explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3097: Bridge Types

2025-06-03T21:05:13Z

162.158.33.224: /* Explanation */ Link to fill a gap. Hard to suggest it was ever an allusion, but highlighting the common theme. (PS, the "I am not a robot" confirmation asked "Select all images with bridges"! ;)

{{comic
| number = 3097
| date = June 2, 2025
| title = Bridge Types
| image = bridge_types_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x581px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Pontoon bridges are just linear open-sided waterbeds.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was recently created by a TESSERACT BRIDGE ABUTMENT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic shows, in a four-by-four grid of images, a series of bridge types. The first two rows of images are of authentic bridge types, whereas those in the last two rows are progressively more absurd, although real-life examples of some of them exist, as shown in the table below. The joke lies in the progression of bridge types from the simple and straightforward to the complex and ridiculous.

{| class="wikitable"
!Label
!style="width:7em;"|Status
!Type
!Notes
|-
|Plank
|Real
|{{w|Beam bridge}}
|A straightforward piece of solid material (in this case, made of solid wood, but there are {{w|Clapper bridge|other materials}}) is the most basic form of bridge, and generally the easiest to construct, but also the weakest. Consequently, such bridges are only suitable for small spans and light weights (such as a footbridge over a stream).
|-
|Rope
|Real
|{{w|Simple suspension bridge}}
|Rope bridges consist of several lengths of rope anchored on both sides of the span. Typically, one or more ropes will be intended to support the crossing load (possibly with boards or some other walkway between them), and additional ropes will act as handrails, reducing the risk of falling. These are typically only intended for foot traffic, due to their light construction and lack of rigidity. Because of the simple materials and relative ease of construction, they're often used as improvised bridges.
|-
|Truss
|Real
|{{w|Truss bridge}}
|A truss is a common type of framework consisting of supports connected in a series of triangles which provide support for a load. This design provides significant strength and rigidity with minimal material and weight. A truss bridge can either have the truss above the bridge platform (as in the drawing) or underneath it (also known as a deck truss). This is the first bridge type on this list which is commonly used for vehicle traffic.
|-
|Trestle
|Real
|{{w|Trestle bridge}}
|A trestle bridge is held up by supports reaching all the way to the ground beneath. Typically at least some of the supports will slope outward to give a larger base of support. Once common for railroads, these are less popular nowadays, but are still seen in certain areas and applications.
|-
|Arch
|Real
|{{w|Arch bridge}}
|Arches are one of the oldest kinds of bridges for carrying significant loads. They can be made out of rock or metal. Each span consists of an arch resting on supports. Simple arch bridges rest on both sides of a river or other gap, but longer bridges (as in the drawing) will have intermediate pillars to support multiple arches. The arches distribute the load, allowing a relatively small number of pillar to support weight across the entire deck of the bridge.
|-
|Suspended Arch
|Real
|{{w|Tied-arch bridge}}
|Tied arch bridges use a similar concept as arch bridges, but the arch is instead positioned overhead, with the deck supported by suspended cables. Such bridges may use a single arch (as in the drawing) or multiple arches in succession.
|-
|Draw
|Real
|{{w|Drawbridge}} (more precisely a {{w|Bascule_bridge|bascule bridge}})
|Drawbridges are used to allow ships to pass through obstacles like bridges. They use a cable to pull up one or both sides of the bridge to create enough height clearance for vessels to pass through.
|-
|Suspension
|Real
|{{w|Suspension bridge}}
|A suspension bridge suspends its deck with cables or rods from a cable linked to a pillar and a point a certain distance from each pillar
|-
|Filler
|Real method of maintaining {{w|Grade (slope)|grade}}, not really a 'bridge'
|{{w|Embankment (earthworks)|Embankment}}, {{w|Causeway}} or even a {{w|Dam}}
|Serves the purpose of allowing travel across the gap, but by removing (or {{w|Culvert|mostly removing}}) passage through the gap itself. By filling the gap with hard, irregular material (most commonly rocks), support can be provided, while still allowing water to flow through the gaps. Due to the generally small size of the gaps, generally only slow-flowing water can reliably get through.
|-
|Budget Overrun
|Real (with an absurd name)
|{{w|Cable-stayed bridge}}
|Specifically, the pictured bridge is a {{w|cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge}}, similar in appearance to the {{w|Samuel Beckett Bridge}} in Dublin. Many bridges in this category suffer severe cost overruns. Randall may be drawing upon his local knowledge of the {{w|Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge|Zakim Bridge}} in downtown Boston's {{w|Big Dig}}, also strongly associated with cost overruns.
|-
|Jump
|Not real
|Similar to a pair of small {{w|cantilever bridge}}s, constructed at an incline.
|A "bridge" that appear to be being used by a skateboarder, though in a manner far more dangerous than any jump in a typical skatepark. While not {{w|London Buses route 78#History|normally}} a feature of the highway, jump ramps can be used for gap-crossing stunts by almost any vehicle with sufficient speed. Partial bridges, which allow ''some'' vehicles using them to safely cross the gap, iconincally featured in {{w|The Dukes of Hazzard}} TV show, as well as common in various {{w|The Man with the Golden Gun (film)#Car stunts|action}} {{w|Speed (1994 film)#Filming|films}}, though typically less easy to use correctly than the setting implies.
|-
|Halfhearted
|Not real under this name, but with real analogs
|[https://www.archdaily.com/184921/moses-bridge-road-architecten Moses bridge]
|The diagram shows that there was barely any attempt to bridge the gap in the landscape at all, just take the 'deck' down into it and back up out again. The concept may have been inspired, in part, by [https://www.fastcompany.com/90186315/the-strange-art-of-the-melting-bridges-of-google-earth an artifact in Google Earth software].
Structures exist, at the {{w|Fort de Roovere}} in Halsteren, Netherlands and elsewhere, that resemble this 'solution', though these would have involved much thought and commitment in their building, possibly more 'hearted', even, than any more conventional bridge design, especially in the provision of stairs to allow easier ingress/egress (at least for foot traffic) than in the comic's version.
|-
|Waterbed
|Not a bridge
|{{w|Waterbed}}
|Rather than a bridge, it is more like another version of a causeway (see 'Filler') using trapped water to maintain the upper surface.
Named for a 'mattress' type, which is usually a raised surface ''on top of'' a piece of bedframe, with an unusual approach to padding and comfort.
|-
|L'Engle
|Not real
|[https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/03/192728/tesseract-definition-wrinkle-in-time-space-dimension Tesseract AWIT] not {{w|Tesseract|Tesseract (geometry)}}
|References {{w|A Wrinkle In Time}} by Madeleine L'Engle. Characters cross great distances by "tessering", moving via a tesseract through a higher dimension which essentially brings the two ends of the journey together from the perspective of the traveler. The image shows the two ends of the gap being brought together, with the gap apparently crumpled in between them.
|-
|Fun
|Not real
|{{w|Vertical loop}}
|It is a loop-de-loop, not normally a practical or necessary way of bridging a gap. Something previously seen, in an arguably even more imprctical manner, in [[2935: Ocean Loop]].
|-
|Repurposed Elevator
|Real, but not as displayed
|Horizontal elevator / {{w|People mover|People mover}}
|There are various implementations of such designs, the best-known one is probably the {{w|Schmid Peoplemover|Schmid Peoplemover}}.
However, unlike a regular people mover, where the door stays upright, the image shows a regular elevator that has been rotated 90 degrees.
|-
|''(Title text)''
|Real
|{{w|Pontoon bridge}}
|Pontoon bridges are described as a series of fictitious "waterbed bridges", as shown above, but constructed without sides. This would mean that that the 'bed'-supporting water flows in one side and out the other, if there is any passage or tidal flow of water. It may technically mean that you cannot cross {{w|The Same River Twice|the same bridge twice}}.
Pontoons rely upon buoyancy, either of the whole deck or distinct floating elements, whereas an enclosed "waterbed" bridge would rely upon the strength of the membrane to keep the mass of water within it, and thus the deck above that mass.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:Bridge Types

:[A 4x4 matrix of 16 ways to cross the same rectangular hole in the ground]

:Plank [shows a plank laid over the hole]

:Rope [shows a rope bridge with rope guardrail]

:Truss [shows a truss bridge with a triangular truss above the bridge deck]

:Trestle [shows a trestle bridge]

:Arch [shows stone arches supporting a straight deck]

:Suspended Arch [shows a single arch, with the bridge deck suspended from it]

:Draw [shows a truss bridge, with one half opened like an unrealistic draw bridge]

:Suspension [shows the bridge deck suspended from a cable strung between two pillars and the shores]

:Filler [shows the hole filled with dirt and stones]

:Budget Overrun [shows a bridge deck suspended by cables from an artistically shaped pillar]

:Jump [shows two ramps at the edges of the hole, and a skateboarder jumping across the hole]

:Halfhearted [shows a ramp at each side of the hole that leads down to the bottom]

:Waterbed [shows the hole filled with water, two fish and an octopus, a wobbly covering, and two stick figures crossing]

:L'Engle [shows the hole warped such that the opposite shores meet]

:Fun [shows a loop-de-loop rollercoaster bridging the hole, and a skateboarder using it to get across]

:Repurposed Elevator [shows an elevator tower, rotated sideways as a whole, laid across the hole. 2 stick figures using the elevator are also rotated.]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Animals]]

3094: Mass Spec

2025-05-27T19:59:43Z

162.158.33.224: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3094
| date = May 26, 2025
| title = Mass Spec
| image = mass_spec_2x.png
| imagesize = 407x253px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Patients at least found it to be an improvement over Millikan's incredibly messy and unpleasant oil drop suspension procedure.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by HARVEY FLETCHER (UNCREDITED). Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
In the early 1920s, the domestic bathroom scale (initially a form of {{w|Spring_scale|spring scale}}) was introduced to customers in the United States of America. The device soon became popular, and has remained so to the present. Although means to ascertain the weight of the human body existed before the 1920s, they were not in common use, and were not thought necessary in routine physical / medical examinations.

The joke in this comic arises from the claim that, before the invention of the "modern" bathroom scale, human body weights needed to be obtained, not by earlier, less convenient, forms of scale technology, but by Rube Goldberg-esque implementations of {{w|Mass_spectrometry|mass spectrometry}}.

Mass spectrometry, a late 19th-century invention (thus, available only a few decades earlier than the bathroom scale), was developed to obtain the masses of atomic particles by ascertaining their mass-to-charge ratios. The basic steps, as represented in the comic, are ionization of the mass (rubbing the scalp with the balloon), separating the resulting particles on the basis of their mass-to-charge ratio (the magnet), and observing the result on a detector (the target, not neccessarily the bull's eye). Since the ionization procedure for ''bona fide'' mass-spectrometry assays involves turning the mass to be analyzed into a gas, the method would quickly be recognized as unsuited for obtaining human body weights, especially over the course of a dieting program, and become unpopular. Their are other ionization techniques to transfer larger compounds intact into the gas phase, however, a human body would be way to heavy to be analyzable by this technique.

The title text compares the mass-spectrometry-based method for obtaining human body weights with the method based on the {{w|Oil_drop_experiment|Milliken-Fletcher procedure}}, also available only a few years prior to bathroom scales, in which the mass to be analyzed takes the form of atomized oil droplets that are ionized by X-rays. Neither is suited for weight measurements over time scales of any length, but the cleanup procedures for a human body converted into ionized gas are certainly less onerous than those for a similar mass converted into an oil spray. The original procedure was intended to determine the mass of an electron, based on the known mass/density of the oil droplets. The title text seems to imply the converse, determining the mass/density of a person based on the (now) known mass of an electron.

Note: Randall uses the correct term "mass spectrometry". The term "mass spectroscopy" was used in the beginnings of the technique but is not used anymore. Today, a spectroscopy method entails the interaction of matter with electromagnetic radiation (e.g. IR light - as in IR spectroscopy or radio waves - as in NMR spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy). In the case of mass spectrometry, this is not the case. Here, ions are manipulated or interacting with EITHER electric OR magnetic fields and thereby the mass-to-charge ratio is determind. Both "spectrometry" and "spectroscopy" alude to a "spectrum" of possible results that can be used to quantify and qualify any inputs being measured, and a distribution of molecular weights ''can'' be usefully represented in a rainbow-like visual, but doesn't bear any direct relation with the electromagnetic spectrum, hence the technical name difference.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Ponytail, wearing a lab coat, is giving a balloon to Cueball. Behind Cueball, there is a ramp on the ground, a magnet hanging from the ceiling, and a target on a poster on the wall.]
:Ponytail: Rub this balloon against your head, then go jump past that magnet toward the target on the wall.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Before the bathroom scale was invented, the only way to weigh people was mass spectrometry.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]

Talk:1683: Digital Data

2024-10-27T18:40:10Z

162.158.33.224:

Ewww, Verizon? **** them [[User:International Space Station|International Space Station]] ([[User talk:International Space Station|talk]]) 04:58, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
::Don't forget the whole "Verizon Math" incident and Randall's much passed around check image. I'd be surprised if it isn't on 9GAG somewhere.... [[User:Psu256|Psu256]] ([[User talk:Psu256|talk]]) 17:12, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
:: https://xkcd.com/verizon/ [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.16|198.41.238.16]] 02:30, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

Ironically, the title text on explainxkcd is different from the one on xkcd.com, demonstrating the reinterpretation of text encoded in UTF-8 as if it were encoded in ISO 8859-1. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.85.231|162.158.85.231]] 05:45, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

-Exactly; this nicely proves Randall's point. On my computer, different characters appear in different browsers, but of course in one browser the characters are reproducible.--[[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 07:26, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Here is the decoded title text:
“If you can read this, congratulations–the archive youʼre you're using still knows about the mouseover text”!
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.16|108.162.229.16]] 07:51, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

:Grungy details:
:*â€œ -> ''convert to hex'' -> E2-80-9C -> ''UTF8 decode'' -> 0010-000000-011100 -> [http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/201C/index.htm U-201C "LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK"]
:*â€” -> ''convert to hex'' -> E2-80-94 -> ''UTF8 decode'' -> 0010-000000-010100 -> [http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2014/index.htm U-2014 "EM DASH"]
:*â€™ -> ''convert to hex'' -> E2-80-99 -> ''UTF8 decode'' -> 0010-000000-011001 -> [http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2019/index.htm U-2019 "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK"]
:*â€! -> ''convert to hex'' -> E2-80-9D -> ''UTF8 decode'' -> 0010-000000-011101 -> [http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/201d/index.htm U-201D "RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK"]
:[[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 17:31, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

::The ''convert to hex'' step is really ''encode with Windows-1252''. Also, in the last sequence, the "!" is not part of the encoded quotation mark. The third byte of the quotation mark comes from an unprintable U-009D between the "â€" and the "!". U-009D isn't a valid Windows-1252 character, so either the encoding is actually a superset of Windows-1252 that includes U-009D, or the encoding process just allowed it.
:: [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.103|162.158.255.103]] 17:26, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

He's written you're twice, but one is with a curly apostrophe, often favoured by americans (and maybe brits?), possible because of their keyboard. The simple apostrophe is “just” html-formatted, whereas the curly one has been molested by a UTF-8 / ISO-8859-1 misreading.
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.16|108.162.229.16]] 07:51, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
: I'm British, and I don't have the curly apostrophe anywhere on my keyboard. [[User:Enchantedsleeper|Enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 11:01, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

: I'm American, and I also don't have the curly apostrophe anywhere on my keyboard, but word processing programs (like MS-Word) are configured by default to automatically replace an ASCII apostrophe in a conjunction with the fancy right-single-quote mark. Also when using quotation marks around text those programs automatically replace the repeated single ASCII quotation marks with the fancy left and right quotation marks (single if using single quotes, double if using double quotes). Most people don't care enough to disable that "feature"... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.252.143|162.158.252.143]] 15:13, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

:: Ok. I've never experienced that from any text processor (incl. MS Word), so maybe it's dependant on the system locale or another mysterious factor. I've just noticed a prevalence in english language texts online, but an absence in other european languages. Not even french, which has as many or more contractions. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.16|108.162.229.16]] 08:11 21 May 2016 (UTC)

This is a phenomenon that has always both fascinated me and frustrated me. I find it fascinating how, even today, data degrades as more and more people copy it (remember the old days when people used to copy VHS tapes, and the further you were from the original tape the more copying artefacts your copy had in it?). It also frustrates me, though, when I'm trying to find an original, undegraded image or video and it seems impossible to find. It's also annoying because it's actually pretty easy to copy something without causing any quality loss, yet practically every copied image on the internet has been degraded in some way or another. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.130|141.101.98.130]] 07:08, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

:If you haven't yet, you should check out this guy who ripped and reuploaded his own Youtube video 1000 times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEIzS_27Vt0 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.150|162.158.222.150]] 08:28, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

::...and after 100 iterations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6GMvihskBQ ...and the summary of all of them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icruGcSsPp0 [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 16:50, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

:It can be frustrating to try to convince new people drawing schematics on the computer to not use 4-way junctions because they don't expect digital images to degrade over multiple generations of copying. This xkcd demonstrates the way multiple generations can degrade even digital images, potentially making it difficult to differentiate two crossing (but electrically separate) signal lines from a 4-way junction on a schematic. Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now. ;-) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.252.143|162.158.252.143]] 15:13, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

It's also funny because just a few moments ago I was trying to compress some video to send to someone. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.130|141.101.98.130]] 07:12, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=274fcf46426f2da31b057f1652ae5269cfdbd70a.190103 this page highlights the encoding blocks so that the degration of quality can be seen better. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.91.205|141.101.91.205]] 09:42, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

:Nice example. Their picture is already a bad copy. While it's still a PNG, it's already reduced in size (600x228 instead of 720x282, 131381 byte instead of 190103). Btw. the file used in this wiki is also slightly different from what I see on xkcd. It's just 3 minutes older and 308 bytes larger. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.48|162.158.83.48]] 01:28, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

The phenomenon that Randall is making fun of in this comic is actually called a "shitpic" http://www.theawl.com/2014/12/the-triumphant-rise-of-the-shitpic The explanation should probably make reference to that. [[User:Enchantedsleeper|Enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 10:57, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

I think the watermarks on the last frame are from an unregistered screenshot tool, not "9gag" or similar. The references to shit pics are interesting, but aren't you over interpreting the whole thing? {{unsigned ip|162.158.83.174}}
: ...You realise that over-interpreting is what this wiki is ''for'', right? Also, not really, since all I said was that a "shitpic" is what this type of degraded image is called. [[User:Enchantedsleeper|Enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 15:03, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

There's a 9gag thing in the image, clean your glasses and look again. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.46|173.245.54.46]] 12:15, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Both screenshots from iOS definitely. Safari browser and… anybody knows? Some kind of other web browser? Maybe Chrome or Opera? <Need to finally create account> [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.152|162.158.202.152]] 15:32, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Apparently Russians have been getting this a lot, as they (up to the point of the existence of UNICODE) have had to deal a lot with people using bad codepages. Example of their post office dealing with a physical package addressed with a bad codepage: http://worldlanguages.wikia.com/wiki/Mojibake?file=Letter_to_Russia_with_krokozyabry.jpg [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 16:54, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Here is the progression as I see it:
*Frame 1 - The original PNG
*Frame 2 - The PNG converted to a JPEG
*Frame 3 - The JPEG as viewed on a mobile browser (Safari on iOS in this case)
*Frame 4 - A screen-shot of the mobile browser uploaded to Tumblr and then stolen by 9GAG
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.62|173.245.52.62]] 19:37, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Note that while the term "digital" is new, first digital format of information appeared long ago, with the development of standard alphabet. Images hand-drawn on paper can't be copied without loss, but if you write letters in fixed alphabet, it can be copied without errors forever (not counting errors caused by some letters getting out of use through history). Egyptian literature is probably lost due to us not knowing the (very big) full set of hieroglyphs, but [https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%9F%CE%B4%CF%8D%CF%83%CF%83%CE%B5%CE%B9%CE%B1/%CE%B1 Odyssey] could (and hopefully even was) be stored exactly how it was written. Wouldn't help read it, of course, language changed since then and it would need to be translated which, again, can lose some meaning ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 16:16, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

There's a much much older example. RNA and subsequently DNA are digital representations of the protein structures (also digital representations of 3-D molecular shapes). Degradation through copying is 1 source of variation which evolution selects over.[[User:MerlinMM|MerlinMM]] ([[User talk:MerlinMM|talk]]) 11:28, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
:Right. Humans were using digital data for their own reproduction long before they knew what "digital", "data" or even just "letter" is. DNA even uses primitive error correction techniques. Although when humans finally found out about RNA being digital, they already had other digital formats. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:21, 15 July 2017 (UTC)
::There's nothing primitive at all about DNA error correction techniques, just some people's understanding of them. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.16|198.41.238.16]] 02:35, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

Is it possible that the watermark in the bottom left of the last panel is supposed to read "drama.tumblr.com"?
--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.67|173.245.52.67]] 20:42, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

The alt text has been fixed, the second "You're" has been removed. {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.80}}

The phenomenon is related to {{w|Generation loss}} --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 14:50, 27 May 2016 (UTC)

Btw, does anybody know a digital archive that actually "knows about the title-text"? {{unsigned ip|162.158.17.66}}

;Source image updating?

If you look at the comic on the website, the first couple of frames are much more "decayed" than they are on the wiki copy. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.16|198.41.238.16]] 01:47, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
: The source image has definitely been changed. [http:////imgs.xkcd.com/comics/digital_data.png Here's] the original image, and [http:////imgs.xkcd.com/comics/digital_data_2x.png here's] the new one. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.190|162.158.59.190]] 01:13, 23 December 2016 (UTC)
:: Ok, this is weird - earlier today (2018-12-21), I was seeing the low-res version. But this evening, I'm seeing the high-res version. In between, I had linked it from reddit, maybe it switches based on popularity? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.95|172.68.132.95]] 07:23, 22 December 2018 (UTC)
:::I don't think so? I just saw the original comic after it was linked from reddit, still the degraded version. It was actually how I found about the degrading image. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 11:58, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
::::Getting worser [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.196|172.69.69.196]] 04:49, 13 April 2019 (UTC)
::::As briefly described in the explanation, the high-DPI version of the comic is actually worse than the low-DPI version. Since comic [[1084]], xkcd offers higher-quality images if you're viewing it on a high-DPI screen - a tablet, a smartphone, or a high resolution PC or laptop. In a normal comic, the high-DPI image (twice the width and twice the height in pixels) would be sharper and nicer to look at on such a screen. In this comic, however, randall has deliberately made it ''worse'' than the low-DPI image. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 12:08, 25 December 2020 (UTC)
:::::It's definitely gone downhill since the copy on here was last updated. Go look at the "original" now, it's changed in the last few years. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.58|172.68.210.58]] 06:54, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

Ironically, the special characters across xkcd.com appear to be messed up in a the same way the title text of this comic references--including the title text of this comic itself. It now reads, "Ã¢â‚¬Å“If you can read this, congratulationsÃ¢â‚¬â€the archive youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re using still knows about the mouseover textÃ¢â‚¬Â!"
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.124|162.158.63.124]] 01:25, 12 October 2019 (UTC)
: That happens if the page defaults to "Western" encoding. Switch it to UTF-8 and it changes back to the original 'failure'. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 05:45, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

It is 2019. Disney+ has launched. It cropped 19 seasons of Simpsons from 4:3 to 16:9, by just getting rid of the top and bottom of the images. It is the official streaming version of the series. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:36, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

My laptop shows the 2x image instead of the normal image on this comic. Has it been replaced or does my laptop just use the 2x images for some reason?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.19|162.158.79.19]] 23:26, 25 February 2021 (UTC)
:As mentioned above, xkcd displays the high-res image to laptops for all cases. It just isn't obvious for most of them. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:25, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

It has always bothered me that XKCD explained uses the term "Title Text" to refer to something that is not the text of the HTML title. The Title is in the head of the document and is delimited with <title> and </title>. The mouseover text does use "title=" as part of the syntax, but it is still the mouseover text. Maybe now that we have an example of Randall getting it right, XKCD explaied can start using the correct term. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.56|172.70.207.56]] 15:51, 27 October 2024 (UTC)
:It arises from the image's actual tag, as in: <code><nowiki><img src="//imgs.xkcd.com/comics/WHATEVER.png" </nowiki>'''title="THE 'MOUSEOVER' TEXT HERE"'''<nowiki> alt="ALT TEXT" srcset="//imgs.xkcd.com/comics/WHATEVER_2x.png 2x" style="image-orientation:none" /></nowiki></code>
:No, it has nothing to do with the page <nowiki><title>-tag</nowiki>, but it is the <nowiki><img>-tag's</nowiki> title ''attribute''. (And, as you can see, it isn't the 'alt-text', either, which tends to reflect the actual page-title and (without underscores/etc) the "WHATEVER" of the image name. At least currently. See also how the [[Title text]] page describes it. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.164|172.69.79.164]] 18:35, 27 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3001: Temperature Scales

2024-10-26T17:32:09Z

162.158.33.224:

Shouldn't Rankine say "0ºR is set to absolute zero"? {{unsigned ip|172.70.230.29|22:58, 21 October 2024 (UTC)}}
:Yep. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.253|162.158.186.253]] 04:38, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:Furthermore, should it be 0°R or just 0R (no °)? I've been told that Kelvin doesn't use degrees because it's an absolute scale, so a) is this true and b) should it apply to Rankine? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.211.54|172.71.211.54]] 14:44, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
::Kelvin is rather strange, for reasons never totally explained. It's "the Kelvin scale", but the unit is "kelvin" and I never got on with the official absence of the ° symbol by the "K". I was always taught to ''say'' "degrees kelvin" (for temperatures) and "kelvin degrees" (for a change/range of temperature) in order to not cause confusion and technical misunderstandings (''perhaps'' easier to contextualise when down in writing?) but no accounting for taste, or possibly official laziness.
::On the basis that Rankine is not kelvin (whatever the reason for how kelvin is what it is), I would use the degrees, as I would any other absolute scale (whether it be an adjusted form of °Rø or °Ré or whatever else might be invented), because kelvin is just inexplicably (to me, and to others) ''the'' exception to absolutely every other reasonably equivalent contemporary measure, including capitalisation. YMMV! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.2|172.70.162.2]] 19:53, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:::0ºRa, not 0ºR. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.157|172.70.206.157]] 02:16, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
::::Can be either. Perhaps best to use °Ra (in ambiguous context) to avoid ''possible'' confusion with °Ré and °Rø, but probably less important when both those two are also listed alongside (except for wondering what, if anything, is a typo, bad handwriting or other error). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.12|172.69.194.12]] 11:01, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
::::It's easy if you think about it like "meter". You usually say "meters" not "the meter scale" although both are correct. Scientists and engineers who use them daily call them "kelvins", not "kelvin" unless following a number. You wouldn't say "We need to measure this room in meter." Someone keeps reverting me on this, and they're wrong, but I don't care much anymore. I'll probably fix it next month or something. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 21:10, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::"Americans typically measure temperatures in Fahrenheits, whilst Europeans use Celsiusses..." hmm, no, that doesn't sound right at all. (Celciuses? No, wait. Celcii! Masculine Nominative Singular changed to the Plural, if I've got my Latin declensions right. But still doesn't sound right. Maybe I also need to use "Fahrenheit''en''"..? Wait, wasn't he born Polish, so that means...)
:::::Seriously, I think that if you talk of "measured in [the scale of] Celsius" you should probably talk of "... in [the scale of] Kelvin" (using the capital for the scale). According to the {{w|Kelvin#Orthography|orthography}}, you'd be right to specify "50 kelvins" (c.f. "50 degrees [whatever non-Kelvin measure]" ''or'' "50 [whatever non-Kelvin measure] degrees" for a range), but talking ''about'' the scale would definitely call for a simple "Kelvin". [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.135|172.68.205.135]] 21:39, 25 October 2024 (UTC) (PS., I'd also say "metre(s)", but then I'm British... which might also colour (or 'color') my personal grammatical sensibilities. But oh what fun you lot seem to have had with this whole issue!)
::::::The units are ''degrees'' Celsius or Fahrenheit, but just kelvins, like watts or ohms or amps. It's explained in great detail in the article already. Fun?! Perhaps you should talk to someone who uses kelvins on a regular basis before you impose your imagined usage over the course of a half dozen reverts. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.73|172.70.206.73]] 23:16, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::::Isn't that what was just said? Though I'd say "It's 50 kelvin", apparently the 'right' way to say that is "It's 50 kelvins" (also "It went up by 50 kelvin"/"it went up by 50 kelvins"... that latter sounds off to me, and isn't how I've ever used it, but the orthography link suggests it's right).
:::::::But then one can talk about measuring temperatures (or temperature ranges) ''in'' Celsius or Fahrenheit or Delisle or whatever, because you're saying you're measuring things in ''the scale of'' whatever-it-is, so you can equally say you're measuring things in (the scale of) Kelvin. Not too different from saying that you're using the meter or the foot or the kiloparsec or the nanosecond or the coulomb-squared-per-barn or even the fortnight-per-firkin-furlong if you ever so wish. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.150|172.68.205.150]] 23:32, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
::::::::Tell me you never talk about kelvins in everyday work without telling me you never talk about kelvins in everyday work. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.98|172.68.22.98]] 13:59, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

yo,i thought comic 3000 was anticlimactic so randall would make this one COOL but sadly not
Same. Hope he does something cool for 3072.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.225|172.69.134.225]] 23:44, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

really he didn't do anything special for this either? come ON randall if you don't do something cool for comic 3072 i will come to your house personally and yell at you [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 23:57, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

 
What's random about Fahrenheit? (Answer: nothing.) 0F is the freezing point of brine, 100F (or 98.7) is the human body temperature. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.65|172.68.54.65]] 00:00, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:What concentration of brine? (And which specific salt... No, not NaCl, as you might presume but NH4Cl!)
:And body temperature varies a lot ('typically' 36.5–37.5°C or 97.7–99.5°F, though even this range is thought to be too small), across genders, individuals, time of day ''and'' which orifices/surfaces you try to measure it from. (Originally, it was set so that '''90°F''' was to be the 'best guess' of human body temperature. It gradually changed, including via various {{w|Human body temperature#Historical understanding|compounded misunderstandings}} so that the best you can say is that 100°F is arbitrarily ''slightly above'' most afebrile human body temperature measurements.)
:Celsius might be a bit off (arguments about triple-point or STP freezing, etc), but it still has far more physical logic to it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.188|172.70.160.188]] 01:14, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Sorry, Randall, for my comfort, Fahrenheit is the least cursed. It's the best scale to use for my personal use, especially when hearing the weather report and deciding what to wear outdoors: temp in the 80's - no jacket. temp in 70's - maybe a windbreaker if it's breezy. 60's - sweater weather. 50's - medium weight coat. 40's - winter coat. 30'3 - winter coat with scarf and gloves. 20's - multiple layers. teens - stay indoors. None of the other scales provide such convenient distinctions for my daily life. Kelvin is great for astro physics or super conductivity, but useless for any common uses. Celsius is great for hanging out with the Euro crowd but still not so useful to scale my home thermostat. I judge Fahrenheit as 1.0 for cursedness. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 14:19, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:I conveniently use Celsius in tens, also. Negative °C: Cold; 0-10°C: Nippy; 10-20°C: Generally pleasant; 20-30°C: Too warm to exert oneself; 30°C+: ''Definitely'' too warm. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.205|172.70.86.205]] 15:24, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Personally, I'm most disappointed that {{w|Delisle scale}} was not represented... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.188|172.70.160.188]] 01:14, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
: I was so hoping for a {{w|Planck temperature}} quip. Like: "Water freezing point: 0; Water boiling point: 0; Notes: 1 = highest possible temperature (1.4E32K) where thermal radiation creates black holes; Cursedness: 0/0" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.164.184|162.158.164.184]] 01:27, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:: Same here. Freezing is 0.000000000000000000000000000001928 and boiling is 0.0000000000000000000000000000026338. [[User:DanielLC|DanielLC]] ([[User talk:DanielLC|talk]]) 03:38, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
::: Wow, those are even smaller than the IEEE floating point representations of 1-1.0/3*3! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.109|162.158.90.109]] 03:59, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:: The Planck temperature quip is definitely well deserved. Good catch! [[User:Mumingpo|Mumingpo]] ([[User talk:Mumingpo|talk]]) 17:24, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
I guess I was wrong in my comment on the last comic. sigh. -[[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 01:16, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

It's actually spelled {{w|Wedgwood scale}}, not Wedgewood. [[User:Wilh3lm|Wilh3lm]] ([[User talk:Wilh3lm|talk]]) 01:17, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

I still call the modern version of the "Celsius" scale "centigrade", but if people start nitpicking, I'm happy to switch to "Carolus" to avoid ambiguity. For some reason that tends to annoy people more though. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.191|172.68.22.191]] 01:32, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Every temperature scale is equally "random" as every other scale. People always say that Celsius is so much better because it's defined by the phase changes of water. Okay, cool...why should THAT of all things be what we use as the base for a system of temperature measurement? And, who cares? I'm a ''Homo sapiens'', not a water molecule. If anything we should use the freezing and melting points of humans as our two reference points for temperature (which, I must say, Fahrenheit approximates better than Celsius, assuming 0 and 100 are your points "A" and "B"). [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 03:42, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
: Every temperature scale is arbitrary, but since boiling and freezing water is a thing humans have a lot of experience with it makes sense to use that as the reference point. At least it makes more sense than whatever the coldest recorded temperature in Fahrenheit's home town was, because he didn't like negative numbers [[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.23|172.70.250.23]] 03:56, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
::Planck temperature (as above) is probably the least arbitrary, and some would say it is to some extent free from arbitrariness. However, it's completely impractical for everyday use (as above.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.138|172.69.34.138]] 04:31, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:::Do the physics of black holes or neutron stars involve Planck temperatures greater than 0.0000001? [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 07:23, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
::::Chat Gippity told me:

:::::Black holes and neutron stars do not typically involve temperatures reaching the Planck scale. While both objects exhibit extreme physical conditions, their temperatures are far below the Planck temperature, even though they can be incredibly high compared to everyday phenomena.

::::: - **Neutron stars** have surface temperatures in the range of millions of Kelvin, and the core can reach even higher, possibly up to a few billion Kelvin. These temperatures are still vastly lower than the Planck temperature.

::::: - **Black holes**, especially the smaller ones, can emit Hawking radiation, with temperatures inversely proportional to their mass. However, the temperature of even a very small black hole is still far below the Planck temperature. Hawking radiation is not expected to reach temperatures close to the Planck scale under normal circumstances.

::::: The Planck temperature (TP=1) represents an energy scale so extreme that no known physical models, including those describing black holes and neutron stars, operate near or above this threshold. Temperatures reaching **0.0000001 TP** (or 1.416 × 10^26 K) would still be beyond current observational and theoretical frameworks related to these cosmic objects. A quantum theory of gravity would be required to describe physics at or near the Planck temperature, which remains speculative and is far beyond the conditions found in black holes or neutron stars.

::::[[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 08:46, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

If the °X scale is based on the temperatures of Earth from all time (for some definition of "Earth"), then the scale is very hard to define and highly impractical. The earth appears to have gotten to more than 2,300 Kelvin (hot enough to melt steel and platinum and to boil lead) and while I can't find any sources for the lowest temperature, I imagine it is lower than -100°C. The recorded minimum, maximum and average temperatures appear to be around -89.2 °C, 56.7 °C and 15 °C respectively. This would make the scale somewhat useful, but this would make typical values between 41 °X (cold winter's day) and 68 °X (hot summers day) which I think is pretty cursed. I recommend the clearly superior °Y, based around average temp at 0 °Y, low at -100 °Y and high at 100 °Y. These would be measured by the yearly high, low and mean temperatures averaged per person. Then saying "It's 2 times colder than yesterday" would have some reasonable meaning. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.236.147|198.41.236.147]] 04:01, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:"''Record'' ... surface temperature" implies it was recorded. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.9|172.68.22.9]] 04:08, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

How do you all feel about adding an additional column for room temperature 22C/72F?
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:right;"
! scope="col" | Unit
! scope="col" | Room temperature
|-
| Celsius || 22
|-
| Kelvin || 295
|-
| Fahrenheit || 72
|-
| Réaumur || 18
|-
| Rømer || 18
|-
| Rankine || 531
|-
| Newton || 7
|-
| Wedgwood || -7
|-
| Galen || 0
|-
| ''Real'' Celsius || 78
|-
| °X || 59
|}

Or 0.00000000000000000000000000000208 °Planck, lol. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.211|108.162.245.211]] 05:36, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:I feel like decigalens would be the most practical unit. Who's with me? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.5|162.158.186.5]] 06:20, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
::It's interesting; calculating the equilibrium temperature (with 2.05 and 4.24 being used for the heat capacities of ice and boiling water) gives 67... If I use water that's about to freeze and steam, I get 31. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.0.178|172.69.0.178]] 07:59, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:::Would you please explain in more detail? [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 09:03, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:::: The equilibrium temperature of a mixture (?) of equal quantities of ice at 0 C and water at 100 C (with the heat capacities 2.05 and 4.24) is 67 C; if I use the data for water at 0 C and steam, I get 31 C. Additionally, if I use equal volumes, I get 68 (which isn't much different.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.0.178|172.69.0.178]] 17:15, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:::: One can obtain 0 = 22 C by setting the heat capacity of ice to be 39 and that of water to be 11. For any particular "normal temperature" ''R'' °C (that is, the temperature at 0 is ''R'',), I find that ''x'' °C = 50''R''(''x''+4)/(''x''(''R''-50)+200). In particular, for ''R'' = 22, we get (1100+275''x'')/(50-7''x''). [[Special:Contributions/198.41.236.163|198.41.236.163]] 05:58, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
::How about Tnew=0.1694×degC+46.25; degC=(Tnew-46.25)/0.1694, where 0 is absolute zero and 50 is room temperature? (Freezing point of water: 46.25; Boiling point of water: 63.19) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.248|162.158.186.248]] 05:21, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:I would absolutely pull the trigger on an additional column if I didn't think it would further screw up what are most probably extremely cursed mobile portrait renderings of the table. How about a Trivia section? [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 08:44, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

Question regarding the X scale - when it‘s defined by *three* (somewhat, implying average is real and not just calculated by (max-min)/2)) independent points, how will linearity be achieved? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.76|162.158.155.76]] 05:43, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
[[File:Explanation length.png|right|thumb|Or click "[Expand]" in the bottom right table cell Derivation.]]
:Please see [[2701: Change in Slope]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.179|172.70.206.179]] 05:50, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:Sure, "a linear scale between each point":
[[File:XvsC.png|thumb|left|Here you go. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 06:33, 22 October 2024 (UTC)]]
{{clear}}

The reference for the average surface temperature, https://www.space.com/17816-earth-temperature.html, suggests it has increased above 15°C. What value should we use in late 2024? [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 07:30, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:The [https://wmo.int/media/news/earth-experiences-warmest-day-recent-history World Meteorological Organization], [https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-climate-2024-now-very-likely-to-be-warmest-year-on-record/ Carbon Brief], and [https://climate.copernicus.eu/new-record-daily-global-average-temperature-reached-july-2024 Copernicus Climate Change Service] suggest 17.16°C. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 07:42, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
::Updated water temperatures, Derivation, and graph. So we've already had more than the +2°C warming we were trying to avoid in 2019? [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 08:05, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
::: The +2°C (or +1.5°C that we were originally supposed to be avoiding) is over some (undefined) number of years, though, which allows us to ignore the fact that we're cooking ourselves by repeatedly saying 'Oh, but it doesn't count ''yet''.' [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.62|172.70.91.62]] 11:13, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
Regarding [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=3001%3A_Temperature_Scales&type=revision&diff=353635&oldid=353632], are the average surface temperatures from the sources supposed to be yearly or overall averages? [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 09:06, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:According to https://climate.copernicus.eu/climate-indicators/temperature the global average near-surface temperature in 2023 was 14.4 + 0.4 = 14.8°C. (see Figure 1 and click "Increase above: [1991–2020 reference period].") [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.8|172.68.22.8]] 21:06, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

where is the interactive epic 3000 comic we should've gotten? This one's cool but 1000 seemed to have more effort in it and 2000 was at least tangetially related. Does Randall just not like making these anymore and is only making more comics as a business? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.185|108.162.238.185]] 12:14, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:The comic is free on the website and it doesn't have ads; although the comic is part of his "brand" there are many more profitable things he could be doing with his time, and yet he continues to update it every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I just don't like the idea of claiming that a creative person "should" produce any particular thing to satisfy their fans. He's a busy guy! Maybe he's working on a book, or a Scientific American article, or a TV show. He's under no obligation to give us anything, and maybe one day he'll stop making xkcd altogether; that's his choice. Sorry to single you out; I know a lot of people feel the same way as you do, but to me it doesn't make sense. He's not a content machine--he's a guy who started posting sketches on the internet. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 15:23, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
::Sorry if I sounded overly brash, I wasn't trying to imply "wahhh no special entry wahhh", I was just wondering if Randall still likes to make these or if he doesn't, mainly because he just didn't do anything special, which feels like he just didn't care. I wasn't trying to imply Randall should just do it for the fans[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.80|108.162.238.80]] 17:52, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:::It ''could'' be that 3000 (or even 3001) ''was'' going to be special but, as fairly frequently with April Fool 'specials', it just wasn't doable on time. (If it's still considered fixablez it might pop up sometime before 3020 or so. Or, if transferable to another occasion (rebranding the obvious "3000!"ness), held over until Haloween, Christmas, April or 4000, perhaps with additional perfections.)
:::Hard to know, unless Randall (or his technical collaborators) say anything. And it's probably not worth doing so right now. Maybe "Hey guys, this ''was'' going to be #3000!" might accompany its eventual emergence, but also maybe not. Does it really matter? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.139|172.70.85.139]] 13:03, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Is this the first list-style comic where every single entry is real? (Usually he has several joke entries.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.182|172.70.114.182]] 14:26, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Where would [[1923: Felsius|Felsius]] go on this list?

One can find a smooth function for °X, namely, (477879''x''-17634840)/(3341''x''+197700), which takes °X and returns °C. The inverse is (-197700''x''-17634840)/(3341''x''-477879). Should this be included in the wiki article? Or maybe another way of fitting it (like exponential) should be used. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.0.165|172.69.0.165]] 06:27, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
:It says "a linear scale between each point". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.130|172.70.210.130]] 21:09, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Should it be noted that in the first _What If?_ book, there's a reference to units and how much Randall loathes rankine? Someone can go take the book and cite it; it's in one of the early pages [[Special:Contributions/172.64.236.10|172.64.236.10]] 08:45, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

I remember it being drummed into us in school physics (admittedly over 50 years ago) that 0 Celsius is defined as the melting point of ice, not the freezing point of water (presumably because of supercooling). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.189|172.70.160.189]] 08:49, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

It seems he wrote "Earths'" (plural possessive) instead of "Earth's". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.151|141.101.98.151]] 08:58, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

What? No gas mark? It's linear for temperatures over 275°F but inverse powers of 2 below That's pretty cursed, but I still put it in my unit conversion app. It's only used in gas stoves in a few countries, so it doesn't come up very often. By the way, boiling is 1/5.7358 and freezing/melting is 1/843.3572. Interestingly, France has it's own stove temperature scale that seems to be based on °F.

Also, my understanding is that 7.5 and 32 aren't random. Both Romer and Fahrenheit put numbers on things so that freezing/melting of water and "Normal human body temperature", which was thought to be standard at the time, would be some number X (15 for Romer and 64 for Fahrenheit) and the water thing would be to be X/2 and NHBT would be X/2+X. Pretty nerdy. Sadly, the calibration was off and 212 degrees for boiling was found to be less cursed. But I could be wrong.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.138|172.68.54.138]] 20:39, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
:Re: water/ice point 'random number', I think it's more that it wasn't considered "special", such that "On my scale, that will be zero" (or whatever choice of handily round number, including zero, some scale-setters allocated to the BP of water).
:After all the other messing about ("my zero will be that of brine!", etc), obviously then the ~0°C equivalent would ''have'' a number, and ''perhaps'' there would then be a slight change to make it a ''whole'' (or easy-fraction) number for convenience's sake, but (before the concept of binary computers) there's not much special about landing on the number 32, for what is actually a temperature that is quite significant to the human experience, and less so with 7-''and-a-half''.
:Maybe landing on 90°F (at one time) for body temperature (and 180 F° ''between'' MP and BP) was considered useful as the analogue to angular-degrees where 90 (and 180) indeed features significantly, but I don't think there'd have been too much fuss if the value would have turned out to be 60(/120), also with plenty of handy factors to divide by, 70(/140), without so much, or whatever number(s) happened to depict one realistic real-world measurement that (overall) has no reason to have a factor-based relationship with various quite separate phenomenon measurements.
:''And'' it went through several {{w|Human body temperature#Historical understanding|'corrective' iterations}} so that even its handy relationship with 'about 100°F' can be said to be an incidental accident, at best, unless we do something like Randall's °X scale and actively triple-tie the central value of the slope(s) to be exactly something useful by using the "currently accepted mean human body temperature (given various complicated caveats)".
:It's pretty much all random, in the same way that only because of anthropocentric choices of 'standard' time and distance measurements is the speed of light 'pretty much' 3×10⁸ m/s (a handily round value that works well enough for most purposes, even after back-standardising its component SI measurements to make "actually, precisely 299792458" the ''proper'' answer, and [https://conversion.org/speed/speed-of-light/furlong-per-fortnight it could be far worse...]). Avagadro's number never had it so good (6.022(+change)×1023...? ...where's the handily mnemonic value in that?), and Pi (in this universe's system of fundemental mathematics) clearly never ever had a chance! And, on {{w|Mount Everest#19th century|at least one occasion}}, such happenstance numeric roundedness in its exactitude (29''',000''' ft) was considered actually quite awkward... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.90|172.70.91.90]] 21:33, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
::My understanding is that the brine thing was an ad-hoc justification when the scale was presented to the Royal Society. It may have seemed less cursed. But yes, there's a BIG reason for using 32 or 64, halving a distance is trivial and as an instument maker, Fahrenheit would have found that attractive. Mind you, I'm getting this from the Straight Dope, so I could be a dope getting it straight. https://www.straightdope.com/21344240/did-cecil-err-in-explaining-the-significance-of-zero-fahrenheit [[Special:Contributions/162.158.10.189|162.158.10.189]] 20:04, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

Ok, then, regarding {{diff|353895|this edit}} (and the original IP-led one(s) that even made huge and revert-necessary changes), was it ''really'' intended to get rid of whole paragraphs such as "Randall also fails to specify what happens with temperatures[...]" that had nothing to do with the numeric adjustments? When I see that, I see mistakes (especially in light of the "clobber" that happened, where typos reappeared and other things became unexplained/worse-explained once more). — Basically, if your edit summary is nust about updating baseline data, and the resulting maths, I don't expect (maybe good, maybe bad) edits to unrelated bits. Or I may (and have) presumed accidental (or deliberate?) carelessness that I'd rather not try to go back to first principles to re-re-check for the editor concerned. That is all. At least try to justify enough of your edit in its own way, even if it means diving in several times to get enough space to summarise your whole "why" to each tweak. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.104|172.68.186.104]] 22:44, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
:Yes. I have re-removed the removals piecemeal with individual edit summaries for clarity. Many of them involved detailed obscure technical misunderstandings, such as whether the Vostok and Death Valley measurements were surface temperatures (the WMO says they are, and there are the WMO's photos of the observation stations in the linked references now) which combined with the incorrect yearly average global mean temperature, added five paragraphs unnecessarily. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.152|172.68.23.152]] 01:46, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
::Definitely some points made (some incorrect, "ne er" was ''obviously'' more just a basic typo of "never", not my attempt to use "ne'er" for no good reason, and my attempt to fix that and some other bits ran into a set of Edit Conflicts ...hope I caught all the remaining ones when I finally could try again on the settled-down page) and I've blended answers to your objections in while giving back what useful nuances (from a number of past editors, only a couple of bits even having had my own hand primarilly behind them as they were) really needn't have been removed. I dispute the terms of your objections (as summarised) behind {{diff|353937|some changes}}, but have rephrased based upon what I ''think'' you mean, giving you should prefer and wouldn't feel the need to be as randomly censorious about. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.173|172.69.195.173]] 02:54, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:::Figure 1 in https://climate.copernicus.eu/climate-indicators/temperature does not seem like a random walk to me. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.118|172.69.33.118]] 05:02, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
::::Added the "Random Walk" because, ignoring long-term trends, year-on-year the measured average is going to blip up and down for all kinds of reasons (physical and measuring issues, both), so it will be lower than expected or higher than expected compared to the smoother track it actually takes on a rolling average. I think one of the versions I replaced had partial suggestion that the average was effectively constant (in °C, not just °X), and while records adjusted every now and then (or every year!), it all just rather settled down at the °X midpoint. Which it doesn't. (And also that it's ''possible'' that Average and Minimum change such that the projected Absolute Zero ''doesn't'' move so much, one year, although mostly the fulcrum will be closer to 0°X rather than 0K.)
::::But I've yet to see what's been changed (maybe improved) since I was last looking at it. Maybe this is an out-of-date explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.202|172.70.90.202]] 12:04, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

When I originally designed my unit conversion app I almost made a unit up that was based on the ideal gas law and one mass pound of said gas in a one cubic foot container. It seemed more quixotic than anything else so I didn't pull the trigger on it. Maybe I should have.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.33|172.70.111.33]] 20:38, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

Is x based off of elon musk changing twitter to X? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.50|172.71.254.50]] 23:22, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:Too many things were already "X" (X marks the spot, Planet X, The X-Men, Xmas...), I see no need to presume that Elon has successfully claimed ownership of one entire letter of the alphabet due to a car-crash business deal and a self-obsessive personality. To paraphrase Freud, "sometimes an X is just an X", and with no references at all to anything Twitter-like I don't see any other intent than just as a traditional placeholder character. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.209|172.70.90.209]] 09:40, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Ummm... why do we have the Explanation give the idea that the record highest global temperature is rising ''every year'' (or almost), when the actual reference temperature that the Explanation (and calculation) uses (with supporting reference to wikipedia) was apparently in 1913? I think we've been confused by the ''average'' global temperature rising year-on-year, but somewhat hit the buffers on what (non-controversial) highest just-off-the-ground air temperature we can actually currently get (at least without much stranger solar activity starting to dominate).
 Incidentally, plotted against years, this means that the above-average temperature gradient is lessening over time, and the below-average gradient (excepting any future surprises at Vostok) is increasing over time... making me wonder if we had a time when °X was completely linear (50°X was precisely central to 0°X and 100°X, with no inflection point forced). Not going to follow thaat idea up, as probably you'd need a historical record of records that went back to before a reasonable global accuracy/completion of data was available. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.224|162.158.33.224]] 17:32, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

== Division by zero ==

I saw this in an edit summary: "10/0 is not ∞, it's also an error, not NaN according to the IEEE. It's closer to {+∞, -∞} than NaN but it's still neither because you can't make limits work"

Actually, IEEE floating point 10/0 can be an error, +∞, or NaN depending on the rounding mode. This is one of the reasons why mathemeticians don't appreciate the IEEE as much as they might. Division by zero is strictly undefined because of the problems with limits alluded to in the summary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHdg1yn1SgE [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.66|108.162.245.66]] 03:48, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

:"When considering division by zero through limits, assigning {+∞, -∞} as potential results is insufficient because limits require consistency and well-defined behavior. In the case of dividing a number by values approaching zero, the results differ depending on whether zero is approached from the positive or negative direction. As a divisor approaches zero from the positive side, the quotient grows towards +∞, and from the negative side, it tends towards -∞. Since limits must converge to a single value for consistency, this disparity leads to an undefined result. Moreover, in many mathematical contexts, infinity is not a number but rather a concept describing unbounded growth, meaning operations involving infinity, like addition or multiplication, are not well-defined in the same way as with finite numbers. This inconsistency in approaching zero prevents {+∞, -∞} from being an adequate solution set for division by zero. Defining division by zero as infinity would create contradictions in both arithmetic and algebraic contexts, as it disrupts fundamental properties like continuity and field structures in mathematics. Hence, division by zero remains undefined to preserve mathematical rigor and coherence."
:[Chat Gippity 4o] [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 08:53, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
::https://imgflip.com/i/7yd7gz [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.131|172.71.150.131]] 09:06, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

== Trivia section table values? ==

Someone please double-check the Trivia section temperatures. I am not convinced they are entirely correct or consistent. I'm least sure about the Galen row. And Wedgwood obviously needs more digits of precision. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.28|162.158.41.28]] 13:10, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:LGTM. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 20:55, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

3001: Temperature Scales

2024-10-25T20:32:53Z

162.158.33.224: /* Trivia */ Making the intro less complicated. *Trying* to explain (and ideally link) each column via its header, instead.

{{comic
| number = 3001
| date = October 21, 2024
| title = Temperature Scales
| image = temperature_scales_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x535px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In my new scale, °X, 0 is Earths' record lowest surface temperature, 50 is the global average, and 100 is the record highest, with a linear scale between each point and adjustment every year as needed.
}}

==Explanation==

Since the invention of the {{w|thermometer}}, a number of different {{w|temperature}} scales have been proposed. In modern times, most of the world uses the 1742 {{w|Celsius}} scale for everyday temperature measurements. A small number of countries (the USA and {{w|Territories of the United States|its territories}}, the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands, Liberia, and Palau) retain the {{w|Imperial units|imperial system}} (or the related {{w|United States customary units|US customary system}}), which uses the 1724 {{w|Fahrenheit}} scale. The other widely used temperature scale is the 1848 {{w|kelvin}}, which uses the same scale as degrees Celsius, but is rooted at {{w|absolute zero}}, making it both useful in scientific calculations and easy to convert to and from °Celsius (which, along with °Fahrenheit, is now officially defined relative to kelvin). The Kelvin scale has been part of the widely adopted official {{w|metric system}} since 1954. Even in countries that use Fahrenheit, scientific measurements are usually made in degrees Celsius or kelvin.

The comic compares these scales, and a number of others, on [[Randall]]'s scale of "cursedness." The joke is highlighting how different the temperature scales are, and how impractical most of them are. All of the listed scales are real, but may be considered obsolete to varying degrees. Please see also [[1923: Felsius]], a combination of degrees Fahrenheit and Celsius.

{| class=wikitable
! scope="col" | Unit
! scope="col" | Water freezes
! scope="col" | Water boils
! scope="col" | Notes
! scope="col" | Cursedness
! scope="col" | Explanation
|-
| {{w|Celsius}} || 0 || 100 || Used in most of the world || 2/10 || The Celsius (°C) scale, also known as "centigrade", was devised by Swedish astronomer {{w|Anders Celsius}} in 1742 and revised in 1745, a year after his death. 0°C represents the freezing point of water and 100°C represents the boiling point, both under {{w|standard atmospheric pressure}}. The Celsius scale is now defined in terms of kelvin. By the given "cursedness," it is regarded as one of the least problematic temperature scales.
|-
| {{w|Kelvin}} || 273.15 || 373.15 || 0K is absolute zero || 2/10 || Kelvin (plural with a lowercase 'k' as a temperature unit; or as the symbol 'K', without the degrees symbol '°', unlike most other such units) is a unit of temperature devised by {{w|Lord Kelvin}} in 1848. It uses the same scale as Celsius but is shifted by 273.15 to set absolute zero at 0K (based on the {{w|Boltzmann constant}}.)
<center>Celsius = kelvin - 273.15</center>
<center>kelvin = Celsius + 273.15</center>
While kelvin is very useful for calculations in {{w|thermodynamics}} and material physics, it can be unintuitive to laypersons.
|-
| {{w|Fahrenheit}} || 32 || 212 || Outdoors in most places is between 0–100 || 3/10 || Fahrenheit (°F) is officially used in a few countries and informally in several others. It originated in a time when factors of 360 were favored in science over powers of ten, which is why the freezing and boiling points of water are set 180° apart. Devised around 1724, {{w|Daniel Fahrenheit}} chose not to base 0° on the freezing point of water, instead originally setting it at the coldest temperature he could achieve: the freezing point of an {{w|ammonium chloride}} {{w|brine}} solution.
<center>Celsius = (Fahrenheit - 32) × 5/9</center>
<center>Fahrenheit = Celsius × 9/5 + 32</center>
Although those reference points are now considered arbitrary and outdated by modern scholars, the scale gained popularity in Anglophone countries, possibly because everyday weather conditions usually fall handily all across the range 0–100°F, and 100°F is {{w|Human body temperature#Historical understanding|coincidentally close to normal human body temperature}}. The Fahrenheit scale remains officially used only in Randall's home country (the U.S., and its territories), the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands, Liberia and Palau.
|-
| {{w|Réaumur scale|Réaumur}} || 0 || 80 || Like Celsius, but with 80 instead of 100 || 3/8 || Abbreviated as °Ré, this system devised by {{w|René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur}} in 1730 was used in some places until the early 20th century, mostly for cheese-making.
<center>Celsius = Réaumur / 0.8</center>
<center>Réaumur = Celsius × 0.8</center>
The rating (3/8) is a joke on the boiling point of water in this system being 80 instead of 100 as it is in Celsius; converting this to an out-of-ten scale would give 3.75/10, labeling it as more cursed than Fahrenheit but less so than Rømer.
|-
| {{w|Rømer scale|Rømer}} || 7.5 || 60 || Fahrenheit precursor with similarly random design || 4/10 || Abbreviated as °Rø, this scale was created by the Danish astronomer {{w|Ole Rømer}} around 1702. Much like Fahrenheit, it originally used the freezing point of ammonium chloride brine as the benchmark for 0°, and the scale is built with factors of 360 in mind with the boiling point of pure water at 60°. Like the Fahrenheit scale, the freezing point of pure water was not originally considered significant by Rømer, but the scale was later updated to give the value of 7.5 at this point.
<center>Celsius = (Rømer - 7.5) × 40/21</center>
<center>Rømer = Celsius × 21/40 + 7.5</center>
The Rømer scale is considered the predecessor of both the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales, because Réaumur was inspired by Rømer's scale, Celsius based his work on Réaumur and Fahrenheit specifically designed his scale with more divisions than Rømer's to reduce the necessity for fractions.
|-
| {{w|Rankine scale|Rankine}} || 491.7 || 671.7 || Fahrenheit, but with 0°F [''sic;'' should be 0°Ra] set to absolute zero || 6/10 || The Rankine scale (°R or °Ra), devised in 1859 by {{w|William Rankine}}, is to Fahrenheit what kelvin is to Celsius, an absolute raher than a relative scale. The scale is mostly obsolete, but is still occasionally used in legacy industrial operations where absolute temperature scales are required. It is described as more cursed than the otherwise identical Fahrenheit scale, despite being rooted at a more universal zero point.
<center>Celsius = (Rankine - 491.67) × 5/9</center>
<center>Rankine = (Celsius + 273.15) × 9/5</center>
Another comic, [[2292: Thermometer]], expresses disdain for this scale.
|-
| {{w|Newton scale|Newton}} || 0 || 33-ish || Poorly defined, with reference points like "the hottest water you can hold your hand in" || 7-ish/10 || The famous scientist and mathematician {{w|Isaac Newton}} published this scale in 1701, which was referred to by the the °N symbol. Sadly, the degrees of temperature specified do not correlate exactly with amounts of {{w|heat}}. The cursedness rating (7-ish/10) is a joke about the vagueness of the scale's definition.
<center>Celsius = Newton × 100/33</center>
<center>Newton = Celsius × 33/100</center>
Very few scientists other than Newton ever used this scale,{{Actual citation needed}} but it did appear on commercial thermometers around 1758.<ref>https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10413117&wwwflag=&imagepos=43</ref>
|-
| {{w|Wedgwood scale|Wedgwood}} || –8 || –6.7 || Intended for comparing the melting points of metals, all of which it was very wrong about || 9/10 || Created by the potter {{w|Josiah Wedgwood}} in 1782, the '°W' scale was based on the shrinking of clay when heated above red heat, but was found to be very inconsistent.
<center>Celsius = (Wedgwood + 8) × 100/1.3</center>
<center>Wedgwood = (Celsius × 1.3/100) - 8</center>
The comic has a typo, as the scale is called Wedgwood, without the second 'e'.
|-
| Galen || –4? || 4?? || Runs from –4 (cold) to 4 (hot). 0 is "normal"(?) || 4/–4 || The Greek physician {{w|Galen}} suggested a "neutral" temperature around 180 A.D.,<ref>https://www.loebclassics.com/view/galen-temperaments/2020/pb_LCL546.3.xml</ref> when he was a prominent physician in the {{w|Roman Empire}}. Created by mixing equal parts of boiling water and ice, on either side of this neutral point he described four degrees of heat and four degrees of cold.
<center>Celsius = (Galen × 100 / 8) + 22</center>
<center>Galen = ((Celsius - 22) / 100) × 8</center>
This range from +4 to –4 is humorously used as its rating, implying -100% cursedness. Technically this makes it the least cursed of all the listed scales, but the idea of negative cursedness (or cursedness itself) would be Randall's invention. There is no standard modern abbreviation for Galen's scale.
|-
| {{w|Celsius#History|''Real'' Celsius}} || 100 || 0 || In Anders Celsius's original 1742 specification, bigger numbers are ''colder''; others later flipped it || 10/0 || Most scales' temperatures can be indefinitely large, but have an absolute minimum temperature. By starting at a maximum value and counting down, this scale is indeed cursed, as nearly all possible temperatures (possibly to the equivalent of 1.42x1032K, considered [https://doi.org/10.4236/jamp.2024.1210198 the maximum attainable physical temperature]) will be negative in this implementation. The cursedness rating (10/0) is a joke on the scale "flipping" the fixed points of modern Celsius. Division by zero is strictly undefined (see [[2295: Garbage Math]]) and may be interpreted in a number of counter-intuitive ways.
<center>Celsius = 100 - real_Celsius</center>
<center>real_Celsius = 100 - Celsius</center>
The original logic was that zero could be easily calibrated to the height of a {{w|Millimetre of mercury|column of mercury}} at the temperature of boiling water, and further measurements then made of the amount it ''reduced'' in height under cooler conditions. This orientation survives in the historic {{w|Delisle scale}} devised in 1732 by French astronomer {{w|Joseph-Nicolas Delisle}}, which arguably inspired the Celsius scale. The scale originally used by Professor Celsius was changed, to more or less the form already described above, after his death in 1745. Delisle's scale was never reversed.
|-
| [https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/459851/john-daltons-temperature-scale#459863 Dalton] || 0 || 100 || A nonlinear scale; 0°C and 100°C are 0 and 100 Dalton, but 50°C is 53.9 Dalton || 53.9/50 || {{w|John Dalton}} proposed a logarithmic temperature scale in 1802 during his work on what became {{w|Charles's Law}}. The scale is defined so that absolute zero is at negative infinity, with the exponent chosen to match Celsius at 0 and 100:
<center>Celsius = 273.15 × ''e''(Dalton / 320.55) - 273.15</center>
<center>Dalton = 320.55 × {{w|Natural logarithm|''ln''(}} (Celsius + 273.15) / 273.15 )</center>
There is no standard abbreviation for Dalton's scale. While Dalton temperature is defined for all positive and negative numbers, the nonlinear scale is difficult to work with since the amount of heat represented by a change of one degree Dalton is not constant. Degrees Dalton differs from Celsius by as much as 3.9 degrees between 0 and 100, but diverges much more for more extreme temperatures. The rating (53.9/50) is a joke about the unit, as 53.9 Dalton equates to 50 degrees Celsius — i.e., it could be said to be 107.8% (even more than entirely) cursed.
|-
| °X || 42.9 || 151.4 || '''Title text:''' "In my new scale, °X, 0 is Earths' [''sic''] record lowest surface temperature, 50 is the global average, and 100 is the record highest, with a linear scale between each point and adjustment every year as needed." || Randall has not stated the cursedness of his new scale || The {{w|Lowest temperature recorded on Earth|record lowest surface temperature on Earth}} as of 2024 is –89.2°C (–128.6°F), recorded at the {{w|Vostok Station|Vostok Research Station}} in Antarctica on July 21, 1983.<ref>https://wmo.asu.edu/content/world-lowest-temperature</ref> The average surface temperature as of 2023, the most recent available, is 14.8°C (58.6°F.)<ref>https://climate.copernicus.eu/climate-indicators/temperature</ref> The {{w|Highest temperature recorded on Earth|record highest temperature}} is 56.7°C (134.1°F), recorded on July 10, 1913 at {{w|Furnace Creek, California|Furnace Creek Ranch}} in Death Valley, California.<ref>https://wmo.asu.edu/content/world-highest-temperature</ref>

"Surface" temperatures are measured at 1.5 meters above ground inside a shaded shelter, to accurately represent the temperature of the air, because temperatures closer to the ground are often quite different due to effect of absorbing sunlight (or a lack thereof, e.g. at night or under clouds), and the thermal capacity of soil.

{{cot|Derivation and graph}}
To break the scale into two linear parts (below and above 14.8°C), we define two separate equations for each range:

1. Below 14.8°C (from –89.2°C to 14.8°C):
* 0 °X corresponds to –89.2°C
* 50 °X corresponds to 14.8°C

We calculate the slope m₁:

<center>m₁ = (50 – 0) / (14.8 – (–89.2)) = 50 / (14.8 + 89.2) = 50 / 104 ≈ 0.48</center>

Now, using the point (14.8°C, 50 °X), we calculate the intercept b₁:

<center>50 = 0.48 × 14.8 + b₁</center>

<center>50 = 7.1 + b₁</center>

<center>b₁ = 50 – 7.1 = 42.9</center>

Thus, the equation for temperatures '''below 14.8°C''' is:

<center>'''X = 0.48 × C + 42.9'''</center>

2. Above 14.8°C (from 14.8°C to 56.7°C):
* 50 °X corresponds to 14.8°C
* 100 °X corresponds to 56.7°C

We calculate the slope m₂:

<center>m₂ = (100 – 50) / (56.7 – 14.8) = 50 / 41.9 ≈ 1.19</center>

Now, using the point (14.8°C, 50 °X), we calculate the intercept b₂:

<center>50 = 1.19 × 14.8 + b₂</center>

<center>50 = 17.6 + b₂</center>

<center>b₂ = 50 – 17.6 = 32.4</center>

Thus, the equation for temperatures '''above 14.8°C''' is:

<center>'''X = 1.19 × C + 32.4'''</center>

;Freezing and boiling points of water

Freezing point of water (0°C): Since 0°C is below 14.8°C, we use the equation X = 0.48 × C + 42.9:

<center>X = 0.48 × 0 + 42.9 = 42.9</center>

So, '''the freezing point is 42.9 °X.'''

Boiling point of water (100°C): Since 100°C is above 14.8°C, we use the equation X = 1.19 × C + 32.4:

<center>X = 1.19 × 100 + 32.4 = 119 + 32.4 = 151.4</center>

So, '''the boiling point is 151.4 °X.'''

[[File:XvsC.png|400px|center]]

See also [[2701: Change in Slope]] for a general discussion of separate linear scales between three points.
{{cob}}
Due to high temperature records increasing almost every year (and similarly the trend in average temperatures) as a result of {{w|climate change}}, Randall's new °X scale must be re-calibrated each year. While the subsequent °X value being given to everyday benchmark temperatures will vary over time, more extreme values like absolute zero or the {{w|Tungsten#Physical properties|melting point of tungsten}} will shift vastly more.
|}

==Trivia==

Here is a table of typical {{w|room temperature}}, the freezing and boiling points of water, the {{w|human body temperature}}, recommended refrigerator and freezer settings, and typical temperatures for a warm bath and hot coffee in the different temperature scales:

In the various scales, this is a table of several benchmark temperatures.

;[Warning, not proofread.]

{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
! Unit scale
! Sample {{w|room temperature}}
! {{w|Properties of water#Melting point|Freezing point of water}}
! {{w|Boiling point#Boiling point of water with elevation|Boiling point of water}} 
! {{w|Human body temperature}} (midpoint)
! Recommended {{w|Refrigerator#Temperature zones and ratings|refrigerator temperature}} 
! Recommended {{w|Refrigerator#Freezer|freezer temperature}} 
! "Warm bath" temperature 
! "{{w|Coffee#Brewing|Hot coffee}}" temperature 
|-
| Celsius || 22 °C || 0 °C || 100 °C || 37 °C || 2.5 °C || -18 °C || 39 °C || 77 °C
|-
| Kelvin || 295 K || 273 K || 373 K || 310 K || 276 K || 255 K || 312 K || 350 K
|-
| Fahrenheit || 72 °F || 32 °F || 212 °F || 98.6 °F || 36.5 °F || -0.4 °F || 102 °F || 171 °F
|-
| Réaumur || 17.6 °Ré || 0 °Ré || 80 °Ré || 29.6 °Ré || 2 °Ré || -14.4 °Ré || 31.2 °Ré || 61.6 °Ré
|-
| Rømer || 19.1 °Rø || 7.5 °Rø || 60 °Rø || 26.9 °Rø || 8.8 °Rø || -2 °Rø || 28 °Rø || 47.9 °Rø
|-
| Rankine || 531 °Ra || 492 °Ra || 672 °Ra || 558 °Ra || 496 °Ra || 459 °Ra || 562 °Ra || 630 °Ra
|-
| Newton || 7.3 °N || 0 °N || 33 °N || 12.2 °N || 0.8 °N || -5.9 °N || 12.9 °N || 25.4 °N
|-
| Wedgwood || -7.71 °W || -8.00 °W || -6.70 °W || -7.52 °W || -7.97 °W || -8.23 °W || -7.49 °W || -7.00 °W
|-
| Galen || 0 || -1.76 || 6.24 || 1.20 || -1.56 || -3.20 || 1.36 || 4.40
|-
| ''Real'' Celsius || 78 || 100 || 0 || 63 || 98 || 118 || 61 || 23
|-
| Dalton || 24.8 || 0 || 100 || 40.7 || 2.9 || -21.9 || 42.8 || 79.6
|-
| °X || 59 °X || 43 °X || 151 °X || 76.4 °X || 44.1 °X || 34.3 °X || 78.8 °X || 124 °X
|}

==Transcript==

:Temperature Scales

:[A table with five columns, labelled: Unit, water freezing point, water boiling point, notes, cursedness. There are eleven rows below the labels.]

:[Row 1:] Celsius, 0, 100, Used in most of the world, 2/10
:[Row 2:] Kelvin, 273.15, 373.15, 0K is absolute zero, 2/10
:[Row 3:] Fahrenheit, 32, 212, Outdoors in most places is between 0–100, 3/10
:[Row 4:] Réaumur, 0, 80, Like Celsius, but with 80 instead of 100, 3/8
:[Row 5:] Rømer, 7.5, 60, Fahrenheit precursor with similarly random design, 4/10,
:[Row 6:] Rankine, 491.7, 671.7, Fahrenheit, but with 0°F set to absolute zero, 6/10
:[Row 7:] Newton, 0, 33-ish, Poorly defined, with reference points like "the hottest water you can hold your hand in", 7-ish/10
:[Row 8:] Wedgewood, –8, –6.7, Intended for comparing the melting points of metals, all of which it was very wrong about, 9/10
:[Row 9:] Galen, –4?, 4??, Runs from –4 (cold) to 4 (hot). 0 is "normal"(?), 4/–4
:[Row 10:] ''Real'' Celsius, 100, 0, In Anders Celsius's original specification, bigger numbers are ''colder''; others later flipped it, 10/0
:[Row 11:] Dalton, 0, 100, A nonlinear scale; 0°C and 100°C are 0 and 100 Dalton, but 50°C is 53.9 Dalton, 53.9/50

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:2998: Ravioli-Shaped Objects

2024-10-19T18:18:10Z

162.158.33.224:

I think its a missed opportunity not to include the 'bulging lithium battery' themed throw pillow.[[User:Xurkitree10|Xurkitree10]] ([[User talk:Xurkitree10|talk]]) 22:04, 14 October 2024 (UTC)
: [https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=455ef0c0e7ccb718&rlz=1C5CHFA_enPT1102PT1103&sxsrf=ADLYWILokQZ6eE3TWl2J_c07q1iHNDGgjw:1729080251272&q=%27bulging+lithium+battery%27+throw+pillow&udm=2&fbs=AEQNm0Aa4sjWe7Rqy32pFwRj0UkWd8nbOJfsBGGB5IQQO6L3J_TJ4YMS4eRay1mUcjRHkZwkNnuzbvXdHSnZt8SI-ypebpRXuYkgug6DK-4Ut13H99ktA8Mqi1OEFqdR-eK48bJa__90OMgplgEoZnWValhUQ343gp_exU8Evdjtace2RF7oLL9h99qRkTgUJWLIWwzoXToL&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj72qjx7ZKJAxVOYPEDHe8mDMkQtKgLegQINxAB&biw=1920&bih=968&dpr=1#vhid=fdx7hJP7669_DM&vssid=mosaic Oh, these actually exist]--[[Special:Contributions/172.64.236.35|172.64.236.35]] 12:07, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
:: Although technically, the pillow itself is normal, it's the overlay / cover which is battery themed. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 05:08, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
::: Missing a trick by not having them be heated. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.202|172.70.90.202]] 08:49, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Battery stories.
One of my backup batteries has started bulging so much I wrapped it in duct tape to hold the case onto it. It still works if I joggle the connectors well, but I’m worried.
Another time, I was trying to repair a cell phone but accidentally pierced the battery with my tiny screw driver. It started sparking and smoking and emitting dense dark noxious smoke. I threw it, it landed on a chair and burst into a small fire. The building filled with the dense noxious smoke, setting off all the alarms, coughing, opening the windows. When the fire calmed down (it didn’t spread) the chair seat was burnt in the shape of the battery, as well as the phone was bent and discolored and unusable in every way. But it still had its electronics in many parts. I want to image that flash chip and get my files!
A kid also once told me, they had an old phone they had taken to a very cold event (lithium batteries can hold power in proportion to temperature, so sudden drops could be a problem), and it started emitting s whining nosie. They threw it for safety, and it exploded away from them, according to their story.

Now, people also sell large expanded batteries for cell phones, which don’t fit in the case, and people mod or bend the case to get more power for their phones. Phone hacking, in some areas, has been getting easier and easier as information on it spreads and as design norms for phones stabilise. I used to mismatch phone batteries to save money and waste, but I was young and I would do crazy things like bunching up internal foil from candy wrappers, or bending paperclips, or pulling copper strands from discarded wires, and with my youngster manual dexterity i could measure the right voltages and jam, tape, or solder the disparate batteries to the internal connectors, and forcing the phone back on would then indeed yield things that looked like Randall’s drawings here.

Since traditional lithium batteries stop working after a few years, there’s pressure for people to do home battery mods.

But I bet nowadays you can find all sorts of clear descriptions of how to do these various things much better than I used to all over the internet somewhere, maybe even 3d print designs for parts. Maybe even a robot or drone exoskeleton for your phone, connecting with usb-serial or bluetooth or wifi.

So according to Randall it’s totally safe to use my bulging lithium backup battery (even if a screen is a little cracked)? {{unsigned ip|172.69.59.66|22:29, 14 October 2024}}

Should we create a group/series for comics containing confusion matrices? This now makes 5, with the other 4 being 2963, 2813, 2420 and 1890. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.184|108.162.250.184]] 22:50, 14 October 2024 (UTC)
:Nevermind I just realised that this group exists, my bad. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.124|172.68.210.124]] 22:53, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

I wasn't expecting a comic about spicy pillows but I think it's awesome that we got one. I do think there should be mention of or links to how to safely dispose of expanding lithium batteries such as [https://www.call2recycle.org/ Call2Recycle] in the explanation, even if it's just to spread awareness about the dangers of spicy pillows and the proper disposal of them. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 23:36, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

spicy pillows yummy [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 07:41, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Shouldn’t the bottomright square be yellow or even red? (I see it is mentioned in the explanation already) - - [[Special:Contributions/172.71.103.178|172.71.103.178]] 09:26, 15 October 2024 (UTC)
: I'm assuming that Randal has the experience in his community of never having an issue with installing an expanded battery. The comic appears to be saying that rumors that this is dangerous are false. But I don't know, maybe he's getting senile. In the "internetizen" or "hacker" spirit of the comic's demographic, trying out alternative approaches than the mainstream is (or was) the celebrated norm, and leads to many new discoveries that are (or were) shared online. There might be more information on irc or twitter. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.129|108.162.245.129]] 23:17, 15 October 2024 (UTC)
:My interpretation is that yellow indicates "weird" rather than safe/practical. Two two yellow-marked squares are no unsafe or impractical, they are merely weird. Having a bulging phone battery is not weird, and because it still functions (despite being dangerous/damaging), it can't be red either. I do think it's an odd choice though, emotionally. [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 09:41, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:When I visit https://xkcd.com/2998/ the bottom right cell is red not green as on this page. If something has been update this might warrent a trivia section.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.92|162.158.154.92]] 04:21, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

::More importantly, the image here should be replaced by the one Randall now has on his site.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.224|162.158.134.224]] 07:42, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

In the phone/pillow square, we can see an edge under the front of the pillow, so maybe Cueball split the phone opened and placed the pillow between the parts. That would explain the red color. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.127.99|162.158.127.99]] 12:43, 15 October 2024 (UTC)
:If the intent is to put each battery/non-battery-substitute 'in' the battery compartment, then this makes sense. Given that it's typically a tight-tolerance fit (so that even a slightly 'blown' battery is hard to insert, or at least get the cover back over), anything bigger than the original battery will protrude, or at least distort the case heavily. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.55|172.71.26.55]] 14:38, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

It seems like Randall forgot to hide the sketch in the bottom left cell. {unsigned ip|162.158.167.83|20:50, 15 October 2024}}

Please do not eat old Samsung batteries. [[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 21:01, 15 October 2024 (UTC)
:Nor drink, nor use as headrests. Thank you fandoor your cooperation. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.191|172.68.22.191]] 23:50, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

: Eating a lithium (IIRC) battery is good for one and those about iff one is a zombie in Z Nation ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3843168/ ) Otherwise? Yikes.
:Aside: I'd advise against thinking that xkcd is an advice column. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.213|172.70.134.213]] 02:58, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:Please do not eat other brand of lithium batteries either, no matter their age. Do not eat Apple batteries. Do not eat Google Pixel batteries. Do not eat Xiaomi batteries. Do not eat Huawei batteries. Do not eat Honor batteries. Do not eat Motorola batteries. Do not eat rechargable AAA batteries. Actually, do not eat non-rechargable AAA batteries either, although those are not lithium-based. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 05:15, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
::Nor AAs, CR2032s or PP3s. Although I suspect that {{w|D battery|D cells}} are perfectly ok, so long as you don't try to chew them and just swallow them whole... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.202|172.70.90.202]] 05:45, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
We need a row for cooking them because baked lithium ion batteries are tasty (The Batteries from those old T-mobile keyboard phones are the best kind they have extra flavor) {{unsigned|TiredQuill281|20:13, 18 October 2024}}

Would someone who has the necessary privileges please update the image file? The bottom-right square has changed colour. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:01, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:And, when done, it would be good to link the <code><nowiki>[[original image file]]</nowiki></code>, appropriately, in the text that currently explains the change.
:Normally, the picture would be updated and an addendum paragraph and/or Trivia item would be given to explain how it originally was before the 'correction', but the change is documented within the table already.
:Although yet another option would be to clean up that (perhaps overlong) cell to be just the "it is red" paragraph, and actually transfer into a Trivia statement the whole extracted "originally it was [color]green[/color], rather than [color]red[/color] or [color]yellow[/color]..." bit, slightly adjusted for Trvica-scope context. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.224|162.158.33.224]] 18:18, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

2995: University Commas

2024-10-12T15:32:54Z

162.158.33.224: /* Explanation */ Commas don't mean ...<time passes>... pauses. But they may mean things that *invoke* vocal pauses, by intonation.

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

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

The use of commas in the English language is {{w|Comma#Uses in English|famously disputed}}, most relevantly among publishers and academics. This comic imagines that all possible (and some improbable) comma positions in an example sentence are associated with different universities. This applies to commas which should ''always'' be present in a list, optional commas elsewhere in the sentence (which have nothing to do with a list, such as after the word "please") and blatantly erroneous commas (which should ''never'' be present in a sentence, e.g. immediately prior to the {{w|full stop}}/period).

The Oxford comma (a.k.a. {{w|serial comma}} or, despite how this comic represents it, the ''actual'' Harvard comma) is a comma between the penultimate item in a list and its conjunction (typically ''and'' or ''or''), to echo all the commas (at least one) that act as {{w|Comma#List separator and the serial (Oxford) comma|placeholders for the conjunction}} in-between all prior members of the list. For instance, you might write "red, white, and blue" (with the Oxford comma) or "red, white and blue" (without it). Some style guides, such as ''{{w|The Oxford Style Manual}}'' published by {{w|Oxford University Press}}, (unsurprisingly) recommend using it, while other similarly authoritative guides recommend against it. Though even those with either recommendation may suggest its (non-)use in situations where this avoids an ambiguity arising from the normally recommended choice.

One {{w|Serial comma#Ambiguity|common example}} showing the need for an Oxford comma is "To my parents, Ayn Rand''',''' and God". Without the comma (as in: "To my parents, Ayn Rand and God"), it may read that the author's parents are Ayn Rand and God. If such confusion is to be avoided, reordering the list is a common way to avoid ambiguity, for example, "To Ayn Rand, God and my parents" is one such reordering. However, the use of an Oxford comma in this version might imply the deification of Ayn Rand. Conversely, if the sentence was instead to be "To my mother, Ayn Rand, and God", with such a comma, there arises the possibility of an assertion that one's mother is Ayn Rand, whereas "To my mother, Ayn Rand and God" does not let one fall into that trap.

{{w|Macaroni and cheese}} (often shortened to "Mac and cheese" in the US and Canada) should be considered a single item in a list like this. When just two items are joined together, e.g. to name a compound food such as "peanut butter and jelly", "fish and chips" or "steak and eggs", a comma isn't placed before "and". It is in the use of such compounded items, as a singular list item, where some confusion can arise. Alternate forms ("fish'n'chips", "PB&J") can put emphasis upon the low-level linking of the components, the outer list can be rewritten (e.g. with semicolon separation) or the reader can be left to logically assume where such a commonly encountered pairing is not part of the wider list. A difference in conjunction can also help to clarify, as in "A good choice of breakfast is ham and eggs, sausage and eggs or sausage and beans, but not ham and beans", which is ''unlikely'' to be accidentally misunderstood (including as options such as "sausage + (eggs or additional sausage) + beans" or "sausage + ('non-ham' beans) + further beans").

In the most common interpretation the example sentence reads (with proper punctuation and bracketed Oxford comma): "Please buy apples, mac and cheese, milk[,] and bread."

However, most of the commas are possible punctuation marks in a specific pragmatic reading of the sentence:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Comma name !! Notation !! Explanation
|-
| Harvard comma || Please, buy apples, mac and cheese, milk[,] and bread. || Emphatic plea, marked by a sub-clause separator. (Note that "Harvard comma" is already a common synonym for the Oxford comma, in its context.)
{{w|Harvard University}} is one of eight {{w|Ivy League}} universities in the United States.
|-
| Yale comma || Please buy, apples, mac and cheese, milk[,] and bread. || A merchant's plea to their customer, marked by a sub-clause separator. This makes the sentence a sentence fragment but this is not uncommon in speech. One use of a comma is to indicate a grammatical aside in speech and (optionally) a return from that pause — as it would here — though more formal writing would typically used a more specific punctuation mark, such as a colon. The implication may be that the list of items are those for sale or that there is a promotion around those items specifically.
{{w|Yale University}} is one of eight Ivy League universities in the United States.
|-
| Stanford comma || Please buy apples, mac and cheese, milk[,] and bread. || Mandatory separator in a list.
{{w|Stanford University}} is one of the prominent universities in the United States. It is located in Silicon Valley, a short distance from the headquarters of {{w|Apple Inc.}} The Stanford comma between "apples" and "mac" is probably necessary there to distinguish discussions of the food products from discussion of the computer products.
|-
| Columbia comma || Please buy apples, mac, and cheese, milk[,] and bread. || A plea to buy apples, cheese, milk and bread, directed at a person called Mac, whose name is stylized as "mac".

Alternatively, a plea to buy apples, a raincoat, cheese, milk[,] and bread. The first 'and' would then be superfluous, but this could reflect the speaker adding the last two items in the moment to an initial request for the first three.

{{w|Columbia University}} is one of eight Ivy League universities in the United States.
|-
| Cambridge comma || (Please buy apples, mac, and, cheese being unavailable, milk[,] and bread.) || Valid with a qualifying sub-clause; invalid in the example sentence. Also requires "mac" to be an item of its own, not a part of "mac and cheese".
The {{w|University of Cambridge}} is one of the two eponymous {{w|Oxbridge}} universities in the United Kingdom. Not to be confused with {{w|Cambridge, Massachusetts#Higher education|other establishments}} in (or originally in) Cambridge, Massachusetts.
|-
| Cornell comma || Please buy apples, mac and cheese, milk[,] and bread. || Mandatory separator in a list.
{{w|Cornell University}} is one of eight Ivy League universities in the United States. It has {{w|Cornell Dairy|its own dairy farm}}, which is why the Cornell comma is placed between dairy products, "cheese" and "milk".
|-
| Oxford comma || Please buy apples, mac and cheese, milk, and bread. || The {{w|Oxford comma}}, as discussed above, is a comma often used in lists (with more than two elements) to further separate the last two elements and thus attempt to avoid ambiguity. In this case, it is unlikely that there would be confusion as to how to interpret the given list, with or without this comma.
The {{w|University of Oxford}} is the other eponymous Oxbridge university in the United Kingdom.
|-
| Princeton comma || (Please buy apples, mac and cheese, milk[,] and, bread being out of stock, oats.) || Valid with a qualifying sub-clause; invalid in the example sentence.
{{w|Princeton University}} is one of eight Ivy League universities in the United States.
|-
| MIT comma || (Please, buy, apples, mac, and, cheese, milk, and, bread,.) || Possible reference to [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11597901/why-are-trailing-commas-allowed-in-a-list trailing commas sometimes used in programming], which would be associated with a university highly specialized in technology. If each of these words were identifiers, then including all commas would be a valid way to express a list in some languages (though using a period to indicate the end of a list is uncommon). Specifically, MIT is home to the Rust programming language, which uses trailing commas for the last item of a list as a matter of programming style.
The {{w|Massachusetts Institute of Technology}} is one of the prominent universities in the United States.
|-
| UCLA/Michigan comma(s) || (,,,…,,,Please, buy, apples, mac, and, cheese, milk, and, bread,.,,,…,,,) || '''Title text proposal''', each establishment being perhaps responsible for both or either sets of commas. Can perhaps relate to rather specific quotation or quote-separation contexts not in common use.
The {{w|University of California, Los Angeles}} and the {{w|University of Michigan}} are two more well known universities in the United States.
|}

Depending upon who you talk to, the two establishments referenced by the title text may not be considered quite as prominent or outstanding as the Ivy League universities, or others mentioned here, hence their relegation to title text punchline. But (actual Ivy Leaguers) {{w|Brown University}}, {{w|Dartmouth College}} and the {{w|University of Pennsylvania}} were not referenced at all, for one reason or another; for example, the very idea of a "Brown comma" might more readily resonate with the concept of the {{w|Brown note}}.

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

:[A sentence is written in greyed-out text, with the commas in black and each labeled with an arrow.]
:Please''',''' buy''',''' apples''',''' mac''',''' and''',''' cheese''',''' milk''',''' and''',''' bread''','''.

:[The labels are as follows, in order from left to right:]
:Harvard comma
:Yale comma
:Stanford comma
:Columbia comma
:Cambridge comma
:Cornell comma
:Oxford comma
:Princeton comma
:MIT comma

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The Oxford one is the most famous, but many major universities have their own comma.

==Trivia==
[[Randall]] appears to be a fairly regular user of the Serial/Oxford Comma himself, with the most recent example being in the title text of [[2985: Craters]]. This is clearly out of habit or preference, as it is not required for clarification purposes. Yet it seems he also appreciates the conflicting viewpoints inherent to such a style opinion. He later completely avoided the use of list-commas in a (three-part) list within the comic text of the successive [[2986: Every Scientific Field]], possibly for rhetorical reasons.

This very wiki currently reminds anyone editing a page that their contributions "may be edited, altered, or removed", which is also not a syntactical necessity beyond adherence to the Oxford styling. Later, in the same paragraph of text, it also uses structure of "…, or … or …", but for different grammatical reasons that are unrelated to serial/list commas.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:970: The Important Field

2024-10-07T08:23:40Z

162.158.33.224: /* i can't access 969 */

I never realized his hat was green until I read this page [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.171|162.158.58.171]] 04:22, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

In order to purchase a firearm in the United States from a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) you have to submit an official government photographic identification card (State ID or State Drivers license usually suffice), complete a Form 4473 Firearms Transaction Record to include such personal data as name, address, height, weight, ethnicity, age, birth date and Social Security Number or Tax Identification Number and submit the previous personal data from the Form 4473 to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) which is administered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and receive a "PROCEED WITH TRANSACTION" from the NICS in order to take possession of the firearm.

To pay for your firearm with a check you only need show two forms of identification one of which may just be your Social Security Card.

To take possession of the firearm actually requires more stringent checks on identity than to pay with one by check.

But other than that you're right. {{unsigned|211.40.37.62}}

Please enter your name and address, so we know who to blame when New York disappears. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:22, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

How can a law-bound society write laws about guns when the all-embracing laws cannot first be rescinded?

The USA has much the same life problems that Iran once had -which probably lead to Iran's defeat at Gaugamela (Mosul.) I doubt Darius III's officers had e-mail addresses to worry about, none the less if their aristocracy were bound by bureaucracy at the wrong time and place, that would have been it.

Something else that is probably beyond emails:

"The Iraqi government is planning to retake the city with the help of the peshmerga, Sunni tribes, and US-led coalition air support."
[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 19:29, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

Why are the words "has heard" italicised in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.148|172.68.141.148]] 03:34, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

== i can't access 969 ==

what is wrong --[[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 07:34, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
:Please elaborate. I can access it, but maybe you're not trying to go there any of the ways that I've just tried and succeeded to. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.224|162.158.33.224]] 08:23, 7 October 2024 (UTC)