explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2019: An Apple for a Dollar

2018-07-20T20:27:42Z

162.158.62.225: /* Explanation */ cashier is supportive

{{comic
| number = 2019
| date = July 13, 2018
| title = An Apple for a Dollar
| image = an_apple_for_a_dollar.png
| titletext = I'd like 0.4608 apples, please.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] is about to buy an apple at a grocery store when she is surprised that the price is exactly one dollar. A common practice in pricing items is to deliberately make them slightly less than a round number, such as $1.99 or $1.95 instead of $2, as a psychological trick to make the item price seem significantly less than it really is, as people often mentally catalog the item as "one dollar and some change" instead of "almost two dollars". Additionally, in most cases in the US, {{w|Sales taxes in the United States|sales tax}} must be taken into account, as it is generally not included in the list price (although [https://taxfoundation.org/which-states-tax-groceries/ most states] do exempt food sold in grocery stores from sales taxes), so a price rarely comes out to a round value. That it came out to an exact dollar is so strange for Megan that it throws her for a loop. Buying one apple for one dollar feels to her more like a simplified, imaginary ''Idea'' of a transaction (a "{{w|Platonic Ideal}}") than like something that could actually happen in real life.

Megan likely shares Randall's background of engineering and math. When learning science, engineering, and math in the education system, one studies examples where every number is some round value, and all situations are simplified to the barest essentials so as to demonstrate the ideas being taught. Then, when doing real problems in the real world, one spends the rest of one's life almost never being able to use the simplified tricks demonstrated as examples in school, because when math is used to describe the natural world, nothing is ever a round number unless by design.

Megan references {{w|Platonic Idealism}}, which is the theory attributed to Plato that abstract or non-physical Ideas represent the purest, most accurate version of reality, but we can only perceive of more flawed versions of Ideas because of our limited viewpoint (as explained in his Allegory of the Cave). Thus we can understand the concept of a perfect circle or a perfect line, even though we have never seen one, and cannot create one. Megan believes she has glimpsed a Platonic Ideal, because the absolute concept of currency is it is the exact worth of something in trade. Megan is awed because, if this is true, then she is witnessing the next layer of reality, which Plato often compared to heaven.

The harsh difference between being able to buy an apple for a dollar at this quaint store, and having to deal with arbitrary decimals and numbers in the rest of life could be touching on Megan's life experience of the world not being what she was prepared for, resulting in her intense response. Regardless if that is true or not, it seems the cashier is unable to figure out how to handle it (or does not want to), and raises the price to an arbitrary non-rounded value, which has the intended effect of halting Megan's outburst.

Megan's references refer to common parameters used in solving science or math questions. A {{w|Frictionless plane}} is a scenario from the writings of Galileo to calculate the movement of an object down an {{w|inclined plane}}, since his equations did not account for {{w|friction}}.

"A train leaving Chicago at 40 mph" refers to common math questions, involving trains and solving for the distance required to overtake said train, although this problem involves the rather unrealistic assumption that the train's velocity keeps constant. Like the frictionless plane, this is a common simplification that allows the problem to be solved with quite simple techniques, just like having round quantities (e.g. 1 dollar/apple) eases arithmetic problems. See also [[669: Experiment]]. Apples themselves are commonly used as units for math problems, including problems as simple as basic arithmetic.

The comic repeats a common theme in the strip of engineers and computer scientists trying to apply their technical experience to social situations. In this case, the conversation partner is "normal", and does not respond supportively, which is a common situation in the real world and a possible point of empathy with readers. -- An alternate viable reading is that the conversation partner responds extremely supportively (by cleverly removing the source of Megan's distress, rather than by questioning the validity of Megan's response). This is a possible point of wish-fulfillment for readers.

It seems that according to the title text, Megan only has (or only wants to spend) one dollar, so she would not be able to buy a whole apple at the new price (0.4608 × $2.17 ≈ $1). Stores usually sell whole apples, so asking for a fraction of one is not likely to work out.{{Citation needed}}

There are some stores, such as {{w|Dollar Tree}}, that specialize in selling everything in the store for one dollar per item, which would seems to be operating at that ideal... except they usually do charge sales tax on taxable items leading many sales to not be an even multiple of a dollar. If a store were to charge one dollar per item without charging sales tax, etc. separately (i.e. building the sales tax into the price of each dollar item), they might be able to simplify some operations, such as not dealing with coin change as much (though they would still need to accept coins), cashiers would be able to calculate the total in their heads, etc. Customers other than Megan would probably be happier.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is at the store counter, behind which Ponytail (the cashier) is waiting.]
:Megan: Just this apple, thanks.
:Ponytail: That will be one dollar.
:Megan: Exactly? No tax or anything?
:Ponytail: That's right.

:[Megan stares at the apple in a frameless panel.]

:[Scene zooms in on Megan.]
:Ponytail: ...Is that a problem?
:Megan: It's just weird to realize that every other transaction in my life will be more complicated than this.

:[Scene changes focus to Ponytail behind the counter.]
:Megan: This is like a platonic ideal exchange. An apple for a dollar.
:Ponytail: I see.

:[Scene changes back to Megan, once again lost in profound contemplation of the apple.]
:Megan: Are we on a frictionless plane? Is a train leaving Chicago at 40 mph? ''Should I solve for something??''
:Ponytail: Okay, apples are $2.17 now.
:Megan: That's... probably better for us both.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

1930: Calendar Facts

2018-07-18T20:57:12Z

162.158.62.225: /* Table */ Edited FDR's entry.

{{comic
| number = 1930
| date = December 18, 2017
| title = Calendar Facts
| image = calendar_facts.png
| titletext = While it may seem like trivia, it (causes huge headaches for software developers / is taken advantage of by high-speed traders / triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout / has to be corrected for by GPS satellites / is now recognized as a major cause of World War I).
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] presents what appears to be a generator of 156,000 facts [20 x 13 x (8 + 6 x 7) x 12], about calendars, most of which are false or have little meaning{{Citation needed}}. The facts are seeded by a mishmash of common tidbits about the time of year.

The formula for each generated fact goes as follows: "Did you know that '''[a recurring event]''' '''[occurs in an unusual manner]''' because of '''[phenomena or political decisions]'''? Apparently '''[wild card statement]'''."

This is [[:Category:Supermoon|the fifth time]] that Randall has referred to the phenomenon of a {{w|supermoon}}, which he typically makes fun of, most prominently in [[1394: Superm*n]].

The title text continues the chart with supposed real-life consequences of the trivia in the comic.

There are multiple online generators of Calendar 'facts' using this formula [https://www.pibweb.com/xkcd_calendar.php here] and [http://yahel.com/calendarfacts/ here].

All 156 000 possible combinations can be found [https://www.dropbox.com/s/866fwtpwvd0z9hq/combinations%20xkcd%201930.txt?dl=0 here], lovingly assembled by hand (or rather, by a python script) for your entertainment. A random fact generator (including title text), written in Python, can be found [https://gist.github.com/petersohn/6c8f9d124bd961e909d2dc9a967ade2e here].

==Table==
{| class="wikitable"
! Entry
! What it is
! Relation to other entries
|-
! colspan="3" | Recurring Events
|-
| The [Fall/Spring] {{w|Equinox}}
| The time of year at which the apparent position of the overhead sun passes the equator. During the equinox, the time that the Sun is above the horizon is 12 hours across the globe.
| Before the adoption of the {{w|Gregorian calendar}} in 1582, the equinoxes fell on earlier and earlier dates as the centuries went by, due to the {{w|Julian calendar}} year being 365.25 days on average compared to the tropical Earth year of 365.2422 days. {{w|Pope Gregory}}'s decision to remove the leap days on years that were multiples of 100 but not 400 corrected the average length of the calendar year to 365.2425 days.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Solstice}}
| The time of year when the apparent position of the overhead sun reaches its most extreme latitude. During the Winter and Summer solstices the days are the shortest and longest respectively.
| Similar to the equinoxes, the solstices were also falling on earlier dates every year before the Gregorian calendar.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Olympics}}
| The Olympic Games occur during the summer and the winter, alternating between the two seasons every two years.
| The Olympic Games do not have any set dates, and seem to only be included humorously as something else that alternates between occurring during the summer and winter.
|-
| The [latest/earliest] [sunset/sunrise]
| The extremes of times that the sun crosses a horizon according to a clock that keeps a fixed 24 hours as opposed to varying with the sun like a sundial.
| The latest sunset and earliest sunrise occur around the summer solstice; the latest sunrise and earliest sunset occur around the winter solstice. They do not occur exactly on these dates due to the {{w|equation of time}} causing drift in the times that sunsets and sunrises occur.
|-
| Daylight [saving/savings] time
| {{w|Daylight saving time}}, commonly referred to as daylight savings time, is the practice of setting clocks ahead, typically by one hour, during the summer months of the year.
| Daylight saving time will push the time of certain events such as sunrise and sunset past their "natural" times. For example, solar noon will occur around 1:00 PM instead of 12:00 noon when daylight saving time is active, making it the "wrong" time.
|-
| Leap [day/year]
| Because the durations of celestial events are not generally nice multiples of each other, they will tend to fall out of sync with each other. Leap days are days inserted into specific years to bring the calendar back into sync, and the years on which these {{w|leap day}}s occur are called {{w|leap year}}s.
|
|-
| {{w|Easter}}
| Easter is a holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of {{w|Jesus}}. It is defined as the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This complicated formula has a long tradition behind it, known as {{w|Computus}}.
| When Pope Gregory decided to change the calendar in 1582, it was because the spring equinox was putting Easter on unexpectedly early dates.
|-
| The [harvest/super/blood] moon
|
* The {{w|harvest moon}} is the full moon that appears closest to the autumnal equinox.
* The {{w|supermoon}} is a phenomenon in which the moon is full at its closest approach to the Earth.
* The {{w|blood moon}} is a moon that appears tinted red during a total lunar eclipse because of light refracted from the Earth's atmosphere. It can also refer to the {{w|hunter's moon}}, the full moon directly after the harvest moon.
| Each of these lunar events happens approximately once a year.
* The harvest moon appears exactly once because it has a particular definition based on the time of year.
* The cycle of the distance of the full moon lasts about 13.5 months (14 full moons). However, because a supermoon is defined as any full moon that is within 10 percent of the closest relative distance possible (with 0 being perigee and 1 being apogee), it happens multiple times a cycle, for a total of usually 3 to 4 times per year.
* The blood moon during a lunar eclipse appears between zero to two times a year. The hunter's moon appears exactly once like the harvest moon.
|-
| Toyota Truck Month
| Toyota offers a discount for {{w|Toyota Tacoma|Tacoma}} trucks one month a year. Mainly notable because radio and television ads hype this discount up as "Toyota Truck Month".
|
|-
| {{w|Shark Week}}
| Every year, the {{w|Discovery Channel}} dedicates a week during the summer to programming featuring or about sharks.
|
|-
! colspan="3" | Unusual manners in which the events occur
|-
| happens [earlier/later/at the wrong time] every year
| colspan="2" | The solstices and equinoxes happened earlier every year ''before'' the decree by Pope Gregory in 1582. The earliest sunrise happens one hour later than it "should" happen due to daylight saving time having turned the clocks forward one hour.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [sun/moon]
| colspan="2" | The Sun and Moon are generally what calendars are based on. If something were to drift out of sync, some corrective mechanism would have to be put in to put it back. This is the motivation behind leap years, leap months (in countries with lunisolar calendars) and leap seconds.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the zodiac
| colspan="2" | The dates on which the Sun crosses the constellations in the traditional zodiac has shifted in the past centuries due to the precession of the Earth's axis. In the period of time traditionally known as {{w|Aries}} (March 21–April 20), for example, the Sun actually points to {{w|Pisces}} instead.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [Gregorian/Mayan/lunar/iPhone] calendar
| colspan="2" |
*The {{w|Gregorian calendar}} is a solar calendar with a mean calendar year length of 365.2425 days.
*The {{w|Mayan calendar}} is based on two cycles or counts, with a 260-day count combined with a 365-day "vague" solar year.
*A {{w|lunar calendar}} is based on Moon's phases, with each {{w|lunation}} being approximately 29.5 days, and a lunar year lasting roughly 354 days. An example of a lunar calendar is the {{w|Islamic calendar}}.
*The {{w|iPhone calendar}} is listed humorously due to its data synchronization issues.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the atomic clock in {{w|Colorado}}
| colspan="2" |
{{w|NIST-F1}} is an {{w|Atomic clock}} used as a reference for official time in the USA.
|-
| might [not happen/happen twice] this year
| colspan="2" | Some events may have a period of slightly more or slightly less than one year. If an event has a period of slightly less than one year (e.g. the Islamic calendar), it can occur twice in the same year (e.g. the year 2000 had two {{w|Eid al-Fitr}}s—one on January 8, and one on December 28). If an event has a period of slightly more than one year, there can be a year in which it does not occur at all, instead occurring near the end of the previous year and the beginning of the next.
|-
! colspan="3" | Cause (phenomena or political decisions)
|-
| time zone legislation in [Indiana/Arizona/Russia]
| Some states or provinces have time zone legislation that sets the standard time to something other than what the natural longitude of that location would suggest.
|
* The state of {{w|Arizona}} generally does not observe daylight saving time, keeping their clocks on {{w|UTC-7:00}} Mountain Standard Time year round. However, the {{w|Navajo nation}} reservation inside Arizona does observe it, causing the two regions to have different times in the summer and the same time in the winter.
* Time zones in Russia are all one hour ahead of what their longitude would suggest, which puts them in a "permanent" state of daylight saving time. (For example, {{w|St. Petersburg}} is 30°E, which means that its natural time zone is {{w|UTC+2:00}}, but its time zone is actually {{w|UTC+3:00}}.) From 1981 until 2011 Russia used to have the daylight saving time on top of it as well. The other changes include the abolition of the one-hour shift in 1991 and a return it back in 1992, and an increase to two hours in 2011 and a restoration back to one hour in 2014.
* {{w|Indiana}} has {{w|Time in Indiana|a complicated history}} with daylight saving time, likely related to the state being split between two time zones.
|-
| a decree by the Pope in the 1500s
| In 1582, Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian Calendar, the calendar we use today, to replace the Julian Calendar. The calendar applied retroactively to the birth of Jesus Christ, which means that they had to skip 10 days, going straight from October 4 to October 15, 1582, during the switchover.
| The introduction of the Gregorian calendar brought Easter and the dates that months started back in sync with what they were in the 3rd century AD.
|-
| the precession of
| The Earth's axis is slowly changing position, in a phenomenon called the {{w|Axial precession|precession of the equinoxes}}.
| The precession of the equinoxes causes the seasons to occur about 20 minutes earlier than would be expected with the Earth's position relative to the stars, which could be construed as the equinox happening "later every year" if you use the stars as your frame of reference.
|-
| the libration of
| The Moon is {{w|tidal locking|tidally locked}} to its orbit around the Earth, which means that the same side of it tends to face the Earth at any given point in time. However, there are slight variations in the angle over the course of a month, which are known as {{w|libration}}.
| The libration of the Moon does not affect anything else in the chart, and seems only be included humorously as another example of a celestial phenomenon.
|-
| the nutation of
| Besides precession, there is also a smaller wobbling effect called {{w|Astronomical nutation|nutation}}.
|
|-
| the libation of
| A {{w|libation}} is a drink, often used in the context of a ritual offering of liquid to a deity by pouring it onto the ground or into something that collects it.
| This entry seems to have been included simply as a humorous misspelling of the word "libration". Certainly libation of any of the entities listed would be inadvisable.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| the eccentricity of
| Orbital eccentricity is the deviation of a body's orbit from a perfect circle. Orbital travel is faster when it's closer to the body being orbited and slower when farther away.
| The Earth's eccentric orbit causes the equinoxes and solstices to occur at irregular intervals. For example, summer in the northern hemisphere lasted 93 days in 2017, while fall only lasted 90 days.
|-
| the obliquity of
| The tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the ecliptic is also known as its obliquity.
|
|-
| the Moon
| The Moon is the primary satellite of the Earth.
|
|-
| the Sun
| The Sun is the star that the Earth orbits around.
| The Sun is the basis for many timekeeping events, such as the day and year.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| the Earth's axis
| The Earth's axis of rotation defines the Geographic North and South Pole, as well as the lines of latitude.
|
|-
| the Equator
| The Equator is the line on the Earth's surface which is equidistant from both poles of the Earth's axis.
|
|-
| the Prime Meridian
| The Prime Meridian is the line that starts at the geographic North Pole, runs through the {{w|Royal Observatory, Greenwich|Greenwich Royal Observatory}} in London, and ends at the South Pole. It is the basis for longitude when calculating coordinates for positions on the surface of the Earth.
| The Prime Meridian (and in particular the Greenwich Observatory) gives us Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is the basis for UTC and the time zone system.
|-
| the International Date Line
| The International Date Line is a line on the opposite side of the Earth as the Prime Meridian that separates regions that use time set behind UTC versus regions that are set ahead of UTC. It has many irregularities due to political changes that put certain countries or islands on either side of the divide contrary to their natural longitude.
| The irregular shape of the International Date Line means that certain regions of the Pacific Ocean (such as Kiribati) are more than 24 hours ahead of some other regions (such as Baker Island and American Samoa), which may cause problems with timekeeping.
|-
| the Mason-Dixon Line
| The Mason-Dixon line is a line delineating a portion of the border between Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
| The Mason-Dixon line is included as a humorous example as another imaginary geographic line.
|-
| magnetic field reversal
| The Earth's magnetic field has been reversed several times in its geologic history, so that what we would currently call the "magnetic North Pole" was near the geographic South Pole about 780,000 years ago, before the most recent reversal.
|
|-
| an arbitrary decision by Benjamin Franklin
| Benjamin Franklin wrote [http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html a letter to the Journal of Paris in 1784] in which he advised them to rise with the sun in order to save candlelight, after he observed that the Parisians were getting up at the same time by the clock and burning a lot of candles in the winter as a result.
An "arbitrary decision by Benjamin Franklin" also likely refers humorously to Franklin having defined positive charge to be that which is left on a glass rod by rubbing it with silk. As described in [[567: Urgent Mission]], this had the unfortunate consequence of assigning a negative value to the charge of the electron, which was later identified as the fundamental carrier of electric charge.
| Benjamin Franklin is often touted as "the father of daylight saving time", despite him never actually proposing to alter the clocks.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by Isaac Newton
| Possibly a reference to how Newton divided the colour spectrum into the now-familiar seven colours of the rainbow, on a somewhat arbitrary basis. Newton did spend time working on the problem of calendar reform, but it's unlikely that any decisions he made as a result would affect anything, since he never published his work, and by the time it gained attention the Gregorian Calendar had been widely adopted.
| The spectrum fact is one of those standard bits of trivia of the kind the chart alludes to. Although it has nothing to do with time-keeping, Newton is the sort of person who seems like he should have made decisions like this.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by FDR
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt set all time zones one hour ahead year-round during World War II. The law was repealed after the war ended.
Additionally, he changed the date of Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the third Thursday in November as a way to increase the length of the Christmas shopping season. It was later changed to the fourth Thursday after his death.
| Setting the time permanently one hour ahead would make everything happen at the "wrong" time celestially.
|-
! colspan="3" | Related 'fact'
|-
| It causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
| colspan="2" | The week following daylight saving time, car accidents increase by about 5-7%<ref>http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/end-of-daylight-saving-time-2015-6-eye-opening-facts-1.3296353</ref>.
|-
| That's why we have leap seconds.
| colspan="2" | Leap seconds occur because the time required for one rotation of the Earth is actually slightly longer than the 86,400 seconds in a standard UTC day. The Earth's rotation is slowing down by about 2 × 10-5 seconds every year due to tidal friction caused by the Moon's gravity; however, this is not one of the possible entries in the list of phenomena.
|-
| Scientists are really worried.
| colspan="2" |
|-
| it was even more extreme during the [Bronze Age/Ice Age/Cretaceous/1990s].
| This may be reference to debates over climate change, where global temperature changes during these periods are frequently cited as supposedly proving / disproving human-related change.
| Solar events, such as sunspot activity, are often invoked as explaining temperature change in these debates. However, while there are a number of potential sun-related 'facts' that could be generated, none touch on sunspots.
|-
| There's a proposal to fix it, but it [will never happen/actually makes things worse/is stalled in Congress/might be unconstitutional].
| colspan="2" | Time zone reform is surprisingly a very controversial and politicized issue, with special interests on either side looking to modify it to fit their needs. Examples of proposals to modify the scheme include:

* Extend the duration of daylight saving time by one month, which was done in 2007 in many states as part of an energy-saving proposal by George W. Bush.
* Reduce the duration of daylight saving time back to its original span, or further.
* Eliminate daylight saving time altogether, going back to using standard time.
* Abolish daylight saving time but advance the time zone by one hour, effectively instating daylight saving time year round. This was done during World War II.
* Abolish daylight saving time and advance the time zone by 30 minutes, splitting the difference between the current standard time and daylight saving time.
* Reduce the number of time zones in the United States to two, consolidating Pacific time into Mountain time (UTC-7:00), and Eastern time into Central time (UTC-6:00). This was proposed in a [https://qz.com/142199/the-us-needs-to-retire-daylight-savings-and-just-have-two-time-zones-one-hour-apart/ 2013 article in Quartz] by Allison Schrager.

At best, these time zone proposals will be fraught with controversy, with both sides arguing for the benefits of their time system. Some proposals, such as the 30-minute and 20-minute suggestions, would put the minute hands of the entire United States out of sync with the rest of the world, defeating the purpose of time zones with hourly UTC offsets in the first place, which could be construed as "making things worse".
|-
| It's getting worse and no one knows why.
| colspan="2" |
|-
! colspan="3" | Title Text: Consequences
|-
| causes huge headaches for software developers
| colspan="2" | Trying to support time zones correctly for all dates present and historic is a mishmash of different regional laws, time zones, and DST changes. The headache is best exemplified in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY this video] by Tom Scott.
|-
| is taken advantage of by high-speed traders
| colspan="2" | A leap second must be taken into account by trading software, and may cause bugs if not accounted properly. Because leap seconds happen at midnight UTC, it might happen in regular trading hours for somebody living in Seattle, where the time zone is UTC-08:00. Somehow, a high-frequency trader may try to take advantage of any bugs in the software if they are not built to handle this particular case. This scenario is relatively unlikely because the market software can keep its own "market-official time" and synchronize with the correct time while the market is closed.
|-
| triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout
| colspan="2" | The {{w|Northeast blackout of 2003}} was caused by a race condition in the energy management software at a power plant in Ohio. In a race condition the result of a computation is different depending on the order of completion of the operations, even though the result is supposed to be independent of that order. Race conditions can theoretically be caused by mismatched timestamps.
|-
| has to be corrected for by GPS satellites
| colspan="2" | Because {{w|Global Positioning System}} (GPS) satellites are further from the earth than surface receivers, their clocks run faster than clocks on the surface due to general relativity. But they are also slower because they are moving faster than surface receivers, as explained by special relativity. Also, their clocks are not updated for leap seconds. All these factors mean that GPS satellites have a different timekeeping standard than clocks on the ground which are generally synchronized to Greenwich solar time.
|-
| is now recognized as a major cause of World War I.
| colspan="2" | Daylight saving time was first implemented in World War I as a fuel-saving measure. Randall seems to be humorously implying that World War I was started in order to implement these fuel-saving measures during peacetime as well.
|-
|}
<references />

==Examples of true complete statements==

# Did you know that '''the spring equinox''' '''drifts out of sync with the zodiac''' because of '''the precession of the Earth's axis'''? Apparently '''it was even more extreme during the Ice Age'''.
# Did you know that '''daylight saving time''' '''might happen twice this year''' because of '''time zone regulation in Russia'''? Apparently '''there's a proposal to fix it, but it actually makes things worse'''. (True in Russia in 1981)
# Did you know that '''leap year''' '''might not happen this year''' because of '''a decree by the pope in the 1500s'''? Apparently '''there's a proposal to fix it, but''' '''it will never happen'''. While it may seem like trivia, '''it causes huge headaches for software developers'''. (The Pax calendar proposes that 2018 be a leap year. If anyone finds a calendar in which 2017 is a leap year, I'd love to see it!)

==Transcript==

:<big>-Calendar Facts-</big>

:[Shown below is a branching flow chart of sorts that begins at the phrase "Did you know that", then flows through various paths to build up a sentence. (Note that the "→" arrow symbol is used below to indicate a new branch with no intermediate text from a previous branch.)]

:Did you know that:
::the ( Fall | Spring ) Equinox
::the ( Winter | Summer ) ( Solstice | Olympics )
::the ( Earliest | Latest ) ( Sunrise | Sunset )
::Daylight ( Saving | Savings ) Time
::Leap ( Day | Year )
::Easter
::the ( Harvest | Super | Blood ) Moon
::Toyota Truck Month
::Shark Week
:→
::happens ( earlier | later | at the wrong time ) every year
::drifts out of sync with the
:::Sun
:::Moon
:::Zodiac
:::( Gregorian | Mayan | Lunar | iPhone ) Calendar
:::atomic clock in Colorado
::might ( not happen | happen twice ) this year
:because of
::time zone legislation in ( Indiana | Arizona | Russia )
::a decree by the pope in the 1500s
::( precession | libration | nutation | libation | eccentricity | obliquity ) of the
:::Moon
:::Sun
:::Earth's axis
:::equator
:::prime meridian
:::( International Date | Mason-Dixon ) Line
::magnetic field reversal
::an arbitrary decision by ( Benjamin Franklin | Isaac Newton | FDR )
:?
:Apparently
::it causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
::that's why we have leap seconds.
::scientists are really worried.
::it was even more extreme during the
:::Bronze Age.
:::Ice Age.
:::Cretaceous.
:::1990s.
::there's a proposal to fix it, but it
:::will never happen.
:::actually makes things worse.
:::is stalled in congress.
:::might be unconstitutional.
::it's getting worse and no one knows why.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Supermoon]]

Talk:2017: Stargazing 2

2018-07-15T20:45:02Z

162.158.62.225:

In the description for the earlier comic, it is quite emphatically asserted that this is not Megan (although it certainly is drawn like her) but is, instead, a male TV host. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.28|172.68.174.28]] 20:21, 9 July 2018 (UTC)MrBigDog2u
:Thanks, but I believe the transcript of the former comic was interpreted false. People are often outlined as male when they are in fact women. AND in this comic it's clearly a female without any doubt. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:11, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
:Actually if you go to /1646/info.0.json , you'll find the presenter referred to as he twice. Unless you're saying Megan uses he, it seems unlikely to be a female. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ For what it's worth, I assumed it was a female until I read the explanation for 1644. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.37|162.158.107.37]] 22:57, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
::Two questions about that:
::1.) I don't see any use of the word "he" in that transcript. Where do you see that?
::2.) Why 1646? Isn't that one with Cueball writing a Twitter bot?
::Looking at xkcd.com/1644/info.0.json, xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json, & xkcd.com/2017/info.0.json, I can't find a reference to gender in ''any'' of them.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 23:37, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
:::Hey Zarquon, if you look again at [https://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json], you can see the star guide referenced as “he” a couple times if you carefuread the whole transcript. If alternatively your contribution to this wiki is that of trolling, you are making this rather obvious. If you’re getting different contents for that file than we are, maybe you could upload it to ipfs or something for comparison and tell us the ip addresses that xkcd.com resolves to for you, so that somebody can debug the issue. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.243|162.158.62.243]] 07:38, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::::Not a troll, but a failure to detect an xkcd site error. It appears the issue is that the xkcd website is sending out json information that is mismatched with the cartoons. That is, https://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json has the json information for the cartoon at https://xkcd.com/1644/ where we would expect the json data for that cartoon to be at https://xkcd.com/1644/info.0.json. So if you (logically) read https://xkcd.com/1644/info.0.json and search it for "he" or "him" you don't find it. But if all you're doing is looking for "he" or "him" you might not notice that "stargazer" isn't in that json file either. Confirmed the mis-URLed json file for the cartoon does refer to the host as "he." [[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 07:41, 15 July 2018 (UTC)
:Is it possible this is meant to be {{w|Brian_Cox_(physicist)|Brian Cox}}? The hair is right and he's often noted for his enthusiasm. don't know how well known he is in the US, but a nerd like Randall is very likely to know of him --[[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 07:50, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::It is certainly Brian Cox as was found out in the first Stargazing and as fits with the offical transcript. It is even named after his show. End of story! I have corrected both explanations. Please don't go there DGBRT. This was discussed back then and was concluded to be so. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:08, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::There is even a triva with the original transcript in the original copmic to make this clear. Read that first! [[1644:_Stargazing#Trivia]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:11, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
:Bullshit. The pronoun "he" does not make him male as a person. That's a stupid preconception, which is perpetuated in the 21st century by a subfaction of feminists, thereby making a fool of themselves. There is no solid hint as to what the actual sex/gender of the figure is, and in this case English language defaults to "he". Maybe Randall indeed thought of Brian Cox, but that's speculation, not basis to infer a gender. And why anyway does it matter?!?!? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.44|162.158.94.44]] 11:03, 11 July 2018 (UTC)
::I disagree it is called Stargazing and he has a show called Stagazing live and is a famous physicist and Randall follows these things and like astronomical phenomenons. I have no doubt it is a reference to Brian cox. And Randall does not use he when it is about Megan in other transcripts! BS to you too ;) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:25, 13 July 2018 (UTC)

"Don't bother trying to catch them"??? What stellar object would you catch? Unless this is a reference to asteroid mining? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.28|172.68.90.28]] 22:47, 9 July 2018 (UTC)SiliconWolf
:Those stellar objects are so close compared to all the others, who wouldn't try?? Could you imagine actually meeting another object in this universe of distant interstellar bodies? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.46|172.68.54.46]] 23:11, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
:I assumed that, having described all the goodies in an aircraft, there's a chance that someone might literally try to catch one by jumping in the air (with a suitably poor concept of distance). Or trying to construct some kind of giant butterfly net.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.250|141.101.98.250]] 17:36, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
:The Triangle may refer to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Triangle Summer Triangle] It can be found very easily by beginners. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.94|172.68.51.94]] 12:22, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::Actually, any three non-colinear points make up a triangle so there are an incredibly large number (not infinite, but ...) of triangles formed by combinations of three stars. I would go so far as to speculate that it may not be possible to find three stars that ARE perfectly colinear (certainly not in three dimensions). I think that's sort of the point of the joke.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.28|172.68.174.28]] 16:25, 10 July 2018 (UTC)MrBigDog2u

Is anyone else worried about a reference to shining a light at aircraft? There are decent astronomical reasons to have a moderately (50mW-200mW in my case) powerful laser, since it provides a very visible "pointer" when showing people to bits of the sky (or for lining up a telescope, where you can't see the surroundings easily and amateurs like me can get lost). But there are way too many stories of morons shining lasers at aircraft in an attempt to "cause trouble" (by blinding the pilot and potentially killing hundreds of people in the subsequent crash), so any responsible astronomer would be checking for aircraft in the sky, not doing this anywhere near an airport, and moving the laser in circles to avoid holding it on a target. I don't consider shining a light at a plane to be a topic of amusement.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.250|141.101.98.250]] 17:36, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
:Have you ever heard of a pilot noticing having a light shined on them from the ground by a pedestrian? It seems to me planes are so far away the jitter of your hand is going to make actually blinding the pilot a comparable task to blinding a moving housefly the same way. The light will also be much weaker at that distance, and the cockpit would have to be aiming at you. I feep pointing at an aircraft with a laser would be pretty safe, because the plane’s angular size is so much smaller than your precision, and it is moving super fast. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.136|108.162.219.136]] 19:53, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
:I do! And I wonder what would happen to the plane [https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/ if we tried more power]? Hmmm... [[User:BytEfLUSh|BytEfLUSh]] ([[User talk:BytEfLUSh|talk]]) 19:01, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::Pilots blinded by laser are real issue, but only WHEN LANDING or taking off, and therefore in very low attitude. I don't think it's problem in normal cruising altitude. However, if the telescope was in mountains which the airplanes flied over relatively low ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:37, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::A traditional flashlight shone at a pilot is unlikely to do much - although there are definitely consumer lights that could be visible at range. Using a telescope sounds more like generating a searchlight (and there are absolutely members of the public who have picked up military searchlights, and who have attracted attention by firing them even carefully). It does depend what's intended, but I think the implication is that the light is bright enough to do something (if only visibly illuminate the plane); shining a searchlight at an aircraft even at moderate distance is likely to be distracting and possibly blinding. Practically, no, I don't think it's a major issue as described. But aircraft are often at fairly low altitude: they take a while to get near to cruising height near me - I work a few miles from Heathrow, and think I could absolutely get a moderate strike rate on cockpit windows allowing for a bit of spread if I were a homicidal moron - lasers take a while to dissipate. I'm glad there seemed to be no reports of anyone doing this with yesterday's RAF centenary low-altitude flypast. And of course there are a lot of military training flights at very low altitude in some areas. I don't believe there's ever been a case of more than temporary blinding, and no crashes, but since I actually like having access to bright lasers (and conventional flashlights) for justifiable and responsible reasons, I just think pointing bright lights at aircraft a topic worth avoiding in the context of humour. Idiots, though hopefully few read xkcd, are easily encouraged. And when someone finally brings a plane down, it's really not going to be funny.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.250|141.101.98.250]] 11:56, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

Does no one else see this as referencing "stars" in the sense of celebrities? That would make sense to me of several of the otherwise bizarre statements here... [[User:Asimong|Asimong]] ([[User talk:Asimong|talk]]) 05:55, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

Contradictory statements- if it's their observatory, the theses must be theirs. Why would they stock their cabinets with other people's theses? And does anyone know why "Add a comment" is linking to an edit page? Am I supposed to copypaste my address and stuff every time?

The "blinking lights" -- "don't bother trying to catch them". Pretty sure this is a reference to catching fireflies whose "lights" also blink on and off. 15 July 2018

Talk:1997: Business Update

2018-05-23T20:51:05Z

162.158.62.225:

"Our customers are experiencing rapid growth"

Literally?

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.184|162.158.38.184]] 18:23, 23 May 2018 (UTC)anon

:Probably. Also, excited for comic 2000! [[User:StillNotOriginal|StillNot]][[User talk:StillNotOriginal|Original]] 18:37, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

Panel 2 would suggest that they are making ice (in a fridge?) and that the thermostat glitch caused them to become liquid; additionally that the faucet in the kitchen sink has stopped running. {{unsigned|Richardelguru}}

The formatting seems odd. Is it just me? (Chrome on mobile) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.95|162.158.103.95]] 20:16, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

The title text sounds like some weird Only-in-Beret-Guy-Land variant on a Nigerian Prince scam. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.225|162.158.62.225]] 20:51, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

1995: MC Hammer Age

2018-05-18T14:20:00Z

162.158.62.225: /* Explanation */ Added quickie explanation

{{comic
| number = 1995
| date = May 18, 2018
| title = MC Hammer Age
| image = mc_hammer_age.png
| titletext = Wait, sorry, I got mixed up--he's actually almost 50. It's the kid from The Karate Kid who just turned 40.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
On the day this comic came out, both MC Hammer and Ralph Macchio (the actor who starred in the first two Karate Kid movies) were 56 years old.

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

{{comic discussion}}

1930: Calendar Facts

2017-12-19T19:47:38Z

162.158.62.225: Added a file with every combination of the sentences.

{{comic
| number = 1930
| date = December 18, 2017
| title = Calendar Facts
| image = calendar_facts.png
| titletext = While it may seem like trivia, it (causes huge headaches for software developers / is taken advantage of by high-speed traders / triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout / has to be corrected for by GPS satellites / is now recognized as a major cause of World War I).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There seem to be some possible correct statements, which should be recognized and added as part of the explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]] presents what appears to be a generator of 156,000 facts [20 x 13 x (8 + 6 x 7) x 12], about calendars, most of which are false or have little meaning{{Citation needed}}. The facts are seeded by a mishmash of common tidbits about the time of year.

The formula for each generated fact goes as follows: "Did you know that '''[a recurring event]''' '''[occurs in an unusual manner]''' because of '''[phenomena or political decisions]'''? Apparently '''[wild card statement]'''."

This is [[:Category:Supermoon|the fifth time]] that Randall has referred to the phenomenon of a {{w|supermoon}}, which he typically makes fun of, most prominent in [[1394: Superm*n]].

The title text continues the chart with an inside information of what this tiny trivia actually have of real life consequences.

There are multiple online generators of Calendar 'facts' using this formula [https://www.pibweb.com/xkcd_calendar.php here] and [http://yahel.com/calendarfacts/ here].

==Table==
{| class="wikitable"
! Entry
! What it is
! Relation to other entries
|-
! colspan="3" | Recurring Events
|-
| The [Fall/Spring] {{w|Equinox}}
| The time of year at which the apparent position of the overhead sun passes the equator. During the equinox, the time that the Sun is above the horizon is 12 hours across the globe.
| Before the adoption of the {{w|Gregorian calendar}} in 1582, the equinoxes fell on earlier and earlier dates as the centuries went by, due to the {{w|Julian calendar}} year being 365.25 days on average compared to the tropical Earth year of 365.2422 days. {{w|Pope Gregory}}'s decision to remove the leap days on years that were multiples of 100 but not 400 corrected the average length of the calendar year to 365.2425 days.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Solstice}}
| The time of year when the apparent position of the overhead sun reaches its most extreme latitude. During the Winter and Summer solstices the days are the shortest and longest respectively.
| Similar to the equinoxes, the solstices were also falling on earlier dates every year before the Gregorian calendar.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] {{w|Olympics}}
| The Olympic Games occur during the summer and the winter, alternating between the two seasons every two years.
| The Olympic Games do not have any set dates, and seem to only be included humorously as something else that alternates between occurring during the summer and winter.
|-
| Daylight [saving/savings] time
| {{w|Daylight saving time}}, commonly referred to as daylight savings time, is the practice of setting clocks ahead, typically by one hour, during the summer months of the year.
| Daylight saving time will push the time of certain events such as sunrise and sunset past their "natural" times. For example, solar noon will occur around 1:00 PM instead of 12:00 noon when daylight saving time is active, making it the "wrong" time.
|-
| Leap [day/year]
| Because the durations of celestial events are not generally nice multiples of each other, they will tend to fall out of sync with each other. Leap days are days inserted into specific years to bring the calendar back into sync, and the years on which these {{w|leap day}}s occur are called {{w|leap year}}s.
|
|-
| {{w|Easter}}
| Easter is a holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of {{w|Jesus}}. It is defined as the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This complicated formula has a long tradition behind it, known as {{w|Computus}}.
| When Pope Gregory decided to change the calendar in 1582, it was because the spring equinox was putting Easter on unexpectedly early dates.
|-
| The [harvest/super/blood] moon
|
* The {{w|harvest moon}} is the full moon that appears closest to the autumnal equinox in September.
* The {{w|supermoon}} is a phenomenon in which the moon is full at its closest approach to the Earth.
* The {{w|blood moon}} is a moon that appears tinted red during a total lunar eclipse because of light refracted from the Earth's atmosphere. It can also refer to the {{w|hunter's moon}}, the full moon directly after the harvest moon.
| Each of these lunar events happens approximately once a year.
* The harvest moon appears exactly once because it has a particular definition based on the time of year.
*
* The blood moon during a lunar eclipse appears between zero to two times a year. The hunter's moon appears exactly once like the harvest moon.
|-
| Toyota Truck Month
| Toyota offers a discount for {{w|Toyota Tacoma|Tacoma}} trucks one month a year. Mainly notable because radio and television ads hype this discount up as "Toyota Truck Month".
|
|-
| {{w|Shark Week}}
| Every year, the {{w|Discovery Channel}} dedicates a week during the summer to programming featuring or about sharks.
|
|-
! colspan="3" | Unusual manners in which the events occur
|-
| happens [earlier/later/at the wrong time] every year
| colspan="2" | The solstices and equinoxes happened earlier every year ''before'' the decree by Pope Gregory in 1582. The earliest sunrise happens one hour later than it "should" happen due to daylight saving time having turned the clocks forward one hour.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [sun/moon]
| colspan="2" | The Sun and Moon are generally what calendars are based on. If something were to drift out of sync, some corrective mechanism would have to be put in to put it back. This is the motivation behind leap years, leap months (in countries with lunisolar calendars) and leap seconds.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [zodiac]
| colspan="2" | The dates on which the Sun crosses the constellations in the traditional zodiac has shifted in the past centuries due to the precession of the Earth's axis. In the period of time traditionally known as {{w|Aries}} (March 21–April 20), for example, the Sun actually points to {{w|Pisces}} instead.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [Gregorian/Mayan/lunar/iPhone] calendar
| colspan="2" |
*The {{w|Gregorian calendar}} is a solar calendar with a mean calendar year length of 365.2425 days.
*The {{w|Mayan calendar}} is based on two cycles or counts, with a 260-day count combined with a 365-day "vague" solar year.
*A {{w|lunar calendar}} is based on Moon's phases, with each {{w|lunation}} being approximately 29.5 days, and a lunar year lasting roughly 354 days. An example of a lunar calendar is the {{w|Islamic calendar}}.
*The {{w|iPhone calendar}} is listed humorously due to its data synchronization issues.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the atomic clock in {{w|Colorado}}
| colspan="2" |
{{w|NIST-F1}} is an {{w|Atomic clock}} used as a reference for official time in the USA.
|-
| might [not happen/happen twice] this year
| colspan="2" | Some events may have a period of slightly more or slightly less than one year. If an event has a period of slightly less than one year (e.g. the Islamic calendar), it can occur twice in the same year (e.g. the year 2000 had two {{w|Eid al-Fitr}}s—one on January 8, and one on December 28). If an event has a period of slightly more than one year, there can be a year in which it does not occur at all, instead occurring near the end of the previous year and the beginning of the next.
|-
! colspan="3" | Phenomena or political decisions
|-
| time zone legislation in [Indiana/Arizona/Russia]
| Some states or provinces have time zone legislation that sets the standard time to something other than what the natural longitude of that location would suggest.
|
* The state of {{w|Arizona}} generally does not observe daylight saving time, keeping their clocks on {{w|UTC-7:00}} Mountain Standard Time year round. However, the {{w|Navajo nation}} reservation inside Arizona does observe it, causing the two regions to have different times in the summer and the same time in the winter.
* Time zones in Russia are all one hour ahead of what their longitude would suggest, which puts them in a "permanent" state of daylight saving time. (For example, {{w|St. Petersburg}} is 30°E, which means that its natural time zone is {{w|UTC+2:00}}, but its time zone is actually {{w|UTC+3:00}}.) From 1981 until 2011 Russia used to have the daylight saving time on top of it as well. The other changes include the abolition of the one-hour shift in 1991 and a return it back in 1992, and an increase to two hours in 2011 and a restoration back to one hour in 2014.
* {{w|Indiana}} has {{w|Time in Indiana|a complicated history}} with daylight saving time, likely related to the state being split between two time zones.
|-
| a decree by the Pope in the 1500s
| In 1582, Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian Calendar, the calendar we use today, to replace the Julian Calendar. The calendar applied retroactively to the birth of Jesus Christ, which means that they had to skip 10 days, going straight from October 4 to October 15, 1582, during the switchover.
| The introduction of the Gregorian calendar brought Easter and the dates that months started back in sync with what they were in the 3rd century AD.
|-
| the [precession] of
| The Earth's axis is slowly changing position, in a phenomenon called the {{w|Axial precession|precession of the equinoxes}}.
| The precession of the equinoxes causes the seasons to occur about 20 minutes earlier than would be expected with the Earth's position relative to the stars, which could be construed as the equinox happening "later every year" if you use the stars as your frame of reference.
|-
| the [libration] of
| The Moon is {{w|tidal locking|tidally locked}} to its orbit around the Earth, which means that the same side of it tends to face the Earth at any given point in time. However, there are slight variations in the angle over the course of a month, which are known as {{w|libration}}.
| The libration of the Moon does not affect anything else in the chart, and seems only be included humorously as another example of a celestial phenomenon.
|-
| the [nutation] of
| Besides precession, there is also a smaller wobbling effect called {{w|Astronomical nutation|nutation}}.
|
|-
| the [libation] of
| A {{w|libation}} is a drink, often used in the context of a ritual offering of liquid to a deity by pouring it onto the ground or into something that collects it.
| This entry seems to have been included simply as a humorous misspelling of the word "libration". Certainly libation of any of the entities listed would be inadvisable.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| the [eccentricity] of
| Orbital eccentricity is the deviation of a body's orbit from a perfect circle. Orbital travel is faster when it's closer to the body being orbited and slower when farther away.
| The Earth's eccentric orbit causes the equinoxes and solstices to occur at irregular intervals. For example, summer in the northern hemisphere lasted 93 days in 2017, while fall only lasted 90 days.
|-
| the [obliquity] of
| The tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the ecliptic is also known as its obliquity.
|
|-
| the [Moon]
| The Moon is the primary satellite of the Earth.
|
|-
| the [Sun]
| The Sun is the star that the Earth orbits around.
| The Sun is the basis for many timekeeping events, such as the day and year.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| the [Earth's axis]
| The Earth's axis of rotation defines the Geographic North and South Pole, as well as the lines of latitude.
|
|-
| the [Equator]
| The Equator is the line on the Earth's surface which is equidistant from both poles of the Earth's axis.
|
|-
| the [Prime Meridian]
| The Prime Meridian is the line that starts at the North Pole, runs through the {{w|Royal Observatory, Greenwich|Greenwich Royal Observatory}} in London, and ends at the South Pole. It is the basis for longitude when calculating coordinates for positions on the surface of the Earth.
| The Prime Meridian (and in particular the Greenwich Observatory) gives us Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is the basis for UTC and the time zone system.
|-
| the [International Date Line]
| The International Date Line is a line on the opposite side of the Earth as the Prime Meridian that separates regions that use time set behind UTC versus regions that are set ahead of UTC. It has many irregularities due to political changes that put certain countries or islands on either side of the divide contrary to their natural longitude.
| The irregular shape of the International Date Line means that certain regions of the Pacific Ocean (such as Kiribati) are more than 24 hours ahead of some other regions (such as Baker Island and American Samoa), which may cause problems with timekeeping.
|-
| the [Mason-Dixon Line]
| The Mason-Dixon line is a line delineating a portion of the border between Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
| The Mason-Dixon line is included as a humorous example as another imaginary geographic line.
|-
| magnetic field reversal
| The Earth's magnetic field has been reversed several times in its geologic history, so that what we would currently call the "magnetic North Pole" was actually the magnetic South Pole about 780,000 years ago, before the most recent reversal.
|
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Benjamin Franklin]
| Benjamin Franklin wrote [http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html a letter to the Journal of Paris in 1784] in which he advised them to rise with the sun in order to save candlelight, after he observed that the Parisians were getting up at the same time by the clock and burning a lot of candles in the winter as a result.
| Benjamin Franklin is often touted as "the father of daylight saving time", despite him never actually proposing to alter the clocks.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Isaac Newton]
| Possibly a reference to how Newton divided the colour spectrum into the now-familiar seven colours of the rainbow, on a somewhat arbitrary basis. Newton did spend time working on the problem of calendar reform, but it's unlikely that any decisions he made as a result would affect anything, since he never published his work, and by the time it gained attention the Gregorian Calendar had been widely adopted.
| The spectrum fact is one of those standard bits of trivia of the kind the chart alludes to. Although it has nothing to do with time-keeping, Newton is the sort of person who seems like he should have made decisions like this.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [FDR]
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt set all time zones one hour ahead year-round during World War II. The law was repealed after the war ended.
| Setting the time permanently one hour ahead would make everything happen at the "wrong" time celestially.
|-
! colspan="3" | Consequences
|-
| It causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
| colspan="2" | The week following daylight saving time, car accidents increase by about 5-7%<ref>http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/end-of-daylight-saving-time-2015-6-eye-opening-facts-1.3296353</ref>.
|-
| That's why we have leap seconds.
| colspan="2" | Leap seconds occur because the time required for one rotation of the Earth is actually slightly longer than the 86,400 seconds in a standard UTC day. The Earth's rotation is slowing down by about 2 × 10-5 seconds every year due to tidal friction caused by the Moon's gravity; however, this is not one of the possible entries in the list of phenomena.
|-
! colspan="3" | Title Text
|-
| causes huge headaches for software developers
| colspan="2" | Trying to support time zones correctly for all dates present and historic is a mishmash of different regional laws, time zones, and DST changes. The headache is best exemplified in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY this video] by Tom Scott.
|-
| is taken advantage of by high-speed traders
| colspan="2" | A leap second must be taken into account by trading software, and may cause bugs if not accounted properly. Because leap seconds happen at midnight UTC, it might happen in regular trading hours for somebody living in Seattle, where the time zone is UTC-08:00. Somehow, a high-frequency trader may try to take advantage of any bugs in the software if they are not built to handle this particular case. This scenario is relatively unlikely because the market software can keep its own "market-official time" and synchronize with the correct time while the market is closed.
|-
| triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout
| colspan="2" | The {{w|Northeast blackout of 2003}} was caused by a race condition in the energy management software at a power plant in Ohio. Race conditions can theoretically be caused by mismatched timestamps.
|-
| has to be corrected for by GPS satellites
| colspan="2" | Because GPS satellites are at a higher altitude than surface vehicles, their clocks run faster than clocks on the surface due to general relativity. Also, their clocks are not updated for leap seconds. Both these things mean that GPS satellites have a different timekeeping standard than clocks on the ground which are generally synchronized to Greenwich solar time.
|-
| is now recognized as a major cause of World War I.
| colspan="2" | Daylight saving time was first implemented in World War I as a fuel-saving measure. Randall seems to be humorously implying that World War I was started in order to implement these fuel-saving measures during peacetime as well.
|-
|}
<references />

==Combinations==
All 156 000 possible combinations can be found at this link, lovingly assembled by hand (Ha! I mean by a python script) for your entertainment. (Perhaps someone could upload it to a more permanent location? I'm new here.)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/866fwtpwvd0z9hq/combinations%20xkcd%201930.txt?dl=1

==Examples of true complete statements==

# Did you know that '''the spring equinox''' '''drifts out of sync with the zodiac''' because of '''the precession of the Earth's axis'''? Apparently '''it was even more extreme during the Ice Age'''.
# Did you know that '''daylight saving time''' '''might happen twice this year''' because of '''time zone regulation in Russia'''? Apparently '''there's a proposal to fix it, but it actually makes things worse'''. (True in Russia in 1981)

==Transcript==

<big>-Calendar Facts-</big>

[Shown below is a branching flow chart of sorts that begins at the phrase "Did you know that", then flows through various paths to build up a sentence. (Note that the "→" arrow symbol is used below to indicate a new branch with no intermediate text from a previous branch.)]

* Did you know that:
** the ( Fall | Spring ) Equinox
** the ( Winter | Summer ) ( Solstice | Olympics )
** the ( Earliest | Latest ) ( Sunrise | Sunset )
** Daylight ( Saving | Savings ) Time
** Leap ( Day | Year )
** Easter
** the ( Harvest | Super | Blood ) Moon
** Toyota Truck Month
** Shark Week
* →
** happens ( earlier | later | at the wrong time ) every year
** drifts out of sync with the
*** Sun
*** Moon
*** Zodiac
*** ( Gregorian | Mayan | Lunar | iPhone ) Calendar
*** atomic clock in Colorado
** might ( not happen | happen twice ) this year
* because of
** time zone legislation in ( Indiana | Arizona | Russia )
** a decree by the pope in the 1500s
** ( precession | libration | nutation | libation | eccentricity | obliquity ) of the
*** Moon
*** Sun
*** Earth's axis
*** equator
*** prime meridian
*** ( International Date | Mason-Dixon ) Line
** magnetic field reversal
** an arbitrary decision by ( Benjamin Franklin | Isaac Newton | FDR )
* ?
* Apparently
** it causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
** that's why we have leap seconds.
** scientists are really worried.
** it was even more extreme during the
*** Bronze Age.
*** Ice Age.
*** Cretaceous.
*** 1990s.
** there's a proposal to fix it, but it
*** will never happen.
*** actually makes things worse.
*** is stalled in congress.
*** might be unconstitutional.
** it's getting worse and no one knows why.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Supermoon]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-21T14:13:06Z

162.158.62.225: /* Labels and Their Astronomical Meanings */

{{comic
| number = 1878
| date = August 18, 2017
| title = Earth Orbital Diagram
| image = earth_orbital_diagram.png
| titletext = You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is the third consecutive comic published in the week before the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which is a total solar eclipse and visible in totality within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]] and [[1877: Eclipse Science]]. The trend continued on the day of the eclipse with [[1879: Eclipse Birds]].

The comic claims that the reason that eclipses don't happen every month is simple to understand by looking at an orbital diagram. Ironically, the cartoon has so many parts and labels that it is far more difficult to understand than is implied. While the graph itself is based on {{w|Orbital elements|astronomical definitions}}, all the labels are nonsense in this context. In effect, the comic is a parody of a common joke in which a person asks a scientist a question, the scientist begins by saying "It's really quite simple", then proceeds to give a very lengthy and highly technical explanation that non-scientists would not be expected to understand.

All of the labels in the diagram are complicated words or phrases. Some are related to orbital mechanics (e.g. "equinox" and "perihelion"), while others are wholly unrelated or even made up. Each label is nonsensical in its place in the diagram. Compare/contrast with the standard {{w|Kepler orbit|Kepler Orbit}} diagram.

The title text references warnings to not look directly into the sun, but parodies those warnings by referring to 'orbit', the anatomical term for the eye socket.

===Labels and Their Astronomical Meanings===

;Arctangent
*{{w|Arctangent}} is the inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine a non-right angle of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
*The angle shown in the comic has no astronomical meaning.

;Astral plane
*The {{w|Astral plane}} is a plane of existence in various esoteric theories. It features prominently in Dungeons and Dragons cosmology, connecting the various other planes of existence.
*The picture shows the {{w|Orbit_of_the_Moon|lunar orbital plane}}, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth, tilted about 5.1 degrees from the ecliptic.

;Declension
*{{w|Declension}} is the inflection of nouns in a language. In this comic, it might be a portmanteau of declination and (right) ascension.
*In astronomy, the {{w|Declination|declination}} is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system. It is measured north or south of the celestial equator, like the geographical latitude on Earth. But in the picture the label is at the angle for the axial tilt of the Earth.
*And the {{w|Right_ascension|right ascension}} is the angular distance measured eastward along the celestial equator from the vernal equinox to the hour circle of the point in question.

;Determinant of the date of Easter
*In Western Christianity {{w|Easter}} always falls on the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon after the beginning of spring (equinox). The ecclesiastical full moon is determined by a calendar that approximates the actual time of the full moon, Thus the date of easter is defined by a combination of a solar and a lunar calendar. The position of that angle isn't that bad but it should be not more than 30 degrees (slightly more than one month.)
*In mathematics, the determinant is a function of numerical matrices. In this context, however, it apparently refers to something that directly determines the date of Easter.

;Dimples of Venus
*The {{w|Dimples of Venus}} are indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back.
*In astronomy the {{w|Belt of Venus}} is a shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere.

;Enceliopsis
*{{w|Enceliopsis}} are small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays".
*In astronomy this point has also no specific meaning. But {{w|Enceladus}} is a moon around {{w|Saturn}}.

;Equinox / Solstice
{{w|Equinox}} and {{w|Solstice}} have very different meanings:
*An Equinox is one of two instants in the year when the sun is exactly over the equator; the length of day and night are very nearly equal that day at all locations on the planet, and (in the United States) it is the first day of Spring or Autumn, depending on the time of year.
*A Solstice is one of two instants in the year when the sun's angle is maximally far from Earth's equator; when one occurs, the length of the day or night is shortest or longest (depending on whether one is in the northern or southern hemisphere), and (in the United States) it marks the first day of summer or winter.

Both types occur because the Earth's rotation axis is tilted (at 23.4 degrees) from its orbital plane (ecliptic) about the Sun.

Jokingly insisting that two different terms are American/British variants of the same word has been the topic of [[1677: Contrails]].

;Hypothecate
*{{w|Hypothecate}} is a legal verb that means something similar to "make a mortgage".
*The {{w|hypotenuse}} is the longest side of a right-angled triangle. Here it is an unrelated length, approximately equal to the diameter of the sun (half the angular size of the sun times twice the distance to it).

;Obsequity
*Obsequity means the state of being obsequious (showing an indecorous willingness to obey or serve, or "sucking up").
*In astronomy the correct word is {{w|Obliquity}}, meaning an axial tilt.

;Perihelix
*This is a portmanteau of helix and perihelion.
*The {{w|perihelion}} is the point in a elliptical solar orbit that is closest to the Sun.

;Prolapse
*A {{w|Prolapse}} is a medical condition in which an internal organ is slipped forward or down.
*{{w|Retrograde and prograde motion}} are terms used to describe the apparent motion of celestial objects through the sky.

;Sagittal plane
*The {{w|Sagittal plane}} is an anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
*The correct label in the picture would be the {{w|Ecliptic plane}}. The plane the Earth orbits the Sun.
*{{w|Sagittarius (constellation)|Sagittarius}} is one of the stellar constellations of the Zodiac. The center of the Milky Way lies in this constellation.

;Solar plexus
*The {{w|Solar plexus}} is a network of nerves located in the abdomen. It was the name of [[64: Solar Plexus]].
*{{w|Solar}} is an adjective referring to the Sun, the star in our solar system.

;Tropopause
*The {{w|Tropopause}} is the boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere, defined as the boundary where air ceases to cool with increasing elevation. It is 9-17 km above sea level, not the thousands of kilometers as depicted here.
*The label appears to point at the orbit of the moon.

;Angle between the Astral and the Sagittal Planes
* The angle depicted is the inclination of the moon orbit. The planes are marked with the symbol for the Capricorn zodiac sign and the symbol of The Goddess; the angle is marked with the greek letter ''phi'' (ϕ), except with two vertical lines (as if it was a currency unit, similarly to the euro sign).

;Errata
* Errata are corrections in a published text (e.g. a newspaper article) issued after the publication.
* The angle depicted as errata is half the angular size of the sun, which has to match the lunar angular size to cause a solar total eclipse.

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every new moon (once every {{w|Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods| 29.5 days}}) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but is labeled with a fictional character similar to a Greek phi but with two vertical lines; the remaining labels also do not contribute to this explanation and exist only to distract or misinform or entertain the reader.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An orbital map of the Earth is shown. The Sun is in the center, the Earth is at the right bottom, and the Moon is left below the Earth.]
:'''Why isn't there an eclipse every month?'''
:This is a common question! The answer is made clear by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

:[Label on the Earth's plane:]
:Sagittal plane

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, Equinox (''Solstice'' in British English)

:[Two angles in the plane are labeled as:]
:Determinant of the date of Easter, Arctangent

:[The plane of the Moon is pictured in a small angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angle is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a "Game Of Thrones" 'O' (a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines).]
:[The labels at the Moon's path are:]
:Tropopause, Prolapse, Errata.

:[An arrow points to the Earth at the zero meridian on the equator. The label reads:]
:Dimples of Venus

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-21T14:03:41Z

162.158.62.225: /* Labels and Their Astronomical Meanings */

{{comic
| number = 1878
| date = August 18, 2017
| title = Earth Orbital Diagram
| image = earth_orbital_diagram.png
| titletext = You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is the third consecutive comic published in the week before the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which is a total solar eclipse and visible in totality within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]] and [[1877: Eclipse Science]]. The trend continued on the day of the eclipse with [[1879: Eclipse Birds]].

The comic claims that the reason that eclipses don't happen every month is simple to understand by looking at an orbital diagram. Ironically, the cartoon has so many parts and labels that it is far more difficult to understand than is implied. While the graph itself is based on {{w|Orbital elements|astronomical definitions}}, all the labels are nonsense in this context. In effect, the comic is a parody of a common joke in which a person asks a scientist a question, the scientist begins by saying "It's really quite simple", then proceeds to give a very lengthy and highly technical explanation that non-scientists would not be expected to understand.

All of the labels in the diagram are complicated words or phrases. Some are related to orbital mechanics (e.g. "equinox" and "perihelion"), while others are wholly unrelated or even made up. Each label is nonsensical in its place in the diagram. Compare/contrast with the standard {{w|Kepler orbit|Kepler Orbit}} diagram.

The title text references warnings to not look directly into the sun, but parodies those warnings by referring to 'orbit', the anatomical term for the eye socket.

===Labels and Their Astronomical Meanings===

;Arctangent
*{{w|Arctangent}} is the inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine a non-right angle of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
*The angle shown in the comic has no astronomical meaning.

;Astral plane
*The {{w|Astral plane}} is a plane of existence in various esoteric theories. It features prominently in Dungeons and Dragons cosmology, connecting the various other planes of existence.
*The picture shows the {{w|Orbit_of_the_Moon|lunar orbital plane}}, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth, tilted about 5.1 degrees from the ecliptic.

;Declension
*{{w|Declension}} is the inflection of nouns in a language. In this comic, it might be a portmanteau of declination and (right) ascension.
*In astronomy, the {{w|Declination|declination}} is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system. It is measured north or south of the celestial equator, like the geographical latitude on Earth. But in the picture the label is at the angle for the axial tilt of the Earth.
*And the {{w|Right_ascension|right ascension}} is the angular distance measured eastward along the celestial equator from the vernal equinox to the hour circle of the point in question.

;Determinant of the date of Easter
*In Western Christianity {{w|Easter}} always falls on the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon after the beginning of spring (equinox). The ecclesiastical full moon is determined by a calendar that approximates the actual time of the full moon, Thus the date of easter is defined by a combination of a solar and a lunar calendar. The position of that angle isn't that bad but it should be not more than 30 degrees (slightly more than one month.)
*In mathematics, the determinant is a function of numerical matrices. In this context, however, it apparently refers to something that directly determines the date of Easter.

;Dimples of Venus
*The {{w|Dimples of Venus}} are indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back.
*In astronomy the {{w|Belt of Venus}} is a shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere.

;Enceliopsis
*{{w|Enceliopsis}} are small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays".
*In astronomy this point has also no specific meaning. But {{w|Enceladus}} is a moon around {{w|Saturn}}.

;Equinox / Solstice
{{w|Equinox}} and {{w|Solstice}} have very different meanings:
*An Equinox is one of two instants in the year when the sun is exactly over the equator; the length of day and night are very nearly equal that day at all locations on the planet, and (in the United States) it is the first day of Spring or Autumn, depending on the time of year.
*A Solstice is one of two instants in the year when the sun's angle is maximally far from Earth's equator; when one occurs, the length of the day or night is shortest or longest (depending on whether one is in the northern or southern hemisphere), and (in the United States) it marks the first day of summer or winter.

Both types occur because the Earth's rotation axis is tilted (at 23.4 degrees) from its orbital plane (ecliptic) about the Sun.

Jokingly insisting that two different terms are American/British variants of the same word has been the topic of [[1677: Contrails]].

;Hypothecate
*{{w|Hypothecate}} is a legal verb that means something similar to "make a mortgage".
*The {{w|hypotenuse}} is the longest side of a right-angled triangle. Here it is an unrelated length, approximately equal to the diameter of the sun (half the angular size of the sun times twice the distance to it).

;Obsequity
*Obsequity means the state of being obsequious (showing an indecorous willingness to obey or serve, or "sucking up").
*In astronomy the correct word is {{w|Obliquity}}, meaning an axial tilt.

;Perihelix
*This is a portmanteau of helix and perihelion.
*The {{w|perihelion}} is the point in a elliptical solar orbit that is closest to the Sun.

;Prolapse
*A {{w|Prolapse}} is a medical condition in which an internal organ is slipped forward or down.
*{{w|Retrograde and prograde motion}} are terms used to describe the apparent motion of celestial objects through the sky.

;Sagittal plane
*The {{w|Sagittal plane}} is an anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
*The correct label in the picture would be the {{w|Ecliptic plane}}. The plane the Earth orbits the Sun.
*{{w|Sagittarius (constellation)|Sagittarius}} is one of the stellar constellations of the Zodiac. The center of the Milky Way lies in this constellation.

;Solar plexus
*The {{w|Solar plexus}} is a network of nerves located in the abdomen. It was the name of [[64: Solar Plexus]].
*{{w|Solar}} is an adjective referring to the Sun, the star in our solar system.

;Tropopause
*The {{w|Tropopause}} is the boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere, defined as the boundary where air ceases to cool with increasing elevation. It is 9-17 km above sea level, not the thousands of kilometers as depicted here.
*The label appears to point at the orbit of the moon.

;Angle between the Astral and the Sagittal Planes
* The angle depicted is the inclination of the moon orbit. The planes are marked with the symbol for the Capricorn zodiac sign and an unknown symbol respectively; the angle is marked with the greek letter ''phi'' (ϕ), except with two vertical lines (as if it was a currency unit, similarly to the euro sign).

;Errata
* Errata are corrections in a published text (e.g. a newspaper article) issued after the publication.
* The angle depicted as errata is half the angular size of the sun, which has to match the lunar angular size to cause a solar total eclipse.

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every new moon (once every {{w|Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods| 29.5 days}}) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but is labeled with a fictional character similar to a Greek phi but with two vertical lines; the remaining labels also do not contribute to this explanation and exist only to distract or misinform or entertain the reader.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An orbital map of the Earth is shown. The Sun is in the center, the Earth is at the right bottom, and the Moon is left below the Earth.]
:'''Why isn't there an eclipse every month?'''
:This is a common question! The answer is made clear by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

:[Label on the Earth's plane:]
:Sagittal plane

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, Equinox (''Solstice'' in British English)

:[Two angles in the plane are labeled as:]
:Determinant of the date of Easter, Arctangent

:[The plane of the Moon is pictured in a small angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angle is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a "Game Of Thrones" 'O' (a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines).]
:[The labels at the Moon's path are:]
:Tropopause, Prolapse, Errata.

:[An arrow points to the Earth at the zero meridian on the equator. The label reads:]
:Dimples of Venus

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]

1862: Particle Properties

2017-07-12T17:43:50Z

162.158.62.225: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1862
| date = July 12, 2017
| title = Particle Properties
| image = particle_properties.png
| titletext = Each particle also has a password which allows its properties to be changed, but the cosmic censorship hypothesis suggests we can never observe the password itself—only its secure hash.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table needs to be filled out with remaining explanations}}
A table is presented comparing the range (maxmium and minimum value) and scale (how big number increments are) of several measures. The table begins by listing properties pertinent to {{w|particle physics}} as the title sugests, but quickly devolves to other domains such as role playing games (such as D&D) and sports after failing to provide a good definition of {{w|Flavour (particle physics)|flavor}}.

{| class=wikitable
! Property
! Scale
! Explanation
|-
| Electric charge
| [-1,1]
| A particle can either have a negative charge (noted by -1), a positive charge (noted by +1), or no (neutral) charge (noted by 0). Subatomic particles (quarks) have charges of ± ⅓ or ± ⅔, but cannot exist on their own (they must be combined to create a particle with integer charge).
The charge is shown in increments of a third from -1 to +1 which are the only know charges of the fundamental particles; however there are some exotic particles with twice integer charge e.g. the recently discovered double charmed Xi baryon with charge of +2.
|-
| Mass
| [0,∞) in kg
| Mass is the measure of an object or particle's resistance to force, as well as its ability to distort spacetime (its gravitational attraction).
Theoretically, any object's mass could approach infinity, but mass cannot be below 0. Some particles, such as photons, have zero rest mass and are therefore massless.
|-
| Spin number
| (-∞,∞) (Intervals of ½)
| Spin is an intrinsic properties of particles, Spin is a relativistic form of angular momentum. The spin of a particle determines what statistics the particle follows, half odd integer spin particles are classified as fermions and integer spin particles are bosons.
Two fermions cannot have exactly the same state, this is known as the Pauli exclusion principle. Thus for fermions to exist in the same position, they must have opposite spins, of + ½ and - ½. It follows that a maximum of two identical fermions (e.g. two electrons) may exist in the same position.
|-
| Flavor
| Misc. quantum numbers
| Flavor is a series of quantum numbers that do not fit neatly onto a set of dimensional axis
|-
| Color charge
| 3D coordinate system with R, G and B axes
| Color charge can be Red Green or Blue, the color of a particle must sum to white so a particle can be RGB or Red anti-Red or equivalent. The color charge confines the quarks, separating quarks requires so much energy that jets of particles are created, so color is a property inferred as it cannot be observed on its own. This is the last entry currently used to describe particles by particle physicists.
|-
| Mood
| 5 emojis on a number line ranging from angry to joyful
| Mood particles are not considered to have emotion but Randall implies that there is a quantized 5 point scale which would have some effect of the properties of the particle.
|-
| Alignment
| 3x3 grid with varying shades (columns Good-Evil, rows Lawful-Chaotic)
| A reference to the tabletop RPG {{w|Dungeons & Dragons}}, where characters have an {{w|Alignment (Dungeons & Dragons)|alignment}} that is either Good, Neutral, or Evil (describing whether they have a propensity to help or harm others) and either Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic (describing how much they care about organizations, social norms, and the status quo). Common examples of these alignments include Darth Vader (Lawful Evil), Superman (Lawful Good), Robin Hood (Chaotic Good), and the Joker (Chaotic Evil). This may be a reference to the now defunct names of the two heaviest known quarks ("truth" and "beauty").
|-
| Hit points
| [0,∞)
| Games (videogames, board games, CCGs, RPGs, etc.) often have values for players and other entities that represent health (also called hit points or HP). Generally there is not necessarily a limit on this value, but it does not often go below 0 as the zero value is considered "dead" (or some equivalent).
|-
| Rating
| 5-star scale
| The five-star rating system is often used to rate films, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. Randall has previously criticized this system in [[937: TornadoGuard]] and [[1098: Star Ratings]].
|-
| String type
| Bytestring-Charstring
|
|-
| Batting average
| [0,100] in %
| In baseball, a players batting average is calculated by dividing their hits by their at-bats.
|-
| Proof
| [0,200]
| This refers to {{w|alcohol proof}}, which is the measure of the amount of ethanol in a beverage by volume. The proof of a beverage is two times the percentage of ethanol, so the maximum value is 200.
|-
| Heat
| No jalapeños - 3 jalapeños, increasing
| Spicy peppers are measured by the intensity of the spicy flavor, usually ranging from values like "mild" to "hot". The gray jalapeño likely represents negligible or no spicy taste in the food.
|-
| Street value
| [0,∞) in $
| The value of an illegal good or a legal/controlled good when bought or sold by illegal means.
|-
| Entropy
| ''This already has like 20 different confusing meanings, so it probably means something here, too.''
| The term "entropy", which {{w|History of entropy|began}} as a {{w|Entropy (classical thermodynamics)|thermodynamic measure}}, has since been adopted {{w|Entropy in thermodynamics and information theory|by analogy}} into {{w|Entropy (disambiguation)|multiple seemingly unrelated domains}}. The table doesn't seem to know what domain it is in, but (possibly in a desperate attempt to hide this) deems it safe to assume the unknown domain uses the term "entropy" for ''something''!
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:<big>Particle Properties in Physics</big>
{| class=wikitable
! Property
! Type/scale
|-
| Electric charge
| [Scale with -1, 0 and +1 labeled]
|-
| Mass
| [Scale with 0, 1kg and 2kg labeled]
|-
| Spin number
| [Scale with -1, -½ 0, ½ and 1 labeled]
|-
| Flavor
| (Misc. quantum numbers)
|-
| Color charge
| [3D plot with R, G and B axes] (Quarks only)
|-
| Mood
| [Scale labeled with 5 emoticons, from angry to happy]
|-
| Alignment
| [3x3 grid with varying shades] Good-Evil, Lawful-Chaotic
|-
| Hit points
| [Scale starting from 0]
|-
| Rating
| [Star rating of 3.5/5 stars]
|-
| String type
| Bytestring-Charstring
|-
| Batting average
| [Scale from 0% to 100%]
|-
| Proof
| [Scale from 0 to 200]
|-
| Heat
| [Scale labeled with pepper icons, from 0 to 3]
|-
| Street value
| [Scale with $0, $100 and $200 labeled]
|-
| Entropy
| (This already has like 20 different confusing meanings, so it probably means something here, too.)
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Physics]]

1862: Particle Properties

2017-07-12T17:35:43Z

162.158.62.225: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1862
| date = July 12, 2017
| title = Particle Properties
| image = particle_properties.png
| titletext = Each particle also has a password which allows its properties to be changed, but the cosmic censorship hypothesis suggests we can never observe the password itself—only its secure hash.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table needs to be filled out with remaining explanations}}
A table is presented comparing the range (maxmium and minimum value) and scale (how big number increments are) of several measures. The table begins by listing properties pertinent to {{w|particle physics}} as the title sugests, but after failing to provide a good indication of {{w|Flavour (particle physics)|flavor}}, quickly devolves to other domains, such as role playing games (such as D&D) and sports.

{| class=wikitable
! Property
! Scale
! Explanation
|-
| Electric charge
| [-1,1]
| A particle can either have a negative charge (noted by -1), a positive charge (noted by +1), or no (neutral) charge (noted by 0). Subatomic particles (quarks) have charges of ± ⅓ or ± ⅔, but cannot exist on their own (they must be combined to create a particle with integer charge).
The charge is shown in increments of a third from -1 to +1 which are the only know charges of the fundamental particles; however there are some exotic particles with twice integer charge e.g. the recently discovered double charmed Xi baryon with charge of +2.
|-
| Mass
| [0,∞) in kg
| Mass is the measure of an object or particle's resistance to force, as well as its ability to distort spacetime (its gravitational attraction).
Theoretically, any object's mass could approach infinity, but mass cannot be below 0. Some particles, such as photons, have zero rest mass and are therefore massless.
|-
| Spin number
| (-∞,∞) (Intervals of ½)
| Spin is an intrinsic properties of particles, Spin is a relativistic form of angular momentum. The spin of a particle determines what statistics the particle follows, half odd integer spin particles are classified as fermions and integer spin particles are bosons.
Two fermions cannot have exactly the same state, this is known as the Pauli exclusion principle. Thus for fermions to exist in the same position, they must have opposite spins, of + ½ and - ½. It follows that a maximum of two identical fermions (e.g. two electrons) may exist in the same position.
|-
| Flavor
| Misc. quantum numbers
| Flavor is a series of quantum numbers that do not fit neatly onto a set of dimensional axis
|-
| Color charge
| 3D coordinate system with R, G and B axes
| Color charge can be Red Green or Blue, the color of a particle must sum to white so a particle can be RGB or Red anti-Red or equivalent. The color charge confines the quarks, separating quarks requires so much energy that jets of particles are created, so color is a property inferred as it cannot be observed on its own. This is the last entry currently used to describe particles by particle physicists.
|-
| Mood
| 5 emojis on a number line ranging from angry to joyful
| Mood particles are not considered to have emotion but Randall implies that there is a quantized 5 point scale which would have some effect of the properties of the particle.
|-
| Alignment
| 3x3 grid with varying shades (columns Good-Evil, rows Lawful-Chaotic)
| The "Alignment" tab corresponds with the {{w|Alignment (Dungeons & Dragons)|Alignments}} grid of ''{{w|Dungeons & Dragons}}'', where characters are traditionally given one of nine ideological alignments, with "Lawful", "Neutral" and "Chaotic" on one axis and "Good", "Neutral" and "Evil" on the other. This may be a reference to the now defunct names of the two heaviest known quarks: truth and beauty.
|-
| Hit points
| [0,∞)
| Games (videogames, board games, CCGs, RPGs, etc.) often have values for players and other entities that represent health (also called hit points or HP). Generally there is not necessarily a limit on this value, but it does not often go below 0 as the zero value is considered "dead" (or some equivalent).
|-
| Rating
| 5-star scale
| The five-star rating system is often used to rate films, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. Randall has previously criticized this system in [[937: TornadoGuard]] and [[1098: Star Ratings]].
|-
| String type
| Bytestring-Charstring
|
|-
| Batting average
| [0,100) in %
| In baseball, a players batting average is calculated by dividing their hits by their at-bats.
|-
| Proof
| [0,200)
| This refers to {{w|alcohol proof}}, which is the measure of the amount of ethanol in a beverage by volume. The proof of a beverage is two times the percentage of ethanol, so the maximum value is 200.
|-
| Heat
| No jalapeños - 3 jalapeños, increasing
| Spicy peppers are measured by the intensity of the spicy flavor, usually ranging from values like "mild" to "hot". The gray jalapeño likely represents negligible or no spicy taste in the food.
|-
| Street value
| [0,∞) in $
| The value of an illegal good or a legal/controlled good when bought or sold by illegal means.
|-
| Entropy
| ''This already has like 20 different confusing meanings, so it probably means something here, too.''
| The term "entropy", which {{w|History of entropy|began}} as a {{w|Entropy (classical thermodynamics)|thermodynamic measure}}, has since been adopted {{w|Entropy in thermodynamics and information theory|by analogy}} into {{w|Entropy (disambiguation)|multiple seemingly unrelated domains}}. The table doesn't seem to know what domain it is in, but (possibly in a desperate attempt to hide this) deems it safe to assume the unknown domain uses the term "entropy" for ''something''!
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:<big>Particle Properties in Physics</big>
{| class=wikitable
! Property
! Type/scale
|-
| Electric charge
| [Scale with -1, 0 and +1 labeled]
|-
| Mass
| [Scale with 0, 1kg and 2kg labeled]
|-
| Spin number
| [Scale with -1, -½ 0, ½ and 1 labeled]
|-
| Flavor
| (Misc. quantum numbers)
|-
| Color charge
| [3D plot with R, G and B axes] (Quarks only)
|-
| Mood
| [Scale labeled with 5 emoticons, from angry to happy]
|-
| Alignment
| [3x3 grid with varying shades] Good-Evil, Lawful-Chaotic
|-
| Hit points
| [Scale starting from 0]
|-
| Rating
| [Star rating of 3.5/5 stars]
|-
| String type
| Bytestring-Charstring
|-
| Batting average
| [Scale from 0% to 100%]
|-
| Proof
| [Scale from 0 to 200]
|-
| Heat
| [Scale labeled with pepper icons, from 0 to 3]
|-
| Street value
| [Scale with $0, $100 and $200 labeled]
|-
| Entropy
| (This already has like 20 different confusing meanings, so it probably means something here, too.)
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Physics]]

1862: Particle Properties

2017-07-12T17:10:49Z

162.158.62.225: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1862
| date = July 12, 2017
| title = Particle Properties
| image = particle_properties.png
| titletext = Each particle also has a password which allows its properties to be changed, but the cosmic censorship hypothesis suggests we can never observe the password itself—only its secure hash.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table needs to be filled out with remaining explanations}}
A table is presented comparing the range (maxmium and minimum value) and scale (how big number increments are) of several measures. The table begins by listing properties pertinent to {{w|particle physics}} as the title sugests, but after failing to provide a good indication of {{w|Flavour (particle physics)|flavor}}, quickly devolves to other domains, such as role playing games (such as D&D) and sports.

{| class=wikitable
! Property
! Scale
! Explanation
|-
| Electric charge
| [-1,1]
| A particle can either have a negative charge (noted by -1), a positive charge (noted by +1), or no (neutral) charge (noted by 0).
|-
| Mass
| [0,∞) in kg
| Mass is the measure of an object or particle's resistance to force. Theoretically, any object's mass could approach infinity, but mass cannot be below 0. Some particles, such as photons, have zero rest mass and are therefore massless.
|-
| Spin number
| (-∞,∞) (Intervals of 1/2)
|
|-
| Flavor
| Misc. quantum numbers
|
|-
| Color charge
| Color wheel representing R, G, B
|
|-
| Mood
| [😠,😄] on a number line
|
|-
| Alignment
| 3x3 grid with varying shades (columns Good-Evil, rows Lawful-Chaotic)
|
|-
| Hit points
| (0,∞)
| Video games often have values for players and other entities that represent health (also called hit points or HP). Generally there is not necessarily a limit on this value, but it does not often go below 0 as the zero value is considered "dead" (or some equivalent).
|-
| Rating
| 5-star scale
| The five-star rating system is often used to rate films, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. Randall has previously criticized this system in [[937: TornadoGuard]] and [[1098: Star Ratings]].
|-
| String type
| Bytestring-Charstring
|
|-
| Batting average
| [0,100)
|
|-
| Proof
| [0,200)
| This refers to {{w|alcohol proof}}, which is the measure of the amount of ethanol in a beverage by volume. The proof of a beverage is two times the percentage of ethanol, so the maximum value is 200.
|-
| Heat
| No jalapeños - 3 jalapeños, increasing
| Spicy peppers are measured by the intensity of the spicy flavor, usually ranging from values like "mild" to "hot". The gray jalapeño likely represents negligible or no spicy taste in the food.
|-
| Street value
| [0,∞) in $
|
|-
| Entropy
| ''This already has like 20 different confusing meanings, so it probably means something here, too.''
|
|}

The term "entropy", which {{w|History of entropy|began}} as a {{w|Entropy (classical thermodynamics)|thermodynamic measure}}, has since been adopted {{w|Entropy in thermodynamics and information theory|by analogy}} into {{w|Entropy (disambiguation)|multiple seemingly unrelated domains}}. The table doesn't seem to know what domain it is in, but (possibly in a desperate attempt to hide this) deems it safe to assume the unknown domain uses the term "entropy" for ''something''!

The "Alignment" tab corresponds with the {{w|Alignment (Dungeons & Dragons)|Alignments}} grid of ''{{w|Dungeons & Dragons}}'', where characters are traditionally given one of nine ideological alignments, with "Lawful", "Neutral" and "Chaotic" on one axis and "Good", "Neutral" and "Evil" on the other. This may be a reference to the now defunct names of the two heaviest known quarks: truth and beauty.

The charge is shown in increments of a third from -1 to +1 which are the only know charges of the fundamental particles, there are some exotic, particles with twice integer charge e.g. the recently discovered double charmed Xi baryon

Spin is an intrinsic properties of particles, Spin is a relativistic form of angular momentum. The spin of a particle determines what statistics the particle follows, half odd integer spin particles are classified as fermions and integer spin particles are bosons.
Two fermions cannot have exactly the same state, this is the Pauli exclusion principle.
Flavor is a series of quantum numbers that do not fit neatly onto a set of dimensional axis
Color charge can be Red Green or Blue, the color of a particle must sum to white so a particle can be RGB or Red anti-Red or equivalent. The color charge confines the quarks, separating quarks requires so much energy that jets of particles are created, so color is a property inferred as it cannot be observed on its own. This is the last entry currently used to describe particles by particle physicists.
Mood particles are not considered to have emotion but Randdal implies that there is a quantized 5 point scale which would have some effect of the properties of the particle.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:<big>Particle Properties in Physics</big>
{| class=wikitable
! Property
! Type/scale
|-
| Electric charge
| [Scale with -1, 0 and +1 labeled]
|-
| Mass
| [Scale with 0, 1kg and 2kg labeled]
|-
| Spin number
| [Scale with -1, -½ 0, ½ and 1 labeled]
|-
| Flavor
| (Misc. quantum numbers)
|-
| Color charge
| [3D plot with R, G and B axes] (Quarks only)
|-
| Mood
| [Scale with 5 emoticons, from angry to happy]
|-
| Alignment
| [Shaded 3x3 grid] Good-evil, lawful chaotic
|-
| Hit points
| [Scale starting from 0]
|-
| Rating
| [Star rating of 3.5/5 stars]
|-
| String type
| Bytestring-Charstring
|-
| Batting average
| [Scale from 0% to 100%]
|-
| Proof
| [Scale from 0 to 200]
|-
| Heat
| [Scale labeled with pepper icons, from 0 to 3]
|-
| Street value
| [Scale with $0, $100 and $200 labeled]
|-
| Entropy
| (This already has like 20 different confusing meanings, so it probably means something here, too.)
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Physics]]

1861: Quantum

2017-07-11T14:50:13Z

162.158.62.225: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1861
| date = July 10, 2017
| title = Quantum
| image = quantum.png
| titletext = If you draw a diagonal line from lower left to upper right, that's the ICP 'Miracles' axis.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Initial explanation of the idea behind the comic, still needs more detail. General relativity not mentioned yet. Seems it is listed as needing as much math as QM but gives less philosophical arguments...?}}

The comic depicts a relationship between how philosophically exciting the questions in a field of study are, versus how many years are required to understand the answers. For example, {{w|special relativity}} poses very intriguing philosophical questions, such as "{{w|Relativity of simultaneity|can the temporal ordering of spatially separated events depend on the observer?}}", or "{{w|Twin paradox|can time run at different rates for differerent observers?}}". But it doesn't take a lot of mathematical knowledge to understand the answers - that when objects move very close to the speed of light, {{w|time dilation|time slows down}} and their {{w|length contraction|lengths contract}}: the key {{w|Lorentz transformation}}s ultimately involve little more than high-school algebra. Hence, Special Relativity is very high up on the y-axis but not very far on the x-axis. Basic physics is not very philosophically interesting but also not very complicated. {{w|Fluid dynamics}}, as captured by the {{w|Navier–Stokes equations}} is very complicated, but it's concerned with a very specific topic - how water or other fluids flow around - so it doesn't lead to big philosophical questions.

The "danger zone" in the top right of the chart is when a field of study is wide-ranging enough to pose broad philosophical questions, and also so complicated that most people can't answer those questions. {{w|Quantum mechanics}} deals with some very strange concepts that readily lend themselves to philosophical questions, such as the idea that merely observing something can change it, or the idea that something can be both a wave and a particle at the same time. However, the explanation for those phenomena is a very complicated piece of math, notably the {{w|Schrödinger equation}}, which means that most people don't have accurate answers to those questions. [[Randall]] suggests that this is the reason why so many people have "weird ideas" about quantum mechanics.

[[1240: Quantum Mechanics]] also discusses weird ideas that people have about quantum mechanics.

{{w|General relativity}} also presupposes considerable {{w|Mathematics of general relativity|mathematical sophistication}} to understand the {{w|Einstein field equations}}. However, the main contribution of GR – the explanation of {{w|gravity}} in terms of a {{w|curvature|curved}} {{w|spacetime}} – does not seem to induce a lot of philosophical novelty beyond that already seen in special relativity, possibly with the exception of {{w|black hole}}s.

The title text references the {{w|Insane Clown Posse}} (ICP) song "{{w|Miracles (Insane Clown Posse song)|Miracles}}", made memetic by the lyric "Fucking magnets, how do they work?" An axis is the direction on a graph in which some quantity is increasing or decreasing. So things that are far along the "miracle" axis are presumably more miraculous. As you move from bottom-left to top-right on the graph, items become both more philosophically interesting and harder to understand. It would be fair to describe something that's hard to understand and raises big philosophical questions as a "miracle". The ICP "Miracles" axis would also intersect the topic "magnets" infamously mentioned in the song.

==Transcript==
:[A chart with the Y-axis titled "How Philosophically Exciting the Questions Are to a Novice Student" and the X-axis titled "How Many Years of Math are Needed to Understand the Answers". The upper-right portion of the chart is labeled "Danger Zone". The following topics are charted as follows:
::Basic Physics: low excitement, low prerequisites
::Fluid Dynamics: low excitement, high prerequisites
::Magnets: medium excitement, medium prerequisites
::General Relativity: medium excitement, high prerequisites (on the border to the "Danger Zone")
::Special Relativity: high excitement, low prerequisites
::Quantum Mechanics: high excitement, high prerequisites (in the "Danger Zone")]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Why so many people have weird ideas about Quantum Mechanics

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Physics]]

Talk:1861: Quantum

2017-07-11T14:48:22Z

162.158.62.225:

The final paragraph probably should note that Magnets are directly on the ICP "Miracles" axis. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 18:34, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

And now I have to listen to "Miracles" again. Thanks explainxkcd. [[User:OldCorps|OldCorps]] ([[User talk:OldCorps|talk]]) 19:03, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Unless Randall includes Quantum Field Theory in Quantum Mechanics (which is unusual), General Relativity certainly must be on the right of QM, but on the chart they are almost same level, why? All physics students learn QM, but only small minority take GR course, because mathematically it's much more demanding.
:If you look closely, General Relativity ''is'' slightly to the right of Quantum Mechanics. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.94|172.68.141.94]] 20:33, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

_I'M_ extremely intrigued by Special Relativity being depicted as requiring not much more math than Basic Physics (the only thing I've studied on this chart - I'm not counting magnets as all I know are the grade school basics), but as being vastly more exciting (I enjoyed the physics courses I took, as far as I remember). :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:46, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

:It's interesting that special relativity is to the left of magnets when you can explain magnetism as a consequence of special relativity, from each charged particle's frame of reference, it's experiencing an electrostatic attraction or repulsion due to length contraction or an altered electric current due to time dilation.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.214|172.68.141.214]] 05:11, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

::That's way more complicated than special relativity, at least to me.--[[User:Gjgfuj|TheSandromatic]] ([[User talk:Gjgfuj|talk]]) 07:55, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

The Maxwell equations are more complicated than the Lorenz equations. That is why Magnets are to the right of special relativity. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.106|162.158.92.106]] 08:33, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Now I'm listening to "Highway To The Danger Zone". Thanks, upper-right corner! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.15|162.158.62.15]] 13:03, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

1861: Quantum

2017-07-10T17:25:23Z

162.158.62.225: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1861
| date = July 10, 2017
| title = Quantum
| image = quantum.png
| titletext = If you draw a diagonal line from lower left to upper right, that's the ICP 'Miracles' axis.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Initial explanation of the idea behind the comic, still needs more detail.}}

The comic depicts a relationship between how philosophically exciting the questions in a field of study are, versus how many years are required to understand the answers. For example, special relativity poses very complicated philosophical questions - something like "Are our observations about the universe true for everyone, or are they merely relative to our current frame of reference?" But it doesn't take a lot of mathematical knowledge to understand the answer - that when objects move very close to the speed of light, time slows down and their lengths contract. Hence, Special Relativity is very high up on the y-axis but not very far on the x-axis. Basic physics is not very philosophically interesting but also not very complicated. Fluid dynamics is very complicated, but it's concerned with a very specific topic - how water or other fluids flow around - so it doesn't lead to big philosophical questions.

The "danger zone" in the top right of the chart is when a field of study is wide-ranging enough to pose broad philosophical questions, and also so complicated that most people can't answer those questions. Quantum mechanics deals with some very strange concepts that readily lend themselves to philosophical questions, such as the idea that merely observing something can change it, or the idea that something can be both a wave and a particle at the same time. However, the explanation for those phenomena is a very complicated piece of math, which means that most people don't have accurate answers to those questions. Randall suggests that this is the reason why so many people have "weird ideas" about quantum mechanics.

[[1240: Quantum Mechanics]] also discusses weird ideas that people have about quantum mechanics.

The title text references the Insane Clown Posse song "Miracles", made memetic by the lyric "Fucking magnets, how do they work?!" An axis is the direction on a graph in which some quantity is increasing or decreasing. So things that are far along the "miracle" axis are presumably more miraculous. As you move from bottom-left to top-right on the graph, items become both more philosophically interesting and harder to understand. It would be fair to describe something that's hard to understand and raises big philosophical questions as a "miracle."

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[A chart with the Y-axis titled "How Philosophically Exciting the Questions Are to a Novice Student" and the X-axis titled "How Many Years it Takes to Understand the Answers". The upper-right portion of the chart is labeled "Danger Zone". The following topics are charted as follows:
*Basic Physics: low excitement, low understanding
*Fluid Dynamics: low excitement, high understanding
*Magnets: medium excitement, medium understanding
*General Relativity: medium excitement, high understanding (in the danger zone)
*Special Relativity: high excitement, low understanding
*Quantum Mechanics: high excitement, high understanding (in the danger zone)]

Caption: Why so many people have weird ideas about Quantum Mechanics
{{comic discussion}}

1861: Quantum

2017-07-10T17:24:32Z

162.158.62.225: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1861
| date = July 10, 2017
| title = Quantum
| image = quantum.png
| titletext = If you draw a diagonal line from lower left to upper right, that's the ICP 'Miracles' axis.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Initial explanation of the idea behind the comic, still needs more detail.}}

The comic depicts a relationship between how philosophically exciting the questions in a field of study are, versus how many years are required to understand the answers. For example, special relativity poses very complicated philosophical questions - something like "Are our observations about the universe true for everyone, or are they merely relative to our current frame of reference?" But it doesn't take a lot of mathematical knowledge to understand the answer - that when objects move very close to the speed of light, time slows down and their lengths contract. Hence, Special Relativity is very high up on the y-axis but not very far on the x-axis. Basic physics is not very philosophically interesting but also not very complicated. Fluid dynamics is very complicated, but it's concerned with a very specific topic - how water or other fluids flow around - so it doesn't lead to big philosophical questions.

The "danger zone" in the top right of the chart is when a field of study is wide-ranging enough to pose broad philosophical questions, and also so complicated that most people can't answer those questions. Quantum mechanics deals with some very strange concepts that readily lend themselves to philosophical questions, such as the idea that merely observing something can change it, or the idea that something can be both a wave and a particle at the same time. However, the explanation for those phenomena is a very complicated piece of math, which means that most people don't have accurate answers to those questions. Randall suggests that this is the reason why so many people have "weird ideas" about quantum mechanics.

[[1240: Quantum Mechanics]] also discusses weird ideas that people have about quantum mechanics.

The title text references the Insane Clown Posse song "Miracles", made memetic by the lyric "Fucking magnets, how do they work?!" An axis is the direction on a graph in which some quantity is increasing or decreasing. So things that are far along the "miracle" axis are presumably more miraculous. As you move from bottom-left to top-right on the graph, items become both more philosophically interesting and harder to understand. It would be fair to describe something that's hard to understand and raises big philosophical questions as a "miracle."

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[A chart with the Y-axis titled "How Philosophically Exciting the Questions Are to a Novice Student" and the X-axis titles "How Many Years it Takes to Understand the Answers". The upper-right portion of the chart is labeled "Danger Zone". The following topics are charted as follows:
*Basic Physics: low excitement, low understanding
*Fluid Dynamics: low excitement, high understanding
*Magnets: medium excitement, medium understanding
*General Relativity: medium excitement, high understanding (in the danger zone)
*Special Relativity: high excitement, low understanding
*Quantum Mechanics: high excitement, high understanding (in the danger zone)]

Caption: Why so many people have weird ideas about Quantum Mechanics
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1856: Existence Proof

2017-06-29T13:25:56Z

162.158.62.225:

Whoever added the citation needed got more of a laugh out of me then Randall did this morning. Well done. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.29|172.68.142.29]] 17:32, 28 June 2017 (UTC)
: I hope you enjoy the joke just as much the second time. And the third. And the fourth. And the fifth. And the sixth. And the... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.100|162.158.75.100]] 00:56, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
:: I don't re-read old pages of explain xkcd so often it would stop being funny. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 04:11, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
: <AOL>Me too!</AOL> [[User:RoyT|RoyT]] ([[User talk:RoyT|talk]]) 07:10, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Does the function have any special hidden meaning, or is it just some random function?
[[User:Thawn|Thawn]] ([[User talk:Thawn|talk]]) 20:23, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

: Yeah - I wondered that too. But I'm not sure if there is enough information to know. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 21:28, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

: Without knowing what the functions are, there's no way to tell. [[User:Gmcgath|Gmcgath]] ([[User talk:Gmcgath|talk]]) 23:52, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

:: Unless I'm way off-base, There are an infinite number of solutions. For example, let's assume f(x)=2x and G(x)=x+1. X can, in this example, be literally any number because G(f(0)) = G(2*0) = G(0) = 0+1 = 1. As long as G(x) takes the result of f(0) and makes it equal to 1, it doesn't matter what f(x) is. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.225|162.158.62.225]] 13:25, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

"I'm finally in the right one," made me laugh more than usual. It added character to Offscreen Student #2, something that the comic usually lacks [[User:HisHighestMinion|HisHighestMinion]] ([[User talk:HisHighestMinion|talk]]) 03:56, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_proof "existence proof" means a non-constructive proof. Such proofs are annoying to some mathematicians as they claim existence of something but do not show how to find it. So I fully understand the teacher that she wants to grab a sword and finally find it. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.76|162.158.202.76]] 08:54, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Jokes on her. The number is a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_model_of_arithmetic | nonstandard integer]. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.28|172.68.78.28]] 10:12, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

To me, the comic reads (especially with the title text) with the implication that the teacher is encouraging the students to help her actually fight real numbers in real life, as if the platonic idea of numbers was "realer" than we think. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.215.98|172.68.215.98]] 10:42, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1856: Existence Proof

2017-06-29T13:15:16Z

162.158.62.225:

Whoever added the citation needed got more of a laugh out of me then Randall did this morning. Well done. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.29|172.68.142.29]] 17:32, 28 June 2017 (UTC)
: I hope you enjoy the joke just as much the second time. And the third. And the fourth. And the fifth. And the sixth. And the... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.100|162.158.75.100]] 00:56, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
:: I don't re-read old pages of explain xkcd so often it would stop being funny. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 04:11, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
: <AOL>Me too!</AOL> [[User:RoyT|RoyT]] ([[User talk:RoyT|talk]]) 07:10, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Does the function have any special hidden meaning, or is it just some random function?
[[User:Thawn|Thawn]] ([[User talk:Thawn|talk]]) 20:23, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

: Yeah - I wondered that too. But I'm not sure if there is enough information to know. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 21:28, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

: Without knowing what the functions are, there's no way to tell. [[User:Gmcgath|Gmcgath]] ([[User talk:Gmcgath|talk]]) 23:52, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

"I'm finally in the right one," made me laugh more than usual. It added character to Offscreen Student #2, something that the comic usually lacks [[User:HisHighestMinion|HisHighestMinion]] ([[User talk:HisHighestMinion|talk]]) 03:56, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_proof "existence proof" means a non-constructive proof. Such proofs are annoying to some mathematicians as they claim existence of something but do not show how to find it. So I fully understand the teacher that she wants to grab a sword and finally find it. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.76|162.158.202.76]] 08:54, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Jokes on her. The number is a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_model_of_arithmetic | nonstandard integer]. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.28|172.68.78.28]] 10:12, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

To me, the comic reads (especially with the title text) with the implication that the teacher is encouraging the students to help her actually fight real numbers in real life, as if the platonic idea of numbers was "realer" than we think. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.215.98|172.68.215.98]] 10:42, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

1840: Genetic Testing Results

2017-05-22T20:37:06Z

162.158.62.225:

{{comic
| number = 1840
| date = May 22, 2017
| title = Genetic Testing Results
| image = genetic_testing_results.png
| titletext = That's very exciting! The bad news is that it's a risk factor for a lot of things.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Some paragraphs are missing so that it becomes as long as the other explanations.}}
Ponytail [[1839|continues Cueball's medical checkup]] with a genetic test.

{{w|Genetic test}}s show people congenital diseases that they might be at risk for and give them insight into their ancestry. In this case, the genetic results are extremely obvious: His genes are part of a long line of genes stretching back to some of the earliest life forms to have genes. This information is, on top of being obvious, so vague as to be useless for medical purposes.

Randall has previously joked about the, what should be obvious, results of genetic testing in [[830|#830: Genetic Analysis]].

The title text also makes a joke similar to [[674|#674: Natural Parenting]]: "On one hand, every single one of my ancestors going back billions of years has managed to figure [having kids] out. On the other hand, that's the mother of all sampling biases."

In epidemiology, a risk factor is a variable associated with an increased risk of disease or infection. The title text says that this is a risk factor because being a living human being is, trivially, associated with every disease that could possibly afflict human beings.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is seated on an medical examination table while Ponytail stands dressed in a doctor's coat holding a file in her right hand.]
:Ponytail: Your genetic test results are back. Apparently you're part of an unbroken lineage stretching back billions of years to the early Earth!

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1839: Doctor Visit

2017-05-19T19:44:43Z

162.158.62.225:

This comic seems relatively simpler to explain. [[User:Nialpxe|Nialpxe]] ([[User talk:Nialpxe|talk]]) 06:38, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

I don't have the desire to edit this at the moment. However, it should be mentioned that when studied and considered critically the human body is actually quite resilient. We are merely used to thinking of "strong" and "tough" as properties of metal, which to someone unfamiliar with the materials which make up Human organs may associate them as being squishy and therefore weak. The human eye itself is perhaps vulnerable as it is a delicate instrument but it is not weak. Moreover the human body is self-renewing and of a far higher quality of function and design than any technology we have created. --[[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 13:16, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

;30% Cereal
Am I the only one who doesn't get that one?
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.34|172.68.51.34]] 10:08, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the 30% cereal is a reference that the human body is made of 70% of water. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.117|162.158.62.117]] 10:46, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

But blood has around 90% of water. Can a blood test tell how much water Cueball has ?

This possibly has to do with the fact that numerous things produced by the body, such as hair, are partly produced from consumed high fructose corn syrup which is found in cereal and countless other foods as a sweetener. {{Citation needed}} [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.226|108.162.221.226]] 12:37, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
:I always thought that HFCS tasted like hair. Now I know what it's made of! *spits out beverage* (Just kidding. They don't use HFCS in my country.) [[User:Nialpxe|Nialpxe]] ([[User talk:Nialpxe|talk]]) 12:48, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

It seems that Randall recently read the book "Antifragile" by N. Taleb :)

I think it refers to that 70% of a human is water, I guess. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.46.70|162.158.46.70]] 13:39, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

That kinda reminds me of those [[:Category:Code_Quality|Code quality]] strips. The overall tone in all of those is "How did you manage to get it working?!" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.11|162.158.91.11]] 14:36, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.118|162.158.75.118]] 15:28, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
I was reading the 30% cereal comment as a play on the 'you are what you eat' idea. Three meals per day plus some snacks would make breakfast (cereal) about 30% of the diet.

I think this strip makes a lot more sense if you replace Ponytail with Zoidburg. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.225|162.158.62.225]] 19:44, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

1836: Okeanos

2017-05-12T19:42:24Z

162.158.62.225: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1836
| date = May 12, 2017
| title = Okeanos
| image = okeanos.png
| titletext = WHEN I WAS ON A BOAT I DROPPED MY PHONE CAN U LOOK FOR IT
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| First edit.}}
The {{w|NOAAS_Okeanos_Explorer_(R_337)|NOAAS Okeanos Explorer}}, named after the Greek (and Roman) personification of the sea {{w|Okeanos}}, is a vessel that is currently exploring the Central Pacific Basin. It livestreams the video feed [http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/media/exstream/exstream.html] of its deep sea exploration online.

This comic seems to be a representation of the livestream on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmVT36Axtn0]. The chat section for the actual livestream is disabled, but the comic adds some humoristic examples of what the chat section would look like. Several of the examples are the product of commenters falsely believing the livestream is that of a game. Probably since most livestreams on youtube are of people playing games and Randall is joking about the viewers of said streams in particular not being able to tell the difference, as well as youtube commenters in general.
Randall mentioned the ridiculousness of comments on YouTube before in [[202: YouTube]] and [[481: Listen to Yourself]].

Randall states that he likes to view the stream and commends them on disabling the chat section.

{| class="wikitable"
!Comment
!Explanation
|-
| Fake
| A very common YouTube comment expressing skepticism, for example saying that the content is edited or computer generated.
|-
| Who else is watching this in 2017?
| This type of comment appears frequently on videos, as a kind of community bonding over discovering or revisiting older content. It is not relevant here, as this is a live feed in 2017.
|-
| Is this prerendered or will these graphics be in the game?
| Commenter probably thinks this is a trailer for a game with hyperrealistic graphics.
|-
| That squid is neoliberal.
| Political commenter.
|-
| Why do the McElroy's never talk?
| A reference to The Adventure Zone, a ''{{w|Dungeons & Dragons}}'' podcast hosted by the McElroy Brothers and their dad. In the world of The Adventure Zone, there is a creature called the Voidfish, which is generally interpreted to look like a jellyfish.
|-
| Stop messing around and eat the fish already.
| Possibly a gamer or food vlog watcher.
|-
| This is why Trump won.
| Another political commenter.
|-
| Why do you never craft anything?
| A comment referencing the game ''{{w|Subnautica}}'' where a key aspect to survival is crafting materials.
|-
| This is just a distraction
| Commenter thinks people should be focused on other things which are more important. Possibly political comment. Possibly conspiracy theorist.
|-
| Something is wrong with that baby giraffe.
| A live video of a giraffe in labor and giving birth was viral in April 2017. This commenter is either confused about which video they're watching, and is concerned that the creature on screen (a jellyfish) looks unlike a healthy baby giraffe, or is feigning this confusion as a joke.
|}
The title text is a comment by someone who allegedly lost their phone in the ocean, which is not a small place{{Citation needed}} and wants to use Okeanos' resources to find it.

==Transcript==
:[The comic takes place during a typical YouTube live-stream. The live-stream is from "OceanExplorerGov", using a submarine to explore the Central Pacific Basin. On the left hand side, the live video feed is playing, showing the ocean's depths. On the right hand side, the chat (typically shown in live-streams) is displayed]

:User #1: Fake
:User #2: Who else is watching this in 2017?
:User #3: Is this pre-rendered or will this be in the game?
:User #4: That squid is a neo-liberal
:User #5: Why do the McElroys never talk
:User #6: This is why Trump won
:User #7: Why do you never craft anything
:User #8: This is just a distraction
:User #9: Something is wrong with that giraffe

:Caption: I love watching the Okeanos Ocean Exploration live-stream, but it's probably for the best that they don't enable chat.

{{comic discussion}}

1825: 7 Eleven

2017-04-17T15:27:19Z

162.158.62.225:

{{comic
| number = 1825
| date = April 17, 2017
| title = 7 Eleven
| image = 7_eleven.png
| titletext = Really, the only honest 24-hour stores are the ones in places like Arizona and Hawaii, and many of them are still wrong in certain years.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Basic Explanation. Needs more. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Many stores advertise being open 24/7, which means that they're open all day, every day.

The convenience store chain 7-Eleven was named such because it had open hours between 7AM and 11PM local time (16 hours), although many of its locations worldwide are now open for 24 hours a day.

The joke here is that a Mars day is 24 hours and 37 minutes, which leads to the 7-11 being closed for 37 minutes each day.

The title text refers to places in the United States that do not observe daylight savings time, Arizona and Hawaii, suggesting that stores in other places are not truly 24 hours a day year-round. Each year, there is a day those stores are only open 23 hours, and a day where they are open 25 hours.

The title text points out that even these more accurate locations are not open exactly 24 hours on certain years, most likely referring to years that contain a [[wikipedia:leap second|leap second]].

==Transcript==
Sign: 7-Eleven Open 24 hours

[A person in a spacesuit is trying to open the door to the convenience store]

Door: Rattle rattle

Caption: I'm glad they finally opened a 7-Eleven here on Mars, but it's annoying how it closes for 37 minutes every day.

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

{{comic discussion}}

1823: Hottest Editors

2017-04-12T15:55:25Z

162.158.62.225:

{{comic
| number = 1823
| date = April 12, 2017
| title = Hottest Editors
| image = hottest_editors.png
| titletext = Elon Musk finally blocked me from the internal Tesla repository because I wouldn't stop sending pull requests for my code supporting steering via vim keybindings.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Needs explanation of title text.}}

The comic has a play on the word 'Editor'. The editors from 1995 to 2000 are plain-text editors, popular among many programmers and other computer scientists to edit machine-readable text.
Two of the earlier editors, VIM and EMACS, allow the user to perform common actions (like scrolling, marking text, saving or searching) using keyboard shortcuts.
As VIM and EMACS use different shortcuts, someone who is proficient in one editor may have difficulty using the other editor, since the shortcuts are different.
The 'Editor wars' refer to VIM and EMACS users debating heavily on which of the two editors is the best (for which keyboard shortcuts, or bindings, are just one of the arguments employed).
Modern editors (including Notepad++ and Sublime Text) mainly use the shortcuts determined the operating system, again different from VIM and EMACS.

{{w|Notepad++}} is a popular text and source code editor, initially released in 2003.

The 2020 editor 'CRISPR' is not a text editor, but a technique used to edit DNA. The comic may suggests that we will not be editing digital plain-text files, but DNA in 2020, possibly due to advances in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_digital_data_storage DNA digital data storage].

To make the transition between editors easier, some editors offer VIM or EMACS key-bindings: the shortcuts will be (roughly) the same as in VIM or in EMACS, so that someone who used to be proficient in one of those editors can proceed to use the keyboard shortcuts in the way he or she was used to.
The comic suggests that in 2025, the VIM key-bindings will be the most popular for editing genes using CRISPR.
This creates a comical effect: CRISPR is a technique that operates on genes, and not on digital hardware, so it does not use a keyboard per sé. Consequently, it is surprising that CRISPR would have key bindings. The comic also suggests that in 2025, VIM will make a comeback in DNA editing, thus having 'won' the battle with EMACS.

==Transcript==
HOTTEST EDITORS

(horizontal line)

1995-2000 - EMACS-VIM EDITOR WAR

2005 - VIM

2010 - NOTEPAD++

2015 - SUBLIME TEXT

2020 - CRISPR

2025 - CRISPR (VIM keybindings)

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1814: Color Pattern

2017-03-22T14:18:26Z

162.158.62.225:

This link, note 1, may help whomever is going to be editing the comic explanation, I don't have time this morning. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:40, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Did a quick google and copy/pasted from the Wikipedia page on Moiré patterns. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 13:51, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
:This is a copyright infringement. The contents of Wikipedia are not in the {{w|public domain}}. When using text from Wikipedia anywhere, you must indicate the license (CC-BY-SA 3.0).--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.82|162.158.150.82]] 13:58, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

I can't be the only one for whom the note emoji are not showing up.
:I don't see them either. I'm running Chrome 48 Portable. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.225|162.158.62.225]] 14:18, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1803: Location Reviews

2017-02-27T00:43:51Z

162.158.62.225:

;TO ALL EDITORS HERE
Please do not remove the incomplete tag on your first edit. This tag is used to identify all incomplete comics or transcripts here.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:14, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

;Further discussions go here
Could he be referencing some other location? Is there enough data on the map to find a real-world map location that would fit the shape of the river, streets and shaded polygon? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.34|172.68.78.34]] 16:04, 24 February 2017 (UTC)Martin

I'm surprised that Randall didn't reference the discovery of the Trappist-1 system maybe it will come up soon or in a what-if.{{unsigned ip|XFez}}
:He often has a couple comics in queue (and probably needs a day or two to draw one up and get it in and also have something XKCD-ish about it), so we may see one Monday or further afield.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.22|162.158.75.22]] 23:21, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

The idea behind the website and ordering is probably absurdist humour in that the commenter finds the idea of nuclear missiles good and desirable, but the referenced website for such a facility is confusing in that the commenter cannot find out how to order some for him/herself. --[[User:Toonarmycaptain|Toonarmycaptain]] ([[User talk:Toonarmycaptain|talk]]) 16:39, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

He is actually referring to something that is pretty fun to do, and that is exactly what he says: reading reviews of places that shouldn't have reviews. This one made me laugh in the past: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tokyo+Electric+Power+Co.+Fukushima+Daiichi+Nuclear+Power+Plant/@37.4213402,141.0258843,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x6020dd3801b3fc69:0xa6090708f3cbc4cd!8m2!3d37.421336!4d141.0280783 {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.196}}

"Looks cool but you can't get in" can also be a comment for an exclusive club/restaurant [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.6|172.68.65.6]] 22:18, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Guantanamo Bay has surprisingly positive reviews: https://goo.gl/maps/tQ4bzttkdeE2 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.101|162.158.79.101]] 03:25, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

""Despite this enormous pressure some organisms live in the Mariana Trench. ""
Nonsense! The pressure is no problem if you do not have holes filled with air in your body.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.52|162.158.92.52]] 11:29, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Isn't "scathing" a pun on how these locations are typically associated with hot temperatures?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.225|162.158.62.225]] 00:43, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1800: Chess Notation

2017-02-17T18:37:42Z

162.158.62.225:

The move to score conversations itself was probably a blunder, but it seems that, since the sentence is copied verbatim, that the move to declare your scoring of conversations to somebody else is a blunder. Because that's weird and nobody wants to hear about it. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.72|173.245.50.72]] 18:35, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

So... This is just a really excellent pun? "Drawn" conversation?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.22|162.158.75.22]] 15:59, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
:The pun gets better when you think about drawn '''and''' stalemated conversations, both of which will be scored 0.5 - 0.5. A stalemate occurs when no legal moves are possible, but the opponent isn't in check.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.82|162.158.150.82]] 16:26, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

I have 2 questions does Randall know about this wiki and if there is an "incomplete" comic and I complete the explanation or other issue can I delete the incomplete notification thingy or does an admin have to do that?[[User:XFez|XFez]] ([[User talk:XFez|talk]]) 17:45, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
:Anyone can remove the incomplete tag. Likewise, anyone can add it back again if they feel the explanation can be improved. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.225|162.158.62.225]] 18:37, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Isn't the mouseover text saying that it was a blunder to tell white hat that he is scoring it because that will cause white hat to actively compete, instead of simply losing because he didn't know there was a game? [a guest and fan]

1800: Chess Notation

2017-02-17T18:33:42Z

162.158.62.225: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1800
| date = February 17, 2017
| title = Chess Notation
| image = chess_notation.png
| titletext = I've decided to score all my conversations using chess win-loss notation. (??)
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please change this comment when editing this page and not remove it too fast.}}

[[Cueball]] begins a conversation with [[White Hat]] with the declaration that he will be scoring his conversations using chess notation.

{{w|Chess}} players and critics use certain notations to write down chess games in a very short fashion (for example the {{w|Forsyth–Edwards Notation}}, which is both computer- and human-readable). In addition, ''{{w|chess annotation symbols}}'' like ! and !? help to comment certain moves in a similarly short fashion. That way it is possible to print or discuss a chess game (or a chess opening) in a limited space, for example in printed reference manuals.

A short synopsis about common chess annotation symbols:

!! – brilliant move: Very strong and counter-intuitive move. Sound sacrifices. 
! – good move: A surprisingly good move. 
!? – interesting move: Risky move, or worthy of attention and analysis. 
?! – dubious move: Designates a move that may be bad, but it is hard to explain why. 
? – mistake: Poor move that should not be played. 
'''??''' – {{w|blunder (chess)|blunder}}: Exceptionally bad move, usually designates moves that turn a winning position into a draw, or a draw into a losing position. 
1-0 - A win 
0-1 - A loss 
½-½ - a draw 

A chess game can be won (and lost for the other party) or {{w|draw (chess)|drawn}}. It should be noted that draws most commonly occur by {{w|Draw by agreement|agreement}}, or by {{w|stalemate}}. A stalemate is a situation where the opponent's king is not in check, but none of the opponent's pieces can be moved in a legal way. In a human conversation, what amounts to a draw, and what amounts to a stalemate?

If agreed draws should be allowed (and under which circumstances) is a matter of some discussion among chess players, thus adding another point to Randall's comic. For example, some tournament rules (e.g. the so-called "{{w|Draw by agreement#Only theoretical draws allowed (Sofia Rules)|Sofia Rules}}") do not allow a draw to be offered directly - any player has first to announce the intention of drawing to the arbiter (referee), who then decides if the position should be played out further or not.

The official chess rules offer some ways the concept of a "draw" could be applied to a human conversation. According to the {{w|World Chess Federation}} (FIDE) rules, a draw can occur:
#by agreement
#by stalemate
#when the same position (with the same possible legal moves) occurs at least three times, with the same player having the same possibilities of moving his pieces. This draw must be requested by the player. According to the FIDE rule 9.6, the arbiter himself declares the game drawn when the same position occurs five times.
#when 50 moves have passed without a capture or a pawn move. Again, the draw occurs only upon request. Analogous to FIDE rule 9.6, the arbiter declares the game drawn when 75 moves have passed, again without a request by either player.
#when one of the players has used up his time, but his opponent has not enough material to mate
#when both players have used up their time, but the arbiter cannot determine who did so first
#upon request, when the opponent does not try to win any more, but attempts to win the game by timeout

Given the caption, Cueball believes that this is a drawn conversation since White Hat doesn't care.

The double question marks at the end of the title text indicates that [[Cueball]]'s decision to score his conversations using chess notation was a 'blunder'.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Layout, don't remove this tag until this is really complete.}}
Cueball: "I've decided to score all my conversations using chess win-loss notation."

White Hat: "I don't know or care what that means."

Cueball: "Fine."

White Hat: "Fine."

[Caption below drawing:] "½–½"

{{comic discussion}}

1800: Chess Notation

2017-02-17T15:31:39Z

162.158.62.225: /* Transcript */

1800: Chess Notation

2017-02-17T15:31:06Z

162.158.62.225: /* Transcript */