3153: Hot Water Balloon
| Hot Water Balloon |
 Title text: Despite a reputation for safety, the temperatures and surprisingly high pressures make them even more dangerous than the air kind, but the NTSB refuses to investigate accidents because they insist there is no 'transportation' involved. |
Explanation[edit]
Hot air balloons are an inconvenient and dangerous form of transport in which riders float into the sky in a basket suspended from a large balloon filled with hot air. Because of their impracticality and their quiet isolation from the world below, they are typically used as a leisure activity, and have gained a reputation as a romantic way to spend time together. Water balloons are handheld balloons that have been partially filled with water and are often used as projectiles in water balloon fights, which some may find a fun activity on a hot summer day. Hot water bottles are flexible containers intended to be filled with hot water in order to provide localized warmth. This comic combines all three to create a 'vehicle' consisting of a basket attached to a large balloon of heated water. Since liquid water, even hot water, is heavier than air, this balloon would not provide lift.
The title text clarifies that the hot water balloon is not just useless, but actually dangerous. Because of the size of the container and the weight of water (one kilogram per litre, or 8.3454 pounds per gallon), this water is not only hot but also under a surprising amount of pressure.
Despite the danger, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has chosen not to get involved, because the hot water balloon does not qualify as transportation and they are the National Transportation Safety Board. This title text is similar to that of 3131: Cesium which also expressed a goal of causing an agency to investigate outside their usual purview. If a hot water balloon were to exist in reality and if it were to cause injury, the proper body to report this to in the United States would be the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), under criteria for Occupational Exposure to Heat and Hot Environments.
This comic could have been inspired by the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, which was being held in New Mexico during the time of posting.
Transcript[edit]
- [A large water balloon is sitting on the ground, with cords connected to a basket nearby with Cueball and Megan inside. The water balloon's color patterns are like a hot air balloon's. Ponytail is poking the balloon with a finger, and a squirrel is on the ground looking at the basket.]
- [There are squiggly heat lines (indotherms) emanating from the balloon, as well as movement lines (agitrons) above the balloon. Above them it says:]
- bloop bloop
- [Caption below panel:]
- Hot water balloon rides turn out to be significantly less romantic than the air kind.
Discussion
First time making the first draft, so hopefully I did a decent job. KelOfTheStars! (talk) 21:01, 10 October 2025 (UTC)
I know they're friends and sometimes spend time chatting in fields or hiking together, but has it ever been implied that Cueball and Megan are a romantic couple before? Barmar (talk) 21:38, 10 October 2025 (UTC)
- Cueball and Megan have been stand-ins for Randall and his wife before, specifically during the cancer comics. Does that count? 199.247.247.123 22:18, 10 October 2025 (UTC)
How hot is the water? 2603:800C:1200:596A:67A8:C96F:56F6:2AE6 00:39, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
Water has a lower molar mass than air. So long as it's hot enough to actually boil the water, it might work better. Of course, it will also take a lot of energy to boil the water. And you'd need it significantly hotter than traditional hot air. DanielLC (talk) 01:56, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
- If you heat air to the temperature at which water remains a vapor, it's going to give enormous lift, even if there is nitrogen in it. Nitpicking (talk) 12:41, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
NTSB? What NTSB?!? 2605:59C8:160:DB08:980B:60EB:D7DF:1DC0 04:07, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
- I like to imagine XKCD takes place in a world that uses up their collective insanity on innocuous things like a hot water balloon instead of what we use it for. 209.52.88.167 18:23, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
- I imagine the Germans in 1934 said similar things about their petty amusements. Those who were still alive in 1945 had a chance to reflect on their sentiments. Any who remain alive in 2025 have a chance to reflect on how their experiences have taught us exactly nothing. 205.175.118.102 23:08, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
Far more romantic if you think of the balloon as a giant water-bed... 203.123.67.147 (talk) 09:31, 11 October 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
I am imagining a submersible craft that flies through the ocean currents like a hot air balloon floats through air. A large bag of warm water with a bathysphere suspended beneath it, perhaps with some kind of flame apparatus between the two to heat the water in the bag, even though that sounds impractical. JohnHawkinson (talk) 22:55, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
The Hot Water Bottle comment feels a bit superfluous? If we started listing things that remind any of us of other things it will be a long list indeed. 2A0E:1D47:D400:6000:7967:640C:CD3A:2A84 07:23, 13 October 2025 (UTC)
- Agreed. If anything, the 'hot water balloon' is more reminiscent of a water bed than a hot water bottle (which could, in some cases, provide a romantic ride...). 82.13.184.33 09:02, 13 October 2025 (UTC)
- I think hot water bottles are germane because they are so very similar to hot water balloons, both in name and in form. But it's true that the comic really doesn't play with any of their other qualities. It also doesn't play with any of the other qualities of water balloons either, so if we take out hot water bottles then I'd suggest we also take out water balloons and have the comic simply be about hot air balloons that have been filled with a common hot substance that isn't air.
- Water beds are just on the other side of the germane/non-germane line to me. The image does look like a water bed, and the word "romantic" does go well with the concept of beds, but there is nobody lying on top of the hot water balloon and the concept of romance is adequately explained by the fact that hot air balloon rides are commonly considered romantic. Jkshapiro (talk) 01:17, 9 October 2026 (UTC)
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