explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3035: Trimix

2025-01-10T20:31:18Z

141.101.109.167: My reply was to 172.69.155.86 and is indented as such. (also added a new reply)

The 'standard' and '2x' sized images had unexpected sizes, so an imagesize parameter has been added to render the image consistently with other comics on this website. See the web [https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/trimix.png archive] for more details. --[[User:TheusafBOT|TheusafBOT]] ([[User talk:TheusafBOT|talk]]) 05:15, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:yeah, the image on xkcd.com looks comically large for me, and I think this might be related to this. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.155.86|172.69.155.86]] 15:50, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
::Not for me. I’m on Safari, and it looks pretty normal. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:08, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:::I'm on Chrome and it looks much larger than usual. .-. --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 16:50, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:::Well, I'm also on Chrome, and it looks totally normal. Normal size on Edge too. [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 14:35, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
::"Comically large"? If anything, the regular size is comically small. Why doesn't randall post comics in HD like everyone else? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.167|141.101.109.167]] 20:15, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:::Because it's stick figures and thus unnecessary. Also, (at least on chrome) the image is so large that it overflows the boundaries. Likely a glitch, but maybe a pun, yeah. [[User:Stallman|Stallman]] ([[User talk:Stallman|talk]]) 04:53, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
::::XKCD is more than just stick figures, and what exactly are the boundaries? They should be at least 1920x1080. Just how large was the "glitched" image? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.167|141.101.109.167]] 20:31, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
::::I thought the "over-inflated" image was part of the pun... - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.177|172.70.210.177]] 17:48, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:::::It's a glitch. If it was part of the comic, it would appear oversized on all devices and screen sizes. To me it's looking normal on firefox for android, but oversized on firefox flatpak on a 1366px width monitor. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.140.242|172.70.140.242]] 18:34, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
:::::Whatever size it is, it will, by its nature, be comically so.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.132|172.68.186.132]] 09:25, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

I'd question whether you could get a scuba tank to float with any amount of helium. Since you're dealing with a fixed size tank the most lift you going to get would be less than the weight of the air that the tank displaces (lift = weight of air - weight of tank - weight of helium, iirc). A typical aluminum Ali 80 tank has a volume of 11.1 liters which displaces only about 151g of air while the tank itself weighs 14kg [[User:StumbleRunner|StumbleRunner]] ([[User talk:StumbleRunner|talk]]) 07:17, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
: Now that you mention it ... I was distracted from the practicalities by the voice of Marvin the Martian running around in my head. Something about an earth-shattering kaboom. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.165|172.71.151.165]] 07:33, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
::Yes of course a SCUBA tank cannot create any float since it cannot change it's volume (except when exploding). This is the reason why it would not work. No matter how much helium is compressed (that it it the problem the gas is compressed!) inside it. I have added this, and are not sure the text beneath this makes any sense. Someone deleted my addition but I hope this was a case of edit conflict they did not care to resolve, rather than they deleted it on purpose!? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:11, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:::I think, on revue, I happened to restore anything you thought lost (albeit in my words, not yet knowing what you'd done) when correcting/removing the awkward misunderstanding that helium is "anti-gravity" in the 'true explanation' bit. (Yes, it's the conceit of the comic, but should not then have been used in the ''genuine'' bit of the Explanation. You only become more buoyant if you have ''less'' weight in a given volume. For an effectively unchanging volume, more of even a lighter gas is heavier. And you can never have little enough of any gas to make a Scuba-tank buoyant at sea-level air pressures.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.118|172.70.90.118]] 11:13, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
::::I cannot say if it was you who did this, I do not think so, since yo wrote several hours later here, and in both you comments case and the case where something was deleted it is different IP addressees. But the current explanation has taken the gist of what I intended and made it much better, so I'm happy with the current explanation which is much better than my attempt ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:23, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
:::::Oh, I (above IP, whatever I now appear as) never claimed the fault of wiping out your prior effort, and still don't. I'd gone back to check what you might have lost out on, and but my first reading/writing of it had only ever been later. ;) I ''haven't'' taken note of the respective IPs (there's some flexibility of assignment, even moment to moment, but also a degree of geographic clustering that differentiates some of us from all but a few of the rest of us 'anons'), but I like that it at least superficially bears out my innocence in that matter.
:::::However, it's gratifying to know that one's small contribution (amongst all the other worthy ones, equally creditable) should be appreciated. It's by many stochastic improvements that all decent articles are eventuallg formed. :p [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.164|172.70.162.164]] 12:20, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
: There is no question here. Boyancy is provided by making the container (the tank in this example) lighter for its volume than the equivalent amount of air. With a balloon, the container volume increasaes as you increase the helium, making the container more boyant. A tank does not expand, and thus gets less boyant as increased helium adds to its mass per volume. The very best that you could do would be to fill the tank with a vacuum, but even then it would still weight more than the equivalent amount of air due to the weight of the tank itself.[[User:Geek Prophet|Geek Prophet]] ([[User talk:Geek Prophet|talk]]) 18:04, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Trimix is also the name of one of the strongest injectible erectile dysfunction drugs. This was my first thought when I saw the comic title. Even after I recognized my error I half expected a double-entendre on "inflation".[[User:Geek Prophet|Geek Prophet]] ([[User talk:Geek Prophet|talk]]) 18:07, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:When I first found the comic and googled “trimix”, the school {{w|Securly}} filter blocked it because of that exact reason. It was only when I switched to my personal computer that I realised my mistake. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:31, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
::That's the Scunthorpe Problem, for ya... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.70|172.70.85.70]] 22:51, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Won’t breathing too much helium cause {{w|Inert gas asphyxiation}}{{w|Inert gas asphyxiation|/suffocation}}? '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:55, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:yes. yes it will. However, when breathing at depth, there is the around the same partial pressure of oxygen as in the atmosphere at the surface, so you breathe it just fine as the oxygen will diffuse into your lungs just the same without the risk of oxygen toxicity. The helium just acts as a filler gas, acting to also reduce the risk of nitrogen narcosis by reducing the partial pressure of nitrogen, and is chosen because it is easy to breathe because it is light. consequently, mixtures with low amounts of oxygen are not safe to breathe closer to the surface as there is not a high enough partial pressure of oxygen to support consciousness. (i know i just told you information you could have gotten from simply reading the {{w|Trimix (breathing gas)| wikipedia article}} yourself [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 07:06, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3035: Trimix

2025-01-09T20:15:28Z

141.101.109.167:

Talk:3022: Making Tea

2024-12-10T09:51:33Z

141.101.109.167: oops forgot to sign

I wonder where [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party making it in Boston Harbor, at ambient temperature, at scale] would fit on this scale. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.162|172.70.206.162]] 04:38, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: A little to the left of the microwave thing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.252|162.158.186.252]] 05:14, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:: Oh, no, much further to the right. You stole our colony from us, set up some tinpot, pretended 'country' in its place, and you didn't even have the class to make a decent cup of tea first. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.93|12.68.205.93]] 06:24, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: I would like to as a british person to corroborate this, in the 80's my Dad visited the USA (he did go to florida) and still is complaining that the freshly boiled water wasn't poured directly onto the tea bag but was instead the tea bag and the hot water(now luke warm water) and bag was delivered separately!!! The delivery of freshly boiling water on to the bag is the major issue with microwaves, not the nucleation thing in my experience. Bear in mind I don't even actually like tea, still care enough to right this, but i'll be signing this anonymously to avoid shame being bought on my family and my family's familys. Murderous royals are a lot less popular the tea [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.227|108.162.245.227]]
:: I first visited the US in 1980. A friend who was with hate coffee and was horrified when he ordered tea that he got the water and the tea bag separately. When he suggested they add the water as soon as it was boiled, the wait staff thought he was joking. Many years later in Texas, a waiter asked me why I, a Brit, was drinking coffee, not tea. "You don't know how to make it," I replied. (In my house, the electric kettle and teapot sit next to each other on the kitchen worktop.)--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.135|172.70.160.135]] 09:22, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

:: And, even if [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68085304 this guy] is right, ''way'' too much salt... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.130|172.70.91.130]] 07:03, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

When I make ramen, I put the measuring cup in the microwave. Fight me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.87|162.158.167.87]] 05:35, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

"...to the point virtually every home has an electric tea kettle as a standard appliance". If I'm reading it correctly, this and the comic suggests we (though not I, as I'm not a tea-drinker) make tea ''in the electric kettle''. Electric tea-urns, yes, or maybe a setup like a samovar. But, generally, the kettle itself (and, so far as I'm aware, always with an electric kettle) is used to heat the water, which you then pour into the tea''pot'' into which the requisite number of tealeaves/teabags are also put to steep. (Or, for the lazy way, into the mug-with-teabag.) I wouldn't be able to use my electric kettle to (for example) make my instant mashed-potato into the actual mash, if I'd have regularly used it to mash tea. Or top up the boiling saucepan that I'd realised I'd not quite enough water in to cover the pasta/vegetables/whatever. Or to easily add nust a little more heat (with less new water) to the washing-up bowl than would be possible from the hot tap, back to as hot as possible without scalding me. – Whether intentional or not, I suspect Randall has the role of kettle and teapot mixed up, and so (without the intent to parody) has the editor who wrote the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.135|172.70.160.135]] 05:49, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the section on 'Boiling the water in a pot' refers to a teapot - I think it means boiling the water in a pot on the hob, and then making tea with it (in a pot/mug). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.27|172.69.195.27]] 07:53, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:I agree, but I also think there's a language issue with the use of pot vs. pan that makes things more confusing. I think there are several types of cookware that Americans call pot and British call pan. So British would not say they boil water in a pot but rather in a saucepan (if there's no kettle available of course). [[User:Mtcv|Mtcv]] ([[User talk:Mtcv|talk]]) 09:03, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I (as Brit) am uncommon in using an electric filter coffee machine to make tea (two bags in what is supposed to be the coffee filter). Set up, press the button and come back to a not jug of fresh tea which is not stewed. If later, the hot plate has shut off and it is cold, you can zap it in a mug in the microwave. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:11, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c Technology Connections]! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.167|141.101.109.167]] 09:51, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3022: Making Tea

2024-12-10T09:50:41Z

141.101.109.167:

Talk:3020: Infinite Armada Chess

2024-12-05T20:59:56Z

141.101.109.167:

Did I do well? Added a very very basic explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.147.132|172.68.147.132]] 04:25, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

Well, yes but I wonder if just one tiny fix is needed. If you replace the white side with a simplyfied artillery tower, you reinvented space invaders.{{unsigned ip|172.71.160.70|04:57, 5 December 2024 (UTC)}}

I was personally hoping for an explanation of the Infinite Armada thing, and I feel like a link to the TV Tropes page doesn't really. Explain that at all. So I would love a bit of an expansion on that part! Just want to be sure I didn't miss some reference or something. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.91|172.68.23.91]] 05:48, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
: Likewise. I get the comic, but I assumed the 'armada' part was a reference that I just did not get. But it seems it is just a word choice. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.105|172.71.102.105]] 09:39, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
:: The only "Infinite Armada" reference I can think of is ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic]'', which kind of makes sense because if you have a Star Forge to make chess pieces with, why wouldn't you make them all queens? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.159|162.158.167.159]] 18:47, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

I think that since the error was "out of bounds", not "out of memory", it's referring to indexing outside of the region of memory that the program allocated to deal with the board. This would happen since instead of addressing rank 1..8, you could address rank 9, 10, 0, or -1. Unless bounds checking is performed when converting the board coordinates into linear array indices, you'd get an out-of-bounds error (or worse, succeed in reading or modifying memory that you weren't intending to). --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.253|172.71.30.253]] 05:45, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
:It was "Out of Bounds memory access". That means it was trying to access a memory address that was out of the bounds of the computer, as if it were trying to access the ω-th index of the board array, which would put it out of the memory range of any computer [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you want to]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 06:15, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
:: There is no hint that the bounds are those of the computer, the simplest explanation really is that the bounds are those of an array. The error message does come up. In addition, to try to access the memory at the ω-th index, you would need to construct the ω-th index itself first (which would fail or not terminate) [[User:Jmm|Jmm]] ([[User talk:Jmm|talk]]) 07:01, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
::: The specific message, "RuntimeError: Out of bounds memory access", is a WebGL error issuing from its WASM cross-platform browser implementation. This implies to me that an attempt to render an infinite chessboard failed in a fairly trivial way, because of a poor implementation. It's very unlikely that there had been a problem with the [https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/tree/master/src Stockfish playing algorithm] yet, which would have failed with a different message if it ran out of memory, such as "Killed", which is all that shells like Bash print when one of their job processes is killed by the kernel's OOM killer, or by anything else for that matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.215.21|172.70.215.21]] 12:58, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

Is this a reference to [https://youtu.be/rav29N0-h2c infinite chess by Naviary?] [[User:HaruruChanDesu|HaruruChanDesu]] ([[User talk:HaruruChanDesu|talk]]) 11:21, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

"it does not really need to consider the infinitely many pieces" => a chess Engine would need to consider the infinitely many pieces (or have a way to abstract them), even if some pieces are currently stuck because the engine recursively evaluates moves and counter-moves (i.e. evaluates the game up to some depth).

Can someone explain the linked joke with all the extra queens? I don't understand why it's a bad position. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.126|172.69.59.126]] 16:49, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
:Knight to d6. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.175|162.158.167.175]] 17:09, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
::...is checkmate by black. White can't capture the knight with either of the two queens that attack it because they're both pinned, by black's bishop and rook. (And we know it's black's turn to move because the colored squares indicate white just moved.) [[User:DKMell|DKMell]] ([[User talk:DKMell|talk]]) 17:54, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

== Hit me up when this becomes real. ==

I would like to try this out. [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 12:29, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
:It should be easy enough. You will rarely get the queens out in play from deep in the array. So maybe just put two chess boars together and put some placeholder in for queens in the extra fields. If ever a queen in the bottom row is moved, place extra queens that can now be moved into the 2-3 squares that would be outside the board...--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:39, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
:It might be something one could set up in Infinite Chess, although having limits on the chessboard may be difficult. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.67|172.68.150.67]] 14:01, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

: Here's a finite approximation in ChessCraft: https://www.chesscraft.ca/design?id=5KM4 [[User:Promethean|Promethean]] ([[User talk:Promethean|talk]]) 15:37, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

While I understand how to play chess, I don't get the bit about "having a bunch of queens doesn't go very well". At first glance, the linked chess layout looks pretty solid. Can someone please enlighten me? Also, what does the TV Tropes link about Title Drop have to do with Infinite Armada, aside from that being the title of the comic? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.77|172.70.230.77]] 13:10, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

:: ... Nd6. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.246|172.70.91.246]] 13:31, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

::: Ah, thanks. Moving the knight there puts the king in check, and moving either queen to take it exposes the king to the bishop or rook, so checkmate. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.38|162.158.63.38]] 15:05, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

::::You are assuming that the opponent makes no moves while you spend at least three moves advancing your knight. Looks like either side can draw by always moving the king backwards whenever a queen has moved and made a hole he can move to and otherwise trying to make a new, deeper hole. Eventually he gets so far back that any attack turns into an infinite sequence of queens taking each other, with the attacker only having file attacks while the defender can retake from a rank, file, or diagonal. Any time the attacker breaks off the infinite sequence of queens taking each other to set up something else, the defender takes advantage of the break to move the king deeper and put more queens in front of him or to create more empty spaces to sidestep into when attacked. To me, this looks like a certain draw. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.252|172.69.33.252]] 16:21, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

:::::They're talking about the linked layout at https://x.com/chesscom/status/1841540380363211164, not the layout in the comic. It only takes one move for the black knight to move to Nd6 and put the white king in checkmate. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.167|141.101.109.167]] 20:59, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

You might be able to get the developer of fairy stockfish ( https://fairy-stockfish.github.io/ ) to add this if you ask nicely. I have seen them add several reader requests. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.143|172.70.211.143]] 15:46, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

Could this be a reference to the meme about "eating an infinite armada of pizza"? The wording seems too similar to be a coincidence. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.46|172.70.114.46]] 14:46, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

Would this guarantee a draw between two competent players who'd played the variant before, or would there be more nuance to it than there appears to be?

Can someone explain the linked joke with all the extra queens? I don't understand why it's a bad position. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.125|172.69.59.125]] 16:48, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

The explanation of the linked joke is that the king appears safe at first glance, but in reality there is a simple move that wins the game for black. Moving the black knight to the top left corner of the queen square checks the king. The king cannot move to escape. Two queens are in position to take the knight and save the white king, but both of those moves expose the king to attack from other black pieces (the rook or the bishop).

Wow. Not only did White give Black a mate in one, they also blundered a mate in one. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.176|162.158.167.176]] 20:21, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

3017: Neutrino Modem

2024-11-28T15:46:36Z

141.101.109.167:

{{comic
| number = 3017
| date = November 27, 2024
| title = Neutrino Modem
| image = neutrino_modem_2x.png
| imagesize = 461x537px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our sysadmin accidentally won a Nobel Prize while trying to debug neutrino oscillation error correction.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a 1978 NEUTRINO FAX MACHINE. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Neutrinos are tiny, chargeless, ghostly particles that barely interact with solid matter at all. Despite trillions of neutrinos passing through your body every second, one will hit you only once every 10 years or so.

In this comic, Randall gives a helpful tip to networking companies: in order to avoid latency issues with their servers, simply relocate their networking node to the Earth's core and use neutrinos to communicate with the surface, rather than radio waves, electrical impulses, photons in fiber-optic cables, etc. Since the core of the Earth is approximately equidistant from every point on Earth's surface, and nearly all neutrinos pass through solid matter unaffected, this allows communication with any server or network node anywhere on Earth, all with the same near-light-speed {{w|Latency (engineering)#Packet-switched networks|latency}} and without having to install wires, fiber optic cables, or anything else along the way. However, the cost is an unbelievable amount of lost data, since only a teeny teeny teeny teeny tiny (teeny4 tiny) fraction of the neutrinos sent from the modem will actually be received by the servers on the surface, and the same again for those neutrinos that make the return journey: the specified packet loss amounts to 1 in 100 trillion packets completing the journey, with the rest missed (for reference: the lower threshold for acceptable packet reception is 98 in 100). If symmetrically failing to be detected, this suggests that only one in 10 million neutrino 'packets' is being received by the remote server, and only one in 10 million of the prompted replies are being received at Cueball's end.

This may still be a vastly bettter rate than expected. {{w|Neutrino detector|Neutrino detection}} with vastly bigger detectors than Cueball's device may only detect a fraction of the necessary neutrinos. Perhaps a little over 60 billion neutrinos per cm² per second pass through the Earth from the Sun, but detectors much larger than the whole of Cueball's indicated living space tend to detect no more than a few hundred of those per day. As the neutrino modems, at either end, must also ''generate'' (and, ideally, aim) their own modulated neutrino traffic, what proportion of the modem is usefully detecting is debatable. Beyond this issue, network packets consist of a ''series'' of signals to convey purpose, routing information and other overheads (including {{w|error detection and correction}}, which may be particularly important in this case). Even if direct point-to-point transmission (assumed, at least in this respect, to be reliably targeted) removes the need for full routing overheads, each {{w|ping (networking utility)|ICMP echo request}} ''and reply'' will still require a significant number of neutrino events to be triggered, and then sufficiently detected for what they are, to be of any practical use.

A time delay of 45 ms is the approximate round-trip time for light (or neutrinos, which move nearly as fast) to travel the distance from the center of the Earth to the surface and back. Visible light, of course, couldn't make this journey through the rock at all. Perhaps only ''very'' long wavelength electromagnetic radiation could reliably penetrate half the Earth, which would give (like these hit-and-mostly-miss neutrinos, but still vastly better) a very low effective {{w|bit rate}}. This has the opposite issue of using a {{w|Sneakernet}} connection, where a reliable but physically slow transfer protocol (as discussed in {{what if|31|What-If: FedEx Bandwidth}}) can potentially reliably deliver huge amounts of data in a single successful communication.

There are also, of course, the practical problems of constructing a facility at Earth's core, which is extremely far away (~6400 km / 4000 mi underground), extremely hot (~6000°C / 6273K / 11292°Ra / [[1923: Felsius|8400°⋲]] / [[3001: Temperature Scales|−5900°''real'' C]]) and under extremely high pressures (~3½ million atmospheres / 50 million PSI).

Ponytail and Cueball are shown floating because a hollow space in the center of a body experiences near-zero gravity. This is because all the mass of the object is evenly distributed in all directions. While there is 4,000 miles of rock "above" you pulling you "up," there is also 4,000 miles "below" you pulling you "down", with much the same amount left, right, front, back and every other direction, so you experience net-zero gravitational acceleration.

The title text refers to neutrino oscillation, which is a phenomenon in which neutrinos change between three different "flavors" - electron, muon, and tau neutrinos. A Nobel Prize was in fact awarded for the [https://www.nature.com/articles/nphys3543 discovery of neutrino oscillation], which implied that neutrinos have mass, albeit an extremely tiny amount (< 2.14×10−37 kg for the sum of the three flavors). The "neutrino oscillation error correction" could refer either to a way to correct for errors in the signal introduced due to neutrinos oscillating, as above, or for the method of error correction that cleverly ''uses'' modulated neutrino oscillation to its own advantage. Either of these could perhaps be considered such extraordinary developments as to make the {{w|system administrator}} involved deservedly elegible of a {{w|Nobel Prize}}, or perhaps {{w|List of prizes known as the Nobel or the highest honors of a field|one or other close equivalents}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and Ponytail are inside a large white circle on a black background. Cueball is at a workstation typing on a computer keyboard, floating above a wheeled desk chair behind him. Ponytail is floating in the air up and to the right of him. Attached to Cueball's computer by cables are a second monitor or a tower unit floating to the left, and a large device labeled "''Neutrino'' Modem®" below and to its left. A logo on the modem shows circle with five horizontal lines entering from the left; the fourth line from the top stops within the circle, while the others pass through to the right; this presumably represents neutrinos passing through a planet or other object.]
:Cueball: Check it out—45ms ping times to every server on Earth!
:Ponytail: That 99.999999999999% packet loss is pretty bad, though.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Networking tip: You can minimize worst-case latency by locating your node at the center of the Earth and communicating with the surface using neutrinos.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Tips]]
[[Category:Sysadmins]]
[[Category:Nobel Prize]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3006: Demons

2024-11-04T15:22:45Z

141.101.109.167: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3006
| date = November 1, 2024
| title = Demons
| image = demons_2x.png
| imagesize = 285x458px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Though they do appreciate how much he improved the heating system for the flame pit.
}}

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

{{w|Maxwell's demon}} is a thought experiment devised by {{w|James Clerk Maxwell}} that appears to refute the {{w|second law of thermodynamics}}, which roughly says that heat always flows from hotter regions to colder. In the thought experiment, two chambers, both containing a gas at the same temperature, have a door between them. A being (later called a demon by {{w|Lord Kelvin}}) lets only fast-moving gas molecules move from the first chamber to the second, and only slow-moving ones move from the second chamber to the first. The second chamber's gas gradually warms as the average speed of its molecules increases, and the first chamber's gas likewise cools, apparently contradicting the second law. However, the actions of such a demon would use up at least the amount of energy that could later be extracted from having a gas separated into hot and cold parts, so such a demon could not gain energy and Maxwell's demon does not break the second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics is a fairly common theme in xkcd, last being mentioned in [[2848: Breaker Box]].

This demon behaves very differently from mythological {{w|demons}}, which exist in the afterlife (usually some form of {{w|hell}}) and punish evil humans after death by causing them great suffering, as for example boiling them in oil or casting them into flame pits. In this comic, [[Randall]] jokes that if Maxwell's demon were to encounter more stereotypical mythological ones, he would probably not fit in very well, and would inevitably propose treating humans like the particles of the thought experiment. While a few physics-savvy humans might feel offended by such treatment{{Citation needed}}, for most the suffering would stem from the anxiety of knowing that, once they choose to cross the door, they are not allowed to return for all eternity. This modern psychological approach to torture stands out from ancient techniques of physical torture such as being boiled in oil or cast into a flame pit.

The title text continues the joke by suggesting that while Maxwell's demon's idea for torturing the souls of the damned might seem whimsical to the other demons, it could still be used to heat the flame pits better. The other demons' appreciation of this technical improvement mirrors real-life situations where kids that "have trouble fitting in with the others" due to their unusual ideas for games and atypical interests (e.g., in thermodynamics) occasionally earn some appreciation when their cleverness is found to be useful.

This comic was published on 1 November, 2024, the day after Halloween, around the time when many contemporary comic strips have demonic, supernatural or other spooky themes.

==Transcript==
:[Three demons, Cueball-like in general appearance but with horns and pointed tails, are standing together while surrounded by flames. The leftmost demon is holding a pitchfork and the next one has his hands down. They are looking at the third to the right standing a bit apart from them. This last demon, Maxwell's demon as given in the caption, holds his palms up while looking at the other two.]
:Demon with pitchfork: What's our plan for the souls today? Boil them in oil?
:Middle demon: We could cast them into the flame pit.
:Maxwell's demon: What if we set up two rooms with a door in between, but– get this– '''''we only let them go through it one way!'''''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Maxwell's Demon had trouble fitting in with the others.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Religion]]

2995: University Commas

2024-10-07T23:22:05Z

141.101.109.167: This isn't funny, it's just vandalism and makes it annoying to read.

{{comic
| number = 2995
| date = October 7, 2024
| title = University Commas
| image = university_commas_2x.png
| imagesize = 580x273px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The distinctive 'UCLA comma' and 'Michigan comma' are a long string of commas at the start and end of the sentence respectively.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT COMMA - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The {{w|Oxford comma}} is a comma between the second-to-last item in a list and the word ''and''. For instance, you can write "red, white, and blue" (with the Oxford comma) or "red, white and blue" (without it). Some style guides such as ''{{w|The Oxford Style Manual}}'' recommend using it while others recommend against it, though even those with such a recommendation may suggest its (non-)use in situations where doing so avoids ambiguity arising from the normally recommended choice. This comic imagines other commas associated with universities.

The MIT comma might be a reference to trailing commas sometimes used in programming[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11597901/why-are-trailing-commas-allowed-in-a-list], which would be associated with a highly technical university.

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

Please, buy, apples, mac, and, cheese, milk, and, bread,.

Yale Comma
Columbia Comma
Cornell Comma
Princeton Comma
Harvard Comma
Stanford Comma
Cambridge Comma
Oxford Comma
MIT Comma

'''Caption''':
The Oxford one is the most famous, but many major universities have their own comma.
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2959: Beam of Light

2024-07-16T08:34:56Z

141.101.109.167:

hi {{unsigned ip|172.68.174.143|04:37, 16 July 2024}}
:Hello, could you please sign your post? [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 04:47, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
::@[[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]]: I have signed the post for them. —megan [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 04:58, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
:::megan detected 🤩🤩🤩 [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.185|172.69.43.185]] 07:14, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
::::It's just a thematic name. If you keep overreacting to it, we can do [[322: Pix Plz|this]]. —megan [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 07:49, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
:::::aw hell yeah, melt the school computers i use to edit this wiki [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.110|141.101.98.110]] 08:10, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

I totally thought it said Epstein at first, and I was trying to make sense of a seemingly dark, oblique, and dated joke.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.141|172.70.210.141]] 05:00, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
:randall would never [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.185|172.69.43.185]] 07:14, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

I thought the "didn't have any particular" was a pun, because at the time light was not recognized as a particle but a wave. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.167|141.101.109.167]] 08:34, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2959: Beam of Light

2024-07-16T08:34:32Z

141.101.109.167:

hi {{unsigned ip|172.68.174.143|04:37, 16 July 2024}}
:Hello, could you please sign your post? [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 04:47, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
::@[[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]]: I have signed the post for them. —megan [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 04:58, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
:::megan detected 🤩🤩🤩 [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.185|172.69.43.185]] 07:14, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
::::It's just a thematic name. If you keep overreacting to it, we can do [[322: Pix Plz|this]]. —megan [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 07:49, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
:::::aw hell yeah, melt the school computers i use to edit this wiki [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.110|141.101.98.110]] 08:10, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

I totally thought it said Epstein at first, and I was trying to make sense of a seemingly dark, oblique, and dated joke.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.141|172.70.210.141]] 05:00, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
:randall would never [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.185|172.69.43.185]] 07:14, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

I thought the "no particular" was a pun, because at the time light was not recognized as a particle but a wave. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.167|141.101.109.167]] 08:34, 16 July 2024 (UTC)