explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:884: Rogers St.

2019-12-18T14:59:32Z

162.158.89.235:

In the UK, "Rogers" is also a verb. Added to this, "Mr Rogers" does not carry the same cultural references.
All in all Mr Rogers sounds like a great name for a UK Porn Star. {{unsigned ip|188.29.119.251}}
:Oh wow, I didn't know that. Not only is "rogers" a verb, but it's a verb which means to have sexual intercourse.{{unsigned ip|98.203.241.55}}
::Absolutely! It's a perfect British porn name. It's a legitimately normal name, but also very clearly means "Mr. Furiously-Bones". A friend of a friend had the double-barrelled surname "Rogers-England", which is a bit like being called "... Does-Dallas". [[User:YorkshirePudding|YorkshirePudding]] ([[User talk:YorkshirePudding|talk]]) 22:13, 12 July 2019 (UTC)
::To be honest ''most'' verbs mean "to have sexual intercourse", given the chance. Google it! *fnar fnar* (And most nouns mean naughty bits of the body. In fact, I've just been listening to a radio programme about (Doctor) David Livingston, explorer of Africa. There arose the question of "Is it ''really'' true that he took his wife up the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambezi Zambezi]?" Momentary mental boggle ensues.) [[Special:Contributions/178.99.81.144|178.99.81.144]] 18:58, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
:::That observation is so true. That's why banning words is counterproductive. It leads to people talking unintentionally about the banned subject all the time. And a hilarious example! [[User:Mumiemonstret|Mumiemonstret]] ([[User talk:Mumiemonstret|talk]]) 15:39, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
Wait, does this mean Randall had a child with Mrs. Roberts? {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.145}}

The character's hair is reminiscent of Ron Jeremy [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.64|108.162.237.64]] 05:50, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Bobbys last appearance before this one was in 345 and in fact in 327 he is not seen IIRC --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.235|162.158.89.235]] 14:59, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2050: 6/6 Time

2018-09-24T21:37:35Z

162.158.89.235: /* From Wikipedia */

This is actually how time worked in ancient Greece, minus the 6 o'clock part. Sunrise was at 12, sunset at 12 and the length of each hour varied depending on the part of the year [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.163|172.68.189.163]] 16:15, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Not just Greece but most of medeaval Europe. The concept of a fixed length hour only arises with clockwork. that Noon, the ninth hour, now occurs at the sixth hour - that we call 12 - is mainly due to post black death labour shortages. {{unsigned|Arachrah}}

: Also ancient Rome. I ''think'' Romans borrowed this system from Greeks and it later spread along with the Roman Empire's influence. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.10.22|172.68.10.22]] 16:52, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

:: To be fair, the Romans "borrowed" (stole) a lot of other things from the Greeks, not the least of which was their pantheon. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.172|108.162.216.172]] 18:21, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

: Before clockwork (as mentioned above) was created, variable hours/minutes/seconds were necessary (at least during daylight hours) as the sundial obviously <sup>({{w|citation needed}})</sup> is just based off of the sun's angle in the sky.[[User:Rajakiit|Raj-a-Kiit]] ([[User talk:Rajakiit|talk]]) 17:42, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Some facts: {{w|September equinox}} was at 01:54 UTC on September 23 when in the entire US it still was September 22 as can be seen here: [http://aa.usno.navy.mil/seasons?year=2018&tz=-5&dst=1 U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department (Apsides and Seasons 2018)]. This comic was released two days later. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:32, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Could the timing of this comic be related to the [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45366390 EU voting to end DST within its borders?] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.100|108.162.241.100]] 16:51, 24 September 2018 (UTC)
:This isn't about daylight saving time, which just moves clocks forwards and backwards by one hour in most cases. Cueball refers to an equinox when day and night are both 12 hours. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:05, 24 September 2018 (UTC)
:: This comic is about "unfixably messy and complicated" time standards (of which DST is one) at least as much as equinoxes (which aren't quite what you say they are; I won't get a 12-hour interval between sunrise and sunset at my latitude for another few days yet). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.220|108.162.241.220]] 19:51, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

The hours/minutes/seconds get really short/long in the polar regions. {{unsigned ip|162.158.74.243}}

The caption can also be referring to the alteration of time zones for political reasons, such as China having only one now rather than the five it used to use, or the Republic of Kiribati pushing the International Date Line east of its entire territory.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.140|172.69.22.140]] 17:50, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Here is a YouTube video explaining the Japanese system (and how they created mechanical clocks to support it) - [https://youtu.be/3iclecbIgN0?t=135 Begin Japanology - Clocks and Watches]. -- [[User:Dhericean|Dhericean]] ([[User talk:Dhericean|talk]]) 18:15, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Swatch time: Still more sensible than any other division of the day I've ever heard.

Seriously though, isn't it about time we all switched to metric? 10 segments in a day, not 24. 100 units in a segment. Straightforward, easy to figure pay rates, & pretty simple to convert to & from.

Increments of 24 & 60 have no relevance to anything these days. The only reason to continue using a 24hr day is because "that's how it's been done for ages" & that's no excuse for anything.

[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:23, 24 September 2018 (UTC)
:I wouldn't mind redefining the division of a day. My problem would be with redefining the second, which would necessarily be a consequence of switching to metric time, and thus also the three base and nineteen derived SI units that depend on the current definition of s.
:If you can switch us to metric time without redefining the length of a second, nor having an excessive number of leap seconds, I'm all for that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.118|108.162.241.118]] 21:19, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

== From Wikipedia ==

“In Judaism, an hour is defined as 1/12 of the time from sunrise to sunset, so, during the winter, an hour can be much less than 60 minutes, and during the summer, it can be much more than 60 minutes. This proportional hour is known as a sha'ah z'manit (lit. "temporal hour" [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/temporal_hour]]). A Jewish hour is divided into 1080 halakim (singular: helek) or parts. A part is 3⅓ seconds or 1/18 minute. The ultimate ancestor of the helek was a small Babylonian time period called a barleycorn, itself equal to 1/72 of a Babylonian time degree (1° of celestial rotation).[6] These measures are not generally used for everyday purposes.”

1814: Color Pattern

2017-03-22T15:02:00Z

162.158.89.235:

{{comic
| number = 1814
| date = March 22, 2017
| title = Color Pattern
| image = color_pattern.png
| titletext = ♫ When the spacing is tight / And the difference is slight / That's a moiré ♫
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Do NOT delete this tag too soon. }}
The comic references {{w|moiré pattern}}s in a parody of the song {{w|That's Amore}}. In photography, a Moiré pattern occurs when the image sensors are aligned in a pattern, while photographing something else that is also aligned in a pattern.

In mathematics, physics, and art, a moiré pattern (/mwɑːrˈeɪ/; French: [mwaˈʁe]) or moiré fringes[1] are large scale interference patterns that can be produced when an opaque ruled pattern with transparent gaps is overlaid on another similar pattern. For the moiré interference pattern to appear, the two patterns must not be completely identical in that they must be displaced, rotated, etc., or have different but similar pitch. A moiré pattern is a kind of {{w|aliasing}}.

Moiré patterns appear in many different situations. In printing, the printed pattern of dots can negatively interfere with the image. In television and digital photography, a pattern on an object being photographed can interfere with the shape of the light sensors to generate unwanted {{w|artifact (error)|artifacts}}.

Photographs of a TV screen taken with a digital camera often exhibit moiré patterns. Since both the TV screen and the digital camera use a scanning technique to produce or to capture pictures with horizontal scan lines, the conflicting sets of lines cause the moiré patterns. To avoid the effect, the digital camera can be aimed at an angle of 30 degrees to the TV screen.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Cueball: I took a picture of my computer screen—why is the photo covered in these weird rainbow patterns?
:Megan (singing): When a grid's misaligned with another behind
:Megan: That's a Moiré...

{{comic discussion}}