explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2725: Sunspot Cycle

2023-01-17T13:35:21Z

162.158.159.74: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2725
| date = January 16, 2023
| title = Sunspot Cycle
| image = sunspot_cycle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x503px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Who can forget the early 2010s memes? 'You know you're a 90s kid if you remember the feeling of warm sunlight on your face.' 'Only 90s kids remember the dawn.'
}}

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

This comic is a reference to the {{w|solar cycle}}, which is a roughly 11-year cycle of changes in the Sun's activity from a period of minimal levels of various related phenomena ({{w|sunspots}}, solar radiation, ejecta, and solar flares) to one of maximum activity in these areas. As the cycle continues, the Sun returns to minimal activity and starts over. Without actually studying the Sun, however, there is no discernable difference to our daily lives here on Earth, and studying the Sun in enough detail is difficult due to its intrinsic and eye-damaging brightness whenever viewed directly.

This comics makes a joke that when the absolute number of sunspots appears to decrease it is not because they disappear, but because they get so crowded that they begin to merge, and thus the number of individual spots decreases whereas the area of the sun covered by sunspots continues to increase to near total 'darkness'. This causes there to be a completely dark Sun after 11 years, at which point any new sunspots are ''bright'' patches, and the next 11-year cycle repeats the process but accumulating bright spots until eventually it is all bright once more, giving a total bright/dark cycle of 22 years.

The curve showing the number of differentiable sunspots in this 22 year cycle would follow the curves for two whole cycles of our normal Sun, as the number of distinct spots (of either kind) decreases down to practically just one Sun-enveloping spot. The change in brightness over the cycle, however, repeats only over the full 22 years, darkening and then being made to shine bright once more as the other type of spot appears and begins to dominate once more.

Below is a graph showing the number of sunspots as a function of time from around 1965 to 2025. Periods where the sun is dark are shown with black under the curve, and in transition periods with lines of darkness getting closer together on the way to 'fully' dark area plus vals of light reinserting themselves in the lightening part of the cycle. Also for clarity the troughs are labeled with the sun being bright or dark. It is always when there are few spots that the sun is either completely free from spots and thus bright, or completely covered and thus dark. The maxima are always one or other extreme, alternating, the transition period being as the curve rises towards these.

From this curve it can be seen that the Sun was bright in the nineties, but not in the dark eighties or the dark time from around 2001 to 2014. This fact is mentioned in the title text (see below). Similarly the seventies were bright, after dark sixties. But after the darkness began around 2000 it first got bright again around 2014. Finally darkness starts again around 2024. So the cycles are not perfectly 11 years long and there could be changes during a cycle like the one around 2013-2014 where there is a clear peak in the number of sunspots but darkness prevails. Maybe the large spots split up into several small ones, but staying close to each other, without getting much less area covered. The count would go up if they were no longer merged together, but the brightness might not increase much.

This would obviously be catastrophic if it happened in our version of the universe, as during a dark phase no light would be coming from the Sun, so the Earth would freeze if all wavelengths of the Sun were blocked. If the spots only affect light in the visible spectrum, then Earth would not freeze but plants would have trouble with photosynthesis. In our universe sunspots cool the area of the Sun where they appear but they are not totally dark; [https://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/workbook/sunspot.html NASA says] that each sunspot on its own would glow orange, brighter than the Moon is when it is full (and the Sun is normally bright, to have illumiated it). So even in a completely sunspot-covered Sun, the Sun would still be brighter than the Moon (ought to be), and it would be possible to see it rise even if the heat delivered were very low. See more in the title text explanation.

These problems are obviously not a serious threat in the reality of the comic, as the Sun is truly dark and people survive these dark periods. This becomes clear in the title text where internet memes indicate that people lived fine through the dark periods, although they obviously did not see the sun as kids if they were born during the early start of the next dark period.

The title text thus indicates the effect on internet memes that the special solar cycle has. During the 2010s in our universe there were many '90s kid' memes. Those were also popular in this universe, but they reflect that the Earth had at that time been dark since the 2000s, and thus only those born in the 90s and before would remember dawn or the feeling of the warm sun on their faces.

This of course indicates that the Sun is actually dark and gives no warmth. Thus it is a mystery how life on Earth prevails, but given that there were kids from the 90s that made memes twenty years after, life does work in this strange world.

==Transcript==
:[This comics shows two graphs, one also with several images of the Sun in different times in the solar cycle. The top graph is much larger than the bottom graph, and above them is a explanation of what the graphs shows:]
:Ever wonder why the sun disappears for about 10 years every other decade? This terrifying period of worldwide darkness is a natural consequence of the 11-year sunspot cycle:

:[A graph is shown with a label above the arrow on the Y-axis and a label written above the left part of the X-axis with an arrow pointing from it to the right (there is not arrow on the X-axis line). The graph shows a sine curve with a dashed line. It starts close to the bottom and then increases, then decreases before i finally slightly increases again. Above the dashed line are eight circles representing the sun with various levels of sunspots, with an arrow between each circle pointing to the next to the right. All circles are just above the dashed curve and the small arrows between them also follow the curvature of the line, so this string makes the same shape as the curve. along the eight representation of the sun there are five labels. The eight Suns will be described below with labels given when relevant.]
:Y-Axis: Sunspot number
:Y-Axis: Time

:[The first Sun's circle is completely white]

:[The second Sun's circle has a few sunspots. A label is written to the left of it:]
:Dark sunspots appear

:[The third Sun's circle has several sunspots. A label is written to the left of it:]
:Sunspot number rises

:[The fourth Sun's circle is half covered in sunspots.]

:[The fifth Sun's circle is mostly black with a few lines of white dots. Between the fourth and fifth circle is a label:]
:Number falls as sunspots merge.

:[The sixth Sun's circle is almost completely black with just a few small white spots. A label is written above it:]
:Sunspots envelop sun, Earth enters years of darkness.

:[The seventh Sun's circle is mostly black with a few light areas.]

:[The eighth Sun's circle is still mostly black but with some larger white areas. A label is written above and left of it:]
:Bright sunspots appear, cycle reverses.

:[Below is a second graph with a label written near the top of the Y-axis which is otherwise not labeled. The X-axis also has no label, but six years are written beneath at equal intervals. The graph shows a similar sine curve as the one above, but with almost five cycles shown. Also each cycle is not close to being a perfect sine curve, but has the property with a peak followed by a trough. The five troughs are labeled. The area beneath the curve alternates from being black and white when there is a trough, with the peak in between having several vertical lines, indicating transfer from black to white and vise versa. There are not same distance between peaks and there are also features on the graphs, for instance the two peaks in the middle has a drop, so they look like volcanoes. And the last full peak has a clear outlier year with many sunspots.]
:Label: History:
:X-axis labels: 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
:Through 1970-1980: Sun is bright
:Through 1980-1990: Sun is dark
:Through 1990-2000: Sun is bright
:Through 2000-2010: Sun is dark
:Through 2010-2020: Sun is bright

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Internet]]

2725: Sunspot Cycle

2023-01-17T13:34:44Z

162.158.159.74: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2725
| date = January 16, 2023
| title = Sunspot Cycle
| image = sunspot_cycle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x503px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Who can forget the early 2010s memes? 'You know you're a 90s kid if you remember the feeling of warm sunlight on your face.' 'Only 90s kids remember the dawn.'
}}

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

This comic is a reference to the {{w|solar cycle}}, which is a roughly 11-year cycle of changes in the Sun's activity from a period of minimal levels of various related phenomena ({{w|sunspots}}, solar radiation, ejecta, and solar flares) to one of maximum activity in these areas. As the cycle continues, the Sun returns to minimal activity and starts over. Without actually studying the Sun, however, there is no discernable difference to our daily lives here on Earth, and studying the Sun in enough detail is difficult due to its intrinsic and eye-damaging brightness whenever viewed directly.

This comics makes a joke that when the absolute number of sunspots appears to decrease it is not because they disappear, but because they get so crowded that they begin to merge, and thus the number of individual spots decreases whereas the area of the sun covered by sunspots continues to increase to near total 'darkness'. This causes there to be a completely dark Sun after 11 years, at which point any new sunspots are ''bright' patches, and the next 11-year cycle repeats the process but accumulating bright spots until eventually it is all bright once more, giving a total bright/dark cycle of 22 years.

The curve showing the number of differentiable sunspots in this 22 year cycle would follow the curves for two whole cycles of our normal Sun, as the number of distinct spots (of either kind) decreases down to practically just one Sun-enveloping spot. The change in brightness over the cycle, however, repeats only over the full 22 years, darkening and then being made to shine bright once more as the other type of spot appears and begins to dominate once more.

Below is a graph showing the number of sunspots as a function of time from around 1965 to 2025. Periods where the sun is dark are shown with black under the curve, and in transition periods with lines of darkness getting closer together on the way to 'fully' dark area plus vals of light reinserting themselves in the lightening part of the cycle. Also for clarity the troughs are labeled with the sun being bright or dark. It is always when there are few spots that the sun is either completely free from spots and thus bright, or completely covered and thus dark. The maxima are always one or other extreme, alternating, the transition period being as the curve rises towards these.

From this curve it can be seen that the Sun was bright in the nineties, but not in the dark eighties or the dark time from around 2001 to 2014. This fact is mentioned in the title text (see below). Similarly the seventies were bright, after dark sixties. But after the darkness began around 2000 it first got bright again around 2014. Finally darkness starts again around 2024. So the cycles are not perfectly 11 years long and there could be changes during a cycle like the one around 2013-2014 where there is a clear peak in the number of sunspots but darkness prevails. Maybe the large spots split up into several small ones, but staying close to each other, without getting much less area covered. The count would go up if they were no longer merged together, but the brightness might not increase much.

This would obviously be catastrophic if it happened in our version of the universe, as during a dark phase no light would be coming from the Sun, so the Earth would freeze if all wavelengths of the Sun were blocked. If the spots only affect light in the visible spectrum, then Earth would not freeze but plants would have trouble with photosynthesis. In our universe sunspots cool the area of the Sun where they appear but they are not totally dark; [https://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/workbook/sunspot.html NASA says] that each sunspot on its own would glow orange, brighter than the Moon is when it is full (and the Sun is normally bright, to have illumiated it). So even in a completely sunspot-covered Sun, the Sun would still be brighter than the Moon (ought to be), and it would be possible to see it rise even if the heat delivered were very low. See more in the title text explanation.

These problems are obviously not a serious threat in the reality of the comic, as the Sun is truly dark and people survive these dark periods. This becomes clear in the title text where internet memes indicate that people lived fine through the dark periods, although they obviously did not see the sun as kids if they were born during the early start of the next dark period.

The title text thus indicates the effect on internet memes that the special solar cycle has. During the 2010s in our universe there were many '90s kid' memes. Those were also popular in this universe, but they reflect that the Earth had at that time been dark since the 2000s, and thus only those born in the 90s and before would remember dawn or the feeling of the warm sun on their faces.

This of course indicates that the Sun is actually dark and gives no warmth. Thus it is a mystery how life on Earth prevails, but given that there were kids from the 90s that made memes twenty years after, life does work in this strange world.

==Transcript==
:[This comics shows two graphs, one also with several images of the Sun in different times in the solar cycle. The top graph is much larger than the bottom graph, and above them is a explanation of what the graphs shows:]
:Ever wonder why the sun disappears for about 10 years every other decade? This terrifying period of worldwide darkness is a natural consequence of the 11-year sunspot cycle:

:[A graph is shown with a label above the arrow on the Y-axis and a label written above the left part of the X-axis with an arrow pointing from it to the right (there is not arrow on the X-axis line). The graph shows a sine curve with a dashed line. It starts close to the bottom and then increases, then decreases before i finally slightly increases again. Above the dashed line are eight circles representing the sun with various levels of sunspots, with an arrow between each circle pointing to the next to the right. All circles are just above the dashed curve and the small arrows between them also follow the curvature of the line, so this string makes the same shape as the curve. along the eight representation of the sun there are five labels. The eight Suns will be described below with labels given when relevant.]
:Y-Axis: Sunspot number
:Y-Axis: Time

:[The first Sun's circle is completely white]

:[The second Sun's circle has a few sunspots. A label is written to the left of it:]
:Dark sunspots appear

:[The third Sun's circle has several sunspots. A label is written to the left of it:]
:Sunspot number rises

:[The fourth Sun's circle is half covered in sunspots.]

:[The fifth Sun's circle is mostly black with a few lines of white dots. Between the fourth and fifth circle is a label:]
:Number falls as sunspots merge.

:[The sixth Sun's circle is almost completely black with just a few small white spots. A label is written above it:]
:Sunspots envelop sun, Earth enters years of darkness.

:[The seventh Sun's circle is mostly black with a few light areas.]

:[The eighth Sun's circle is still mostly black but with some larger white areas. A label is written above and left of it:]
:Bright sunspots appear, cycle reverses.

:[Below is a second graph with a label written near the top of the Y-axis which is otherwise not labeled. The X-axis also has no label, but six years are written beneath at equal intervals. The graph shows a similar sine curve as the one above, but with almost five cycles shown. Also each cycle is not close to being a perfect sine curve, but has the property with a peak followed by a trough. The five troughs are labeled. The area beneath the curve alternates from being black and white when there is a trough, with the peak in between having several vertical lines, indicating transfer from black to white and vise versa. There are not same distance between peaks and there are also features on the graphs, for instance the two peaks in the middle has a drop, so they look like volcanoes. And the last full peak has a clear outlier year with many sunspots.]
:Label: History:
:X-axis labels: 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
:Through 1970-1980: Sun is bright
:Through 1980-1990: Sun is dark
:Through 1990-2000: Sun is bright
:Through 2000-2010: Sun is dark
:Through 2010-2020: Sun is bright

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Internet]]

2725: Sunspot Cycle

2023-01-17T13:34:18Z

162.158.159.74: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2725
| date = January 16, 2023
| title = Sunspot Cycle
| image = sunspot_cycle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x503px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Who can forget the early 2010s memes? 'You know you're a 90s kid if you remember the feeling of warm sunlight on your face.' 'Only 90s kids remember the dawn.'
}}

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

This comic is a reference to the {{w|solar cycle}}, which is a roughly 11-year cycle of changes in the sun's activity from a period of minimal levels of various related phenomena ({{w|sunspots}}, solar radiation, ejecta, and solar flares) to one of maximum activity in these areas. As the cycle continues, the Sun returns to minimal activity and starts over. Without actually studying the Sun, however, there is no discernable difference to our daily lives here on Earth, and studying the Sun in enough detail is difficult due to its intrinsic and eye-damaging brightness whenever viewed directly.

This comics makes a joke that when the absolute number of sunspots appears to decrease it is not because they disappear, but because they get so crowded that they begin to merge, and thus the number of individual spots decreases whereas the area of the sun covered by sunspots continues to increase to near total 'darkness'. This causes there to be a completely dark Sun after 11 years, at which point any new sunspots are ''bright' patches, and the next 11-year cycle repeats the process but accumulating bright spots until eventually it is all bright once more, giving a total bright/dark cycle of 22 years.

The curve showing the number of differentiable sunspots in this 22 year cycle would follow the curves for two whole cycles of our normal Sun, as the number of distinct spots (of either kind) decreases down to practically just one Sun-enveloping spot. The change in brightness over the cycle, however, repeats only over the full 22 years, darkening and then being made to shine bright once more as the other type of spot appears and begins to dominate once more.

Below is a graph showing the number of sunspots as a function of time from around 1965 to 2025. Periods where the sun is dark are shown with black under the curve, and in transition periods with lines of darkness getting closer together on the way to 'fully' dark area plus vals of light reinserting themselves in the lightening part of the cycle. Also for clarity the troughs are labeled with the sun being bright or dark. It is always when there are few spots that the sun is either completely free from spots and thus bright, or completely covered and thus dark. The maxima are always one or other extreme, alternating, the transition period being as the curve rises towards these.

From this curve it can be seen that the Sun was bright in the nineties, but not in the dark eighties or the dark time from around 2001 to 2014. This fact is mentioned in the title text (see below). Similarly the seventies were bright, after dark sixties. But after the darkness began around 2000 it first got bright again around 2014. Finally darkness starts again around 2024. So the cycles are not perfectly 11 years long and there could be changes during a cycle like the one around 2013-2014 where there is a clear peak in the number of sunspots but darkness prevails. Maybe the large spots split up into several small ones, but staying close to each other, without getting much less area covered. The count would go up if they were no longer merged together, but the brightness might not increase much.

This would obviously be catastrophic if it happened in our version of the universe, as during a dark phase no light would be coming from the Sun, so the Earth would freeze if all wavelengths of the Sun were blocked. If the spots only affect light in the visible spectrum, then Earth would not freeze but plants would have trouble with photosynthesis. In our universe sunspots cool the area of the Sun where they appear but they are not totally dark; [https://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/workbook/sunspot.html NASA says] that each sunspot on its own would glow orange, brighter than the Moon is when it is full (and the Sun is normally bright, to have illumiated it). So even in a completely sunspot-covered Sun, the Sun would still be brighter than the Moon (ought to be), and it would be possible to see it rise even if the heat delivered were very low. See more in the title text explanation.

These problems are obviously not a serious threat in the reality of the comic, as the Sun is truly dark and people survive these dark periods. This becomes clear in the title text where internet memes indicate that people lived fine through the dark periods, although they obviously did not see the sun as kids if they were born during the early start of the next dark period.

The title text thus indicates the effect on internet memes that the special solar cycle has. During the 2010s in our universe there were many '90s kid' memes. Those were also popular in this universe, but they reflect that the Earth had at that time been dark since the 2000s, and thus only those born in the 90s and before would remember dawn or the feeling of the warm sun on their faces.

This of course indicates that the Sun is actually dark and gives no warmth. Thus it is a mystery how life on Earth prevails, but given that there were kids from the 90s that made memes twenty years after, life does work in this strange world.

==Transcript==
:[This comics shows two graphs, one also with several images of the Sun in different times in the solar cycle. The top graph is much larger than the bottom graph, and above them is a explanation of what the graphs shows:]
:Ever wonder why the sun disappears for about 10 years every other decade? This terrifying period of worldwide darkness is a natural consequence of the 11-year sunspot cycle:

:[A graph is shown with a label above the arrow on the Y-axis and a label written above the left part of the X-axis with an arrow pointing from it to the right (there is not arrow on the X-axis line). The graph shows a sine curve with a dashed line. It starts close to the bottom and then increases, then decreases before i finally slightly increases again. Above the dashed line are eight circles representing the sun with various levels of sunspots, with an arrow between each circle pointing to the next to the right. All circles are just above the dashed curve and the small arrows between them also follow the curvature of the line, so this string makes the same shape as the curve. along the eight representation of the sun there are five labels. The eight Suns will be described below with labels given when relevant.]
:Y-Axis: Sunspot number
:Y-Axis: Time

:[The first Sun's circle is completely white]

:[The second Sun's circle has a few sunspots. A label is written to the left of it:]
:Dark sunspots appear

:[The third Sun's circle has several sunspots. A label is written to the left of it:]
:Sunspot number rises

:[The fourth Sun's circle is half covered in sunspots.]

:[The fifth Sun's circle is mostly black with a few lines of white dots. Between the fourth and fifth circle is a label:]
:Number falls as sunspots merge.

:[The sixth Sun's circle is almost completely black with just a few small white spots. A label is written above it:]
:Sunspots envelop sun, Earth enters years of darkness.

:[The seventh Sun's circle is mostly black with a few light areas.]

:[The eighth Sun's circle is still mostly black but with some larger white areas. A label is written above and left of it:]
:Bright sunspots appear, cycle reverses.

:[Below is a second graph with a label written near the top of the Y-axis which is otherwise not labeled. The X-axis also has no label, but six years are written beneath at equal intervals. The graph shows a similar sine curve as the one above, but with almost five cycles shown. Also each cycle is not close to being a perfect sine curve, but has the property with a peak followed by a trough. The five troughs are labeled. The area beneath the curve alternates from being black and white when there is a trough, with the peak in between having several vertical lines, indicating transfer from black to white and vise versa. There are not same distance between peaks and there are also features on the graphs, for instance the two peaks in the middle has a drop, so they look like volcanoes. And the last full peak has a clear outlier year with many sunspots.]
:Label: History:
:X-axis labels: 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
:Through 1970-1980: Sun is bright
:Through 1980-1990: Sun is dark
:Through 1990-2000: Sun is bright
:Through 2000-2010: Sun is dark
:Through 2010-2020: Sun is bright

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Internet]]

Talk:2711: Optimal Bowling

2022-12-15T11:40:34Z

162.158.159.74:

Who cares about rules? I mean, I'm pretty sure your score won't count according to rules if you bowl from establishment uphill from bowling alley. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 05:36, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

If the ball has a diameter of 8.5 inches (multiplied by 2.54 and Pi makes about 67.8cm circumference) the rpm is also limited by the speed of light of the surface (reached at about 6.4x10^9rpm).

Please elaborate on how widespread the aforementioned destruction would be. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.38|172.71.154.38]] 10:50, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
: See What-If #1 (https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/) for reference. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:01, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

Randall is clearly overestimating the mass range at which "equipment damage" would occur. Even 10^3 kilos is a //car//. I'm pretty sure that throwing a bowling ball the mass of a car would do a lot of equipment damage. I believe the 10^10 to 10^20 range should be "widespread destruction" (already a category above) and between that and the Schwarzchild mass should be something like "all life on Earth destroyed" because 10^20 kilos is plenty large enough for a global killer asteroid (admittedly its velocity would be much smaller... but still, I don't see how you have 1% of the Moon's mass in bowling ball without wiping out all life on Earth). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.175|172.70.85.175]] 11:20, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

For further edification: A 10^3 kg bowling ball traveling at 10^3 m/s is approximately equivalent to a shell fired from the main battery gun of a battleship. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.74|162.158.159.74]] 11:40, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

2402: Into My Veins

2020-12-24T03:01:56Z

162.158.159.74: Ok it was a quote... "Barney's movie had heart, but Football In The Groin had a football in the groin" it doesn't really belong in this "article" and was added for fun.

{{comic
| number = 2402
| date = December 23, 2020
| title = Into My Veins
| image = into_my_veins.png
| titletext = "Okay, for the last time, the shot is free, so we can't--" "Shut up and take my money!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by PHILIP J. FRY. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic references both the COVID-19 vaccine and a common meme for when people are excited about something.

COVID-19 has inconvenienced some people{{Citation needed}}, so many people are excited for the vaccine (which will hopefully end the pandemic). This comic shows Cueball receiving the vaccine reacting with "Inject it directly into my veins," a modified version of the phrase "just hook it to my veins" (from ''The Simpsons'') that Barney says after winning a movie making contest (from the episode {{W|A Star Is Burns}}). This sort of phrase is used to express enthusiasm for something, usually something which is not generally injected into any part of the human body. Vaccines often are; however, this vaccine is intramuscular, meaning that it does ''not'' get injected directly into one's veins.

The title text references another such meme, [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-up-and-take-my-money "Shut up and take my money,"] which derives from an episode of ''Futurama''. The COVID-19 vaccine is being provided free of charge to Cueball, so taking money is entirely unnecessary (and possibly illegal).

==Transcript==

:Cueball: Yesssss
:Cueball: Inject this directly into my veins

[Beat panel. Ponytail looks down at a clipboard.]

[Zoom out to reveal that Cueball is standing by a stool, with Ponytail in front of him with a clipboard and syringe and Hairy behind him with a box of bandages and a first-aid kit.]

:Ponytail: Ok, but the vaccine is intramuscular...
:Hairy: Why do people keep ''saying'' that?
:Cueball: Sorry, sorry.
:Cueball: Just excited.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2303: Error Types

2020-05-08T01:36:11Z

162.158.159.74: Comment on Roman numerals IIII and VIIII. Robert Carnegie

As of the time of this post, the title text is "Type IIII error: Mistaking tally marks for Roman neumerals". Is "neumerals" a typo, or is there a joke in there that I'm missing? [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 22:52, 6 May 2020 (UTC)
:Looks like a typo to me. Randall's patrons should have caught this for him!
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 23:07, 6 May 2020 (UTC)

::That particular mistake is actually just called a type error.
::[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.221|162.158.62.221]] 23:12, 6 May 2020 (UTC)
:::Or, surely, a Type-0. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.82|162.158.159.82]] 01:09, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
::::I am Type-O and as a Type-O Negative, I'm VERY popular at the blood bank! (Universal Donor) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.48|108.162.216.48]] 01:25, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
::::: Actually, that's an over-simplification. Type-O-neg is only universal for whole blood donations, and only truly universal for whole blood if you are also CMV-negative. For plasma donations, Type-AB (both -pos and -neg) are universal donors. For platelets, only Type-AB-pos is universal donor. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.81|162.158.74.81]] 16:11, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
::I was hoping it could be bent to be a tribute to John von Neumann. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.223|172.68.189.223]] 05:00, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
::Looks like same type of typo he made at word "blag": [[https://explainxkcd.com/148/ Intentional.]] [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.189|172.69.54.189]] 08:04, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
:: Perhaps a reference to {{w|Neume|Neumes}}? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.211|162.158.158.211]] 09:47, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.48|108.162.216.48]] 01:24, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
The explanation builds on definitions of terms in statistics. That's fine, but there are also non-statistical usages, just for example whether someone has now (or had before) the COVID-19 virus. A false positive is a test result which incorrectly indicates that a particular condition or attribute is present, and a false negative is a test result which incorrectly indicates that a particular condition or attribute is absent. A particular test is useful when its incidence of Type I and II errors is low. Types III and IV in that context would be given by poorly designed tests which, even if they give correct results, do it for unsupportable reasons and are therefore unreliable for future results. Types V, VI, VII, and VIII are necessary fillers in the sequence, once you decide that calling The Rise of Skywalker a mistake has to be error type IX simply because it's the ninth film in the series. [[User:JohnB|JohnB]] ([[User talk:JohnB|talk]]) 00:54, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

I could convince myself that the errors are a reference to each Star Wars movie. Definitely a stretch but I'd believe it. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.24|162.158.106.24]] 02:00, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

Surely an Error of the Third Kind is when an Alien gets lost and lands on Earth. [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 11:28, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

Can we please stop categorizing every comic about scientific research and methods as COVID-19 related? This is getting quite silly.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.201|162.158.187.201]] 14:31, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
:While some members of the public this year are hearing about false positive and false negative for the first time in connection with SARS-COV2 and swab testing, usually in some counterfactual argument that getting tested now increases the probability that you got infected last week or something - I don't see that coronavirus needs to be mentioned in an explanation of the comic, given that it's xkcd and science happens here all the time. If this script ran in Arlo & Janis then a justification like that would be required... although today (May 7th) they're discussing Pavlov's dogs... is there a web page that explains Arlo & Janis? Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.225|162.158.158.225]] 01:26, 8 May 2020 (UTC)

I spent some time musing about whether the Skywalker saga could be taken as an exemplar of each of the types (e.g. the hypothesis for #1 is that Anakin Skywalker could bring balance to the Force, and the experiment was assigning him a tutor), but it's a stretch. I do like the idea that #9 is the epitome of errordom.16:07, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
:I suspect that people who like Episode IX would disagree, but I haven't found evidence that they even exist, so I can't say for sure. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 22:02, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

I'm not sure where this would fit in, but a correct answer that is viewed by the experimenter as being incorrect because of a misunderstanding, so that he changes the recording of the measurement, resulting in an incorrect measurement that he view as correct. This happened in a college classroom exercise involving Reynolds numbers. Above a certain value of Reynold's number, laminar flow will change to turbulent flow. However, that number is not where the change occurs but where laminar flow becomes unstable. One student changed all the measurements to indicate that the flow changed to turbulent almost immediately. I wondered what could have sped up the transition, thinking of things like loud noises and vibrations affecting the apparatus. The student immediately and loudly yelled that he "hadn't changed the numbers", with the vehemence indicating that he had actually changed the numbers. One problem with analog meters was that some people staring at the meters actually thought that the needle moved when it actually hadn't. Digital meters with automatic logging tended to get rid of this problem. 17:17, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
: Everyone knows that of all the Reynolds numbers, only two actually matter. Burt and Debbie. (You're gonna say Ryan as well, I suppose...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.82|162.158.159.82]] 00:12, 8 May 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia on Roman Numerals says: at some early time the Romans started to use the shorter forms IV and IX. But originally their numbers included 4 as IIII and 9 as VIIII. I wasn't sure if the Roman Empire used IV and IX at all, and I still am not sure, but if the change came early, so called, then I guess so. I wonder if there's a particular issue of stone cracking if you try to carve IIII on it, or it takes longer. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.74|162.158.159.74]] 01:36, 8 May 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2300: Everyone's an Epidemiologist

2020-05-01T00:59:27Z

162.158.159.74:

(I was seriously thinking, from the first glance of the title, we were going to get another visit to [[1052]]. Although "An Epidemiologist's Life Is Not A Happy One" could be worthwhile.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.194|162.158.155.194]] 16:30, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Ok, not sure that particularky stupid Trump 'advice' is a part of it, even if he proclaims himself an (apparently sarcastic) expert. And I think the cheese-rolling is interesting but at best tangential. Added ''my'' thoughts re: Herd Immunity to the end (ties in well with the titletext) but welcome future thoughts and re-edits to improve some awkward phrasing and perhaps spit the Titletext out into a traditional (pre-Trivia) end para of its own. Or whatever is seen fit. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.84|141.101.107.84]] 17:02, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
:Ok, para added with "flock immunity" before Trump now needs reviewing against the one with "herd immunity" link after the cheese. (Re: comment below about needing tempering - I'm not sure either says it's a ''good'' idea.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.74|162.158.159.74]] 00:57, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

The comment about accepting losses to acquire herd immunity should be tempered: it's been pointed out by *real* epidemiologists that we don't know yet whether surviving COVID-19 will confer useful immunity; hence WHO's recommendation that countries wait to issue immunity certificates. 22:56, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Third paragraph: 'all at ONCE' [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.220|172.69.34.220]] 23:06, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
: Saw that, before reading your comment. Corrected it. ("Ones"->"Once", for reference.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.74|162.158.159.74]] 00:57, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2300: Everyone's an Epidemiologist

2020-05-01T00:57:49Z

162.158.159.74:

(I was seriously thinking, from the first glance of the title, we were going to get another visit to [[1052]]. Although "An Epidemiologist's Life Is Not A Happy One" could be worthwhile.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.194|162.158.155.194]] 16:30, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Ok, not sure that particularky stupid Trump 'advice' is a part of it, even if he proclaims himself an (apparently sarcastic) expert. And I think the cheese-rolling is interesting but at best tangential. Added ''my'' thoughts re: Herd Immunity to the end (ties in well with the titletext) but welcome future thoughts and re-edits to improve some awkward phrasing and perhaps spit the Titletext out into a traditional (pre-Trivia) end para of its own. Or whatever is seen fit. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.84|141.101.107.84]] 17:02, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
:Ok, para added with "flock immunity" before Trump now needs reviewing against the one with "herd immunity" link after the cheese. (Re: comment below about needing tempering - I'm not sure either says it's a ''good'' idea.) There's also possibly two titletext bits, respectively [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.74|162.158.159.74]] 00:57, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

The comment about accepting losses to acquire herd immunity should be tempered: it's been pointed out by *real* epidemiologists that we don't know yet whether surviving COVID-19 will confer useful immunity; hence WHO's recommendation that countries wait to issue immunity certificates. 22:56, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Third paragraph: 'all at ONCE' [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.220|172.69.34.220]] 23:06, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
: Saw that, before reading your comment. Corrected it. ("Ones"->"Once", for reference.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.74|162.158.159.74]] 00:57, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

636: Brontosaurus

2020-04-23T09:25:57Z

162.158.159.74: /* Explanation */ probably don't need to format like a genus when speaking about vernacular use during its period of deprecation...

{{comic
| number = 636
| date = September 14, 2009
| title = Brontosaurus
| image = brontosaurus.png
| titletext = Well, sex is like a velociraptor: despite your movie-fueled lifelong neurotic obsession, unlikely to be found in your house.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] describes her relationship to [[Cueball]] with the simile "our love is like a turtle," a comparison often made when referring to a shy and slowly developing yet steady sort of romance. However, Cueball thinks that the ''{{w|Brontosaurus}}'' is a better comparison. His explanation refers to the fact that remains of a certain [[wikipedia:Apatosaurinae|apatosaurine]] were initially named ''{{w|Brontosaurus excelsus}}'' by the paleontologist {{w|Othniel Charles Marsh|O.C. Marsh}} in 1879. This species was later determined in 1903 to be in the same {{w|genus}} as ''{{w|Apatosaurus ajax}}'', which Marsh had named two years before ''B. excelsus'': the older genus name is preferred according to convention (making the preferred binomial ''Apatosaurus excelsus''). The term ''Brontosaurus'' therefore became a scientific redundancy (a so-called junior synonym), and had this status at the time of this comic's release. Due to the correct skull for an apatosaurine not being confirmed [http://static.peerj.com/press/previews/2015/04/857_infographic_no_text.pdf until 1978], the term "brontosaurus" had in the meantime become popularly associated with an apatosaurine depicted with a speculative ''{{w|Camarasaurus}}''-like head, hence the "mistaken combination" mentioned in the comic.

Applied to the scenario in the comic, Cueball apparently considers the relationship without any emotional foundation and only continues it out of nostalgic motives. This conclusion counteracts the initial romantic tone adopted by the turtle simile, as comparing a romance with a falsely classified fossil is one of the least charming statements imaginable. {{Citation needed}}

The title text aims at [[Randall|Randall's]] well-known enthusiasm for ''{{w|Velociraptors}}''. Megan retorts by comparing any future sex between the two of them to be as likely as finding a ''Velociraptor'' in his house. The insult has a second barb: painting Cueball as being obsessed with movies involving ''Velociraptor''s.

Randall has previously mentioned the ''Brontosaurus'' name change in [[460: Paleontology]]. The ''Apatosaurus'' also appears in [[15: Just Alerting You]] and [[650: Nowhere]].

===Updates===
However the status of "Brontosaurus" remains under discussion, with a [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brontosaurus-is-back1/ 2015 study of diplodocids] reporting that the more gracile fossils should be classified in a separate genus. This would re-divide the apatosaurines between the ''Brontosaurus'' and ''Apatosaurus'' genera.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are sitting at a bench. Megan is holding a turtle.]
:Megan: Our love is like a turtle.

:[Megan sets down the turtle and turns to Cueball. They hold hands.]
:Megan: Humble and simple, enduring by virtue of perfect design.

:Cueball: Our love is like a brontosaurus.

:Cueball: Recognized as a mistaken combination long ago, lingering only out of misplaced affection for an imagined past.

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

636: Brontosaurus

2020-04-23T09:21:34Z

162.158.159.74:

{{comic
| number = 636
| date = September 14, 2009
| title = Brontosaurus
| image = brontosaurus.png
| titletext = Well, sex is like a velociraptor: despite your movie-fueled lifelong neurotic obsession, unlikely to be found in your house.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] describes her relationship to [[Cueball]] with the simile "our love is like a turtle," a comparison often made when referring to a shy and slowly developing yet steady sort of romance. However, Cueball thinks that the ''{{w|Brontosaurus}}'' is a better comparison. His explanation refers to the fact that remains of a certain [[wikipedia:Apatosaurinae|apatosaurine]] were initially named ''{{w|Brontosaurus excelsus}}'' by the paleontologist {{w|Othniel Charles Marsh|O.C. Marsh}} in 1879. This species was later determined in 1903 to be in the same {{w|genus}} as ''{{w|Apatosaurus ajax}}'', which Marsh had named two years before ''B. excelsus'': the older genus name is preferred according to convention (making the preferred binomial ''Apatosaurus excelsus''). The term ''Brontosaurus'' therefore became a scientific redundancy (a so-called junior synonym), and had this status at the time of this comic's release. Due to the correct skull for an apatosaurine not being confirmed [http://static.peerj.com/press/previews/2015/04/857_infographic_no_text.pdf until 1978], the term ''Brontosaurus'' had in the meantime become popularly associated with an apatosaurine depicted with a speculative ''{{w|Camarasaurus}}''-like head, hence the "mistaken combination" mentioned in the comic.

Applied to the scenario in the comic, Cueball apparently considers the relationship without any emotional foundation and only continues it out of nostalgic motives. This conclusion counteracts the initial romantic tone adopted by the turtle simile, as comparing a romance with a falsely classified fossil is one of the least charming statements imaginable. {{Citation needed}}

The title text aims at [[Randall|Randall's]] well-known enthusiasm for ''{{w|Velociraptors}}''. Megan retorts by comparing any future sex between the two of them to be as likely as finding a ''Velociraptor'' in his house. The insult has a second barb: painting Cueball as being obsessed with movies involving ''Velociraptor''s.

Randall has previously mentioned the ''Brontosaurus'' name change in [[460: Paleontology]]. The ''Apatosaurus'' also appears in [[15: Just Alerting You]] and [[650: Nowhere]].

===Updates===
However the status of "Brontosaurus" remains under discussion, with a [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brontosaurus-is-back1/ 2015 study of diplodocids] reporting that the more gracile fossils should be classified in a separate genus. This would re-divide the apatosaurines between the ''Brontosaurus'' and ''Apatosaurus'' genera.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are sitting at a bench. Megan is holding a turtle.]
:Megan: Our love is like a turtle.

:[Megan sets down the turtle and turns to Cueball. They hold hands.]
:Megan: Humble and simple, enduring by virtue of perfect design.

:Cueball: Our love is like a brontosaurus.

:Cueball: Recognized as a mistaken combination long ago, lingering only out of misplaced affection for an imagined past.

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