explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2068: Election Night

2018-11-05T18:54:27Z

172.68.50.172:

This is an early example of using red and blue to denote candidates and parties. Here, McKinley (R) gets blue and Bryan (D) red; it wasn't standardized on blue for Democrats and red for Republicans until after the 2000 election. NBC News having used red/R and blue/D that year, Tom Brokaw was the first to speak extensively of "red states" and "blue states" elevating that to political meme status and leading to standardization. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.166|162.158.78.166]] 14:36, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

:I was just going to mention the hat :) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.191|108.162.246.191]] 14:57, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

I distinctly remember the reporting during the 1980 election (Reagan vs. Carter) that the TV news used blue for Republicans and red for Democrats. I don't know why they later switched, but I have always assumed that Democrats got offended by the use of red (the color of the USSR's flag and many other communist organizations) for their party. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 15:19, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

:Beyond having one party being red and the other blue, there was no consistent color-coding scheme for the two major parties either from election to election or between news agencies prior to 2000. Both parties still officially list red, white, and blue as their colors. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.149|162.158.79.149]] 15:24, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

::There's a long history about red and blue states, all of which comes directly from the media reporting the different parties. It's interesting to note that in Europe, the liberal parties are red and the conservative parties are blue (opposite of the US), and the fact that red is the color of the USSR has nothing to do with the Democrats "not wanting to be red," they didn't choose the colors. [[User:Zachweix|Zachweix]] ([[User talk:Zachweix|talk]]) 16:51, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
:: European politics, unlike US politics, is multidimensional. [[User:Erkinalp|Erkinalp]] ([[User talk:Erkinalp|talk]]) 16:59, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

:: IIRC, blue was used for incumbents on some stations, red for challengers, and in 2000, blue stuck as the color of the democratic party,

:::It seems to have been chosen pretty much arbitrarily. As much as I follow politics, I never heard of any clear association where the Democrats were blue and Republicans red -- ''or vice versa'' -- until after election night in 2000. Before then, there was no well-known standard as to which party would get which color on a map. The standard colors we have now only stuck based on the coverage from election night (and afterward) in 2000. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.46|172.68.150.46]] 17:26, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

God I feel awful for the Civil war vets with PTSD who decided to reside in Chicago. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.11|172.69.33.11]] 17:05, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

What is the 'Needle' referring to? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.4|162.158.142.4]] 17:46, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
: The Traumatic Needle can be found here... https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11/the-new-york-times-election-needle-is-back-with-a-few-new-safety-features

I was reading this, expecting the last page (or the title text) to have someone commenting that lecturing to modern people about how things were in the past is a pretty trivial or bizarre waste of something as momentous as time travel; and top hat guy to reply that he didn't come to bring them a message, he's just avoiding the fireworks because he's fed up of the modern election-night media circus. -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 17:50, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Does anyone have a source for the 1896 reporting via fireworks referred to here? I've done a few Google searches, but so far haven't found anything. Historic issues of the Chicago Tribune is behind a paywall, so I can't go look there directly. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 18:40, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
: I assume Randall made this up? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.171|173.245.48.171]] 18:49, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
::Telling from [https://img.newspapers.com/img/thumbnail/349884040/250/150/5939_4729_418_251/0/yes/5893_4842_511_25.jpg this snippet], it seems legit. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.172|172.68.50.172]] 18:54, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

1701: Speed and Danger

2018-10-30T10:48:01Z

172.68.50.172: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1701
| date = July 1, 2016
| title = Speed and Danger
| image = speed_and_danger.png
| titletext = NASCAR removed the passenger seats because drivers hated how astronauts kept riding along with them and loudly announcing "Ahh, what a nice and relaxing drive."
}}

==Explanation==

In this {{w|scatter plot}} [[Randall]] plots the speed of several vehicles (including people on foot for "normal sports") and how disastrous a crash would be. The punchline is that space {{w|rocket}}s travel so dangerously fast, and crashes are so utterly catastrophic, that it pushes literally every other kind of crash to the "slow and safe" corner by comparison. (A similar punchline was used in the title text of [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]].)

With the plot Randall makes the observation that the danger of a crash is greatly influenced by its speed and highlights the concept of relativity between what we perceive as "fast," normal sports and two different types of racing cars, vs. a much faster vehicle, a rocket during launch. A rocket may appear to ascend slowly (and of course it begins its ascent slowly), but on the way to orbit it ends up moving very fast. But before it reaches the more extreme speed regime it will be far away from the ground (and the casual observer), where there is nothing to compare this speed to as opposed to a race car speeding by a spectator during a race.

Apart from the high speed, there is also the altitude to take into account for a rocket launch, and the vast amount of fuel needed to get into orbit, and any sort of catastrophic failure is almost certainly fatal.

Racing cars are often involved in crashes, but at that speed it is possible to construct them so even serious crashes may not be fatal. Although rockets are also made as safe as possible, it is a completely different regime of ''speed and danger'', and the risk of something going wrong during a take off is much higher, and it is impossible to prevent a lethal disaster if the launch fails during the ascent. This results in a much higher mortality rate for each crashed rocket (probably 100%) vs. crashed sports/race cars.

Rocket launches are compared to "normal {{w|sports}}" (presumably meaning people running approximately 25 km/h, and possibly also {{w|polo}} {{w|horse}}s galloping approximately 40 km/h), {{w|NASCAR}} (which reaches speed of 320 km/h), and {{w|Formula One}} (F1), where the fastest race cars go 380 km/h. Although peak speed for an F1 car is higher than NASCAR, the average lap speed is much lower as F1 tracks have slow corners while NASCAR ovals can be negotiated with much less speed variation. It is also arguable whether F1 is more dangerous than NASCAR - there have been fewer fatalities in F1 this millennium, though fewer cars compete and races are of shorter duration. The 2016 Formula one season had 21 races, with each race lasting 1.5~3 hours. The NASCAR season had 36 races, with each race lasting 3~5 hours.

A rocket launched to reach the {{w|International Space Station|ISS}} needs to match the speed of the space station which moves at 27,600 km/h. A rocket that needs to {{w|Escape velocity|escape}} from Earth needs to reach 40,270 km/h, but so far no humans have escaped. However, the astronauts going to the Moon came close, with {{w|Apollo 10}} setting the {{w|List_of_spaceflight_records#Fastest|speed record}} for manned flights with 39,896 km/h. (It was only about [https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Apollo-10-the-fastest-of-all-the-Apollo-missions 0.4% faster] than the next 7 missions that, in contrast to Apollo 10, were supposed to land on the Moon). The lowest of the rocket speeds mentioned above is still more than 70 times as fast as the highest speed for race cars.

The title text serves to emphasize the point further, as an astronaut (used to the several G's of acceleration during takeoff and overall much higher speeds) would likely find a NASCAR car moving at ~300 km/h paltry compared to what they're acclimated to and has supposedly aggravated NASCAR drivers by making a point of saying so. And thus this is used to explain why there are no passenger seats in NASCAR cars, to prevent astronauts from joining the drivers for a nice, slow ride.

Of the many [[:Category:Charts|charts in xkcd]] this one is notable for containing the fewest sample points of any [[:Category:Scatter plots|scatter plots]] in xkcd.

==Transcript==
:[A two-axis diagram with two double headed arrows centered in the middle of the panel. Each arrow is labeled. There are four large dots in the diagram, three close together in the top left corner and one in the bottom right corner. Each dot is labeled.]

:[Y axis:]
:Top: Crashes are safe
:Bottom: Crashes are dangerous

:[X axis:]
:Left: Slow
:Right: Fast

:[Dots from top left to bottom right:]
:Normal sports
:NASCAR
:Formula One
:Rocket launches

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Space]]

1701: Speed and Danger

2018-10-30T10:46:18Z

172.68.50.172: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1701
| date = July 1, 2016
| title = Speed and Danger
| image = speed_and_danger.png
| titletext = NASCAR removed the passenger seats because drivers hated how astronauts kept riding along with them and loudly announcing "Ahh, what a nice and relaxing drive."
}}

==Explanation==

In this {{w|scatter plot}} [[Randall]] plots the speed of several vehicles (including people on foot for "normal sports") and how disastrous a crash would be. The punchline is that space {{w|rocket}}s travel so dangerously fast, and crashes are so utterly catastrophic, that it pushes literally every other kind of crash to the "slow and safe" corner by comparison. (A similar punchline was used in the title text of [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]].)

With the plot Randall makes the observation that the danger of a crash is greatly influenced by its speed and highlights the concept of relativity between what we perceive as "fast," normal sports and two different types of racing cars, vs. a much faster vehicle, a rocket during launch. A rocket may appear to ascend slowly (and of course it begins its ascent slowly), but on the way to orbit it ends up moving very fast. But before it reaches the more extreme speed regime it will be far away from the ground (and the casual observer), where there is nothing to compare this speed to as opposed to a race car speeding by a spectator during a race.

Apart from the high speed, there is also the altitude to take into account for a rocket launch, and the vast amount of fuel needed to get into orbit, and any sort of catastrophic failure is almost certainly fatal.

Racing cars are often involved in crashes, but at that speed it is possible to construct them so even serious crashes may not be fatal. Although rockets are also made as safe as possible, it is a completely different regime of ''speed and danger'', and the risk of something going wrong during a take off is much higher, and it is impossible to prevent a lethal disaster if the launch fails during the ascent. This results in a much higher mortality rate for each crashed rocket (probably 100%) vs. crashed sports/race cars.

Rocket launches are compared to "normal {{w|sports}}" (presumably meaning people running approximately 25 km/h, and possibly also {{w|polo}} {{w|horse}}s galloping approximately 40 km/h), {{w|NASCAR}} (which reaches speed of 320 km/h), and {{w|Formula One}} (F1), where the fastest race cars go 380 km/h. Although peak speed for an F1 car is higher than NASCAR, the average lap speed is much lower as F1 tracks have slow corners while NASCAR ovals can be negotiated with much less speed variation. It is also arguable whether F1 is more dangerous than NASCAR - there have been fewer fatalities in F1 this millennium, though fewer cars compete and races are of shorter duration. The 2016 Formula one season had 21 races, with each race lasting 1.5~3 hours. The NASCAR season had 36 races, with each race lasting 3~5 hours.

A rocket launched to reach the {{w|International Space Station|ISS}} needs to match the speed of the space station which moves at 27,600 km/h. A rocket that needs to {{w|Escape velocity|escape}} from Earth needs to reach 40,270 km/h, but so far no humans have escaped. However, the astronauts going to the Moon came close, with {{w|Apollo 10}} setting the {{w|List_of_spaceflight_records#Fastest|speed record}} for manned flights with 39,896 km/h. (It was only about [https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Apollo-10-the-fastest-of-all-the-Apollo-missions 0.4% faster] than the next 7 missions that, in contrast to Apollo 10, were not supposed to land on the Moon). The lowest of the rocket speeds mentioned above is still more than 70 times as fast as the highest speed for race cars.

The title text serves to emphasize the point further, as an astronaut (used to the several G's of acceleration during takeoff and overall much higher speeds) would likely find a NASCAR car moving at ~300 km/h paltry compared to what they're acclimated to and has supposedly aggravated NASCAR drivers by making a point of saying so. And thus this is used to explain why there are no passenger seats in NASCAR cars, to prevent astronauts from joining the drivers for a nice, slow ride.

Of the many [[:Category:Charts|charts in xkcd]] this one is notable for containing the fewest sample points of any [[:Category:Scatter plots|scatter plots]] in xkcd.

==Transcript==
:[A two-axis diagram with two double headed arrows centered in the middle of the panel. Each arrow is labeled. There are four large dots in the diagram, three close together in the top left corner and one in the bottom right corner. Each dot is labeled.]

:[Y axis:]
:Top: Crashes are safe
:Bottom: Crashes are dangerous

:[X axis:]
:Left: Slow
:Right: Fast

:[Dots from top left to bottom right:]
:Normal sports
:NASCAR
:Formula One
:Rocket launches

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Space]]

1944: The End of the Rainbow

2018-01-19T12:57:11Z

172.68.50.172: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1944
| date = January 19, 2018
| title = The End of the Rainbow
| image = the_end_of_the_rainbow.png
| titletext = The retina is the exposed surface of the brain, so if you think about a pot of gold while looking at a rainbow, then there's one at BOTH ends.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Edited by a leprechaun. We are here. We are watching. The bit about percentages of the mass of the Sun should be made more readable. Also need to explain title text.}}
Cueball and Megan are having a discussion. Megan brings up the myth that at the end of every rainbow lies a leprechaun's pot of gold. Instead of claiming that leprechauns and their gold don't exist, Cueball refutes that technically, rainbows are circles, so they do not have an end.

However, Megan then expands on the scientific explanation Cueball is stating. She states that if one considers the path light takes to form a rainbow, then it forms a two-cone structure, where the Sun (the vertex of the outer cone) emits light rays that move towards the Earth (forming the faces of the outer cone), then reflect off of water droplets located at just the right angle (the circular base) to reach our eyes (the vertex of the inner cone ). Thus, such a rainbow structure ''can'' be said to have "ends", represented by the vertices of the two cones: one at the eye of the viewer, and another at the light source.

Megan then says that the Sun is indeed a pot of gold. The Sun is approximately [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(mass+of+sun) 2x10^30 kg] (two billion '''billion''' trillion kilograms), and is approximately [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=gold+sun+abundance 1 ppb gold] (1 part gold per billion parts of mass); therefore the Sun contains approximately [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(sun+composition+gold)+*+(mass+of+sun) 2x10^21 kg] (two billion trillion kilograms) of gold, far more than a hypothetical leprechaun's pot of gold. Using that same percentage, you can [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(gold+sun+abundance)*(sun+mass)%2F(volume+oceans+*+water+density) compute the ratio of gold in the Sun against sea water on Earth] and find a ratio of around 1.5. While the two values are pretty similar, this confirms Megan's claim that there is more gold in the Sun than water in the oceans mass-wise. Gold being far denser than water, if you [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(volume++oceans)%2F((gold+abundance+sun)*(mass+sun)%2F(density+gold)) compare the two volumes] (using the volume the gold would have on the surface of Earth, the temperature and pressure in the Sun could make it vary greatly) then the oceans' waters beat the Sun's gold by a factor 13.

Cueball then asks about leprechauns. Megan replies that the leprechauns all died when the Sun formed, implying all the gold in the Sun is actually the remnants of leprechaun gold. However, she does not consider the explanation where the leprechaun is on the other end of the rainbow...

This part is suggested by the title text. Leprechauns posessing gold exist (only) in the brains of the people. The retina is the foremost part of the brain for the light perception and so for the other end of the rainbow.

==Transcript==

:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: There's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
:Cueball: Rainbows are circles. They have no end.
:Megan: Not quite!

:[In a borderless panel, a multi-part graphic is shown depicting what Megan is describing off-panel: a short cone inside a longer cone, with the longer cone having its point starting at the Sun, the shorter cone having its point at a miniature Cueball's head, and both cones sharing the same circular base. The diagram is repeated from 3 different perspectives to make the structure easier to grasp.]
:Megan (off-panel): A '''rainbow''' is light leaving the Sun, bouncing off the clouds, and converging on your eye. It's an inside-out two-ended cone.

:[Megan and Cueball are still walking]
:[Megan]: One end of that cone is your retina.

:[A wider view of the same scene, with Megan and Cueball still walking]
:[Megan]: The other end is the Sun—which contains quintillions of tons of gold. There's more gold in the Sun than water in the oceans.
:[Cueball]: So there ''is'' a pot of gold!
:[Cueball]: What about leprechauns?
:[Megan]: All incinerated as the sun formed. Very sad.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics_featuring_Megan]]
[[Category:Comics_featuring_Cueball]]