explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1732: Earth Temperature Timeline

2016-09-18T17:21:26Z

108.162.219.7:

{{comic
| number = 1732
| date = September 12, 2016
| title = Earth Temperature Timeline
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = earth_temperature_timeline.png
| titletext = [After setting your car on fire] Listen, your car's temperature has changed before.
}}

==Explanation==
{{TOC}}
{{incomplete|[[#Table of all elements|Table for explanations]] now ready to be filled out. Please remove this tag only when everything is explained.}}
Over the past 100 years, human action has produced a large amount of {{w|CO₂ emissions}}, which have caused a rise in average global temperature through the {{w|greenhouse effect}}. This is called {{w|global warming}} and is part of a {{w|climate change}}, a subject that has become a [[:Category:Climate change|recurrent subject]] on xkcd. There are still many people who claim that this is not happening, or at least that it is not caused by any human actions, called {{w|Climate change denial|climate change deniers}}. One argument of theirs is that global warming is happening for natural causes, summarized with the phrase "temperature has changed before". This comic is a direct, but much more thorough, follow up on the previous global warming comic: [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]].

This comic shows that while temperature changes have indeed occurred before, the speed of the current temperature rise is much, much faster than those seen (actually: estimated) in the previous thousands of years. It seemed to touch on something in peoples consciousness, because it became so popular that [[Randall]] [[#Popularity_of_comic|postponed the release]] of his next comic to keep this one on the front page one day longer.

This comic is a [[:Category:Timelines|timeline]] on how the temperature has changed since 20,000 BCE (Before {{w|Common Era}}) to the present day and extrapolated 84 years on from present day of the release of the comic (2016) to 2100 {{w|Common Era|CE}} depending on the choice of actions to stop CO₂ emission that is taken now or never. It is meant to contrast the slow-paced natural changes with the rapid temperature rise in the recent years. The effect is achieved by forcing the reader to scroll endlessly through slow, building-up changes and then face them with an almost instantaneous, quick rise towards the end. The temperature curve is a dotted line most of the time, but from about 1850 to present day (2016) the measurement data is good enough to let the curve become a solid line indicating that this is not an estimate. Before 1850 the temperature is an estimate based on the [[#Sources|sources]] given. And likewise into the future the curve is also dotted as this is predictions. And here there are even three possible outcomes depending on how seriously politicians and other influential people (and the population of Earth) take knowledge (and comics) like this.

Although this is a topic Randall obviously takes very seriously, and by far most of the facts fit with known history, he still includes several jokes in the comic (see [[#Jokes in the comic|list below]]). He even included one at the base of the comic where the serious human caused temperature increase is at display. By placing the invention of the {{w|internet}} at 1980 in the chart, just where the temperature curve starts its most rapid increase, he humorously implies that the internet caused the rise in temperature. Randall has before been after incidents where cause and effects like this has been used without any proof that it was not a coincidence.

Below in the [[#Table of all elements|table]] each entry will be noted and explained (in time). This is one of the comics where Randall cites his [[#Sources|sources]] like he did for one of his other very large comics [[980: Money]].

The title text compares the saying that "the temperature has changed before" comparing temperature changes over thousands of years to the rapid global warming over the last century with saying that the "small" changes to the temperature a car experiences over the years of normal usage should not make you worried over the rapid temperature increase that happens when someone sets your car on fire. A related joke was used recently in [[1693: Oxidation]].

===Jokes in the comic===
*Above the joke about the internet causing the global warming is mentioned.
*Other "silly" jokes included in the comic are:
**At 13600 BCE a glacier is shown retreating from New York because of the warm up. It is disgusted by the new changes and proclaims: ''That’s it! I’m moving to Canada!'' A joke on the typical saying by US citizens that are unhappy with changes in their country, as a kind of protest. According to the chart the glacier first retreated over the Canadian border around 8400 BCE more than 5000 years later.
**At 13400 BCE it is mentioned that {{w|origin of the domestic dog|humans domesticate dogs}}. [[Megan]] talks to a wolf about to be tamed making a deal with it, that it can eat and sleep with the humans as long as they can yell at it for pooping indoor. This sounds like a sweat deal for the wolf until [[Cueball]] mentions that they will {{w|Dog breeding|breed}} it to be {{w|Chihuahua (dog)|very small}} and then dress it up in small {{w|Dog's fashion|costumes}}. The wolf says wait, but it is already too late...
**The {{w|Pokémon}} reference at 9000 BCE about them going extinct in North America (although Megan does proclaim that this is not a real fact). As the writing stated that ''Pokémon go extinct'' this can also be seen as a reference to the recently released {{w|Pokémon Go}} game and hence also the recent comic [[1705: Pokémon Go]].
**At 4500 BCE, next to "{{w|Proto-Indo-European language}} develops", [[Ponytail]] gets the idea to develop the language heavily inflected to make it difficult to remember all the verb endings for future students. A direct reference to the recent comic [[1709: Inflection]].
**The reference to the 1984 {{w|mockumentary}} about the fake rock band {{w|This Is Spinal Tap}} in conjunction with {{w|Stonehenge}} at 2200 BCE. In the movie the band ordered a giant 18 feet Stonehenge megalith but a writing mistake gives them one that is only 18 inches high.
***Another real band {{w|Nine Inch Nails}} is referenced 16000 BCE where Megan writes the bands stylized name NIИ on the wall next to [[Hairy]] who is in the process of painting the {{w|cave painting}} at {{w|Lascaux}} in France.
**Around the setting of the {{w|Iliad}} and the {{w|Odyssey}} (1200 BCE) a drawing of the {{w|Trojan Horse}} has writing on it that states: ''Not a trap''.
**Just below the previous entry also at 1200 BCE is the mentioning of the invasion of the {{w|Sea Peoples}}. This sounds so much like a reference to {{w|Mermaid|mermaids}}, often called {{w|Mermaid#One_Thousand_and_One_Nights|sea people}} that Randall feels the need to note that this invasion and these sea people is ''a real thing'' in a foot note. This is opposed to the Pokémon reference above where he notes that it is ''not a real fact''. The sea people was a seafaring confederation of groups known to have attacked ancient Egypt around this time.
**At 450 BCE a reference to the {{w|Battle of Thermopylae}} (also known as 300 Spartans) he references this by comparing the event with the 2007 movie ''{{w|300 (film)|300}}'' about this battle. But notes that in the real world the fighting of course occurred at regular speed and that they probably had more clothing on in the real world than in the fictionalized action movie.
*There are other minor jokes but this list mentions all the major jokes.

===Table of all elements===
*Here is table including all elements in the chart with explanations including reading off temperature and year for each event from the curve.
**The year group is just an easy way to find the section.
**Element is a description mainly taken from the transcript.
**The actual year of an event has been read off more precisely on the chart.
***The central part of the element has mainly been used.
***Only rarely has ranges below 100 years been used but if a location is clearly midway between two hundred years intervals 50 year range has been used.
***Only when there are several posts close to each other has smaller range been used a few times.
**T (°C) is the number of degrees celcius above or below the 1961-1990 average, which on this graph is set to zero,(i.e. not the number of physical degrees above or below this 0°C).
***These have been read of to 0.1°C rounding up or down. Lines have been inserted over the chart, 10 for each degree, to make this as accurate as possible.
***In a few cases where a maximum is reached 0.05°C has been used
**Explanation of each element.
{| class="wikitable"
!Year group
!Element
!Year
!T (°C)
!Explanation
|-
| rowspan="2"| 20000 BCE
| [An arrow goes from the dotted line to the central line at 0°C (representing the 1961-1990 average). In the middle of the line there is a temperature label:] 4.3°C At the start of our timeline, 22,000 years ago, Earth is 4°C colder than during the late 20th century. || 20000 BCE || -4.3 || The temperature at the beginning of the chart compared to the average from 1961-1990 that in general are used to compare temperatures with today as well as in the rest of this chart. As a rule {{w|climate}} changes are compared with a 30 year interval, and {{w|Climate#Definition|recently}} the 1961-1990 average was chosen as the "normal" to compare temperature changes with. The timeline staring at 20,000 BCE fits with Wikipedia's article on {{w|Last glacial period}} (or the last ice age) stating that the the maximum extent of {{w|glaciation}} was approximately 22,000 years ago. However, in the article on the {{w|Last Glacial Maximum}} it states that this maximum occurred 24,500 BCE 4,500 years before the other article (even though they link to each other).
|-

| {{w|Boston}} is buried under almost a mile of ice, and the {{w|glaciers}} reach as far south as {{w|New York City}}. [The Statue of Liberty is shown in front of a glacier front. A guy with a white {{w|knit cap}} is seen walking in a snowy landscape. The skyline of Boston is shown under a half a mile of ice.] || 19700 BCE || -4.3 || The Boston image is directly taken from [[1225: Ice Sheets]] about the ice age glacier coverage and the guy with the white knit cap could be the guy from [[1321: Cold]] also about global warming. It shows what a difference 4 degree in global temperature means (massive effect), as opposed to what four degree means on a daily weather wise scale (nothing!). [[Randall]] lives in Boston. It was also shown buried in ice in [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]]. Knit caps have only been used a few times in xkcd, most prominently on [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|Knit Cap Girl]] in [[1350: Lorenz]], see her section for more details.

|-
| rowspan="3"| 19500 BCE
| But the world is about to warm up. || 19500 BCE|| -4.3 || The warming process actually takes thousands of years, which this comic will portray down thousands of pixels to come. So it becomes clear that it is not a fast warm up, especially not compared to the one we are currently experiencing and which is displayed at the very bottom of this long chart.
|-
| By this time, humans have already spread across {{w|Africa}}, {{w|Eurasia}}, and {{w|Australia}}. || 19300 BCE || -4.3 || {{w|Homo Sapiens}} successfully {{w|Recent_African_origin_of_modern_humans#Movement_out_of_Africa|migrated out of Africa}} somewhere between {{w|Recent_African_origin_of_modern_humans#Dating:_pre-or_post-Toba|130,000}} and {{w|Recent_African_origin_of_modern_humans#Coastal_route|70,000}} BCE.
|-
| They’ve created {{w|painting}}, {{w|pottery}}, {{w|rope}}, and {{w|Bow and arrow|bows and arrows}}, but haven’t developed {{w|writing}} or {{w|farming}}. || 19100 BCE || -4.3 || The {{w|History of painting#Pre-history|oldest known paintings}} date back to about 38,000 BCE. The {{w|Ceramic_art#History|oldest known pottery}} date back to about 20,000 BCE. The {{w|Rope#History|oldest known rope}} date back to about 26,000 BCE. The {{w|History_of_archery#Stone_Age_and_Bronze_Age_archery|oldest known arrows}} date back to about 70,000 BCE, but Randall seems to be mistaken about the bows which seems to be {{w|History_of_archery#Stone_Age_and_Bronze_Age_archery|at most 10,000 years old}}. Writing is mentioned again at 3500 BCE and farming at 10,000 BCE.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 19000 BCE
| Changes in the Earth’s orbit mean that more sunlight reaches the polar ice… || 18600 BCE || -4.2 ||{{w|Milankovitch cycles}} are repeated climate variations on a timescale of tens of millennia caused by cyclic variations in {{w|Orbital eccentricity|eccentricity}}, {{w|axial tilt}}, and {{w|precession}} of the {{w|Earth's orbit}}, which thus then determined climatic patterns on Earth. At this time the cycles reaches a point where more sun reached the polar ice and this will begin the melting that (after thousands of years) ends the glaciation. Next to this is a chart showing the solar input, see next entry. The Milankovitch cycles are referenced again around 4700 BCE as a cause for a small period with cooling.

|-
| [A line chart with a labeled Y-axis "Summer sun W/m2 at 60°N" with three labeled ticks ranging from 450-550. The curve starts up and then goes down five times and up four times ending down. There is one plateau towards the end compared to the rest of the curve where the ups and downs are quite alike.] || 18600 BCE || -4.2 || The chart shows the input of sun during summer time in the {{w|Northern hemisphere}} (at {{w|60° northern latitude}}) as the effect (W) per square meter (m2) which fluctuated in the range from 450-550 during the time shown in the chart. There is, however, no scale for the time between the peaks. This chart relates to the text about increasing sun to the polar ice in the entry above.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 18500 BCE
| [A map of the world. At the top is a light gray area covering {{w|North America}}, {{w|Greenland}} and northern {{w|Europe}} and most of the northern part of {{w|Russia}}. A similar gray area covers {{w|Antarctica}}. The gray areas are labeled as ice.] || 18300 BCE || -4.2 || Randall has made several comics with [[:Category:Maps|maps]]. This map is for once not part of a joke, but just to show where the ice covered the {{w|northern hemisphere}} (and Antarctica) at this time. The map seems to be the same as the one showed in the Wikipedia article about the {{w|Last Glacial Maximum}}. The continents have not moved much since then, but the lower water level caused by the amount of water bound up in the ice, can clearly be seen in several locations. For instance the {{w|British islands}} are connected to each other and to Europe, Greenland is connected to {{w|Canada}}, {{w|Australia}} with {{w|Papua New Guinea}} and the entire group of countries that reach into the {{w|Indian Ocean}} below the central part of {{w|China}} is much broader and has grown together into one large landmass connected to {{w|Malaysia}} and {{w|Indonesia}}. Also {{w|Alaska}} and Russia is connected through the ice sheets covering the northern part of the Earth. Later in the chart it is mentioned that when the ice retreats there is still a land-bridge connecting the two until the water levels rise even more.
|-
| rowspan="1"| 18000 BCE
| …And the ice sheets start to melt. || 17900 BCE || -4.1 || This is a slow process. First 4000 years later is New York free of ice (13,600 BCE in the chart), and not until after almost 10,000 years (at 8400 BCE in the chart) does the ice retreat all the way back across the Canadian border.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 17500 BCE
| Temperatures have been creeping upward, but around this point, CO2 levels start to climb…|| 17300 BCE || -4.1 ||The increasing CO2 levels can be seen at the right end of the {{w|Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere#Measuring_ancient-Earth_carbon_dioxide_concentration|green curve here}} under the Wikipedia article about {{w|Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere}}. It is clearly about 20,000 years ago that this last increase began, and it lasted for quite some time. Such natural increases may be caused by several facts. Hotter water in the ocean can dissolve less gasses and would release some of the CO2 it had held during the previous colder period. Melting {{w|tundra}} that has been under {{w|permafrost}} can release gasses when the frozen plants start to decompose. Also volcanic activity could cause an increase. As can be seen on the chart nothing much happens with the temperature in spite of this increase.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 17000 BCE
| …And then the warming speeds up. || 16700 BCE || -4.1 || It took 3000 years for the temperature to increase with one degree. So this sentence can be seen as sarcasm about the rate of natural climate change compared to modern {{w|anthropogenic}} (human caused) warming.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 16500 BCE
| [Cueball is standing with a spear just the right of the graph talking to a rabbit.] Cueball: Still pretty cold. || 16200 BCE || -4.0 || True, because although the temperature has risen with 0.3°C over the last 4000 years the temperature is still 4°C below the 1961-1990 average.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 16000 BCE
| [Megan points to the graph to the right of her and between her and Ponytail standing on the other side. Mean is the first drawing on the left side of the dotted curve, which has hardly moved since the beginning, only to just on the other side of 4°C below the 1961-1990 average.] || 15600 BCE || -3.9 || Megan seems to be pushing the temperature up, and this is the first time the temperature is less than 4°C below the 1961-1990 average.
|-
| [In the right part of the chart is an explanation of the data. Below the first two lines there are four drawings each showing possible temperature swings in reality compared to the smoothed data that represents the dotted curve of the entire chart. The dotted curve is shown in all four drawings and a thin line is shown running along it but with much more fluctuation left and right on the first two, a large spike right on the third and a large bump way right on the fourth. Above these there are two labels. The first labels is inside a bracket that covers the first three, and the last label is for the last drawing. Below is a list of sources.] Limits of this data: Short warming or cooling spikes might be “smoothed out” by these reconstructions but only if they’re small or brief enough. Possible Unlikely Reconstructions are from Shakun (2012) and Marcott (2013), scaled to Annan + Hargreaves (2013) estimate for the last glacial period. || 15600 BCE || -3.9 || This is Randall's pre-emptive response to skepticism about the accuracy of prehistoric data. {{w|Ice cores}} and similar records might miss individual year-to-year variation, but should catch sustained changes lasting many decades, which is the time scale that matters for climate. See links to the [[#Sources|sources below]].

|-
| rowspan="1"| 15500 BCE
| In what is now {{w|France}}, humans paint murals on the walls of the {{w|Lascaux}} caves [Hairy paints three animals, two with horns, and two humans, Cueball holding hand with Hairy who has a spear. On the other side of the central line Megan writes three letters, the last of which is reversed:] NIИ || 15200 BCE || -3.8 || A reference to the industrial techno band {{w|Nine Inch Nails}} as Megan writes the bands stylized name NIИ on the wall next to Hairy who is in the process of painting part of the {{w|cave paintings}} at Lascaux in France.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 15000 BCE
| Ice sheets around {{w|Alaska}} shrink, exposing a land bridge between Asia and North America [From around the bottom if this section and down to 11500 BCE the dotted curve moved steadily to the right towards warmed temperature peaking close to 1.5°C below the 1961-1990 average. Before this the temperature had not moved much away from that at the start.] || 14600 BCE || -3.5 || This land bridge is known as {{w|Beringia}}. It is mentioned again at 8300 when it disappears due to the rising seas.
|-
| rowspan="1"| 14500 BCE
| [Cueball walks right looking back at the graph behind him. Megan walks in front of him pointing further right.] | Cueball: Cool. Humans reach {{w|North America}}. || 14200 BCE || -3.3 || This is approximately when the humans from {{w|Asia}} crossed the land bridge {{w|Beringia}} from what is now {{w|Russia}} to what is now {{w|Alaska}}, i.e. over the land bridge mentioned in the previous entry. According to Wikipedia's article on {{w|Settlement of the Americas}} the {{w|Paleo-Indians}}' first dispersal into the {{w|Americas}} occurred around 14,500–11,000 BCE (as shown in the chart). However, a {{w|Settlement_of_the_Americas#Chronology|second theory}} suggest that an early wave of humans reached North America over 20,000 years ago by boat prior to the formation of the land bridge. Cueball's comment can either be directed at the fact that it was cool that people migrated this far, or it could be related to the fact that he looks back at the temperature curve and observes that even though the temperature has increased one degree since the start of the chart it is still 3.3°C below the 1961-1990 average, i.e. it is still very cold.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 14000 BCE
| The edge of the ice withdraws from {{w|New York City}} and retreats north. || 13700 BCE || -3.1 || Even though the ice began to melt 4000 years before (at 18,000 BCE in the chart) it is first now that New York City is free of ice.
|-
| [A large glacier front speaks in a speech bubble with an arrow pointing at it. Behind is there are four peaks in the horizon and in front of it three small melting pools and some rocks on the ground.] Glacier: ''That’s it! I’m moving to Canada!'' || 13600 BCE || -3.0 || When US citizens are unhappy with changes in their country, they sometimes say they will move to Canada in protest. Here it is the glacier that is unhappy with the climate changes. And since the ice withdraws north when it gets hotter this glacier didn't have much of a choice. However this is a slow process and according to the chart the glacier first retreated over the Canadian border around 8400 BCE more than 5000 years later.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 13500 BCE
| Humans domesticate dogs (Date uncertain, may be much earlier) || 13400 BCE || -3.0 || See {{w|Origin of the domestic dog}}. Here it is {{w|Origin_of_the_domestic_dog#Time_of_domestication|mentioned}} that {{w|dogs}} separated from {{w|Gray wolf|wolfs}} about 23,500 years ago, but that there was an event around 15,000 years ago (13,00 BCE) which increased the population size and that may be attributable to domestication events. But if humans are responsible for the creation of the dog species it may have occurred several thousands of years before.
|-
|| [Megan and Cueball is watching a wolf looking at them.] Megan: Okay, you can live in our homes and we’ll feed you, but we’ll still get mad if you poop on the floor. Wolf: Deal. Cueball: And we get to breed you to be tiny and dress you in little costumes. Wolf: …Wait. || 13100 BCE || -2.8 || Megan is making a deal with the wolf that it can eat and sleep with the humans as long as they can yell at it for pooping indoor. This sounds like a sweat deal for the wolf until Cueball mentions that they will {{w|Dog breeding|breed}} it to be {{w|Chihuahua (dog)|very small}} and then dress it up in small {{w|Dog's fashion|costumes}}. The wolf says wait, but it is already too late...

|-
| rowspan="2"| 13000 BCE
| {{w|Woolly Rhino}} goes extinct || 12900 BCE || -2.7 || Actually only true for mainland woolly rhinos. Some survived on a small island until {{w|Woolly_rhinoceros#Extinction|around 8000 BCE}}. These animals died out in the {{w|Quaternary extinction event}} that took out also a lot of the {{w|Pleistocene megafauna}}, including the {{w|mammoth}} also mentioned in the chart. These two animals likely became extinct in part due to {{w|Holocene extinction|humans hunting them to extinction}} in a period where climate change had already stressed the animals. Indirectly humans may thus also have caused the extinction of the {{w|Saber-toothed cat}} also mentioned here. That humans may have caused these animals extinction even this early may be one reason that Randall has included them.
|-
| {{w|Oregon}} is scoured by huge floods as glacial dams burst and lakes of meltwater flow to the sea || 12600 BCE || -2.2 || This is a reference to the {{w|Missoula Floods}} several cataclysmic floods that swept periodically across eastern {{w|Washington}} and down the {{w|Columbia River Gorge}} flooding much of eastern Washington and the {{w|Willamette Valley}} in western Oregon at the end of the last ice age. These {{w|Glacial lake outburst flood|glacial lake outburst floods}} were the result of periodic sudden ruptures of the ice dam on the {{w|Clark Fork River}} that created {{w|Glacial Lake Missoula}}. During the last {{w|deglaciation}} these floods occurred several times over the 2,000-year period between 13,000 and 11,000 BCE, as the ice dam reformed after each flood.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 12500 BCE
| Ice sheets withdraw from Chicago || 12200 BCE || -1.8 || The next step towards the Canadian border less than 1500 years after they left New York at 13,600 BCE.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 12000 BCE
| Humans settle {{w|Abu Hureyra}} in {{w|Syria}} || 11550 BCE || -1.6 || A well-preserved prehistoric village that lasted over 4000 years, between 11,000 and 7000 BCE so a little later than noted in the chart, allowing archaeologists to study how their culture developed.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 11500 BCE
| [An arrow on the left side of the dotted curve is pointing down along the dotted curve and to the left indicate temperature is declining again, meaning the dotted curve now moves left to colder temperatures. This only continues until 10500 BCE. It is only the second time something is noted on the left side after Megan at 16000 BCE] Temperatures start to decline, mainly in the Northern hemisphere This may be caused by changes in ocean circulation due to the floods of cold fresh meltwater flowing into the Atlantic as the North American ice sheet melts. This cooler period is called the {{w|Younger Dryas}} || 11300 BCE || -1.6 || The temperature almost reached 1.5°C below the 1961-1990 average before it got colder. There were {{w|Outburst_flood#Glacial_floods_in_North_America_.288.2C000_to_15.2C000_years_ago.29|several floods}} during the end of the ice age but the most famous is the one from {{w|Lake Agassiz}}. The information in this element is basically written towards the end of the section on this lake's {{w|Lake_Agassiz#Geological_progression|geological progression}}, and the date given fits with the chart at 11,000 BCE and mentioning that it causes the Younger Dryas stadial. The mentioning of the melting water causing a cooling in the northern hemisphere references a similar event that could also happen today. If the ice on {{w|Greenland}} melts too quickly it could mess with "the pump" that runs the {{w|Gulf Stream}} and cause a {{w|shutdown of thermohaline circulation}}, which would actually end up cooling {{w|Europe}}, especially the northern part and the {{w|British Islands}} (and everything east of {{w|Greenland}} in the {{w|North Atlantic}}), in spite of possibly still generally increasing temperatures on a global scale. This could be a major problem for farming in Europe! The movie {{w|The Day After Tomorrow}} was based on this shutdown, although it then took it to an (impossible) extreme with super cyclones that cooled down the entire northern hemisphere into an ice age in a few days... In the Younger Dryas this effect caused the Earth to cool down less than one degree over 1000 years before the warm up began again.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 11000 BCE
| [This is the first text to the left of the dotted curve:] Humans reach {{w|Argentina}} || 10900 BCE || -1.8 || The earliest evidence of {{w|Indigenous_peoples_in_Argentina#Prehistory|humans in Argentina}} is from 11,000 BCE as noted in the chart. Finally the temperature has risen enough that there is space between the left border of the chart and the curve for writing facts also on that side of the curve. This took 9,000 years.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 10500 BCE
| [An arrow pointing down along the right side of the dotted curve and to the right indicate temperature is increasing again, meaning the dotted curve now moves right to hotter temperatures. This continues until 8000 BCE where it levels out just above the 1961-1990 average.] Warming resumes || 10500 BCE || -1.8 || After 1000 years of decreasing temperatures the warm up of Earth resumes.
|-
| Human settlements at {{w|Jericho}} ||10050 BCE || -1.4 ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 10000 BCE
| First development of farming || 9750 BCE || -1.1 || See {{w|History of agriculture}}. At the top of the chart it was mentioned as one of the things humans has not developed back then. At this point the temperature was about to cross into only one degree below the 1961-1990 average. This is also around this time that the last ice age is said to have ended.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 9500 BCE
| {{w|Saber-toothed cat}} goes extinct || 9200 BCE || -0.3 || Although one of these are known as the {{w|saber-toothed tiger}} they were not related to tigers and generally most saber-toothed "cats" are not even related to modern {{w|cats}} at all, but can be viewed as examples of convergent evolution. The last Saber-toothed cat first became extinct around 7000 BCE but the best known, the saber-toothed tiger, became {{w|Smilodon#Extinction|extinct}} around 8000 BCE. But even this does not fit very well with Randall's range. Maybe he mixed the year up with the fact that it is about 9000 years ago the last of this type of animals became extinct, but that would not be 9000 BCE but 7000 BCE. These animals died out in the {{w|Quaternary extinction event}} that took out also a lot of the {{w|Pleistocene megafauna}}, among others the {{w|woolly rhino}} and the {{w|mammoth}} also mentioned in the chart. These last two animals likely became extinct in part due to {{w|Holocene extinction|humans hunting them to extinction}} in a period where climate change had already stressed the animals. Indirectly humans may thus also have caused the extinction of the Saber-toothed cat that may have been too specialized in hunting down the {{w|megafauna}}, thus loosing their prey, and also in general fighting with humans about the food resources. That humans may have caused these animals extinction even this early may be one reason that Randall has included them.
|-
| {{w|Horses}} disappear from {{w|North America}} || 9100 BCE || -0.2 || The {{w|evolution of the horse}} began millions of years ago in North America; early species migrated across {{w|Beringia}} into Eurasia before they disappeared from North America.{{Citation needed}}

|-
| rowspan="4"| 9000 BCE
| | Last North American {{w|Pokémon}} go extinct [Cueball with a spear and Megan is looking up at this last “fact”.] Megan: That is not a real fact. || 8900 BCE || -0.1 || As prehistoric Megan states, this is not a real fact. As the writing stated that ''Pokémon go extinct'' this can also be seen as a reference to the recently released {{w|Pokémon Go}} game and hence also the recent comic [[1705: Pokémon Go]]. Since that game was released Pokémon began to thrive throughout the entire world, and are now most commonly found near [http://time.com/4443225/pokemon-go-affluent-white-neighborhoods-report/ affluent first world neighborhoods]. Later at 1200 BCE Randall references Sea People and feels he have to make a foot note that these are actually a real thing as opposed to this fact. Having made already one silly mock-fact he obviously thinks (correctly) that people would think he was joking about other things as well, if they where not that well known (and sounded like mermaids).
|-
| Temperatures reach modern levels || 8800 BCE || 0.0 || It took 11,200 years for the temperature to increase 4.3°C. According to the last part of the graph it may rise by as much in less than 200 years due to human cause global warming..
|-
| Rising seas cut off the {{w|land bridge}} between North America and Asia || 8700 BCE || 0.1 || The {{w|Beringia}} was also references when it was freed of ice in 15,000 BCE. This is an example of what happens when the temperature rises and glaciers melt. This could happen again now as the temperature rise causes ice on {{w|Greenland}} and {{w|Antarctica}} to melt.

|-
| {{w|Cattle}} domesticated || 8500 BCE || 0.2 ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 8500 BCE
| Ice sheets retreat across the Canadian border || 8400 BCE || 0.3 || Finally the glacier that began retreating from New York around 13,600 BCE succeeded in moving to Canada as it had threatened to do...
|-
| Temperatures start to level out slightly above 1961-1990 levels || 8050 BCE || 0.4 || The next 3000 years the temperature stays within 0.2°C degree of a temperature 0.5°C above the 1961-1990 average. A very long and stable period.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 8000 BCE
| [The above sentence breaks over the 8000 BCE line. From here a maximum in temperature on the chart is reached at 0.5°C above the 1961-1990 average, which will not be overtaken until 2000 CE. It stays almost constant here until 5000 BCE where a slight cooling begins.] || 8000 BCE || 0.4 || This is the only five hundred year span with no events listed fully inside. Maybe because nothing happens with the temperature.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 7500 BCE
| This warm, stable period is called the {{w|Holocene Climate Optimum}} || 7400 BCE || 0.5 || Some skeptics like to say "[http://www.skepticalscience.com/10000-years-warmer.htm it was warmer in the Holocene]." This is no longer true. Global temperature began encroaching Holocene levels in 1998, and has equaled or possibly exceeded them since 2014.
|-
| {{w|Jiahu}} settled in China || 7050 BCE || 0.5 ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 7000 BCE
| Final collapse of the North American ice sheet leads to rapid 2-4m sea level rise… || 6800 BCE || 0.55 || The temperature almost reached 0.6°C above the 1961-1990 average before this happened and caused the slight decrease in temperature mentioned below.
|-
| [A small arrow points down and left to the right of the dotted curve. There is a small decrease in temperature but it is very small and would have been missed without the arrow and label.] …And a period of cooling in the Northern hemisphere || 6550 BCE || 0.5 ||

|-
| rowspan="1"| 6500 BCE
| As seas rise to near their modern levels, Britain is cut off from mainland Europe || 6300 BCE || 0.45 || This is a reference to the flooding of {{w|Doggerland}}.

|-
| rowspan="1"| 6000 BCE
| Humans develop copper metalworking || 5600 BCE || 0.5 || The {{w|copper age}} was relatively brief before humans discovered how to make {{w|bronze}}.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 5500 BCE
| Massive volcanic eruption in {{w|Oregon}} creates crater lake || 5300 BCE || 0.55 ||
|-
| {{w|Gold}} metalworking || 5050 BCE || 0.6 || The temperature peaks here at just a bit more than 0.6°C above the 1961-1990 average. It will not rise above this level until the global warming sets in in the 1900s.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 5000 BCE
| {{w|Invention of the wheel}} || 4900 BCE || 0.6 ||
|-
| [To the right of the dotted curve is an arrow pointing down and slightly left. From here temperature decreases very slowly but steadily from 0.5°C above the 1961-1990 average until 1000 BCE where a stable plateau is reached around the 1961-1990 average.] Earth begins to cool slowly mainly due to regular cycles in its orbit || 4800 BCE || 0.5 || Again a reference to the {{w|Milankovitch cycles}} mentioned in detail at 18,600 BCE. Here they cause a cooling rather than a heating as they did back then.

|-
| rowspan="3"| 4500 BCE
| {{w|Proto-Indo-European language}} develops || 4400 BCE || 0.5 ||
|-
| [To the right of the curve Ponytail holds up a hand towards Cueball.] Ponytail: Let’s make out language heavily inflected, so future students have to memorize a zillion verb endings! Cueball: Okay! || 4400 BCE || 0.5 || Ponytail gets the idea to develop the language heavily inflected to make it difficult to remember all the verb endings for future students and Cueball is okay with that. This is a direct reference to the recent comic [[1709: Inflection]].
|-
| Permanent settlements in the {{w|fertile crescent}} || 4200 BCE || 0.5 ||

|-
| rowspan="2"| 4000 BCE
| Horses domesticated || 3950 BCE || 0.5 ||
|-
| {{w|Minoan culture}} arises on Crete || 3700 BCE || 0.5 ||

|-
| rowspan="4"| 3500 BCE
| {{w|Egyptian mummification}} || 3500 BCE || 0.5 ||
|-
| Rise of the {{w|Indus Valley civilization}} || 3300 BCE || 0.5 ||
|-
| Invention of {{w|writing}} in {{w|Sumer}} “{{w|prehistory}}” ends, “{{w|history}}” begins || 3200 BCE || 0.5 || Writing was referenced at the top of the chart as one of the skills not yet developed back then. Any knowledge we have before this invention rely on what can be dug up and inferred from the findings. This is called prehistory. After this day it has been possible to find descriptions of people and events, and that is the definition of history. (Old guy in Sumer: Kids these days with their new-fangled stone tablets, instead of using their memory...)
|-
| Earliest human whose name we know (Pharaoh {{w|Iry-Hor}} in Egypt) || 3100 BCE || 0.5 || The first named person we know of today!

|-
| rowspan="5"| 3000 BCE
| {{w|Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors}} period in China || 2800 BCE || 0.4 || The temperature has finally dropped below 0.5°C above the 1961-1990 average after almost 2000 years of cooling from 0.6°C above the 1961-1990 average.
|-
| {{w|Gilgamesh}} || 2700 BCE || 0.4 ||
|-
| {{w|Imhotep}} || 2600 BCE || 0.4 ||
|-
| {{w|Maya civilization|Mayan}} culture emerges || 2600 BCE || 0.4 ||
|-
| {{w|Great Pyramid}} constructed || 2650 BCE || 0.4 ||

|-
| rowspan="3"| 2500 BCE
| {{w|Corded Ware culture}} in Europe || 2500 BCE || 0.3 ||
|-
| [To the left of the curve two rock musicians with long hair and electrical guitars are standing on either side of a small gate made of three slabs of stone, one on top of the other two standing stones.] Stonehenge completed || 2200 || 0.3 || The drawing is a reference to the 1984 {{w|mockumentary}} about the fake rock band {{w|This Is Spinal Tap}} in conjunction with {{w|Stonehenge}} at 2200 BCE. In the movie the band ordered a giant 18 feet Stonehenge megalith but a writing mistake gives them one that is only 18 inches high.
|-
| {{w|Chariots}} developed || 2000 BCE || 0.3 ||

|-
| rowspan="3"| 2000 BCE
| {{w|Alphabetic writing}} developed in Egypt || 1750 BCE || 0.2 ||
|-
| Last mammoths on a tiny Siberian island go extinct || 1650 BCE || 0.2 || Most of these animals died out in the {{w|Quaternary extinction event}} that took out also a lot of the {{w|Pleistocene megafauna}}, including the {{w|woolly rhino}} also mentioned in the chart. These two animals likely became extinct in part due to {{w|Holocene extinction|humans hunting them to extinction}} in a period where climate change had already stressed the animals. Indirectly humans may thus also have caused the extinction of the {{w|Saber-toothed cat}} also mentioned here. That humans may have caused these animals extinction even this early may be one reason that Randall has included them. Most of the mammoths died out before 8000 BCE but {{w|Woolly_mammoth#Extinction|some survived in remote areas}} and the last known population lived on {{w|Wrangel Island}} in the {{w|Arctic Ocean}} until 2000 BCE (so it seems Randall has given them 250 years more than what is noted on Wikipedia).
|-
| {{w|Minoan eruption}} || 1600 BCE || 0.2 ||

|-
| rowspan="5"| 1500 BCE
| {{w|Iron smelting}} || 1400 BCE || 0.1 ||
|-
| {{w|Olmec}} civilization develops in Central America || 1350 BCE || 0.1 ||
|-
| [A Trojan horse with two Cueball-like guys in front and a third standing on its back. Its back is at three Cueball’s height and its head rises to the level of the Cueball on its back. It stands on a platform with four wheel on the visible side. There is text on the horse] Setting of the ''{{w|Iliad}}'' and the ''{{w|Odyssey}}'' Text on horse: Not a trap || 1250 BCE || 0.1 || A reference to the {{w|Trojan War}} qua the drawing of the {{w|Trojan Horse}}. The horse was a big trap letting the soldiers hidden inside it into {{w|Troy}}. This explains why it has ''Not a trap'' written on it. Else they would not have taken the giant wooden horse present from their sworn enemies into their city just like that...
|-
| Invasion of the {{w|Sea peoples}}* * A real thing || 1200 BCE || 0.1 || This sounds so much like a reference to {{w|Mermaid|mermaids}}, often called {{w|Mermaid#One_Thousand_and_One_Nights|sea people}} that Randall feels the need to note that this invasion and these sea people is ''a real thing'' in a foot note. This is opposed to the Pokémon reference above where he notes that it is ''not a real fact''. The sea people was a seafaring confederation of groups known to have attacked ancient Egypt around this time.
|-
| {{w|Polynesians}} explore the Pacific Ocean || 1000 BCE || 0.1 ||

|-
| rowspan="8"| 1000 BCE
| [From 1000 BBC to 1000 CE the temperature is stable and very close to the 1961-1990 average.] || 1000 BCE || 0.1 || At this point the temperature has fallen half a degree back down to just a bit above the the 1961-1990 average. It will stay stable there for a long time from 1200 BCE and not until after 900 CE, after more than 2000 years, will there be any significant changes in temperature (at that time temperature falls even further). So one more long period with almost no temperature changes.
|-
| {{w|Solomon}} || 1000 BCE || 0.1 ||
|-
| {{w|Iliad}} and {{w|Odyssey}} composed || 900 BCE || 0.1 || In this way Randall makes it clear that the "history" of these two fairytales are written more than 300 years after and thus cannot very likely have anything to do with reality. For some reason Randall only mentions when religious figures like {{w|Buddha}}, {{w|Jesus}} and {{w|Muhammad}} (supposedly) lived but does not note when for instance the {{w|Bible}} or the {{w|Quran}} was written, which would have displayed a similarly much later time of writing than of the actual events mentioned taking place (and thus also indicating the fairytale type of stories they must be). Randall has specifically avoided using the more commonly used BC for before Christ, and instead uses CE for {{w|common era}} and BCE (before common era) in this chart. Thus avoiding the mentioning of religion in relation to the timing.
|-
| Rise of {{w|Greek city-states}} || 800 BCE || 0.1 ||
|-
| {{w|Neo-Assyrian}} empire || 800 BCE || 0.1 ||
|-
| {{w|Ancient Olympic Games|First Olympics}} || 750 BCE || 0.1 || The first of the ancient Olympic Games is traditionally dated to 776 BC.
|-
| {{w|Zapotec civilization|Zapotec}} writing in modern Mexico || 600 BCE || 0.0 ||
|-
| {{w|Confucius}} || 550 BCE || 0.0 ||

|-
| rowspan="10"| 500 BCE
| The stuff in the {{w|300 (film)|movie ''300''}}, but regular speed and with more clothing || 450 BCE || 0.0 || A reference to the {{w|Battle of Thermopylae}} (also known as 300 Spartans) but referenced by comparing the event with the 2007 movie ''300'' about this battle. But Randall notes that in the real world the fighting of course occurred at regular speed and that they probably had more clothing on in the real world than in the fictionalized action movie.
|-
| {{w|Buddha}} || 450 BCE || 0.0 || Randall also mentions other religious figures like {{w|Jesus}} and {{w|Muhammad}}.
|-
| {{w|Nazca Lines}} || 350 BCE || 0.0 ||
|-
| {{w|Alexander the Great}} || 350 BCE || 0.0 ||
|-
| {{w|Mayan hieroglyphics}} || 250 BCE || 0.0 ||
|-
| {{w|Ashoka the Great}} || 250 BCE || 0.0 ||
|-
| {{w|Paper}} invented || 200 BCE || 0.0 ||
|-
| {{w|Asterix}} || 100 BCE || 0.0 || A reference to The Adventures of Asterix a comic series. The comic is set in 50 BCE to make it realistic for Asterix to interact with {{w|Julius Caesar}} who correctly below has been listed around 50 BCE as he died in 44 BCE. Or course Caesar could be listed when he was politically active (from about 60 BCE) whereas Asterix around the time of his birth. Since Asterix is a fictional character his presence is in line with that of the inclusion of the timing of the Odyssey and of the last Pokémon.
|-
| {{w| Teotihuacan|Teotihuacán}} metropolis || 100 BCE || 0.0 ||
|-
| {{w|Julius Caesar}} || 50 BCE || 0.0 ||
|-

|-
| rowspan="8"|1 BCE 1 CE
| [At the year 0, there is instead two numbers for each of the two scales before (1 BCE) and after Christ (1 CE)] || 1 CE || -0.1 || Originally the year range went directly from 1 BC to 1 AD. The year zero has since been added for use for instance in astronomical calculations. Maybe this is what is referenced here where the year 0 is not written but both 1 BCE and 1 CE.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| {{w|Roman Empire}} || 1 CE || -0.1 ||
|-
| {{w|Jesus}} || 1 CE || -0.1 || Randall also mentions other religious figures like {{w|Buddha}} and {{w|Muhammad}}.
|-
| [To the left and erupting volcano.] {{w|Pompeii}} || 100 CE || -0.1 || The volcano is {{w|Mount Vesuvius}} which exploded in 79 CE and is famous for burying everyone in the close by city Pompeii preserving peoples bodies inside the huge amount of ash that swallowed the city very rapidly. Today it has given the archeologist lots of knowledge about the culture of that time.
|-
| {{w|Three Kingdoms}} period || 250 CE || -0.1 ||
|-
| {{w|Gupta empire}} || 700 CE || -0.1 ||
|-
| Various groups take turns sacking {{w|Rome}} || 550 CE || -0.1 ||
|-
| {{w|Attila the Hun}} || 550 CE || -0.1 ||

|-
| rowspan="4"| 500 CE
| {{w|Muhammad}} || 600 CE || 0.0 || Randall also mentions other religious figures like {{w|Buddha}} and {{w|Jesus}}
|-
| {{w|Tang Dynasty}} || 750 CE || 0.0 ||
|-
| [An arrow to the right of the dotted curve pointing down, takes a swing far out from the curve and then bends back again. The text label next to it breaks into the next 500 period. The dotted curve stays stable at the 1961-1990 average along this arrow.] Medieval warm period in Europe and some northern regions (too regional to affect the global average much) || 900 CE || 0.0 ||
|-
| {{w|Leif Eriksson}} || 950 CE || 0.0 ||

|-
| rowspan="7"| 1000 CE
| [To the left a drawing of a compass with needle pointing the black end towards north east. There are labels for the four main directions (N, S, W, E) and a label next to it:] {{w|Magnetic compass}} navigation || 1050 CE || 0.0 ||
|-
| [The dotted curve moves to the left towards lower temperature reaching a minimum around 1650 CE of about 0.6°C below the 1961-1990 average at the {{w|Little Ice Age}}.] || 1150 CE || -0.1 || This less than half a degree drop in temperature over 500 years was ennough to cause the "Little Ice Age" which resulted in extended ice coverage in the winters in instance Europe. See more below at the entry for the Little Ice Age.
|-
| {{w|Ghengis Khan}} || 1200 CE || -0.2 ||
|-
| {{w|Zheng He}}’s fleet explores Asia and Africa || 1400 CE || -0.3 ||
|-
| {{w|Aztec Empire|Aztec Alliance}} || 1400 CE || -0.3 ||
|-
| {{w|Printing press}} || 1450 CE || -0.3 ||
|-
| {{w|Christopher Columbus|Columbus}} || 1490 CE || -0.3 || The time given here references when Christopher Columbus reached the {{w|Americas|new world}} in 1492. The five events around 1500 CE lies very close together but it fits with Columbus fitted in just before 1500.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 1500 CE
| {{w|European Renaissance}} || 1500 CE || -0.3 || For years after 1500 CE the CE is dropped and the years increase with only 100 instead of 500 although the scale stays the same. Inventions just happens so much faster in these last five hundred years up until today. So there are not really enough space to write all the important stuff and Randall has had to select very biased. So he included {{w|Isaac Newton}} but leaves out {{w|Albert Einstein}} and he includes {{w|airplanes}} but leaves out the {{w|car}} etc.
|-
| {{w|Shakespeare}} || 1600 CE || -0.3 ||4

|-
| rowspan="2"| 1600
| {{w|Isaac Newton|Newton}} || 1650 CE || -0.4 ||
|-
| [To the right of the dotted curve there is an arrow pointing down that makes a swing in towards the curve and then back out again. At 0.6°C below the 1961-1990 average, this is the coldest it has been since 9500 BCE. It is labeled:] ”{{w|Little Ice Age}}” || 1650 CE || -0.4 || This was not a true geologic Ice Age, just a slightly chilly period where the temperature reached a minimum of 0.4°C below the 1961-1990 average, the coldest it had been in more than 11,000 years and the coldest it has been during any human civilization. It was a harsh time in Europe. In the winter it was so cold that the river {{w|Thames}} {{w|Little_Ice_Age#Europe|froze over}} hard enough for holding {{w|River Thames frost fairs}}. This could be done between 1607 and 1814. And in 1658 {{w|Sweden}} managed to cross both {{w|Little Belt}} and the {{w|Great Belt}} in the {{w|March Across the Belts}} to invade {{w|Copenhagen}} in {{w|Denmark}}. It was a highly risky operation as the strong currents usually would not leave these belts ice over completely. But it was successful and only possible due to the harsh winters of the Little Ice Age again proving how much half a degree in global warming can mean.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 1700
| {{w|Steam engines}} || 1750 CE || -0.4 ||
|-
| {{w|United States Declaration of Independence|Unites States Independence}} || 1770 CE || -0.3 || On July 4, 1776.

|-
| rowspan="3"| 1800
| {{w|Industrial Revolution}} || 1825 CE || -0.3 ||
|-
| {{w|Electrical telegraph|Telegraphs}} || 1830 CE || -0.3 ||
|-
| [After this the dotted curve becomes solid.] || 1850 CE || -0.3 || From 1850 weather records became sufficiently accurate and widespread to greatly improve the precision of climate measurements. Hence the curve stops being an estimate and thus also stops being a dotted curve and becomes solid.

|-
| rowspan="6"| 1900
| {{w|Airplanes}} || 1900 CE || -0.3 ||
|-
| {{w|World Wars}} || 1930 CE || -0.2 ||
|-
| [The solid line takes a step to the right close to the 1961-1990 average. Over the rest of the 1900s it moves closer to the 1961-1990 average, crossing it before 2000 where it almost reaches the maximum temperature of 0.5 °C above the 1961-1990 average from earlier in 8000 BCE.] || 1940 CE || -0.2 || This is what the previous 14000 pixels of comic has been leading up to. After a laborious 20 millennia of gradual and meandering climate change, it should be clear that a full degree of warming in a single century is unprecedented in human history, and very unlikely to be natural variation.
|-
| {{w|Fossil fuel}} CO2 emissions start rapidly increasing || 1950 CE || -0.1 ||
|-
| {{w|Nuclear weapons}} || 1950 CE || -0.1 || The Working Group on the 'Anthropocene' suggests dating the {{w|Anthropocene}} epoch from ~1950.
|-
| {{w|Internet}} || 1980 CE || 0.1 || The origins of the internet dates back to 1960 but it first became widely used in 1980 but it was the linking of commercial networks and enterprises in the early 1990s that marks the beginning of the transition to the modern Internet. By placing the invention of the {{w|internet}} at 1980 in the chart, just where the temperature curve starts its most rapid increase, Randall humorously implies that the internet caused the rise in temperature. Randall has before been after incidents where cause and effects like this has been used without any proof that it was not a coincidence. This is where the temperature again reached above the 1961-1990 average. This of course had to occur before 1990 as the 1960 temperature was below this average.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 2000
| {{w|Northwest Passage}} opens || 2000 CE || 0.4 || This was the first solid evidence that something had changed. When companies can see the possibility to sail different routes to save money because global warming has removed the sea ice in regions that has always been covered in ice during modern time, then it suddenly becomes clear to even more lay people that something is changing, disregarding who/what is responsible for the change.
|-
|[From here to present day the solid line increases rapidly and in 2016, present day, is almost reaches 1°C above the 1961-1990 average, with about 0.8°C above the 1961-1990 average.] || 2016 CE || 0.8 || '''Notice''': [http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php?a=11&p=2 Warming did not stop] in 1998.

|-
| rowspan="3"| 2016
| | Present day || 2016 CE || 0.8 || Today, just after the two hottest months ever measured since 1850 had ended (July and August 2016), this comic was released with the message displayed very clearly here below. Act now or fry...
|-
| [From here the curve once again becomes dotted as this is the future. After one dot it splits in two and after the first two dots another split between them occurs forming three possible future dotted curves.] || 2016 CE || 0.8 || Here stops the data and the projection into the future begins so the curve again becomes dotted. Three different scenarios are depicted.
|-
|The first curve bending down before the others, and thus to the right of the other two reaches about 1.2°C above the 1961-1990 average and then goes straight down and stops at the 2100 line. An arrow points to it from the left and a label is written partly before and the rest after the 2100 line to the left of the curve:] Best-case scenario assuming immediate massive action to limit emissions || 2100 CE || 1.2 || If humanity does all in its power to stop global warming we might be able to halt the global warming already before 2050 keeping the maximum temperature to just 1.2°C above the 1961-1990 average. Only 0.4°C above today's temperature.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 2100
| [The middle curve bends a little down after reaching 1.3°C above the 1961-1990 average, and then continues this path reaching 2°C above the 1961-1990 average in 2100. An arrow point from below to it and a label is written below the curve and below 2100 line:] Optimistic scenario|| 2100 CE || 2.0 || If all the current realistic preventions are implemented, which might not be so realistic, then we may not even stop the warming but slow it down so we "only" reach 2°C above the 1961-1990 average in 2100 CE but it would not stop there. This is half the temperature change experienced since the ice age, but the other way. This was directly referenced in the title text of [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]]: ''That's only HALF an ice age unit (IAU), which is probably no big deal.''
|-
| [The last line continues along the path from the last 16 years of the solid line reaching 4.2°C above the 1961-1990 average at 2100, almost as far on the other side of the 1961-1990 average in 150 years as it took 14,000 years to move from the other side from the start of the chart. Another arrow point to this from below with a label below the curve and below 2100 line:] Current Path || 2100 CE || 4.2 || In this last scary scenario Randall assumes the temperature keeps rising steadily by extrapolating along the slope of the last two to three years. Randall has warned about the hazards of [[Extrapolating]], but this line is in fact [http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-best-to-worst-case-scenarios.html below the worst case predictions]. If this comes true we will reach a temperature increase taking os from the 1961-1990 average and in just 125 years to 4.2°C above this average. That is just as far above this average in that short time span as the ice age temperature was below. And it took more than 11,000 years for nature to reach such an increase. This was what Randall already asked about what would be like in the +1 ice age unit (IAU) panel in [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]]. So he has already tried to yell to us about this two years ago, and he even started out back in [[164: Playing Devil's Advocate to Win]] almost 10 years ago. Seems he will get to ''enjoy quite a ride'' as he "wished" for back then. Also note that there is no reason to assume the temperature will not keep rising past 2100 CE, so the {{w|Cretaceous Thermal Maximum|"Hothouse Earth"}} of the early {{w|Cretaceous period}} mentioned in the 4.5 degree comics +2 IAU panel might come to pass already before 2200 CE if we could continue to increase global warming as we do now. As we might not survive (at least not like we do today) past 2100 if this trend keeps up, there might come a natural stop to releasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. But then again some of the positive feedback may already have taken over releasing large quantities of such gasses when the {{w|permafrost}} of the large northern {{w|tundra|tundra's}} melts... Good luck Earth.
|}

===Sources===
The image attributes climate data sources as "Shakun et al. (2012), Marcott et al. (2013), Annan and Hargreaves (2013), HadCRUT4, IPCC":
* Shakun et al. (2012) - [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v484/n7392/full/nature10915.html Nature], [http://www.atm.damtp.cam.ac.uk/mcintyre/shakun-co2-temp-lag-nat12.pdf (pdf)]
* Marcott et al. (2013) - [http://science.sciencemag.org/content/339/6124/1198 Science], [http://www.atm.damtp.cam.ac.uk/mcintyre/shakun-co2-temp-lag-nat12.pdf (pdf)]
* Annan and Hargreaves (2013) - [http://www.clim-past.net/9/367/2013/cp-9-367-2013.html Climate of the Past] [http://www.jamstec.go.jp/frsgc/research/d5/jdannan/LGM_temp.pdf (pdf)]
* {{w|HadCRUT#HadCRUT4 wikipedia|HadCRUT4}} - [http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcrut4/ Official site]
* {{w|Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change|IPCC}} -[http://www.ipcc.ch/ Official site]

==Transcript==
'''Note''' there are several spelling errors in the comic, so please do only correct spelling errors that are not part of the comic! See more in the [[#Trivia|trivia section]].
:[A large heading, followed by a sub-caption. Below that two lines with a statement in between:]
:<big>A timeline of Earth’s average temperature</big>
:since the last ice age glaciation
:When people say “The climate has changed before,” these are the kinds of changes they’re talking about.

:[A very long chart below the headings above is headed with a label for the scale of the X-axis above the chart. Below that a sub-caption. To the left an arrow down to the top of the chart pointing to the dotted curves starting point (at -4.3°C below the 1961-1990 average) with a label above the arrow. And arrow pointing left to the left of the center and another pointing right to the right of the center has labels. Below these is the temperature scale of the X-axis, with 9 ticks between the borders each with a label ranging from -4 to +4°C compared to the 1961-1990 average, but with another step in each direction not labeled towards to axis so the chart covers -5 to +5°C compared to the 1961-1990 average.]
:'''Temperature'''
: Compared to the 1961-1990 average
:Start
:Colder
:Warmer
:-4°C -3°C -2°C -1°C 0°C +1°C +2°C +3°C +4°C

:[To the right of the chart is a gray text standing on the side down along the outer boarder of the chart with the sources for the chart:]
: Source: Shakun et. al. (2012) , Marcott et. al. (2013), Annan and Hargreaves (2013) , HadCRUT4, IPCC 

:[The chart is split in 10 columns by the temperature scale and the borders. The two central columns are white, and then from there to the left the background becomes a faded color that changes from light blue to blue at the edge in four steps. Similarly to the right the color changes from light red to red. To the left there is a time scale taking 500 years leaps from 20,000 BCE all the way to year 1, where there are two years, one for BBC and one for CE. The 500 year leaps continue until 1500 CE and from there the steps are down to 100 years until 2100 with also present day 2016 labeled. After 1500 the CE is omitted. The labels stop there, but there is space below covering down to 2200 CE. There is clearly visible division line across the chart on the level of each of the 500 step, and fainter lines for each of the 100 steps all the way even though only the last 5 of these 100 steps are labeled. There is a similar clear line at 2016. Below each step on the Y-axis is noted, and then any text starting before the next step is noted below indented. If there are extra image belonging to text this is indented once more. The graph that the whole chart is about is a dotted line that begins at the “start” point mentioned above at -4.3°C and then begins to go straight down. It will change left and right all the way down. To being with all text and most drawings are to right of the dotted curve. Whenever something is to the left it will be noted. When it says to the left above something, and then nothing over the next, then the next will be to the right. Only at the very bottom are there more entries to the left than right. ]
:20000 BCE
::[An arrow goes from the dotted line to the central line at 0°C. In the middle of the line there is a temperature label:]
::4.3°C
::At the start of our timeline, 22,000 years ago, Earth is 4°C colder than during the late 20th century.
::Boston is buried under almost a mile of ice, and the glaciers reach as far south as New York City.
:::[The Statue of Liberty is shown in front of a glacier front. A very tiny Cueball is on top of the glacier. The drawing is labeled and so is also the glacier.]
:::New York
:::Ice
:::[A guy with a white knit cap is seen walking in a snowy landscape leaving black footprints behind him. He walks through the white central part of the chart.]
:::[The skyline of Boston is shown with two clear buildings among all the other. Above it is a line and in between this area has been filled with thin lines. The drawing is labeled and so is this area. Also the skyline has an arrow pointing at it with a label:]
:::Boston
:::Ice
:::Modern skyline

:19500 BCE
::But the world is about to warm up.
::By this time, humans have already spread across Africa, Eurasia, and Australia.
::They’ve created painting, pottery, rope, and bows and arrows, but haven’t developed writing or farming.

:19000 BCE
::Changes in the Earth’s orbit mean that more sunlight reaches the polar ice…
:::[A line chart with a labeled Y-axis with three labeled ticks. The curve starts up and then goes down five times and up four times ending down. There is one plateau towards the end compared to the rest of the curve where the ups and downs are quite alike.]
:::Summer sun W/m2 at 60°N
:::550
:::500
:::450

:18500 BCE
::[A map of the world. At the top is a light gray area covering North America, Greenland and northern Europe and most of the northern part of Russia. A similar gray area covers Antarctica. There are two labels in the gray area above and one in the gray area below:]
::Ice Ice
::Ice

:18000 BCE
::…And the ice sheets start to melt.

:17500 BCE
::Temperatures have been creeping upward, but around this point, CO2 levels start to climb…

:17000 BCE
::…And then the warming speeds up.

:16500 BCE
::[Cueball is standing with a spear just the right of the graph talking to a rabbit.]
::Cueball: Still pretty cold.

:16000 BCE
::[Megan points to the graph to the right of her and between her and Ponytail standing on the other side. Mean is the first drawing on the left side of the dotted curve, which has hardly moved since the beginning, only to just on the other side of 4°C.]
::[In the right part of the chart is an explanation of the data. Below the first two lines there are four drawings each showing possible temperature swings in reality compared to the smoothed data that represents the dotted curve of the entire chart. The dotted curve is shown in all four drawings and a thin line is shown running along it but with much more fluctuation left and right on the first two, a large spike right on the third and a large bump way right on the fourth. Above these there are two labels. The first labels is inside a bracket that covers the first three, and the last label is for the last drawing. Below is a list of sources.]
::Limits of this data:
::Short warming or cooling spikes might be “smoothed out” by these reconstructions but only if they’re small or brief enough.
:::Possible Unlikely
::Reconstructions are from Shakun (2012) and Marcott (2013), scaled to Annan + Hargreaves (2013) estimate for the last glacial period.

:15500 BCE
::In what is now France, humans paint murals on the walls of the Lascaux caves
::[Hairy paints three animals, two with horns, and two humans, Cueball holding hand with Hairy who has a spear. On the other side of the central line Megan writes three letters, the last of which is reversed.]
:::NIИ

:15000 BCE
::Ice sheets around Alaska shrink, exposing a land bridge between Asia and North America
::[From around the bottom if this section and down to 11500 BCE the dotted curve moved steadily to the right towards warmed temperature peaking close to -1.5°C. Before this the temperature had not moved much away from that at the start.]

:14500 BCE
::[Cueball walks right looking back at the graph behind him. Megan walks in front of him pointing further right.]
::Cueball: Cool.
::Humans reach North America.

:14000 BCE
::The edge of the ice withdraws from New York City and retreats North.
::[A large glacier front speaks in a speech bubble with an arrow pointing at it. Behind is there are four peaks in the horizon and in front of it three small melting pools and some rocks on the ground.]
::Glacier: ''That’s it! I’m moving to Canada!''

:13500 BCE
::Humans domesticate dogs
::(Date uncertain, may be much earlier)
::[Megan and Cueball is watching a wolf looking at them.]
::Megan: Okay, you can live in our homes and we’ll feed you, but we’ll still get mad f you poop on the floor.
::Wolf: Deal.
::Cueball: And we get to breed you to be tiny and dress you in little costumes.
::Wolf: …Wait.

:13000 BCE
::[Randall did not use the normal spelling for Woolly Rhino, but this is an accepted alternative spelling:]
::Wooly Rhino goes extinct
::Oregon is scoured by huge floods as glacial dams burst and lakes of meltwater flow to the sea

:12500 BCE
::Ice sheets withdraw from Chicago

:12000 BCE
::Humans settle Abu Hureyra in Syria

:11500 BCE
::[An arrow on the left side of the dotted curve is pointing down along the dotted curve and to the left indicate temperature is declining again, meaning the dotted curve now moves left to colder temperatures. This only continues until 10500 BCE. It is only the second time something is noted on the left side after Megan at 16000 BCE]
::Temperatures start to decline, mainly in the Northern hemisphere
::This may be caused by changes in ocean circulation due to the floods of cold fresh meltwater flowing into the Atlantic as the North American ice sheet melts.
::This cooler period is called the Younger Dryas

:11000 BCE
::[This is the first text to the left of the dotted curve:]
::Humans reach Argentina

:10500 BCE
::[An arrow pointing down along the right side of the dotted curve and to the right indicate temperature is increasing again, meaning the dotted curve now moves right to hotter temperatures. This continues until 8000 BCE where it levels out just above 0°C.]
::Warming resumes
::Human settlements at Jericho

:10000 BCE
::First development of farming

:9500 BCE
::Saber-toothed cat goes extinct
::[To the left:]
::Horses disappear from North America

:9000 BCE
::[To the left, Randall spelled Pokémon wrong:]
:::Last North American Pokemon go extinct
:::[Cueball with a speak and Megan is looking up at this last “fact”.]
:::Megan: That is not a real fact.
::Temperatures reach modern levels
::Rising seas cut off the land bridge between North America and Asia
::Cattle domesticated

:8500 BCE
::Ice sheets retreat across the Canadian border
::Temperatures start to level out slightly above 1961-1990 levels

:8000 BCE
::[The above sentence breaks over the 8000 BCE line. From here a maximum in temperature on the chart is reached at 0.5°C which will not be overtaken until 2000 CE. It stays almost constant here until 5000 BCE where a slight cooling begins.]

:7500 BCE
::[To the left:]
::This warm, stable period is called the Holocene Climate Optimum
::[To the left:]
::Jiahu settled in China

:7000 BCE
::Final collapse of the North American ice sheet leads to rapid 2-4m sea level rise…
::[A small arrow points down and left to the right of the dotted curve. There is a small decrease in temperature but it is very small and would have been missed without the arrow and label.]
::…And a period of cooling in the Northern hemisphere

:6500 BCE
::[To the left:]
::As seas rise to near their modern levels, Britain is cut off from mainland Europe

:6000 BCE
::Humans develop copper metalworking

:5500 BCE
::[To the left:]
::Massive volcanic eruption in Oregon creates crater lake
::Gold metalworking

:5000 BCE
::[To the left:]
::Invention of the wheel
::[To the left. To the right of the dotted curve is an arrow pointing down and slightly left. From here temperature decreases very slowly but steadily from 0.5°C until 1000 BCE where a stable plateau is reached around 0°C.]
::Earth begins to cool slowly mainly due to regular cycles in its orbit

:4500 BCE
::[To the left:]
:: Proto-Indo-European language develops
:::[To the right of the curve Ponytail holds up a hand towards Cueball.]
:::Ponytail: Let’s make out language heavily inflected, so future students have to memorize a zillion verb endings!
:::Cueball: Okay!
::[To the left:]
::Permanent settlements in the fertile crescent

:4000 BCE
::Horses domesticated
::[To the left:]
::Minoan culture arises on Crete

:3500 BCE
::Egyptian mummification
::Rise of the Indus Valley civilization
::[To the left:]
::Invention of writing in Sumer “prehistory” ends, “history” begins
::Earliest human whose name we know
::(Pharaoh Iry-Hor in Egypt)

:3000 BCE
::''Three Sovereigns and five emperors'' period in China
::Gilgamesh
::[To the left:]
::Imhotep
::Mayan culture emerges
::[To the left:]
::Great Pyramid constructed

:2500 BCE
::Corded Ware culture in Europe
::[To the left of the curve two rock musicians with long hair and electrical guitars are standing on either side of a small gate made of three slabs of stone, one on top of the other two standing stones.]
::Stonehenge completed
::Chariots developed

:2000 BCE
::[To the left:]
::Alphabetic writing developed in Egypt
::Last mammoths on a tiny Siberian island go extinct
::[To the left:]
::Minoan eruption

:1500 BCE
::[To the left:]
::Iron smelting
::Olmec civilization develops in Central America
::[A Trojan horse with two Cueball-like guys in front and a third standing on its back. Its back is at three Cueball’s height and its head rises to the level of the Cueball on its back. It stands on a platform with four wheel on the visible side. There is text on the horse]
:::Setting of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''
:::Text on horse: Not a trap
::[To the left:]
::Invasion of the Sea peoples*
::* A real thing
::Polynesians explore the Pacific Ocean

:1000 BCE
::[From 1000 BBC to 1000 CE the temperature is stable and very close to 0°C.]
::[To the left:]
::Solomon
::[Randall spelled Iliad wrongly this time:]
::Illiad and Odyssey composed
::[To the left:]
::Rise of Greek city-states
::Neo-Assyrian empire
::[To the left:]
::First Olympics
::Zapotec writing in modern Mexico
::[To the left:]
::Confucius

:500 BCE
::[To the left:]
::The stuff in the 300 (film)|movie ''300'', but regular speed and with more clothing
::Buddha
::Nazca Lines
::[To the left:]
::Alexander the Great
::[To the left:]
::Mayan hieroglyphics
::Ashoka the Great
::[To the left:]
::Paper invented
::[To the left:]
::Asterix
::Teotihuacán metropolis
::[To the left:]
::Julius Caesar

:[At the year 0, there is instead two numbers for each of the two scales before and after Christ:]
:1 BCE
:1 CE
::[To the left:]
::Roman Empire
::Jesus
::[To the left and erupting volcano.]
::Pompeii
::Three Kingdoms period
::[To the left:]
::Gupta empire
::[To the left:]
::Various groups take turns sacking Rome
::[Randall spelled Attila wrong:]
::Atilla the Hun

:500 CE
::Muhammad
::[To the left:]
::Tang Dynasty
::[An arrow to the right of the dotted curve pointing down, takes a swing far out from the curve and then bends back again. The text label next to it breaks into the next 500 period. The dotted curve stays stable at 0°C along this arrow.]
::Medieval warm period in Europe and some northern regions (too regional to affect the global average much)
::[To the left:]
::Leif Eriksson

:1000 CE
::[The dotted curve moves to the left towards lower temperature reaching a minimum around 1650 of about -0.6°C at the Little Ice Age.]
::[To the left a drawing of a compass with needle pointing the black end towards north east. There are labels for the four main directions and a label next to it:]
:::N
:::W E
:::S
:::Magnetic compass navigation
::[To the left:]
::Ghengis Khan
::Zheng He’s fleet explores Asia and Africa
::[To the left:]
::Aztec Alliance
::[To the left:]
::Printing press
::[To the left:]
::Columbus

:1500 CE
::European Renaissance
::[To the left:]
::Shakespeare

:1600
::[To the left:]
::Newton
::[To the right of the dotted curve there is an arrow pointing down that makes a swing in towards the curve and then back out again. At -0.6°C this is the coldest it has been since 9500 BCE. It is labeled:]
::”Little Ice Age”

:1700
::Steam engines
::[To the left:]
::Unites States Independence

:1800
::Industrial Revolution
::[To the left:]
::Telegraphs
::[After this the dotted curve becomes solid.]

:1900
::[To the left, and on the line for 1900:]
::Airplanes
::[To the left:]
::World Wars
::[The solid line takes a step to the right close to 0°C. Over the rest of the 1900s it moves closer to 0°C crossing it before 2000 where it almost reaches the maximum temperature of 0.5 °C from earlier in 8000 BCE.]
::Fossil fuel CO2 emissions start rapidly increasing
::[To the left:]
::Nuclear weapons
::[To the left:]
::Internet

:2000
::Northwest Passage opens
::[From here to present day the solid line increases rapidly and in 2016 present day is almost reaches 1°C, with about 0.8°C.]

:2016
::[To the left on the line for 2016:]
::Present day
::[From here the curve once again becomes dotted as this is the future. After one dot it splits in two and after the first two dots another split between them occurs forming three possible future dotted curves. The first curve bending down before the others, and thus to the right of the other two reaches about 1.2°C and then goes straight down and stops at the 2100 line. An arrow points to it from the left and a label is written patly before and the rest after the 2100 line to the left of the curve:]
::Best-case scenario assuming immediate massive action to limit emissions

:2100
::[The middle curve bends a little down after reaching 1.3°C and then continues this path reaching 2°C in 2100. An arrow point from below to it and a label is written below the curve and below 2100 line:]
::Optimistic scenario
::[The last line continues along the path from the last 16 years of the solid line reaching 4.2°C at 2100, almost as far on the other side of 0°C in 150 years as it took 14000 years to move from the other side from the start of the chart. Another arrow point to this from below with a label below the curve and below 2100 line:]
::Current Path

==Trivia==
*There have been several ''[[:Category:Large drawings|large drawings]]'' in the history of xkcd, and also some that are bigger than this one (for instance [[1110: Click and Drag]]).
**But among those that can be viewed in one go, without downloading a larger file or moving around, this is by far the longest.
**The next longest is probably [[482: Height]].
*The timeline starts at 20,000 BCE (22,000 years ago) and ends at 2100 CE, thus covering 22,100 years.
*There are several spelling mistakes.
**Most obvious is the second time Randall wrote the word "Iliad," because he just spelled it correctly at 1500 BCE and then spelled it ''Illiad'' at 1000 BCE with two "L"s.
**Attila the Hun becomes ''Atilla the Hun'' with ''one'' T and ''two'' L's.
**Pokémon is spelled ''Pokemon'', but then again that is not so strange for Randall (see [[1647: Diacritics]]). But he usually spells it correctly as in the recent comic [[1705: Pokémon Go]].
**Note that the fact that Woolly rhinoceros becomes ''Wooly rhino'' with only one l is not a spelling mistake but an alternative spelling of the word.
*Notably absent are the following facts
**1850: methodical temperature record begins. Although this fact is indirectly indicated when the temperature curve becomes solid around 1850 and until present day.
**The entire swing period between 20 and 200 thousand years prior to now, which would depict temperature swings with increasing frequency and amplitude (ref geological record).
***But of course this could not be included in a comic that only goes back to 20,000 BCE. And as is clear from the curve the temperature has been very stable these last 10,000 years which may explain why human civilization has peace from rapid changes in the environment to develop in the first place. And now it seems that we are causing this stable plateau to come to an end, and that was the point of the comic.
**The 300 million years prior to that, during which the earth was significantly warmer than now, underwent much more extreme temperature changes, and during which time it is presumed that life was present on the earth (but that cars were not).
*The comment for the previous entry also goes for this entry.

===Popularity of comic===
*This comic became so popular with a broader audience that Randall decided to push the release of the next comic [[1733: Solar Spectrum]] one day back for a rare [[:Category:Thursday comics|Thursday release]] instead of the scheduled [[:Category:Wednesday comics|Wednesday release]].
**He [http://web.archive.org/web/20160915101125/http://xkcd.com/ noted this] above [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a6/1732_Earth_Temperature_Timeline_header_text_changed_for_all_comics.png all the comics] in the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6d/1732_Earth_Temperature_Timeline_header_text_changed.png header text on xkcd]:
::Note: Since a lot of new people are here looking for this chart today,
::I'll be posting Wednesday's comic on Thursday instead.
*Before that the [http://web.archive.org/web/20160912181546/https://xkcd.com/ normal heading] with the release day of xkcd was shown.
**This was (of course) still there Tuesday the [http://web.archive.org/web/20160913231501/http://xkcd.com/ day after] the release, because it was first on Wednesday there were reason to note the delay.
**It stayed in place even [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/62/1732_Earth_Temperature_Timeline_header_text_changed_also_when_next_comic_was_released.png for some time after] the "Wednesday" comic was released on Thursday, but was [http://web.archive.org/web/20160915154605/http://xkcd.com/ then removed] before [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ee/1732_Earth_Temperature_Timeline_header_text_back_to_normal_shortly_after_next_comic_was_released.png noon (EST)] on Thursday.
***Randall did thus not post a link to this comic in the header text for new visitors to use, only giving them that one extra day.
*Even though the next comic was released on a Thursday, the scheduled Friday comic [[1734: Reductionism]] was still released as planned.
**This was also the first time this occurred on xkcd - see [[1734:_Reductionism#Trivia|this trivia item]] from the Friday comic.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Climate change]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Music]] 
[[Category:Fiction]] 
[[Category:Sport]] 
[[Category:Religion]] 
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]

1709: Inflection

2016-07-22T13:49:55Z

108.162.219.7: /* Explanation */ Minor grammatical changes

{{comic
| number = 1709
| date = July 20, 2016
| title = Inflection
| image = inflection.png
| titletext = "Or maybe, because we're suddenly having so many conversations through written text, we'll start relying MORE on altered spelling to indicate meaning!" "Wat."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The discussion that Cueball and Megan has are not discussed. The whole emoji segment and the fact that they are in color and are like Chinese pictogram is not even mentioned. Also needs wiki link for the main explanation. Maybe the table should be a subsection of the explanation, with link from the main body of the explanation?}}

While walking, Megan tells Cueball that in inflected languages -- such as English -- changes in the spelling of a word changes its' meaning, in a predictable way. Megan exemplifies this with how plural forms of nouns are created by sticking an 's' at the end, and past tense of a verb is done by the suffix 'ed'. Megan then explains that this works well in languages which build on alphabets, compared to pictographic languages where a picture show a whole word (since it's more difficult to slightly alter a picture then to add some letters). After hearing that English is becoming less inflected then it used to be, Cueball asks if English might transition into a pictographic language. Instead of using traditional words, Megan replies with three emojis "Thumbs up" (like), "Applause", and a smiley -- thus showing a pictographic version of the language which has become more popular in the last years.

Pictographic languages are written using graphics in place of words, so are not usually suitable for "spelling" changes to show slight variance in meanings. Examples of pictographic languages include ancient Egyptian and Chinese (ancient and modern).

Early modern English (think Shakespeare or the KJV Bible) used more forms for the tenses than we do today, which can help illustrate the trend away from inflected forms. In contrast, verbs in English today are often conjugated with auxiliary verbs. Here a sample of a modern verb conjugation in English:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Verb: Walk
!Voice->
!colspan="2"|Active
!colspan="2"|Passive
|-
!Tense
!Singular (he/she/it)
!Plural (they)
!Singular (he/she/it)
!Plural (they)
|-
|Present
|walks
|walk
|is walked
|are walked
|-
|Present progressive
|is walking
|are walking
|is being walked
|are being walked
|-
|Present perfect
|has walked
|have walked
|has been walked
|have been walked
|-
|Present perfect progressive
|has been walking
|have been walking
|has been being walked
|have been being walked
|-
|Past
|walked
|walked
|was walked
|were walked
|-
|Past progressive
|was walking
|were walking
|was being walked
|were being walked
|-
|Past perfect
|had walked
|had walked
|had been walked
|had been walked
|-
|Past perfect progressive
|had been walking
|had been walking
|had been being walked
|had been being walked
|-
|Future
|will walk
|will walk
|will be walked
|will be walked
|-
|Future progressive
|will be walking
|will be walking
|will be being walked
|will be being walked
|-
|Future perfect
|will have walked
|will have walked
|will have been walked
|will have been walked
|-
|Future perfect progressive
|will have been walking
|will have been walking
|will have been being walked
|will have been being walked
|-
|Conditional
|would walk
|would walk
|would be walked
|would be walked
|-
|Conditional progressive
|would be walking
|would be walking
|would be being walked
|would be being walked
|-
|Conditional perfect
|would have walked
|would have walked
|would have been walked
|would have been walked
|-
|Conditional perfect progressive
|would have been walking
|would have been walking
|would have been being walked
|would have been being walked
|}

In all of these conjugations, the only inflections on the main verb "walk" are "-s", "-ed", and "-ing". (The highly irregular helper verbs, "be" and "have", have somewhat more interesting inflections.) And although this table shows only the third person, the first and second person would not introduce any additional words whatsoever; similarly, the table shows only the indicative mood, but the subjunctive and imperative moods would not introduce any additional words, and the conditional mood would only introduce the helper verb "would" (an inflection of the irregular helper verb "will") without any additional inflections on the main verb "walk". If instead we made this table in Spanish (for example), then there would be many more inflections on the main verb (12 in the third-person indicative alone, 45 including all persons and moods, if I didn't miscount).

The title text points out that some intentional misspelling are used in Internet slang to alter the meaning of a word: "what" becomes "wat" to express confusion, disgust or disbelief [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wat][http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wat]. The title text also uses the intentional misuse of grammar to emphasise the word MORE. Such emphasis is difficult to show with inflected language alone.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan, holding a hand up, are seen walking together from afar in silhouette.]
:Megan: Inflected languages change words to add meaning, like "-s" for plurals or "-ed" for past tense.
:Megan: Alphabets—where symbols stand for sound instead of words—work well for them, since you can show the changes through spelling.

:[Zoom in on the two as Megan turns her head back towards Cueball and spreads her arms out.]
:Megan: Our language family is inflected, but the English branch has lost most of its inflection over the millennia. It's why we don't have all those Latin conjugations.

:[Cueball speaks as they walk on and Megan replies with three orange-yellow emoji: Thumbs Up Sign pointing right, Clapping Hands Sign pointing up left with two times three small lines to indicate the clapping and Smiling Face With Blushing (red) Cheeks and Smiling Eyes. Below given the closest match possible as of the release of the comic.]
:Cueball: Could that mean English writing is ripe to become more pictographic?
:Megan: 👍 👏 😊

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:1701: Speed and Danger

2016-07-01T16:50:23Z

108.162.219.7:

;Worst Comic
I think this might be a strong contender for worst comic on xkcd. Although [[1384: Krypton]] definitely makes for stiff competition. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.102|108.162.216.102]] 14:28, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

Is there something this is referencing? [[User:Saklad5|Saklad5]] ([[User talk:Saklad5|talk]]) 14:41, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

The worst? Have you looked at the first few hundred? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 15:09, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

I think this comic is actually enlightening on a certain (albeit narrow level). People frequently lack a proper sense of perspective, and this comic illustrates this fact. While we might say "Wow, that Indy car is really moving fast!", it pales in comparison to other vehicles that some fortunate few travel in.
:And I totally wanted to learn that from a '''comic''' that's supposed to be humorous... --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 16:50, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

;Sarcasm
Is sarcasm to be encouraged in explanations? “Here, Randall makes the '''truly astounding''' observation that the danger of a crash is directly proportional to its speed….” [Emphasis mine.] ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 15:29, 1 July 2016 (UTC)''
:In this case it's definitely warranted...Jesus Randall, this wouldn't exactly have been hard to make funny/interesting. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 15:51, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1701: Speed and Danger

2016-07-01T15:51:43Z

108.162.219.7:

== Worst Comic ==
I think this might be a strong contender for worst comic on xkcd. Although [[1384: Krypton]] definitely makes for stiff competition. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.102|108.162.216.102]] 14:28, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

Is there something this is referencing? [[User:Saklad5|Saklad5]] ([[User talk:Saklad5|talk]]) 14:41, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

The worst? Have you looked at the first few hundred? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 15:09, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

== Sarcasm ==
Is sarcasm to be encouraged in explanations? “Here, Randall makes the '''truly astounding''' observation that the danger of a crash is directly proportional to its speed….” [Emphasis mine.] ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 15:29, 1 July 2016 (UTC)''
:In this case it's definitely warranted...Jesus Randall, this wouldn't exactly have been hard to make funny/interesting. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 15:51, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

505: A Bunch of Rocks

2016-06-15T20:40:45Z

108.162.219.7: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 505
| date = November 17, 2008
| title = A Bunch of Rocks
| image = a_bunch_of_rocks.png
| titletext = I call Rule 34 on Wolfram's Rule 34.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] awakens to find himself trapped for eternity in an endless expanse of sand and rocks. At first, he uses this time to derive all of mathematics and physics, including {{w|quantum mechanics}} and {{w|general relativity}}. Next Cueball creates a computer that can process any possible function, out of rocks and rules for the interaction between rocks. He then simulates a particle followed by the interactions between particles, followed by the entire universe. The amount of time it takes to simulate the change in the universe from one instant to the next takes an extremely long time as the time it takes to update just one row of rocks can be measured in googols of years, assuming a realistic time to place each rock.

Cueball then apologizes for any flaws we see in the simulation. This implies that the audience is living in Cueball's simulation, making Cueball essentially God.

The final frame cuts to a classroom where a bored student stares at his hands waiting for class to end. Cueball admonishes the student for thinking that class is lasting forever. The joke being that the boredom felt in a classroom is nothing compared to the boredom that inspires Cueball to spend his time toiling to keep the universe moving. Indeed the minutes of lecture actually took many "billions and billions of millennia" for Cueball to simulate.

The title text suggests that {{w|Rule 34 (Internet meme)|Rule 34}} should be called on {{w|Elementary cellular automaton#Random initial state|Wolfram's Rule 34}}. Rule 34 (see [[305: Rule 34]]) is a humorous rule of the Internet which states "If you can imagine it, there is porn of it. No exceptions." Wolfram's Rule 34 is a cellular automaton. Therefore, the title text says that someone has made pornography featuring the cellular automaton in question.

===Graphs===
The three diagrams in the "Physics, too. I worked out the kinks..." panel are, from left to right:
# The {{w|Normal distribution}} of the {{w|Gaussian curve}} marking the points that represent a standard deviation of σ and 2σ. This is one of the fundamental building blocks of statistics. In quantum mechanics particles are viewed as inherently random, therefore the time at which a particle will decay, the position of a particle and its velocity are all calculated using similar curves. A deviation of at least σ occurs 32% of the time where a deviation of 2σ or more occurs about 5% of the time.
# The {{w|Inclined plane#History|Epitaph of Stevinus}}, an explanation of the mechanical advantage of using an {{w|inclined plane}}. The inclined plane is one of the six classical {{w|simple machine}}s, one of the fundamental building blocks of mechanical and civil engineering.
# The last graph is unknown. It may represent coupled pendulums, {{w|length contraction}}, or a hypothetical solution to something we haven't derived yet.

The graph that represents particle interaction is a {{w|Feynman Diagram}}. This shows the interaction of subatomic particles that collide and exchange some momentum via a photon. The slope of the middle line represents the distance moved and the time lost/gained during the interaction.

===Notes===
The Swiss patent office line refers to {{w|Albert Einstein}}, who was employed as a Swiss patent clerk while coming up with his theory of special relativity. This joke is also referenced in [[1067|1067: Pressures]]. Also, there is a standing joke that very few important inventions have come from Switzerland, since the country hadn't been involved in the world wars, and thus has not been part of the weapons race, nor was it a driving force in the preceding Industrial Revolution.

In the center of the comic, the binary numbers pointing to the particle are both 42. This is a reference to the comedic answer to the ''Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything'' from the ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series.

Cueball mentions that if we see an artifact flutter in and out of reality he must have made a mistake in the last "billions and billions of millennia." This implies that the small period of time the artifact is present in his time is much longer than our universe has existed. That is a ''very'' long time.

===Cellular Automaton===
Cueball uses the rocks to build a {{w|cellular automaton}}, a computational model based on simple rules to advance from one state to the next. Certain cellular automata are {{w|Turing-complete}}, which means that they can be used to represent any conceivable algorithm if expanded infinitely. He specifically seems to be running Wolfram's {{w|Rule 110}}, which is capable of universal computation.
When using Rule 110 for universal computation, one builds a background pattern, which can be seen in the comic as the pattern of smaller triangles, and then performs computation by sending out "rockets" to collide and interact with each other.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing in a desert with lots of rocks lying around. He is narrating his own situation. The first panel spans the entire width of the comic. The first line of text is written to the left of him, the second line to the right.]
:So I'm stuck in this desert for eternity.
:I don't know why. I just woke up here one day.

:[The next four panels take up the second line of the comic.]
:[Cueball stand in the desert.]
:I never feel hungry or thirsty.

:[Cueball walks in the desert.]
:I just walk.

:[Zooming out while Cueball continues to walk in the desert.]
:Sand and rocks

:[Zooming far out as Cueball again just stands in the desert. First line of text, above him, is a continuation of the text in the previous panel. The second line is below him.]
:stretch to infinity.
:As best as I can tell.

:[The next three panels take up the third line of the comic. The last takes up half the width.]
:[Cueball is sitting in the desert, in a contemplative position. First line of text above him the second below.]
:There's plenty of time for thinking out here.
:An eternity really.

:[Cueball is sketching stuff in the sand. First line of text above him the second below.]
:I've rederived modern math in the sand
:and then some.

:[Three different graph types are depicted. First line of text above them the second below.]
:Physics too. I worked out the kinks in quantum mechanics and relativity.
:Took a lot of thinking, but this place has fewer distractions than a Swiss patent office.

:[The next eight panels take up the fourth and fifth line of the comic. All pictures are the same size.]
:[Cueball is walking along the desert, laying out rocks on a line. Four has been deployed, he is laying down the fifth and has a sixth in his other hand.]
:One day I started laying down rows of rocks.

:[Cueball with a rock in his hand, continues to deploy rocks 16, in a more intricate pattern. There are grid-lines in the sand (5 rows, 6 columns), with each intersection either empty of filled with a rock. No rocks lay anywhere but at an intersection on the grid.]
:Each new row followed from the last in a simple pattern.

:[Zooming out showing even more laid out rocks. Cueball is seen directly from above, and we see his shadow falling on the grid of rocks (7 rows, 14 columns).]
:With the right set of rules and enough space,

:[Continues to zoom further out showing clear triangular patterns (with no rocks) in the laid out grid of rocks. Cueball is not seen. (8 rows, 42 columns). First line of text above the grid, the second line below.]
:I was able to build a computer.
:Each new row of stones is the next iteration of the computation.

:[Zooming far out (no Cueball) with rows intersected by five clear V lines on top of them. The V's are drawn inside each other, with the smallest V at the top right, and the other V's starting just to the right of the previous one, and then continuing the same distance past the previous V, as the total length of the first V. The "*" in the first line of text above this grid, references to the footnote below written in a smaller font.]
:Sure it's rocks instead of electricity, but it's the same* thing. Just slower.
:<nowiki>*Turing-complete</nowiki>

:[Cueball stands in contemplative pose (on a clean white background - i.e. no dessert).]
:After a while, I programmed it to be a physics simulator.

:[A black panel with white drawings and text. A small white dot (a particle) is labeled by two arrows coming of two binary strings.]
:Every piece of information about a particle was encoded as a string of bits written in the stones.
:00101010
:00101010

:[A Feynman diagram showing two particles interacting. Two arrows going in and out with a snaking line between them.]
:With enough time and space, I could fully simulate two particles interacting.

:[The next two panels take up the sixth line of the comic. The second panel takes up three quarter of the width.]
:[Cueball standing before the vastness of the desert, with his programmed lines of rock stretching to infinity.]
:But I have infinite time and space.

:[A black panel with white drawings and text. Depiction of two large galaxies, one with four jets coming out of it's center, the other a flat disc. Several smaller galaxies and/or stars are shown around them.]
:So I decided to simulate a universe.

:[The next four panels take up the seventh line of the comic. They are of similar widths.]
:[Cueball is walking by his grid of rocks, lines indicate he has just thrown another rock down in it's place. It falls so hard it thinks into the sand that splashes out around it. The 14 rocks above him lies on the grid, four other below this grid, have not been used yet.]
:The eons blur past as I walk down a single row.

:[Zoom far far out to show multiple rows of rocks. It is not very clear that there are several triangular patterns (with no rocks) in different sizes in the laid out grid of rocks. There are about 50 rows and 90 columns. There are six large triangles on top of each other at the left edge. To the right there are three even larger triangles from top to bottom, the one in the middle further to the left than the one above, but further right than the bottom one.]
:The rows blur past to compute a single step.

:[Shows the placement of two particles in the simulation.]
:And in the simulation...

:[The two particles have moved just long enough as to not overlap with their the previous position which are shown as an after-image with faint gray lines. The text continues directly the one from the previous panel.]
:another instant ticks by.

:[The next two panels take up the eight line of the comic. They each take up half the width.]
:[A Cueball like person (you) observes a mote of dust vanish.]
:So if you see a mote of dust vanish from your vision in a little flash or something

:[Cueball is standing between two rocks on the ground, while holding two rocks, one lifted up to his head. The first line of text is above him. It is a direct continuation of the text in the previous panel. The second line stands below to the right of him.]
:I'm sorry. I must have misplaced a rock
:sometime in the last few billions and billions of millennia.

:[Cueball stands in the "clean" part of his infinite desert, in front of the vastness of his infinity of infinite lines or rocks.]
:Oh and...

:[A Cueball like student sitting in a classroom with his head in his hands, Megan sits behind him and a teacher points to the blackboard; A clock shows the time at five minutes to ten.]
:If you think the minutes in your morning lecture are taking a long time to pass for ''you''...

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Programming]]

1580: Travel Ghost

2015-09-21T20:47:35Z

108.162.219.7: clarified sexual euphamism from the title text

{{comic
| number = 1580
| date = September 21, 2015
| title = Travel Ghost
| image = travel_ghosts.png
| titletext = And a different ghost has replaced me in the bedroom.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|rough draft}}
A "{{w|Time attack#Video games|ghost}}" is a common term for the recording of a player's actions in a {{w|Racing video game|racing game}}. The recording is used to create a virtual racer that another player can compete against. The previous player is shown as ghostly and transparent, because the two racers cannot physically interact.

A mapping app, such as {{w|Google Maps (mobile application)|Google Maps}}, attempts to plot the fastest route from one place to another, but there's no way to tell which route is really the fastest without testing it. So, [[Cueball]] has created an app that will simulate a number of different routes and produce "ghosts" from them. He hopes to use this app to discover the fastest route by competing against his ghosts like a racing game. He brags about this app to his friend [[White Hat]].

However, the comic takes a turn for the absurd when it depicts ''actual'' ghosts competing with him, instead of simulations on his phone. Soon enough, he is fired from work because one of his "ghosts" is more punctual than he is. And even worse his children apparently comes to prefer the more punctual "ghosts" over him as this version of daddy never misses their games.

In the title text this is even taken into the bedroom, although it is a different ghost than the one preferred by the children. This is likely a subtle reference to euphemisms for sexual climax, such as "arrival". Alternatively, this may be a reference to the film "Ghost" which features romantic interactions with a woman; by both the ghost of a woman's dead husband, and a psychic possessed by that ghost.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, holding a smartphone, is talking to White Hat]
:Cueball: Lots of apps let you plan your trips using real-time bus, train, and traffic data. They try to predict which route will be faster, but aren't always right.

:[Cueball continues to talk off-panel. The text is above a map showing three possible routes with an overlaid Cueball on each; the top and the bottom route and Cueball are faded and the middle is black up until the black Cueball. After that this route is also faded. A black point on the right indicates the destination.]
:Cueball (off-panel): Instead of just '''''planning''''', my new app lets you send "ghost" versions of you along different routes, simulating their travel using the real-time data

:[Cueball, again talking to White Hat, holding the smartphone down].
:Cueball: That way, you can see which route turned out to be faster in practice,
:Cueball: You can also race your past selves.

:[Cueball is getting out of his car holding his smartphone in one hand and a briefcase in the other; A faded out Cueball bicyclist is in front of him to the right. At the top there is a caption in a frame:
:Soon...
:Cueball: Ugh, lost to the bike ghost ''again.''

:[Cueball with his briefcase is outside a door, holding a key card up to a key reader. On the inside of the door Ponytail is facing the door and points toward the faded version of Cueball also holding a briefcase.]
:Cueball: Hey, my key won't work
:Ponytail: I'm sorry, but we've decided to replace you. This floaty guy is much more punctual.

:[Two small girls, one with a hair bun the other with wavy long hair, is holding faded out Cueball's hands. The real Cueball is standing to the right, next to his briefcase on the ground. He is holding his hands out towards his kids.]
:Little girl with hair-bun: Our ''new'' dad never misses our games!
:Cueball: ''Nooo!''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Maps]]

Talk:1533: Antique Factory

2015-06-03T16:42:02Z

108.162.219.7: Added comment

The reference to inexorable passage of time reminds me of [[209: Kayak]] [[User:Effy|Effy]] ([[User talk:Effy|talk]]) 11:55, 3 June 2015 (UTC)
The briefcase seems to be slightly different from the third panel to the fourth. Is this just a drawing difference, or something significant? [[User:Technetium|Technetium]] ([[User talk:Technetium|talk]]) 12:29, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

Arguably, the premise of the comic is that while an antique ''may'' be something old that has been in storage (e.g. an attic, or an otherwise unused spare room) for most of its time since it was actually new, some would consider that less desirous than an item that was thoroughly used when new, and has acquired signs of wear and tear (or even an actual patina, rather than the perfect surface of the freshly manufactured goods) over a significant proportion of its existence.

Indeed, fake antiques of various kinds are subjected to intense (and artificial) 'usage' to give them the look of age that they lack, to add to the authentic-looking (but actually deliberately 'back-dated') construction methods that were used. Or even to make up for this being done wrong.

In this comic, however, there's no sign of criminal intent. It seems that contemporary pieces of furniture are being 'used' (the chair sat on, which may be fair enough; the table sat ''at'', which is a somewhat more intangible process) roughly in line with how a then-contmporary antique would have been used, when new, with no intention to accelerate or artifice the 'aging' process. Normally one would not consider this a cost-effect business model, but this argument has never troubled the character before, so why should it now?

(I leave it up to someone else to summarise this idea in the main explanation. If they agree with it.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.95|141.101.106.95]] 13:09, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

I thought that the premise of the comic is that he went to somewhere where normal things (now antiques) were once made, but he's VERY late for work. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 16:42, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect

2015-06-01T13:58:53Z

108.162.219.7: /* Explanation */ Added note that the choice firetruck was likely made because firetrucks are commonly used to explain the Doppler effect.

{{comic
| number = 1531
| date = May 29, 2015
| title = The BDLPSWDKS Effect
| image = the bdlpswdks effect.png
| titletext = This well-known effect has of course been replicated in countless experiments.
}}

==Explanation==

The BDLPSWDKS Effect in the title is an {{w|acronym}} for Bernoulli-Doppler-Leidenfrost-Peltzman-Sapir-Whorf-Dunning-Kruger-Stroop Effect, as explained by [[Ponytail]] in the comic. She stands in front of a slide that shows [[Cueball]] being subjected to this effect.

The effect mentioned appears to be a mashup of seven scientific principles (with nine scientists' names included) from physics and social sciences, with elements from each principle appearing in the resulting description of the effect:

*{{w|Bernoulli's principle}} in fluid dynamics (also mentioned in [[803: Airfoil]]) states that an increase in the speed of a fluid with certain properties occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure or a decrease in the fluid's potential energy.
** This is referenced by the firetruck lifting off and hurtling.
*The {{w|Doppler effect}} in physics refers to the change in a wave's frequency for an observer moving relative to its source. Sound from the oncoming firetruck increases in pitch.
**This is referenced by Cueball reacting faster if the shouting is in a non-tonal language than a tonal language. In tonal languages, changes in pitch change the meaning, thus tonal langauges may suffer more from Doppler distortion than non-tonal ones. Additionally, the choice of firetruck was likely influenced by this effect, as a firetruck and its siren are often invoked as an example of it.
*The {{w|Leidenfrost effect}}, in physics, refers to how liquid will produce an insulating vapor layer when in near contact with an extremely hot surface, causing it to hover over said surface.
**This is referenced by the firetruck lifting off on a layer of superheated gas.
*The {{w|Peltzman effect}}, in behavioral economics, refers to how regulations intended to increase safety are ineffective or counterproductive because people, feeling safer, will engage in riskier behaviours.
**This is referenced by the firefighter speeding due to the feeling of safety he/she has in a modern firetruck, subsequently creating a hazardous situation and reducing the safety of the pedestrian.
*The {{w|Sapir–Whorf hypothesis}}, in linguistics, states that a person's world view and cognitive processes are affected by the structure of the language the person speaks.
**This is referenced by languages with a word for "firefighter" giving a quicker reaction. If Cueball speaks (or is currently thinking in) a language without a word for "firefighter", he might be slower to recognize the role and authority of the driver warning him, and thus slower to react to the danger.
*The {{w|Dunning–Kruger effect}}, in social psychology, refers to unskilled people mistakenly perceiving themselves as more skilled than they really are, while skilled people underestimate their own abilities.
**This is referenced by the tonal language being a language Cueball thinks he is fluent in but isn't.
*The {{w|Stroop effect}}, in neuropsychology, refers to the phenomenon in which it is easier to name the color of the ink in which a word is written when the word refers to the same color as the ink than when the word refers to a different color.
**This is referenced by Cueball diving out faster if the driver screams "red!" than if the driver screams "green!", as a traditional American firetruck is red, and therefore it may create a moment of confusion for Cueball if the driver shouts "green!". It may also reference the common usage of "red" as indicating fire or danger, while "green" indicates safety.

This comic is probably a comment on the "replication crisis" in social psychology which has been in the [http://www.nature.com/news/first-results-from-psychology-s-largest-reproducibility-test-1.17433 news recently]. For example, studies finding that merely thinking about intelligent people (e.g., writing down the attributes of a professor) will actually improve performance on math tests were once widely believed, and this "intelligence priming" effect is even included in textbooks. However, recent attempts to reproduce these effects have mostly failed and this failure to replicate is true of many [http://www.nature.com/news/disputed-results-a-fresh-blow-for-social-psychology-1.12902 social priming effects] as well as other experiments in social psychology. Randall is also mocking the complicated, or even convoluted, setups often used in these experiments.

Usually, for an effect to be considered real, the scientific method requires the effect to be replicated by different experimenters in different times and places. It is hard to imagine several scientists in different parts of the world creating the setup to replicate this effect; however the title text mentions (maybe {{w|Sarcasm|sarcastically}}) it has been done countless times.

Many other XKCD strips have commented on the ease with which surprising and novel, but false, results can be published in the scientific literature, such as [[1478]] and [[882]].

Furthermore, the opportunity of publishing this comic strip may (or may not) be related to the recently issued sequels of franchises such as `Mad Max` and `Carmageddon`, where it's not unusual to find heavy wheeled vehicles trampling pedestrians for fun, or simply because the drivers do not care.

==Transcript==

:[Ponytail stands next to a screen displaying a firetruck hurtling toward Cueball on what appears to be a layer of gas.]

:Ponytail: The Bernoulli-Doppler-Leidenfrost-Peltzman-Sapir-Whorf-Dunning-Kruger-Stroop Effect states that if a speeding fire truck lifts off and hurtles towards you on a layer of superheated gas, you'll dive out of the way faster if the driver screams '''''"red!"''''' in a '''''non'''''-tonal language that '''''has''''' a word for "firefighter" than if they scream '''''"green!"''''' in a '''''tonal''''' language with '''''no''''' word for "firefighter" which you '''''think''''' you're fluent in but '''''aren't'''''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Psychology]]

Talk:753: Southern Half

2014-06-19T02:20:17Z

108.162.219.7: Comment

OF COURSE! A Penis-Shaped Obelisk on Mars! And it's got to be big enough to been seen with an ordinary backyard telescope.--[[Special:Contributions/138.163.128.41|138.163.128.41]] 00:31, 20 March 2013 (UTC)
: And, yes, I imagine it ''would'' be hard. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.192.132|178.98.192.132]] 23:17, 4 May 2013 (UTC)
Woah, woah, no cloned velociraptors in spaaace. Not on my watch. [[User:BruceJohnJennerLawso|BruceJohnJennerLawso]] ([[User talk:BruceJohnJennerLawso|talk]]) 05:25, 13 November 2013 (UTC)
:However, leave off Latin America and the rest seem to be pretty much in the hemisphere centered at the Persian Ocean.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.9|108.162.215.9]] 07:14, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
I was under the impression that latin America did not include south America, just the part of north America south of the USA. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 02:20, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

Talk:691: MicroSD

2014-05-19T00:08:18Z

108.162.219.7: question

Please include definition of refrigerator carton. Also, what is the average storage capacity of a floppy disk?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 00:08, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1212: Interstellar Memes

2014-05-18T23:53:57Z

108.162.219.7: comment

I'm surprised ponies didn't make the list given how massively and completely they took over the Internet in recent years. Then again, xkcd hasn't made any mention of the phenomenon, which is pretty nice, I guess. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:35, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:Given that the closest one, "I'm on a boat," predates the first episode of MLP:FiM by more than a year (the brony phenomenon by even more), it's safe to say that ponies have not reached the nearest star yet. --[[Special:Contributions/24.145.230.202|24.145.230.202]] 04:42, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:: Agreed. MLP:FIM premiered in October 2010. The show will hit the Alpha Centauri system early 2015. [[User:Frijole|Frijole]] ([[User talk:Frijole|talk]]) 16:28, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
::I didn't have the date/distance chart at the time of posting, and indeed didn't realize how much time had past since some of these became popular. I feel much older with that in perspective. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:03, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

It would be great to have the distances (in light years) of the stars as a fourth column. This would also provide a chronological order. --[[Special:Contributions/84.75.61.103|84.75.61.103]] 08:06, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

If I look at the page source, there is no transcript this time... [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 08:41, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

anyone else notice Sirius is getting the Bellatrix one? [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 08:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:Yeah, it was funny :D [[User:Zakator|Zakator]] ([[User talk:Zakator|talk]]) 10:55, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
::Should this reference be mentioned? On the one hand, it is a spoiler, but on the other hand, a) we *are* here to explain the jokes, and b) the book is almost a decade old, so I'm pretty sure there's a statute of limitations involved here. [[User:Curtmack|Curtmack]] ([[User talk:Curtmack|talk]]) 14:56, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:::It's also funny that Sirius ''is'' a character in Harry Potter books/films. Double joke? --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 15:21, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
::::Sorta, but it's Rowling's joke, not Randall's. The entire Black family (except for Narcissa, who was named before her family ties were established) is named after objects in the sky. Sirius is the only one in range. Of the ones I can remember, {{w|Regulus}} is 77 ly away, {{w|Bellatrix}} is roughly 250 ly away, and {{w|Andromeda Galaxy|Andromeda}} is an entirely separate galaxy. --[[User:Druid816|Druid816]] ([[User talk:Druid816|talk]]) 21:43, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

If any civilization have nothing better to do that repeating our memes, there is no need to apologize to them: they will obviously be glad they have at least something. How many people on our planet are repeating memes from other civilizations? None. (The circles in crop doesn't count, they are not send by radio.) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:51, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Given that the Rick Astley one is on the same star as Portal, which came out in 2007, it's probably meant to refer to rickrolling (and thus the date should also be 2007 for that one). [[User:Zakator|Zakator]] ([[User talk:Zakator|talk]]) 10:55, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

All your base are belong to us didn't start as a meme in the 1970. I don't have precise data right now but I'm pretty sure it was 1997-99 when it first appeared on the internet. Also, what is the Sun doing? [[Special:Contributions/195.32.50.126|195.32.50.126]] 11:14, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:1998 according to knowyourmeme. And I think the Sun is probably sending out all those radio waves for the aliens to listen to, or something? But I couldn't find an accurate way to portray it, so I just left it at that. [[User:Zakator|Zakator]] ([[User talk:Zakator|talk]]) 11:18, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:: The map only shows stars, or rather star systems. We live in the sol system, where all these memes originate from, hence the sun is shown as the origin of the "radio waves". In the same fashion, these supposed aliens don't actually live on the stars themselves, but rather on planets (or maybe moons?) around the stars. --[[User:Buggz|Buggz]] ([[User talk:Buggz|talk]]) 11:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

In "Take me to your leader! - No, Steve", what is the "No, Steve" part referencing? The link currently is just for the "take me to your leader" part. [[Special:Contributions/72.92.72.222|72.92.72.222]] 15:14, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:I thought that the "No, Steve" made it into an explicit reference to Newsboys album/song (Steve Taylor wrote the lyrics for it). But then, that's a song fron 1996, and it would not be consistent with distance, while 1953 makes more sense... [[Special:Contributions/195.32.50.126|195.32.50.126]] 15:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
::"Steve" is an alien. "Take me to your leader," is a meme which "Steve" has been repeating. It helps if you read it with a somewhat exasparated inflection.--[[Special:Contributions/108.28.112.92|108.28.112.92]] 18:47, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

If you order the list by distance, further stars should get memes from earlier times, but this is not always the case. I think that some of the memes deserve more investigation, namely: "Internets!", "You're the man now, dog" and "All your base are belong to us!". Sort the list by distance and it becomes immediately apparent what I mean. [[Special:Contributions/195.32.50.126|195.32.50.126]] 15:54, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:"Internets" was from George W Bush but in 2004. [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/internets internets meme]--[[Special:Contributions/145.253.244.103|145.253.244.103]] 16:08, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:"You're the man now, dog" refers to a web site launched in 2001 which fits to the approx. 12 Lj.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:29, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:"All your base are belong to us!" should also belong to 2001. I found this [http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/02/42009 wired.com] which explains that the internet meme probably began in 2001. But I am not sure.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:37, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Wouldn't "I'm on a boat!", as a popular and well-known meme known to the wider public, refer to the Old Spice commercial, rather than a song by the The Lonely Island? None of the few I spoke with had ever heard of the group, but all credited the quote to "the Old Spice guy". [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 17:56, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:I thought about this also before. But "I'm on a boat!" is the meme published by "The Lonely Island".--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:02, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
:>meme
:>published
:pick one [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 21:36, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
::Old Spice Guy says "You're on a boat", and finishes with "I'm on a horse"[http://lybio.net/old-spice-the-man-your-man-could-smell-like/commercials/]... "I'm on a boat" isn't quite right for OSG. --[[User:SurturZ|SurturZ]] ([[User talk:SurturZ|talk]]) 03:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
:::I sit corrected. [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 16:18, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Title text: "The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance." Is this an error by Randall? Faster-than-light would work if that travel did start at the time of transmission of those memes. Actually all messages had arrive at their targets so only Time-Travel would help. Nevertheless both ideas are impossible.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:51, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
:It's too late to apologize to the stars on this comic, but we could apologize to the ones farther out who have yet to be annoyed by us. --[[User:Druid816|Druid816]] ([[User talk:Druid816|talk]]) 21:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
::No, it is possible. That's relativity! With faster than light travel we can still reach them. (Effect is similar as time travel!) Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.118.249|178.26.118.249]] 04:59, 17 May 2013 (UTC)
:::Actually, depending on the reference frame (speed and movement direction of the observer) the notion of simultaneity does not hold for objects being spaciously apart. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.45.117|178.26.45.117]] 13:14, 17 May 2013 (UTC)
:We can also apologize for newer memes. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:03, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

I guess I'm not too surprised that residents circling Beta Virginis are still doing the Spanish Inquisition schtick 7+ years later. But they got Holy Grail over two years ago. So I assume they're also pretending to be Knights Who Say Ni by now.
[[User:Opusthepenguin|Opusthepenguin]] ([[User talk:Opusthepenguin|talk]]) 16:34, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

It's worth mentioning that Randall debunks this idea of an interstellar audience in http://what-if.xkcd.com/47/.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 23:53, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

Talk:565: Security Question

2014-05-15T02:35:27Z

108.162.219.7: Comment

The explanation says "security questions are treated much more seriously than passwords." I completely disagree. People generally understand that a password should be complicated but just pick something easily memorable for the security question. The security question is often easier to crack as they can be looked up and the user might tell you the answer inadvertently. For example, in Now You See Me, they trick their rich benefactor into giving up his bank account security answers. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 02:35, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1368: One Of The

2014-05-15T02:18:01Z

108.162.219.7: Question

There's a set of golden arches at Jefferson and Russell, Arguably more identifiable. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.36}}

:If you are talking about the McDonald's arches, then well played, sir, well played. Definitely more identifiable. --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 14:57, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

"''Reporters on television and in other media try to only make statements they can verify in fact''"
Seriously??? Maybe once, but not now. The point of this cartoon is largely that reporters are hedging their bets on what's a fact.
When you have prominent reporters like Chuck Todd (one of the most prominent reporters on TV) saying [http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/09/18/inform-the-public-not-my-job-says-chuck-todd/|it's "not his job" to report factual information] but merely to repeat what politicians have said, or everyone on Fox "News" basically ignoring facts in favor of ideology, claiming reporters try to speak only facts is not supported by demonstrable facts.
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.84|199.27.128.84]] 16:42, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

: Or maybe it's because of the liability reporters face for reporting even errors made by the police. [http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/12/mistaken-identity-tv-show/8989189/ | Keith Todd or Todd Keith]. [[User:Pallas|Pallas]] ([[User talk:Pallas|talk]]) 19:16, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

I know it's not really part of the joke, but should the explanation say who the reporter is talking about? Who designed the Gateway arch? I'm curious now.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 02:18, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Talk:932: CIA

2014-05-12T21:48:19Z

108.162.219.7:

Hey, Lulzsec was ''awesome''. They released free passwords for porn websites on the internet! I'm sitting on 150 gigabytes of gold and pleasure, and it's all thanks to them. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:16, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

Apparently computer experts are not a subset of people... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 21:48, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1184: Circumference Formula

2014-05-10T19:25:32Z

108.162.219.7: Clarification

:Tau x Radius, superscript 2
::Since tau is more commonly used for the Golden Ratio, that's a silly idea. [[Special:Contributions/121.74.169.237|121.74.169.237]] 11:13, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
:::You may be confusing tau with phi. I've never seen the golden ratio represented by anything other than phi. I've also never seen tau representing anything other than 2pi. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 19:25, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

:Leaves one wondering what the superscript 1 refers. {{unsigned|‎74.215.40.250}}
::It's 2''πr''2, '''not''' ''τr''2. —[[Special:Contributions/173.199.215.5|173.199.215.5]] 05:37, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
:::You're missing the point. ''τ'' == 2''π'' and is considered better than using ''π'' by some people {{unsigned|138.195.69.136}}
::::Only for very loose definitions of "better." [[Special:Contributions/71.201.53.130|71.201.53.130]] 14:59, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
::::Whoa! Never heard about that before, but after 2 hrs or so, I think I'm getting convinced! Check this site out: http://tauday.com/ What do you think? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 18:06, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

::I think tau is pointless. Using tau what then happens to Euler's famous formula, the most beautiful equation of them all? Pi shows up in so many different ways and places in mathematics. Tau appears pretty much only in the formula for a circle's circumference. Why bother needlessly proliferating symbols? [[User:J Milstein|J Milstein]] ([[User talk:J Milstein|talk]]) 18:17, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
::: Surface area of a sphere is 2τr^2, or if you want to get pi in there ''π''d^2 {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.101}}

:::RE: Euler's Identity: e^(tau*i) - 1 = 0 --[[User:Max Nanasy|Max Nanasy]] ([[User talk:Max Nanasy|talk]]) 18:27, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
::::Ok, that works [[User:J Milstein|J Milstein]] ([[User talk:J Milstein|talk]]) 17:05, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
::::Why not just e^(tau*i) = 1. Do you routinely do 2 + 2 - 4 = 0?[[Special:Contributions/206.181.86.98|206.181.86.98]] 20:31, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
:::::Because:
:::::* Symmetry wrt the original Euler's Identity (e^(pi*i) + 1 = 0)
:::::* According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler's_identity#Mathematical_beauty, "in algebra and other areas of mathematics, equations are commonly written with zero on one side of the equals sign."
:::::--[[User:Max Nanasy|Max Nanasy]] ([[User talk:Max Nanasy|talk]]) 00:35, 14 March 2013 (UTC)
::::::I think Euler only did that because he disliked negative numbers. It really is less a deal than people make of it.[[Special:Contributions/206.181.86.98|206.181.86.98]] 03:02, 15 March 2013 (UTC)
:::::::Also, it uses the five most important constants in mathematics: ''e'', ''π'' (or ''τ''), ''i'', 1, and 0. [[User:Curtmack|Curtmack]] ([[User talk:Curtmack|talk]]) 20:33, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
::::The tau variant of Euler's identity above, ''e^(tau*i)=1'', appears to miss the point. Normally, a positivt number to the power of any real number is positive. Thus ''i'' could be any normal number. Well, not any number. ''i'' could be 0 and the equation will hold. With pi however, ''e^(pi*i)=-1'', ''i'' must be magical. /David A [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.111|141.101.80.111]] 23:53, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
:::[http://tauday.com/tau-manifesto The tau manifesto] fairly well convinced me that all occurances of π in mathematics utimately trace back from the formula C = 2''πr''. If so, π naturally ''enter'' calculations as 2π. Can anyone find a counterexample to this thesis? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 00:29, 14 March 2013 (UTC)
::::How could there be a counter-example? I think it is true. In complex analysis, it really should be 2π, and thus Gaussian integrals. And then number theory applications. Even [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2589152?uid=3739704&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101976916347 this] neat result really stems from trig identities, so it really is a result for 2π. [[Special:Contributions/206.181.86.98|206.181.86.98]] 02:59, 15 March 2013 (UTC)
:From what I understand, the thesis from the tau-proponents is that 2*pi is the fundamental natural constant, and that virtually ''every time'' that pi shows up without the factor 2, there originally was a factor two that was cancelled out. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 01:53, 12 March 2013 (UTC)
:For everyone who suddenly started a debate about 2pi and tau: http://xkcd.com/1292/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.61|108.162.222.61]] 06:58, 4 May 2014 (UTC)

Not completely sure Earth Prime is from Sliders, but it's true it's the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Prime only one named exactly that] ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:54, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

There's also a [http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Prime_Earth Prime Earth] now. Just so DC can screw with us. [[User:Hogtree Octovish|Hogtree Octovish]] ([[User talk:Hogtree Octovish|talk]]) 10:40, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

I still don't get it.[[Special:Contributions/49.176.102.213|49.176.102.213]] 12:41, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

:If you don't get it, you don't need to get it [[User:J Milstein|J Milstein]] ([[User talk:J Milstein|talk]]) 18:07, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Well, that was lame. --[[Special:Contributions/87.122.60.227|87.122.60.227]] 17:19, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

This comic illustrates the strategy of "The Unconsummated Asterisk", from the essay "Mathmanship" by Nicholas Vanserg (available at [http://e-science.ru/forum/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=7701]).
<blockquote>
The other side of the asterisk gambit is to use a superscript as a key to a real footnote. The knowledge‐seeker reads that S is – 36.714 calories and thinks "Gee what a whale of a lot of calories" until he reads to the bottom of the page, finds footnote 14 and says "oh."
</blockquote>
For bonus points, Randall could have used also "Pi-Throwing":
<blockquote>
For example every schoolboy knows what π stands for so you can hold him at bay by heaving some entirely different kind of π into the equation. The poor fellow will automatically multiply by 3.1416, then begin wondering how a π got into the act anyhow, and finally discover that all the while π was osmotic pressure. If you are careful not to warn him, this one is good for a delay of about an hour and a half.
</blockquote> [[User:Chymicus|Chymicus]] ([[User talk:Chymicus|talk]]) 19:01, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
:Another good one is π as a symbol for profit in financial discussions. -[[User:DrGaellon|DrGaellon]] ([[User talk:DrGaellon|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/DrGaellon|contribs]]) 23:23, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

I believe the current description of prime as denoting derivatives is true but irrelevant. Since the area and circumference refers to geometry (not really calculus), it's more likely that the title text is referring to the common use of primes in geometry. For example, there might be two or more parallel lines that are denoted by x, x′, x′′, etc. Wikipedia also notes another geometric use of {{w|prime}}: "if a point is represented by the Cartesian coordinates (x, y), then that point rotated, translated or reflected might be represented as (x′, y′)." [[User:S|S]] ([[User talk:S|talk]]) 23:32, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

that is so wrong, i feel my mind corrupted now. -- [[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 23:57, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

This explanation was hillarious -- where is the up-vote button ?? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]])

:+1 [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:33, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

So, where's todays comic? How many times has Randal been late?[[Special:Contributions/70.199.225.225|70.199.225.225]] 16:15, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

:Today's comic was posted just a few minutes ago. I'm anxiously awaiting its explanation as it picks on a programming language I'm not familiar with (possibly SQL). [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:33, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

It uses pseudocode. The new one is about sorting algorithms in general, not any particular language. [[Special:Contributions/130.245.231.101|130.245.231.101]] 17:00, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps it's just me, but did no one see the "square the circle" gag...? --[[Special:Contributions/128.232.142.37|128.232.142.37]] 09:24, 14 March 2013 (UTC) No one but you saw the square-the-circle gag, because it's not there. For it to be there, it would require this: (2πr)² [[User:J Milstein|J Milstein]] ([[User talk:J Milstein|talk]]) 15:31, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

1363: xkcd Phone

2014-05-02T11:50:59Z

108.162.219.7: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1363
| date = May 2, 2014
| title = xkcd Phone
| image = xkcd_phone.png
| titletext = Presented in partnership with Qualcomm, Craigslist, Whirlpool, Hostess, LifeStyles, and the US Chamber of Commerce. Manufactured on equipment which also processes peanuts. Price includes 2-year Knicks contract. Phone may extinguish nearby birthday candles. If phone ships with Siri, return immediately; do not speak to her and ignore any instructions she gives. Do not remove lead casing. Phone may attract/trap insects; this is normal. Volume adjustable (requires root). If you experience sudden tingling, nausea, or vomiting, perform a factory reset immediately. Do not submerge in water; phone will drown. Exterior may be frictionless. Prolonged use can cause mood swings, short-term memory loss, and seizures. Avert eyes while replacing battery. Under certain circumstances, wireless transmitter may control God.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|No longer created by a BOT, but probably still needs more editing.}}

This comic is a parody of a multitude of mobile-technology related issues that, when brought together, create a general satire of smartphone advertising. The advertised features here either make previously useful capabilities useless or add features nobody wants. Except for "your mobile world (going) digital", which is old news.

From bottom left, going clockwise:

* Flightaware partnership - This is a parody of flight mode, a capability most smart phones have. When activated, flight mode disables all transmission and receiving capabilities, making the phone suitable for use while on commercial flights. Flightaware partnership, by contrast, is an intrusive presumably airline-sponsored capability that no one wants.
* Realistic case– possibly a joke on various audiovisual devices like gaming consoles that advertise realistic sound, graphics, etc. Of course, applying "realistic" to an actual physical case is ridiculous. Either the case is actually real, or it doesn't actually function as a case.
* Clear screen– This is a pointless descriptor from the perspective of the consumer. Of course the screen is clear. This joke works in tandem with the previous joke, as a play on "clear case, realistic screen," which are both hypothetically viable selling points.
* Side Facing Camera – There was a recent controversy surrounding a kickstarter for a surreptitious, side-mounted camera device for smartphones due to the advertisement of the device as a good way to take creep shots, which are illegal in many places. Widespread dissemination of these devices as a built in would likely result in a sharp increase in delinquency of this nature. May also be an ''ad absurdium'' extension of devices with both forward and backward facing cameras.
* Custom blend OS – iOS and Android are offered by different conglomerates and run on different kernels. A "custom blend" would probably be a nightmare to work with.
* Simulates alternate speeds of light - This renders the clock useless. The speed of light is roughly 2.99x108 meters per second. Relativistic effects, such as time dilation, only occur at significant fractions of the speed of light. Since the phone is simulating a much slower speed of light, driving at highway speeds will cause time dilation. For example, driving at 90mph (90% of the default simulated speed of light) gives a time dilation of about 2.29. So while you are driving at 90mph your clock will run 2.29 times slower than a stationary one. Travelling faster than the simulated speed of light will make the clock run backwards.
* Wireless - as in cordless phone. This is the bare minimum a phone has to have in order to be a mobile phone, so advertising it as a feature feels dated by decades. Or, perhaps Munroe is implying the entire phone is without wires, in which case it wouldn't function.
* Accelerometer screams in free fall– Another useless function. Rather than having some sort of feature to prevent breakage or cracking when a drop is detected, the phone just makes you more aware of its potential imminent doom.
* When exposed to light, phone says "hi" - Bait and switch, and also a build from the previous joke. The implied feature is that the screen or camera will automatically adjust, but instead the phone is weirdly anthropomorphized.

The ominous warnings and disclaimers in the title text are probably a reference to the ''Saturday Night Live'' parody ad for {{w|Happy Fun Ball}}.

* Presented in partnership with Qualcomm, Craigslist, Whirlpool, Hostess, LifeStyles, and the US Chamber of Commerce.– {{w|Qualcomm}} is a semiconductor company that designs and produces chips for mobile phones, but the other companies mentioned here have no association with mobile phones.
* Manufactured on equipment which also processes peanuts.- A warning often seen on candy and other foods for people with a peanut allergy. It is highly unlikely that equipment used to produce mobile phones would also process food.
* Price includes 2-year Knicks contract.- Mobile phones are often sold by phone companies in combination with a cell phone plan, but a contract with the {{w|New_York_Knicks|Knicks}} would only appeal to pro basketball players.
* Phone may extinguish nearby birthday candles.- A rather oddly specific capability, which might also be annoying for anyone attempting to host a birthday party. As to how it would do this, a very powerful directional speaker would be able to blow out a nearby candle, but the speakers in mobile phones aren't going to be that big.
* If phone ships with Siri, return immediately; do not speak to her and ignore any instructions she gives.- {{w|Siri}} is a virtual personal assistant application for Apple devices. Not speaking to it and not following its instructions would defeat its purpose. It may suggest that a malevolant "Siri AI" has sneaked itself onto some devices, at the manufacturing stage, for some diabolical purpose.
* Do not remove lead casing.- Devices that emit high levels of ionizing radiation are often encased in lead, but a phone that would emit that level of radiation would be unhealthy to carry around and be probably too heavy too. This could also mean the device is an actual bananaphone as regular phones emit no ionizing radiation ([http://xkcd.com/radiation xkcd Radiation Dose Chart]). Regrettably, the lead casing would render the phone inedible.
* Phone may attract/trap insects; this is normal.- Some plants, like the {{w|Venus_flytrap|Venus flytrap}}, attract and trap insects, but mobile phones are not known to exhibit this behaviour.
* Volume adjustable (requires root).- {{w|Android_rooting|Rooting}} is the method to gain privileged access on Android phones. Adjusting the volume should be available to any user and would not be restricted to root access only.
* If you experience sudden tingling, nausea, or vomiting, perform a factory reset immediately.- These symptoms are usually associated with chemical or radiation poisoning. Neither of these would be cured by a {{w|Factory_reset|factory reset}}.
* Do not submerge in water; phone will drown.- Most phones are not waterproof and will probably short-circuit when submerged. Drowning however, would imply that the phone breathes air (which actually would be possible if it had a {{w|Lithium-air_battery|Li-air battery}}).
* Exterior may be frictionless.- The front of a smartphone is usually made of glass and should have a surface with very low friction. The back of a phone is usually made from a material that has higher friction to make it pleasant to hold and to make sure it doesn't slide off objects it is placed on. A completely frictionless surface would make it almost impossible to hold and would make it very susceptible to drops.
* Prolonged use can cause mood swings, short-term memory loss, and seizures.- These are all side effects that are associated with certain kinds of medication and would not be acceptable for mobile phones.
* Avert eyes while replacing battery.- Actions that would warrant averting your eyes are usually associated with high levels of radiation (e.g. making an {{w|X-ray}} photo). A phone that emits X-ray radiation would not be healthy to be around. Or it may be a reference to the Arc Of The Covenant.
* Under certain circumstances, wireless transmitter may control God.- According to religion God is usually in control of us. Gods are usually viewed as not controllable.

==Transcript==
'''The XKCD Phone'''
Your mobile world just went digital®

* Flightaware partnership: Makes airplane noises when flights pass overhead
* Realistic case
* Clear screen
* Side-facing camera
* Runs custom blend of Android and iOS
* Simulates alternate speeds of light (default: 100 miles per hour) and ajusts clock as phone accelerates
* Wireless
* Accelerometer detects when phone is in free fall and makes it scream
* When exposed to light, phone says "hi!"

{{comic discussion}}

1363: xkcd Phone

2014-05-02T08:53:53Z

108.162.219.7: Grammar - 'few' vs 'low' friction

{{comic
| number = 1363
| date = May 2, 2014
| title = xkcd Phone
| image = xkcd_phone.png
| titletext = Presented in partnership with Qualcomm, Craigslist, Whirlpool, Hostess, LifeStyles, and the US Chamber of Commerce. Manufactured on equipment which also processes peanuts. Price includes 2-year Knicks contract. Phone may extinguish nearby birthday candles. If phone ships with Siri, return immediately; do not speak to her and ignore any instructions she gives. Do not remove lead casing. Phone may attract/trap insects; this is normal. Volume adjustable (requires root). If you experience sudden tingling, nausea, or vomiting, perform a factory reset immediately. Do not submerge in water; phone will drown. Exterior may be frictionless. Prolonged use can cause mood swings, short-term memory loss, and seizures. Avert eyes while replacing battery. Under certain circumstances, wireless transmitter may control God.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|No longer created by a BOT, but probably still needs more editing.}}

This comic is a parody of a multitude of mobile-technology related issues that, when brought together, create a general satire of smartphone advertising. The advertised features here either make previously useful capabilities useless or add features nobody wants. Except for "your mobile world (going) digital", which is old news.

From bottom left, going clockwise:

* Flightaware partnership - This is a parody of flight mode, a capability most smart phones have. When activated, flight mode disables all transmission and receiving capabilities, making the phone suitable for use while on commercial flights. Flightaware partnership, by contrast, is an intrusive presumably airline-sponsored capability that no one wants.
* Realistic case– possibly a joke on various audiovisual devices like gaming consoles that advertise realistic sound, graphics, etc. Of course, applying "realistic" to an actual physical case is ridiculous. Either the case is actually real, or it doesn't actually function as a case.
* Clear screen– This is a pointless descriptor from the perspective of the consumer. Of course the screen is clear. This joke works in tandem with the previous joke, as a play on "clear case, realistic screen," which are both hypothetically viable selling points.
* Side Facing Camera – There was a recent controversy surrounding a kickstarter for a surreptitious, side-mounted camera device for smartphones due to the advertisement of the device as a good way to take creep shots, which are illegal in many places. Widespread dissemination of these devices as a built in would likely result in a sharp increase in delinquency of this nature. May also be an ''ad absurdium'' extension of devices with both forward and backward facing cameras.
* Custom blend OS – iOS and Android are offered by different conglomerates and run on different kernels. A "custom blend" would probably be a nightmare to work with.
* Simulates alternate speeds of light - This renders the clock useless. The speed of light is roughly 2.99x10^8 meters per second. Relativistic effects, such as time dilation, only occur at significant fractions of the speed of light. Since the phone is simulating a much slower speed of light, driving at highway speeds will cause time dilation. For example, driving at 90mph (90% of the default simulated speed of light) gives a time dilation of about 2.29. So while you are driving at 90mph your clock will run 2.29 times slower than a stationary one.
* Wireless - as in cordless phone. This is the bare minimum a phone has to have in order to be a mobile phone, so advertising it as a feature feels dated by decades. Or, perhaps Munroe is implying the entire phone is without wires, in which case it wouldn't function.
* Accelerometer screams in free fall– Another useless function. Rather than having some sort of feature to prevent breakage or cracking when a drop is detected, the phone just makes you more aware of its potential imminent doom.
* When exposed to light, phone says "hi" - Bait and switch, and also a build from the previous joke. The implied feature is that the screen or camera will automatically adjust, but instead the phone is weirdly anthropomorphized.

The ominous warnings and disclaimers in the title text are probably a reference to the ''Saturday Night Live'' parody ad for {{w|Happy Fun Ball}}.

* Presented in partnership with Qualcomm, Craigslist, Whirlpool, Hostess, LifeStyles, and the US Chamber of Commerce.– {{w|Qualcomm}} is a semiconductor company that designs and produces chips for mobile phones, but the other companies mentioned here have no association with mobile phones.
* Manufactured on equipment which also processes peanuts.- A warning often seen on candy and other foods for people with a peanut allergy. It is highly unlikely that equipment used to produce mobile phones would also process food.
* Price includes 2-year Knicks contract.- Mobile phones are often sold by phone companies in combination with a cell phone plan, but a contract with the {{w|New_York_Knicks|Knicks}} would only appeal to pro basketball players.
* Phone may extinguish nearby birthday candles.- A rather oddly specific capability, which might also be annoying for anyone attempting to host a birthday party. As to how it would do this, a very powerful directional speaker would be able to blow out a nearby candle, but the speakers in mobile phones aren't going to be that big.
* If phone ships with Siri, return immediately; do not speak to her and ignore any instructions she gives.- {{w|Siri}} is a virtual personal assistant application for Apple devices. Not speaking to it and not following it's instructions would defeat it's purpose. It may suggest that a malevolant "Siri AI" has sneaked itself onto some devices, at the manufacturing stage, for some diabolical purpose.
* Do not remove lead casing.- Devices that emit high levels of radiation are often encased in lead, but a phone that would emit that level of radiation would be unhealthy to carry around and be probably too heavy too. This could also mean the device is an actual bananaphone as regular phones emit no radiation ([http://xkcd.com/radiation xkcd Radiation Dose Chart]). Regrettably, the lead casing wold render the phone inedible.
* Phone may attract/trap insects; this is normal.- Some plants, like the {{w|Venus_flytrap|Venus flytrap}}, attract and trap insects, but mobile phones are not known to exhibit this behaviour.
* Volume adjustable (requires root).- {{w|Android_rooting|Rooting}} is the method to gain privileged access on Android phones. Adjusting the volume should be available to any user and would not be restricted to root access only.
* If you experience sudden tingling, nausea, or vomiting, perform a factory reset immediately.- These symptoms are usually associated with chemical or radiation poisoning. Neither of these would be cured by a {{w|Factory_reset|factory reset}}.
* Do not submerge in water; phone will drown.- Most phones are not waterproof and will probably short-circuit when submerged. Drowning however, would imply that the phone breathes air (which actually would be possible if it had a {{w|Lithium-air_battery|Li-air battery}}).
* Exterior may be frictionless.- The front of a smartphone is usually made of glass and should have a surface with very low friction. The back of a phone is usually made from a material that has higher friction to make it pleasant to hold and to make sure it doesn't slide off objects it is placed on. A completely frictionless surface would make it almost impossible to hold and would make it very susceptible to drops.
* Prolonged use can cause mood swings, short-term memory loss, and seizures.- These are all side effects that are associated with certain kinds of medication and would not be acceptable for mobile phones.
* Avert eyes while replacing battery.- Actions that would warrant averting your eyes are usually associated with high levels of radiation (e.g. making an {{w|X-ray}} photo). A phone that emits X-ray radiation would not be healty to be around. Or it may be a reference to the Arc Of The Covenant.
* Under certain circumstances, wireless transmitter may control God.- According to religion God is usually in control of us. Gods are usually viewed as not controllable.

==Transcript==
'''The XKCD Phone'''
Your mobile world just went digital®

* Flightaware partnership: Makes airplane noises when flights pass overhead
* Realistic case
* Clear screen
* Side-facing camera
* Runs custom blend of Android and iOS
* Simulates alternate speeds of light (default: 100 miles per hour) and ajusts clock as phone accelerates
* Wireless
* Accelerometer detects when phone is in free fall and makes it scream
* When exposed to light, phone says "hi!"

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:451: Impostor

2014-04-30T01:05:08Z

108.162.219.7: Comment

It could be that no one understands the literary criticism, even if they read it. The panel shows a student listening to Cueball. A fun, alternative explanation is that Cueball has found his real niche! A natural genius in literary criticism! (I know that's not what he's driving at. Stick with my first explanation.)[[User:Theo|Theo]] ([[User talk:Theo|talk]]) 13:22, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

I know this is easy to find, but the wikipedia article on deconstruction is very relevant. There should be a link in the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 01:05, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Talk:448: Good Morning

2014-04-30T00:58:34Z

108.162.219.7: Comment

If you try to take the IDL into account, would he have time-traveled in his sleep? Gained 18 hrs? Or lost a day? [[User:Saibot84|Saibot84]] ([[User talk:Saibot84|talk]]) 14:50, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

:If you use sleeping as the only separation of days then for them time would probably go slower since due to pulling all-nighters they will probably sleep less often than normal. Meaning that from an outside observer he has traveled back in time. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 19:09, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

If someone would make a website to compute this, just based on the time of waking, I would definitely use it before getting up each morning. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 00:58, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Talk:863: Major in the Universe

2014-04-27T23:58:50Z

108.162.219.7: Comment

If all else fails, you could always become an artist. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:03, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
:What does that mean? That art is a "backup" field that anyone can do? Art is one of the only things I think I would be unable to succeed at, no matter how hard I tried. Like saying "you could always become a professional basketball player." You just can't. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 23:58, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

I thought if all else fails you become a teacher? ~JFreund

1331: Frequency

2014-04-26T14:33:55Z

108.162.219.7: /* Explanation */ grammar correction

{{comic
| number = 1331
| date = February 17, 2014
| title = Frequency
| custom = <center><table><tr>
<td>[[File:heartbeat.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:birth.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:death.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:wikipedia.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:vibrator.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:car china.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:car japan.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:car germany.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:car us.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:car elsewhere.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:kiss.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:fire dept.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:holeinone.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:turnsignal1.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:turnsignal2.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:earthquake1.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:earthquake2.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:earthquake3.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:earthquake4.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:parliament toilet.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:flight.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:book mockingbird.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:cat mockingbird.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:phoenixshoes.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:phoenix.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:keys.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:amelia.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:dogbite.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:bike.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:eagle.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:bottles.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:recycled.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:meteor.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:oldfaithful.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:shark.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:us cancer.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:us cancer death.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:dog.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:cat.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:wedding.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:domain.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:house.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:tattoo.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:pulsar.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:facebook.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[ File:iphone.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:littleleague.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:ndsex.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:bieber.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[ File:denverpizza.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr></table></center>
| titletext = This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows a number of common events, arranged in a grid. Each of the events flashes with its average frequency.

For example, statistically a child is born somewhere on the world approximately every 0.24 seconds, or four times per second. Therefore the tile "One birth" blinks about 4 times per second.

The title text refers to the {{w|Pitch drop experiment}} which measures the flow of a piece of pitch over many years. At room temperature, tar pitch flows at a very slow rate, taking several years to form a single drop. The title text jokes that Randall tried to include a tile that flashes about once every {{w|decade|ten years}}, but the tiles are all {{w|Animated GIF|animated GIFs}} and while the file format supports animations of any length, the resulting file would be too big (at least 10 megabytes).

A thorough analysis of the frequencies present in this comic and how they relate to the underlying technology (the GIF format) was published as [http://notebooks.jsvine.com/reverse-engineering-xkcd-frequency/ Reverse Engineering xkcd's 'Frequency'].

The table below lists all the events and their duration / frequency. Some events make reference to other comics.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
!class="unsortable"|Picture
!class="unsortable"|Text
!Period (seconds)
!Frequency (per minute)
!Frequency (per year, N/I = not interesting)
!class="unsortable"|Explanation and/or references to other comics.
|-
|[[File:heartbeat.gif]]
|Heartbeat||style="text-align:right;"|0.86||style="text-align:right;"|70||style="text-align:right;"|33,000,000||The typical resting {{w|heart rate}} in adults is 60–80 beats per minute (bpm).
|-
|[[File:birth.gif]]
|One birth||style="text-align:right;"|0.24||style="text-align:right;"|250||style="text-align:right;"|131,490,000||The {{w|Birth rate|birth rate}} happens on earth.
|-
|[[File:death.gif]]
|One death||style="text-align:right;"|0.56||style="text-align:right;"|107||style="text-align:right;"|56,360,000||The {{w|Mortality rate|Mortality rate}} is much lower than the birth rate shown above, thus the world population still increases.
|-
|[[File:wikipedia.gif]]
|Someone edits Wikipedia||style="text-align:right;"|0.67||style="text-align:right;"|90||style="text-align:right;"|47,100,000||{{w|Wikipedia}} is an online, freely editable encyclopedia.
|-
|[[File:vibrator.gif]]
|Someone buys a vibrator||style="text-align:right;"|2.99||style="text-align:right;"|20||style="text-align:right;"|10,550,000 || This is just a joke, there are no reliable statistics on world wide vibrator productions or sales.
|-
|[[ File:car china.gif ]]
|China builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|1.89||style="text-align:right;"|32||style="text-align:right;"|16,700,000|| China is the biggest market for many western car manufacturers — most car makers are happy on that market — but the most cars for their own country they do produce in China itself.
|-
|[[ File:car japan.gif ]]
|Japan builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|4.01||style="text-align:right;"|15||style="text-align:right;"|7,870,000|| {{w|Toyota}} is the biggest car seller by the time of this comic.
|-
|[[ File:car germany.gif ]]
|Germany builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|5.8||style="text-align:right;"|10||style="text-align:right;"|5,440,000|| {{w|Volkswagen}} tries to overcome Toyota by 2018.
|-
|[[ File:car us.gif ]]
|The US builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|6.95||style="text-align:right;"|8.6||style="text-align:right;"|4,540,000|| The US car market did change, many rumours, but it isn't that misbehave published often in the press.
|-
|[[ File:car elsewhere.gif ]]
|Someone else builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|1.03||style="text-align:right;"|58||style="text-align:right;"|30,640,000|| All car manufactures dwarf about this — those "unknown" or "not recognized" countries like Brazil, India, will play an important rule on the future markets.
|-
|[[ File:kiss.gif ]]
|A European Union resident has their first kiss||style="text-align:right;"|5.53||style="text-align:right;"|11||style="text-align:right;"|5,700,000||
|-
|[[ File:fire dept.gif ]]
|A US fire department puts out a fire||style="text-align:right;"|23||style="text-align:right;"|2.6||style="text-align:right;"|1,370,000||
|-
|[[ File:holeinone.gif ]]
|Someone hits a hole-in-one||style="text-align:right;"|180||style="text-align:right;"|⅓ (20 per hour)||style="text-align:right;"|175,320||A {{w|hole in one}} is a feat in {{w|golf}} in which the player hits the ball directly from the tee into the cup with one shot. This does not account for possibility of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/85/ Rocket Golf].
|-
|[[ File:turnsignal1.gif ]]
|My turn signal blinks||style="text-align:right;"|0.94||style="text-align:right;"|64||style="text-align:right;"|N/I||This, together with "The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks", forms a reference to [[165: Turn Signals]].
|-
|[[ File:turnsignal2.gif ]]
|The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks||style="text-align:right;"|0.9||style="text-align:right;"|67||style="text-align:right;"|N/I||This, together with "My turn signal blinks", forms a reference to [[165: Turn Signals]].
|-
|[[ File:earthquake1.gif ]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 1)||style="text-align:right;"|2.43||style="text-align:right;"|25||style="text-align:right;"|13,000,000|| [[711: Seismograph]]
|-
|[[ File:earthquake2.gif ]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 2)||style="text-align:right;"|24.26||style="text-align:right;"|2.5||style="text-align:right;"|1,300,000|| Review [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22feed%22%3A%221day_all%22%2C%22search%22%3Anull%2C%22sort%22%3A%22largest%22%2C%22basemap%22%3A%22grayscale%22%2C%22autoUpdate%22%3Atrue%2C%22restrictListToMap%22%3Atrue%2C%22timeZone%22%3A%22local%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B-84.47406458459159%2C-25.6640625%5D%2C%5B84.4740645845916%2C425.390625%5D%5D%2C%22overlays%22%3A%7B%22plates%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%7B%22map%22%3Atrue%2C%22list%22%3Atrue%2C%22settings%22%3Atrue%2C%22help%22%3Afalse%7D%7D USGS's Quake Map] for verification.
|-
|[[ File:earthquake3.gif ]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 3)||style="text-align:right;"|242.6||style="text-align:right;"|¼ (15 per hour)||style="text-align:right;"|130,000|| [[1037: Umwelt#Earthquake-Blizzard|1037: Umwelt]]
|-
|[[ File:earthquake4.gif ]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 4)||style="text-align:right;"|2426||style="text-align:right;"|0.025 (1.5 per hour)||style="text-align:right;"|13,000|| [[723: Seismic Waves]]; below this magnitude earthquakes pass by largely unnoticed by Tweeters.[http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/mag_vs_int.php]
|-
|[[ File:parliament toilet.gif ]]
|A member of the UK parliament flushes a toilet||style="text-align:right;"|10.06||style="text-align:right;"|6||style="text-align:right;"|3,140,000||Note that probably during the daytime in Britain such a toilet is flushed 8.5 times per minute, while at night it is flushed only 1 time per minute.
|-
|[[ File:flight.gif ]]
|An airline flight takes off||style="text-align:right;"|0.93||style="text-align:right;"|65||style="text-align:right;"|34,000,000||
|-
|[[ File:book mockingbird.gif ]]
|Someone buys ''To Kill a Mockingbird''||style="text-align:right;"|42.05||style="text-align:right;"|1.4||style="text-align:right;"|750,000||“{{w|To Kill a Mockingbird}}” is a novel by {{w|Harper Lee}}, often an assigned reading in high school.
|-
|[[ File:cat mockingbird.gif ]]
|Someone's pet cat kills a mockingbird||style="text-align:right;"|1.82||style="text-align:right;"|33||style="text-align:right;"|17,340,000||Whereas the previous item references the well-known book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, this one talks about {{w|Mockingbird|mockingbirds}} being literally killed (in this case, by cats). There are 45 million mockingbirds in the world;[http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Mimus_polyglottos/] this means that according to Randall, cats kill 39% of mockingbirds in one year, i.e. in 2.5 years they are able to kill all mockingbirds (excluding the ones that are born in the meantime).
|-
|[[ File:phoenixshoes.gif ]]
|Someone in Phoenix buys new shoes||style="text-align:right;"|1.08||style="text-align:right;"|56||style="text-align:right;"|29,200,000||Since {{w|Phoenix metropolitan area|metro Phoenix}} has 4,200,000 inhabitants, according to Randall people in Phoenix buy 7 pairs of shoes per capita per year.
|-
|[[ File:phoenix.gif ]]
|Someone in Phoenix puts on a condom||style="text-align:right;"|2.05||style="text-align:right;"|29||style="text-align:right;"|15,390,000|| ''Buy two pair of shoes, get a free condom''?
|-
|[[ File:keys.gif ]]
|Someone locks their keys in their car||style="text-align:right;"|2.43||style="text-align:right;"|25||style="text-align:right;"|13,000,000||
|-
|[[ File:amelia.gif ]]
|A Sagittarius named Amelia drinks a soda||style="text-align:right;"|7.79||style="text-align:right;"|7.7||style="text-align:right;"|4,000,000||Randall Munroe is a [http://blog.xkcd.com/2014/01/31/the-baby-name-wizard/ fan of The Baby Name Wizard] blog and its [http://www.babynamewizard.com Name Voyager] tool which shows that "[http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/amelia Amelia]" has recently exploded in popularity. 
This particular frequency is taken from:
* The number of persons called {{w|Amelia_(given_name)|Amelia}} ([http://howmanyofme.com/ est. 82,572 people in the U.S.])
* The number of persons born between November 22nd and December 22nd under the astrological sign of {{w|Sagittarius (astrology)|Sagittarius}} (~1/12th of the population, i.e. approximately 6881 Amelias in the U.S.)
* The frequency of soda (soft drinks) being drunk (216 liters per person per year in the U.S.[http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/foo_sof_dri_con-food-soft-drink-consumption]).
According to our figures, 6881 Amelias drink 1,44 million liters of soft drinks per year in the United States alone, which means that Randall's figures only account for American Amelias (drinking 356 cc or 12 fl. oz. of soda in each drink).
|-
|[[ File:dogbite.gif ]]
|A dog bites someone in the US||style="text-align:right;"|7.01||style="text-align:right;"|8.6||style="text-align:right;"|4,500,000||
|-
|[[ File:bike.gif ]]
|Someone steals a bicycle||style="text-align:right;"|24.93||style="text-align:right;"|2.4||style="text-align:right;"|1,265,000||
|-
|[[ File:eagle.gif ]]
|A bald eagle catches a fish||style="text-align:right;"|2.69||style="text-align:right;"|22||style="text-align:right;"|11,700,000||
|-
|[[ File:bottles.gif ]]
|50,000 plastic bottles are produced||style="text-align:right;"|1.27||style="text-align:right;"|47||style="text-align:right;"|1.24 trillion||
|-
|[[ File:recycled.gif ]]
|50,000 plastic bottles are recycled||style="text-align:right;"|4.64||style="text-align:right;"|13||style="text-align:right;"|340 billion||27% of the plastic bottles manufactured get [[885: Recycling|recycled]]
|-
|[[ File:meteor.gif ]]
|A bright meteor is visible somewhere||style="text-align:right;"|1.15||style="text-align:right;"|52||style="text-align:right;"|N/I||
|-
|[[ File:oldfaithful.gif ]]
|Old Faithful erupts||style="text-align:right;"|5640 (94 minutes)||style="text-align:right;"|0.011 (15 per day)||style="text-align:right;"|5,595||{{w|Old Faithful}} is a geyser in {{w|Yellowstone National Park}} in the US, that tends to erupt every 65 or 91 minutes. XKCD's period of 1h 34m falls between the [http://geysertimes.org/getGeyserInfo.php?geyserID=2 mean and median of recent Old Faithful eruptions] and corresponds to a [http://geysertimes.org/getSingleEruption.php?id=645135 February 16, 2014 eruption].
|-
|[[ File:shark.gif ]]
|A fishing boat catches a shark||style="text-align:right;"|0.83||style="text-align:right;"|72||style="text-align:right;"|38,000,000|| [[1326: Sharks]]; Shark populations have experienced severe declines due to fishing impacts both of {{w|shark finning|finning}} and by-catch.[http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=shark+population+decline+fishing]
|-
|[[ File:us cancer.gif ]]
|Someone in the US is diagnosed with cancer||style="text-align:right;"|18.99||style="text-align:right;"|3.2||style="text-align:right;"|1,660,000|| [[881: Probability]]
|-
|[[ File:us cancer death.gif ]]
|Someone in the US dies from cancer||style="text-align:right;"|54.34||style="text-align:right;"|1.1||style="text-align:right;"|580,000|| [[881: Probability]]
|-
|[[ File:dog.gif ]]
|Someone adopts a dog from a shelter||style="text-align:right;"|15.6||style="text-align:right;"|3.8||style="text-align:right;"|2,000,000||
|-
|[[ File:cat.gif ]]
|Someone adopts a cat from a shelter||style="text-align:right;"|21.3||style="text-align:right;"|2.8||style="text-align:right;"|1,500,000||
|-
|[[ File:wedding.gif ]]
|Someone gets married||style="text-align:right;"|0.75||style="text-align:right;"|80||style="text-align:right;"|42,000,000||
|-
|[[ File:domain.gif ]]
|Someone registers a domain||style="text-align:right;"|0.64||style="text-align:right;"|94||style="text-align:right;"|49,300,000 ||
|-
|[[ File:house.gif ]]
|Someone in the US buys a house||style="text-align:right;"|6.22||style="text-align:right;"|9.6||style="text-align:right;"|5,000,000||
|-
|[[ File:tattoo.gif ]]
|Someone in the US gets a tattoo||style="text-align:right;"|2.06||style="text-align:right;"|29||style="text-align:right;"|15,300,000||
|-
|[[ File:pulsar.gif ]]
|The star PSR J1748-2446AD rotates 1,000 times||style="text-align:right;"|1.4||style="text-align:right;"|42.9||style="text-align:right;"|N/I||{{w|PSR J1748-2446ad}} is the fastest spinning {{w|pulsar}} known.
|-
|[[ File:facebook.gif ]]
|Someone lies about their age to sign up for Facebook||style="text-align:right;"|4.32||style="text-align:right;"|14||style="text-align:right;"|600,000 per month||To sign up for Facebook, [https://www.facebook.com/help/210644045634222 the user must claim to be at least 13 years old]. This is a reflection of the U.S. {{w|Children's Online Privacy Protection Act}}.
|-
|[[ File:iphone.gif ]]
|Someone breaks an iPhone screen||style="text-align:right;"|0.93||style="text-align:right;"|65||style="text-align:right;"|34,000,000||
|-
|[[ File:littleleague.gif ]]
|A Little League player strikes out||style="text-align:right;"|1.23||style="text-align:right;"|49||style="text-align:right;"|N/I||{{w|Little League Baseball|Little League}} is a system of local youth baseball and softball competitions. A {{w|strikeout}} is a situation in baseball and softball.
|-
|[[ File:ndsex.gif ]]
|Someone has sex in North Dakota||style="text-align:right;"|1.38||style="text-align:right;"|43||style="text-align:right;"|22,900,000||Since {{w|North Dakota}} has 723,000 inhabitants (ranked the 48th state), and if we estimate the sexually active population as 80% (and if ''someone'' means ''a couple)'' this means that people in North Dakota have sex 79.1 times a year. It is estimated that 3.93% of the world population has sex on a given day;[http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/geographyofsex.htm] Randall's rate for North Dakota is 17.3% which is not low.
|-
|[[ File:bieber.gif ]]
|Justin Bieber gains a follower on Twitter||style="text-align:right;"|4.73||style="text-align:right;"|13||style="text-align:right;"|556,000 per month|| [[802: Online Communities 2#Twitter Region|802: Online Communities 2]];  {{w|Justin Bieber}} is a Canadian pop music singer whose [https://twitter.com/justinbieber Twitter account] is extremely popular
|-
|[[ File:denverpizza.gif ]]
|Someone in Denver orders pizza||style="text-align:right;"|1.27||style="text-align:right;"|47||style="text-align:right;"|2,000,000||
|}

==Transcript==
:[Repetitive events are written in grey and arranged in a grid. Each statement pulses to black and then returns to grey at an interval characteristic of the named event.]

{| style="text-align:center;"
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|Heartbeat (0.86 sec)
|One birth (0.24 sec)
|One death (0.56 sec)
|Someone edits Wikipedia (0.67 sec)
|Someone buys a vibrator (2.99 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|China builds a car (1.89 sec)
|Japan builds a car (4.01 sec)
|Germany builds a car (5.8 sec)
|The US builds a car (6.95 sec)
|Someone else builds a car (1.03 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|A European Union resident has their first kiss (5.53 sec)
|A US fire department puts out a fire (23 sec)
|Someone hits a hole-in-one (180 sec)
|My turn signal blinks (0.94 sec)
|The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks (0.9 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Earthquake (magnitude 1) (2.43 sec)
|Earthquake (magnitude 2) (24.26 sec)
|Earthquake (magnitude 3) (242.6 sec)
|Earthquake (magnitude 4) (2426 sec, 42 min)
|Member of the UK Parliament flushes a toilet (10.06 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|An airline flight takes off (0.93 sec)
|Someone buys ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (42.05 sec)
|Someone's pet cat kills a mockingbird (1.82 sec)
|Someone in Phoenix buys new shoes (1.08 sec)
|Someone in Phoenix puts on a condom (2.05 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Someone locks their keys in their car (2.43 sec)
|A Sagittarius named Amelia drinks a soda (7.79 sec)
|A dog bites someone in the US (7.01 sec)
|Someone steals a bicycle (24.93 sec)
|A bald eagle catches a fish (2.69 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|50,000 plastic bottles are produced (1.27 sec)
|50,000 plastic bottles are recycled (4.64 sec)
|A bright meteor is visible somewhere (1.15 sec)
|Old Faithful erupts (5640 sec, 94 min)
|A fishing boat catches a shark (0.83 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Someone in the US is diagnosed with cancer (18.99 sec)
|Someone in the US dies from cancer (54.34 sec)
|Someone adopts a dog from a shelter (15.6 sec)
|Someone adopts a cat from a shelter (21.3 sec)
|Someone gets married (0.75 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|Someone registers a domain (0.64 sec)
|Someone in the US buys a house (6.22 sec)
|Someone in the US gets a tattoo (2.06 sec)
|The star ''PSR J1748-2446ad'' rotates 1,000 times (1.4 sec)
|Someone lies about their age to sign up for Facebook (4.32 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Someone breaks an iPhone screen (0.93 sec)
|A little league player strikes out (1.23 sec)
|Someone has sex in North Dakota (1.38 sec)
|Justin Bieber gains a follower on Twitter (4.73 sec)
|Someone in Denver orders a pizza (1.27 sec)
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

Talk:1093: Forget

2014-03-14T04:21:07Z

108.162.219.7: Comment

How far off the top of that list is the death of JFK? [[User:SteveBell|SteveB]] ([[User talk:SteveBell|talk]]) 10:55, 10 August 2012‎ (UTC)
: Looking at the time table, my guess would be around 2000. ~[[User:Jjhuddle|JJ]] ([[User talk:Jjhuddle|talk]]) 11:01, 10 August 2012‎ (UTC)
: Assuming that the median age growed monotonically in the past, that was around '98/'99. [[Special:Contributions/178.15.226.170|178.15.226.170]] 13:05, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Ah, the seventies. Bell Bottoms. The Bicentennial. The Munich Olympics. The original Star Wars movie. Except for Star Wars, I suppose much of that ''could'' be forgotten. Especially [[1072|Bell Bottoms]].-- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 13:50, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

Lorena Bobbitt is misspelled in the comic. It should have two "t's." Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500185_162-4207517.html [Goingtotryscience, 10 Aug 2012] --[[User:Goingtotryscience|Goingtotryscience]] ([[User talk:Goingtotryscience|talk]]) 14:59, 10 August 2012 (UTC)
Uploaded corrected version. Both still available if you click on the image and view upload history.--[[User:Bpothier|B. P.]] ([[User talk:Bpothier|talk]]) 15:46, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

The cold war was after World War II, not World War I. --[[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 16:18, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

: He didn't say the cold war was after World War I, he said the Soviet Union began after World War I and was the advesary of the United States during the cold war. --[[User:Enginesoul|Enginesoul]] ([[User talk:Enginesoul|talk]]) 18:10, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

Let's not forget 2035 when the majority of people will not remember a world berift of XKCD! [[User:Loeb|Loeb]] ([[User talk:Loeb|talk]]) 17:17, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

When Coca-Cola change the formula to New Coke, they kept the name "Coca-Cola" for the reformulated beverage, and discontinued the old formula. Because of the backlash, they reintroduced the old formula as "Coca-Cola Classic" and kept the new formula as "Coca-Cola". After a while, with "Coca-Cola Classic" being by far the biggest seller, the new formula was rebranded "Coke II", and eventually discontinued (I believe). The can I have in front of me is marked simply "Coca-Cola", so I guess "Coca-Cola Classic" was eventually rebranded back to the original name. --[[User:Blaisepascal|Blaise Pascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 17:55, 10 August 2012 (UTC)
:Coke II was produced and distributed in some Midwestern markets as late as 2002. Supposedly it's still available in the Marshall Islands, or somewhere like that. [[User:Daniel Case|Daniel Case]] ([[User talk:Daniel Case|talk]]) 21:22, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Am I the only one who thinks that there are some other things needing explaining here? I have no idea what "Forgot About Dre" or "Baby Got Back" are about. (Well, not without a little googling.) And Pluto still exists, even if it's not currently classified as a planet (last I heard, they were considering classifying it and Charon as a twin planet system) so people are unlikely to forget about the name.--[[User:Joe Green|Joe Green]] ([[User talk:Joe Green|talk]]) 07:26, 11 August 2012 (UTC)
:Actually, Pluto is still a planet. To say Pluto is not a planet is the same thing as saying little people aren't people, which is incredibly bigoted against little people. Only a true sociopath would say that Pluto isn't a planet. "Dwarf planet" has planet right in the name. Of COURSE a dwarf planet is a planet.[[Special:Contributions/76.29.225.28|76.29.225.28]] 15:07, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Oh and if Chernobyl is considered worthy of explanation, surely so is Challenger? Columbine too. Jeff's initial selection seems a little arbitrary, and while he justifiably never claims to provide a comprehensive explanation, we usually fill in the gaps.--[[User:Joe Green|Joe Green]] ([[User talk:Joe Green|talk]]) 07:34, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

:Gaps: Filled. By the way, none of the explanation was actually Jeff's. It's the collaboration of multiple users (feel free to pitch in). For example, I made the {{diff|6133|first revision}} of the article, with a basic explanation, [[Special:Contributions/Jjhuddle|Jjhuddle]] {{diff|6157|added}} information about the title text (which I skipped over, as I wasn't sure about it), [[Special:Contributions/Jilkscom56|Jilkscom56]] {{diff|6190|added}} the bit about Eyjafjallajökull, [[Special:Contributions/IronyChef|IronyChef]] {{diff|6199|added}} eight more years, [[Special:Contributions/MrFlibble|MrFlibble]] {{diff|6218|fixed}} an error in one of the dates, [[Special:Contributions/AHT|AHT]] {{diff|6253|expanded}} the Berlin Wall section, and I {{diff|6256|filled in the rest of the blanks}}. {{User:Omega/sig}} 08:18, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

The Berlin Wall was constructed by East Germany, not the USSR and it preceded the reunification of Germany. I've sort of fixed it, but it could do with more work. [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 10:35, 13 August 2012 (UTC)
: Good. I was just writing a comment about exactly these two points. Although the role of the soviets is not entirely clear, it was the Eastern German (aka German Democratic Republic) Government that decided and (mostly) Eastern German soldiers who built the Wall. And while the "Fall of the Wall" usually refers to the day where suddenly after a very confusing press conference, people could cross the border from east to west, the November 9, 1989, the reunification was a political and formal act in 1990, almost a year later. [[Special:Contributions/178.15.226.170|178.15.226.170]] 10:51, 13 August 2012 (UTC)
: Also, the wall was technically not torn down by anyone and especially not from both sides. After a series of weekly demonstrations in Eastern Germany (by a lot of courageous people in different cities), the Government made a decision to lift the travel restrictions, effectively allowing travelling to the West. On November 9, 1989, they made this official in a press conference which did not even receive a lot of attention at first. In this conference, someone raised the question when these new regulation would take effect, and seemingly unprepared, the speaker said "as far as I can see, it's effective immediately". Although there were so many people up that night in both East and West, and although maybe the mass of people prevented a shooting by the unprepared soldiers at the checkpoint, the revolution was not a spontaneous tearing of the wall, it was the demonstrations in the preceeding weeks by the Eastern German People. [[Special:Contributions/178.15.226.170|178.15.226.170]] 11:30, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

It seems whoever wrote the explanation for 9/11 has already forgotten the other two planes that crashed that day: one into the Pentagon, and one in a field outside of Shanksville, PA (Presumably on its way to crashing into the Capitol Building)
:Well go change it then!

Actually I found the most crucial part, the math, was done poorly: Why do we have a 32 years gap today and a 35 years gap in the future, when the current median age is "around 35"?. I fixed it, but I'm not a native speaker, so I'd be happy if someone could go over the first paragraph (again). [[User:BKA|BKA]] ([[User talk:BKA|talk]]) 13:40, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

"''He lost all popularity after he controversially boycotted the 1980 Olympics, in Moscow''" Well, this just proves the point of the comic. Anyone old enough to remember the Carter administration would not have written this. The Olympic boycott was actually supported by most of the American people at the time, albeit a little grudgingly. It was, in fact, one of the few things Carter did at that point that ''was'' popular.The explanation would be more accurate if it read "''He lost popularity due to continual high inflation during his administration, failure to resolve the {{w|Iran hostage crisis}}, a {{w|Malaise speech|speech that was interpreted as blaming the American people for his administration's failings}}, and a growing perception that he was in over his head.''" [[User:Daniel Case|Daniel Case]] ([[User talk:Daniel Case|talk]]) 21:19, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

:I've rewritten that section to include more information. Wikipedia does say that the Olympic boycott was controversial, and my memory concurs. The real error about the boycott was that it wasn't generally a cold-war issue, but rather a direct response to the Afghanistan invasion. Which is why it was so controversial, as such a boycott was purely political when the spirit of the games was intended to overcome such political differences. [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 21:51, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

This comic makes me feel young. The first event I actually remember is 9/11, and I only remember it because it was my first day of kindergarten. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 04:21, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1032: Networking

2014-03-02T19:50:15Z

108.162.219.7: comment

I don't think "Connr" is a typo, as it's very likely the type of thing that a Web 2.0 business owner would do (see, for instance, the businesses Flickr, Tumblr, etc). [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 17:56, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
: That makes a lot of sense. I probably should have edited out the parenthetical when I copied/pasted from the blog. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 20:47, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
''All of these things are not common behavior.''
I don't know why, but that line of the explanation got me laughing for a full minute. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.66|108.162.215.66]] 06:20, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
: Yeah, I think we should make a "citation needed" for this thing [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.149|173.245.53.149]] 17:42, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
Another example of a "long tail" business is a luxury car maker like Lambourghini. While their parent companies (Audi and Volkswagen) target wider audiences, Lambourghini intentionally focuses on the very high-end luxury market, pricing their vehicles around $400,000 each. Their highest sales year on record was 2008, when they delivered a worldwide total of 2,430 new cars. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.120|108.162.245.120]] 21:20, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

The "next" button is broken. It points to explainxkcd.com/1032. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 19:50, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

Talk:417: The Man Who Fell Sideways

2014-02-26T20:10:12Z

108.162.219.7: comment

I feel like the child should fall at a shallower angle from horizontal. There must be some way to do a punnet square for these things...
[[User:BruceJohnJennerLawso|BruceJohnJennerLawso]] ([[User talk:BruceJohnJennerLawso|talk]]) 22:47, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

The "when he was restrained, it grew erratic" seems to imply that gravity always pulls him horizontally to the surface he's on. Otherwise, he would be able to stand on a wall, instead of bouncing around. This is one weird kind of gravity.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 20:10, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1334: Second

2014-02-24T17:10:43Z

108.162.219.7:

Reference to how much Google knows about us and the 'Filter Bubble'?
OTOH could just be a straight-forward observation of the search habits of most people - if I don't find what you're looking for on the first page , I try to refine my search terms rather than goto page 2 .
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.132|108.162.225.132]] 05:52, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
:But you can remember a time when you ''did'' go to the second or third page with some frequency, back when the Gooooooooooogle at the bottom of each page was rendered in text and your mom thought it was just so cool that the red 'o' showed her which page she was on. [[User:Jameslucas|jameslucas]] ([[User talk:Jameslucas|" "]] / [[Special:Contributions/Jameslucas|+]]) 14:32, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
::What do you mean, “back when”? The Gooooooooooogle still behaves the way you described. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.64|108.162.254.64]] 16:58, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
Interestingly, some research <citation missing> shows that Google's results are oriented more towards commercial results than other vendors, meaning that if you are looking for a non-commercial answer you might need to look at the second page (or switch search providers). [[User:Randymack|Randymack]] ([[User talk:Randymack|talk]]) 12:45, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
:I really want to see that citation. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 15:09, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

The dictionary definition of "desperation" looks a bit out of place. What's the point in it? Also, is there an explanation for the talking rock? A mention to the symbolic over dramatization of the incident?[[User:Dulcis|Dulcis]] ([[User talk:Dulcis|talk]]) 15:43, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Are we sure it's a desert? I know it mentions "desolate wastes", but it looks an awful lot like a seashore to me, not a desert. —[[User:Scs|Scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 17:09, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

I think the title text is referring to the results from searching for a number like "19". Instead of information about nineteen, you get lots of pages which tangentially refer to it, such as "President correcting discrimination against 19 Jewish, Hispanic and African American soldiers" or pages with a copyright year of 19xx. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 17:10, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

1321: Cold

2014-01-24T22:55:45Z

108.162.219.7: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1321
| date = January 24, 2014
| title = Cold
| image = cold.png
| titletext = 'You see the same pattern all over. Take Detroit--' 'Hold on. Why do you know all these statistics offhand?' 'Oh, um, no idea. I definitely spend my evenings hanging out with friends, and not curating a REALLY NEAT database of temperature statistics. Because, pshh, who would want to do that, right? Also, snowfall records.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| needs some textual editing, the title text joke has been in many xkcd comics, need to be referred to}}

The comics reacts to simplified view of {{w|global warming}} by amateurs, including media. Phenomena like {{w|Polar vortex}} or even random changes are taken as example or counter-example of global warming. In short, some people fail to understand the difference between climate and weather. If you want real proof for or against global warming, you need to look at global (not local) and long-term (not short-term) temperature changes.

For non US citizen: 0 °F (Fahrenheit) is -17.8 °C (Celsius), which is ''really fucking cold''. The city {{w|St. Louis}} is roughly at the same {{w|latitude}} as {{w|Lisbon}} (Portugal) or {{w|Beijing}} (China). But at Lisbon those low temperatures never do happen because of the {{w|Gulf Stream}}. If the Gulf Stream stops, which could happen caused by small changes in the global climate, the temperatures may drop at that regions.

The only dispute on global warming is, are the humans the main factor on this changes or is it just a natural change like it did happen in much higher levels in the past. The vast majority of scientists agree that man-made global warning is currently happening.

Title text suggest the reason WHY this occurs: getting the knowledge needed to actually know something about global warming is time-consuming and would be the kind of stuff only a real nerd would do. Normal people would rather hang out with friends, or at least spend their time with some more fun nerd activity, like playing computer games.

=== Previous comics referring global warming ===
* [[164: Playing Devil's Advocate to Win]]
* [[887: Future Timeline]] (partially)
* [[1225: Ice Sheets]] (title text only)

==Transcript==
:[It's cold, and Cueball and Black Hat are walking wearing stocking caps. Cueball is shivering.]
:Cueball: It's '''''brutal''''' out. So much for global warming, huh?
:Black Hat: ''*sigh*'' This used to happen all the time.
:Cueball: What?

:[Shows a graph relating the number of days with lows below zero fahrenheit by year since 1970.]
:Black Hat (off-screen): You're from St. Louis, right?
:Black Hat: On average, it used to get below 0°F there a handful of days per year.
:Black Hat: But you haven't had a day like that since the nineties.

:[Black Hat has stopped walking.]
:Black Hat: Then, in 2014, when the first polar vortex hit, it dipped below zero for two days. And everyone freaked out.

:[They continue walking.]
:Black Hat: Because what used to be normal; now feels too cold.
:Cueball: It ''is'' too cold!

:The Future:
:[Cueball is pointing at a patch of ice.]
:Cueball: Look at this—'''''ice!''''' in '''''St. Louis!''''' So much for global warming.
:Off-screen: *sigh*

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]