explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

781: Ahead Stop

2023-10-15T01:55:13Z

108.162.221.101: still not a reference to top-posting, though

{{comic
| number = 781
| date = August 18, 2010
| title = Ahead Stop
| image = ahead_stop.png
| titletext = They actually started the reversed-text practice in 1977 -- not for ease-of-reading reasons, but because too many people were driving backward down the highway blasting the Star Wars opening theme.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to how, in some countries including the US, words or instructions written on the highway are always backwards from how you would read them. It seems that the "highway" engineers write the words as if you would read them as your car goes over them. Sometimes this approach works, other times it is potentially confusing. The sentence on the comic is: Highway Engineers Think I Read Backward. Adding the period is a perfectly hilarious touch, as there are probably not too many periods on the highways.{{citation needed}}

The title text is referring to how the {{w|Star Wars opening crawl|words of the opening sequence}} of ''{{w|Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope}}'' (released in 1977) move from the bottom of the screen to the top so that it can be read by a normal human being. However, the image text says the engineers initially reversed the text because people were driving BACKWARDS down the highway trying to re-enact the opening sequence, so they started reversing the word order to get people to drive the "correct" direction.

The title of the comic ("Ahead Stop") is also a reference to this phenomenon because the common "Stop Ahead" instruction would be written on the highway as "Ahead" and then "Stop".

==Transcript==
:[Words are painted in white on a black road with green grass on each side and a gray sidewalk along the road to the left with a single flagstone going of from the sidewalk and out of the frame to the left. The words get smaller towards the top due to the perspective.]
:BACKWARD.
:I READ
:THINK
:ENGINEERS
:HIGHWAY

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

Talk:1529: Bracket

2023-09-20T19:51:53Z

108.162.221.101: Resolving edit-issues. Overly specific {{unsigned}} message rendered invisible, being unnecessary after all this time.

Interesting to me that no one has noted the order of the doctors. Doctor Octopus is from a comic, Doctor Manhattan is from a graphic novel and, trying to avoid spoilers here, the atomic bomb plays a key role in the story. The atomic bomb was the product of the Manhattan project (a fact not lost on Alan Moore), and the subject of the movie referenced by the next line, Dr Strangelove ("or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"). I can't believe this order is arbitrary. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.108|173.245.48.108]] 04:55, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

What's the connection between Rip Torn and Natalie Imbruglia? {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.183}}
:Answer: Her song, Torn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV1XWJN3nJo-{{unsigned|Stumpy}}
Rip Torn could have a preliminary match with Prof. Lance Rips  {{unsigned|Mitch Marks uchicago|16:34, 25 May 2015 (UTC)}}

Any pairings that you'd add, given the opportunity? Personally I always confuse [[wikipedia:Wilson Pickett|Wilson Pickett]] and [[wikipedia:Wilson Phillips|Wilson Phillips]]. [[User:Studley|Studley]] ([[User talk:Studley|talk]]) 08:28, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
[[wikipedia:Will Ferrell|Will Ferrell]] and [[wikipedia:Pharrell Williams|Pharrell Williams]] for me! -{{unsigned|Stumpy}}
Bill Paxton should be followed by Bill Bixby... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.92|108.162.254.92]] 09:10, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

How about George Washington and George Washington Carver? and the George Washington Bridge?

At one time, the White House had both a Donald Regan and a Ronald Reagan.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.190|108.162.215.190]] 17:14, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Why do some first round pairings have more than two people? Beyoncé starts at the third round, so it can't be just because of the number of people. There has to be a joke in them but I don't see it. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.176|141.101.104.176]] 08:45, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
:Possibly an in-joke at the NCAA bracket's First Four round. Mister/Fred Astaire/Rogers is a more "traditional" reference to the First Four. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.103|108.162.219.103]] 10:32, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
: Beyoncé starts first, before the first round. She's singing the national anthem before the players start competing. She doesn't compete until the third road because she needs time to change clothes since you don't wear the same thing to sing the national anthem as you wear as a competitor. :-) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.189|108.162.215.189]] 04:22, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps it's worth adding to a trivia section that (assuming every person/thing has an equal chance of winning every matchup, Beyonce has the highest odds of winning (1/32 = 3.125%) while Kurt Russell, Russell Crowe, Russell Brand, and Russell Simmons are all tied for having the worst starting odds (1/256 = .391%).[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.91|108.162.219.91]] 09:19, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

I may be worth mentioning that the bracketing trees resemble hierarchical clustering dendrograms in which some string similarity metric was used as a distance function. {{unsigned ip|141.101.91.7}}

Although the comic is formatted as a tournament bracket, there are hints that it is in fact a dendrogram based on string similarity, in a similar way to how trees of evolutionary relationships between proteins are formed. We see this especially in the "Russell" group where there is equal similarity between any name containing "Russell" and so that group is not resolved into two separate forks. If readers wish to recreate such an analysis for themselves they can take the text on [http://pastebin.com/DRqjaDHH here] paste it into a [http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalw2/ multiple sequence aligner], press Submit, then after processing click Phylogenetic Tree and scroll down. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.74|141.101.99.74]] 12:46, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Somewhat disagree. There is no "string similarity" between domino and checker. The connection between the names seems to be that there are games named Dominos and Checkers. They would not be together if it was based on strictly on string similarity or generated automatically by software without human intervention.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.190|108.162.215.190]] 17:09, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Is there any significance to the number of entries? 52 on the left side but only 51 on the right? {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.84}}

Should it be noted at all that Chubby Checker's name was inspired by Fats Domino? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.121|108.162.215.121]] 21:05, 26 May 2015 (UTC)Akiosama

;Title text
Changed the reference of the Title Text from Doctor Who (who is already listed in the comic) to Dr. Dre, as the phrasing of the Title Text seems like a very direct reference to the 2001 song "Forgot About Dre." {{unsigned|Conquistador}}
:Probably would have been better to add it as an option since we're clearly far from certain -{{unsigned|Stumpy}}

Why not Zoidberg? --RhyvenNZ [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.41|198.41.238.41]] 09:55, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Pretty sure Doctor Who is covered by "The Doctor". He doesn't go by "Who" in the show. He's just the Doctor. I think the missing doctor is House. {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.127}}

Dr. Pepper, maybe? Does "staring" or "forgotten" have to do with it? {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.156}}

Whatagainnow? {{unsigned ip|108.162.222.178}}

Dr. Oz? Dr. Phil? Dr. Watson? Dr. Kavorkian? Dr. Seuss? Wasn't there a famous literary work, The Lost Island of Dr. Moreau? I agree that Dr. House and/or house calls could be a missing candidate for the bracket. But then, there are a ton of 'Sirs' that didn't make the list.  {{unsigned|GAKDragon||please sign your posts appropriately with the appropriate user and talk page links using <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>}}
:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Teeth_and_The_Electric_Mayhem Doctor Teeth!] [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:50, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
:Pete Docter? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.191|108.162.249.191]] 11:27, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Or is "The Doctor" http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Doctor? {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.108}}
:The Doctor is already in the bracket. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.49|141.101.99.49]] 10:40, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

It's Doctor House - definitely and finally! {{unsigned|Raydleemsc}}

Definitely "Doc" Brown: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Brown {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.171}}

::It's clearly Dr. Doolittle. Can't imagine why no one has realized this yet. {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.193}}

Could the joke simply be "there are way too many famous doctors", so even though it's arguably the most numerous category in the bracket, some are still "forgotten"? {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.164}}

Probably not talking about doctor who, however he could be referencing The Silence, which is a an alien race, on that show, which you immediately forget about after losing sight of it. {{unsigned|KroniK907}}

I immediately thought of Amy's wedding in Dr Who S5Ep13 where she needed to remember the doctor to bring him back. Too obscure? [[User:Blu003|Blu003]] ([[User talk:Blu003|talk]]) 13:07, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
:Hardly. You want obscure, try The Doctor's granddaughter. Yep, he had/has one. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.144|108.162.237.144]] 13:41, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

:Dr. Martha Jones, from Doctor Who? The Doctor Donna? Even the companions on the show are Doctors. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.178|108.162.222.178]] 03:55, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm disappointed that no one thought of Julius "Dr. J" Irving, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Erving given the similarity to a Basketball tournament style graphic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.165|108.162.219.165]] 17:35, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

When this comic first went up, I emailed xkcd the same day to say that "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" had been missed out. -- @WPSCrimsonshade 20:48, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Y'know, I can't help but feel that this is a little to bland and unfinished for xkcd. I'm willing to bet that the picture updates with winners. May be sorely disappointed though. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.119|108.162.219.119]] 15:02, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Can't help but feel that there's a better way to lay this explanation out, but I haven't been able to come up with it. Maybe some sort of table listing all the different groups, with people allowed to be in more than one group? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.232|141.101.98.232]] 15:18, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

:I personally don't love the large listing of people. It is a bit bland, but more importantly, it doesn't really show the linkages between the participants (though most people ought to be able to figure out these overt links Jeff Gordon... Jeff Daniels... it doesn't need explanation. That said, the current format doesn't quite demonstrate the chain-link nature of some matchups like:
:*'''Body''' Shop
:*'''Bath''' and '''Body''' Works
:*Bed '''Bath''' & '''Beyond'''
:*'''Beyond''' Thunderdome
:* '''Beyon'''cé.
:I wouldn't mind a format with that kind of bolding. I think that shows the chain of links better than the first to being grouped "businesses with the word "body" and the second two "things with the word beyond" and "Beyoncé" separately. Similarly, Jeff Daniels belongs to both the "Jeff"s and the "J. Daniels"es. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 15:48, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

I wouldn't categorize Fats Domino and Chubby Checker (just) as games. Given that they're directly under Ryan Adams and Bryan Adams, I'd have identified them as 50's singers, with some physical similarities. [[User:KenWhitesell|KenWhitesell]] ([[User talk:KenWhitesell|talk]]) 16:17, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Agree. I put in the identification about games without knowing who Chubby Checker was.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.190|108.162.215.190]] 17:09, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
:Then you are one of today's lucky 10,000! [[1053]] {{w|Chubby Checker}}[[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 21:32, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

;celebrity deathmatch

This reminds me of Celebrity Deathmatch. Then have:
* Charles Manson vs. Marilyn Manson
* Backstreet Boys vs. Beastie Boys
* The Three Stooges vs. The Three Tenors
* Kevin Costner vs. Kevin Smith
* John Cusack vs. John Malkovich
* David Blaine vs. David Copperfield
* Corey Feldman vs. Corey Haim
* Jack Black vs. Jack White

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Celebrity_Deathmatch_episodes {{unsigned|Bart9h}}

Who is Jeff Gordan? There's an extremely famous NASCAR driver named Jeff Gordon, but I don't know of a Jeff Gordan. Significant or typo? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.182|108.162.238.182]] 16:07, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Where is Colin Furze? And Arnold Swarzenegger? And all other people I never heard of? -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.116|141.101.104.116]] 21:12, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

What about my favourite triple: Robbie Williams, Robin Williams and Robyn Williams? -- Ian N. {{unsigned ip|162.158.3.11}}

And who can forget Dermot Mulroney and Dylan mcDermott?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.164|108.162.254.164]] 09:34, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

This is a major "Get Out Of My Head, Randall" comic for me. The day before this comic was posted, my friend and I were discussing a "Hunger Games" type simulation being done on 8chan involving loads and loads of characters across genres, and he had asked me about the probability of a particular match-up occurring with a desired outcome. It led to a long and detailed math conversation. The original match-up has been bumped out of existence, but [http://i.imgur.com/ESeMXOI.jpg this image] still lives on. Appropriately, the comic was posted on my birthday. 2spooky4me. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.177|108.162.210.177]] 06:01, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
: It reminds me of a song - The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WgT9gy4zQA [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 13:59, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

I would have added Amanda Plummer. Will confuse Plummer with Palmer any day. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.191|108.162.249.191]] 23:19, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Just as well we don't have to deal with Paul Ryan - Ayn Rand - Rand Paul...Ron Paul, Les Paul, Saint Paul, John Paul, John Paul Jones...Wolfgang Pauli, Pollyanna...[[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 11:41, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Surprised Tommy Lee and Tommy Lee Jones aren't there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.124|108.162.238.124]] 12:31, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Personally I think its pointless having the probabilities listed as if they mean something. We don't know what the competition is, but its almost certain that the result of say 'The Body Shop' vs Beyonce is '''not''' going to be a 50:50 probability. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:41, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Are the probabilities listed half what they should be? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.165|108.162.237.165]] 17:16, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Mister/Fred Astaire/Rogers also refers to "Mr. Rogers" of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. I don't think there's a reference for the last combination, "Mister Astaire", other than to Fred Astaire.

Kevin Kline vs. Calvin Klein would also have made a good match. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.88|108.162.229.88]] 20:15, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

What about Johnny Cash v Johnny Paycheck? To which one could then add Johnny Carson v Johnny Unitas v Johnny Depp? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.98|173.245.48.98]] 16:36, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

----

;Cory Doctorow described as "real person"?

Well, yeah, but he's famous for some actual things. Perhaps "blogger and author" would better describe him. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.143|141.101.98.143]] 22:56, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

What about the Silents from series 6 of Doctor Who?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.144|108.162.250.144]] 04:20, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm disappointed John McCarthy isn't there. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.127|173.245.52.127]] 12:46, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

While I'm of the opinion that the doctor he is "forgetting" is CLEARLY Dr. Dre, I can see why we put the rest of the doctors on there since we don't know for sure. However, I'm removing the multiple long, rambling, and unnecessary references to The Doctor since he's already listed. [[User:Ul2006kevinb|Ul2006kevinb]] ([[User talk:Ul2006kevinb|talk]]) 16:43, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

I don't agree with the removal to be honest. I agree it got a bit long-winded, but the Doctor still could be either one of the two (Doctor Who and ST:Voyager). To then ask the question "Doctor Who?" would be a very valid joke/ question imho. Also, the list is now again referring to him as "Dr. Who", whereas his name is simply "the Doctor". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.107|141.101.75.107]] 01:39, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

Dr. Livingstone, I presume? --[[User:Eraoul|Eraoul]] ([[User talk:Eraoul|talk]]) 07:28, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

This description probably needs to be updated with the factoid given in https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket/status/612221512133816320, if it can be verified [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.87|141.101.99.87]] 12:34, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

It should be updated with "[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Q6Prudh-yLx_wV5NgR9_C35ZS5S8ZRM7BBWgfKET43k/viewform?c=0&w=1 The Doctor, alien explorer of time]" [https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket/status/611994813488099328] [[User:Dorus|Dorus]] ([[User talk:Dorus|talk]]) 09:29, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Am I the only one who thinks that the Transcript shouldn't be updated to match the unofficial Twitter Bracket feed? It should be on the page, but the transcript section should be related to the comic as it appears on xkcd.com only. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:47, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
:No that is correct. The transcript is always only what occurs on the original comic at xkcd. I have corrected the error. If someone wish to do a trivia section on the result they should feel free to include that. I have linked to the twitter account in the explanation as it is interesting since Randall links to it on xkcd. The trivia entry could be linked from that paragraph. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:43, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

:: Two comments: First, if that is the case, then several pages need to be updated; the fact that wetriffs.com was created in response to [[305: Rule 34]] is not "in the comic itself" nor is the fact that Randall was responsible for (another example, [[1485: Friendship]] triggered a movement to delete the wikipedia Bromance article - and a third example [[1190: Time]] triggered multiple twitter followings and web communities that are referenced in the explanation); if we purge #xkcdbracket from this, we need to purge all of those too for consistency. Second, transcript is what happens in the comic, but explanation includes background and consequences of comic; this consequence was featured by Randall for several weeks, if that's not canon, then nothing is. I have moved the explanation to trivia as requested, but filled in the victor. If you want to remove, please discuss first and also clean up the other pages I just listed. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 15:43, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
::: More pages that need to be purged of references to internet consequences and followings inspired by comics: [[1185]] inspired someone to make stacksort, [[239]] inspired people to photoshop capes onto Cory Doctorow, Little Bobby Tables refers to a website created (not by Randall) to teach people to properly sanitize database inputs, [[1167]] inspired wikipedia vandalism that temporarily caused a page to be protected (as did [[1193]]) [[576]] inspired someone to create a service that does what is described, I'm sure that given 10 more minutes I could find 10 more examples. '''None''' of these were featured as banners on the xkcd.com page by Randall and yet '''all''' are in explainxkcd.com. Please remove all of those references from explainxkcd.com (as well as fixing [[305]], [[1485]], and [[1190]] '''before''' deleting the reference to #xkcdbracket on this page. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 16:04, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
::::I do not know what I (or Pudder) wrote to get this response from Djbrasier. I agreed that the transcript should not be updated to match the brackets on the twitter account, and that the results written in the transcript (full results with results of all individual matches, that I removed when updating the transcript to look more like the comic) should be in the trivia if anyone wished them to be on this page. I do not think there is anything wrong (and also wrote that) with linking to the bracket. I actually linked my self to that bracket on twitter. And I don't even think the link should be a trivia item as it is important since Randall links to it. But the results (apart from the final, which is fine to have in the main explanation) is not for the explanation and definitely not for the transcript. So all the other pages and talk you write about purging explain xkcd from what happens because of xkcd has nothing to do with the subject here. And of course these thing should be a part of this page. So we agree on that! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:18, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

NOOOOO!! I bet everything on Scallions![[User:Saspic45|Saspic45]] ([[User talk:Saspic45|talk]]) 11:14, 18 June 2016 (UTC)

No love for Sandra Day O'Connor and Sinead O'Connor? They're practically the same person!
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.243|162.158.62.243]] 00:59, 29 March 2018 (UTC)My winner is George Orwell.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.243|162.158.62.243]] 00:59, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

can someone please move gene simmons up to be with the rest of the simmons in the table? I don't know how to do that.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.75|172.70.111.75]] 16:38, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
:(Moved Discussion item to bottom...)
:Gene Simmons has to 'match' both the Simmonses (above) ''and'' the Gene (below), so I can't see what sort of retabling would help here. ((Had considered two or more columns for the match-strings, that overlap like bricks, but sideways...) Personally, I would leave it. From your comment, I thought that he was misplaced (or that Randall had somehow used him completely outwith the bracketting area that he quite rightly did).
:As to ''how'', you would need to juggle "rowspan=" table parameters (and ensure you don't make that shuffle across lower lines of table, into which it intrudes) analogously to how you'd do it in HTML, but in wikimarkup form of course. I'd advise using Preview a lot, though, if you ever try it. Tables break '''''so''''' easily, even if you're used to them, and you don't want to make a record of all your mistakes along the way. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.56|172.70.162.56]] 22:53, 13 February 2023 (UTC)

Anyone else notice that 3 of the Chrises are Marvel actors? (Pratt is the Star-Lord, Hemsworth is Thor and Evans is Captain America)[[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.46|172.71.30.46]] 17:51, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

2637: Roman Numerals

2022-06-24T23:34:32Z

108.162.221.101: /* Explanation */ Fixed last equation

{{comic
| number = 2637
| date = June 24, 2022
| title = Roman Numerals
| image = roman_numerals.png
| titletext = 100he100k out th1s 1nno5at4e str1ng en100o501ng 15e been 500e5e50op1ng! 1t's 6rtua100y perfe100t! ...hang on, what's a "virtuacy"?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|100reate500 by a LXXXT  - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Roman numerals are an archaic system of representing numbers that uses the letters I, V, X, L, C, D, and M to represent numbers, which each letter representing a consistent value. Specifically, I represents 1, V represents 5, X represents 10, L represents 50, C represents 100, D represents 500, and M represents 1000. The rules for combining Roman numerals next to each other are that a Roman numeral is added to a Roman numeral of equal or lesser value just to its right (e.g., II=1+1=2 because 1≥1, and VI=5+1=6 because 5≥1), and a Roman number is subtracted from a Roman numeral of greater value just to its right (e.g., IV=5-1=4 because 1<5, and IX=10-1=9 because 1<10). (Also, each place must be written separately, e.g., one cannot represent 49 via IL but instead must represent the tens place and ones place separately via XL IX (although the space would not be included in practice).

The modern system of representing numbers is Hindu numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9), which are so-called because they were invented in India. However, because they were introduced to Europe by Arabic merchants, Westerns often call them Hindu-Arabic numerals or sometimes just Arabic numerals. The digit 0 represents the additive identity, the digit 1 represents the multiplicative identity, 2 represents 1+1, 3 represents 1+1+1, etc… all the way to 9 representing 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1. For Hindu-Arabic numerals, each time a digit is moved one place to the left (such as from the ones place to the tens place, from the tens place to the hundreds place, or from the hundreds place to the thousands place), the value that it represents is multiplied by ten (e.g., moving 3 to the left, starting in the ones place, changes the value that it represents from three to thirty to three hundred to three thousand…). Thus, for any digit d, the string d0 represents d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d, the string d00 represents d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0, etc…. Integers larger than nine are represented by representing them as digits multiplied by powers of ten, where no power of ten is repeated, and zero is used to fill in any gaps so that it is obvious how many places each nonzero digit is to the left of the ones place. For example, sixteen cubed can be expressed as 4×103+9×101+6×100. (Representations like 4×103+5×101+4×101+6×100 are not allowed because 101 would be repeated, and representations like 4×103+8×101+16×100 are not allowed because 16 is not a digit.) However, writing it like 496 would make the digit 4 represent 4×102, not 4×103, so this is fixed by inserting a 0 to yield 4096. (One can think of this as expressing sixteen cubed as 4×103+0×102+9×101+6×100.)

The original equations are:
<center>1+1=2</center>
<center>2+2=4</center>
<center>4+5=9</center>

Cueball/Randall then translated these equations into Roman numerals:
<center>I+I=II</center>
<center>II+II=IV</center>
<center>IV+V=IX</center>

Finally, before writing the equations Randall/Cueball replaced each letter with its value in Hindu-Arabic numerals—but did not use the abovementioned rules for combining Roman numbers, instead using simple concatenation. Specifically, "I" is replaced with "1", "V" is replaced with "5", and "X" is replaced with "10". For example, for IX at the end of the last equation, "I" is replaced with "1", and "X" is replaced with "10", so "IX" becomes "110". Thus, the equations become
<center>1+1=1 1</center>
<center>1 1+1 1=1 5</center>
<center>1 5+5=1 10</center>
where the spaces have been added for clarity.

Part of the joke comes from the fact that Randall incorrectly replaces Roman numerals with modern Hindu numbers, specifically by using concatenation instead of the proper rules of addition and subtraction, and this makes the equations incorrect (at least when interpreting the. For example, II becomes 11, not 2 as it should under the correct rules for interpreting Roman numerals. Randall derives additional humor from the premise that Cueball would know Roman numerals better than Hindu numerals (as demonstrated by the fact that he does not recognize that his equations are false when interpreted using the standard rules for Hindu numerals) so that he would do math in Roman numerals and have to remember to convert his equations to Hindu numerals at the end. Schoolchildren in the West have been taught to do math with Hindu numerals, not Roman numerals, for centuries.

In the title text, Randall applies the same idea of replacing Roman numerals with their values in Hindu numerals to strings of English words. The original string (with letters that would be interpreted as Roman numerals capitalized) is, "CheCk out thIs InnoVatIVe strIng enCoDIng I'Ve been DeVeLopIng! It's VIrtuaLLy perfeCt!" For the first word, "Check," C is replaced with the value of that Roman numeral in Hindu numerals, i.e., "100", in both instances of the word, which results in "100he100k". Unlike in the comic, Randall combines Roman numbers using the proper rules of addition and subtraction. For example, he replaces "IV" with "4", not "15", e.g., "innovative" becomes "1nno5at4e", not "1nno5at15e". (However, "I've" becomes "15e", not "4e", presumably because the apostrophe was removed after, not before, replacing the Roman numerals with Hindu numerals. However, there is not an obvious reason why Randall removed the apostrophe.) However, there are problems with this. One example is that the double L in "virtually" is replaced with 100. This correctly remembers Roman numerals' rule of adding the value of a letter to the value of an equal-valued letter just to its right, but in Roman numerals, a single number should never have multiple Vs, multiple Ls, or multiple Ds, e.g., 100 should be represented by C, not LL. This would mean that a simplistic decoding script would erroneously decode "6rtua100y" to "virtuacy", not "virtually". Thus, this string encoding system is not actually perfect. (Until the modern codification in general use today, Roman numerals weren't standardised that much, so "LL" could have been a tolerated alternative to "C". For more on that, see {{w|Roman_numerals#Classical_Roman_numerals}}. However, having the decoding script use that would not solve the problem but instead would make the decoding script replace Cs with LLs instead, e.g., "delloding sllript".)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball writing on a wall or a whiteboard.]
:1+1=11
:11+11=15
:15+5=110

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Remember, Roman numerals are archaic, so always replace them with modern ones when doing math.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]

2637: Roman Numerals

2022-06-24T23:33:01Z

108.162.221.101: /* Explanation */ Expanded explanation

{{comic
| number = 2637
| date = June 24, 2022
| title = Roman Numerals
| image = roman_numerals.png
| titletext = 100he100k out th1s 1nno5at4e str1ng en100o501ng 15e been 500e5e50op1ng! 1t's 6rtua100y perfe100t! ...hang on, what's a "virtuacy"?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|100reate500 by a LXXXT  - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Roman numerals are an archaic system of representing numbers that uses the letters I, V, X, L, C, D, and M to represent numbers, which each letter representing a consistent value. Specifically, I represents 1, V represents 5, X represents 10, L represents 50, C represents 100, D represents 500, and M represents 1000. The rules for combining Roman numerals next to each other are that a Roman numeral is added to a Roman numeral of equal or lesser value just to its right (e.g., II=1+1=2 because 1≥1, and VI=5+1=6 because 5≥1), and a Roman number is subtracted from a Roman numeral of greater value just to its right (e.g., IV=5-1=4 because 1<5, and IX=10-1=9 because 1<10). (Also, each place must be written separately, e.g., one cannot represent 49 via IL but instead must represent the tens place and ones place separately via XL IX (although the space would not be included in practice).

The modern system of representing numbers is Hindu numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9), which are so-called because they were invented in India. However, because they were introduced to Europe by Arabic merchants, Westerns often call them Hindu-Arabic numerals or sometimes just Arabic numerals. The digit 0 represents the additive identity, the digit 1 represents the multiplicative identity, 2 represents 1+1, 3 represents 1+1+1, etc… all the way to 9 representing 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1. For Hindu-Arabic numerals, each time a digit is moved one place to the left (such as from the ones place to the tens place, from the tens place to the hundreds place, or from the hundreds place to the thousands place), the value that it represents is multiplied by ten (e.g., moving 3 to the left, starting in the ones place, changes the value that it represents from three to thirty to three hundred to three thousand…). Thus, for any digit d, the string d0 represents d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d, the string d00 represents d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0, etc…. Integers larger than nine are represented by representing them as digits multiplied by powers of ten, where no power of ten is repeated, and zero is used to fill in any gaps so that it is obvious how many places each nonzero digit is to the left of the ones place. For example, sixteen cubed can be expressed as 4×103+9×101+6×100. (Representations like 4×103+5×101+4×101+6×100 are not allowed because 101 would be repeated, and representations like 4×103+8×101+16×100 are not allowed because 16 is not a digit.) However, writing it like 496 would make the digit 4 represent 4×102, not 4×103, so this is fixed by inserting a 0 to yield 4096. (One can think of this as expressing sixteen cubed as 4×103+0×102+9×101+6×100.)

The original equations are:
<center>1+1=2</center>
<center>2+2=4</center>
<center>4+5=9</center>

Cueball/Randall then translated these equations into Roman numerals:
<center>I+I=II</center>
<center>II+II=IV</center>
<center>IV+V=IX</center>

Finally, before writing the equations Randall/Cueball replaced each letter with its value in Hindu-Arabic numerals—but did not use the abovementioned rules for combining Roman numbers, instead using simple concatenation. Specifically, "I" is replaced with "1", "V" is replaced with "5", and "X" is replaced with "10". For example, for IX at the end of the last equation, "I" is replaced with "1", and "X" is replaced with "10", so "IX" becomes "110". Thus, the equations become
<center>1+1=1 1</center>
<center>1 1+1 1=1 5</center>
<center>1 5+5=1 9</center>
where the spaces have been added for clarity.

Part of the joke comes from the fact that Randall incorrectly replaces Roman numerals with modern Hindu numbers, specifically by using concatenation instead of the proper rules of addition and subtraction, and this makes the equations incorrect (at least when interpreting the. For example, II becomes 11, not 2 as it should under the correct rules for interpreting Roman numerals. Randall derives additional humor from the premise that Cueball would know Roman numerals better than Hindu numerals (as demonstrated by the fact that he does not recognize that his equations are false when interpreted using the standard rules for Hindu numerals) so that he would do math in Roman numerals and have to remember to convert his equations to Hindu numerals at the end. Schoolchildren in the West have been taught to do math with Hindu numerals, not Roman numerals, for centuries.

In the title text, Randall applies the same idea of replacing Roman numerals with their values in Hindu numerals to strings of English words. The original string (with letters that would be interpreted as Roman numerals capitalized) is, "CheCk out thIs InnoVatIVe strIng enCoDIng I'Ve been DeVeLopIng! It's VIrtuaLLy perfeCt!" For the first word, "Check," C is replaced with the value of that Roman numeral in Hindu numerals, i.e., "100", in both instances of the word, which results in "100he100k". Unlike in the comic, Randall combines Roman numbers using the proper rules of addition and subtraction. For example, he replaces "IV" with "4", not "15", e.g., "innovative" becomes "1nno5at4e", not "1nno5at15e". (However, "I've" becomes "15e", not "4e", presumably because the apostrophe was removed after, not before, replacing the Roman numerals with Hindu numerals. However, there is not an obvious reason why Randall removed the apostrophe.) However, there are problems with this. One example is that the double L in "virtually" is replaced with 100. This correctly remembers Roman numerals' rule of adding the value of a letter to the value of an equal-valued letter just to its right, but in Roman numerals, a single number should never have multiple Vs, multiple Ls, or multiple Ds, e.g., 100 should be represented by C, not LL. This would mean that a simplistic decoding script would erroneously decode "6rtua100y" to "virtuacy", not "virtually". Thus, this string encoding system is not actually perfect. (Until the modern codification in general use today, Roman numerals weren't standardised that much, so "LL" could have been a tolerated alternative to "C". For more on that, see {{w|Roman_numerals#Classical_Roman_numerals}}. However, having the decoding script use that would not solve the problem but instead would make the decoding script replace Cs with LLs instead, e.g., "delloding sllript".)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball writing on a wall or a whiteboard.]
:1+1=11
:11+11=15
:15+5=110

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Remember, Roman numerals are archaic, so always replace them with modern ones when doing math.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]

2636: What If? 2 Countdown

2022-06-23T13:56:03Z

108.162.221.101: /* Explanation */ Added background on June 22nd

{{comic
| number = 2636
| date = June 22, 2022
| title = What If? 2 Countdown
| image = what_if_2_countdown.png
| titletext = If you don't end the 99 Bottles of Beer recursion at N=0 it just becomes The Other Song That Never Ends.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT THAT IS WONDERING ABOUT THINGS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic takes the idea of {{w|Advent calendar}}s, and takes it to the extreme. It uses rather absurd and/or obscure ways to measure the amount of time until [[Randall]]'s new book ''What if? 2'' is released, with esoteric units or esoteric numbers. And often both.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Days !! Date !! Units !! Exact value !! Explanation
|-
| 83 || Jun 22 || πe millidecades || 82.0304 days || π =~ 3.14159, e =~ 2.718, so πe is about 22.459. A millidecade is 1/1000 decade, or 1/100 year, or about 3.6525 days. Multiplying these results in 82.03 days. This is a play on Euler's identity, eiπ=-1, but raising pi to the power of e instead.
|-
| 82 || Jun 23 || 7 megaseconds || 81.0185 days || 7,000,000 seconds
|-
| 81 || Jun 24 || e lunar months || 80.27247 days || A lunar month =~ 29.53059 days, e =~ 2.718
|-
| 80 || Jun 25 || 60 rotations of Foucault's pendulum in Paris || 79.67 days || The Foucault's pendulum measures and/or proves earth's rotation. Possibly a reference to the Bogdanow brothers who used pointless circumlocutions with the Foucalt pendulum as tech babble in their fake dissertation
|-
| 79 || Jun 26 || 8 milligenerations || 78.84 days || A generation is in general 22-33 years, the mean is 27; so 8 * 0.001 (mili) * 365 (not accounting for leap years) * 27 =~ 78.84 days
|-
| 78 || Jun 27 || 777,777 dog minutes || 77.16 days|| A popular myth is that dogs age 7 times faster than humans, so 1 dog minute equals 1/7 human minutes.
|-
| 77 || Jun 28 || 7! episodes of ''Jeopardy!'' (skipping ads) || 77 days || 7!=7*6*…=5040 - The standard episode of ''Jeopardy'' is 22-26 minutes skipping ads - taking the lowest value you get 110880 minutes total which is the exact value needed.
|-
| 76 || Jun 29 || 5,000 repeats of 99 Bottles of Beer || ||
|-
| 75 || Jun 30 || 5 baker's fortnights (15 days) || 75 days || A {{w|baker's dozen}} is a dozen (12) plus 1 extra item. Randall has generalized this to adding 1 to any unit. A fortnight is 2 weeks, so a baker's fortnight is 15 days. 5x15 is 75 days.
|-
| 74 || Jul 1 || √2 dog years || 73.79 days||
|-
| 73 || Jul 2 || π millivics (1/1000th of Queen Victoria's reign) || 72.966631 days || Queen Victoria ruled between 20 June 1837 and 22 January 1901 (23,226 days).
|-
| 72 || Jul 3 || 42 drives from NYC to LA (Google Maps estimate) || 71.75 days || According to Google Maps, the drive from New York City to Los Angeles via I-80 E (2789 miles or 4489 km) takes 41 hours.
|-
| 71 || Jul 4 || 1,000 viewings of ''Groundhog Day''|| 70.14 days|| Using 101-minute run time.
|-
| 70 || Jul 5 || 100,000 minutes || 69.44 days||
|-
| 69 || Jul 6 || 1/10th of Martian year || 68.70 Earth days || Martian sidereal and tropical years both round to 687.0 Earth days
|-
| 68 || Jul 7 || 1,234,567 sound-miles || || The speed of sound in air depends on the temperature. 0 °C or 32 °F gives the value 331 m/s and the travel time of 69.4739214 days
|-
| 67 || Jul 8 || 2^π^e seconds ||5,766,073 seconds = 66.7 days || 2^(π^e)
|-
| 66 || Jul 9 || 2^16 beats (Swatch Internet Time) || 65.536 days || {{w|.beat}} is equal to 1/1000 day.
|-
| 65 || Jul 10 || 1,000 ISS orbits || ||
|-
| 64 || Jul 11 || Five hundred twenty five thousand (base seven) Minutes|| 62.8833333333333 days || To convert from any number system to the decimal number system, the value of each digit is calculated as "value" * "base" ^ "position of the digit minus one" counting the position of the digit starting from the less significant side. The values of each digit are then added to get the value of the whole number. Base seven means the number only uses 7 digits (0-6). To represent 7 (base10) you would need the first two-digit number, which is 10 (base7). This gives: 5*7^5 + 2*7^4 + 5*7^3 + 0*7^2 + 0*7^1 + 0*7^0 = 90552 minutes. Also references the opening and recurring line "Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes" from {{w|Seasons of Love}}, a song from the musical ''Rent''.
|-
| 63 || Jul 12 || 10^50 Planck times || ||
|-
| 62 || Jul 13 || 4,000 episodes of ''The Office'' (skipping ads)|| || 
|-
| 61 || Jul 14 || Four Score and Seven Kilominutes || 60.4166 days || 87 * 1000 minutes
|-
| 60 || Jul 15 || 2 Lunar Months || ||
|-
| 59 || Jul 16 || Half a Day on Venus || ||
|-
| 58 || Jul 17 || 5 megaseconds || 57.8704 days || 5,000,000 seconds
|-
| 57 || Jul 18 || 30 MicroLits (1/1,000,000,000th of the time since the invention of writing) || ||
|-
| 56 || Jul 19 || 1,000 viewings of ''Run Lola Run'' || ||
|-
| 55 || Jul 20 || One Million Sound-Miles || ||
|-
| 54 || Jul 21 || 30 Ionian Months || ||
|-
| 53 || Jul 22 || One Dog Year || ||
|-
| 52 || Jul 23 || 60 Viewings of ''Star Wars Episodes I-IX'' || ||
|-
| 51 || Jul 24 || 1/ 100,000,000,000th of the Universe's age || ||
|-
| 50 || Jul 25 || 5 milli-Generations|| ||
|-
| 49 || Jul 26 || 10,000 Games of ''7 minutes in Heaven'' or 7 games of ''10,000 minutes in Heaven'' || ||
|-
| 48 || Jul 27 || φ^e^π minutes || 47.6164 days || 68,567.57 minutes
|-
| 47 || Jul 28 || 4 megaseconds || 46.2963 days || 4,000,000 seconds
|-
| 46 || Jul 29 || 2^16 minutes || 45.5111 days || 65,536 minutes
|-
| 45 || Jul 30 || e^e^e seconds || 44.1467 days || 3,814,279.10 seconds
|-
| 44 || Jul 31 || π fortnights|| 43.98 days ||
|-
| 43 || Aug 1 || One Devil's spacewalk (666 orbits of the ISS) || ||
|-
| 42 || Aug 2 || 1 kilowatt-hour per watt || 41⅔ days || 1000 hours
|-
| 41 || Aug 3 || e^π Ionian months || ||
|-
| 40 || Aug 4 || 30 rotations of Foucault's pendulum in Paris || 39.8357 days || Refer to Day 80 (Jun 25)
|-
| 39 || Aug 5 || e fortnights || 38.0559 days ||
|-
| 38 || Aug 6 || π^π baker's days (25 hours) || ||
|-
| 37 || Aug 7 || One deciyear || 36.525 days || One tenth of one year
|-
| 36 || Aug 8 || 7! milliweeks || 35.28 days || 5040 × 0.001 weeks
|-
| 35 || Aug 9 || 100,000 plays of the ''Jeopardy!'' "Think" music || ||
|-
| 34 || Aug 10 || || ||
|-
| 33 || Aug 11 || 777 hours || 32.375 days ||
|-
| 32 || Aug 12 || || ||
|-
| 31 || Aug 13 || || ||
|-
| 30 || Aug 14 || || ||
|-
| 29 || Aug 15 || 777,777 nanocenturies || 28.4077 days || 777,777 × 10-9 × 102 years
|-
| 28 || Aug 16 || || ||
|-
| 27 || Aug 17 || || ||
|-
| 26 || Aug 18 || π^π kilominutes || 25.3209 days || 36,462.16 minutes
|-
| 25 || Aug 19 || || ||
|-
| 24 || Aug 20 || || ||
|-
| 23 || Aug 21 || || ||
|-
| 22 || Aug 22 || || ||
|-
| 21 || Aug 23 || 500 hours || 20.8333 days ||
|-
| 20 || Aug 24 || √2 fortnights || 19.7990 days || 1.4142 × 14 days
|-
| 19 || Aug 25 || || ||
|-
| 18 || Aug 26 || || ||
|-
| 17 || Aug 27 || √2 megaseconds || 16.3682 days || 1.4142 × 1,000,000 seconds
|-
| 16 || Aug 28 || π^π^π πcoseconds || 15.5112 days || 1.3402 picoseconds (i.e., 10-12 seconds)
|-
| 15 || Aug 29 || One baker's fortnight (15 days) || 15 days || See day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 14 || Aug 30 || One baker's dozen (13) baker's days (25 hours) || 13.5416 days || 325 hours; see day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 13 || Aug 31 || || ||
|-
| 12 || Sep 1 || || ||
|-
| 11 || Sep 2 || || ||
|-
| 10 || Sep 3 || || ||
|-
| 9 || Sep 4 || || ||
|-
| 8 || Sep 5 || || ||
|-
| 7 || Sep 6 || || ||
|-
| 6 || Sep 7 || || ||
|-
| 5 || Sep 8 || || ||
|-
| 4 || Sep 9 || || ||
|-
| 3 || Sep 10 || || ||
|-
| 2 || Sep 11 || || ||
|-
| 1 || Sep 12 || || ||
|-
| 0 || Sep 13 || || ||
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2634: Red Line Through HTTPS

2022-06-18T06:29:35Z

108.162.221.101:

HTTPS was standardized in 2000 or so, so 2015 is quite a stretch for a site to not use it because the site was last updated before HTTPS was widely available.
With pretty much any browser now, a red line through HTTPS means that the site _is using HTTPS_, but it is _not trusted by the browser_ (due to e.g. the certificate being self-signed or expired).
[[User:Darrylnoakes|Darrylnoakes]] ([[User talk:Darrylnoakes|talk]]) 04:28, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

:I think the intended joke is that the site's certificate expired in 2015, instead of the site is not using HTTPS. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 06:29, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

2632: Greatest Scientist

2022-06-15T17:03:48Z

108.162.221.101: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2632
| date = June 13, 2022
| title = Greatest Scientist
| image = Greatest Scientist.png
| titletext = "Ow! One of the petri dishes I left on the tower railing fell and hit me on the head. Hey, that gives me an idea..."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by HISTORY'S WURST SCIENTIST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic takes the feats of seven of history's most acclaimed scientists and combines them into one fictional act, claiming that this person was the greatest scientist in history. Pulling off a combination of all of these would, indeed, be rather impressive.{{Citation needed}}

These scientists are most likely {{w|Thales of Miletus}}, {{w|Galileo Galilei}}, {{w|Benjamin Franklin}}, {{w|Alexander Fleming}}, {{w|Ivan Pavlov}}, {{w|Eratosthenes}}, and {{w|Isaac Newton}}.

The ground is noticeably curved in this comic, because the curvature of the Earth is mentioned and measured.

Humorously combining multiple science experiments into one was also a punchline in [[1584: Moments of Inspiration]]. Curved floors to represent Earths curvature were mentioned in [[2412: 1/100,000th Scale World]]

==Table of Experiments==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ List of experiments in the comic
|-
! Experiment in comic !! Experiment in reality !! Meaning !! Scientist
|-
| Measuring the shadow of a tall building|| Tradition holds that {{w|Thales of Miletus}} measured the shadow of the {{w|Great Pyramid of Giza}}, and used geometry he had recently proven to calculate its height. || Thales was the first known person to actually prove mathematical fact rather than simply notice it, and as such he is considered the father of both math and science. His development of the theory of similar triangles in particular paved the way for many later discoveries, such as the Pythagorean theorem and Eratosthenes' measurement of the earth.|| {{w|Thales of Miletus}}
|-
| The Leaning Tower of Pisa || {{w|Galileo}} conducted [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo%27s_Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa_experiment an experiment] at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, where he dropped two objects to measure whether the rate at which objects fall is dependent on weight or is constant. || Galileo found that objects with different weights fall at the same rate, disproving Aristotle's statement which purported the opposite. However, {{w|Vincenzo Viviani}} had already discovered this. Galileo's experiment further developed experimentation in science, in opposition to the then-prevailing view that knowledge is learned by studying the writings of the ancients.|| {{w|Galileo Galilei}}
|-
|Flying a kite into a thunderstorm with lightning || In June 1752, Benjamin Franklin performed his famous {{w|kite experiment}} in which he attached a conductive wire to a kite and flew it near a thunderstorm. Attached to the kite was a key, which was further attached to a {{w|Leyden jar}}. || While the kite was not hit by lightning, "Franklin did notice that loose threads of the kite string were repelling each other and deduced that the Leyden jar was being charged." This is sometimes considered the discovery of the fact that lightning contains/is electricity. || {{w|Benjamin Franklin}}
|-
| Two moldy petri dishes || In August 1928, Alexander Fleming put ''Staphylococcus aureus'' into multiple petri dishes and then left to go on holiday/vacation. On September 3, he returned and found that one plate had mould on it. The moldy plate was the only one that no longer had ''S. aureus'' bacteria in it. He later repeated this experiment and {{w|History_of_penicillin#The_breakthrough_discovery|the result was confirmed}}. || The mould that Fleming had discovered produced penicillin, an antibiotic. This was the first time that a substance had been discovered that could ''reliably'' treat bacterial infections, having a huge impact on medicine across the world. || Sir {{w|Alexander Fleming}}
|-
| Salivating dog located next to a bell || [https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html In 1902 Ivan Pavlov conducted a study on dog reflexes] by giving dogs food and simultaneously ringing a bell. When the dog smelled and saw the food, it started salivating. Eventually, simply ringing the bell made the dog salivate, as the dog had associated the bell ringing with food. Pavlov also performed other, less humane experiments on other dogs. || This was the discovery of {{w|classical conditioning}}, where a stimulus is paired with an unrelated other thing through repeated exposure. The subject will eventually react to the unrelated thing in the absence of the stimulus. This is an example of taught reflexes, where a subconsious reaction like a reflex or instinct is taught. || {{W|Ivan Pavlov}}
|-
| The shadow angle of the dog determining the circumference of the Earth || |In the 200s BCE, the Greek philosopher Eratosthenes {{w|Earth's_circumference#Eratosthenes|measured the circumference of the Earth}}. While his exact method has been lost to time, a simplified version remains: At high noon on the summer solstice in Syene, Egypt, the sun was almost directly overhead. This was confirmed with a sundial. 5,000 stadia away in Alexandria, at the same time, the angle of the sun was measured with another sundial and converted into a fraction of the Earth's circumference. Some simple multiplication could then yield the circumference of the Earth. || The distance Eratosthenes calculated for the circumference of Earth was 250,000 stadia. This estimate was either 2.4% low or 0.8% high compared to modern knowledge, depending on whether he used Greek or Egyptian stadia - a remarkably accurate estimate for the time. || {{w|Eratosthenes}}
|-
| (Title text) A petri dish falling on the scientist's head, leading to a new discovery || Sir Isaac Newton, an inventor of calculus and discoverer of his famous {{w|Newton's laws of motion|Laws of Motion}}, also determined the basic mechanics of {{w|gravity}}. It's sometimes claimed that Newton came up with the notion of gravity when an apple fell from a tree and hit him on the head. While this is almost certainly an embellishment, Newton apparently told acquaintances that his inquiries into gravity were {{w|Isaac_Newton#Apple_incident|"occasion'd by the fall of an apple"}}. This purportedly led Newton to consider the question of what ''exactly'' caused the apple to fall straight to the ground. || This line of thinking ultimately let him to deduce the {{w|Law of Universal Gravitation}}, which is fundamental to understanding celestial mechanics. || Sir {{w|Isaac Newton}}
|}
It is also possible that the fact that two petri dishes fell in the comic but only one fell in the title text could be an obscure reference to {{w|Albert Einstein}}, through either the twins paradox or superposition. However, this connection is rather far-fetched and is more likely just a minor discrepancy.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript |Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[On the left of the panel, there are some buildings and trees representing Pisa, Italy. One of these buildings is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The height of the tower is labeled h1 against a locally non-leaning dotted line, the length of its shadow upon the grounds is marked L1, the angle from ground at the end of the shadow to the tip of the tower is labelled θ1. Attached to the top of the tower, there is a kite string. The kite is in the top right, next to a thunderstorm. Two disks are shown falling from the kite onto a bell underneath. The bell goes "Ding! Ding!" Next to the bell is a dog. A horizontal line above the dog and its shadow is ambiguously labeled (and possibly broken up by) h2, the length of its shadow on the ground L2, and the angle up from the far end of the shadow to the tip of the dog θ2. The ground is noticeably curved. Around the horizon upon the middle of the curved surface are drawn various distant pyramids very nearly horizontal to the image. All buildings in 'Pisa', the supported bell/dog at the other side of the scene and various trees and plants around each end are locally-vertical in a radial manner, except for the Tower Of Pisa which is almost vertical to the image in exhibiting its local 'lean'. The two θ angles are clearly different but the dotted diagonal segments they define head in the same drawn direction from the tips of the shadows to the tips of their objects. The Sun is not illustrated but would be somewhere to the left of the image and upwards.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:History's greatest scientist was probably that one who measured the shadow of the Leaning Tower of Pisa while flying a kite into a distant thunderstorm where lightning caused two moldy Petri dishes to fall onto a bell next to a salivating dog whose shadow angle determined the circumference of the Earth.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Science]]

2632: Greatest Scientist

2022-06-15T17:02:27Z

108.162.221.101: /* Table of Experiments */ Added a row for the measurement of the tower's shadow

{{comic
| number = 2632
| date = June 13, 2022
| title = Greatest Scientist
| image = Greatest Scientist.png
| titletext = "Ow! One of the petri dishes I left on the tower railing fell and hit me on the head. Hey, that gives me an idea..."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by HISTORY'S WURST SCIENTIST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic takes the feats of six of history's most acclaimed scientists and combines them into one fictional act, claiming that this person was the greatest scientist in history. Pulling off a combination of all of these would, indeed, be rather impressive.{{Citation needed}}

These scientists are most likely {{w|Galileo Galilei}}, {{w|Benjamin Franklin}}, {{w|Alexander Fleming}}, {{w|Ivan Pavlov}}, {{w|Eratosthenes}}, and {{w|Isaac Newton}}.

The ground is noticeably curved in this comic, because the curvature of the Earth is mentioned and measured.

Humorously combining multiple science experiments into one was also a punchline in [[1584: Moments of Inspiration]]. Curved floors to represent Earths curvature were mentioned in [[2412: 1/100,000th Scale World]]

==Table of Experiments==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ List of experiments in the comic
|-
! Experiment in comic !! Experiment in reality !! Meaning !! Scientist
|-
| Measuring the shadow of a tall building|| Tradition holds that {{w|Thales of Miletus}} measured the shadow of the {{w|Great Pyramid of Giza}}, and used geometry he had recently proven to calculate its height. || Thales was the first known person to actually prove mathematical fact rather than simply notice it, and as such he is considered the father of both math and science. His development of the theory of similar triangles in particular paved the way for many later discoveries, such as the Pythagorean theorem and Eratosthenes' measurement of the earth.|| {{w|Thales of Miletus}}
|-
| The Leaning Tower of Pisa || {{w|Galileo}} conducted [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo%27s_Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa_experiment an experiment] at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, where he dropped two objects to measure whether the rate at which objects fall is dependent on weight or is constant. || Galileo found that objects with different weights fall at the same rate, disproving Aristotle's statement which purported the opposite. However, {{w|Vincenzo Viviani}} had already discovered this. Galileo's experiment further developed experimentation in science, in opposition to the then-prevailing view that knowledge is learned by studying the writings of the ancients.|| {{w|Galileo Galilei}}
|-
|Flying a kite into a thunderstorm with lightning || In June 1752, Benjamin Franklin performed his famous {{w|kite experiment}} in which he attached a conductive wire to a kite and flew it near a thunderstorm. Attached to the kite was a key, which was further attached to a {{w|Leyden jar}}. || While the kite was not hit by lightning, "Franklin did notice that loose threads of the kite string were repelling each other and deduced that the Leyden jar was being charged." This is sometimes considered the discovery of the fact that lightning contains/is electricity. || {{w|Benjamin Franklin}}
|-
| Two moldy petri dishes || In August 1928, Alexander Fleming put ''Staphylococcus aureus'' into multiple petri dishes and then left to go on holiday/vacation. On September 3, he returned and found that one plate had mould on it. The moldy plate was the only one that no longer had ''S. aureus'' bacteria in it. He later repeated this experiment and {{w|History_of_penicillin#The_breakthrough_discovery|the result was confirmed}}. || The mould that Fleming had discovered produced penicillin, an antibiotic. This was the first time that a substance had been discovered that could ''reliably'' treat bacterial infections, having a huge impact on medicine across the world. || Sir {{w|Alexander Fleming}}
|-
| Salivating dog located next to a bell || [https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html In 1902 Ivan Pavlov conducted a study on dog reflexes] by giving dogs food and simultaneously ringing a bell. When the dog smelled and saw the food, it started salivating. Eventually, simply ringing the bell made the dog salivate, as the dog had associated the bell ringing with food. Pavlov also performed other, less humane experiments on other dogs. || This was the discovery of {{w|classical conditioning}}, where a stimulus is paired with an unrelated other thing through repeated exposure. The subject will eventually react to the unrelated thing in the absence of the stimulus. This is an example of taught reflexes, where a subconsious reaction like a reflex or instinct is taught. || {{W|Ivan Pavlov}}
|-
| The shadow angle of the dog determining the circumference of the Earth || |In the 200s BCE, the Greek philosopher Eratosthenes {{w|Earth's_circumference#Eratosthenes|measured the circumference of the Earth}}. While his exact method has been lost to time, a simplified version remains: At high noon on the summer solstice in Syene, Egypt, the sun was almost directly overhead. This was confirmed with a sundial. 5,000 stadia away in Alexandria, at the same time, the angle of the sun was measured with another sundial and converted into a fraction of the Earth's circumference. Some simple multiplication could then yield the circumference of the Earth. || The distance Eratosthenes calculated for the circumference of Earth was 250,000 stadia. This estimate was either 2.4% low or 0.8% high compared to modern knowledge, depending on whether he used Greek or Egyptian stadia - a remarkably accurate estimate for the time. || {{w|Eratosthenes}}
|-
| (Title text) A petri dish falling on the scientist's head, leading to a new discovery || Sir Isaac Newton, an inventor of calculus and discoverer of his famous {{w|Newton's laws of motion|Laws of Motion}}, also determined the basic mechanics of {{w|gravity}}. It's sometimes claimed that Newton came up with the notion of gravity when an apple fell from a tree and hit him on the head. While this is almost certainly an embellishment, Newton apparently told acquaintances that his inquiries into gravity were {{w|Isaac_Newton#Apple_incident|"occasion'd by the fall of an apple"}}. This purportedly led Newton to consider the question of what ''exactly'' caused the apple to fall straight to the ground. || This line of thinking ultimately let him to deduce the {{w|Law of Universal Gravitation}}, which is fundamental to understanding celestial mechanics. || Sir {{w|Isaac Newton}}
|}
It is also possible that the fact that two petri dishes fell in the comic but only one fell in the title text could be an obscure reference to {{w|Albert Einstein}}, through either the twins paradox or superposition. However, this connection is rather far-fetched and is more likely just a minor discrepancy.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript |Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[On the left of the panel, there are some buildings and trees representing Pisa, Italy. One of these buildings is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The height of the tower is labeled h1 against a locally non-leaning dotted line, the length of its shadow upon the grounds is marked L1, the angle from ground at the end of the shadow to the tip of the tower is labelled θ1. Attached to the top of the tower, there is a kite string. The kite is in the top right, next to a thunderstorm. Two disks are shown falling from the kite onto a bell underneath. The bell goes "Ding! Ding!" Next to the bell is a dog. A horizontal line above the dog and its shadow is ambiguously labeled (and possibly broken up by) h2, the length of its shadow on the ground L2, and the angle up from the far end of the shadow to the tip of the dog θ2. The ground is noticeably curved. Around the horizon upon the middle of the curved surface are drawn various distant pyramids very nearly horizontal to the image. All buildings in 'Pisa', the supported bell/dog at the other side of the scene and various trees and plants around each end are locally-vertical in a radial manner, except for the Tower Of Pisa which is almost vertical to the image in exhibiting its local 'lean'. The two θ angles are clearly different but the dotted diagonal segments they define head in the same drawn direction from the tips of the shadows to the tips of their objects. The Sun is not illustrated but would be somewhere to the left of the image and upwards.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:History's greatest scientist was probably that one who measured the shadow of the Leaning Tower of Pisa while flying a kite into a distant thunderstorm where lightning caused two moldy Petri dishes to fall onto a bell next to a salivating dog whose shadow angle determined the circumference of the Earth.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Science]]

2627: Types of Scopes

2022-06-01T16:41:18Z

108.162.221.101: Reverted spam

{{comic
| number = 2627
| date = June 1, 2022
| title = Types of Scopes
| image = types_of_scopes.png
| titletext = An x-ray gyroscope is used to determine exactly which toppings they included in the pita.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOTOSCOPE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

-scope is an ending for words denoting an instrument used for viewing or examination. It comes from the Ancient Greek word for "examine, inspect, look to or into, consider". There are many such words in the English language.

''Electron microscopes'', ''electron telescopes'' and ''radio telescopes'' are special forms of microscopes and telescopes, respectively. This comic explores what you could do with a hypothetical "electron ___-scope" and "radio ___-scope" for other words also ending in -scope (namely: periscope, stethoscope, kaleidoscope, gyroscope and horoscope). The definition of the word itself ("regular ___-scope") is also given.

The third column often plays on different meanings of the word ''radio:'' 1) related to radiation and 2) a device for receiving radio communication or broadcasts.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ What the words could mean according to the comic
|-
! Word !! Regular !! Electron ___ !! Radio ___
|-
| Microscope || || ''Really exists'' || Simply a microscope for looking at your radio.
|-
| Telescope || || ''Really exists'' || ''Really exists''
|-
| Periscope || Periscopes allow submarine crews to watch what happens above the water surface, without exposing the submarine to enemy observers, or enemy radars. In practice, periscope use is minimized because periscopes are still observable. || ||
|-
| Stethoscope
|| A medical device for listening to sounds made by a patient's body, for example the heart. Has a disc-shaped resonator that is placed against the patient's skin.
|| If the resonator is emitting electromagnetic radiation, it could burn the skin due to its close proximity.
|| Normally, the sounds are transmitted to an earpiece that the examiner wears. There are also recording stethoscopes. A radio stethoscope would transmit the sound either directly via radio waves, or send it to a radio station such as NPR where it could then be broadcasted.
|-
| Kaleidoscope || || Seemingly a pun of electron "collide"-oscope, as electron collisions generate {{w|Bremsstrahlung}}. ||
|-
| Gyroscope || Gyroscopes are used for {{w|inertial navigation}}, for example. || || In theory, radio waves could be sent around in a triangular pattern, thus replicating the existing {{w|ring laser gyroscope}}.
|-
| Horoscope
|| In common usage, predictions or advice given based on the position of stars and planets. Often believed to be unscientific junk.
|| Predictions on the position of a particle (such as an electron).
|| Predictions or advice given based on the radiation emitted by exploding stars or galaxies.
|}

The title text makes a pun on "gyroscope" and the Greek foods {{w|Gyros}} and {{w|Pita}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}

1082: Geology

2022-05-26T17:23:28Z

108.162.221.101: Undo revision 278256 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1082
| date = July 16, 2012
| title = Geology
| image = geology.png
| titletext = That's a gneiss butte.
}}

==Explanation==
Here we have [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] discussing {{w|geology}} and the words they use are ripe with puns and {{w|double entendre}}s which also have sexual meanings. In the end, they just decide to get it on.

Specifically, the suggestive terms are "{{w|Bed (geology)|bedding}}," "{{w|Extensional tectonics|spreading}}," "{{w|friction}}," "{{w|Cleavage (geology)|cleavage}}," "deeper in the {{w|rift}}," "{{w|orogeny}}," (perhaps a {{w|portmanteau}} of {{w|orgy}} and {{w|erogenous}}), "huge," and "{{w|Thrust fault|thrust}}."

The technical terms are:
;Bedding : The division of usually {{w|sedimentary rock|sedimentary rocks}} into distinct layers.
;Spreading : A process in which two geological regions are moving apart, and potentially allowing for {{w|magma}} to rise between them. Spreading occurs in {{w|mid-ocean ridge|mid-ocean ridges}} and in {{w|rift valley|rift valleys}}.
;Friction breccia : {{w|Breccia}} is a rock made of broken fragments of other rocks. When these fragments can be formed from the rubbing between rocks in a fault, it is a friction breccia.
;Flow cleavage : The {{w|crystal|crystals}} in a rock can be aligned by the {{w|plastic flow}} of a rock when it is hot. This causes the rock to split (cleave) along particular planes.
;Rift : A result of spreading is that rocks break, forming vertical faults, and allowing regions to sink and form valleys.
;Orogeny : The process of mountain forming, or a period in which mountains are formed.
;Thrust fault : A sloping crack in the rocks at which one region of rocks is pushing another up.

So it seems that Megan tells Cueball to ignore the layers in the rock, as there is evidence that the valley they are in is a recent rift valley. It was formed in cracking following the lifting up of the surrounding rocks.

The title text is a wordplay, as it could sound like "nice butt". {{w|Gneiss}} is a type of rock made up of different bands, and a {{w|butte}} is an isolated hill with steep sides and a flat top, but smaller than a {{w|plateau}}. However, "butte" is not pronounced like "butt", but as "beaut".

==Transcript==
:[Two people are doing a geological survey.]
:Megan: Forget the bedding - we were wrong about the whole valley.
:Cueball: The spreading is recent.

:Megan: See the friction breccia?
:Cueball: Oh - flow cleavage!
:Cueball: Deeper in the rift.
:Megan: Deeper.
:[An idea pops into Megan's head.]

:[The same idea pops into Cueball's head.]
:Megan: This orogeny
:Cueball: is driven by a
:Megan: ''huge''
:Cueball: ''thrust'' fault

:[They both drop to the ground in a fit of passion.]
:Geology: Surprisingly erotic.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Puns]]

2621: Mainly Known For

2022-05-21T23:21:22Z

108.162.221.101: /* Explanation */ typos

{{comic
| number = 2621
| date = May 18, 2022
| title = Mainly Known For
| image = mainly_known_for.png
| titletext = Oh sure, I know Keira Knightly, from the first movie in that series by The Land Before Time producer. You know, the franchise with the guy from Jurassic Park and Ghostwriter, and script work by Billie Lourd's mom?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by that guy from NASA, what was his name? Something Munroe - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Megan]] points out an uncanny resemblance between someone's dad and {{w|Steve Jobs}}. However, she is uncertain that Steve's last name is Jobs, so she refers to Jobs as "the Pixar guy", asking Cueball if Jobs is the correct name. Jobs is ''mainly known for'' (hence the comic's title) being the co-founder and CEO of {{w|Apple Inc.}}, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s (between his stints at Apple), he was the chairman of {{w|Pixar Animation Studios}}, which is what Megan knows him for.

Frequently, when people can't remember a celebrity's name, they will point out other works they are known for in hopes someone else will recognize them from that and remind them of the name. The comic, for its demographic of nerds, is joking on how it can come across to have lived a life separate from popular culture, where one learns things for different reasons than most people do.

[[Cueball]] points out that Megan's tendency to avoid the "main" association and instead go with a much more secondary one is weird, which confuses her. To demonstrate how weird her associations are, Cueball asks her, "Who is {{w|John Lennon}}?" Lennon is a famous songwriter who played and wrote for {{w|The Beatles}} before they broke up, and later continued on a solo music career. Megan recognizes Lennon as a musical artist, but is unable to remember the name of The Beatles. She instead asks about the band he was in with {{w|Ringo Starr}}. Ringo, however, is not mainly memorable to her for his role in The Beatles, but rather as Mr. Conductor from the first season of the 1989 children's television show ''{{w|Shining Time Station}}''. The Beatles' fame seems to have escaped Megan, which vexes Cueball. Also Ringo may be considered as the least known of The Beatles, unless that would be {{w|George Harrison|'the quiet one'}}. Definitely less well-known than {{w|Paul McCartney}}, who was often as prominent a writer-performer as Lennon at the time and has continued to prominently perform individually (or headlining collaborations) across all the intervening decades since that era.

Furthering the joke, ''Shining Time Station'' was rather minor among Ringo's acting roles, only voicing one season, and most would remember him for his longer role as narrator of ''Thomas the Tank Engine.''

Hoping to show that she really does know Lennon and that her associations aren't weird, she points out that she remembers John doing a song with {{w|David Bowie}}. But she cannot remember that it was called "{{w|Fame (David Bowie song)|Fame}}". The song is from 1975 and Lennon co-wrote it with Bowie and performed backing vocals and guitar on it. Also she cannot remember Bowie's name, recognizing him instead for his acting role in ''{{w|Labyrinth (1986 film)|Labyrinth}}''. When Cueball states Bowie's name and adds, presumably sarcastically, that he think he is famous for other stuff than those two things Megan mentions, she also remembers another movie with Bowie, ''{{w|Zoolander}}'', rather than his more famous musical career (such as his smash hits "{{w|Space Oddity}}" or "{{w|Let's Dance (David Bowie song)|Let's Dance}}").

Sensing Cueball's annoyance, but failing to understand it, she attempts to excuse herself for not remembering ''Zoolander'' to begin with, because it came out a long time ago, during the {{w|Presidency of George W. Bush}}. ''Zoolander'' was indeed released in 2001. Apparently unable, again, to remember the president's name, she identifies him as "{{w|Jenna Bush}}'s dad". Jenna Bush is a TV personality and much less widely known than her father.

While the kind of associations people make, like Megan in this comic, are often prone to the {{w|Mandela effect}}, Megan's information about all the celebrities is, in fact, correct, but apparently they are never what those people are best known for. This is what makes Cueball sigh and facepalm in the final panel, when she mentions Jenna instead of George Bush. He likely also does this because, even though he just demonstrated her weird tendency to remember people for their lesser-known works, he is unable to reach her and let her understand that she is weird.

There may also be some overlap with the {{w|Streisand effect}}, named after a woman widely known for owning an overly lavish mansion on the coast of a state north of Mexico.

In the title text, Megan refers to "{{w|Keira Knightley|Keira Knightly}}" [''sic'' -- her surname is spelled Knightley], who is probably best known for her roles in the {{w|Pirates of the Caribbean (film series)|''Pirates of the Caribbean'' films}} and the {{w|Pride & Prejudice (2005 film)|2005 ''Pride and Prejudice'' film}}, by referencing her small role in ''{{w|Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace}}'' (as Sabé, who funnily enough is a handmaiden and ''decoy'' for Queen Padmé Amidala, a main character played by Natalie Portman).

Megan continues her unusual references by identifying the film as the "first movie" (it was the first in the plotline, but the fourth one made) in "that series by ''The Land Before Time'' producer" ({{w|George Lucas}}, creator of {{w|Star Wars}}, who was also one of the executive producers of the 1988 animated film ''{{w|The Land Before Time (film)|The Land Before Time}}'').

Seeming to think that identifying George Lucas doesn't narrow it down at all, she identifies another actor in the ''Star Wars'' series, {{w|Samuel L. Jackson}}, by his roles in ''{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}} ''(an extremely successful film, but one in which Jackson had a relatively small role) and the PBS children's series ''{{w|Ghostwriter (1992 TV series)|Ghostwriter}}'' (in which Jackson appeared in only a few episodes). In addition, Megan mentions that the ''Star Wars'' series had "script work by {{w|Billie Lourd}}'s mom", referring to {{w|Carrie Fisher}}, who [https://www.slashfilm.com/548436/carrie-fisher-script-doctor/ contributed uncredited script-doctoring work] to the ''Star Wars'' franchise. However, Fisher is more closely associated with ''Star Wars'' for having played the major role of {{w|Princess Leia Organa}} in six films in the series.

''Ghostwriter'' was previously featured in [[130: Julia Stiles]], which described a scene from the show as "the best thing ever to appear on TV".

==Transcript==
:[Megan holds her hand palm up towards Cueball.]
:Megan: ...And her dad looks ''exactly'' like the Pixar guy. Steve what's-his-name? Jobs?
:Cueball: "Pixar guy"?
:Cueball: You always know famous people for such weird reasons.

:[Megan puts her hand down.]
:Megan: What do you mean?
:Cueball: Who is John Lennon?
:Megan: Wasn't he in a band? With Ringo from ''Shining Time Station''.
:Cueball: How is '''''that''''' your main association?

:[In a frameless panel Megan holds a finger up in front of Cueball.]
:Megan: I also know he once did a song with the guy from Labyrinth!
:Cueball: You mean David Bowie? I think he's famous for some other stuff, too.

:[Megan puts her hand down while Cueball facepalms. The line connecting his is curved.]
:Megan: Oh yeah, he was also in Zoolander!
:Megan: I forgot that movie, it came out back when Jenna Bush's dad was president.
:Cueball: ''*Sigh*''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Steve Jobs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Jurassic Park]]

739: Malamanteau

2022-05-21T01:49:28Z

108.162.221.101: Undo revision 271167 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk) Obvious vandalism

{{comic
| number = 739
| date = May 12, 2010
| title = Malamanteau
| image = malamanteau.png
| titletext = The article has twenty-three citations, one of which is an obscure manuscript from the 1490s and the other twenty-two are arguments on LanguageLog.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|malapropism}} is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical utterance. An example of a {{w|malapropism}} is {{w|Yogi Berra}}'s statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes," rather than "electoral votes". A {{w|portmanteau}} is a word made up of two or more combined words. For example, motel is a portmanteau, from the words motor and hotel. A {{w|neologism}} is simply a newly coined word that is not yet in common use.

Here, [[Randall]] shows a hypothetical Wikipedia page of the word "malamanteau" which is both a portmanteau of "malapropism" and "portmanteau" and a neologism. The method used to create this new word is one of the very words used in the process. This is called a [[917|meta]] or "self-referential" joke.

By using many large obscure words in one sentence, Randall may also be picking on linguists, [[114|one]] [[1483|of]] his [[1602|favorite]] [[2390|subjects]], who are known for coining and using such words.

"Malamanteau" was originally coined in 2007, when it was proposed by user [http://www.metafilter.com/user/17900 ludwig_van] on [http://www.metafilter.com Metafilter] as a term for language errors like "flustrated" (flustered & frustrated) and "misconscrewed" (misconstrued & screwed).

The bottom line of the comic (Ever notice how Wikipedia has a few words it ''really'' likes?) is a reference to a large number of Wikipedia pages that start by labeling their subject matter as a malapropism, a portmanteau, or a neologism.

In response to this comic, editors at Wikipedia created a {{w|malamanteau}} page. It was deleted multiple times and eventually turned into a redirect to the Wikipedia page for {{w|xkcd}}. Malamanteau and the controversy at Wikipedia got coverage at ''The Economist'' and ''The Boston Globe''. The comic is used to illustrate this section of the xkcd Wikipedia article. In order for this to be possible Randall had to change the license for this particular comic. This has been explained in a unique [[xkcd Header text]] that is only displayed on the [[xkcd_Header_text#Malamanteau|page for Malamanteau]].

The title text refers to Wikipedia's requirements of citations for a page on there to exist. It also refers to the wide range of places citations can be obtained from, showing a direct opposition due to the use of very different citations (The Language Log arguments are modern and informal, whereas the obscure manuscript is formal and much older). The title text also refers to the fact that [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/ Language Log] is frequently used for Wikipedia citations.

Language Log is a blog that posts content relating to language and linguistics, including things like malapropisms and portmanteaus. While an informal source, it has produced new linguistic terms before, such as {{w|eggcorn}}. Its comments sections frequently contain discussions and arguments about English, whose participants are probably the same people who write Wikipedia articles about linguistic phenomena like malamanteaus. In actual fact, [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2758 Malamanteau] did not appear on Language Log until after this strip. Malamanteau has since been referenced on the Language Log website, with a link to the comic in question. Language Log has referenced xkcd many times before, reposting the comics and linking to the xkcd website.

The title text jokingly refers to the "malamanteau" citations being Language Log references and a document from the 1490s, in reference to the fact that linguists, like those who post on Language Log, often use old documents as evidence, possibly to prove that construction is a longstanding feature of the language. The joke is that the only references to this word or concept are a 500-year-old document and linguists informally arguing about what it means. In reality, if these citations were the only evidence of the term's use, then it would be unlikely to be a notable feature worthy of a Wikipedia article. Most articles that are only cited by a single website tend to get deleted unless the subject has achieved significant coverage in outside news media.

The comic shows Wikipedia as it would have looked at the beginning of May 2010, using its then-current logo and the then-default “Monobook” skin. Incidentally, just a day after the comic’s publication, a new version of the {{w|Wikipedia logo}} was published, and the default skin was [[mw:Special:Code/MediaWiki/66383|switched]] to the “Vector” skin. Both of these still define the look of Wikipedia as of 2021 (though Vector undergoes continuous updates).

==Transcript==
:[The strip is set up as the top of a Wikipedia page.]
:[The Wikipedia logo.]
:Wikipedia
:The free encyclopedia
:[Side navigation options.]
:Navigation
:-Main Page
:-Contents
:-Featured Content
:-Current Events
:[Wikipedia header options.]
:Article Discussion Edit this page History
:[The article itself.]
:Malamanteau
:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
:A malamanteau is a neologism for a portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a neologism. It is itself a portmanteau of [...the article cuts off.]
:[Below the panel.]
:Ever notice how Wikipedia has a few words it ''really'' likes?

==External links==
*[http://wiki.xkcd.com/irc/Malamanteau Malamanteau] at the xkcd wiki
*[http://malamanteaus.blogspot.com/ Malamanteaus], a blog dedicated to the creation and proliferation of malamanteaux
*[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Malamanteau Malamanteau] at urbandictionary.com
*[http://wordsquirt.com/Word/View/Malamanteau/dbb34d48-e565-4012-bcc8-56718f351712 Malamanteau] at wordsquirt.com
*[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/index.php?s=malamanteau Entries referencing "malamanteau"] at LanguageLog.com
*Malamanteau Talk Page Archives {{w|Talk:Malamanteau/Archive 1|1}} and {{w|Talk:Malamanteau/Archive 2|2}} at Wikipedia.com
*{{w|Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Malamanteau}}
*{{w|File:Malamanteau page history.jpg|Screen capture}} of the deleted history for the "Malamanteau" page from Wikipedia
*[//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=Malamanteau Wikipedia Log for "Malamanteau"]
*Beutler, William (May 5, 2010) "[http://thewikipedian.net/2010/05/18/much-ado-about-malamanteau/ Much Ado About Malamanteau]". ''The Wikipedian''
*McKean, Erin (May 30, 2010) "[http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/05/30/one_day_wonder/ One Day Wonder]". ''The Boston Globe''
*R.L.G (Nov 4th 2010) "[http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/11/neologisms Eggcorn, mashup, malamanteau or other?]". ''The Economonist''
*July 17, 2007 "[http://ask.metafilter.com/67192/How-to-define-this-language-mistake How to define this language mistake?]" - MetaFilter thread with the first usage

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:CC-BY-SA comics]]
[[Category:Portmanteau‏‎]]

1735: Fashion Police and Grammar Police

2022-05-20T22:07:22Z

108.162.221.101: Undo revision 270918 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1735
| date = September 19, 2016
| title = Fashion Police and Grammar Police
| image = fashion_police_and_grammar_police.png
| titletext = * Mad about jorts
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, two groups of angry protesters are presented and labeled. They are probably not actually protesting side by side, but simply drawn side by side to compare their similarities.

The left group represents the '''Fashion Police''' with [[Cueball]] holding a sign implying that {{w|Crocs}} are prohibited (by showing Crocs shoe/sandall in a circle with a strike through it). Crocs are a type of {{w|Clog|clogs}} made of foam. Crocs (and their imitators) have become fairly popular due to their low price, comfort, and ease of use, but are broadly considered {{w|Crocs#Fashion| unfashionable to wear in public}}. It is not the first time [[Randall]] mocks a special type of shoes, previously in [[1065: Shoes]] Randall was after shoes that ''has those creepy individual toes'' like {{w|Vibram FiveFingers}}. They will also never be a hit with the Fashion Police.{{Citation needed}}

The right group represents the '''Grammar Police''' with another Cueball holding a sign with three homophones: [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/their Their] (belongs to them), [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/they%27re They're] (contraction meaning "they are"), [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/there There] (a location). These words, due to their common usage and identical pronunciation are frequently confused for one another, with one spelling being used in a context meant for a different one, causing the Grammar Police to quickly intervene (see [[386: Duty Calls]]). See the [https://twitter.com/_grammar_ Grammar Police on Twitter] and also {{w|Grammar Police|Linguistic prescription}} which comes up on Wikipedia when searching for Grammar Police.

The two groups look similar, standing in similar poses, with one Cueball holding signs in each group, and [[Megan]] in the front line of both groups. Each group also has one member brandishing a sword, indicating the exaggerated level of intensity they feel about their respective causes.

Both types of people will correct, criticize, denigrate or mock those who fail to conform to their criteria for what is "correct". Fashion police oppose people wearing clothing that's mismatched, out of style/{{w|fashion}} or simply "ugly" to them. Grammar police are "sticklers" for {{w|grammar}} rules and have an immediate negative reaction when someone uses non-standard grammar in a sentence. These two groups are generally seen as socially separate, and their goals appear very distinct, but the comic explains how the two groups are actually very similar. This is demonstrated by listing eight characteristics (plus a ninth in the title text) common to both groups. See explanation in the [[#Table of individual items|table below]].

In the caption below the comic Randall notes that he just realized that these are literally the same people because they both exhibit the listed traits.

It seems like a safe assumption (see [[1339: When You Assume]]) that there are more grammar pedants (see title text of [[1652: Conditionals]]) than fashion police people who read xkcd, and it also would seem likely that many xkcd readers would dislike the Fashion Police. This comic may, therefore, be intended to point out to grammar pedants that their behavior is functionally similar to that of other people who they dislike. Ponytail also represented the grammar police in [[1576: I Could Care Less]], where Megan puts her in place after she polices her sentence; this thus shows what Randall thinks about such police work and supports the above assumption. In 1576: I Could Care Less, "literally" was also used in the title text.

Randall is, with regards to language, definitely one of those that can belong in this group: ''To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well.''

The title is a ninth point to add to the list, with the asterisk in front representing one more bullet. See the last entry in the [[#Table of individual items|table below]] for more:

==Table of individual items==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Explanation of individual items in the list
!list item
!Explanation
|-
|Judgemental and Smug || Both groups tend to feel very comfortable in their own mastery of their particular field, and are frequently condescending to those who either lack their expertise, or are uninterested in meeting their standards.
|-
|Angry about something deeply arbitrary || Both grammar and fashion are, essentially, made-up human constructs.
|-
| Strong opinions backed by style guides || Grammar has ''{{w|The Elements of Style}}'', fashion has fashion magazines.
|-
| Appreciate that the way that you are interpreted is your responsibility || Whether or not you're interested in fashion or 'proper' grammar, how you dress and speak will impact how others perceive you, and often how they treat you. Whether this is fair or not, it is a reality, and each person is responsible for how they present themselves.
|-
| Understand that there's no way to "opt out" of sending messages by how you present yourself, and attempts to do so send strong messages of their own || As above, our dress and speech will be taken by others as sending messages about ourselves. Trying to ignore the rules of either grammar or fashion is, itself, a message, as it presents to the world that we refuse to live by this set of rules. Whether or not we're trying to convey that message, it is what will come across.
|-
|To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well || People who appear to not understand the rules of either grammar or fashion will often be seen as ignorant or low-class. On the other hand, deliberately ignoring rules of either when its clear that you've mastered them comes across as casual, since it's clear that you're choosing to play with the rules, rather than simply not knowing them.
|-
|Vindictive about things that are often uncomfortably transparent proxies for race or social class || This is probably the most impactful observation. Rules around fashion and grammar, being arbitrary, are generally set by the most powerful classes in any society, which often run along racial lines as well. As a result, the "proper" way to dress or speak generally remains associated with those classes. This association can be pragmatic, such as "fashionable" clothing being more expensive and hard for poor people to acquire, or it may simply be cultural, as 'proper' grammar is whatever's spoken in wealthy neighborhoods and schools, while language variants associated with poor people and minority groups is bluntly denounced as 'wrong', even if it has a fully consistent internal grammar. Similarly, fashions that are associated with poor and non-white social groups are broadly considered to be inappropriate, even if the reasons are arbitrary. As a result, such things become signifiers by which one can present oneself as being part of a social class. In America, it would be socially unacceptable to reject a job applicant because they grew up poor, and illegal to do so because of their race. However, rejecting an applicant for using 'improper' grammar, or for not wearing the right clothing or hairstyle, is standard practice. Randall identifies this fact as "uncomfortably transparent".
|-
| Fun to cheer on until one of them disagrees with you|| As with any arbitrary set of rules, those that we're in agreement and comfortable with are easy to promote, and we may enjoy taking part in the condemnation of others. But that suddenly changes when we find ourselves on the outside, condemned for our own use of language or how we dress. At that point, the flaws of such groups become much harder to ignore.
|-
| Mad about jorts (Title text) || "{{w|Shorts#Jorts|Jorts}}" is a {{w|portmanteau}} for a pair of jeans that are made into shorts.

The fashion police would be mad about jorts for being unfashionable.

The grammar police would be mad about the word 'jorts' being an inappropriate portmanteau of jeans and shorts, and also for the fact that the sentence could be misinterpreted as if someone likes jorts, as in being "mad about" something in a positive way.

{{w|Sentence_clause_structure#Incomplete_sentence|Also a fragment}}, with no subject (properly it would be "I am mad about jorts" or "They are mad about jorts"). Randall has [[:Category:Portmanteau|often used]] portmanteaus as part of his jokes.

It is also possible that the Grammar police are indeed "mad about Jorts" in the positive sense, i.e Grammar Police love Jorts.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Beneath two headings to the left and right are shown two aggressive-looking groups of people with only the four people in the front clearly shown for each group. Behind them five other people can be seen, but they are not drawn with the same solid line and are only partly shown behind the first four, but legs from all five in each group can be seen along with some heads (all Cueball like) and arms etc. The front of the left group consist of Hairy holding a fist up towards left, Megan with her arms crossed in front of her chest, Cueball holding a sign, using both hands, straight up above his head and another Cueball-like guy to the right is holding up a broken branch in one hand toward right. The person behind this last person is shown to hold up his fist towards right like Hairy does to the left. The sign shows a Crocs shoe in a circle with a strike through it going above the Crocs from top left to bottom right. The front of the right group consist of Megan holding both her arms over her head hands folded into fist while looking towards left, Cueball holding a sign, using both hands, towards the right and up above Ponytails head, she is raising one hand in a fist to the left and finally a bald guy with glasses is brandishing a short sword in one hand toward right while holding his other hand palm up. The sign has three similar words written beneath each other.]
:Left: Fashion Police
:Right: Grammar Police
:Sign:
::Their
::They're
::There

:[Below the two groups are eight points with bullets:]
:*Judgemental and smug
:*Angry about something deeply arbitrary
:*Strong opinions backed by style guides
:*Appreciate that the way that you are interpreted ''is'' your responsibility
:*Understand that there's no way to "opt out" of sending messages by how you present yourself, and attempts to do so send strong messages of their own
:*To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well
:*Vindictive about things that are often uncomfortably transparent proxies for race or social class
:*Fun to cheer on until one of them disagrees with you

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I just realized these are literally the same people

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]
[[Category:Pedantic]]

2021: Software Development

2022-05-11T18:33:11Z

108.162.221.101: Undo revision 266275 by 👖🔥 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2021
| date = July 18, 2018
| title = Software Development
| image = software_development.png
| titletext = Update: It turns out the cannon has a motorized base, and can make holes just fine using the barrel itself as a battering ram. But due to design constraints it won't work without a projectile loaded in, so we still need those drills.
}}

==Explanation==
Software development is often characterized by [[1513: Code Quality|graceless]] [[1695: Code Quality 2|solutions]] to rudimentary problems. [[Cueball]] has built an elegant drill (function) that can adjust torque and speed as necessary automatically to fulfill his requirement of 500 holes in the wall. [[Hairy]], in a categorically inelegant solution, loads 500 drills into a cannon and shoots them at the wall. This solution, in reality, would entail too many ludicrous safety problems to execute, but in software, the implications are only [[1833: Code Quality 3|really bad code]].

The casual disregard for the software itself is reminiscent of the idea of [https://devops.stackexchange.com/questions/653/what-is-the-definition-of-cattle-not-pets cattle not pets] when deploying to servers.

This resembles assigning two different software teams to resolve different parts of a problem and of making the independent tools collaborate to form a fluid solution. The so-called "drill team" is given the task of making the part of the system that makes a hole in the wall. The cannon team was given the task of making the part of the system that aims what the drill team produces at the designated place on the wall and subsequently drills the hole. The drill team assumed that the aiming device would merely position their portion on the wall allowing it to make the hole, but the cannon team could not make assumptions about how the drill team would generate holes - they needed to make something that could use whatever the drill team produced to make the holes, thus making a cannon, so they could ensure their success.

The title text is a joke about how often in software the best solution to a problem is general rather than specific. See for example developers using Ruby on Rails (a full web framework with support for emails, templating, and web sockets) for a simple API-only service. They only need a very small part of rails (the hole drilling part), but end up with the whole framework anyway due to design limitations.

Another explanation of the title text is that software development is also often characterized by complexity and unintentional interdependence between different modules of code. It is an unending source of frustration for coders that a seemingly minor change to code can cause major changes to how the program works, including changes seemingly unrelated to the specific code that changed. A similar problem is when a line of code that “should be” unnecessary (according to the rules of the programming language) ends up being essential because the program will not work if the code is cleaned up and the line removed. A final factor is that coders often write a particular function once in the first module, and then call back to that function when necessary in subsequent modules rather than rewriting the function over and over again. In that case, the first module cannot be eliminated, even if it is no longer necessary, because then all of the calls to the original function would be null, and the rest of the modules could not work. This can happen not just within programs but across them, as much software on the internet relies on large collections of program modules in public or open source software databases. When a module goes missing it can have wide ranging effects, as seen in {{w|Npm (software)#Notable breakages|March of 2016.}}

In the context of the comic, it could be that the code for the cannon was written to check if it is “loaded” before it does anything, so the drill code is still needed to get the cannon to move on its motorized base and make the holes. Or the code for the drill defines an obscure variable that is used by other code for the cannon or its base, so “removing” the drill code would cause the cannon to “crash” and not operate.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Hairy are standing together and Hairy holds a power tool in his hands.]
:Cueball: We need to make 500 holes in that wall, so I've built this automatic drill. It uses elegant precision gears to continually adjust its torque and speed as needed.
:Hairy: Great, it's the perfect weight! We'll load 500 of them into the cannon we made and shoot them at the wall.

:[Caption below the frame:]
:How software development works

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Programming]]

2610: Assigning Numbers

2022-05-04T20:41:20Z

108.162.221.101: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2610
| date = April 22, 2022
| title = Assigning Numbers
| image = assigning_numbers.png
| titletext = Gödel should do an article on which branches of math have the lowest average theorem number.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by YÖDA'S COMPLETENESS THEOREM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

'''This explanation is by mathematical necessity either incomplete or incorrect.'''

[[Cueball]] is falling into a common trap, because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Faced with some sort of information, of an unknown kind but seemingly not intrinsically mathematical in nature, he has decided that one possible way to proceed is to somehow translate everything into values which can be combined and compared numerically.

This is a very common thing to do, in fields as diverse as {{w|computational linguistics}} or {{w|sports analytics}}, and can be a powerful tool for understanding and learning new things about a subject as {{w|Data science}} tries to extract knowledge and insights from potentially noisy and disordered facts. But it is also used to implement bad science by using incorrect or misguided ideas about how to represent the source material. While it's possible to casually assign numeric values to random pieces of data, these numbers are generally not meaningful enough to compute with and draw any useful inferences from. It is generally possible to perform statistical analysis only on actual measurements, not on what may effectively be arbitrarily-assigned values.

Machine learning algorithms, which are commonly used by data scientists, typically require all their inputs to be numerical. However, most datasets contains categorical features (e.g. the description of a piece of furniture: chair, table, ...). Data scientists therefore use encoding techniques to convert these categorical features to a numerical form so they can be used as inputs to a machine learning model. For instance, label encoding consists of arbitrarily assigning an integer to a category (chair=0, table=1, ...) which may appear meaningless to most observers. In various cases, they may be right.

So, as well as being the mechanism that underlies one of the most profound theorems of 20th century mathematics, it can be mis-used for all kinds of bad or misguided science. From Cueball's attitude, it is far from clear that his attempt will reliably translate his project into a numerical system, nor that his attempt to "do math on it!" will be any more competent.

One of the major characters who looked at the concept is Kurt Gödel. He introduced the idea of {{w|Gödel numbering}} with his landmark {{w|incompleteness theorems}}. In it a unique natural number is assigned to each axiom, statement, and proof, which might otherwise be difficult to accurately process in any other kind of approach. Instead, it is now possible to create metamathematical statements in the language of mathematics.

This allowed Gödel to make the statement "This statement cannot be proven based on the axioms provided" in a mathematically rigorous way. A simple proof by contradiction shows that the statement cannot be false, and therefore (in most logical systems) must be true. The proof goes as follows: 1. Assume that "This statement cannot be proven from the axioms" (Call this statement G) is false.<ref>Call this assumption A.</ref> 2. Therefore G can be proven from the axioms.<ref>Because the negation of the negation is an affirmation. Based only on A.</ref> 3. The axioms exist.<ref>Call this assumption B</ref> 4. Therefore, G is true.<ref>via {{w|Modus ponens}} applied to 2 and 3, based on A and B</ref> 5. Therefore, G and also not G.<ref>via {{w|Conjunction introduction}} applied to 1 and 4, based on A and B</ref> 6. This is a contradiction, and therefore A (that is, 'not G') or B (ZFC) must be wrong. We are not willing to sacrifice assumption B, so we must conclude that A is false, given B.<ref>{{w|Reductio ad absurdum}} applied to 1,3, and 5</ref> 7. Therefore, G.

Notice that the truth of Gödel's statement does not depend on any particular set of axioms, and adding axioms (such as "Gödel's particular statement is true") only opens up new iterations of the statement which cannot be proven based on the expanded set of axioms (A statement such as "All statements of a similar nature to Gödel's particular statement" is not precise enough to serve as an axiom.). As such, with a little more legwork, it can be proven that any logical system robust enough to accommodate arithmetic must necessarily contain facts that are true within the system but cannot be proven or disproven within the system. The importance of this result cannot be understated, as it upended the entire philosophy of mathematics. {{w|David Hilbert}}'s famous proclamation "We must know, we will know" is simply incorrect. ... Either that, or (ironically) Gödel used an "inconsistent" or "incomplete" system to produce his result.

The title text suggests that Gödel should perform such an analysis on different branches of mathematics, by calculating the average of all the fields' theorems' Gödel numbers. This is nonsensical for a number of reasons:
:1) Gödel is long dead, and dead people can't write articles;{{Dubious}} - see [[599: Apocalypse]]
:2) Gödel numbers grow very large very quickly, and depend heavily on the specific values assigned to each logical operator. Therefore the results could be manipulated simply by changing the numbering order of each operator;
:3) It may be very hard to gather all theorems in a field, or even a representative sample;
:4) Different fields of science, like biology or human behaviour, may not be able to write their theorems in the mathematical language of Gödel's incompleteness theorem
If anyone were to attempt this form of analysis, it would be an example of the bad data science described in the caption.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holds a hand up to his chin while he ponders the contents of what may be a whiteboard. There are five general lines of unreadable scribbling on the board, and between the two bottom lines, there is a square frame to the right with another scribble to the left. Cueball's thoughts are shown above him in a large thought bubble.]
:Cueball's thinking: If I assign numbers to each of these things, then it becomes '''''data''''', and I can do '''''math''''' on it!

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:The same basic idea underlies Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and all bad data science.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Logic]]

2610: Assigning Numbers

2022-05-04T20:29:03Z

108.162.221.101: Undo revision 243084 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2610
| date = April 22, 2022
| title = Assigning Numbers
| image = assigning_numbers.png
| titletext = Gödel should do an article on which branches of math have the lowest average theorem number.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by YÖDA'S COMPLETENESS THEOREM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

'''This explanation is by mathematical necessity either incomplete or incorrect.'''

[[Cueball]] is falling into a common trap, because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Faced with some sort of information, of an unknown kind but seemingly not intrinsically mathematical in nature, he has decided that one possible way to proceed is to somehow translate everything into values which can be combined and compared numerically.

This is a very common thing to do, in fields as diverse as {{w|computational linguistics}} or {{w|sports analytics}}, and can be a powerful tool for understanding and learning new things about a subject as {{w|Data science}} tries to extract knowledge and insights from potentially noisy and disordered facts. But it is also used to implement bad science by using incorrect or misguided ideas about how to represent the source material. While it's possible to casually assign numeric values to random pieces of data, these numbers are generally not meaningful enough to compute with and draw any useful inferences from. It is generally possible to perform statistical analysis only on actual measurements, not on what may effectively be arbitrarily-assigned values.

Machine learning algorithms, which are commonly used by data scientists, typically require all their inputs to be numerical. However, most datasets contains categorical features (e.g. the description of a piece of furniture: chair, table, ...). Data scientists therefore use encoding techniques to convert these categorical features to a numerical form so they can be used as inputs to a machine learning model. For instance, label encoding consists of arbitrarily assigning an integer to a category (chair=0, table=1, ...) which may appear meaningless to most observers. In various cases, they may be right.

So, as well as being the mechanism that underlies one of the most profound theorems of 20th century mathematics, it can be mis-used for all kinds of bad or misguided science. From Cueball's attitude, it is far from clear that his attempt will reliably translate his project into a numerical system, nor that his attempt to "do math on it!" will be any more competent.

One of the major characters who looked at the concept is Kurt Gödel. He introduced the idea of {{w|Gödel numbering}} with his landmark {{w|incompleteness theorems}}. In it a unique natural number is assigned to each axiom, statement, and proof, which might otherwise be difficult to accurately process in any other kind of approach. Instead, it is now possible to create metamathematical statements in the language of mathematics.

This allowed Gödel to make the statement "This statement cannot be proven based on the axioms provided" in a mathematically rigorous way. A simple proof by contradiction shows that the statement cannot be false, and therefore (in most logical systems) must be true. The proof goes as follows: 1. Assume that "This statement cannot be proven from the axioms" (Call this statement G) is false (Call this assumption A). 2. Therefore G can be proven from the axioms (Because the negation of the negation is an affirmation. Based only on A) 3. The axioms exist (Call this assumption B). 4. Therefore, G is true (via {{w|Modus ponens}} applied to 2 and 3, based on A and B). 5. Therefore, G and also not G (via And Introduction applied to 1 and 4, based on A and B). 6. This is a contradiction, and therefore A or B must be wrong. We are not willing to sacrifice assumption B, so we must conclude that A is false, given B ({{w|Reductio ad absurdum}} applied to 1,3, and 5). 7. Therefore, G.

Notice that the truth of Gödel's statement does not depend on any particular set of axioms, and adding axioms (such as "Gödel's particular statement is true") only opens up new iterations of the statement which cannot be proven based on the expanded set of axioms (A statement such as "All statements of a similar nature to Gödel's particular statement" is not precise enough to serve as an axiom.). As such, with a little more legwork, it can be proven that any logical system robust enough to accommodate arithmetic must necessarily contain facts that are true within the system but cannot be proven or disproven within the system. The importance of this result cannot be understated, as it upended the entire philosophy of mathematics. {{w|David Hilbert}}'s famous proclamation "We must know, we will know" is simply incorrect. ... Either that, or (ironically) Gödel used an "inconsistent" or "incomplete" system to produce his result.

The title text suggests that Gödel should perform such an analysis on different branches of mathematics, by calculating the average of all the fields' theorems' Gödel numbers. This is nonsensical for a number of reasons:
:1) Gödel is long dead, and dead people can't write articles;{{Dubious}} - see [[599: Apocalypse]]
:2) Gödel numbers grow very large very quickly, and depend heavily on the specific values assigned to each logical operator. Therefore the results could be manipulated simply by changing the numbering order of each operator;
:3) It may be very hard to gather all theorems in a field, or even a representative sample;
:4) Different fields of science, like biology or human behaviour, may not be able to write their theorems in the mathematical language of Gödel's incompleteness theorem
If anyone were to attempt this form of analysis, it would be an example of the bad data science described in the caption.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holds a hand up to his chin while he ponders the contents of what may be a whiteboard. There are five general lines of unreadable scribbling on the board, and between the two bottom lines, there is a square frame to the right with another scribble to the left. Cueball's thoughts are shown above him in a large thought bubble.]
:Cueball's thinking: If I assign numbers to each of these things, then it becomes '''''data''''', and I can do '''''math''''' on it!

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:The same basic idea underlies Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and all bad data science.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Logic]]

Talk:2610: Assigning Numbers

2022-05-04T20:27:33Z

108.162.221.101:

Does this imply that [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem] isn't correct? And that it's method is bunk? Please help! -Seer [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.230|162.158.107.230]] 02:08, 23 April 2022 (UTC)
I believe the intention is that the theorem is not part of the set of bad data science, just that they share this one feature.

Isn't the Gödel number for a theorem calculated by multiplying the numbers of the components together, so complicated theorems would have larger numbers? If so, the current explanation that this isn't a good way to judge fields is wrong. I'm not too sure though. [[User:MrCandela|MrCandela]] ([[User talk:MrCandela|talk]]) 05:52, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

:I do not believe that the title suggests renumbering theorems with Gödel numbers, but averaging the existing theorem numbers. Or otherwise, MrCandela's suggestion would be the way to go: Complicated Theorems have larger numbers. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.133|172.68.110.133]] 08:10, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

:Yeah a quick look at some magazines like [https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-godels-incompleteness-theorems-work-20200714/#jump2/ this one] and I think Randall has a point [[User:MrCandela|MrCandela]] ([[User talk:MrCandela|talk]]) 09:48, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

I wish I'd started the explanation off when I first saw it (somone posted the first Transcript whilst I was pondering, so I left off). I think there's some serious re-editing to be done, but basically it points to someone (Cueball, a dabbling armchair mathematician faced with some not directly mathematically-based problem) thinking that 'all' it takes is to encode the whatever-it-is, arbitrarily, and then with a few easy equations something useful cannbe derived. When, in reality, even if this is possible (ignoring the "takes the age of the universe to permute things to find the right answer" sort of sticking-block) it depends upon a ''good'' numerical encoding (enough attention to detail, but not too much, and in the right sort of way) and possibly quite a lot of data-demunging and filtration (again, just the right amount and in the correct manner) to pop out the "answer" being looked for. For some things, this can be easy, though there are always statistical pitfalls/etc. For others ("life, the universe and everything", say) the task is far more complex and the result ("42"?) might not seem to be a very useful result for various reasons. And, on top this, there's Gödel. But that's an additional punchline, not the whole scope of the original joke. ...Anyway, this long comment is why I held back from writing the original Explanation, but I might yet wrangle my thoughts into what's since been put there. While trying not to tread upon too many toes and alternate explanations. Which is the hardest bit, I think... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.64|172.70.86.64]] 15:48, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

Just a comment about the technicalities of Gödel's First Incompleteness Theorem: The 'third' possibility presented [http://dstoner.net/Math_Science/godel.html here] misunderstands the term 'true but unprovable'. When mathematicians say 'true but unprovable' in the context of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems, what they mean is 'true in the standard model but unprovable in the formal system'. The Gödel sentence is certainly true for the standard natural numbers, by contradiction: assume that the Gödel sentence is false for the standard naturals, which means that there exists a standard natural number which is the Gödel number for the proof of the Gödel sentence. Then we could decode the Gödel number into a proof (of the formal system) proving the Gödel sentence true; a contradiction. (Note that the preceding proof by contradiction can be formalised in ZFC, but not in the formal system under study.) The reason why the Gödel sentence is unprovable in the formal system is because, from the point of view of the formal system, there might be a non-standard natural number which is the Gödel number for the proof of the Gödel sentence (and non-standard numbers cannot be decoded into a proof); or there might not be. --[[User:Underbase|Underbase]] ([[User talk:Underbase|talk]]) 04:56, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

:Regarding this, I know that the policy on this site is to include every possible interpretation, but the page mentioned is an html page (and not a [https://xkcd.com/2304/ pdf]) that was not [https://xkcd.com/1847/ peer reviewed] (thus not recognized by the community), and as mentioned by the user above it fails understand the concepts it is talking about. I do not think this site should be spreading this kind of idea. I believe Randall Monroe himself would be against this.

::I also believe the current explanation is both incorrect about explaining the seeming paradox of the Gödel conjecture, & therefore somewhat incorrect about this joke. It is surely the transition from abstract to quantized - the act of applying limited formal numbering to potentially unbounded or otherwise non-standard terms - which incurs incompleteness? Within the constraints of a formal system of standard natural numbers, true≠provable, & therein lies the internal (but not total) contradiction. ''That's'' the contradiction, right? & the joke is that numbering theorems by their complexity, is not generally a productive approach for 'doing math' on them, in any sense but an abstract analytical one?
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:54, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

:I do not believe the Title Text calls for "calculating the average of all the fields' theorems' Gödel numbers". It asks for 'the lowest average theorem number'. The average of all, is not the average of each. The Title Text wants the average of ''each of'' the fields' theorems' Gödel numbers.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:54, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

Today's [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/derivative Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal] is slightly related.

== Paradoxicality argument ==

I think that revision [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2610:_Assigning_Numbers&oldid=231000 231000] should be removed. My explanation of what's wrong with the linked site is as follows:

Up until the section "Gödel's String", nothing is incorrect. Furthermore, the first wrong line is numbered (49), and says that Gödel's statement is equivalent to "This statement is not a theorem (of any formal system)." This is where he goes wrong, for writing down a formula for "n proves m" requires inclusion of the formal system in which this proof happens. As such, the correct translation of Gödel's statement is "This statement is not a theorem of [system]", which it indeed is not. Then he says that "We have decided that Gödel's string cannot be a theorem and neither can its negation" (true, after Rosser's trick) and therefore that this gives us "~<G∨~G>" (which is false). He has commited the sin of confusing truth and provability here.

His discussion of the Epimenides string ("This statement is not true") is accurate, except for the claim that the truth predicate is "as valid an extension to [PA] as [the provability and quining] extensions were". This is false. The provability and quining predicates can be constructed in PA and thus are not "extensions" so much as "shorthand"; this was Gödel's contribution: to see that PA can talk about provability of statements in any fixed formal system. The truth predicate is not definable in PA, as he quite ably proves (suppose it was definable, then you could write down the Epimenides sentence in PA, and thereby prove false).

The section "Gödel's Error" is just plain silly.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.147|172.70.114.147]] 19:28, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

What if we just change it to say something along the lines of "Certain logical systems allow values to be 'not false' without being necessarily 'true'; Godel's theorem is based on an axiomatic assumption that every statement is either true or false."?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 06:06, 25 April 2022 (UTC)

Is it just me, or is the given argument gibberish? Replacing the terms with more graspable ones, it seems to be saying: "1. Assume that bananas can be grown from banana-trees (why is this a reasonable assumption? Is it also a reasonable assumption to make about pear trees?). 2. Banana-trees exist. 3. Therefore, the statement that bananas cannot be grown from the trees is true (HOW is this a reasonable conclusion to leap to from the preceding points? By what bizarre leap of elided logic?). 4. This is a contradiction, therefore our initial assumption must be wrong (No, clearly the conclusion in 3 is wrong). Therefore, the statement is true (which statement are you even talking about here?)." Any chance someone could clarify that passage by including the missing steps in the logic? --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.159|172.69.70.159]] 19:02, 25 April 2022 (UTC)

:It's not missing any steps. The argument really is that simple. Maybe I didn't write it clearly enough... Anyway to address your specific points, I would first recommend you read {{w|Reductio ad absurdum}}, but if you don't have time (Because let's be real, nobody has enough time for reading Wikipedia articles), I'll break it down. 1. Assume the opposite of the statement (This is not a reasonable assumption almost by definition; the whole point is to disprove it, after all) using the Law of Assumption, which states that we can assume absolutely anything we want in a logical proof, so long as we keep track of what's been derived from it. 2 Assume anything else relevant 3. Follow the assumptions through to their conclusions, and find that the valid reasoning has led to an unsound result, such as a statement directly contradicting the assumption in 1. 4. One of the assumptions must be wrong in order to maintain consistency. Choose the assumption which was made for the purpose of disproving it to be the one we deem untrue, which means its opposite is true. Unfortunately these sorts of arguments don't really lend themselves to analogies with 'more graspable' statements.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.193|108.162.221.193]] 02:30, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

Hello,
1) Why couldn't Gödel's string be paradoxical? It is certainly A) self-referencing and B) Self-negating. Even "This Statement is True" causes trouble.
2) Where did Gödel even consider paradox to be a possibility? If he didn't, his argument is "incomplete" (just like its conclusion implies it might very well be anyway).
3) Has anyone here bothered to prove that his string is not actually paradoxical?
- Don Stoner (nobody in particular -- just a senile wimpy old nerd)

Hi again,
Here's a fun one:
"This statement is paradoxical"
1) It certainly is paradoxical (provably so)
2) It even says it's paradoxical (echoing Gödel)
3) Therefore, it must be "true" (echoing Gödel)
4) But (this time) this means it's simply "false"
5) Etc.
- Don (nobody in particular)

:1) I'm not sure what you mean by "paradoxical". If you mean something like "true and false" or "neither true nor false", that fails classical logic. Gödel (with a bit of help from Rosser) proved that we can write down a sentence G of Peano arithmetic, then prove (in PA) that G is equivalent to "no integer encodes a proof in PA of G unless a smaller one encodes a proof in PA of not G". He then pointed out that if G was provable in PA, there was also a proof of not G (basically, work out what integer encodes that proof of G, then for each smaller integer, try to decode it into a proof of not G; if you succeed, you have a proof of not G; if you fail for all, you have proved by exhaustion that your integer encodes a proof of G and no smaller integer encodes a proof of not G; all this is a proof of not G). Thus, if PA is consistent, there is no proof in PA of G. Now assume there is a proof in PA of not G. Encode this proof into an integer N. We shall now prove either G or "every integer less than N does not encode a proof in PA of G". We thus work through every integer less than N, checking to see if it encodes a proof in PA of G. If it does we have proved G; if no integers less than N encode a proof of G then we have proved "for all n < N, n does not encode a proof in PA of G". In the latter case, we have proved that every integer encoding a proof in PA of G is greater than N, which is an integer encoding a proof in PA of not G; this implies G! As such, we started with a proof in PA of not G (NOTE: THIS IS DIFFERENT FROM MERELY ASSUMING not G), and produced a proof in PA of G. So if PA is consistent, there is no proof in PA of not G either. Hence PA is either inconsistent (as if PA proves either G or not G, it proves the other and hence false) or incomplete (proving neither).

:2) He proved that either PA proves false, or there is a statement such that PA proves neither the statement nor its negation. The first includes paradoxicality. (His second incompleteness theorem was essentially: "By the argument above, PA proves that if PA is consistent then G has no proof in PA, which easily implies that PA proves "If PA is consistent, then G". Now suppose PA proves that PA is consistent. Then by modus ponens, PA proves G, and therefore PA is inconsistent. So if PA proves that PA is consistent, then PA is inconsistent.") (It ''is'' possible for a consistent system to prove its own inconsistency.)

:3) Most mathematicians assume that ZFC is consistent, even augmented by some pretty strong large cardinal hypotheses. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.72|172.70.35.72]] 17:11, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

:The short answer to your questions is that Godel's method was rigorous. Godel numbering is much more precise than natural language ever could be. The longer answer is that there's a reason Godel's theorem is considered a work of genius; though the overall concept is fairly easy to grasp intuitively, making it into an actual theorem takes a lot of work and cleverness. There are multiple long Wikipedia pages about it just outlining the generals. The proof itself is rock solid, but far beyond the scope of this page. And the pithy answer is "Do you really think you're the first person to think of that? Mathematicians spent decades analyzing the theorems with uncharitable eyes."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.119|108.162.221.119]] 04:12, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

:: I am certain I am not the only person to notice his error because I have been contacted by others who noticed it independently. (None of us were sufficiently arrogant to presume we were first.) Further, we have all spent a great deal more time investigating this than you presume. Gödel's numbering was indeed rigorous and precise, but in spite of his genius, he simply failed to consider the possibility of paradox (incompleteness). If I am wrong about this, it would be would be a simple matter to show me where he addressed this. - Don Stoner (n.i.p.)

I'm going to remove the section stating that Godel's theorem is self-negating (it's not) and that his methodology was incomplete. And before anyone re-adds it, I simply ask that you please please PLEASE actually read up on the subject (and I don't mean from random html pages). Mathematicians have been actively trying to find a flaw in Godel's proof since before it was published; I promise you that whatever clever paradoxicality argument you've come up with has already been considered and eliminated by the professionals.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.81|108.162.221.81]] 21:59, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

: Your parting shot kind of reminds me of Junior high school. Specifically, I was one nerd being confronted by a few dozen "normal" kids. I was outnumbered, but there was really only room for one kid to get in my face at a time. As I told each of those kids (one at a time), "Your buddies aren't here right now. It's just you and me." So, unless you can talk one of those "professionals" (who actually understands Gödel's proof) into joining us here, you need to explain to me where Gödel addressed the possibility of paradox (he didn't). His methodology was incomplete. You also need to explain to me why you assert that "This statement cannot..." is not self-negating (it is). Further, since "the policy on this site is to include every possible interpretation" you also need to explain to me why you have taken it upon yourself to override Randal's authority. - Don Stoner (n.i.p.)
:: I can't even be bothered to work out who is saying what. Don, if you're interested in site policy, use the proper <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> signature (get an account in your name, if you want to be named), and possibly chill out a bit too. If someone is arguing (can't be bothered to check the edit history/diffs) then they need to use a .sig too. And colon-indents per level of reply is useful. But don't mind me, it looks like you're having fun either on your own or as a pair (or more). Just sayin'... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.71|162.158.159.71]] 17:54, 27 April 2022 (UTC)
::: Thanks! (I'm a retired robotics-embedded-system programmer, but I'm not much of an end used. I need help to use my cellphone.) - Don --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.10|172.69.34.10]] 19:55, 27 April 2022 (UTC)
::: Oops, sorry, I didn't properly sign my comment. Normally I'm pretty diligent about it, so looking back at this I didn't even recognize my own writing for a few seconds (insert laughing emoji). I'll go back and add a signature now. The time stamp will be wrong, but I don't know a way around that.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.81|108.162.221.81]] 21:59, 27 April 2022 (UTC)
:To clarify, I removed the section because it stated as fact that the incompleteness theorem is wrong. If you don't like the theorem, that's fine, but the consensus view is that the proof is sound. I did add a sentence to the effect of 'it's always possible we're wrong about things' to hopefully reflect the point of view that had been stated with unwarranted confidence. If that's not an acceptable compromise to people, you're welcome to counter propose.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.81|108.162.221.81]] 22:00, 27 April 2022 (UTC)
::If my memory serves correctly, what you removed was:
:::"Either that, or Gödel used an "inconsistent" or "incomplete" system to produce his result. Any "complete and consistent" system would recognize a self-referencing and self-negating statement to be a form of the 'liar's paradox' ('This statement is false')." Gödel did not examine that as a possibility (incomplete methodology).
::1) Gödel himself demonstrated that his (or any) formal system was either "inconsistent" or "incomplete." This much is both ironical and obviously true.
::2) It is observable fact that Gödel did not consider paradox as a possibility. This makes his theorem "incomplete." This is observable fact, not a false claim.
::Censoring my opinion is not a legitimate "compromise." I recommend that you attempt to refute (or at least counter) my opinion instead. - Don --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.8|172.70.207.8]] 22:55, 27 April 2022 (UTC)
::I tried a cropped (and less controversial) version of my original statement, to see what you thought about it.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.229|162.158.78.229]] 02:20, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
:::I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "paradox"; to my knowledge, that word doesn't have a formal mathematical definition. I assume you mean a non-true non-false statement? (feel free to correct me) In which case, Gödel did not consider this because he was working within classical logic, wherein statements can either be "true" or "false" and there is no third value. The reason he chose classical logic is because mathematics is currently performed using classical logic. And although most proofs of "the Gödel sentence is true" are a bit wishy-woshy, you can actually formalise a proof within ZFC set theory (a theory based on classical logic) that the Gödel sentence is true for the standard natural numbers (see my comment above). Of course, you could reject ZFC (and base mathematics on something like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraconsistent_logic paraconsistent logic]) but you'll probably have a hard time convincing mathematicians. Regardless, was more concerned with the incompleteness of the system than with the truth of the Gödel sentence, and doesn't mention truth at all in Theorem VI (the First Incompleteness Theorem) of his original paper.--[[User:Underbase|Underbase]] ([[User talk:Underbase|talk]]) 10:43, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
::::I won't argue with that. (I'll also back off to "non-true non-false," since I'm unsure how to understand other definitions.). "Incompleteness" (rather than "inconsistency") is still the missing piece. One claim in the above explanation: "David Hilbert's famous proclamation "We must know, we will know" is simply incorrect," Ignores this qualification -- making it a misapplication of what Gödel actually proved. Maybe we can eventually know truth -- but the limited tools constituting Gödel's proof were simply not up to that task.--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.83|172.69.33.83]] 20:04, 28 April 2022 (UTC) -edited --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 21:26, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

I, for one, am very pleased with the current compromise. The use of ellipsis and the inclusion of "(ironically)" has totally sold me on it. Also, if anyone knows how to make those notes where you have the little number you can click on to see the full explanation, I think the proof by contradiction part could benefit from having the parenthetical statements moved to notes. I'm going to look up how to do it, and I'll try, but if it all goes horribly wrong...[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 20:27, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

20: Ferret

2022-05-04T18:28:03Z

108.162.221.101: Undo revision 240839 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 20
| date = October 14, 2005
| title = Ferret
| image = ferret.jpg
| titletext = My brother had a ferret he loved which died since I drew this strip. RIP.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]]'s (Cueball-like) friend makes fun of his imagination that involves a flying ferret, and then suggests to go play video games instead. This shows the irony of his definition of "imagination." He makes fun of Cueball's creative fantasy while instead opting for a mass-produced fantasy.

The fact that Cueball lies about his goal could be a commentary on abandoning dreams to avoid confronting societal expectations.

The title text refers to the fact that [[Randall|Randall's]] brother in real life had such a pet ferret. Originally, Randall drew this comic while the ferret was still alive, and then it passed away in between his posting it on [[LiveJournal]] and reposting it with a title text on the new [[xkcd]] site. He now wishes that it will rest in peace.

The ferret returns in [[31: Barrel - Part 5]] and did in this way become part of the [[:Category:Barrel|Barrel series]]. This has also been canonized by Randall as can be seen on this web-archive version of xkcd: [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html The Boy and his Barrel].

The full series can be found [[:Category:Barrel|here]]. But below they are listed in the order Randall has put them in his collection linked to above:
* [[1: Barrel - Part 1]]
* [[20: Ferret]]
* [[11: Barrel - Part 2]]
* [[22: Barrel - Part 3]]
* [[25: Barrel - Part 4]]
* [[31: Barrel - Part 5]]

==Transcript==
:[A color drawing of a ferret with airplane wings and tail on it.]

:[Cueball and his Cueball-like friend (to the left) are talking.]
:Friend: Why on earth did you make those wings? You don't seriously think they could let your ferret fly, right?
:Cueball: I... of course not.

:[They continue to talk.]
:Cueball: That would be pretty dumb. It's just, uh... ...a Halloween costume.
:Friend: oh, okay.

:[They continue to talk. The head of the ferret can be seen to the far right on a table.]
:Friend: Besides, who would want a pet to fly anyway?
:Cueball: Yeah. Pretty lame, huh?

:[The friend leaves the frame while Cueball stays. The ferret cannot be seen.]
:Friend: Anyway, let's go play video games.

:[Cueball stands behind after his friend has left. He looks back towards his ferret.]

:[Cueball imagines his ferret flying over the ocean near the beach using his makeshift wings while holding his ferret.]

==Trivia==
*This was the 19th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[19: George Clinton]].
**The next was [[21: Kepler]].
*Original title: "Friday's Drawing"
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "My brother has a ferret. He holds it like that and generally adores it. I have to concede that it's pretty cute, if smelly."
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
*One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].
*A tank-top shirt based on this comic is available in the [https://store.xkcd.com/products/flying-ferret-tank-top xkcd store].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 19]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Barrel|02]]
[[Category:Ferret]]
[[Category:Comics with xkcd store products]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

Talk:1335: Now

2022-05-03T03:48:17Z

108.162.221.101: /* Timed Links Fix */ replace section topic with bold text

[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now.png| Link to comic] Link has been fixed. Was pointing to an incorrect url. 14:21, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
This doesn't work. Maybe if we added *.xkcd.com/* to the (external) image whitelist or something? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.121|108.162.231.121]] 07:27, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
:A fine suggestion. I'm probably going to shoot for full archival like we did with [[time]], but this is an ample good solution in the meantime. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:30, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
:Hold on, having wee issues, will resolve soon. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:37, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Here is a scaled animation of every image. The full size version was too big for me to upload.
[[User:Ti84p|Ti84p]] ([[User talk:Ti84p|talk]]) 07:47, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
:(Removed the broken link mentioned here above --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:43, 17 May 2015 (UTC))

For Australia and New Zealand, at least, the clock shows local time with summer time factored in. I bet that it undergoes some changes in March and April as various jurisdictions go on or off daylight saving. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.224|108.162.249.224]] 09:20, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

: Good point! I added this to the explanation. —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 13:15, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

:: There's also British Summer Time and all the ''other'' national seasonal adjustments(1)... could you perhaps de-specify the "move the list of North American cities and regions for Daylight-Saving Time (which is the same thing as Summer Time)" statement to remove the inadvertent US-centrism? Maybe "...of northern-latitudes cities for Daylight-Saving Time or equivalent Summer Time designation"..? (Definitely could be better phrased than I just put, though.)
:: (1) Note, they don't even all switch at the same time, necessarily. If Randall is going to change the basic map template (pre-rotation) for any Summer/non-Summer transition, he's probably going to have to do it multiple times each spring/autumn, as various regions jiggle about. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.41|141.101.99.41]] 13:52, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

::: Exactly, they don't all switch at the same time. North America isn't mentioned to be US-centric, it's mentioned because the change happens there first. Sure, we could bring up BST and all the rest, but there's no need to make the discussion longer than necessary. (The original wording also was not US-centric, privileging the non-US term "Summer Time" that's used where it's currently being observed, but somebody changed that.) —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 18:14, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
::::I made that change just to use the same title as the Wikipedia page to which we are linking. I don't feel strongly about it. --[[User:BlueMoonlet|BlueMoonlet]] ([[User talk:BlueMoonlet|talk]]) 18:46, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

As for the map itself, I think the title text should provide the exact time for the location under the cursor, by doing calculations for the mouseover event and updating the t.t. accordingly. I imagine it is doable for Randall. For accuracy's sake, the Antarctic region could be excluded. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.225|141.101.89.225]] 12:19, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
: Or maybe someone'll fancy doing it as a userscript. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.225|141.101.89.225]] 12:23, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

I made a version that the user can rotate themselves. It only loads a single image. http://c0la.s3.amazonaws.com/xkcd1335.html {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.182}}

The gif image is very good to understand this comic. However it would be very nice if it rotated a little slower. Instead of one turn every ten seconds it could be one every minute. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 14:37, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

: When I look a little off-centre, it always seems that South America is about to catch up with Antarctica, but it never does! —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 18:14, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

He used an Azimuthal equidistant projection?!?!? ;_; [[User:Swhouseworth|Swhouseworth]] ([[User talk:Swhouseworth|talk]]) 16:20, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

: Yeah, should have been equal area! —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 18:14, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

:: On the Transcript for this comic the last line erroneously describes the innermost circle as "the Earth as seen from the south pole", when as Swhouseworth correctly points out, this is an Azimuthal equidistant projection centered on the south pole. —[[User:Andrewpost|Andrewpost]] ([[User talk:Andrewpost|talk]]) 14:43, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Question: If there are 24 Hours in a day, why in the description does it go from hour 0 to hour 21? That's only 22 hours. Where are the other 2 hours? Even if it isn't listed on the comic (I think it's the time zones in the Atlantic between Eastern Brazil and the UK - basically UTC-1hr and UTC-2hr), shouldn't there be spaces in the charts showing those hours? I don't think any of the islands in that region use those time zones (opting instead to use GMT - like Iceland for example), but I think those hours should still be included since they ''are'' on the static part of the map. Also, it makes sense to me that the center of the words ''NOON'' and ''MIDNIGHT'' are edges of segments themselves, making 24 segments in total. Randall just couldn't draw those discrete segments and also easily have the words written for our convenience. --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 16:46, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

: Every time zone is used somewhere in international waters (well, every one that's a whole number of hours off of Universal Time), so they certainly should all be included. —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 18:14, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
: Added South Georgia as UTC-2 and Cape Verde as UTC-1. According to Wikipedia, coastal Brazil and Greenland are both UTC-2 during the summer, but Brazil just ended summer time last Sunday (Feb. 23), and Greenland won't start until late March. There are approximately no permanently inhabited places that use UTC-2 all year, so I just went with South Georgia because it's historically significant. [[User:Fryhole|Fryhole]] ([[User talk:Fryhole|talk]]) 20:20, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Randall's continent naming scheme is interesting. The most commonly taught model in the U.S. has seven continents, but the purple continent is Australia rather than Oceania. The name Oceania is common in Spanish-speaking countries, but those places generally have a six-continent model with the Americas merged. Is Randall's model standard anywhere? [[User:Fryhole|Fryhole]] ([[User talk:Fryhole|talk]]) 20:00, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

: FIBA and, before 2006, FIFA. (In 2006 FIFA moved Australia from Oceania to Asia). As a further parallel neither the sporting bodies nor the comic actually mention Antarctica. Note that the comic does not say these are continents. Oceania has some distinct characteristics, so it often shows up as a "region of the world".
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.59|108.162.218.59]] 19:08, 27 February 2014 (UTC)
distinoften shows up as a "region of the world". It has some distinct characteristics, which is why FIFA, FIBA and others treat it as a region.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.59|108.162.218.59]] 19:08, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Kamchatka is probably a reference to 850: https://xkcd.com/850/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.48|108.162.216.48]] 20:22, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Hey, I'd just like to note that GIMP "Optimize for GIF" reduced the GIF size to 7.1MiB from current 9.3MiB. If I reduced the colours to 32, which still looked "good enough" in my opinion, the GIF was only 3.5MiB.
http://m8y.org/tmp/temp.gif (optimize)
http://m8y.org/tmp/temp2.gif (optimize + colour reduction)

It might be worth replacing to improve load times.
You might want to make your own since I didn't check frame times or anything, I just ran "index" and "optimize" and then exported{{unsigned ip|108.162.219.77}}
:You are right, but that picture should be less then 1MB. I will do some tests, and if it does work I will talk about this. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:51, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
::m'k - well. Using 20 colours and scaling it down 50% resulted in 1.1MiB... http://m8y.org/tmp/temp3.gif
:::I'm now at the time frame at "Rude to call", but nevertheless the PNG files have to be optimized to a GIF, after that an animated GIF should be much smaller. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 01:03, 27 February 2014 (UTC)
::::I'm guessing an indexed APNG could be smaller (due to more efficient compression) than a GIF, but unfortunately I don't thing apngasm is as efficient as GIMP's optimize for gif feature.

Does anybody know what clock Randall is using? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.75|199.27.128.75]]EvanJM42

Randall no doubt knows about the Time Zone Database (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database) so he may well have coded this page to incorporate seasonal time changes from that database. We'll have to watch what happens.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.15|108.162.219.15]] 12:59, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Any idea of a way of using this image as a wallpaper for OSX in a way that updates every 30 minutes? Yes, n00b question, but I cannot think of an easily implemented solution. {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.77}}
::Hey. I don't know too much about how OSX does wallpapers, but under Linux, the desktop wallpaper will automatically update if the image is modified. This means you could make a simple shell script that copies (or possibly updates a symlink) to wallpaper.png based upon the current time. The file for the copy or symlink could be referenced as... H=$(date -u +%H); M=$(date -u +%M); FILE="${H}h${M}m.png" I use a similar approach for automatically rotating the image in http://m8y.org/images/sandy_1280_1024_stripped.svg in a cronjob using sed. The sed modification of the svg automatically updates the background. With any luck, you can do the same thing in OSX once you've pointed your wallpaper at a location. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.56}}

Hello, to the guy asking for a OSX wallpaper, I didn't found a way to do it but I got something pretty close to that. You don't need any scripting skills or anything fancy, just download Geektool[http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/] from the internet and add an Image Geeklet. In the image URL use the one on the top of this comment section (http://c.xkcd.com/redirect/comic/now) and in the refresh interval select your desired time (I used 900 s roughly 15 minutes, 1800 should work for every 30 minutes). Now, there is a problem but it's beyond my control. The image is not synced with the current time in my country. Just yesterday we changed our clocks because of time savings but apparently the page has not bring forward its clock yet. I don't know who did the awesome job of setting up a page for us to access it but I hope he/she can update it accordingly so we can enjoy an awesome page or if someone else in the community could help. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.91}}

Hi, I'm the same guy of the above comment. I just checked and it turns out that the page http://c.xkcd.com/redirect/comic/now is synced with xkcd.com/now. so apparently Randall does not change his clock during daylight saving time (he's a well now hater of it isn't he?). So the clock is going to be 1 hour behind until the next daylight saving time change. As a last note regarding the OSX implementation, it's a online version, I'm not really skilled in programming and I haven't tried an offline version yet but if I manage to get an offline version I'll post it here as well. In other comment I have the implementation for windows and it's also 1 hour behind just FYI. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.67}}

;Implementations
Hi, I'm new and a tad confused by how this discussion page editing works, but: I made a time zone converter based on this XKCD comic, over here: http://www.xkcdnow.com - I think it could be fitting to add a link to it somewhere to this article, but I don't wanna come across as spammy, and couldn't find any other explainxkcd articles with an external links section (wikipedia style)... Any thoughts? - wauter
: This is a great site! Maybe we could insert an "Implementations" category into the article. If we do so, I could provide another cool one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.phillab.xkcd_now which is a widget for Android - including tribute to explainxkcd -- [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.146|173.245.53.146]] 16:20, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
:That sounds good to me. The latest release for my version can be found at https://github.com/BruceJohnJennerLawso/xkcd-Now/releases/tag/1.02 on my Github page. By the way, I like your timezones idea, would you mind if I tried to implement that in mine at some point? [[User:BruceJohnJennerLawso|BruceJohnJennerLawso]] ([[User talk:BruceJohnJennerLawso|talk]]) 15:29, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
: I would also like the implementation section. If you use a Windows PC, you can use the script found at http://github.com/leipert/xkcd-now-clock to automatically set your Wallpaper to the current status of xkcd now. It also gives you the possibility to add some an digital clock, an analog clock or fix the image to your time zone. [http://github.com/leipert leipert] 18:02, 6 March 2014 (UTC){{unsigned ip|108.162.254.68}}
: I would love to see an implementation that updates more than once every 15 minutes. I've been trying to find an application that can take two images, and automatically generate the in-between images, i.e. generate 15 images between 00h00m.png and 00h15m.png [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.154|162.158.78.154]] 14:01, 21 September 2017 (UTC) Henry151
:: Spruced up the Implementations section a bit. A quick tip: if you want to make your link work by clicking on the blue text, add a space after the link in the square brackets, & type in the text, ie [link.com This takes you to link.com!!!] {{unsigned|BruceJohnJennerLawso}}
:: Hi there, I'm Henry151 who made the Linux implementation, I want to make an iPhone app for family and friends, does anybody have any experience with that and want to help me out?

As the US has now hit Daylight Savings, I think we can assume the comic won't be updating for it. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.90|173.245.50.90]] 02:54, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

;WEB links
*Who the hell does register an entire domain [http://xkcdnow.com/] for only this comic?
*The JavaScript at the other link doesn't work well for me — but who needs this?
My 0.2 cents. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:57, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Moscow time has been wrong on the map for years now. For 2011-2014, including when this comic was published, Russia had essentially permanent DST and Moscow was at 2014 UTC+4. But on 26 October 2014, they ended that and have since been permanently at UTC+3. Moscow should be at the same spot as Iraq, slightly ahead of Iran, instead of behind it. Something to add to the technical notes section, perhaps? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.197|162.158.183.197]] 15:01, 10 September 2020 (UTC)

Who made it spin so much faster?! [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 10:23, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

'''Timed Links Fix'''

I've just condensed the raw link dump into a table, each hour gets its own two cells with a label cell and another cell with the four image links related to that hour inside it. (unable to sign properly, ISP is using IPv4 proxy.)[[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.250|172.69.69.250]] 02:40, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2612: Lightsabers

2022-04-28T14:45:35Z

108.162.221.101:

Not sure what's going on here. Are {{W|electric arcs}} what's happening between the lightsabers? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.207|172.70.242.207]] 12:48, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Could be based on properties of plasma? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 12:53, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Probably something like {{W|cold welding}}. The fields keeping the light saber beam coherent would not be able to differentiate between the two plasma beams, and would join together. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 13:22, 27 April 2022 (UTC)
:That's my take. The effect that confines the laser (to make it a [[1433: Lightsaber|handy length]], at the very least) is potentially too 'self-sticky', but certainly with that of the opposing blade after a bit of awkward cross-resonance. And then the deactivation/withdrawing (typoed that as "sithdrawing"!) still drags the other blade-tip inwards too. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 13:35, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

::My reaction: And THAT's why the two dueling Jedis should have different color of the blade! -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 19:47, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Very good job on the transcript (except a few minor grammar errors). I didn't envy someone trying to describe all the imagery. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:25, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Lots of comics about lightsabers. Maybe it's time to make a category for them? Many things got categories after just 4-5 appearaces. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.249|141.101.105.249]] 17:20, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

This is potentially inspired by a scene from Spaceballs where two lightsabers "tangle", although in thta scene they don't actually connect. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.134|141.101.104.134]] 19:11, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

I see your Schwartz is almost as big as mine.

In panels 10 and 11, the bodies seem to cast shadows on the ground. I don't recall seeing this previously on XKCD, is this the first time? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.249|141.101.105.249]] 19:58, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

== That’s not what’s happening ==

“In this situation one Jedi tries to shake the beam, maybe to break the bond, but instead the wave travels down the combined beam to also shake the other Jedi's hand-held hilt.”

Nuh uh. One tries to shake loose, then the other tries, also. Why do people make up complex explanations for obvious simple things?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 20:07, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Reminds me of the ''Priori Incantatem'' stuff in Harry Potter where wands with the same core source connect with each other :)

Talk:2313: Wrong Times Table

2020-05-29T21:14:49Z

108.162.221.101: Weird.

Such an illogical table. Smaller numbers multiply to larger answers than larger numbers? Even numbers multiply to odd numbers?! How?!?! What sort of illiterate alien declared this to be the multiplication table?! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 20:54, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

This is easily one of the worst XKCD comics, period. Not funny, nor clever. Just seems like noise. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.183|172.69.68.183]] 20:57, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
:I suspect Randall may have just been feeling random, perhaps after several months of mostly Coronavirus-related comics. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:13, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

This seems like the multiplication equivalent of looking at a word and thinking it is spelled incorrectly. Sometimes I look at a simple word like "fish" and think: "That can't be right." Sometimes multiplication can feel that way, particularly 7's because those were tricky for some reason. The alt text confirms fishiness with 7's [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.173|108.162.246.173]] 21:09, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
:Is it weird that I ''don't'' get this? I have this sense of "that is obviously wrong" when it comes to multiplication of small numbers like these, even with sevens and eights. If I read that 7 * 8 = 54, my brain screams "NOOOOOOOOO IT IS 56 YOU IDIOT!". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 21:14, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

Well, 2,2 that's actually 2^3=8. 2,3 is addition instead of multiplication. 1,2 is division instead of multiplication. 1,1 is subtraction. 10,10 seems to be a visual gag, though most of the 10s row is either multiplication by 11 or 12... There's some logic to some of these, but it's different for each row, column, or cell. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.167|162.158.74.167]] 21:13, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

2313: Wrong Times Table

2020-05-29T21:06:06Z

108.162.221.101: /* Transcript */ 1/2 to Unicode.

{{comic
| number = 2313
| date = May 29, 2020
| title = Wrong Times Table
| image = wrong_times_table.png
| titletext = Deep in some corner of my heart, I suspect that real times tables are wrong about 6x7=42 and 8x7=56.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 6x7. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A "times table" (or {{w|multiplication table}}) is a table used to define multiplication between numbers. Typically, elementary school children are taught to memorize the table as part of learning arithmetic.

In this comic, [[Randall]] "feels" that some values in the table are incorrect and so he supplies his own alternate version of the times table, with incorrect values. It is unclear how his values are derived, as they don't follow a discernible pattern - some values are from adding the multiplicands together, and others seem random. It is notable that some properties of mathematics are not followed, as sometimes smaller multiplicands multiply to a larger product than larger multiplicands, and sometimes two even multiplicands produce an odd product.

The times table is symmetric, indicating that Randall's form of multiplication is [[wikipedia:Commutative property|commutative]].

The "correct" times table for the numbers from 1-10 is below:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! ×
! scope="column" | 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| 2 || 4 || 6 || 8 || 10 || 12 || 14 || 16 || 18 || 20
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| 3 || 6 || 9 || 12 || 15 || 18 || 21 || 24 || 27 || 30
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| 4 || 8 || 12 || 16 || 20 || 24 || 28 || 32 || 36 || 40
|-
! scope="row" | 5
| 5 || 10 || 15 || 20 || 25 || 30 || 35 || 40 || 45 || 50
|-
! scope="row" | 6
| 6 || 12 || 18 || 24 || 30 || 36 || 42 || 48 || 54 || 60
|-
! scope="row" | 7
| 7 || 14 || 21 || 28 || 35 || 42 || 49 || 56 || 63 || 70
|-
! scope="row" | 8
| 8 || 16 || 24 || 32 || 40 || 48 || 56 || 64 || 72 || 80
|-
! scope="row" | 9
| 9 || 18 || 27 || 36 || 45 || 54 || 63 || 72 || 81 || 90
|-
! scope="row" | 10
| 10 || 20 || 30 || 40 || 50 || 60 || 70 || 80 || 90 || 100
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Caption above table:]
:<big>Wrong Times Table</big>
:The incorrect answers that feel most right to me

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
!
! scope="column" | 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| 0 || ½ || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 9
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| ½ || 8 || 5 || 6 || 12 || 14 || 12 || 18 || 19 || 22
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| 4 || 5 || 10 || 16 || 13 || 12 || 24 || 32 || 21 || 33
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| 5 || 6 || 16 || 32 || 25 || 25|| 29 || 36 || 28 || 48
|-
! scope="row" | 5
| 6 || 12 || 13 || 25 || 50 || 24 || 40 || 45 || 40 || 60
|-
! scope="row" | 6
| 7 || 14 || 12 || 25 || 24 || 32 || 48 || 50 || 72 || 72
|-
! scope="row" | 7
| 8 || 12 || 24 || 29 || 40 || 48 || 42 || 54 || 60 || 84
|-
! scope="row" | 8
| 9 || 18 || 32 || 36 || 45 || 50 || 54 || 48 || 74 || 56
|-
! scope="row" | 9
| 10 || 19 || 21 || 28 || 40 || 72 || 60 || 74 || 72 || 81
|-
! scope="row" | 10
| 9 || 22 || 33|| 48 || 60 || 72 || 84 || 56 || 81 || 110
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]

2313: Wrong Times Table

2020-05-29T20:59:02Z

108.162.221.101: /* Explanation */ Expand on "illogic".

{{comic
| number = 2313
| date = May 29, 2020
| title = Wrong Times Table
| image = wrong_times_table.png
| titletext = Deep in some corner of my heart, I suspect that real times tables are wrong about 6x7=42 and 8x7=56.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 6x7. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A "times table" (or {{w|multiplication table}}) is a table used to define multiplication between numbers. Typically, elementary school children are taught to memorize the table as part of learning arithmetic.

In this comic, [[Randall]] "feels" that some values in the table are incorrect and so he supplies his own alternate version of the times table, with incorrect values. It is unclear how his values are derived, as they don't follow a discernible pattern - some values are from adding the multiplicands together, and others seem random. It is notable that some properties of mathematics are not followed, as sometimes smaller multiplicands multiply to a larger product than larger multiplicands, and sometimes two even multiplicands produce an odd product.

The times table is symmetric, indicating that Randall's form of multiplication is [[wikipedia:Commutative property|commutative]].

The "correct" times table for the numbers from 1-10 is below:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! ×
! scope="column" | 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| 2 || 4 || 6 || 8 || 10 || 12 || 14 || 16 || 18 || 20
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| 3 || 6 || 9 || 12 || 15 || 18 || 21 || 24 || 27 || 30
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| 4 || 8 || 12 || 16 || 20 || 24 || 28 || 32 || 36 || 40
|-
! scope="row" | 5
| 5 || 10 || 15 || 20 || 25 || 30 || 35 || 40 || 45 || 50
|-
! scope="row" | 6
| 6 || 12 || 18 || 24 || 30 || 36 || 42 || 48 || 54 || 60
|-
! scope="row" | 7
| 7 || 14 || 21 || 28 || 35 || 42 || 49 || 56 || 63 || 70
|-
! scope="row" | 8
| 8 || 16 || 24 || 32 || 40 || 48 || 56 || 64 || 72 || 80
|-
! scope="row" | 9
| 9 || 18 || 27 || 36 || 45 || 54 || 63 || 72 || 81 || 90
|-
! scope="row" | 10
| 10 || 20 || 30 || 40 || 50 || 60 || 70 || 80 || 90 || 100
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Caption above table:]
:<big>Wrong Times Table</big>
:The incorrect answers that feel most right to me

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
!
! scope="column" | 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| 0 || 1/2 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 9
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| 1/2 || 8 ||5 || 6 || 12 || 14 || 12 || 18 || 19 || 22
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| 4 || 5 || 10 || 16 || 13 || 12 || 24 || 32 || 21 || 33
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| 5 || 6 || 16 || 32 || 25 || 25|| 29 || 36 || 28 || 48
|-
! scope="row" | 5
| 6 || 12 || 13 || 25 || 50 || 24 || 40 || 45 || 40 || 60
|-
! scope="row" | 6
| 7 || 14 || 12 || 25 || 24 || 32 || 48 || 50 || 72 || 72
|-
! scope="row" | 7
| 8 || 12 || 24 || 29 || 40 || 48 || 42 || 54 || 60 || 84
|-
! scope="row" | 8
| 9 || 18 || 32 || 36 || 45 || 50 || 54 || 48 || 74 || 56
|-
! scope="row" | 9
| 10 || 19 || 21 || 28 || 40 || 72 || 60 || 74 || 72 || 81
|-
! scope="row" | 10
| 9 || 22 || 33|| 48 || 60 || 72 || 84 || 56 || 81 || 110
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:2313: Wrong Times Table

2020-05-29T20:54:14Z

108.162.221.101:

Talk:2192: Review

2019-11-09T04:58:08Z

108.162.221.101: Yes, this is where the summary goes.

Earth : Terrible storyline, feel depressed afterward. Controls buggy.
: My advice would be to look at different storylines. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.44|172.69.22.44]] 14:24, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:: There's more than one? I wish I knew what the storyline was even supposed to be; it's not like the minigames where if you ask enough NPCs you can find one to clue you in on what to do next. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.172|162.158.34.172]] 10:29, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
: It is in our power to choose fear, frustration, and despair or the alternative story line of love, joy, and freedom. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 15:06, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Mostly harmless - [[User:GreenWyvern|GreenWyvern]] ([[User talk:GreenWyvern|talk]]) 13:39, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
: thank you for that :D [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 16:26, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:: I concur, absolutely perfect comment, :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:22, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

New servers opening soon! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.124|172.68.51.124]] 13:42, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

He could discuss in greater detail at https://www.reddit.com/r/outside/ [[User:Poodlehat|Poodlehat]] ([[User talk:Poodlehat|talk]]) 13:43, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

I think the title text is alluding to controlling things like climate warming and the like, not learning to walk. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 13:56, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:"Huge World" would imply that the game type is first or third person, with the player taking control of a character in that world. In this sense, I think it's appropriate for the controls to be in reference to movement of the character. If the game type were management or simulation, I think you would be correct. [[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 14:03, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:"Huge World" so much to explore, could take more than a lifetime. Very few ever reach master level but general satisfaction is possible for every serious player, and the game Creator is accessible at any time. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 15:06, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:Game creator accessible? Seriously? When was the last time he fixed some bug? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:39, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:: The Earth is abandonware...
:I feel I can GUARANTEE he's talking about it's hard to figure out how to navigate the world, figure out life, etc. The usual "I'm awkward and other people aren't" stuff. I often deeply identify with him, LOL! Just like playing an unfamiliar game and having a hard time figuring out the controls, how to do things in the game, he's saying he's having trouble "figuring out the controls" of real life. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:22, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

Perhaps this is a reference to the recent Public Policy Polling survey http://publicpolicypollling.blogspot.com/2011/07/evaluating-god.html whcih asked people about God's job performance. God received his highest rating on his "handling of creating the universe" with 71% in favor of the universe and 5% opposed.
:correct link is http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2011/07/evaluating-god.html (but it’s a rather boring 8 year old fluff piece, I very much doubt that Randall was even aware of its existence) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.22|162.158.78.22]] 01:55, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
:In the Beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. -D. Adams [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 04:58, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Dan Loeb loeb@sig.com, 11:50, 21 August 2019 (ET)

"gun violence, sexual violence, poverty", etc, are really human's problems rather than Earth's problems.
: It really depends on your point of view. If you consider Earth as just a rock flying through space global warming isn't really an issue either. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 16:26, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:: Global warming is barely issue when you consider biosphere as a whole either. Neither insects nor bacteria care, and plants are looking forward to it. Now, pollution, that's different. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:39, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

To be honest I think this comic is a bit lazy for xkcd standards. The whole joke of "I went outside today, the graphics are amazing but controls suck" is years old and was never really good in my opinion. I've seen several comics where Randal reused old jokes and put a clever spin on them or extended them in a new fashion that I'm disappointed Randall essentially copy&pasted this one. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 16:26, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:Personally, I was hoping for something on the announcement of KSP 2 :P
:: It might come in the next few days. I don't think he'll ignore it. Or he'll mention once there is a confirmed release date. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 11:01, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

I'm reminded of [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-09-26 this comic] by the SMBC guy (better known as Emergency Backup Randall Munroe) which features a hypothetical site which can host such a review, and also two Black Hats. Some folks also made a subreddit that actually implements the idea. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.167|172.68.11.167]] 18:03, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Multiplayer sucks. Needs to have a single-player mode. [unsigned]

Is this the first time that Randall has explicitly drawn himself in a comic? Does this make it official that Cueball is Randall (or Randall's alter-ego)? [[User:Stevage|Stevage]] ([[User talk:Stevage|talk]]) 05:09, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
:Nothing in the comic says this is Randall speaking, just like we assume Cueball is his main alter-ego, we assume when he says "My" he's talking more specifically as Randall rather than as Cueball. But that's our assumption. Really, all the characters in xkcd are speaking Randall, whatever he wants them to speak, and we can't know for certain to what degree their words and activities line up with Randall's own beliefs. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:52, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
:Actually it's widely accepted (myself included) that Cueball is essentially Randall. The way I see it, Cueball is generally Randall's self image (a la Tha Matrix) and/or his fantasy self. So maybe Randall has a thought "Look at those squirrels, imagine them hooked up to a mini Ben Hur chariot", which results in a comic where Cueball hooks up a couple of squirrels to a mini chariot. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:24, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

Is this serious: "Earth is a completely real object[citation needed]"? I never thought this could be fake news. :-) {{unsigned|Jonhaug}}
:It's a running What If? joke where Randall would put citation needed tags on obvious statements such as "The sun is very bright." We sometimes do the same things when writing explanations in Explain xkcd. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 12:39, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
:Awwww, it's gone now! There are some selfish inconsiderate jerks around who have decided the joke is tired and old and not funny anymore who remove them, they can't seem to get it through their heads that there are many of use who continue to find it funny every time. :) My favourite might be "a baby couldn't plan and execute a jewel heist [citation needed]". This is the first I hear that Randall started it, LOL! Makes sense. It had looked like it started with the comic Citation Needed.[[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:24, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

The solar system as a whole is even bigger, but nearly completely empty. Only one star. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.18|108.162.229.18]] 14:10, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

Too many people play this just for the "game within a game" feature. The main game deserves more attention. [[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 03:57, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

Thank you, comic explanation, for turning what I thought was a silly joke into a reason for an existential crisis. [[User:V|V]] ([[User talk:V|talk]]) 17:45, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

There is no Tutorial. No Walkthrough. And the Instruction manual is missing. Saibot84 19:41, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
: There are lots of instruction manuals... and lots of debates about which is THE instruction manual. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 20:21, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

Huge? As worlds go, it's below average. — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 22:45, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

"Polygons are virtually unnoticeable (except for when intentionally not); they really got a handle on the 3D rendering engine; overall refresh rate is amazing. only fault: no save points" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 04:58, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

== A glitch appers when posting this image as whatsapp status ==

Posting this image as a WhatsApp status produces a glitch in character "E" of word great. Kinda shocking but it has been verified by me and my friend.

Talk:2216: Percent Milkfat

2019-10-17T21:38:08Z

108.162.221.101:

I've always called 2% milk "98% water".
Also, these comics have been arriving ''really'' late this week; I hope Randall is doing alright.
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 00:19, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Is the fact that the comic arrived later in the day responsible for the bottom of the page brokenly saying this is a "Thursday" comic? That doesn't seem editable in the normal wiki manner.
: I don't know the cause, or if they are related, but I was able to manually fix all that--even adding the appropriate categories that got left off. [[User:Trlkly|Trlkly]] ([[User talk:Trlkly|talk]]) 04:17, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
::Randall was presenting his new book at a speech he gave in Berlin on the 15th of October. However being in Europe would make his comics more early, unless he has made an error with the cript doing the upload (mmoving time zone in the wrong direction) or he is uploading very early morning the next day. Alternatively he is just jet-lagged and his schedule is messed up. [https://www.fu-berlin.de/presse/informationen/fup/2019/fup_19_281-randall-munroe-tu/index.html See the German Press release of the university he is visiting.] He also advertised it on the header of the page, if the OS/Browser is set to German language. [[Talk:xkcd Header text|I wanted to put this on the wiki, but got no replies for it and hadn't had the time to do it on my own.]] --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:26, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
:::Lupo, can you post an image of how it looks in the German version if there is a current version with different header? Also will it be possible that this is saved in a web archive? I would like to add it to the explanation, but without any kind of visual to show that it is indeed the case, it would be a bit thin as part of an explanation. I think it is an interesting information, but this page is about a US comic, so it should only be for the informational value, not something that needed to be fully included in the [[xkcd Header text|header text explanation]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:47, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
::::The announcement of his speech in Berlin has been replaced by a image of the German bookcover and the simple text (which is a link to the publishers shop), roughly translated as "In stores now". I am currently at work, but will look into getting a screenshot in the evening. Apperantly some IP-User has found a way to view the different localized versions at the talk page of the header, as I just noticed. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:08, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
:::: There is also an anouncement of this, and of a tour across the UK last week at [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ xkcd.com/how-to] --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:11, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

2% milk is called half-full in the Netherlands. As a child I once asked my mother why anybody would want to buy a milk carton that was only half full :-).

The amount of milkfat in milk varies by the breed of cattle that produced it, along with individual variation. Holsteins are most often used for milk production because they can produce the greatest volume of milk, but other breeds, such as Jersey, produce less milk, but with higher milk fat, often up to 6% milkfat. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 11:14, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

I am not entirely comfortable referring to dark energy as matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.19|172.68.189.19]] 12:40, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
:Per Einstein, energy and matter are interchangeable. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:23, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
::Energy and matter are NOT interchangeable! Energy and mass are interchangeable—- not the same thing at all. Matter is stuff that obeys the Pauli Exclusion Principle. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 21:38, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
::It's not the fungibility, it's the commission. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.136|162.158.255.136]] 15:27, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

I think we may need to start a list of things that are made up of dark matter: 1. Squirrels, 2. Milk [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.155|172.69.68.155]] 14:21, 17 October 2019 (UTC) Sam

If cosmologists and food scientists are working together, could we be getting close to a Grand Unified Theory? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:23, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2216: Percent Milkfat

2019-10-17T21:35:12Z

108.162.221.101:

I've always called 2% milk "98% water".
Also, these comics have been arriving ''really'' late this week; I hope Randall is doing alright.
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 00:19, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Is the fact that the comic arrived later in the day responsible for the bottom of the page brokenly saying this is a "Thursday" comic? That doesn't seem editable in the normal wiki manner.
: I don't know the cause, or if they are related, but I was able to manually fix all that--even adding the appropriate categories that got left off. [[User:Trlkly|Trlkly]] ([[User talk:Trlkly|talk]]) 04:17, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
::Randall was presenting his new book at a speech he gave in Berlin on the 15th of October. However being in Europe would make his comics more early, unless he has made an error with the cript doing the upload (mmoving time zone in the wrong direction) or he is uploading very early morning the next day. Alternatively he is just jet-lagged and his schedule is messed up. [https://www.fu-berlin.de/presse/informationen/fup/2019/fup_19_281-randall-munroe-tu/index.html See the German Press release of the university he is visiting.] He also advertised it on the header of the page, if the OS/Browser is set to German language. [[Talk:xkcd Header text|I wanted to put this on the wiki, but got no replies for it and hadn't had the time to do it on my own.]] --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:26, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
:::Lupo, can you post an image of how it looks in the German version if there is a current version with different header? Also will it be possible that this is saved in a web archive? I would like to add it to the explanation, but without any kind of visual to show that it is indeed the case, it would be a bit thin as part of an explanation. I think it is an interesting information, but this page is about a US comic, so it should only be for the informational value, not something that needed to be fully included in the [[xkcd Header text|header text explanation]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:47, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
::::The announcement of his speech in Berlin has been replaced by a image of the German bookcover and the simple text (which is a link to the publishers shop), roughly translated as "In stores now". I am currently at work, but will look into getting a screenshot in the evening. Apperantly some IP-User has found a way to view the different localized versions at the talk page of the header, as I just noticed. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:08, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
:::: There is also an anouncement of this, and of a tour across the UK last week at [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ xkcd.com/how-to] --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:11, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

2% milk is called half-full in the Netherlands. As a child I once asked my mother why anybody would want to buy a milk carton that was only half full :-).

The amount of milkfat in milk varies by the breed of cattle that produced it, along with individual variation. Holsteins are most often used for milk production because they can produce the greatest volume of milk, but other breeds, such as Jersey, produce less milk, but with higher milk fat, often up to 6% milkfat. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 11:14, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

I am not entirely comfortable referring to dark energy as matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.19|172.68.189.19]] 12:40, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
:Per Einstein, energy and matter are interchangeable. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:23, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
::Energy and matter are NOT interchangeable! Energy and mass are interchangeable—- not the same thing at all. Matter is stuff that obeys the Pauli Exclusion Principle.
::It's not the fungibility, it's the commission. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.136|162.158.255.136]] 15:27, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

I think we may need to start a list of things that are made up of dark matter: 1. Squirrels, 2. Milk [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.155|172.69.68.155]] 14:21, 17 October 2019 (UTC) Sam

If cosmologists and food scientists are working together, could we be getting close to a Grand Unified Theory? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:23, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2216: Percent Milkfat

2019-10-17T21:32:50Z

108.162.221.101:

I've always called 2% milk "98% water".
Also, these comics have been arriving ''really'' late this week; I hope Randall is doing alright.
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 00:19, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Is the fact that the comic arrived later in the day responsible for the bottom of the page brokenly saying this is a "Thursday" comic? That doesn't seem editable in the normal wiki manner.
: I don't know the cause, or if they are related, but I was able to manually fix all that--even adding the appropriate categories that got left off. [[User:Trlkly|Trlkly]] ([[User talk:Trlkly|talk]]) 04:17, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
::Randall was presenting his new book at a speech he gave in Berlin on the 15th of October. However being in Europe would make his comics more early, unless he has made an error with the cript doing the upload (mmoving time zone in the wrong direction) or he is uploading very early morning the next day. Alternatively he is just jet-lagged and his schedule is messed up. [https://www.fu-berlin.de/presse/informationen/fup/2019/fup_19_281-randall-munroe-tu/index.html See the German Press release of the university he is visiting.] He also advertised it on the header of the page, if the OS/Browser is set to German language. [[Talk:xkcd Header text|I wanted to put this on the wiki, but got no replies for it and hadn't had the time to do it on my own.]] --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:26, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
:::Lupo, can you post an image of how it looks in the German version if there is a current version with different header? Also will it be possible that this is saved in a web archive? I would like to add it to the explanation, but without any kind of visual to show that it is indeed the case, it would be a bit thin as part of an explanation. I think it is an interesting information, but this page is about a US comic, so it should only be for the informational value, not something that needed to be fully included in the [[xkcd Header text|header text explanation]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:47, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
::::The announcement of his speech in Berlin has been replaced by a image of the German bookcover and the simple text (which is a link to the publishers shop), roughly translated as "In stores now". I am currently at work, but will look into getting a screenshot in the evening. Apperantly some IP-User has found a way to view the different localized versions at the talk page of the header, as I just noticed. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:08, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
:::: There is also an anouncement of this, and of a tour across the UK last week at [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ xkcd.com/how-to] --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:11, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

2% milk is called half-full in the Netherlands. As a child I once asked my mother why anybody would want to buy a milk carton that was only half full :-).

The amount of milkfat in milk varies by the breed of cattle that produced it, along with individual variation. Holsteins are most often used for milk production because they can produce the greatest volume of milk, but other breeds, such as Jersey, produce less milk, but with higher milk fat, often up to 6% milkfat. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 11:14, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

I am not entirely comfortable referring to dark energy as matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.19|172.68.189.19]] 12:40, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
:Per Einstein, energy and matter are interchangeable. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:23, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
::Energy and matter are NOT interchangeable! Energy and mass are interchangeable—- not the same thing. Matter is stuff that obeys the Pauli Exclusion Principle.
::It's not the fungibility, it's the commission. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.136|162.158.255.136]] 15:27, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

I think we may need to start a list of things that are made up of dark matter: 1. Squirrels, 2. Milk [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.155|172.69.68.155]] 14:21, 17 October 2019 (UTC) Sam

If cosmologists and food scientists are working together, could we be getting close to a Grand Unified Theory? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:23, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

2045: Social Media Announcement

2018-09-12T22:41:43Z

108.162.221.101: this is a title; it should be in title case (like the title text is)

{{comic
| number = 2045
| date = September 12, 2018
| title = Social Media Announcement
| image = social_media_announcement.png
| titletext = Why I'm Moving Most of My Social Activity to Slack, Then Creating a Second Slack to Avoid the People in the First One, Then Giving Up on Social Interaction Completely, Then Going Back to Texting
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Too much focus on mastodon, not enough on the overall concept of the comic Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In 2018, especially after {{w|Facebook}} privacy abuses were revealed in the {{w|Cambridge_Analytica#Privacy_issues|Cambridge Analytica scandal}}, many individuals began seeking alternatives. The #deletefacebook hashtag peaked around April 2018, and in some communities, this type of "why I'm leaving Facebook" announcements were popular.

{{w|Mastodon (software)|Mastodon}}, misspelled by [[Cueball]] as ''Mastadon'', is a distributed, federated social network with microblogging features similar to {{w|Twitter}}. "Federated" means that there is one app hosted in many places, so users can choose a host that meets their needs, but everyone can still talk to each other, similar to email. Near the peak of #deletefacebook, mastodon became trending as a [https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/783akg/mastodon-is-like-twitter-without-nazis-so-why-are-we-not-using-it twitter alternative with less nazis].

The word {{w|Mastodon}} specifies a Mammut and is often misspelled as {{w|Mastadon}} and thus Wikipedia also provides ''this redirect from an incorrect name''.

{{w|Wil Wheaton}} famously moved to Mastodon from Twitter, [https://news.avclub.com/wil-wheaton-on-quitting-social-media-i-don-t-deserve-1828743467 but was ultimately disappointed by the experience], because while Mastodon's community is generally less toxic, it does not yet have the tools to handle the kind of targeted harassment that a celebrity might face.

{{w|Microsoft}} has been buying up professional-themed social media platforms lately, such as {{w|LinkedIn}}, intending to integrate them more fluidly with their enterprise software suite. Mastodon seems an unlikely target for an acquisition, since its decentralized nature means that one corporate entity can't control it, and the culture there is decidedly unprofessional as of this comic.

The title text presents an alternative approach by moving most social activities to the cloud-based proprietary team collaboration platform {{w|Slack (software)|Slack}}, whose one important paid feature is the ability to search through archived messages without any limit (Wikipedia is wrong here as only free users are limited.). Then, probably because there were too many annoying communications, he creates a new account to get rid of the old messages. This also didn't last long and he stops interacting on social media entirely. As a result he just writes texts and is probably not showing them to anyone.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball sitting in front of a laptop typing.]
:Why I'm Quitting Facebook, Joining LinkedIn, Deleting My LinkedIn, Rejoining Facebook, Quitting Twitter, Getting Locked Out of Facebook, Moving to Mastadon, and Lobbying Microsoft to Take Over Mastadon and Merge It With LinkedIn: A Manifesto.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

Little Bobby Tables

2018-08-29T22:17:38Z

108.162.221.101: Longer name

{{Infobox character
| image = Little Bobby Tables.PNG
| imagesize =
| caption = First drawn drawing in [[342: 1337: Part 2]].
| first_appearance = [[327: Exploits of a Mom]]
}}

'''<code>Robert'); DROP TABLE students;--</code>''', nicknamed '''Little Bobby Tables''', is the youngest son of elite hacker [[Mrs. Roberts]]. His elder sister is [[Elaine Roberts|Help I'm stuck in a driver's license factory Elaine Roberts]]. His "full" name is known to cause problems with some computers. When he was first enrolled in school ([[327: Exploits of a Mom]]), it exploited a vulnerability in the parsing of students' names into the school's student database resulting in the school losing all the student records for the year.

In {{w|SQL}}, commands are terminated by semicolons '''<code>;</code>''' and data is often quoted using single quotes '''<code>'</code>'''. Commands may also be enclosed in parentheses '''<code>(</code>''' and '''<code>)</code>'''. Data is stored in tables of similar items (e.g. '''<code>students</code>''') and individual entries are "rows" in the table. To delete an entire table (and every row of data in that table), you use the command '''<code>DROP</code>''' (e.g. '''<code>DROP TABLE students</code>'''). The '''<code>--</code>''' represents the start of a {{w|Comment_(computer_programming)#SQL|SQL comment}} which ensures that the rest of the command is ignored so an error will not occur.

The exploited vulnerability is that the single quote in the name input was not properly "escaped" by the software. Thus, when the name is embedded into some SQL statement, the quote is erroneously parsed as a closing quote inside that statement, rather than being parsed as part of the name. Lack of such escaping is a common SQL vulnerability; this type of exploit is referred to as {{w|SQL injection}}.

The name Bobby Tables inspired a website, [http://bobby-tables.com/ bobby-tables.com], a guide for beginning programmers to learn the right way to avoid SQL injection in their code. A similarly named character, Mister Rogers, appears in [[884: Rogers St.]], with the same code injection in his middle name. It appears in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]] as one of the suggested planet names.

== Appearances ==
In the five comics he is referenced he is only drawn three times. The first two is in the [[:Category:1337|1337 series]] where he is drawn as a Cueball-like kid. See picture above. But then he also appears as a young man with long curly hair, looking very much like a woman in [[884: Rogers St.]] Here it is only the title text that reveals that this is Bobby, that and the fact that [[Randall]] in the official transcript does not mention the sex, but only that it is a person.

Here is how he looks in that comic: 
[[File:Adult Bobby Tables.PNG]]

There have been suggestions that the Robert in the table in [[596: Latitude]] was Bobby, but given that [[Black Hat]] has never had any relation to him in the other comics, and that [[Rob]] has, it seems more likely that the Robert is Rob.

== Example of SQL injection ==

A typical, unsecured SQL command vulnerable to SQL injection would be something like:

database.execute("INSERT INTO students (name) VALUES ('" + name + "');");

where <code>name</code> is a variable which is filled with the name to be inserted into the database. With a regular name, this would result in the following SQL command to be send to the database system:

INSERT INTO students (name) VALUES ('Help I'm stuck in a driver's license factory Elaine');

However, with Little Bobby Tables's full name, the SQL command would be:

INSERT INTO students (name) VALUES ('Robert'); DROP TABLE students;--');

Or, if split after each <code>;</code>:

INSERT INTO students (name) VALUES ('Robert');
DROP TABLE students;
--');

The first commands inserts the name <code>Robert</code> into the database as in the first example. The second command however completely deletes the table <code>students</code>. The remainder is a comment to prevent syntax errors with the apostrophe and the closing parenthesis.

== Real Life occurrence ==

In French-speaking countries, apostrophes are a common character in street names. More often than not, Frenchmen (or Luxembourgers, or Belgians, ...) unwittingly trigger SQL injection bugs when trying to order something from a US shop. In Italy, they are often part of town names, too (e.g. {{w|L'Aquila}}).

==See also==
*[[:Category:Comics featuring Little Bobby Tables|Comics featuring Little Bobby Tables]]

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]

Megan

2015-08-13T11:30:55Z

108.162.221.101: (m) I accept that the common term is 'everyman'; but using 'every-woman' for Megan, gender (disambiguation) being equal, Cueball should be 'every-man'.

{{Infobox character
| image = Megan.png‎
| caption = Megan, seen in [[973: MTV Generation]]
| first_appearance = [[15: Just Alerting You]]
}}
'''Megan''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is the second-most frequently appearing character, after [[Cueball]], and the most frequently appearing female character. She often appears with Cueball as a couple.

"Megan" does not necessarily always represent the same character from comic to comic. She is essentially the female equivalent of Cueball, representing the every-woman to his {{w|everyman|every-man}}. This is less clear than for Cueball as there are several comics, where there are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Multiple_Cueballs multiple Cueball-like figures], any of whom could be called Cueball

There are very few comics where this happens with Megan-like characters. (Maybe only in [[1110: Click and Drag ]], [[1409: Query]] and in [[1496: Art Project]]?) In ''Art Project'' it was debated lively which of the two girls was Megan. Here however, the hair length in the end decided that one of the two megan-like girls was the "real" one, and the short haired version was an unidentified character. Had the latter been alone in another comic, she would for sure have been called Megan.

For Cueball it is at the moment up for discussion whether it should be standard practice to name neither of the characters Cueball if they are identical and neither of them is given a name (like [[Rob]]) or other defining characteristic in the comic. An example of this for Megan has yet to be found.

Megan does sometimes appear to have slightly specific personality traits; she has quite odd habits, and is sometimes shown to be very focused and intent on a goal. However, as explained above this is not a general rule for a given Megan character.

''Explain xkcd'' originally referred to this character as "Cutie" (complementing "Cueball" with a matching first syllable). But then a "Cutie" was given a specific name, Megan, in [[159: Boombox]] and later in for instance [[215: Letting Go]] and [[420: Jealousy]]. The name Cutie was then changed to Megan. If this rule should be followed generally, then Cueball should be re-named Rob after [[276: Fixed Width]] (and the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_featuring_Rob 9 times] a Cueball has been named Rob in total).

A character that looked a lot like Megan, but with somewhat longer hair and a much meaner attitude was distinguished from her as [[Black Hat]]'s girlfriend [[Danish]].

==History==
Early comics often feature Megan-style characters who may or may not be identified as Megan. [[Randall]] appears not to have standardized his character lineup early in the comic's run, and as a result, certain early female characters sometimes have similar hair to Megan, but some different features.

The name (or even pseudonym) "Megan" may be reference to a lost love of Randall's, given that he wrote a passive-aggressive toast for Megan's wedding in [[420: Jealousy]] about how he was madly still in love with her, put across in a way that would generally ruin the day for everyone involved. We also see this earlier in [[215: Letting Go]].

Unlike Cueball characters, Randall generally does not use multiple "Megans" in strips. Her characteristics are often somewhat consistent. It can therefore be unclear whether Megan-like characters are intended to be one character, or merely generic female characters (or a combination of both).

==Characteristics==
Megan is distinguished by her black shoulder-length hair which generally appears to be parted in the middle in front, and is draped behind what are presumably her (undrawn) ears.

In [[1409: Query]], we learn that she is 30 or younger, that her annual income is less than or equal to $100,000, and that she is afraid of flying. She is not explicitly named "Megan" in this comic though.

==See also==
*[[:Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
*It was at some point suggested that Megan and Cutie should be un-merged? In releation to a similar suggestion that Cueball and Rob should be merged. But nothing came of the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob discussion.]

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]

549: Westley's a Dick

2015-06-14T23:30:27Z

108.162.221.101: short explanation of inigo

{{comic
| number =549
| date =February 27, 2009
| title =Westley's a Dick
| image =westleys_a_dick.png
| titletext =Inigo/Buttercup 4eva <3
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Inigo isn't explained and there are too many brackets.}}
This is an alternate take on the 1973 fantasy romance novel ''{{w|The Princess Bride}}'' written by {{w|William Goldman}} which became a {{w|The Princess Bride (film)|film in 1987}}.

The below explanation is full of '''spoilers''' regarding the story. 
The story takes place in the country of Florin. Buttercup (played by {{w|Robin Wright}} and here depicted as a girl with long hair) was a farmer who took her greatest joy from bossing Westley ({{w|Cary Elwes}} here depicted as [[Cueball]] with a black {{w|bandana}}) around like a servant. His only reply to her requests would be, "As you wish". As time passed, Buttercup realized that when Westley said "As you wish", what he really meant was "I love you". And one day she realized that she truly loved him back.

However, having no money for marriage, Westley went away to seek his fortune across the sea. Buttercup soon received word that Westley had been murdered by the {{w|Dread Pirate Roberts}}, and for days she neither slept nor ate, falling into a deep despondency and swearing that she would never love again.

Five years later, the aged King of Florin is near death, and the heir apparent, Prince Humperdinck, chooses Buttercup to be his bride, considering her to be the fairest maiden in the land. However, Buttercup doesn't love him. One day, while out riding, she is captured by three bandits — a Sicilian self-proclaimed genius named Vizzini, Spanish swordsman Inigo Montoya, and gentle giant Fezzik. (Vizzini is the only one of the trio who's genuinely malevolent, though.) The trio had been hired by Humperdinck to kill Buttercup and make it look like rival nation Guilder was responsible, giving Humperdinck the only excuse he needs to start a war between the two countries.

What they didn't count on was that Westley, wearing the outfit of a "Man in Black" (all-black clothing, sword, and black mask) was following them to stop them. Catching up to the trio, Westley defeats Inigo in fencing, Fezzik in hand-to-hand combat (rendering the two of them unconscious), and then kills Vizzini in a battle of wits.

Westley doesn't reveal his identity to Buttercup at first, but he gladly admits to being the Dread Pirate Roberts. Believing him to have been responsible for Westley's death, Buttercup gets into a vehement argument with him, culminating with her saying, "I ''died'' that day! And you can die too, for all I care!"

She pushes him off a hill, with Westley replying "Aaaaaass... yoooooouuuu... wiiiiiish!" on the way down. Finally realizing who he is, she rolls down after him, and that's the point at which this comic picks up.

There are, however, several fundamentally questionable decisions Westley had to have made in order for the film's narrative to make any sense whatsoever. He took over as the Dread Pirate Roberts from the man previously known as Roberts — who ''also'' isn't the original DPR. Westley became, at minimum, the fourth man known as the Dread Pirate Roberts — it's a legacy name designed to evoke fear into the populace. (As he said, no one would surrender to the Dread Pirate ''Westley''.)

But over the last five years, while earning the previous Roberts' respect, taking over for him and then making his fortune, Westley has allowed Buttercup to believe that he'd been murdered, preventing her getting on with the rest of her life. And now he kills people, sacks ports, and loots ships for a living.

Buttercup asks him why he let her believe he was dead. He tries to evade her question by blaming her for sleeping with the prince, but she only did that after having mourned him for years. She then continues to blame him for killing people, where his only excuse is that he would not have been a dread pirate if he hadn't.

In the end he claims that it was for the sake of {{w|narrative}} - without it there would be no story to tell.

"Fuck narrative", the comic's Buttercup says. "I'm gonna go see if that Spaniard's single." (ie. Inigo). As she says this, walking away, Westley replies, as he always did, "As you wish" - this is also the last line in the movie, although there it is said by the narrator not Westley.

Of course, Inigo has had to be a bad guy for awhile now himself, but he admitted even to Westley that he was just doing it to pay the bills.

The conclusion is that Westley has behaved like a dick, hence the title of the comic. It is not the first time [[Randall]] has referenced this movie, as the Dread Pirate was referenced in [[345: 1337: Part 5]], and a quote from this movie is in the title text of [[1427: iOS Keyboard]]. So it seems like a film that has some meaning for Randall. So maybe he likes it, but if you think too much about the story, you realize how awful the hero of the story, Westley, actually behaves. In the movie, he and Buttercup end up together in spite of this behavior!

The title text shows what looks like a message she and Inigo has written together, for instance in a heart on a tree. Inigo is the Spaniard referred to by Buttercup. Their names, then forever (4eva) and a heart (smiley heart = "<3"), Implying they did end up together according to this version of the story.

==Transcript==
:[A girl (Buttercup) with long hair and a man (Westley) looking like Cueball but with a bandana lies at the foot of a high cliff. There is a forest in the background]
:Buttercup: Oh, my sweet Westley!

:[Buttercup sits on her knees, Westley takes off his bandana.]
:Buttercup: Why did you let me think you were dead?
:Westley: You shacked up with the prince!
:Buttercup: After years of mourning! The worst pain of my life!

:[Buttercup stands up looking down on Westley who still sits with the bandana in his hand.]
:Buttercup: And now you ... kill people?
:Westley: I'd hardly be a dread pirate if I didn't.
:Buttercup: How lovable.

:[Westley stands with the bandana in hand while Buttercup walks away from him.]

:Westley: It was for the sake of the narrative!
:Buttercup: Fuck the narrative. I'm going to go see if that Spaniard's single.
:Westley: ...As you wish.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Romance]]

Talk:1518: Typical Morning Routine

2015-04-29T11:36:01Z

108.162.221.101: Spelling and Tone

== Spelling and Commentary ==

There are a couple spelling mistakes. 'hos' in the first sentence, 'cold' instead of 'could'. Probably more.

Instead of correcting the spelling, I was wondering about the tone of the explanation. Specifically, shouldn't this be written in a more neutral tone without the side commentary?

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the contribution. Just curious.

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 11:36, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

If he has hair, shouldn't he be called Hairy by definition?
Sidenote: Did I really just use the word whence?[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.228|199.27.130.228]] 05:57, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

Added first draft for the transcript. This is my first edit here, so feel free to clean it up. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.158|173.245.56.158]] 06:02, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I think that this is still Cueball because his hair isn't a different colour to his head. The only reason we can see it is because it's bed hair, and he hasn't combed it down yet. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.172|141.101.98.172]] 06:06, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
:It is not [[Cueball]] when he has hair. It is not hair enough to call him [[Hairy]]. He has obviously still hair in the last panel, where it is less morning hair, and it is now clearly black (as Hairys). But there is too little air for it to be Hairy in my opinion. However, if it should be either of the two it would be Hairy. Makes no sense to call a guy with hair (any hair) Cueball. I have removed all reference to Cueball and the hairy category that was also added. Since we do not know who is lying beside him, we cannot even use this to say anything about him. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:27, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
::Someone has changed it to Hairy. See further comment below. So lets call him that. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:44, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I don't see how this comic is about <strike>sarcasm</strike> or language. It ''contains'' language, but it isn't ''about'' language. '''Update''': Oh, right, the title text ends with a sarcastic comment.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.158|173.245.56.158]] 06:17, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I think that the character should be [[Hairy]], as the name is "used by xkcd explainers to describe male characters with hair and no other distinguishing features."--[[User:17jiangz1|17jiangz1]] ([[User talk:17jiangz1|talk]]) 07:31, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
:Well then lets call him Hairy then - see discussion above though... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:44, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I would like to be the first to point out similarities between this comic and [[349: Success]]. He starts with hitting snooze (easy) then needs to switch applications (not really worse yet, bear with me), remove battery (losing whatever is unsaved in RAM), bricking the phone (losing it, though maybe just until he has time to reinstall the OS) and finally is willing to fill the flat with mercury vapours (which is a major health hazard). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.136|141.101.104.136]] 11:32, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
== Air Vent ==

Is having an air vent in your floor something common? o.o [[User:Pinkishu|Pinkishu]] ([[User talk:Pinkishu|talk]]) 09:28, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
:Yes, but I had the same question. See wiki links in the updated explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:21, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

Also, pouring water in the vent will short-circuit the smart-phone which gives us the same result as bricking a smart-phone. [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 09:55, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
:I also though of that and added it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:21, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

:And pouring mercury will dissolve some of the metals in the phone. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.94|141.101.104.94]] 10:01, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
::Not necessarily if it actually floats on-top. But I'm questioning if a smartphone lies flat on a surface, would the mercury then actually get beneath it? I would not be surprised if it would make it stick to this surface. Of course if you put the phone on top of a pool of mercury, it would not think. Not much would! But this is a different story. Hopefully they just move out instead ;-) Or maybe get really awake and start to think. Will add this last part to the explain --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:21, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

== Noise and battery ==

How much effective are today's phones in making noise? If they use the same circuits as for playing music (which I suspect most do), I don't think they will be able to do it for weeks, even in airplane mode ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:30, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

1515: Basketball Earth

2015-04-22T12:49:11Z

108.162.221.101: /* Black Hat */ spelling correction

{{comic
| number = 1515
| date = April 22, 2015
| title = Basketball Earth
| image = basketball earth.png
| titletext = How many points do you get for dunking every basketball in existence at once?
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Cueball]] is repeatedly attempting to make the comparison that for the {{w|Earth}}-{{w|Moon}} system, for an Earth the size of a {{w|Basketball (ball)|basketball}} the Moon would be about the size of a some other smaller type of ball. He handily illustrates this with two balls of those sizes that look like the Earth and the Moon. They are invisibly suspended, or as seems clear from the first row of panels, they are actually the real Moon and Earth shrunk to the relevant size, hence the title ''Basketball Earth''. (In this case that would place Cueball and his "friends" in {{w|God}} like positions).

But before Cueball can finish with this common type of comparison he is being repeatedly interrupted and must begin all over again.

We never learn which type of ball (if any – it could have been an {{w|apple}}) he would have compared the Moon with. It is not unlikely that he would have mentioned a {{w|Baseball (ball)|baseball}}, but the comparison would be better using a {{w|tennis ball}}. A basketball has an average diameter of 24.6 cm (9.7 inches) vs. a tennis ball with an average diameter of 6.7 cm (2.6 inches). The ratio between these two types of balls are 0.273, which is the same (to three digits) as the ratio given on the wiki page for the Moon: ''Mean radius 1737.10 km (0.273 Earths)''. If he used the slightly larger baseball as an example, with an average diameter of 7.4 cm (2.9 inches), the ratio would be 0.300. Still this would be close enough for demonstrative purposes, as would an apple.

It is common to describe the relationship of very large (and very small) objects to common or garden objects on a more human scale. Here is a similar example where someone has made a comparison of the sizes of the Solar system based on a [http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/silveira60.html Sun the size of a Basketball]. And here coming from smaller scales is an [http://www.infoplease.com/dk/science/encyclopedia/atoms.html#ESCI024ATOMS001 example] that states the following: "Imagine an atom magnified to the size of a football stadium. The nucleus of the atom would be the size of a pea in the centre of the stadium..."

It is almost certainly not a coincidence that today is {{w|Earth Day}}, which is celebrated annually on 22nd of April to demonstrate support for environmental protection. As this seems to be something that [[Randall]] cares about a lot. He has made several comics demonstrating the need for the human race to begin taking better care of our globe. See for instance [[1321: Cold]] and [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]].

This comics clearly demonstrates four examples where the inhabitants of Earth did not take care of the well being of our globe. Although here on a somewhat grander scale than what individuals can usually do. But the typical case is that people did not do this out of bad intentions, but just because they where careless, curious, playful or just plain stupid.

===Interruptions===
Below the four interruptions are described. Each of the four attempts has its own row of four panels in the comic. It is clear from panel one to two in each row that the Basketball Earth is rotating quite fast compared to the time frame of the comic. Since the {{w|continents}} have moved considerably between frames. It is thus not necessarily the interrupters that have moved the Basketball Earth between frame two and three, except of course in the final interruption.

No matter how fast it rotates or whatever happens we always see the Basketball Earth from the same side, as seen from far above the {{w|Atlantic Ocean}}. We can see the continents of {{w|Americas}} as well as {{w|Africa}} and sometimes part of {{w|Europe}}, which are the borders for this Ocean.

It seems most likely that Cueball starts all over every time, with a completely fresh and new Earth-Moon system, since they look the same every time independent of the catastrophe occurring to the Basketball Earth the previous three times. Especially the water would not just come off easily after the second interruption. We can thus suppose that there is still "normal" life going on for each Basketball Earth before the interruption. This life will most likely completely perish for all of the last three cases.

====Black Hat====
In the first interruption, [[Black Hat]] comes in and is amazed by this cool floating globe. Of course, being Black Hat, he has to prod this nice globe with a digit. But by putting his finger into one of the oceans of this "real" Basketball Earth, without a second thought, he apparently generates a {{w|megatsunami}} of epic proportions, that rolls in over an unidentified city with skyscrapers, utterly dwarfed by a breaking wave.

It might be a reference to a scene of "{{w|Men in Black II}}", when K mess with a globe that actually is a small planet, and his finger become visible in the sky of its inhabitants. It could also refer to {{w|Deep Impact (film)|Deep Impact}} where a meteor strike causes exactly such a tsunami to hit the {{w|East Coast of the United States}}. Since Black Hat puts his finger down in the Atlantic Ocean, the Tsunami can hit all coastlines bordering on this. And since it seems like an eastern coast, and since Randall lives there, it is likely to suspect the city to be {{w|New York City}} or {{w|Boston}} or one of the other large US cities on the east coast. Of course the wave would also affect the coast line (far into land) for all the other continents, but the author is from this part of the US east coast.

====Megan====
The second interruption occurs when [[Megan]] arrives and pours liquid (perhaps water) from a sports {{w|water bottle}} onto the Basketball Earth, seemingly flooding its entire surface. This would make an {{w|List of flood myths|even worse tsunami}}, almost certainly extinguishing all land-dwelling life. Such a situation is most famously known from the {{w|Bible}} in the {{w|Genesis flood narrative}} about {{w|Noah's Ark}}. Of course this time the life in the sea may also perish due to the change in the constitution of the sea.




====Cat====
In the third interruption, a cat walks into shot and then playfully attacks the Basketball Earth rolling around with it like it would do with a ball of {{w|yarn}} (see real life example in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1rTAI2aExI this video]).

The people living upon the Basketball Earth will experienced cataclismic events far greater than Blackhat's digital prodding incurred, especially as the Basketball Earth is no longer suspended and was thus taken 'out of its orbit' and will eventually hit the floor very hard. One way or another, that will have surely cause (undepicted) disasters of cataclismic proportions compared what by Black Hat managed during the first time interruption.


====Ponytail====
In the fourth and final interruption [[Ponytail]] comes running by Cueball, grabs the Basketball Earth, probably bouncing it off the floor while {{w|Dribbling#Basketball|dribbling}} towards the {{w|Backboard (basketball)|basketball hoop}} where she actually jumps in an attempt to {{w|Slam dunk|dunk}} the Basketball Earth. This would ''not'' be good for any residents of Basketball Earth, with the combined pressure, movement and impact damage this simple sequence would surely kill off all life on Basketball Earth, maybe even destroying it completely when it hits the ground from the Slam Dunk.

====Title text====
This simile-callback is continued in the title text with the idea that "every basketball in existence" (i.e. every basketball upon the Basketball Earth, as well as the Basketball Earth itself) is counted towards the score from a single dunking.

Randall may or may not know exactly how many basketballs there are, perhaps through research for some [[what if?]] question or other research, but almost certainly assumes that there are no basketballs ''not'' on Basketball Earth, as well we might ourselves regarding the existence of extra-terrestrial basketballs, even without allowing for recursion. But there might be some question about whether the Basketball Earths own sub-scale basketballs fall within the regulations.


==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing next to a floating Basketball Earth indicating it with his left hand. The continents are clearly visible as seen from above the Atlantic Ocean. This remains the same all through the comic, except that the Basketball Earth rotates a bit from frame to frame.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,

:[Cueball is now indicating, with his right hand, a small pockmarked moon (also floating), in the correct proportions (size and distance) to the Basketball Earth, which is on his other side. Black Hat walks into the panel towards Earth.]
:Cueball: The Moon would be-
:Black Hat: Hey, cool!

:[Black Hat is touching the Basketball Earth with a digit.]
:Cueball: Um.

:[In the next scene we see a megatsunami on the verge of crashing down onto a coastal city with skyscrapers. The A's are cut of on each side of the panels frames, i.e. they begin outside and finishes outside the frame.]
:Aaaaaaaa

:[Back to Cueball standing with the Basketball Earth in the same position as the first panel.]
:Cueball: Let's try that again. If the Earth were the size of a basketball,

:[Same situation as when Black Hat walked in, except now it is Megan that walks into the frame towards the Basketball Earth holding a sports water bottle.]
:Cueball: The Moon would be -

:[Megan squirts the Basketball Earth with the liquid in her water bottle while Cueball just stands watching with the Moon behind him].

:[Megan just walks away while Cueball stares at his "water" Basketball Earth where the continents have disappeared completely beneath the liquid.]

:[Back to Cueball standing with the Basketball Earth in the same position as the first panel.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,

:[Same situation as when Black Hat walked in, except now he spots a cat coming into the frame from the left.]
:Cueball: The Moon- would...

:[While Cueball watches with the Moon behind him the cat jumps at the Basketball Earth.]
:Cat: Mrowl!

:[Cueball continues to watch while the cat rolls around playing with the Basketball Earth as if it was a ball of yarn.]
:Cat: Rrrrr

:[Back to Cueball standing with the Basketball Earth in the same position as the first panel.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,

:[Same situation as when Black Hat walked in, except this time it is Ponytail who enters the frame at a run coming from the left.]
:Cueball: The Moon would, uh...

:[While Cueball watches with the Moon behind him, Ponytail has grabbed the Basketball Earth and is dribbling it out of the frame, still running.]

:[Zoom out from Cueball who continues to watch while Ponytail reaches a basketball hoop and jump towards it with the Basketball Earth, obviously in an attempt to make a slam dunk if she can reach up to the hoop.]

{{comic discussion}}



[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:1510: Napoleon

2015-04-16T06:45:06Z

108.162.221.101:

Well, this explains a lot. Why Obama refuses to return to the Moon and wants to go for an asteroid...[[User:Jkotek|Jkotek]] ([[User talk:Jkotek|talk]]) 07:33, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
:That would make an awesome addition to the story line. I wish Randall included that extra panel. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.89|173.245.50.89]] 08:21, 10 April 2015 (UTC)BK201
:So... the reason he wants to go for an asteroid is that we need the capability to send the Moon-escaped Napoleon there! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.192|141.101.98.192]] 09:42, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Haha this is now one of my favorite xkcd comics [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.33|141.101.98.33]] 08:16, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
:Which goes to show that tastes can be different - I think this comic is just silly, silly, silly. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 13:28, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

IMHO the explanation somewhat misses the crucial point: A parody of the villain type
who always comes back in comic books. (Don't force me to add a TVTropes link :-) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.243.240|198.41.243.240]] 09:22, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Another question - Why the Antarctic? Something evil resting under deep ice is concept used for example in movie(s) The Thing ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_from_Another_World]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(1982_film)]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(2011_film)]] - chose your favorite ;-) or game Prisoner of Ice [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_Ice]].[[User:Jkotek|Jkotek]] ([[User talk:Jkotek|talk]]) 13:59, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
: Don't forget Alien vs. Predator! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.33|141.101.98.33]] 09:21, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

In 2115, Napoleon escapes from the moon and almost conquers the United Nations of Earth before being defeated. He is then sent into the Sun, where he stays for the next thousand years.... But in the 32nd century, humanity begins extracting material from the Sun to build a Dyson Sphere, and this allows Napoleon to escape and wreak havoc once more. At this point, the Star People just give up and go "WTF?!". [[User:Jake|Jake]] ([[User talk:Jake|talk]]) 16:37, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/124/kennedy.png [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.177|108.162.210.177]] 18:20, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

I was so sure that "A century later" meant this was a setup for an "Avatar-the last airbnder" joke. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.28|141.101.98.28]] 12:27, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

In Flanders, the comic series [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Kiekeboes De Kiekeboes] is very popular. Though sadly unknown abroad (unlike other Belgian comic series like Tintin or The Smurfs). As a reader of the series, I immediately noticed the striking similarity with the 1989 album [http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Een_koud_kunstje Een koud kunstje]. In that album, the protagonist, Marcel Kiekeboe, bumps into the Bonaparte society. Their aim is to free Napoleon form the Antarctic ice, where he has been frozen until science could being him back to life. Nobody knew that apart from the Bonaparte society. The comic series is set up mostly as a sitcom, so the humor is hard to explain, and even harder to translate. However, the fact that Napoleon is buried in the ice strikes me. First, I thought it was a well known comply theory (like Elvis being still alive), However, I can't find other references of Napoleon on Antarctica. Any thoughts about this are much appreciated. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.59|141.101.66.59]] 21:46, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

This reminds me of the comment I made about people that
deny the moon landing, we need another moon landing to
take one of them along...then leave them there! ^_-

Talk:1476: Ceres

2015-01-21T17:08:42Z

108.162.221.101: Idea about the image

I'm not sure about Number 6 being a reference to The Prisoner. there's no other context in the comic to suggest that reference. {{unsigned ip|‎173.245.54.180}}

Number 6 could be a Battlestar galactica reference as well, which is again a reference to The Prisoner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_Six_%28Battlestar_Galactica%29 {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.252}}

The novel The WindWalkers (in French "La Horde du Contrevent") from Alain Damasio is the story of the 34th team of people walking against the wind to go past the end of the known world. A group is sent every generation from a starting point and they walk over decades as far as they can go. The team leader is called Golgoth and is the 9th descendant of his family leading a team. He is obsessed with the idea of getting farther than his father (Golgoth 8) and the others Golgoth before them. At one point, while the team thought having been farther than any other, Golgoth 9 finds a sign let by Golgoth 6 (whose team had been thought lost) that demonstrates they were not the first ones reaching this point.
Maybe the comics does not make reference to this event in the novel, but readers of the novel will likely think about it. [[User:Marou|Marou]] ([[User talk:Marou|talk]]) 08:42, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

: Wikipedia has a list of characters in books and/or films named {{w|Number_6#In_the_arts_and_entertainment|Number 6}}, so unless there is a clear reference, I suggest we stick to assuming that Number 6 is simply the identifying number of un-named CERES employee. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 11:16, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

Maybe include a picture of Ceres (the dwarf planet) to show the real white spot (not the inspection sticker) [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 09:14, 21 January 2015 (UTC)
: Or a ref to an [http://www.universetoday.com/118358/first-hubble-and-now-dawn-have-seen-this-white-spot-on-ceres-what-is-it/ image/animation] [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 09:16, 21 January 2015 (UTC)
: This image shows it really good: [http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2004HubbleRotation-580x515.jpg] (Images from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2004 of Ceres. Credit: NASA/Hubble) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.134|108.162.254.134]] 09:29, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

Ceres is also a brand of vegetable fat manufactured by [http://www.belusafoods.sk/1/index.php?kat=3&ac=5&id_p=170 BELUŠA FOODS s.r.o.] (no english version, sorry). Salmonela in this kind of Ceres would be very interesting but I doubt that Randal refers to this Ceres. [[User:Jkotek|Jkotek]] ([[User talk:Jkotek|talk]]) 09:31, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

Earth the planet contains salmonella.
--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.12|141.101.104.12]] 09:45, 21 January 2015 (UTC)
: I agree, in that sense the joke is much funnier and more closely related to the rest of the comic (since (dwarf)planets are tested). -- [[User:Linuspogo|Linuspogo]] ([[User talk:Linuspogo|talk]]) 09:55, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

===German? Number Nein===
Unless this German company puts round inspection stickers onto products, '''in English''', then Randall is referring to [http://www.cafepress.com/inspector6 these stickers], which were used by [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=258182 US clothing manufacturers] in the mid-to-late 20th century. -- [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 12:52, 21 January 2015 (UTC)
: I would tend to agree on the stickers themselves, but the mention of salmonella and the fact that CERES is indeed a company which provides certification of agricultural processes and related inspection services across the EU, some sort of link seems patent, and I think a mention of the relationship should remain in some form. -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 13:26, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

: It's Debbie Slade: [http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-18/business/fi-6997_1_quality-assurance-manager] [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=110&dat=19910211&id=IA5QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5lUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6542,3176811] --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.134|108.162.254.134]] 14:49, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

I wonder where the high resolution detail came from. I imagine the frames of the animation could be used as sub-sampled images and hence combined to obtain higher resolution, but I should imagine that, had this been done, such images would also appear on the various science sites. So: did Randall one-up the mission handlers, did he fill in some other image or did I simply fail to find the source?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.123|108.162.229.123]] 13:53, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

: I had wondered that too. My guess was that he took an available higher res image of the moon or similar, then added the shadows and bright patches from the low res Ceres image. I can tell from the pixels and from seeing quite a few shops in my time. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 14:02, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

: I'm pretty sure Randall just took from that one image of six frying pan bottoms.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 17:08, 21 January 2015 (UTC)