explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2349: Rabbit Introduction

2020-08-21T11:49:37Z

162.158.75.66: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2349
| date = August 21, 2020
| title = Rabbit Introduction
| image = rabbit_introduction.png
| titletext = Washington state is seeing great success with reintroducing the Columbia River Basin subpopulation. We cannot allow them to further widen the interstate bun gap.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a RABBIT RESEARCH GRANT COMMITTEE. More needed on the title text. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] is giving a presentation on the {{w|pygmy rabbit}} to a group of panelists whom Cueball tries to convince to give a grant so they can be introduced into the east (as the eastern part of the US). The head of the panel, [[Blondie]], asks if they are native there, since he did not say re-introduce the rabbits. But they are not... Then she asks if they might help control some invasive pest. But that is not something Cueball knows anything about.

So she then asks why he wish this grant. Cueball cannot understand why they have any second thoughts about this, now that he has shown how small and cute they are.

Once Blondie has this confirmation, that Cueball only wants to introduce the species to a new area for because he finds it adorable, [[Blondie]] moves to deny his grant requests (probably recalling [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbits_in_Australia#Effects_on_Australia's_ecology another episode of history where the reintroduction of rabbits was a VERY BAD IDEA]). However, at this point, the other three panelists [[White Hat]], [[Megan]] and [[Hairy]] have been swayed by this unconventional argument. Megan even has to pull he hair with both hands, as she finds their small feet so adorable, and Hairy instantly moves to vote for funding Cueball's rabbit introduction.

Thematically, this comic continues the argument from [[1682: Bun]] that the tinier a rabbit is, the greater its esteem.

See this article: [https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/columbia-basin-pygmy-rabbits-washington After Nearly Going Extinct, Washington’s Pygmy Rabbits Need Room to Grow]. They are native to {{w|Washington (state)|Washington}}, but were nearly extinct.

The title text mentions the effort to reintroduce the {{w|Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit}} back into their native area of {{w|Columbia River drainage basin}}. And makes a pun on bun.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing in front of a screen and pointing at it with a stick. On the screen is a rabbit shown next to a smartphone, some keys on a key-chain, and two coins The phone is lager than the rabbit.]
:Cueball: The US's smallest rabbit species is the Pygmy Rabbit from Great Basin area.
:Cueball: We're seeking a grant to introduce them into the east.

:[Blondie, White Hat, Megan and Hairy sits behind a long table. Blondie leans both her arms on the table. Hairy has one arm on the table. The other two have their arms down. Cueball replies to Blondie's question from off-panel.]
:Blondie: Are they native here?
:Cueball (off-panel): No.
:Blondie: Will they control some invasive pest?
:Cueball (off-panel): Dunno!
:Blondie: Then...Why would you do this?

:[In a frame-less panel Cueball is seen in front of the screen, which is seen from the side. He points to something on the screen with the pointer, while looking over his shoulder.]
:Cueball: I don't understand.
:Cueball: Did you '''''see''''' how small they are?
:Cueball: They're so round!
:Cueball: Those ''tiny'' ears.

:[Back to the four people behind the desk. Blondie and White Hat in the same positions but Megan has both her hands up into her hair, and Hairy has one arm on the table, and the other is held up high with a finger pointing up.]
:Blondie: I see. I'm afraid we'll by denying your grant.
:White Hat: Hang on. He '''''is''''' right about their ears...
:Megan: The little feet!
:Hairy: I vote we fund them!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Buns]]

Talk:2346: COVID Risk Comfort Zone

2020-08-16T21:08:08Z

162.158.75.66:

The current text seems more like a comment than an explanation. [[User:Darthpoppins|Darthpoppins]] ([[User talk:Darthpoppins|talk]]) 21:03, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

: I see "explanation" crossing over into "comment". Comment often is a necessary part of xkcd explanation since Randall's mind works funny. In this case I think the comic shows *some* ways to say "no" in *one* situation, but neither is comprehensive. Also, in this case, Cueball isn't being "invited" but directed if someone says "You have to come inside", although we don't know if the context is "Come see the virtual reality room I just installed" or "Could you instead just tell me your electricity meter reading?" So you could say "No" but it may defeat the purpose of your journey. Better would be "What about the coronavirus?" although you are already not on the same page about that. Nevertheless, I think what's called for is negotiation. This can include exploring whether the other person has, or has had, the virus, and whether you have, or will pretend that you may have it. I also favour holding your breath while you pass close to someone. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.71|162.158.154.71]] 15:38, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

I'm just going to put the original explanation here:
As a fourth option, Randall might consider taking the advice that "'No' is a complete sentence" -- we don't know the context of the situation presented here, but unless there truly is some urgent reason that he would ordinarily "''have''" to go inside but for COVID (and from the second option, we know there's no such emergency here), he's just being invited inside, and he doesn't need to provide any justification at all for refusing.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.14|108.162.245.14]] 00:25, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

== Mis-centered headline ==

I notice the comic's headline is inexplicably aligned over the first and second panels, rather than the full width of the comic, and it bothers me that nobody is talking about that. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.137|162.158.74.137]] 05:02, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

== Relative mask sizes ==

Inside Cueball's mask is much smaller/covers less of his face than outside Cueball's mask. However, neither the dialogue nor Title Text mention it. It seems that Inside Cueball's mask might leave his nose or mouth exposed. Perhaps Randall considered this as a topic in the comic, but later discarded it yet left the mask sizes different?

Talk:2337: Asterisk Corrections

2020-07-25T02:06:54Z

162.158.75.66: weird wiki things

I think the only spot of the title text quote into which "witchcraft" makes a decent sentence is to replace "next": "I'd love to meet up, maybe in a few days? Witchcraft week is looking pretty empty" [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.161|173.245.54.161]] 01:02, 25 July 2020 (UTC) Me
:I'd go with replacing "meet up". "I'd love to witchcraft, maybe in a few days? Next week is looking pretty empty." [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 01:14, 25 July 2020 (UTC)
:: "I'd love to meet up, witchcraft in a few days? Next week is looking pretty empty." would be the third interpretation [[User:Multiverse42|Multiverse42]] ([[User talk:Multiverse42|talk]]) 01:39, 25 July 2020 (UTC)
::Or it could be "I'd love to meet up, maybe witchcraft a few days?" Munroe really loves to mess with people. [[User:A|A]] ([[User talk:A|talk]]) 01:43, 25 July 2020 (UTC)
: Alternatively, witchcraft replaces maybe: "I'd love to meet up, [how about we practice] witchcraft in a few days?" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.66|162.158.75.66]] 02:06, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

A splat? I didn't know that. IME it's just the messed up word resurrected to, summon a beech, auto corrected to the same wrong word. BTW the asterisk on an obsolete keyboard looked like a squished spider, thus 'splat.'

2332: Cursed Chair

2020-07-14T10:31:38Z

162.158.75.66: /* Explanation */ added note about comics original status.

{{comic
| number = 2332
| date = July 13, 2020
| title = Cursed Chair
| image = cursed_chair.png
| titletext = The Wirecutter staff called the Herman Miller Siege Perilous "the most cursed product we've ever had to fight" and "nearly as immortal as it boasts."
}}

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

[[Beret Guy]] informs [[Cueball]] that he purchased a cursed office chair. Cueball is skeptical of this, and of Beret Guy's claim that the store he bought the chair from was gone when he went to return it. Cueball suggests that maybe the shop was simply closed due to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}, as is the case for wide variety of non-cursed{{Citation needed}} businesses. Beret Guy takes this as proof that the chair somehow caused the pandemic, a claim Cueball meets incredulously. In the final panel, Beret Guy is doing battle with the chair, which taunts him. Cueball remarks that it would be simpler to shop at {{w|IKEA}}, a store famous for its minimalist flat-pack furniture.

The cursed chair and the boarded-up store are references to the stores that sell cursed items mentioned in [[1772: Startup Opportunity]].

In the title text, the {{w|Siege Perilous}} is the empty seat at the Round Table in Arthurian legend. {{w|Herman Miller (manufacturer)|Herman Miller}} is an American office furniture company that produced the {{w|Aeron chair}}, which is the basis for [https://www.instagram.com/blantonmuseum/p/BCYaKA4GLrg/ an artwork] by {{w|Glenn Kaino}} called ''The Siege Perilous''. {{w|Wirecutter (website)|''Wirecutter''}} is a website that evaluates and recommends consumer products.

The image of the comic was extremely very pixelated with no aliasing, but this appears to have been unintentional. This should probably be in trivia but I don't know how to make trivia.

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

:Beret Guy: Remember how I bought my desk chair from that mysterious shop?
:Cueball: I think so?
:Beret Guy: Turns out the chair was cursed.

:Beret Guy: So I went back to return it, but the shop was gone! The door was boarded up!
:Cueball: I think most of the shops are closed because of coronavirus.

:Beret Guy: Oh no!
:Beret Guy: ''The curse must have caused the pandemic!
:Cueball (off-panel): What.

:Beret Guy: If I destroy the chair, we can stop the virus!
:Cueball: What.

:Beret Guy: ''Die, plague-bringer!''
:Desk chair: '''Hee hee, I can not die'''
:Cueball: Maybe you should just shop at IKEA.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2325: Endorheic Basin

2020-06-27T20:45:44Z

162.158.75.66: Fixed three typos.

{{comic
| number = 2325
| date = June 26, 2020
| title = Endorheic Basin
| image = endorheic_basin.png
| titletext = My biggest fear is that colonial engineers will try to flood me to generate electricity. My biggest hope is that I'll develop sailing stones.
}}

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

Yet another comic with one of [[Beret Guy|Beret Guy's]] [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers]]. This time he attracts water so it flows to him rather than running out towards the nearby oceans. He thus claims he is like an {{w|endorheic basin}}, hence the title.

An endorheic basin is a limited drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but converges instead into lakes or swamps, permanent or seasonal, that equilibrate through evaporation. The {{w|Caspian Sea}} in Asia is the largest such basin. It is debated if it is a lake or a sea (it is salty, but not connected to the oceans). If a lake it is the world largest lake.

An endorheic basin does though not suck water away from the sea. Rather rivers nearby flow to this low lying area inland, from where the water level will never rise enough for the water to continue to flow out into an ocean. Evaporation or drainage into the ground keeps the water level from reaching a height that can connect the water surface to a channel to any ocean.

So in this way Beret Guy's effect on water has nothing to do with the reason an endorheic basin is created.

In the comic [[Megan]] asks why he has water over his feet, and he thus explains the endorheic basin story. He even demonstrates by putting his hand close to a glass of water Megan is holding, showing her how he attracts some of the water out of the glass, and on to his arm.

He also shows how water will stay on him after a shower. This looks similar to what could happen in a space station if you have liquid water in zero gravity. The water sticks to any surface it encounters. See for instance the start of this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeDJABZpVlI Water in zero gravity] and this one [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TssbmY-GM Wringing out Water on the ISS - for Science!] to see how water reacts to human skin in zero gravity. It is thus almost impossible for him to dry off after a shower.

It seems like the water stays away from his upper face, leaving his nose free to breathe. Else it would also be a very dangerous thing from him to take a shower.

In fact he needs someone to come with a {{w|siphon}} to get rid of the water. A siphon is an u-shaped pipe, where the downward pipe is longer than the upward section. Thus the water falling in the downward section creates a pull lifting the water in the upward section up to the highest point, form where it will flow down pulling more water up. As the Endorheic Basin caused by Beret Guy seems to have a limited reach, placing on end of the pipe sufficiently far outside creates a similar effect: The water outside Beret Guy's area of effect flows down under the influence of gravity, creating a pull lifting the water near him "up" out of the Endorheic Basin.

But he really needs to get the water away from him. If he just leaves it there it will eventually evaporate. Water from rivers carry salt, and if they end up in a closed lake and that lake then evaporates, it can create {{w|Salt pan (geology)|salt flats}} (or salt pans), like those near {{w|Salt Lake City}} in {{w|Utah}}, e.g. the {{w|Bonneville Salt Flats}}. There may be a pun here, in that "flats" is a description of various types of footwear (among them: women's shoes that are not high-heeled and ballet shoes not specifically reinforced for advanced 'pointe' dancing), and the water would clearly leave the 'flats' on his feet.

If Beret Guy just leaves the water on him to dry out, he will get these salt flats, which is probably bad for his skin. But he has developed some previously and then harvested the minerals (because he asks Megan to let him know if she needs any minerals, implying he has plenty to give away due to those salt flats he has developed earlier).

In the title text, Beret Guy mentions his "biggest fear" due to his his water attracting abilities is being flooded to by "colonial engineers" in order from then to use him and the water to generate electricity, most likely {{w|hydroelectricity}}, similar to the {{w|Qattara_Depression_Project}}. Hydroelectricity is generated by the energy of falling or fast-moving water.

He then mentions that his "biggest hope", due to his ability, is that he will generate {{w|sailing stones}}. Sailing stones (also known as sliding rocks, walking rocks, rolling stones, and moving rocks), are a geological phenomenon where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention. The movement of the rocks occurs when large ice sheets a few millimeters thick and floating in an ephemeral winter pond start to break up during sunny days. Frozen during cold winter nights, these thin floating ice panels are driven by wind and shove rocks at speeds up to 5 meters per minute. It does not sound like something attracting water (even if creating salt flats) can accomplish.

This comic came out just a bit more than a month after the previous comic with one of Beret Guy's strange powers, [[2310: Great Attractor]], in which strange forces exerted a pull on Beret Guy. It does not appear that he himself is drawn to water, and we cannot determine if the Great Attractor is drawn to him, so Newton's Third Law may be constantly being broken, along with the more obvious scientific impossibilities that surround Beret Guy.

==Transcript==
:[Megan, holding a glass of water up in one hand is talking to Beret Guy, who has water surrounding his feet, with small droplets falling off the two small water triangles that cover his feet.]
:Megan: Why are your feet wet?
:Beret Guy: I'm an endorheic basin!

:[Megan looks down at her glass as the water in it is flying out towards Beret Guy's arm, which he has stretched out towards the glass.]
:Megan: Huh?
:Beret Guy: Nearby water flows toward me, not the ocean.
:Beret Guy: See?
:Megan: Oh, cool.

:[At the top of this panel is a box with text being said by Beret Guy to Megan. Beneath it is a depiction of what he is explaining to Megan. Beret Guy is shown standing in a bathroom, with a towel around his waist. Almost his entire body is covered completely in water, except most of his head above mouth level, and both his feet are beneath the water bubble. He yells to someone outside the bathroom. A shower-tray or partially sunken bathtub can be seen to the left with a closed shower curtain across it. To the right of him is the sink with mirror above it. Further right is the door. The floor is tiled.]
:Beret Guy - narrating: The most annoying part is drying off after a shower.
:Beret Guy: Can someone bring me the siphon?

:[Back to the situation from the first panel, although Megan has lowered her glass a bit. The glass seems to be as full as in the first panel though, even though Beret Guy now also has water on his arm where it was pulled out off Megan's glass in panel 2.]
:Beret Guy: But I have to get rid of it or I'll develop salt flats.
:Beret Guy: Anyway, let me know if you need any minerals!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Geography]]

2319: Large Number Formats

2020-06-13T03:31:02Z

162.158.75.66: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2319
| date = June 12, 2020
| title = Large Number Formats
| image = large number formats-2.png
| titletext = 10^13.4024: A person who has come back to numbers after a journey deep into some random theoretical field
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows how different people express large numbers. This number in question is approximately the distance to the planet Jupiter in inches (1 inch = 2.54 cm).

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Number
! Type of person
! Notes
|-
| 25,259,974,097,204
| Normal Person
| This is the full number, written out in the normal fashion, with commas to indicate powers of 1000.
|-
| 25 Trillion
| Normal Person
| This is the number, rounded to trillions in the normal fashion.
|-
| 25 Billion
| Old British Person
| In current English usage, across the anglophonic world with some hold-outs, an n-illion means 10^(3n+3) as per the {{w|short scale}} system popularised by American influence in international trade, so a trillion means 10^12, as above. However, older British English use had an n-illion meaning 10^(6n) (i.e. the simpler calculation of ''million^n''), so a billion meant 10^12. The change stems from a 1974 commitment by Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister of the UK at the time, to change from the {{w|long scale}} (previously often described as the British system) to the short one for all official purposes.

Though not instantly widely adopted for common usage, the mid-'70s could therefore be considered the key turning point between when an older or younger British person learns (as the change filters through the system at various stages of education) what their "Billion"s and "Trillion"s are supposed to represent.

(The 1971 transition to decimalised currency may also date a person's experiences, but was a more comprehensive and immediate change for everyone who handled any money at all, in the UK, and thus was a more definite point of change apart from the extended survival of the "12 times table" being taught by rote in primary education, rather than ending at the 10s.)

As well as 'traditionalist' British use, the Long Scale is widely used in the non-anglophone world, in local language versions, though while the British system tended to infill n-and-a-half powers of the million with the term "thousand n-illion", the suffix "-illi''ard''", or equivalent, is often used for the thousands multiple directly atop the respective "-illion" point.
|-
|2.526x1013
|Scientist
|This number is formatted in {{w|scientific notation}}, using the exponent 1013.
|-
| 2.525997x1013
| Scientist trying to avoid rounding up
| Using as many decimal places as necessary until hitting a digit (0-4) that results in rounding down, even if it goes against the common scientific practice of reporting the correct amount of "significant figures". A previous version of the comic had a typo (the number was ''2.5997x1013''), but Randall updated the comic.
|-
| 2.526e13 or
2.526*10^13
| Software developer
| Software code cannot use the 1013 format, so the exponent is represented as "e13" or "*10^13".
|-
| 25,259,973,541,888
| Software developer who forgot about floats
| This is the number after being converted to the limited precision of a {{w|32-bit floating point|32-bit float}}.
|-
| 1013
| Astronomer
| For extremely large distances, astronomers typically only care about orders of magnitude, i.e. 1013, not 1012 or 1014. Randall often jokes about the lack of precision needed by astronomers, such as in that one xkcd (#[[2205]]) where the astronomer-cosmologist is equally willing to make pi equal to one, or ten. The original number is rounded to the nearest power of ten.
|-
|{0,{0},{0,{0}},{0,{0},{...
|Set theorist
|
|-
| 1,262,998,704,860 score and four
| Abraham Lincoln
| In the {{W|Gettysburg Address}}, Lincoln speaks the number "87" as "four score and seven" ("score" meaning "20"). The original number is rewritten in "score" (multiples of 20) plus a remainder (four).
|-
| 10^13.4024 ''(title text)''
| A person who has come back to numbers after a journey deep into some random theoretical field
| In some fields of mathematics, especially those dealing with very {{w|large numbers}}, numbers are sometimes represented by raising ten (or some other convenient base) to an oddly precise power, to facilitate comparison of their magnitudes without filling up pages upon pages of digits. An example of this is {{w|Skewes's number}}, which is formally calculated to be ''e''''e''''e''79, but is more commonly approximated as 10101034. 13.4024 is the {{w|common logarithm}} of 25,259,974,097,204 (log10 25,259,974,097,204 = 13.4024329009), thus this "format" is mathematically correctly, but not commonly, used.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A panel only with text. At the top there is four lines of explanatory text. Below that there are 5 rows of number formats. There are 2 columns in each row. Each numerical format is in red, with black text explaining the format below it.]

:<big>What the way you write large</big>
:<big>numbers says about you</big>
:(Using the approximate current distance
:to Jupiter in inches as an example)

:[First row:]
:25,259,974,097,204
:Normal person
:25 trillion
:Normal person

:[Second row:]
:25 billion
:Old British person
:2.526x1013
:Scientist

:[Third row:]
:2.525997x1013
:Scientist trying to avoid rounding up
:2.526e13 or 2.526*10^13
:Software developer

:[Fourth row:]
:25,259,973,541,888
:Software developer who forgot about floats
:1013
:Astronomer

:[Fifth row:]
:{0,{0},{0,{0}},{0,{0},{...
:Set theorist
:1,262,998,704,860 score and four
:Abraham Lincoln

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category: Programming]]
[[Category: Math]]
[[Category: Astronomy]]
[[Category: Science]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]