2685: 2045

2022-10-25T15:20:36Z

141.101.110.205: /* Explanation */ America isn't the world. This comic was published before today's eclipse

{{distinguish|2045: Social Media Announcement}}
{{comic
| number = 2685
| date = October 14, 2022
| title = 2045
| image = 2045_2x.png
| imagesize = 350x457px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "Sorry, doctor, I'm going to have to come in on a different day--I have another appointment that would be really hard to move, in terms of the kinetic energy requirements."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GIGANTIC NUCLEAR FURNACE (THE SUN) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The characters are talking about upcoming total {{w|solar eclipses}}. Partial solar eclipses are fairly frequent (2–5 per year), but total eclipses are less frequent (about every 18 months), and most of them will not be in convenient locations for a particular set of people. Cueball seems to be talking about total eclipses visible in much of North America: {{w|Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024|April 8, 2024}} and {{w|Solar eclipse of August 12, 2045|August 12, 2045}}. (There's also a {{w|annular eclipse}} on October 14, 2023.) Making plans for eclipses is awkward given the uncertainty present for anything else far in the future, such as whether the attendees will have children by then, and whether the technology they are using to keep track of their appointments (Google Calendar in this case) will even still exist over 22 years in the future.

Black Hat claims he can't make it, as he vaguely and obscurely claims he already knows he has "a thing" on August 12, 2045. People do not usually have events scheduled for precise dates that far in the future in their personal calendars and, combined with the fact that Black Hat remembers this date without checking (but also without specifying what he'll be doing then), implies that this could be another of his grand and sinister plans... or he just doesn't want to go. This might also be a reference to an [https://web.archive.org/web/20150524213007/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/21/us/washington-talk-reagan-and-the-russians-the-joke-s-on-them.html old Soviet joke].

The title text is someone asking to reschedule a medical appointment to see the eclipse. The eclipse is hard to move because that would require hastening or delaying it by moving the Earth, Moon or Sun, any of which would require vast amounts of energy.{{Citation needed}}

This was published a year before the next such eclipse in America; so, if you're someone who plans things a year in advance, this serves as a reminder to put it on your calendar.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, a friend also drawn as Cueball, Danish, and Black Hat are standing together. Danish is looking at her phone.]
:Cueball: ...And then after the one in 2024, there's another on August 12, 2045.
:Friend: We're in! We can invite our kids, assuming we have any.
:Danish: I'll create an event. Do you think we'll still be using Google Calendar in 2045?
:Black Hat: Sorry, I'd love to make it, but I have a thing that day.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's weird making plans for eclipses.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]

Talk:2684: Road Space Comparison

2022-10-25T15:08:18Z

141.101.110.205:

Hold on, I'm trying to concoct an interesting 30 goats/20 cabbages/10 wolves problem... [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 20:53, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
S3C0ND P0ST [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.131|172.71.150.131]] 21:12, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

You have no idea how many car-centric infrastructure arguments happen in my discord servers, this is a fantastic comic to post for that[[Special:Contributions/188.114.102.55|188.114.102.55]] 21:23, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

What if the last panel also references other river crossing puzzles like the "Missionaries and cannibals problem" or the Flash "Japanese River Crossing" puzzle so you have extra rules for each member of each species? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.97|172.71.98.97]] 22:11, 12 October 2022 (UTC) Alex

My name is GreyFox, and I added the transcript for this page. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.171|172.71.150.171]] 22:13, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
:Aww, they removed my table! [[1450|I liked that table.]] --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.65|172.71.146.65]] 21:39, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

So [[1035|the takeway is]]... we can put humans in hamster balls by the handful all season and feel no worse about it than about cars driving down the road? This is awesome! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.215|162.158.2.215]] 22:20, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
:No, unfortunately the comic is missleading! Even though it is labelled as 50 hamsterballs the image only shows 39! [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]])
::The comic never said it was one person per hamsterball. There's plenty of space in those for the hamster equivalent of a sidecar. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 05:30, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
:::But the image shows only one shioulette per hamsterball. I assume this picture is intentionally misleading and Randall was payd by the hamsterball-industry in order to manipulate society towards being pro hamster-ball [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]])
:::::Eleven of the silhouettes could be of people wearing an occupied baby-carrier. The varieties of the silhouettes could allow it without requiring finer detail. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:06, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
::::Regarding the hamster wheels: I think the description is missing a reference to sphere packing. It’s the first thing I thought of when I saw panel 8: how many circles/spheres can you fit/pack into a given space is a famous mathematical problem that I believe Randall has played with before. [[Special:Contributions/75.174.26.242 |75.174.26.242]]13:14UTC, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Saw this one recently, can't be a coincidence [https://files.fietsersbond.nl/app/uploads/2011/07/18104628/enfb_ruimtegebruik.jpg NL Fietsersbond Ruimtegebruik] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.105|108.162.221.105]] 22:25, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

:No, it can not. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.39|172.71.142.39]] 16:13, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

I'm a bit unsure about the linked "52 person tandem" (also, the way it is currently made a bottom-of-page reference link, which we avoid on this site). It took me a while (behind all the popups the referenced link gave me, typically) to realise the only picture of it was the miniscule thumbnail planted at the start. Which explained the anomolous wheel-count, if I understand the low-res image correctly. I would dispute Ripleys'/Guiness's acceptance of that thing as a 'tandem'. It is clearly a multi-stage {{w|Trailer bike|Rann Trailer}}-style construction (possibly with individual tandem-'trailers' in there to get the wheel count down to ''no more'' than the rider-count). Also, how on earth would a linked line of trailers actually start bursting tyres? The load of riders plus frames would spread out about as evenly as for any given single occupant bike (certainly less than the forces on the wheels of a proper tandem/trandem, or even a tandem-trike!), so I'm not sure how they even buckled a wheel. So I'd like to know what the longest two-/three-wheel tandem is (and certainly how anything like Randall's slightly snaking frame does not buckle), if anybody has their finger on that rather more relevent information, rather than that faux-tandem. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 03:03, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Is it just me, or is the last block also a subtle dig at Putin's blown-up Kerch bridge? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.146|172.70.175.146]] 12:22, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
:then it would be 50 people with 30 sleeping bags, 20 guns and 10 medikits :) [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]])

Intrinsic problems to the multi-human/goat/cabbage/wolf riddle:

- How many generic objects can you take at once? (If you can take 110+, there is no riddle here)

- How many goats can one person transport at once? (Can you put 30 goats on a boat without pandemonium?)

- How many people are required to corral the goats? (Will the goats all run away when they get to the other side?)

- Are the humans able to catch the goats? And, if the humans *can* catch the goats, does that mean the wolves can, too?

- Is there a way to restrain the wolves?

- Can a wolf be lonely?--[[User:Cwallenpoole|Cwallenpoole]] ([[User talk:Cwallenpoole|talk]]) 13:23, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
:"Can you put 30 goats on a boat without pandemonium?" - nicely done. :o)[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 13:51, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

: If one person only is needed to "corral" 30 Goats/Wolves/Cabbages, then the problem is moot - the first boat ride just leaves a human on the other side of the water to watch over whatever is brought
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.105|172.70.230.105]] 14:20, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

I suppose instead of being critical numbers it has to be done with critical ratios. Gives you a little more wiggle room in the ordering of the trips and optimization but would read basically as the solution to the original but 25 times in a row. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.51|108.162.241.51]]

*raises eyebrows at the suggestion that a 50-person tandem is only impractical in a city...*[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 13:52, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

The multiseater 'bike' drawing is off, for me. A tandem (including trandem, quad, quint, etc) tends to root the stoker's(/subsequent stokers') handlebars directly under the seat of the rider in front of them (steersman/intermediate stokers) in any decent scratch-built frame, not well behind the seated body (and presmably a head/hat of each person, seated upright). It's closer in longitudinal scale to what you get of an overhead view of a [https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/campaigns-guide/guide-tag-longs-trailer-bikes compound bike] with handlebars on or just behind the towing-point (though now it looks a little too close, practically, as there might not be room between the bottom-bracket/down-tube/head-tube to clear the rear wheel of the bike-rear in front of them... if not {{w|Moulton Bicycle|Moulton-sized}} units, which causes other building problems). Which also perhaps accounts for the slightly snaking plan view, being articulated. If well constructed with the right attachment geometries, this could actually travel city streets quite well by ensuring the wheel track of each compound unit follows the path of the weaving wheel(s) ahead of them. Although it'd need practiced riders to prevent lateral oscilations causing rolling forces to drag the whole thing sideways down to hit the ground. But I'll forgive Randall, as he clearly doesn't have enough practical experience with bike/tandem construction. Anyway, as the original '52 seat tandem bicycle' link was not a tandem (nor a bicycle) I looked up what I ''think'' is the correct most-seated tandem (tried checking Guiness Book Of Records website, just in case, but its cookie-authorisation popovers made it impossible to read) and added that as well as caveating the existing presumption of tandemness for the drawing and the already suggested machine. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.5|172.71.178.5]] 18:54, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

There used to be a lot of videos on YouTube with rigid human-sized hamster balls, but the only ones I can find are the flexible inflatables now, and all the stunts seem to be with concentric inner compartment inside a shock-absorbed outer core. Wasn't there some horrible injury in the news some years back? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.54|172.69.34.54]] 08:30, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

The “one giant pulled by many smalls” thing has been done by Märklin (manufacturer of H0-scale locomotives). 200 H0-scale locomotives pulled one real passenger wagon. Of course, similar stuff has been done by other groups. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.191|162.158.90.191]] 13:51, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Note that, as the author of [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2684:_Road_Space_Comparison&diff=prev&oldid=296876 this removed statement], I can absolutely tell that other editor that it was not written as an anti-bicycle statement, but ''as'' a cyclist. Not worth reinstating, but the image given clearly goes against both my own and the [https://www.cyclinguk.org/blog/why-highway-code-should-protect-riding-two-abreast generally] [https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/campaigning/article/20220127-Highway-Code-%E2%80%93-Riding-two-abreast-0 accepted] [https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/rules-for-cyclists-59-to-82 official rules] in my location. It does annoy motorists (and pedestrians; and me, in whatever capacity I am currently journeying) when ill-informed/uncaring/provocative people on bikes flout those rules, and then makes it worse for those who obey the rules (ride abreast, at any given time, because it would never be safer for a motorist to pass a vastly longer single-file group; or simply to ride on the road, as is both our right and responsibility). Not knowing how the rules and regs work outside the UK (but assuming that the practical conventions are similar, where not totally over-regulated out of existence) I had wanted to just say that a 'peleton group' like that is not good practice on the open-road.
<br />And, obviously, there are exceptional circumstances (if not rules being bent) if we see human-hamsterballs, cars stacked atop other vehicles, stradle-driving and insisting on taking wolves(/etc) through a flooded section of road, which may or may not be 'open' in any real sense, especially to other forms of traffic... But I'm a lot more familiar with the cycling issue, so I added that ''pro-''cycling bit of advice. Not that it will improve matters, or significantly add to understanding, but it made me feel a tiny bit better at the time, and so thanks for reading. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.48|172.70.86.48]] 10:07, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
: Bias may not have been intended, but that doesn't mean that (socialised and internalised) bias wasn't present. It's a common misconception, but there are no rules against riding abreast or in groups in the UK, and it's often recognised that it can be safer for cyclists to do so. Where there are such rules, they are anti-cycling rules, designed to move cyclists over out of the way of the supposedly more important motor traffic. Motorists aren't annoyed by the cyclists, per se - they're annoyed because their perceived superiority as road users is challenged by having to wait behind. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.225|172.70.85.225]] 13:17, 19 October 2022 (UTC)
:: This does not contradict the statement that riding excessively abreast (i.e. across multiple lanes) does no favours to the cycling community (my community). As an act of protest, you may be able to do many things that aren't technically illegal but for which annoyance of others is going to be a self-defeating activity if you want those in the wrong (misinformed motorists, especially) to learn and understand and appreciate.
:: The recent resurgent demand for "bicycle licence plates", unworkable as it is, arose not just from people doing outright illegal things (like using pavements, junping lights, reckless riding in general) but also being inconsiderate..
:: I'm involved in cycle-sport, racing on the road, and the right to do this has been historically retained (and actually engrained in law) against a background of anti-cycling opinion, and I would like this to continue. It is not just the ignorant outsider, who maybe I could enlighten and get on side (as if there's any hope of that), but also those participants (or non-participants who nevertheless are seen as the same in the eyes of the outsider) who bring the sport into disrepute by not obeying the Highway Code, etc.
:: And group-riding in a peleton fashion (without being ''in'' a peleton, anyway, the management of which I leave to those responsible for mass-start races who are additionally already required to get police permission/road-closures arranged) doesn't make a safer environment and doesn't help the (rightful) acceptance of cycling by those who observe such apparent chaos. It's bad enough with the perfectly legal two-abreast group riding which, as you say and which I obviously know perfectly well, is also often the safest option.
:: The perceived superiority of motorists vs others (or indeed others vs everyone else, as a pedestrian I've been verbally abused/threatened by pavement-riders!) is a problem which doesn't get fixed by thoughtlessness, hot-headedness or basic impetuosity. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.42|162.158.203.42]] 19:35, 19 October 2022 (UTC)
::: The bias comes in, though, when you only comment on the behaviour and supposed inconsiderateness of the cyclists in the comic, and not on that of the other road users depicted. The 'peleton' of cars in panel 4 is actually far more likely to be encountered in urban areas, can be equally a catalyst for frustration and annoyance for other road users who are obstructed by it (in this case, often cyclists), and likely involves a lot of thoughtlessness and inconsiderateness in that drivers have chosen to make unnecessary journeys by car. But no-one comments on that (suggesting that they should break up into smaller groups to make it easier for other road users to negotiate around them, for example), because of the ingrained societal bias that cars on the road are 'normal', whereas bicycles are an aberration, and should get out of the way of 'proper traffic'.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.58|172.70.91.58]] 08:41, 20 October 2022 (UTC)
:::: Maybe if they could act like proper traffic, they wouldn't be seen as a meanace or problem as opposed to 'normal' traffic. I can't even count with all 20 fingers in my body the amount of times a bike rider almost crashed into me just this past year alone because they've got it into their heads they get to use roads, but don't have to follow traffic lights like everyone else and are exempt from keeping an eye our for pedestrians or other traffic. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.110.205|141.101.110.205]] 15:08, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2685: 2045

Talk:2684: Road Space Comparison