by charged particles in the solar wind. These are generally only visible in high latitudes, so most people do not live where they're visible. Their visibility can be tracked and forecasted via monitoring of solar wind output from the sun, and particularly intense episodes can be predicted (as well as locations for viewing) on the basis of the solar cycle and solar flare activity. The release of this comic happens to coincide with the strongest geomagnetic storm warning forecasted by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 20 years [1].
Your favorite band's shows Musical acts often plan "tours", where they go around the country (or world) putting on shows every few days. Extreme fans with time on their hands may "chase" them by going to a series of their shows. Since the tour dates are planned and publicized well in advance, this is relatively easy.
Rare birds Many birders will "twitch" to see rare birds, and this requires a fair amount of checking location, behavior, etc. Also, rare birds tend to be exciting to see.
Regular birds These are easier to see than rare birds.[citation needed]
Hot air balloons
Radiosondes Small instruments carried in weather balloons to gather and transmit atmospheric parameters. There's not much to see in them, but they're easy to track with a proper receiver.
Neighborhood possums "possum" is a common term for Virginia opossums, the only species of opossum found in North America. In urban areas they will get into human garbage, and may carry diseases, so many may consider them pests and hunt them. A coordinate group of hunters can track them.
Regular balloons Both children and adults accidentally let go of balloons, and will attempt to chase after it to retrieve it.
Ice cream trucks Small vans that sell ice cream. They're easy to chase because they often play music and/or ring a loud bell so customers will know they're coming. Young "chasers" also often scream loudly when they hear once coming, so others (particularly a parent or caregiver who is needed to provide the money) nearby will be aware.
Gnats Nobody wants to track down gnats, but people could theoretically use advanced instruments to do so.
Tumbleweeds A roughly spherical portion of certain plants that breaks off from its roots and rolls along the ground, propelled by winds. Most people don't find them very interesting to look at. They don't usually travel very quickly, so it would be possible to chase them if you were so inclined (they may be of interest to plant biologists and ecologists).
Speed traps A section of a road where police often wait for passing drivers who are exceeding the speed limit, so they can catch them and issue speeding tickets. Frequent drivers, especially truck drivers, have developed systems to warn each other of these locations (citizens band radios were once the most popular method, now this can be done using mobile phone using services like Waze).
Other chasers

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
[An X Y axis graph]
[Y axis label:]
Exciting to see in person
[X axis label:]
Possible to chase in a convoy of vehicles coordinating over radio and using instruments and data to find optimal viewing locations?
[X and Y axis values (from bottom left):]
No
Yes
[Top left quarter:]
The Grand Canyon
Meteors
Rainbow
Comets
Niagara Falls
Sunsets
The Moon
Tourist attractions
Unusual clouds
[Top right quarter:]
Aurora
Tornadoes
Whales
Your favorite band's shows
Icebergs
Rare birds
Hot air balloons
[Bottom left quarter:]
Tourist traps
Regular clouds
Sand traps
Fog
Rain
The International Date Line
Gnats
[Bottom right quarter:]
Regular birds
Radiosondes
Neighborhood possums
Regular balloons
Ice cream trucks
Tumbleweeds
Speed traps
Other chasers


Is this out of date? Clicking here will fix that.

New here?

Last 7 days (Top 10)

Lots of people contribute to make this wiki a success. Many of the recent contributors, listed above, have just joined. You can do it too! Create your account here.

You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at explain xkcd. Feel free to sign up for an account and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for comics, characters, themes and everything in between. If it is referenced in an xkcd web comic, it should be here.

  • There are incomplete explanations listed here. Feel free to help out by expanding them!
  • We sell advertising space to pay for our server costs. To learn more, go here.

Rules

Don't be a jerk.

There are a lot of comics that don't have set in stone explanations; feel free to put multiple interpretations in the wiki page for each comic.

If you want to talk about a specific comic, use its discussion page.

Please only submit material directly related to (and helping everyone better understand) xkcd... and of course only submit material that can legally be posted (and freely edited). Off-topic or other inappropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked.

If you need assistance from an admin, post a message to the Admin requests board.