explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2954: Bracket Symbols

2024-07-04T06:03:34Z

162.158.158.104: Undo revision 345522 by 172.71.147.30 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2954
| date = July 3, 2024
| title = Bracket Symbols
| image = bracket_symbols_2x.png
| imagesize = 592x569px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = ’"‘”’" means "I edited this text on both my phone and my laptop before sending it"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an ANNOYED LAYMAN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} WAKE UP, NERDS! Come explain to me why this is funny!

'The preliminary nerd has arrived and did his best to fix the article.' (Even though I'm not British, I thought it might be funny to reference the comic. {See what I did there?} )

Here is a list of what these symbols may mean as a preliminary to a full proper explanation: (feel free to update or completely replace this)

() - Normal parentheses (like this). No joke here.

[] - Someone explain the joke to the editor, I don't get it

{} - I also don't get the joke here. Randall could be referencing coding in some way.

"" - Normal quotation marks.

'' - Some British media uses these to note when people are talking, for example Harry Potter.

<> or ‹› - Books like the series Animorphs (someone link it) or science fiction novels use these when a character is communicating nonverbally, for example telepathy.

«» - Literally just French quotation marks.

|| - Absolute indicators used in math to ensure a number is positive (ex. |-69| = 69) therefore protecting you and your equations from them.

**, __, // - Markup symbols for text to make it *bold*, _underlined_, or /italic/.

~~ - Strikethrough markup commonly used on sites like Tumblr to indicate that you don't really mean something you said. This is a somewhat archaic trend, but I still use it...

Random parentheses - Spaghetti code (badly maintained or written) in programming languages including Python will often be badly organized creating a mess of indentations and brackets used to create functions or loops etc. (Someone link an example)

I have no idea how to type the Ls or the joke here. Someone please explain.

Also no idea how to type these - Randall is poking fun at the makings commonly found as decoration along the sides of string instruments like the violin. Someone else can explain the math.

|⟩ - Someone better versed in quantum mechanics write this. I'll definitely get it wrong.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2504: Fissile Raspberry Isotopes

2021-08-22T07:38:23Z

162.158.158.104: /* Explanation */ A pun might have involved equine accommodation (which it didn't), so instead lets just make it a factual link.

{{comic
| number = 2504
| date = August 18, 2021
| title = Fissile Raspberry Isotopes
| image = fissile_raspberry_isotopes.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = Grandma's shelf-stable blackberry pie meson recipe was a huge seller until her farm was shut down by a joint FDA/NRC investigation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NUCLEAR FARM INVESTIGATOR. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Ponytail]] is admiring her {{w|raspberry}} fields telling [[Cueball]] she expects a good harvest... That is if they do not get too many fissile raspberry isotopes! To which Cueball has to ask ''Too many '''whats?'''''

The comic is thus a joking analogy to {{w|nuclear chain reactions}}, in which the {{w|nuclear fission|fission}} (splitting in two) of one {{w|atomic nucleus}} releases {{w|neutrons}}, which then strike other nuclei and cause them in turn to fission, releasing more neutrons. This chain reaction releases a great deal of energy and is what makes possible both {{w|nuclear power}} and {{w|nuclear bombs}}.

A {{w|fissile isotope}}, such as {{w|uranium-235}}, is one that is sufficiently large and unstable to undergo such a chain reaction, as opposed to the more common and less unstable {{w|uranium-238}}. Ponytail fear that her raspberries have too many unstable isotopes so that her fields risk undergoing a similar fission-driven chain reaction. This chain reaction is depicted in the second panel, and she explains that if this happens the entire crop may be gone in seconds. It sounds like this is only dangerous for her economy, i.e. all the berries is destroyed, but not the entire field. So not an explosion that destroys her field or any living thing nearby, but the berries would be unsalable.

In real life raspberries don't undergo such chain reactions.{{citation needed}} As an {{w|aggregate fruit}}, raspberries resemble [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Nucleus_drawing.svg/1024px-Nucleus_drawing.svg.png|common depictions of atomic nuclei], with each drupelet corresponding to a nucleon (proton or neutron), which is probably why they are the subject of the comic. (The actual "appearance" of atomic nuclei, in contrast to the common depictions, is complicated by Heisenbergian uncertainty, quantum effects, and strong nuclear force interactions.) Perhaps these raspberries are byproducts of the experiments depicted in [[1949: Fruit Collider]].

This comic is also a pun on "pi mesons" or {{w|pions}}, subatomic particles that transmit the {{w|strong nuclear force}}, and the similarity in name to a {{w|pie}}, the food type, as in a {{w|raspberry pie}}. The transmission of the strong nuclear force happens most importantly in the atomic nucleus and is responsible for keeping the nucleus intact, ''i.e.'', preventing it from undergoing fission despite the strong repulsive {{w|electromagnetic force}} present from all the positively-charged {{w|protons}}.

Ponytail claims that her berries are protected (bound) by fresh raspberry pie mesons. Cueball states he hopes they hold, but Ponytail is confident as these pies are made from her grandma's recipe, ''i.e.'', it is actually a fresh pie made from the berries. The faith in the pie recipe being able to impede the danger references the convention of "Just like Grandma used to make", nostalgia for an infallible cookery ancestor, in this case a hallowed family recipe that acts to {{w|Neutron moderator|mitigate}} any budding {{w|Aggregate fruit|'berry'}} chain-reaction. [[2366: Amelia's_Farm_Fresh_Cookies|Grandma's baking]] is not always so fondly remembered and, in this case, it could be some (in)famous inertness and solidity to the product that is reassuring, not any form of culinary excellence.

The title text mentions that the grandma's recipe was a huge seller, but that then the farm was shut down by a joint FDA/NRC investigation. This refers to the {{w|Food and Drug Administration}} (FDA) and the {{w|Nuclear Regulatory Commission}} (NRC). The FDA is responsible for the regulation and inspection of food in the U.S., and the NRC for the regulation and inspection of nuclear facilities and materials. A hypothetical "blackberry pie meson" might well run afoul of both, being both nuclear and therefore subject to NRC regulations and permitting requirements, and unhealthy to eat and thus violating FDA rules. One might be able to imagine the FDA discovering that the blackberry pis are functioning to contain a nuclear chain reaction, and calling in the NRC to consult. The FDA took a similarly incongruous interest in physics in the title text of [[2216: Percent Milkfat]].

It is mentioned that the pies were {{w|Shelf-stable food|shelf stable}}, which means it can last a long time without being in a refrigerator. This may be because of its innate radioactivity keeping it free from germs. This may also explain why they were shut down by both the above-mentioned agencies. The word "stable" also describes {{w|Stable_nuclide|atoms}}, and therefore substances, that do not spontaneously undergo nuclear decay, though a stable isotope may result directly from the decay of an unstable one.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and Cueball are standing in a field, looking at rows of crops disappearing in the distance over rolling hills.]
:Ponytail: I reckon it'll be a good harvest.
:Ponytail: So long as we don't get too many fissile raspberry isotopes.
:Cueball: Too many ''whats''?

:[In a half height panel is shown a picture of a raspberry with an arrow to a situation where it is splitting in to two equal parts. From the split there also comes two small drupelets flying out as shown with arrows. Below these two situations is a smaller sketch of how one of these two drupelets will eventually hit another raspberry, which will send out three drupelets when splitting, two of those hitting other berries, that each send out two drupelets. The lower of these are not depicted hitting any, but the upper split hits two again, which each send out two, in an ongoing chain reaction. The depiction stops there. Above this panel is what Ponytail tells Cueball:]
:Ponytail (narrating): If a raspberry breaks in half, it releases fragments which can cause more splits. Within seconds you've lost the whole crop.

:[Ponytail and Cueball are standing in an empty panel talking.]
:Ponytail: Luckily the berries are bound by fresh raspberry pie mesons.
:Cueball: I hope they hold.
:Ponytail: It's my grandma's recipe. They'll hold.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]
[[Category:Puns]]

Talk:893: 65 Years

2021-04-28T17:44:07Z

162.158.158.104:

I wonder if it would be possible to identify ''individual people'' who are behind those vertical jumps in the graph (in the not projected part)... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 19:18, 14 December 2012 (UTC)
*Glad you asked! </Information Hen> Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in July 1969; that's two. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean joined the group that November; that's four. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell in February '71; that's six. David Scott and James Irwin in July '71; that's eight. John W. Young and Charles Duke in April '72; that's ten. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in December '72; that's twelve. Irwin died in '91, dropping it to 11. Shepard and Conrad died in '98 and '99 respectively, making it 9 as of the date this comic was published. Armstrong died in '12, so our current number is 8. The oldest living person to have landed on the moon is Aldrin, 83. There are two 82-year-olds, two 80s, one 78 and two 77s. [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 13:28, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Almost prophetic and very, very sad. RIP Neil Armstrong ------

Can we add the 5% and 95% columns to the table? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]])
::i dont feel like this would add to the explanation of the comic and would require us to know a great deal about the author's calculations. rather than attempt to redo the actuarial calculations performed to make the chart and assign this to the individuals in the table we should rather explain the concepts behind the 5% and 95% and preserve the intention of actuarial information as applying to demographic groups. 5% of people in the demographic the author selected live to _ age 95% of those people live to _ age and how this affects our subject population. [[User:Mrarch|Mrarch]] ([[User talk:Mrarch|talk]]) 21:43, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Why is this explanation incomplete? The second paragraph does a good job explaining what the 5th percentile and 95th percentile are referring to. [[User:String userName = new String();|String userName = new String();]] ([[User talk:String userName = new String();|talk]]) 23:35, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

I prefer to think of the inhabitable planets as extensions to earth reserved for when we have learned not to kill all the inhabitants of the only inhabited planet in the universe.

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 22:39, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

I see no reason this is marked as incomplete; I've tidied up the percentile explanations, but haven't really added much more. I think it's fine, and will remove the incomplete tag in a few days if nobody objects. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 13:53, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

'''UPDATED GRAPH:''' I've updated the image with a red line showing actual moon walker deaths. View here: [https://i.imgur.com/G7DbbBi.png]. Sadly, it's right on track. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.59|172.68.58.59]] 22:19, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

As of mid April, 2020, this prediction is still accurate, but I'm really scared of what it'll be by the end of 2020 or 2021. Stay healthy everyone, astronaut or not! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 07:04, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Interesting that 6/12 of all the people who walked on the moon were born in 1930, and all bar Alan Shepard was born 1930-1935. Reminds me of some of the ideas in Malcolm Gladwell's *Outliers* about there being especially good birth years to succeed at high levels in given fields. It seems you want to have been mid-30s to early-40s (Shephard the outlier at 47) in the late 60s/early 70s. This also makes the comic more dramatic - if there had been a wider spread of ages, then the "death curve" would be a lot more gradual. -[[User:Honeypuppy|Honeypuppy]] ([[User talk:Honeypuppy|talk]]) 01:15, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

Honorary mention: Michael Collins (1930-2021), RIP this date. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.104|162.158.158.104]] 17:44, 28 April 2021 (UTC)