Editing Talk:547: Simple

This is possibly even another take by xkcd at conspiracy theories such as the one in [[966]] 
:In this comic too he presents conspiracy theories against each other, the black hole with the guidance system.

The fact that the reference of something bad happening is to the Black hole theories comes from the fact that the comic was drawn the same time the theories were most predominant.
:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_of_high_energy_particle_collision_experiments#Micro_black_holes [[User:Mr Andersom|Mr Andersom]] ([[User talk:Mr Andersom|talk]]) 13:40, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

I ''don't'' think there's a joke here regarding "particle accelerators not having a guidance system" (paraphrasing the first paragraph of explanation, currently).  Maybe there's a confusion about the phrase "the particle accelerator's tertiary F.E.L. Guidance System"?  The FEL (Free Electron Laser, IIRC) itself is a tunable lasing 'cavity' for electrons that is magnetic, not optical, in nature, but (again, IIRC) is supplied with electrons at relativistic speeds by way of a particle accelerator (depending on which FEL, sometimes dedicated to the FEL and sometimes "from a main multipurpose ring", such as the LHC might be).  Particle acceleration requires that the particles ''being'' accelerated be constrained within the ring (when being brung up to speed or collided within the ring's in-line experiment zones) or redirected out of the ring (or allowed to depart it, but still in a controlled manner) if being used for an out-of-ring experiment.  It's true that particles being smashed are thrown together rather haphazardly (when compared, say, with collisions at the scale of vehicle crash tests), but there's actually quite a lot of sophisticated detection equipment used to work out the path of the particles so that ''guidance'' can be applied by magnetic fields (separately from the 'corner turning' ones and/or including those).  I think I would consider such systems (including the ones that 'extract' particles for use in off-ring experiments) worthy of the title "guidance systems", albeit external to the particle as opposed to on-board like on a smart missile...  And so if (and I haven't checked, so colour me wrong if I turn out to be so) the complex has at least three FELs attached, it's reasonable to assume that the third of these (hierarchically speaking) has, like its brethren, a particle guidance system involved at some point to ensure the electron supply is suitably contained and piped into it...  Or it refers to the third of (at least three) beam-guiding systems for the ''lone'' FEL.  Maybe even this means something active within the magnetic "wiggler" assembly of the FEL itself, or even (if this is what they do) on the output to the FEL leading ''into'' the LHC itself...  But whichever it is, it the relevent FEL Guidance System surely exists in some form or other.

...TL;DR; - I'm pretty much sure the joke is more of an "[[Up_Goer_Five|Up-goer 5]]" nature... I also don't see any reference to Black Holes/conspiracy theories...  It's just doing an "If this part is broken, you will not <strike>go to space</strike> collide any particles today" thing, surely? [[Special:Contributions/31.111.87.233|31.111.87.233]] 22:05, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

::Sorry, but I have no time to read this comment. Keep short! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:18, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
::I agree with 31.111.87.233.  There's nothing about conspiracy theories, even indirectly.  I've removed that part.  I also don't see anything criticizing Simple English Wikipedia, or two versions.  To the contrary, he praises it (albeit somewhat exaggeratedly) in the title text.  I left it for now, though. [[User:Mattflaschen|Mattflaschen]] ([[User talk:Mattflaschen|talk]]) 08:44, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

There is a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. Since there is clearly one Cueball that is the protagonist and do most of the "talking" he should probably be listed as Cueball. Just made a note that the other guys also looks like Cueball. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:19, 7 June 2015 (UTC)

Maybe it would be worth adding a reference to Randall's new book "Thing Explainer", which follows the same concept.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.229|162.158.114.229]] 00:12, 6 December 2015 (UTC)
:Nah, it's fine without it, since the comic doesn't directly refer to it (for obvious reasons) and because it's not based on the concept of the limited vocabulary that Thing Explainer and Up Goer Five, it's just simplistic. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 02:40, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I looked at the Simple English Wikipedia and there's actually quite a lot of math in it. Maybe the 1st step of the solution would be to add all that stuff to the top of the regular wikipedia pages and shove all the heavy abstraction further down the page. It's advantageous for the 'average' reader to encounter something legible to them first, and it might remind the math professors how to talk to the less-initiated. A good example: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_theory 
- savetheoxygen.org
@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 I looked at the Simple English Wikipedia and there's actually quite a lot of math in it. Maybe the 1st step of the solution would be to add all that stuff to the top of the regular wikipedia pages and shove all the heavy abstraction further down the page. It's advantageous for the 'average' reader to encounter something legible to them first, and it might remind the math professors how to talk to the less-initiated. A good example: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_theory
 - savetheoxygen.org
-:This is your first contribution, and I'm not sure what the domain-name/username thing is abou, but I'll give you benefit of the doubt without actually seeing where I'd land if I tried it... But just FYI, use <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> to sign your (Talk/Discussion) edits. If you're serious about sending people off to another place, put something in your User: pages and/or adjust your signature.
-:Your comment is fairly good, BTW, but I have nothing to add. I just can't create the User:Talk page to mention all this there, so maybe you'll eventually see this instead. Welcome to the site, if you're still wishing to be active and helpfully contributing. (I'm just a random IP guy, my opinions/etc are my own. But if we argue about anything here it's more about grammar/relativity/what-a-given-drawn-line-represents than personality or first impressions!) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 12:57, 2 March 2022 (UTC)