explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1035: Cadbury Eggs

2016-02-19T15:22:46Z

162.158.152.5:

They can't *all* be like that. I'm pretty sure the ones with caramel fillings have waay more calories than the average egg, and coke zero probably amounts to less than one egg. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:34, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
:true, but it's worse for you for completely different reasons. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 10:07, 15 April 2013 (UTC)
:surely coke zero isn't technically food. why not replace it with hummingbird urine? naturally sweet! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 01:33, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
Out of sheer intellectual curiosity do humming birds urinate?
Packaging colours, filling colour, and title-text indicate that it's about the cream eggs, not caramel. Is it more common in America to call them Cadbury eggs and not cream eggs? Seems weird to this Brit, Cadbury's is the brand, they do more than just eggs, and we typically say Cadbury's with the possessive apostrophe-s. Also of note is the year-round thing. Cream eggs are sold year-round, but are stocked in higher quantities over Easter (and green-yolked ones for Halloween), but their advertising campaign here tends to suggest that they are available exclusively in those two seasons (worse, Halloween is actually very rare to see in televised advertising, as by then the larger shops are decorated for Christmas. I don't recall ever seeing Halloween egg adverts, somebody scour YouTube?)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.130|141.101.99.130]] 01:56, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Unfortunately, unlike in Britain, the cream eggs are all that can be found in the US from Cadbury. So naturally they became "the" Cadbury product. Some import stores have chocolate bars, but they're hard to find. And in either case they're actually manufactured by Hershey under license (although they're still better than normal Hershey chocolate). And for the most part, while they can easily be found here year-round, in Easter most stores will put them by the registers and in general this is the only time they're really brought to social awareness. Also, I've found that, at least in American English, whether we use the possessive for brand names is entirely dependent on the brand (and rather random in my opinion), but both tend to sound right. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.75|199.27.133.75]] 01:48, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

Anyone saw snapple? It is a reference to a previous "Snapple" xkcd comic and I believe it is worth noting [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.212|173.245.48.212]] 09:14, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
:It's also the name of a drink in the US. It's probably a coincidence.-Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 01:03, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

They have Cadbury's products over there despite the sewer pipe issue issue?[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 22:53, 21 January 2015 (UTC)
:You might want to clarify the issue you're talking about, Shrapnel. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 01:03, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

1643: Degrees

2016-02-15T19:05:24Z

162.158.152.5: /* Summary of Reasons */

{{comic
| number = 1643
| date = February 15, 2016
| title = Degrees
| image = degrees.png
| titletext = "Radians Fahrenheit or radians Celsius?" "Uh, sorry, gotta go!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First explanation}}
[[Cueball]] is being asked by a friend for the temperature. There are two common ways to give this: in degrees Celsius and degrees Fahrenheit. The former is the {{w |Metric_system|metric system}}, most often not used in the US although it is {{w|Metric_Conversion_Act|the preferred system for trade and commerce}}. The latter is the {{w|Imperial_units|Imperial system}}. Cueball weighs up the benefits of both, but is rushed by his friend to give an answer, so he gives the answer in {{w|radians}} (which can be denoted with the superscript c, but more commonly ㎭ or rad, lest it be confused with the ° for angular degrees), which is a system used to measure angular measure in geometry, not temperature gradations of whichever scale. Thus, this answer is unhelpful. Strictly speaking, a value given in radians doesn't have a unit, it's just a plain number (for an angle in geometry).

The joke here is that traditionally {{w|Angle|Geometrical angles}} are {{w|Triangle|measured in degrees}}, and temperature is measured in degrees (e.g. {{w|Celsius|degrees celsius}} ), but there is not the {{w|Degree|slightest degree}} of {{w|correlation}} between the two.

The title text indicates that Cueball's friend still wants to know whether the answer is in radians Fahrenheit or radians Celsius, which, despite being a silly way to express temperature, makes Cueball nervous, and he runs off. The answer Cueball gives is 0.173 radians, which is around 9.91 degrees. (9.91°C = 49.8°F and 9.91°F = -12.3°C). Given the temperatures in Massachusetts (where Randall lives) when this comic came out, this was likely radians Fahrenheit.

===Summary of Reasons===

{| class="wikitable"
| | Reason
| | Explanation
|-
| |
International standard
| |
Degrees Celsius is the unit in the SI system of units used in most countries today. Using the SI system would allow Cueball to be easily understood in most countries and is by far the most recognized system, but it is not the most commonly used in the United States, his actual location in the comic.

|-
| |
Helps reduce America's weird isolationism
| |
The United States uses its own set of units, including Degrees Fahrenheit, based on the English Customary System, in contrast to most of the rest of the world which uses the SI system. The US's system of units is therefore considered "weird" as make the US different from most of the world for no real reason, but previous efforts to convert the US to the SI system have failed. Cueball evidently believes that by using SI units he will help to eventually convert the US to the SI system, bringing considerable trade and tourism benefits and reducing confusion when dealing with foreigners.
|-
| |
Nice how "negative" means below freezing
| |
On the Celsius scale, the freezing point of water at standard atmospheric pressure (101325 Pascals) is 0° C, and any temperature below that is "below" the freezing point. On the Fahrenheit scale, the freezing point is a less intuitive 32° F.
|-
| |
Physics major loyalty
| |
Cueball is apparently a physics major, like Randall, and SI units are more commonly used for scientific work (As Kelvins are sometimes used in advanced Physics), even in the US. By using the Celsius scale in casual conversation he would show his loyalty to the system used by actual physicists.
|-
| |
Easier to spell
| |
"Celsius" is generally considered to be an easier word to spell than "Fahrenheit." In this case the word is being spoken and the point is not immediately relevant, but part of the joke is that Cueball is overthinking things and worrying about the general use of the word when an answer is needed in this specific case.
|-
| |
We lost a Mars probe over this crap
| |
The {{w|Mars_Climate_Orbiter|Mars Climate Orbiter}} disintegrated in Mars' atmosphere because Lockheed used Imperial units instead of the contractually specified metric units.
|-
| |
|-
| |
0°F to 100°F good match for temperature range in which most humans live
| |
While it might make sense to use Celsius temperatures for scientific or engineering measurements - or even cooking - where the freezing and boiling points of water (0°C and 100°C, respectively) are both significant, for weather reporting, 0°F and 100°F correspond to "just about as cold as it gets" and "just about as hot as it gets" in temperate zones, thereby making this a useful temperature scale for weather reporting where most people live. By contrast, in Celsius the scale of common temperatures in temperate zones goes from -20°C to 40°C, a less intuitive range.
|-
| |
Rounds more usefully (70's, 90's)
| |
An argument sometimes heard for the continued use of Fahrenheit temperatures is that each 10 degrees change is meaningful in how we feel the temperature. Thus, it is convenient to talk about the temperature being in the 70's today, or the 90's, etc. Since Celsius degrees are almost twice as large, a similar statement about the temperature being in the 20's or 30's is not as useful. However, this seems likely to be more a matter of which scale you are used to using than anything inherent in one scale or the other.
|-
| |
Unit-aware computing makes Imperial less annoying
| |
If you need to constantly convert between Imperial and SI measurements in your head, it gets annoying and is a strong argument for everyone using the same scale all the time. But, when it is easy to get the temperature reported in whatever units you want just by selecting the units you want your computer to report, then the annoyance is minimized, and the arguments for why we should stop using a familiar scale are weakened.
|-
| |
SI prefixes are less relevant for temperatures
| |
One of the nice things about SI measurements is how the same basic unit scales by factors of 10 with common prefixes - e.g., kilometer, millimeter, kilogram, milligram, etc. Imperial measurements don't have this feature - you don't talk about long distances as kiloinches or light weights as millipounds. But, we generally don't use scaled up-or-down temperature scales (millidegrees or kilodegrees), so this argument for using SI measurements for length, mass, volume, etc., doesn't apply for temperature scales.
|-
| |
Fahrenheit is likely more clear in this context
| |
Cueball apparently knows that the inquirer is most likely to assume the answer will be in degrees Fahrenheit, so giving the answer that way would be the least likely to be misinterpreted. If he surprisingly gives an answer in Celsius, without explicitly stating he is reporting the temperature in Celsius, then that could be confusing.
|-
| |
Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend
| |
The final thing Cueball considers is to question why he would give an answer that attaches more value to promoting standardization of units when all his friend wants to know is whether it is cold or warm outside. Wouldn't it be more friendly to just answer the question the way his friend will find most convenient?
| |
|}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is looking at his phone]
:Off-screen person: Hey, what's the temperature outside?
:Cueball [thinks]: Should I give it in °F or °C?

:Degrees Celsius
:* International standard
:* Helps reduce America's weird isolationism
:* Nice how "negative" means below freezing
:* Physics major loyalty
:* Easier to spell
:* {{w|Mars_Climate_Orbiter|We lost a Mars probe over this crap}}

:Degrees Fahrenheit
:* 0°F to 100°F good match for temperature range in which most humans live
:* Rounds more usefully (70's, 90's)
:* Unit-aware computing makes imperial less annoying
:* SI prefixes are less relevant for temperatures
:* Fahrenheit is likely more clear in this context
:* Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend

:Cueball [thinks]: Crap, gotta pick something. Uhh...
:Cueball: ...0.173 radians.
:Off-screen person: I'll just go check myself
{{comic discussion}}

625: Collections

2016-01-06T14:52:40Z

162.158.152.5: /* Explanation */ - someone misinterpreted the title text

{{comic
| number = 625
| date = August 19, 2009
| title = Collections
| image = collections.png
| titletext = You know what really helps an existential crisis? Wondering how much shelf space to leave for a Terry Pratchett collection.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] enters, excited that he's managed to buy every one of author {{w|Terry Pratchett}}'s {{w|Discworld}} books for his {{w|Amazon Kindle|Kindle e-reader}}. [[Megan]] says that it seems pointless to her to build a Kindle collection.

Cueball interprets this to mean she thinks it's pointless to build a collection on an electronic device, perhaps due to the DRM ({{w|digital rights management}}) software common on these devices which can (for instance) make it difficult to transfer the files if the device breaks. (This was the subject of [[488: Steal This Comic]] and DRM has been the general subject of [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?search=DRM&go=Go&title=Special%3ASearch many xkcd comics].)

However, Megan is ''actually'' commenting on the futility of building up any kind of collection at all, since nothing we do can change the fact that we're inevitably going to die. And when we die, we always die alone - i.e. no one else can follow you on that last journey. And no matter how much you have collected (or earned) during this life that will not change. (A {{w|magpie}} is a bird traditionally thought to be drawn to collect shiny objects and bring them back to its nest.)

This view is in line with those advanced by the philosophical movement known as {{w|existentialism}} which theorizes that life has no deep, hidden meaning and hence even things that we personally feel are meaningful (like building up collections) will not change the outcome of life in the end.

Cueball obviously has seen Megan is such moods before (see [[220: Philosophy]]), and excuses himself for not noticing immediately (in the first panel) by the fact that he sometimes mistakes her {{w|existential crisis}} as technical insight. Megan deepens her crisis by pointing out that she sometimes makes the mistake to think that the {{w|universe}} cares. This is a disguised criticism of Cueballs behaviour, meaning that she would rather want him to care about her existential crisises, instead of simply brushing them of.

The title text sarcastically points out that ''Wondering how much shelf space to leave for a Terry Pratchett collection.'' (That would then be all his works not just the Discworld series...) is an excellent way to deepen an existential crisis

By the time of his death Pratchett had written 41 Discworld books and more than 70 books in total. The day after Pratchett died [[Randall]] made a tribute comic to his memory in [[1498: Terry Pratchett]].

==Transcript==
:Cueball: I now have every Discworld book!
:Megan: Eh. Building a Kindle collection seems pointless.

:Cueball: Yeah, I know the DRM means I'll probably lose them someday.
:Megan: No, pointless in general.

:Megan: Sure, you satisfy deep magpie-like urges by building neat collections, but you still die alone.

:Cueball: Sorry, sometimes I mistake your existential crises for technical insights.
:Megan: Sometimes I mistake this for a universe that cares.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

95: The Sierpinski Penis Game

2015-12-24T10:47:35Z

162.158.152.5: /* Explanation */ Link to wikipedia article no longer exists

{{comic
| number = 95
| date = April 28, 2006
| title = The Sierpinski Penis Game
| image = the_sierpinski_penis_game.jpg
| titletext = Inappropriate places for the Penis Game include baby showers and terrorist attacks.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Chaos game|The Chaos Game}} is a method of generating a fractal by repeatedly applying randomly-chosen transformation functions to a point and plotting the position of the new point each time. The transformation functions are randomly chosen from a small, predefined list. The surprising result of this is that, even though the functions are picked randomly, a distinctly non-random fractal image emerges. The exact nature of this image depends on the list of transformation functions used.

One such fractal that can be produced by the Chaos Game is the {{w|Sierpinski Triangle}}, which is the fractal pictured in this comic.

The Penis Game, on the other hand, is a childish activity where people (usually schoolchildren) compete to shout "Penis!" increasingly loudly in the presence of an authority figure (usually a teacher) without getting in trouble.

The two games could be said to be similar in that they both involve iterations of transformations; in the Chaos Game, a point's position is transformed (moving it closer and closer to the attractor set of the transformations); in the Penis game, the volume of the phrase "Penis!" is transformed (becoming louder and louder). The difference is that the Chaos Game works by {{w|negative feedback}} (eventually settling down into a well-defined image) whereas the Penis Game involves {{w|positive feedback}} (at some point, the cry of "Penis!" will become loud enough that the culprit will get in trouble and the game will end). Nonetheless, they could be vaguely considered inverses of each other, and Randall appears to be conflating the two in this comic.

The title text may be calling attention to the fact that a mathematical object such as a fractal is also an inappropriate place in which to be playing the Penis Game.

==Transcript==
:[A large triangle is shown, with many smaller triangles inside.]
:[Words are in the triangles.]
:PENIS! Haha, penis.

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

Talk:1607: Supreme Court

2015-11-23T11:32:07Z

162.158.152.5:

Made some additions, since I'm the first person up at this ungodly hour. Well, it's ungodly in my time zone, anyway. (Why is it that the time changes depending on where you live, but the months don't?) I am a first-time editor, so please correct any mistakes in formatting. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.5|05:32, 23 November 2015‎}}
:I'm awake, it's 11:26 PM. PS, you forgot to sign, but IDK how to fix. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 05:36, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
::I do - I've added a signature. --[[User:Sophira|Sophira]] ([[User talk:Sophira|talk]]) 06:11, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
He just might be... THE LAW! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.41|108.162.221.41]] 06:17, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Isn't the joke that xkcd people are stick men, so the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libra_(constellation)#History_and_mythology libra] could just be a man with a tiny head carrying two buckets..? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.159|162.158.91.159]] 10:00, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Currently there's nothing in the explanation of the titletext that addresses that Justice X is claiming to be ''either'' of two individuals, not even trying to properly impersonate a specific individual. Of course, logically, if they claimed to be a specific person then this specific person they claimed to be could so easily counter-claim. So that approach shouldn't work. But being vague would ''also'' be strange. Unlike a game of Mafia, when there might (occasionally) be reasons to be vague in this manner about one's role (and yet accept that this can look utterly Scummy, if this approach is directed at the Townies) to try to offset targetting by the opposing camp, this should ''still'' not work in a group where everyone already knows each other. So who knows how 'relatively illogical' the two approaches are, to each other... ;) But can anyone explain this better than me? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.5|162.158.152.5]] 11:32, 23 November 2015 (UTC)