explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2865: The Wrong Stuff

2023-12-10T17:04:33Z

108.162.216.192: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2865
| date = December 8, 2023
| title = The Wrong Stuff
| image = the_wrong_stuff_2x.png
| imagesize = 351x513px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The phantom found Edward Everett Hale a century too early; by the time we invented satellites, the specifics of his 'brick moon' proposal were dismissed as science fiction.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TRAIN MADE OF 1977 SOVIET URANIUM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Multiple times in history, there have been incidents where companies, governments, and engineers have proposed or developed plans for large vehicles composed of unconventional materials. One example is {{w|Project Habakkuk}} (mentioned in the comic), an aircraft carrier which was to be composed of pykrete, a mixture of wood pulp and ice. The comic imagines that all of these proposals are linked together by a single "Material Phantom," a ghost which haunts engineers and convinces them to design giant vehicles made of impractical materials.

The three "wrong material vehicles" mentioned in the comic are:

*{{w|The Spruce Goose}} - An actual {{w|flying boat}} made, in spite of its name, almost entirely out of {{w|birch}} wood. Most modern planes are constructed out of aluminum, some other metal/alloy or (partially) out of carbon / glass fibre composites (CFRC / GFRC). Notably, despite being built out of the "wrong" material (due to wartime restrictions on aluminum usage, the use of birch wood was the next best option) the plane did make a single 26-second flight in 1947 before production halted due to the end of the war. The plane is currently on display at the {{w|Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum}} in {{w|McMinnville, Oregon}}, {{w|United States}}. More notably, other wooden aircraft of that era, such as the {{w|De_Havilland_Mosquito|De Havilland Mosquito}}, were wildly successful, strongly indicating that the Goose's problem was not that it was made of wood. Many early planes made use of wood in their construction, and the skills and knowledge to build an airframe of that kind were still readily available in that era, in a way that they might not be today.
*{{w|Project Habakkuk}} - A proposed aircraft carrier whose hull was to be made out of pykrete (a mixture of wood pulp and ice). It would have had several advantages had it been built when it was supposed to be (1943): it would have been able to guard the vital wartime North Atlantic supply routes between the USA and United Kingdom, as it would have been a base for fighter and reconnaissance missions; it would have been able to be easily camouflaged as an innocuous iceberg, and it was both stronger than steel (which the Mythbusters proved in a 2008 episode) and did not require voids between the structural elements in order to be buoyant (so could absorb a lot of damage and cannot spring leaks). The only reason it was never fully built was because it wasn't much cheaper than traditional steel-alloy hulls, from which ships continue to be built today, given that large quantities of metal were still required for the refrigeration units (although the abandoned prototype itself lasted for several years before it finally melted). There were also now airfields available to use in various Atlantic islands that could close the air-gap in coverage without having to (effectively) build their own floating island from scratch.
*{{w|Trojan Horse}} - A mythological, giant wooden horse, supposedly used by {{w|Ancient Greece|the Greeks}} to invade the city of {{w|Troy}}. Actual horses are composed, like any other animal, out of meat, bone, and other tissues and bodily fluids.{{citation needed}} In addition, the interior of the Trojan Horse was composed of Greek warriors rather than horse innards.

The title text references {{w|Edward Everett Hale|Edward Everett Hale's}} science fiction novella ''{{w|The Brick Moon}},'' the first known depiction of an artificial satellite and a scientifically-accurate GPS system in fiction. The novella is, of course, just a sci-fi story,{{cn}} but the title text states that Hale was actually approached by the Material Phantom, and the novella was a serious proposal for a moon made out of bricks.

The title "the Wrong Stuff" is a play on {{w|The Right Stuff}}, a book/movie/TV series about the pilots engaged in U.S. postwar research with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft and the astronauts of {{w|Project Mercury}}. In that title, "the right stuff" refers to the figurative material that these men were made of which gave them the bravery to embark on these missions.

==Trivia==
This comic was uploaded with the "the" in "the Wrong Stuff" being entirely lowercase, breaking the normal title case used for XKCD comic titles. Possibly another word was initially intended to come before "the", in which case lowercasing "the" would be correct. xkcd displays lowercase letters in titles with {{w|small caps}}, making the lowercase "the" less obvious than it is in the true lowercase used on explainxkcd.

However, it's worth noting that the comic title has since been changed to "The Wrong Stuff," with "the" capitalized as per standard title case.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A ghost is approaching Cueball in a workshop. They are surrounded by shop equipment, such as a table with a press on it, and a small pile of what appears to be lumber. Cueball is backing away from the ghost, holding his hands up defensively.]
:Ghost: oooOOOOOOoooo
:[The "ooooo"s of the ghost are written in wavy letters of varying sizes]
:Ghost: ''Build a spaceship out of bricks!''
:Ghost: oooooOOOOOOOOoo
:Cueball: No! Go away!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The Spruce Goose, the Project Habakkuk Ice Ship, and the Trojan Horse were all work of the Material Phantom, a ghost that wanders the Earth convincing engineers to make giant vehicles out of the wrong stuff.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Engineering]]

Talk:1503: Squirrel Plan

2015-03-30T01:12:27Z

108.162.216.192:

Reminds me of the Ice Age squirrel [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:02, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
:Also reminiscent of the star wars scene in Kingmen [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 06:16, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
::Um ya, like why didn't those balloons have a pressure release valve instead of blowing up? A relatively cheap device could have aided that character immensely.[[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 12:47, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
:::Clunky prototype? (And/or they want the maximum amount of elevation. Any presseure release valve would give a safe(r) ceiling of operation lower than the "just before the pop" one they theoretically have, as is. It's still a design-flaw, though, if there's no effective warning of balloon failure, and you're now left swinging on the other, on-the-edge-of-failing, one. And now with only half the lift. Yeah, clunky. Yeah, I've thought about this a little, already.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.192|141.101.98.192]] 13:06, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
::::Though as soon as the first balloon popped you'd start loosing altitude - due to half of your lift disappearing. So the question comes up - '''how did the second balloon pop'''? ;) And as a side note - if you catch the pan around the control room right after our hero dispatches the nerd villain, you'll see a corpse with a head. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:27, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
:::::'''Obviously there was a squirrel...''' ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.192|141.101.98.192]] 21:40, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
I think the squirrels are just a vehicle for the joke, which is poking fun at "obvious" conclusions based on personal beliefs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 06:48, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
:Absolutely - the current first line of explanation fails, as squirrels being stupid is not a joke. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.49|141.101.99.49]] 07:18, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
"...due to the expansion of the acorns inside." I love you guys. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.89|141.101.104.89]] 07:57, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
: We know [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.39|108.162.216.39]] 08:54, 25 March 2015 (UTC)BK201

This comic puts me in mind of the simplistic plot points and devices of a lot of modern scifi movies ... poking fun at them the same way as "Scorcher" from Tropic Thunder does ...--[[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.38|198.41.239.38]] 09:30, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

I'd say the squirrels are a stand-in for ancient humans. Their understanding of the world and what is obvious reflects their pre-scientific state of knowledge. Their interests as squirrels have affected their conclusions, just as humans have projected their interests on what they interpret the sun to be (source of acorns instead of a sun god). I'm pretty sure the "halfway to the sun" part refers to a point where they think they're halfway but probably aren't even close to leaving the atmosphere, drawing parallels again to ancient human assumptions (the sun and moon are small orbs that are just high in the sky). {{unsigned ip|108.162.225.80}}
: Alternatively, it might be referring to people assuming the sun is golden in some literal fashion. What else could the sun be made of, if it's so gloriously radiant and stuff? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.109|108.162.216.109]] 13:02, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

Agreed. Or possibly replace "ancient" with "superstitious" - or even nothing at all for that matter to apply to humans in general - and I'll agree with you even more. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.70|141.101.80.70]] 09:47, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

I think it's also worth mentioning that the real sun is "full of" hydrogen and helium. The same is true for real squirrel lifting balloons.{{unsigned ip|108.162.230.161}}

It's possible that the comic is a commentary on the human condition, constantly reaching out for some grand goal, that is both unreachable, and even if reached is shown to be far less grand then previously thought. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.237|108.162.210.237]] 15:26, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

I don't think the squirrel in the picture is actually halfway to the sun. I think the title text is a hypothetical future event, and that the description is overthinking things. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.106|108.162.216.106]] 16:50, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

Is it a possibility that the squirrels represent the government or similar entity? {{unsigned|Mikemk}}

Not quite sure i like the explanation about acorns obviously not being able to contribute to flying. Not because i think they can, but because the exact same argument could be used for a jet engine on a plane as those are also heavy. {{unsigned ip|141.101.75.53}}
: maybe the acorns are pushing on the quantum vacuum virtual plasma? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.18|108.162.241.18]] 23:34, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

I seriously suspect this has something to do with [[1356: Orbital Mechanics]] [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.185|173.245.56.185]] 10:06, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

I think that the balloon of the title text is a reference to earth herself : the analogy must be natural to a squirrel believing the sun is an accorn field... {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.250}}

I am fairly sure this comic is to mock humanity's tendency to assume what they first think of to be fact. This could also be about religion but I probably shouldn't mention that. Too many fights. [[User:YourLifeisaLie|The Goyim speaks]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 14:18, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

I think Randall's squirrels are cute. A Montrealer [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.191|173.245.52.191]] 00:35, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Dropping squirrel research I haven't found. Dropping cats I found here: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RtWbpyjJqrU And freefalling astronauts, too! http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VJcno_XL4RU [[User:NoniMausa|NoniMausa]] ([[User talk:NoniMausa|talk]]) 12:12, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

What scene in Kingsman: TSS is this similar to? I've seen the movie but durned if I can recall anything remotely like this comic happening in it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]]

Talk:1501: Mysteries

2015-03-23T14:28:30Z

108.162.216.192:

Here's a list of wikipedia links I compiled that will be useful for anyone wanting to update this page. http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/2zog5d/xkcd_1501_mysteries/cpktray {{unsigned ip|‎141.101.106.155}}

And I've got a solar eclipse to see (explainable, but weird!) but I started to compile things. Haven't got any links sorted yet, and percentages are (badly) done by eye. If someone does it better, ignore it.


[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 09:33, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

:(Whoops, pasted the flatfile format version by accident, in my rush, rather than the more Wikifriendly one that I discarded. Commenting it out until/unless I redo it. But you should still be able to see the details via the Talk Edit pages if you're bothered. Oh, and there was really too much cloud to see the eclipse for what it was. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 10:29, 20 March 2015 (UTC))

::I dropped the image into our CAD system and plotted the point co-ordinates. I've filled in the resulting percentages, which should be somewhere about right with a little rounding. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 10:35, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

:::Exactly right. (Although I didn't read the zero/zero crossing point is supposed to be maybe 50% on both scales, but instead ±zero. Still, doesn't matter. And perhaps displays/sorts better.) And looks like I don't need to recover my formatted notes after all. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 11:19, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.176|199.27.128.176]] 09:49, 20 March 2015 (UTC) XKCD has explained the Voynich Manuscript before: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/593:_Voynich_Manuscript

:XKCD has also 'explained' DB Cooper before ([[1400: D.B. Cooper]]) if that is worth mentioning. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.167|108.162.250.167]] 12:06, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

I have to wonder if Randall has ever seen http://keithledgerwood.com/post/79838944823/did-malaysian-airlines-370-disappear-using and if so, whether he simply doesn't believe it. Not to sabotage his 100%-100% example if he wants to keep it there, but I'd put it at only 50% weird and 10% unexplainable. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.27|199.27.133.27]] 14:02, 20 March 2015 (UTC)
: Oh lawdy, the tinfoil hat brigade has arrived. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.202|173.245.56.202]]

;Carly Simon

The Carly Simon explanation includes the text "This sets up a paradox in which the song is and isn't about the vain person." This isn't correct. The song is definitely about the person. Carly is thus asserting that the subject's vanity will lead him to a correct interpretation of the song. Going to change the explanation. [[User:EverVigilant|EverVigilant]] ([[User talk:EverVigilant|talk]]) 14:51, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

I don't see why this is on Randall's chart. The Wikipedia article is all the explanation the world needs. And Warren Beatty's reaction to the song simply seals it for me. No Big Deal. Move On. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 18:41, 20 March 2015 (UTC)''

;WOW signal

It now says "This is the strongest evidence to date of extraterrestrial radio signals.", which is technically incorrect. We observe radio signals from outer space all the time, they originate from young stars, Big Bang, active galaxies, and so on. This should probably be rephrased to something about extraterrestrial intelligence, but I'm not sure if it deserves to be called "evidence". [[User:Jolindbe|Jolindbe]] ([[User talk:Jolindbe|talk]]) 16:18, 20 March 2015 (UTC)
:Regarding the "evidence" bit, I'd go so far as to say that it's a single signal that can't actually be tied down (even in the light of further study) to: a) receiver error/interference; b) terrestrial(/orbital) origin; c) natural universal processes. (In the latter case, especially, c.f. Pulsars, which were ''tentatively'' blamed on "Little Green Men" at first, but are now understood for what they are.) Maybe if we'd have had some more WOWs (or longer to listen to the one that we had) we could have analysed it, but it remains a mystery because neither is true. Pretty much everything else has been explained as "not evidence for aliens" (definitively, or on the balance of probability there's a better working theory that it's not) leaving this as... an anomoly. Not 'evidence', but not ''explained'', either. For now! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.192|141.101.98.192]] 20:45, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
:I agree with Jolindbe. Extraterrestrial only means "not of terrestrial origin," which applies to all natural radio sources, as well as extraterrestrial intelligence. It's too broad a phrase to be used in this way. A better description might be "This radio signal is the strongest candidate to date as evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 14:25, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

;Dyatlov Pass Incident

Um, Wikipedia regards avalanche as most plausible explanation of the Dyatlov Pass incident, and it appears to be most widespread and down-to-earth explanation that doesn't involve the supernatural or secret soviet weapons test, things like that. Shouldn't we include mention of the avalance then, perhaps? I mean, with such high "explainability" rating it's pretty clear that Randall probably assumes avalanche, since if he assumed other, less widespread theory he probably would downgrade the "explainability" to account for the fact that it's more disputed version. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.222|141.101.89.222]] 18:13, 20 March 2015 (UTC)
:The Key points of the accident were: hypothermia, fatal injuries from strong force, tent that ripped from within, traces of wandering, weird tan, lost tongue, lack of clothing. The most scientific and easiest explanation I know was: Avalanche that accounts for fatal injuries; Snow glare that accounts for weird tan; paradoxical undressing and hypothermia that accounts for lack of clothing and signs of wandering; and Scavenging animals that accounts for the lost tongue and ripped tent. [[User:Kagakujinjya|Kagakujinjya]] ([[User talk:Kagakujinjya|talk]]) 02:54, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

Actually Wikipedia really seems to suggest secret USSR military tests both parachute mines and nuclear missile related. Beyond being between two test facilities, the soviet conspiracy would imply secret operations, if it were just an avalanche, the USSR wouldn't have covered details up. It's not that extreme to believe the USSR did some secret testing, because it's more or less fact. Therefore, the idea secret testing was involved isn't *that* strange or unreasonable. Occam's Razor, given the difficulty for some of those things, like the tent being torn from the inside out, or the tan.
Also ball lightning is worth mentioning in your quest for not Secret Soviet test or supernatural in nature.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.26|173.245.55.26]] 04:53, 22 March 2015 (UTC)
:Though I can't say anything about supernatural nature of the incident because I don't have proof,(well, I don't have any proof at all because the incident was happened in 1959) I think I can give you an argument about the weapon test and the cover up. Occam's Razor. I mean, weapon test normally done in secured military area, not out in public area. All the more reason if you want to test a secret weapon. Basically, there's no point of doing weapon test there. Furthermore, 1959 was a time when government very sensitive about data, I'd say that they would even declare the recipe of a pie as a national secret. And since we probably read the same source that is Wikipedia, I don't know where they suggest the weapon test theory since the first sentence under the subtitle 'theories' unambiguously say that "avalanche damage is considered one of the more plausible explanation for this incident". Then, about the ball of lightning and (if I may) radioactivity, since I'm pretty sure that none of that stuff turns up in the original documents from the incident, I'll argue that those were added later by people who just can't resist making things spookier than the incident actually are. [[User:Kagakujinjya|Kagakujinjya]] ([[User talk:Kagakujinjya|talk]]) 06:53, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

;Off the chart up and to the right

How the Universe came into existence (the physics and math behind "Why is there something rather than nothing?") is far weirder with less of an explanation than anything on Randall's chart – scientists' claims, which redefine "nothing," notwithstanding. And then how life started and evolved (the chemistry and biology – and quantum physics? – at the transition point between inanimate amino acids and cells and the subsequent arrival of ''homo sapiens'') is almost as strange as the Big Bang. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 18:34, 20 March 2015 (UTC)''
:Yep. And how to make a star. And how to make a planet. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 11:19, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
::Hydrogen + Time [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 14:28, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

;Inaccurate explainability rating

I've read the Russian wikipedia article on Dyatlov Pass Incident and not only it's incredibly weird (much more details than condensed English article), but also no plausible explanation is provided that would account for all the incredibly weird stuff going on. I have no idea how that could be awarded 96% explainability.

UVB-76, on the other hand, is a pretty easy to explain as one-time-pad encrypted military broadcast, with buzzing to occupy the frequency and discourage others from using it. How is that just 23% explainable, I have no idea. That's what I've found in Russian sources, anyway.

Also, the Toynbee Tiles mystery is pretty much solved if you trust "Duerr, Justin. Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles" as a source.

There are even more inconsistencies pointed out above. At first I've suspected that the scale is accidentally inverted, but D.B. Cooper story is pretty poorly explained, so it's more like the whole thing is just randomly messed up.
--[[User:Shnatsel|Shnatsel]] ([[User talk:Shnatsel|talk]]) 19:54, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

;UVB-76

Is it seriously that hard to explain the "UVB-76" thing? I've been listening to this thing for a year now and even have explained how it works from the innards a few months back. Besides, it's not even called UVB-76, it was a mishear of UZB-76, and it's not even that callsign anymore. The callsign has changed to MDZhB and it is a marker to occupy the frequency of the "Codename Vulkan" communications channel. The way this thing works is that it is a bunch of gears that control a buzzer, when the Buzzer goes down you can hear it winding down and the repairmen screwing in some things when they come in.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.9|108.162.219.9]] 20:49, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

The Obvious: one of at least three such stations used by the Russian military(see also the pip and the squeaky wheel)
The less obvious: the purpose being either secret communication, time synchronization, measuring ionosphere changes, emergency Russian military mobilization with a dead man's switch style of constant commmunication to keep the frequency clear of other users as well as in case Moscow (or in this case Pskov [crazy side note: sister city of Roanoke, Virginia]), or something else
Unclear: other things about it
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.26|173.245.55.26]] 05:16, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

;Lost Colony

Before the Roanoke colonists left, they carved "Croatan" into a post. The Croatan were a small native tribe living on the coast, who'd had friendly relations with the colonists. They disappeared along with them. A generation or two later, a completely new tribe called the Lumbee were found living further inland, with some caucasian features and using European farming techniques. It's pretty obvious what happened. [[User:Shanek|Shanek]] ([[User talk:Shanek|talk]]) 19:20, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

; MH370

I had no idea that *'''nothing'''* of MH370 was ever found (or at least so far). Reading up on the wikipedia article makes me even more confused: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MH370_initial_search_Southeast_Asia.svg this map] shows the plane going westward basically towards india but then [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MH370_SIO_search.png this map] shows the searches *'''west of Australia'''* and going *'''down to Antartica'''*! WTF?? What the hell happened to that plane?! It's now been a *'''year'''* and *'''nothing'''* was found at all. Totally weird and unexplained. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 23:50, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

: ... and here's the explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_search_for_MH370.png. Still freaking mind-boggling if you ask me. That thing could as well be in Khazakstan for all we know. Terrifying. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 00:02, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

; sort order

The arrangement of entries in the table seemed random to me. I moved them around so the weirdest entries are at the beginning and the most easily explained are at the end. Thus the joke entry is last, as a punch line. [[User:Pesthouse|Pesthouse]] ([[User talk:Pesthouse|talk]]) 01:18, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

; The Taman Shud Case

This is one of the weirdest mysteries I've come across. I'd be surprised if Randall hasn't heard of it, though. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case Wikipedia]. [[User:Mark314159|Mark314159]] ([[User talk:Mark314159|talk]]) 01:22, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1501: Mysteries

2015-03-23T14:25:56Z

108.162.216.192: Weighing in on the "Wow!" signal.

Here's a list of wikipedia links I compiled that will be useful for anyone wanting to update this page. http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/2zog5d/xkcd_1501_mysteries/cpktray {{unsigned ip|‎141.101.106.155}}

And I've got a solar eclipse to see (explainable, but weird!) but I started to compile things. Haven't got any links sorted yet, and percentages are (badly) done by eye. If someone does it better, ignore it.


[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 09:33, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

:(Whoops, pasted the flatfile format version by accident, in my rush, rather than the more Wikifriendly one that I discarded. Commenting it out until/unless I redo it. But you should still be able to see the details via the Talk Edit pages if you're bothered. Oh, and there was really too much cloud to see the eclipse for what it was. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 10:29, 20 March 2015 (UTC))

::I dropped the image into our CAD system and plotted the point co-ordinates. I've filled in the resulting percentages, which should be somewhere about right with a little rounding. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 10:35, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

:::Exactly right. (Although I didn't read the zero/zero crossing point is supposed to be maybe 50% on both scales, but instead ±zero. Still, doesn't matter. And perhaps displays/sorts better.) And looks like I don't need to recover my formatted notes after all. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 11:19, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.176|199.27.128.176]] 09:49, 20 March 2015 (UTC) XKCD has explained the Voynich Manuscript before: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/593:_Voynich_Manuscript

:XKCD has also 'explained' DB Cooper before ([[1400: D.B. Cooper]]) if that is worth mentioning. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.167|108.162.250.167]] 12:06, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

I have to wonder if Randall has ever seen http://keithledgerwood.com/post/79838944823/did-malaysian-airlines-370-disappear-using and if so, whether he simply doesn't believe it. Not to sabotage his 100%-100% example if he wants to keep it there, but I'd put it at only 50% weird and 10% unexplainable. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.27|199.27.133.27]] 14:02, 20 March 2015 (UTC)
: Oh lawdy, the tinfoil hat brigade has arrived. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.202|173.245.56.202]]

;Carly Simon

The Carly Simon explanation includes the text "This sets up a paradox in which the song is and isn't about the vain person." This isn't correct. The song is definitely about the person. Carly is thus asserting that the subject's vanity will lead him to a correct interpretation of the song. Going to change the explanation. [[User:EverVigilant|EverVigilant]] ([[User talk:EverVigilant|talk]]) 14:51, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

I don't see why this is on Randall's chart. The Wikipedia article is all the explanation the world needs. And Warren Beatty's reaction to the song simply seals it for me. No Big Deal. Move On. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 18:41, 20 March 2015 (UTC)''

;WOW signal

It now says "This is the strongest evidence to date of extraterrestrial radio signals.", which is technically incorrect. We observe radio signals from outer space all the time, they originate from young stars, Big Bang, active galaxies, and so on. This should probably be rephrased to something about extraterrestrial intelligence, but I'm not sure if it deserves to be called "evidence". [[User:Jolindbe|Jolindbe]] ([[User talk:Jolindbe|talk]]) 16:18, 20 March 2015 (UTC)
:Regarding the "evidence" bit, I'd go so far as to say that it's a single signal that can't actually be tied down (even in the light of further study) to: a) receiver error/interference; b) terrestrial(/orbital) origin; c) natural universal processes. (In the latter case, especially, c.f. Pulsars, which were ''tentatively'' blamed on "Little Green Men" at first, but are now understood for what they are.) Maybe if we'd have had some more WOWs (or longer to listen to the one that we had) we could have analysed it, but it remains a mystery because neither is true. Pretty much everything else has been explained as "not evidence for aliens" (definitively, or on the balance of probability there's a better working theory that it's not) leaving this as... an anomoly. Not 'evidence', but not ''explained'', either. For now! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.192|141.101.98.192]] 20:45, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
:I agree with Jolindbe. Extraterrestrial only means "not of terrestrial origin," which applies to all natural radio sources, as well as extraterrestrial intelligence. It's too broad a phrase to be used in this way. A better description might be "This radio signal is the strongest candidate to date as evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 14:25, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

;Dyatlov Pass Incident

Um, Wikipedia regards avalanche as most plausible explanation of the Dyatlov Pass incident, and it appears to be most widespread and down-to-earth explanation that doesn't involve the supernatural or secret soviet weapons test, things like that. Shouldn't we include mention of the avalance then, perhaps? I mean, with such high "explainability" rating it's pretty clear that Randall probably assumes avalanche, since if he assumed other, less widespread theory he probably would downgrade the "explainability" to account for the fact that it's more disputed version. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.222|141.101.89.222]] 18:13, 20 March 2015 (UTC)
:The Key points of the accident were: hypothermia, fatal injuries from strong force, tent that ripped from within, traces of wandering, weird tan, lost tongue, lack of clothing. The most scientific and easiest explanation I know was: Avalanche that accounts for fatal injuries; Snow glare that accounts for weird tan; paradoxical undressing and hypothermia that accounts for lack of clothing and signs of wandering; and Scavenging animals that accounts for the lost tongue and ripped tent. [[User:Kagakujinjya|Kagakujinjya]] ([[User talk:Kagakujinjya|talk]]) 02:54, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

Actually Wikipedia really seems to suggest secret USSR military tests both parachute mines and nuclear missile related. Beyond being between two test facilities, the soviet conspiracy would imply secret operations, if it were just an avalanche, the USSR wouldn't have covered details up. It's not that extreme to believe the USSR did some secret testing, because it's more or less fact. Therefore, the idea secret testing was involved isn't *that* strange or unreasonable. Occam's Razor, given the difficulty for some of those things, like the tent being torn from the inside out, or the tan.
Also ball lightning is worth mentioning in your quest for not Secret Soviet test or supernatural in nature.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.26|173.245.55.26]] 04:53, 22 March 2015 (UTC)
:Though I can't say anything about supernatural nature of the incident because I don't have proof,(well, I don't have any proof at all because the incident was happened in 1959) I think I can give you an argument about the weapon test and the cover up. Occam's Razor. I mean, weapon test normally done in secured military area, not out in public area. All the more reason if you want to test a secret weapon. Basically, there's no point of doing weapon test there. Furthermore, 1959 was a time when government very sensitive about data, I'd say that they would even declare the recipe of a pie as a national secret. And since we probably read the same source that is Wikipedia, I don't know where they suggest the weapon test theory since the first sentence under the subtitle 'theories' unambiguously say that "avalanche damage is considered one of the more plausible explanation for this incident". Then, about the ball of lightning and (if I may) radioactivity, since I'm pretty sure that none of that stuff turns up in the original documents from the incident, I'll argue that those were added later by people who just can't resist making things spookier than the incident actually are. [[User:Kagakujinjya|Kagakujinjya]] ([[User talk:Kagakujinjya|talk]]) 06:53, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

;Off the chart up and to the right

How the Universe came into existence (the physics and math behind "Why is there something rather than nothing?") is far weirder with less of an explanation than anything on Randall's chart – scientists' claims, which redefine "nothing," notwithstanding. And then how life started and evolved (the chemistry and biology – and quantum physics? – at the transition point between inanimate amino acids and cells and the subsequent arrival of ''homo sapiens'') is almost as strange as the Big Bang. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 18:34, 20 March 2015 (UTC)''
:Yep. And how to make a star. And how to make a planet. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 11:19, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

;Inaccurate explainability rating

I've read the Russian wikipedia article on Dyatlov Pass Incident and not only it's incredibly weird (much more details than condensed English article), but also no plausible explanation is provided that would account for all the incredibly weird stuff going on. I have no idea how that could be awarded 96% explainability.

UVB-76, on the other hand, is a pretty easy to explain as one-time-pad encrypted military broadcast, with buzzing to occupy the frequency and discourage others from using it. How is that just 23% explainable, I have no idea. That's what I've found in Russian sources, anyway.

Also, the Toynbee Tiles mystery is pretty much solved if you trust "Duerr, Justin. Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles" as a source.

There are even more inconsistencies pointed out above. At first I've suspected that the scale is accidentally inverted, but D.B. Cooper story is pretty poorly explained, so it's more like the whole thing is just randomly messed up.
--[[User:Shnatsel|Shnatsel]] ([[User talk:Shnatsel|talk]]) 19:54, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

;UVB-76

Is it seriously that hard to explain the "UVB-76" thing? I've been listening to this thing for a year now and even have explained how it works from the innards a few months back. Besides, it's not even called UVB-76, it was a mishear of UZB-76, and it's not even that callsign anymore. The callsign has changed to MDZhB and it is a marker to occupy the frequency of the "Codename Vulkan" communications channel. The way this thing works is that it is a bunch of gears that control a buzzer, when the Buzzer goes down you can hear it winding down and the repairmen screwing in some things when they come in.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.9|108.162.219.9]] 20:49, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

The Obvious: one of at least three such stations used by the Russian military(see also the pip and the squeaky wheel)
The less obvious: the purpose being either secret communication, time synchronization, measuring ionosphere changes, emergency Russian military mobilization with a dead man's switch style of constant commmunication to keep the frequency clear of other users as well as in case Moscow (or in this case Pskov [crazy side note: sister city of Roanoke, Virginia]), or something else
Unclear: other things about it
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.26|173.245.55.26]] 05:16, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

;Lost Colony

Before the Roanoke colonists left, they carved "Croatan" into a post. The Croatan were a small native tribe living on the coast, who'd had friendly relations with the colonists. They disappeared along with them. A generation or two later, a completely new tribe called the Lumbee were found living further inland, with some caucasian features and using European farming techniques. It's pretty obvious what happened. [[User:Shanek|Shanek]] ([[User talk:Shanek|talk]]) 19:20, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

; MH370

I had no idea that *'''nothing'''* of MH370 was ever found (or at least so far). Reading up on the wikipedia article makes me even more confused: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MH370_initial_search_Southeast_Asia.svg this map] shows the plane going westward basically towards india but then [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MH370_SIO_search.png this map] shows the searches *'''west of Australia'''* and going *'''down to Antartica'''*! WTF?? What the hell happened to that plane?! It's now been a *'''year'''* and *'''nothing'''* was found at all. Totally weird and unexplained. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 23:50, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

: ... and here's the explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_search_for_MH370.png. Still freaking mind-boggling if you ask me. That thing could as well be in Khazakstan for all we know. Terrifying. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 00:02, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

; sort order

The arrangement of entries in the table seemed random to me. I moved them around so the weirdest entries are at the beginning and the most easily explained are at the end. Thus the joke entry is last, as a punch line. [[User:Pesthouse|Pesthouse]] ([[User talk:Pesthouse|talk]]) 01:18, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

; The Taman Shud Case

This is one of the weirdest mysteries I've come across. I'd be surprised if Randall hasn't heard of it, though. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case Wikipedia]. [[User:Mark314159|Mark314159]] ([[User talk:Mark314159|talk]]) 01:22, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1499: Arbitrage

2015-03-16T21:19:56Z

108.162.216.192:

I've never been into an "explain" page so early... is everyone on March Break today? [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 12:56, 16 March 2015 (UTC)
:The comic seemed to be very late, today, for reasons unknown (but perhaps Randall's been on a weekend Pratchett-bender, ''in memoriam''). All the usual "early-birds" may have had nothing to work with, and perhaps even given up for the day/morning/whatever. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 14:20, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Is that a facepalm by Cueball? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.151|108.162.254.151]] 14:04, 16 March 2015 (UTC)
:It looks more like a "My God, what are you DOING?" reaction from Cueball. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.106}}

I think this might be a reference to Ultra-Low-Latency trading, where arbitreurs with Direct Market Access build faster parallel networks between two market and use the difference in latency to arbitrage before the two markets can communicate. This practice, along with many others, use the financial markets to generate revenue without any real contribution to the economy. {{unsigned ip|108.162.242.12}}
: It is true that must current arbitrageurs are computer programs doing ultra-high-frequency trading, but arbitrage as a concept is far from limited to that regime. Arbitrage is pretty much the sole way that markets communicate to maintain consistent prices. [[User:Vyzen|Vyzen]] ([[User talk:Vyzen|talk]]) 19:29, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

In a nutshell, arbitrage is when you see a price disparity between two markets and you buy from one at a low price, and immediatly sell to the other at a profit. The distinct factor between this and normal trade is that the agent does not maintain an inventory, and the profit is not through interest or maket scarcity. In the case of the comic, the purchase of the chips is at no cost, and presumably he's bagging the chips to resell to the restaurant. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 21:19, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1495: Hard Reboot

2015-03-06T16:25:50Z

108.162.216.192:

My interpretation is that the 1-10 hours is how long it would take to troubleshoot the problem and the 5 minutes is how long it would take to get kitchen timer and put into socket. So slides are showing the two solutions (one techy and liable to take up to 10 hours vs. the hacky but fast solution). {{unsigned ip|‎108.162.225.118}}

:At first I thought the ten hours was troubleshooting, but 5 minutes sounds about right for the granularity of the timer. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:51, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

''Of course, the problem could be solved without a reboot simply by increasing the swap size.'', my understanding is that the SWAP is overflowing and not just 'too little'. So no, ''simply increasing the swap size'' wouldn't solve the problem. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.214|173.245.53.214]] 07:36, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

::I agree, and have removed that sentence, because there is no way to be sure that increasing the swap size will help. In fact increasing the swap size is the first step down the '1-10 hours to troubleshoot' path. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 08:52, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
::I think it deserves mention. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 09:37, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

"Also, it can be scheduled during, say, the middle of the night when most users are sleeping to minimize disruption." That would be ''so'' annoying in my case. I'm glad Randall has a better discipline of schedule than me, with my Windows NT machine which these days definitely needs its manual weekly reboot and ''really'' needs to be functionally replaced except for all the additional fuss it'd require. (Also, I'm not sure about the "first sentence of the title text" bit, as currently stated, but doubtless it'll all be adjusted slightly.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.181|141.101.98.181]] 12:02, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

:I would recommend 5:00 (am). It's nowhere near the middle of the night, but it's the time when it's most probable everyone is sleeping. Alternatively, considering it's just HIS router, he should know his sleeping patterns ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:11, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

:: When a reboot is least disruptive also depends on whether the machine is being used by users in other time zones. It really annonys me when I'm presented with "Server is down for scheduled maintenance", and the powers that be have decided that the best time to do that is in the middle of the day (for me). --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 12:42, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

:My reaction to the solution (instead of using cron) was similar to when I see somebody emailing a photo by embedding it in a word document. I guess Randall did that on purpose! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.195|141.101.98.195]]

Re: ''"Why everything I have is broken"'' - I think better explanation would be that by applying soem workarounds you can use broken things without actually fixing them. E.g. you can use server with memory leak without spending 10+ hours fixing the problem. Using this approach you can end up with a buch of broken things that are still useful.

:This was my understanding of the statement as well. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 16:25, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

I think the ''"Why everything I have is broken"'' text refers to the fact that he has spent 10 hours troubleshooting the problem, then implements a hacky fix in 5 minutes which just makes the problem worse - hard rebooting a server every day is not likely to fix the problem and will probably make it worse, and the server will ultimately break. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.87|141.101.99.87]] 14:37, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

"The title text's first sentence refers to situations where the given solution to a problem is just the original problem rephrased to sound like a solution." I don't think that's right... it makes it sound like the solution to the problem is to not have the problem, but the first sentence of the title text doesn't reference a solution at all. It's just noting that there's no point in the user looking around for other posts because this is exactly what he's getting, so if there's no solution for this problem then the problem can't be solved. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.105|108.162.219.105]] 14:05, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for the description! I was reading the 1-10 hours as the time it took for the system to crash, and the 5 minutes as the on-off time -- which obviously conflicted with the 24 hours text in the comic. This makes so much more sense now. =8o) [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:42, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:26: Fourier

2015-03-02T21:52:30Z

108.162.216.192:

Isn't the cat also imaginary because its Fourier transform isn't symmetric?

I feel like there's another joke in that his cat is "imaginary" or has complex components.

[[User:Shdwdrgn|Shdwdrgn]] ([[User talk:Shdwdrgn|talk]]) 06:33, 8 October 2014 (UTC)shdwdrgn

Might this also be a Garfield joke? Garfield's veterinarian is named Liz. Although Garfield, being roughly a three-dimensional ovoid, would probably end up with a much different looking Fourier transform than what is depicted here.

--[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.246|199.27.130.246]] 21:26, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

I think the transform may be of the movements of various parts of the cat. Cats tend to move their ears and heads a lot, and other parts, less so. What tipped me off is the spike at the tip of the tail. Cats typically twitch the very tip of their tail in a rhythmic fashion. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 21:52, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1492: Dress Color

2015-02-27T16:25:58Z

108.162.216.192: FYI for the IP neighbors

To me, they both look blue/gold [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:29, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

What is the illusion supposed to be? The colors of the dress look a bit darker with the light background, but not very much. Is that the illusion? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.82|141.101.80.82]] 07:07, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
: Agree. To me, it looks like it's definitely light blue (maybe "cornflower"?) with pale olive stripes. "Gold" would really be a stretch. It looks like that in all lighting conditions and in both backgrounds of the strip. Did I pass some kind of color-blindness test? Or fail? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.133|108.162.254.133]] 07:43, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
: This has nothing to do with color-blindness, but probably with certain arbitrary constants related to white-balance adjustment that differ brain-to-brain. Many people I know insist that even though the picture looks blue, it's a dress illuminated by a blue light, and based on this assumption their brain may essentially redden the whole picture to adjust for this light. The actual picture was taken in white light, not blue light. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.28|173.245.55.28]] 07:46, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

::It may also be related to white-balance of the MONITOR. I see original dress like black and blue and the one on left here as gold and light blue. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:00, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Apparently for some people the left-hand-side's general blueishness is adjusted against by the visual system enough to make the dress look white and gold instead of blue and brown. I am not one of those people. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.28|173.245.55.28]] 07:43, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Description says left for both [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.219|141.101.98.219]] 08:37, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
:Now changed. (Saw it myself before I saw your comment, and just lept straight in there. Hopefully I changed the right left so that it's right and not left the wrong left whilst producing the wrong right. Alright?) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.192|141.101.98.192]] 09:30, 27 February 2015 (UTC) (Also, "hello near-IP neighbour!"... The same digits, even. Creepy.)
::Y'all are both from London, and probably live on the same street. Congrats! You made a friend! :) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 16:25, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Are they really the same colour? 'Cause to me on the blue side it looks blue and black- while on the white side it looks white and gold. Is this normal? {{unsigned|FlyingPiggy}}

The figure on the right definitely has a beard. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.182|108.162.249.182]] 09:38, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

I checked with ColorZilla and the RGB values are identical. From my perspective, in the one on the left the dress appears pale blue with darker brown/gold stripes, and the one on the right appears a darker blue with lighter brown/gold stripes. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 10:10, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

This is just a polychromatic version of that checker shadow illusion, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_shadow_illusion [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.38|108.162.231.38]] 10:12, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
:That's what I thought too. But it looks the same (doesn't it?) and is the same (that, thankfully is non-subjective and verifiable with as little as MSPaint), so I'm at loss as to why this deserves a comic. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.136|141.101.104.136]] 10:47, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
: This is a common optical illusion (at least I've seen this many times) - most peoples eyes perform a white balance adjustment automatically which affects the perceived colours. If your eyes don't do this then you will do well in the paint colour matching business. http://www.moillusions.com/hue-optical-illusion/ I apologise for the jarring colours in the link.
:Here's a particularly good demonstration of the underlying "color perception" illusion (i.e. the Checker-Shadow illusion referred to above): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Sen1HTu5o [[User:Arcanechili|Arcanechili]] ([[User talk:Arcanechili|talk]]) 15:45, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

The comic is a reference to the debate around the coloration of [http://amd.c.yimg.jp/amd/20150227-00000070-zdn_n-000-2-view.jpg this dress]. The band in the middle of the image shows some of the material of the dress. To some people, including me, the dress is obviously, unquestionably black and blue. But to others, including my wife, it's obviously, unquestionably, black and gold.
:And to others it's apparently a number of other combinations - I've seen claims of white/gold and blue/orange. However, surprisingly few people seem to have seen [http://www.romanoriginals.co.uk/invt/70931?colour=Royal-Blue this link] to the manufacturer's page for what appears to be the same dress; available in 4 colour combinations which according to the manufacturers' descriptions are ivory/black, scarlet/black, pink/black and royal-blue/black, with pictures available of all versions. As such I'm happy to accept the pictures doing the rounds are probably the blue/black variant (although most of the over-exposed versions I've seen appear light-blue/goldish-brown to me.

Our eyes are too efficient, which makes this illusion work. In dim light we dilate our eyes, so an enclosed room with one lamp seems bright, though it is a cave compared to the outdoors. If the bulb in our lamp is of a warm tone, our eyes adjust so we believe we see colours as though in daylight. I think that's what's happening in the dress illusion -- we are trying to allow for perceived lighting conditions in the photo -- so the actual illusion is in our guess as to what those light conditions actually are. And finally an artist quote: "I can paint you the skin of Venus with mud, provided you let me surround it as I will." - Eugene Delacroix [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.84|108.162.242.84]] 13:28, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Some Notes on camera color correction: it's worse than, and is not just an optical illusion. It's a camera screwup.

* [http://40.media.tumblr.com/a391a1b4b46dd6b498d379e50f96ecbc/tumblr_nkcjuq8Tdr1tnacy1o1_500.jpg Here is the original photo] as [http://swiked.tumblr.com/post/112159166305/katze-geht-meow-ijustloveyoutubers seen here]

* [http://media.tumblr.com/ec387ec0bb03230268a9e905d74097d9/tumblr_inline_nkeezsjAuH1svicb3.jpg Here is a second photo of the same dress in normal light] As [http://swiked.tumblr.com/post/112164479015/can-we-have-more-pictures-of-the-dress-please-we seen here]

* [http://www.romanoriginals.co.uk/invt/70931?colour=Royal-Blue Here is the online store where you can buy the dress]

* [http://www.romanoriginals.co.uk/content/ebiz/romanoriginals/invt/70931/70931rbl_zoom1.jpg Here is a high quality photo of the dress from the store]

* [http://imgur.com/RY2dTnW.jpg Here is an example of the color "correction" that happens when you calibrate things so that Dark Blue = White.] NOTE: This is a major readjustment of colors and there is no real color matching between the two images. White is not actually blue in this image, and up is not down, and you are not going crazy

Cheap cameras will try to adjust colors based on formulas that guess what the correct color scheme is.

If you take a photo while in the shade on a sunny day, you likely get most of your light from the bright *BLUE* sky. This can make you look awful. The camera is set up to guess the correct exposure. In this case the camera follows the rules, and guesses, wrongly, that the the overall majority color in the center of the photo is white, and transforms the rest of the colors to match

It's a camera screwup. It also depends on how bad your viewing device is behaving, because, based on how dark the screen is, you then get the optical illusion effect that Randall posted.

This is a secondary effect, and not the real reason why behind what is going on in the first place. The correct rendering of the camera screwup is going to be, on most devices with normal color rendition, white with gold. Because some monitors are lighter or darker depending on viewing angle, this also impacts color perception.

We can then get the actual optical illusion after all that. But as we have seen with good photos of the actual dress in normal light, the camera got it wrong.

TL;DR: It's a cell phone camera screwup. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.170|173.245.52.170]] 14:22, 27 February 2015 (UTC)ruary 2015 (UTC)

Is it possible that there's a connection between this comic and [[690: Semicontrolled Demolition]]? Some discussions I've seen about this topic involve the choice between white/gold and blue/black, so Randall coloured his dress gold/blue. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.122|108.162.216.122]] 16:20, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1477: Star Wars

2015-01-27T02:28:00Z

108.162.216.192:

More correctly the Hubble Parameter, since the Hubble Parameter has been shown NOT to be a constant.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 02:28, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Hope the transcript matches normal presentation mores. And I thought I'd keep the title text explanation simple - so I haven't wasted much time if it gets utterly changed. [[User:Mattdevney|Mattdevney]] ([[User talk:Mattdevney|talk]]) 12:55, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Does anyone else notice a weird white line through the dates? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 14:39, 23 January 2015 (UTC)
:I came here to ask about that. [[User:Linea alba|Linea alba]] ([[User talk:Linea alba|talk]]) 16:13, 23 January 2015 (UTC)
::Haha, your username is linea alba. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.87|199.27.128.87]] 19:23, 23 January 2015 (UTC)
:Same here. I'm wondering if it's stylistic somehow (futuristic-looking?) or just a mistake.--[[User:Piratejabez|Piratejabez]] ([[User talk:Piratejabez|talk]]) 17:26, 23 January 2015 (UTC)
::It looks as if he tried to move the labels down, but didn't select the whole line: [http://imgur.com/a/EZSYT]. But it seems odd that he wouldn't notice it right away, since it cut ALL the digits in half. [[User:Linea alba|Linea alba]] ([[User talk:Linea alba|talk]]) 18:47, 23 January 2015 (UTC)
:::Thanks for sharing. Yes, that's very plausible. Strange that he wouldn't notice it, though...--[[User:Piratejabez|Piratejabez]] ([[User talk:Piratejabez|talk]]) 19:51, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

If anyone's interested, I just used http://timeanddate.com to calculate the Star Wars Trilogy Tipping Point, i.e.- the date starting on which ''The Phantom Menace'' will have released closer to ''A New Hope'' than to the present day: May 13, 2021. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.140|173.245.50.140]] 18:23, 23 January 2015 (UTC)
::Thanks! I was wondering. That is a bit more hopeful.--[[User:Piratejabez|Piratejabez]] ([[User talk:Piratejabez|talk]]) 19:51, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Be sure to get "Comics to make one feel old" in those categories. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.138|199.27.128.138]] 19:31, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Shouldn't the alt text say "A *long* time ago (...) in a galaxy far, far..."?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.157|108.162.238.157]] 00:46, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

Damn, so close to May 4th, i wonder if there is anyway to prove that this can technically be the right day ("May the fourth be with you") [[User:Jack1197|Jack1197]] ([[User talk:Jack1197|talk]]) 05:08, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

Is anyone else here getting tired of these 'this event is closer to another event than to today' things? :/ [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.25|141.101.99.25]] 10:06, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

:Not yet for me. We are further away from the new millennium than the new millennium seemed like in 1984. Ooooh! c. June 1, 2000 is the Nintendo NES/now midpoint. Ooooh! Most of the 80s is now over 30 years old. Ooooh! The women that were barely 18 in all of it are now post-menopausal! Ooooh! Early 80s sorority girls could now have great-grandchildren old enough to like giiiirls! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.94|108.162.215.94]] 17:58, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

::Wait, what? No. Grandchildren, maybe, but not great-grandchildren. The oldest person meeting the description "early 80's sorority girl" would be someone who was 18 in 1980. Their child, assuming they had one right away, would be 18 in 1998. If that child had a child (the sorority girl's grandchild) immediately upon turning 18, that grandchild would be 18 in 2016. In this model, 2016 is the earliest year in which the great-grandchild could be born. Assuming that by "like girls" you mean "hit puberty," and since the average onset of puberty is close to 12 years, the soonest the sorority girl's great-grandchild could "like girls" would be 2028, thirteen years from now. Even if we allow for the possibility of teen pregnancies, and we assume that each generation gave birth to the next at age 15 (...shudder...) instead of age 18, we're still looking at a date in 2022. And, even if the original sorority girl gave birth at age 15 (three years prior to becoming an "early 80's sorority girl"), it would still be 2019 before her great-grandchildren would enter puberty. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.71|173.245.50.71]] 20:53, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

1461: Payloads

2014-12-17T12:09:36Z

108.162.216.192: changed pass to mass

{{comic
| number = 1461
| date = December 17, 2014
| title = Payloads
| image = payloads.png
| titletext = With a space elevator, a backyard full of solar panels could launch about 500 horses per year, and a large power plant could launch 10 horses per minute.
}}

A larger version of the image can be found [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/payloads_large.png here].

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Still probably incomplete, but I don't know why. I just removed the "CREATED BY A BOT" message, because since then, it has been edited by a human.}}
This comic lists the payload capacity of several launch vehicles, and the mass of several spacecraft, in number of horses. This could be related to Randall's hobby of abusing dimensional analysis, as horses/ship is technically a perfectly acceptable derived unit, provided the size of a horse is standard (in this comic it appears that 'One Horse' is defined as 450kg). In cases where the mass is less than one Horse, an alternative measure of Dogs has been used, where one Dog appears to be roughly 40kg. In the case of {{w|Vanguard 1}}, even a Dog is too large a measure, so instead the unit Squirrel is used to represent its 1.47kg mass.

The overall comic is an allusion to {{w|horsepower}}, a similar-sounding but completely different concept. Horsepower is a measurement of {{w|power (physics)|power}} ({{w|work (physics)|work}} per unit time). Another commonly referenced unit for power is the {{w|watt}}. 1 horsepower is meant to be approximately the amount of power a horse can deliver. In contrast, Randall uses the horse to measure {{w|mass}} (of spacecraft themselves, and of the payload they carry).

The top pane of the comic shows the mass of various spacecraft, while the bottom shows the amount of mass they can deliver to {{w|low earth orbit}}. There are also several joke insertions. In the top, one is T-Rex. In the bottom, another is Pegasus (the payload capacity given as one Pegasus); this is a reference to both Pegasus {{w|Pegasus (rocket)|the rocket}} and Pegasus the {{w|Pegasus|mythical flying stallion}}. The bottom also gives the 1981 {{w|Oldsmobile}} as 4 horses; presumably, this is actually the number of horses the Oldsmobile could tow, rather than launch into low earth orbit.

There is an unlabeled launch vehicle below the H-11A near 2002. The unlabeled vehicle has a playload mass of 21 horses (8540 kg).

===Tables===
{|
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|

{| class="wikitable sortable"
!colspan="4"|Spacecraft Mass
|-
!Spacecraft
!Launch Date <sup>''{{w|ISO 8601}}''</sup>
!Mass (Horses)
!Mass (kg)
|-
|{{w|Sputnik 1|Sputnik}}
|1957-10-04
|2 Dogs
|83.6
|-
|{{w|Vanguard 1}}
|1958-03-17
|Squirrel
|1.47
|-
|{{w|Pioneer 5}}
|1960-03-11
|Large Dog
|43
|-
|{{w|Venera 1}}
|1961-02-12
|1
|643.5
|-
|{{w|Mariner 2}}
|1962-08-27
|3 Dogs
|202.8
|-
|Apollo
|
|67
|
|-
|{{w|Venera 7}}
|1970-08-17
|3
|1,180
|-
|{{w|Pioneer 10}}
|1972-03-03
|7 Dogs
|258.8
|-
|{{w|Skylab}}
|1973-05-14
|171
|77,088
|-
|{{w|Venera 9}}
|1975-06-08
|11
|2,015
|-
|{{w|Voyager 2}}
|1977-08-20
|2
|721.9
|-
|Shuttle (Total)
|
|206
|
|-
|Shuttle (Payload)
|
|54
|
|-
|{{w|Mir}}
|1986-02-20
|288
|129,700
|-
|T-Rex
|
|15
|6,800
|-
|{{w|Hubble}}
|1990-04-24
|25
|11,110
|-
|{{w|Compton Gamma Ray Observatory}}
|1991-04-05
|38
|17,000
|-
|{{w|Corona (Satellite)|Keyhole 3}}
|
|40
|
|-
|{{w|International Space Station}}
|1998
|932
|450,000
|-
|{{w|Cassini-Huygens|Cassini}}
|1997-10-15
|11
|5,300
|-
|{{w|Huygens (spacecraft)|Hyugens Lander}}
|1997-10-15
|1
|319
|-
|{{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}}
|2004-03-02
|6
|2,900
|-
|{{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}
|2003-07-07
|5 Dogs
|185
|-
|{{w|Dawn (spacecraft)|Dawn}}
|2007-09-27
|3
|1,240
|-
|Terrastar
|
|15
|
|-
|{{w|Dragon (spacecraft)|Dragon}}
|2010-12-08
|17
|
|-
|{{w|Tiangong-1}}
|2011-09-29
|19
|8,506
|-
|{{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}}
|2011-11-26
|2
|900
|-
|{{w|Corona (Satellite)|Keyhole 7}}
|
|40
|
|-
|{{w|Orion (spacecraft)|Orion (Capsule)}}
|2014-12-05
|20
|8,913
|-
|{{w|James Webb Space Telescope|James Webb Telescope}}
|
|14
|6,200
|-
|{{w|Orion (spacecraft)|Orion}}
|2014-12-05
|65
|29,157
|-
|{{w|Orion (spacecraft)|Orion Service Module}}
|
|25
|13,337
|-
|{{w|Orion (spacecraft)|Orion Deep-Space Habitat}}
|
|
|
|}

|

{| class="wikitable sortable"
!colspan="4"|Lauch Vehicle Capacity
|-
!Spacecraft
!Launch Date <sup>''{{w|ISO 8601}}''</sup>
!Payload (Horses)
!Payload (kg)
|-
|{{w|Sputnik (rocket)|Sputnik Launcher}}
|1957-10-04
|1
|500
|-
| Thor
|
|3 Dogs
|
|-
|{{w|Mercury-Atlas}}
|
|3
|
|-
|{{w|Saturn I}}
|
|20
|
|-
|{{w|Proton-K}}
|
|44
|
|-
|{{w|Atlas-Centaur}}
|
|8 Centaurs
|
|-
|{{w|Titan IIIA}}
|
|7
|
|-
|{{w|Saturn IB}}
|
|45
|
|-
|{{w|Soyuz (rocket)|Soyuz}}
|
|14
|
|-
|{{w|Saturn V}}
|
|262
|
|-
|{{w|Black Arrow}}
|
|4 Dogs
|
|-
|{{w|N1 (rocket)|N1}}
|
|211
|
|-
|{{w|Long March 1}}
|
|2
|
|-
|{{w|N-I (rocket)|N-I}}
|
|4
|
|-
|{{w|Delta 0100|Delta 0900}}
|
|3
|
|-
|{{w|Ariane 1}}
|
|3
|
|-
|{{w|Satellite Launch Vehicle|SLV}}
|
|1 Dog
|
|-
|{{w|N-II (rocket)|N-II}}
|
|4
|
|-
|{{w|Oldsmobile#1970s-1980s|1981 Oldsmobile}}
|1981
|4
|
|-
|{{w|ASLV}}
|
|4 Dogs
|
|-
|{{w|Long March 4}}
|
|9
|
|-
|{{w|Ariane 4}}
|
|16
|
|-
|{{w|Shavit}}
|
|6 Dogs
|
|-
|{{w|Energia}}
|
|218
|
|-
|{{w|Pegasus (rocket)|Pegasus}}
|1990-04-05
|1 Pegasus
|443
|-
|{{w|Atlas I}}
|
|13
|
|-
|{{w|PSLV}}
|
|8
|
|-
|{{w|J-I}}
|
|2
|
|-
|{{w|Long March 3B}}
|
|27
|
|-
|{{w|H-IIA}}
|
|22
|
|-
|(unlabelled)
|
|21
|
|-
|{{w|Delta IV Heavy|Delta IV-H}}
|
|64
|
|-
|{{w|Falcon 1}}
|
|1
|
|-
|{{w|Ariane 5#Variants|Ariane 5ES}}
|
|47
|
|-
|{{w|H-IIB}}
|
|37
|
|-
|{{w|UNHA}}
|
|2 Dogs
|
|-
|{{w|Atlas V|Atlas V 541}}
|
|38
|
|-
|{{w|Falcon 9}}
|
|29
|
|-
|{{w|Antares (rocket)|Antares}}
|
|14
|
|-
|{{w|Stratolaunch}}
|
|14
|
|-
|{{w|Falcon Heavy}}
|
|118
|
|-
|{{w|Space Launch System|SLS Block 1}}
|
|156
|
|-
|{{w|Space Launch System|SLS Block 1B}}
|
|217
|
|-
|{{w|Space Launch System|SLS Block 2}}
|
|289
|
|}

|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Space]]

1441: Turnabout

2014-10-31T19:53:42Z

108.162.216.192: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1441
| date = October 31, 2014
| title = Turnabout
| image = turnabout.png
| titletext = Whenever I miss a shot with a sci-fi weapon, I say 'Apollo retroreflector' really fast, just in case.
}}

==Explanation==
In the comic, two people are engaging in a battle with laser guns. One appears to gain the upper hand as he jumps on an obstacle, as the other's shot goes wide. He delivers the classic line [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnyLastWords "Any last words?"] and is answered with the confusing phrase "Apollo retroreflectors". The earlier wild shot, reflected off the Moon, promptly lances down from space and hits him in the back.

A {{w|retroreflector}} is a device or surface that reflects light back towards its source. Several such devices {{w|List_of_retroreflectors_on_the_Moon|were placed on the Moon}} by the American {{w|Apollo 11}}, {{w|Apollo 14|14}}, and {{w|Apollo 15|15}} missions and continue to be used by scientists on Earth to {{w|Lunar Laser Ranging experiment|measure the distance between the two bodies using laser ranging}}. The Soviet {{w|Lunokhod 1}} and {{w|Lunokhod 2|2}} rovers also carried such reflectors; attempts to use them for laser ranging were unsuccessful from 1971 to 2010, but were successfully renewed after the rovers' positions were photographed by the {{w|Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter}}.

The likelihood of the wild shot being aimed at the Moon is fairly low in itself, and the probability of accidentally hitting a retroreflector on the Moon is lower still. Even if it did, it is highly unlikely that a pistol-sized generator could produce a beam coherent enough to inflict damage after traveling to the Moon and back, as lasers built for the purpose of hitting retroreflectors on the Moon typically get a return around one quadrillionth of the original beam.

The title text mentions that you would need to say "Apollo retroreflector" really fast, because from Earth you would only have about [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2+*+moon+distance+from+earth+%2F+speed+of+light 2.5 seconds] before the light is reflected back to its source.

The title text may also be a reference to the common practice of "calling bank" in the game of basketball. In basketball, the backboard may be used to deflect the ball into the hoop. This is called a "bank shot." In casual games, if the player using the backboard in this way does not indicate that it was intentional (usually by "calling bank" before releasing the ball), the basket may not be counted in order to not give the player credit for a wild shot that happened to go in. When a player releases a shot that they realize is off the mark they sometimes quickly say "bank" to try and fool the other players into thinking that they were intentionally trying to "bank" the ball off the backboard into the hoop. In the title text scenario, "Apollo retroreflector" is used the same way "bank" is in basketball, i.e., the shooter meant to hit the target by reflection rather than directly.

[[Randall]] discussed the effect of hitting the Moon with lasers in [http://what-if.xkcd.com/13/ What If: Laser Pointer] and the likelihood of hitting a celestial object with a laser in [http://what-if.xkcd.com/109/ What If: Into the Blue].

==Transcript==

[Two people engage in battle using handheld laser guns.]

[Person 2's shot misses, Person 1 jumps on a desk.]

Person 1: Any last words?

Person 2: "Apollo retroreflectors"

Person 1: What?

[Person 1 is hit in the back by the reflected shot.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Space]]

287: NP-Complete

2014-10-14T17:54:44Z

108.162.216.192: /* Explanation */ Removing link meant for Wikipedia. (simply don't know how to make a link to Wikipedia and don't want to bother to find out :P)

{{comic
| number = 287
| date = July 9, 2007
| title = NP-Complete
| image = np_complete.png
| titletext = General solutions get you a 50% tip.
}}

==Explanation==
Another entry in the "[[My Hobby]]" series of cartoons. [[Cueball]] is embedding {{w|NP-complete|NP-complete problems}} in restaurant orders. Specifically, he is ordering appetizers not by explicitly stating the names, but by the total price of them all. This is a simplified example of the {{w|Knapsack problem|knapsack problem}}. This is a problem in combinatorial optimization, as follows: If you have a knapsack (backpack or rucksack) which can hold a specific amount of weight, and you have a set of items, each with its own assigned value and weight, you have to select items to put into the knapsack so that the weight does not exceed the capacity of the knapsack and the combined value of all the items is maximized.

In {{w|Computational complexity theory|computational complexity theory}}, NP stands for "nondeterministic polynomial time," which means that problems which are NP take polynomial running time (i.e. the time a CPU would take to run the program would be polynomial in the input size) to verify a solution, but it is unknown whether finding any or all solutions can be done in polynomial time. Polynomial time is considered efficient; exponential and higher times are considered unfeasible for computation. NP-complete problems are ones which, if a polynomial time algorithm is found for any of them, then all NP problems have polynomial time solutions. In short, particular guesses in NP-complete problems can be checked easily, but systematically finding solutions is far more difficult.

The waiter's problem is NP-complete, since a given order's price can be found and checked quickly, but finding an order to match a price is much harder. (Formal proofs of the NP-completeness of the knapsack problem can be found at the above link.) The most straightforward way for a human to find a solution is to methodically start by first listing all the (6) ways of choosing one appetizer, and their total costs, then list all the (21) ways of choosing two appetizers (allowing repeats), and then list all the (56) ways of choosing three appetizers, and so forth. As any combination of eight appetizers would be more than $15.05, the process need not extend beyond listing all the (1715) ways of choosing seven appetizers.

Another famous NP-complete problem is the {{w|Travelling Salesman problem}}, mentioned by Cueball at the end, referring to the waiter's claim that he has 6 more tables to get to. (see also [[399: Travelling Salesman Problem]]).

The title text refers to the fact that NP-complete problems have no known polynomial time general solutions, and it is unknown if such a solution can ever be found. If the waiter can find an efficient general solution to this he will have solved one of the most famous problems in mathematics. This problem is one of the six remaining unsolved {{w|Millennium Prize Problems}} stated by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000, for which a correct solution (including proving that such a solution doesn't exist) is worth US$1,000,000. A 50% tip is slightly less than fair.

Thus there are exactly two combinations of appetizers which total $15.05 and solve the problem posed in the comic strip:
#A combination of two orders of hot wings, one order of mixed fruit, and one sampler plate
#Seven mixed fruit orders (this solution was not intended - see [[#Trivia|trivia]] below)

By the way, "Chotchkies" (slightly misspelt) is Yiddish slang for little accessories and trinkets. It is also the name of the restaurant in the 1999 Mike Judge-directed comedy Office Space.

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Embedding NP-Complete problems in restaurant orders
:[A menu is shown.]
:Chotchkies Restaurant
:Appetizers
:Mixed Fruit 2.15
:French Fries 2.75
:Side Salad 3.35
:Hot Wings 3.55
:Mozzarella Sticks 4.20
:Sampler Plate 5.80
:[Megan, another person, and Cueball are sitting at a table. Cueball is holding the menu as well as a thick book and is ordering from a waiter. Megan is facepalming.]
:Cueball: We'd like exactly $15.05 worth of appetizers, please.
:Waiter: ...Exactly? Uhh...
:Cueball: Here, these papers on the knapsack problem might help you out.
:Waiter: Listen, I have six other tables to get to-
:Cueball: -As fast as possible, of course. Want something on traveling salesman?

==Trivia==
*In [http://www.maa.org/mathhorizons/MH-Sep2012_XKCD.html an interview] with the Mathematical Association of America Randall said that the trivial answer to this problem was a mistake.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:1416: Pixels

2014-09-04T19:35:37Z

108.162.216.192:

Firefox users with HTTPS Everywhere may have trouble seeing the comic, and Chrome users may experience lag (for lack of a better word) when zooming in. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.168|141.101.99.168]] 06:11, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

The combination of "turtle" and "pixel" reminded me of how to code graphics in the older days with for instance turbo pascal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_graphics) - Stian

Would it be possible to have a "gallery" of all the zoom-in images? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.209|199.27.128.209]] 06:29, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Since the Zoom-in images have at lest one story line in them (I read one about a book launch, the book was launched to space in a rocket), I think a gallery or some such is needed for them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.218|108.162.250.218]] 06:50, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

I got to a white panel and there was nothing. Everything was white and zooming in or out didn't change it. Not sure if it was a bug or intended. -- [[User:Irino|Irino]] ([[User talk:Irino|talk]]) 07:15, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
* That happens to me when I click on the image in Chrome. Not sure why. [[User:Castriff|Jimmy C]] ([[User talk:Castriff|talk]]) 21:35, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Yet another comic that doesn't work well on mobile. I'll probably compile a list of comics that are broken in some way for mobile... Er. Soon-ish. -RTR [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.232|108.162.246.232]] 07:45, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

I have acquired a list of images with what they zoom into, and am working on turning that into something presentable. There's a lot of images though, so it may take a day. As for the white panel, yes, there does seem to be one broken link (out of nearly 500). I'm not sure how I would go about reporting it to get it fixed. [[User:Tahg|Tahg]] ([[User talk:Tahg|talk]]) 07:57, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

There are 79 different images. I have them isolated and am uploading them now. [[User:Omixorp|Omixorp]] ([[User talk:Omixorp|talk]]) 08:16, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
:Cool - the images are here - if you click on the broken links they can be seen. But why are they not visible? They take up a lot of space, so I have moved them to a separate gallery page as has been done with [[1350: Lorenz]]. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:44, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
::I think there's a problem with all thumbnails across this site - even old thumbnails don't seem to be working right now. [[User:Omixorp|Omixorp]] ([[User talk:Omixorp|talk]]) 10:31, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
:::They work on Lorenz that I have linked to in my comment above. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:44, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Doesn't work at all (blank) on my Firefox and IE11. I just installed Opera and it works but it's VERY laggy. Also, I have to scroll UP to zoom in, not down. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.97.206|141.101.97.206]] 08:25, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
:Neither on Firefox 31.0. Zooming until the first level of pictures, I see them appearing. But when they are larger than ~20 pixels they start to disappear. They only reappear intermittently when I pan or zoom. When I zoom in further, only images on the left side appear intermittently. This shows the grid is built from left to right, then top to bottom, and it just stops randomly. --[[User:Zom-B|Zom-B]] ([[User talk:Zom-B|talk]]) 20:32, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
:I'm having different problems with both Firefox 31.0 and 32.0 on Windows. When zooming in, all pixels (including white parts of the image) resolve to images with black background, so I never see the "white" ones (except for the initial "turtles" one). Anyone having the same problem? IE11 works for me. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.186|141.101.99.186]] 21:52, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
::I also have this issue, using Firefox 31.0 on Windows 7. It's also very slow/laggy doing the fade transitions between pixels and the images. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.191}}

This date of this comic (Sept 3rd 2014) coincided with the date of Randall's book, What-If. This book is shown or referenced in a number of the frames.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:57, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
:But the site says the book was out September 2nd... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 11:21, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
::You're right, 108.162.237.161. I changed it and provided proof. As far as I could find, though, it's only launched in the US as of today. [[User:NealCruco|NealCruco]] ([[User talk:NealCruco|talk]]) 19:21, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Also just isolated the images. I described the procedure on my blog: http://azttm.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/xkcd-com-1416-pixels/ [[User:Azt|Azt]] ([[User talk:Azt|Azt]]) 09:58, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

I zoom in when I scroll up. I also like turtles. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.120|103.22.201.120]] 09:15, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

I think this comic might be a reference to D. Hofstadter's celebrated book ''Gödel, Escher, Bach'', what with the 'holism', 'reductionism' and 'Mu' coming out at some point (there is the very same construction in one of the dialogs from that book). Plus, generally speaking, ''GEB'' is all about "strange loops" and infinite recursions. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.30|108.162.254.30]] 09:50, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

I have uploaded a graph showing the layout of the entire storyline, with thumbnails of the individual images, at [[Media:1416_Pixels_layout.png]]. --[[User:Mnw21cam|Mnw21cam]] ([[User talk:Mnw21cam|talk]]) 12:20, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Has any attempt been made to find "extra" panels that may occur as a part of a logical series? For example, there is "chess-b" and "chess-w", are there "chess-a", "chess-c", "chess-d", etc? [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:56, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
:It never occurred to you that those letters stand for Black/White? --[[User:Zom-B|Zom-B]] ([[User talk:Zom-B|talk]]) 20:25, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
::Huh, wha? No, that's got to be way too simple. There MUST be more images! :P Actually I was hoping/wondering if there was a sequence of 20-ish chess panels which depicted a game, with a Randall type ending to it. *sigh* Way to burst my bubble. lol [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 12:37, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Any Kerbal Space Program players on here who can shed any light on the origins of 'Need Moar Struts'? Is it a well known meme amongst the player base as I have guessed?--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 14:27, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

In an infinite series of turtles, at least 4 of them have to be youthful, genetically modified, and skilled in martial arts. Has anyone found them? [[User:DivePeak|DivePeak]] ([[User talk:DivePeak|talk]]) 21:30, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

I am on Chrome, and I cannot see any of the images in the Explain XKCD gallery even though the actual strip works fine. Anyone know what's wrong? [[User:Castriff|Jimmy C]] ([[User talk:Castriff|talk]]) 21:35, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

I don't know why the article says that the comic doesn't work in Safari on Mac OS X. It's working just fine here on Safari 7.0.6. I think if someone is going to make such claims, they should be careful to note which version of the software they're working with so others can compare appropriately. [[User:Yaztromo|Yaztromo]] ([[User talk:Yaztromo|talk]]) 23:33, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
:Works for me on Safari 8.0 on my Mac--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 19:35, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

;Adjacency list for the graph

I've created a quick hack to show what each image can contain [http://uber5001.github.io/turtles/ here]. Might be helpful in finishing off this page. [[User:Uber5001|Uber5001]] ([[User talk:Uber5001|talk]]) 22:48, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

;Mandelbrot?
Is the way the images are repeated being based on some math pattern, like the Mandelbrot set? [[User:Osias|Osias]] ([[User talk:Osias|talk]]) 02:38, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

; Quarks and strings?
Once when zooming I have found something that looked roughly like quark model of nucleon (below MU), then a loop - perhaps a string from the string theory --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 10:53, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

;Interactive graph
Hello, I've uploaded an interactive version of the graph [http://velt.info/xkcdpixels here] [[User:Raphv|Raphv]] ([[User talk:Raphv|talk]]) 15:16, 4 September 2014 (UTC)