explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2748: Radians Are Cursed

2023-03-11T13:29:32Z

172.68.51.178:

how do transcript [[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.37|172.70.127.37]] 19:23, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_degree may be of some help with this one. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.124|162.158.166.124]] 19:44, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

The comic isn't actually correct. A radian is not equal to the length of a circle's radius; it is equal to the length of the radius, multiplied by 2π, divided by the perimeter, which is why it has no units, while the length does. In other words, radian/2pi=length of radius/length of perimeter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.84|172.70.46.84]] 19:51, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

As suggested by the above Wikipedia link, square degrees are in fact often used in astronomical contexts. Also, it's quite standard to say that radian=1; see for example [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_derived_unit SI derived unit]. An angle is the ratio between the arc length and the radius, and we just optionally append "radian" for clarity. So 1 = 57.3 degrees is correct; Randall simply used the wrong argument to obtain it. [[User:Aseyhe|Aseyhe]] ([[User talk:Aseyhe|talk]]) 20:57, 10 March 2023 (UTC)
:I always understood radian to be the name of the unit, so by definition 1 radian=1. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:17, 10 March 2023 (UTC)
:It is a shame that astronomers don't use the proper unit for such things: the steradian. It is literally there for describing the 3D equivalent of angle. Oh well... --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.137|172.69.79.137]] 04:16, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

Someone fix the vandalism, how do you upload images? --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 03:06, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
:I'm doing it but that user needs to be blocked.
:To revert images, scroll down and click the revert link next to the last good version.
:And do not feed the trolls. ~ [[user:megan|Megan]] she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 03:10, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

On reading this I vividly remembered a maths teacher once asking our class "What's 10% of a straight line?", and the looks of disgust and bewilderment when he said the answer was 18 degrees. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.147|172.70.86.147]] 08:31, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
:I just hope that was Celsius degrees (or Kelvin), rather than Fahrenheit(/Rankine). ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.190|172.71.242.190]] 10:51, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
::If you use Kelvin with degrees you have already lost...[[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.178|172.68.51.178]] 13:29, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-24T13:29:51Z

172.68.51.178:

The Tobin citation comes from James Tobin's Fred Hirsch Memorial Lecture "On the Efficiency of the Financial System" in 1984 [https://economicsociologydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/tobin-on-the-efficiency-of-the-financial-system.pdf].

The explanation says “allego” and “prologue“ are “musical terms such as may be used in the introduction of a performed piece”. That may be true of “prologue” but “allegro”, according to Wikipedia, is “a tempo marking indicate to play fast, quickly and bright”. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 11:40, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

:And, derived from this, a movement of a piece that is performed quickly may be referred to as an allegro. It can also be used to refer to an entire piece, such as this piece by Mozart: [https://www.pianostreet.com/mozart-sheet-music/allegro-k-1-f-major.htm] [[User:Kazzie|Kazzie]] ([[User talk:Kazzie|talk]]) 12:00, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
::But based on the placement of the allego and the way it is written it is most likely a tempo. Tempo goes just above the music and in this case it is the only word on the page that is italicized. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.108|162.158.186.108]] 14:09, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

How would this compare with “candlestick patterns” - the bathtub one looks like a funny name for a pattern *meant* to signal that prices could rise https://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/06/advcandlesticks.asp. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.144.145|172.68.144.145]] 13:55, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Random Walk might refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_walk [[User:Curtobi4|Curtobi4]] ([[User talk:Curtobi4|talk]]) 14:00, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_walk_hypothesis [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.202|108.162.241.202]] 16:33, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
:This is correct, also called Brownian Motion. The shape of these graphs is incredibly similar to that of the motion of a speck of dust floating in coffee. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.228|172.68.65.228]] 03:26, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Should we make a table for each term like there is for other comics? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.232|162.158.63.232]] 18:01, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
:Yes please. Also, the individual jokes could be explained better. For instance, I'm pretty sure "lumbar support" is there as a joke on the word "spline" looking & sounding a lot like "spine". I'm 90% certain it's a pun, but that's not mentioned yet.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 19:30, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

XKCD lessons with Randall: Today I learned that the word "Allegro" actually has a meaning, and isn't just a random website name. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.160|162.158.92.160]] 19:27, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

The fundamental problem is that price movements are NOT a random walk. It is safe to assume that people who know a market well will study it, and make purchases/sells based on the underlying market drivers. And in doing so, they will leave "tells" in the pricing data. It becomes possible to look at markets, and see what the people in-the-know are doing, and follow along after them. That is the fundamental basis of technical analysis, and it works -- it works unbelievably well.

If there is a problem, it is that computers can do this pattern recognition so fast that there is longer any room for people to do this.

In other words, computerized arbitrage has gotten so good that people need not apply, and a few high-end groups with high speed electronic trading can get in before any person can.

[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 00:31, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
:Keybounce, do you have any thoughts on how to share some of that with the layperson? The cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile and worth many billions of dollars. People with little resources are getting involved and either going bust or becoming millionaires. The trading history makes it clear there is a lot of automated trading for a long time, but I'm not sure many people really know what they are doing, and the publically available code appears pretty weak. There is a lot of opportunity here to make huge impacts on major economic and social groups in ways that could really help problems in the world. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.228|172.68.65.228]] 03:32, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

True that computerized arbitrage/high frequency trading occurs at speeds which leave zero room for human reaction times (see the $$$ made by shaving only 3 milliseconds’ [!!] from the transmission delay, when Jim Barksdale built a new straight-path fiber optic line from Chicago Mercantile to NASDAQ in NJ in 2010, and by McKay and Tradeworx using microwave tower relays since then), but computerized arbitrage is, broadly, not the same as technical analysis of markets. Arbitrage takes immediate advantage of brief pricing trends and inefficiencies, while analysis seeks to predict pricing. Of course, technical analysis is also computerized at inhuman speeds, and its algorithms are used in arbitrage, but seems to me the comic isn’t about arbitrage, as such.[[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 20:03, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

I'm disappointed that there wasn't a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal "WOW!"] entry [[User:John.Adriaan|John.Adriaan]] ([[User talk:John.Adriaan|talk]]) 01:38, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
:I fixed your link, hope that's okay. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.178|172.68.51.178]] 13:29, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

1762: Moving Boxes

2018-12-23T16:41:21Z

172.68.51.178:

{{comic
| number = 1762
| date = November 21, 2016
| title = Moving Boxes
| image = moving_boxes.png
| titletext = Later, when I remember that I'm calling movers, I frantically scribble over the labels and write 'NORMAL HOUSE STUFF' on all of them, which actually makes things worse.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Randall]] talks about moving boxes and not labeling them until he forgets what's in them. Since he doesn't know what's in them, he writes silly things on the boxes as a joke. Some things are unusual/unlikely (e.g. sand, hydrants, peat) and some are abstract/impossible (e.g. elves, taupe, dark matter). Several of the categories overlap confusingly; for instance, "sand" and "silt" and "dark matter" are all generally considered as "particles"; "membranes", "edges", and "shawls" are all kinds of "manifolds"; "hooves" are part of "bison"; "fog" contains "water"; and "triangles" consist of three "edges". Another way to interpret this comic is that Randall actually has these items (or at least some of them) in the boxes and has simply forgotten which boxes contain what.

According to the title text, when Randall remembers that he is calling movers, he frantically scribbles "Normal House Stuff" on all the boxes. He says this makes the situation worse, possibly because the movers see the scribble and become suspicious. Alternatively, labeling every box with the exact same phrase will make it even harder to figure out what they contain and where they should go in the new dwelling.

===Explanation of boxes===
{| class="wikitable" width="100%"
!Label
!Explanation
|-
!Box 1
|-
|Grids|| [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grid Grids] are mathematical drawings; they would be constructed by drawing them, not stored in a box (though {{w|graph paper}} might be). May refer to a classic {{w|snipe hunt}} where a hazing victim is tasked with finding "a box of grid squares".
|-
|Bison||{{w|Bison}}, sometimes mistakenly called buffalo, are large animals that would probably not fit in the box{{Citation needed}}.
|-
|Checkerboards||The tabletop gaming boards on which one plays {{w|English draughts|Checkers}}. It is also the name of the corresponding pattern, and thus can be interpreted as an abstract term like many other "objects" in this comic.
|-
|Fog||{{w|Fog}} is essentially low-lying clouds which, being gaseous, are hard to box using only cardboard.
|-
!Box 2
|-
|Beacons||Beacons are devices designed to draw attention to themselves, for various reasons. From the generic term "beacon" this could mean anything from electronic GPS locator beacons to miniature replicas of naval lighthouses. Or, alternatively, it could be like what is referenced in the 7th panel of [[921: Delivery Notification]], which is used to summon elves (which happen to be in the same box).
|-
|Elves||Elves are a fictional{{Citation needed}} race (or rather, many, many fictional races) of human-like magical creatures.
|-
|Sand||Sand grains are fine particles of rock. While it's not unheard of for people to need to store sand, it's usually not stored along with your personal belongings on moving day.{{Citation needed}}
|-
!Box 3 - Blood
|-
|Hemoglobin||{{w|Hemoglobin}} is the protein found in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body. This may be a solution of hemoglobin protein, but one human generally would not need a full box of it{{Citation needed}}.
|-
!Box 4
|-
|Water||As with sand, it's not unheard of for, say, a laboratory to store water samples for testing. But again, these wouldn't be stored along with your personal belongings on moving day. And if this is meant to be drinking water, it would be a waste of effort; it's taken as read that any house you're moving into has its own plumbing. Unless, of course, they insist on drinking bottled water (which some people do).
|-
|Hooves||{{w|Hooves}} are possibly best-known as horse and cow 'feet'. This could also be read as a compound word, Water-Hooves akin to water-wings.
|-
!Box 5 - Charadriiformes
|-
|Charadriiformes||{{w|Charadriiformes}} are a type of bird that contains (mostly) waterfowl. There are about 350 different species. Obviously, stuffing birds into cardboard boxes would be a bad idea.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|Shorebirds|| Also known as {{w|Wader|Waders}}, these are an order of birds that wade in littoral waters. Stuffing them in boxes would also be a bad idea.
|-
!Box 6
|-
|Oil|| This could mean anything from cooking oil to petroleum; either way, most of a box full of oil bottles is unusual, but for different reasons (that's a lot of cooking oil, a ''lot'' of motor oil, and a comically small amount of crude oil).
|-
|Vectors||{{w|Vector}}s are properties with magnitude and direction, such as velocity, momentum, acceleration, etc., but can depend on the context. In any situation, they are not physical objects, so they cannot be put in boxes. Alternatively "vector" could mean a carrier of a disease, such as ticks or mosquitoes, but while more possible to box they would still not be practical to keep with common household goods and the intent of moving them as such would be dubious at best.
|-
|Silt|| Material between sand and clay size-wise. A sediment. See sand and water above for why this is unusual. Randall has a special place in his heart for rock particles of various sizes; see [https://what-if.xkcd.com/83/ What If #83].
|-
!Box 7
|-
|Membranes||Delicate thin pliable sheet or skin of various kinds. Usually fragile or cut easily. Not something you would expect to be packed with something sharp, which shards are likely to be, although these labels are incorrect.
|-
|Shards||These are broken pieces of smooth and hard objects, e.g. ceramic, glass, crystal. Something you would normally expect to be thrown out, rather than packed up for moving house.
|-
!Box 8
|-
|Shawls||{{w|Shawls}} are a simple item of clothing, worn loosely over one's shoulders. Also being of rectangular shape, they are supposed to be worn in colder weather.
|-
|Glucose||{{w|Glucose}} is possibly best-known as the sugar plants produce for energy, but can be manufactured.
|-
|Kits||A {{w|kit}} is any set of tools, supplies, and/or instructions for a specific purpose. These could be first aid kits, software development kits, bomb-making kits, sewing kits... It can also refer to juveniles of some mammals, such as foxes or rabbits (it is not very likely that such animals would be packed in a box - though compare [[325: A-Minus-Minus]]). Alternatively, this may be a compound word "Glucose Kits", diabetic assay tools to help the patient regulate their blood sugar.
|-
!Box 9
|-
|Hydrants||{{w|Fire hydrant}}s are likely too big to fit in boxes, and are also simply odd objects to be packing into a box.
|-
|Particles||As almost all matter is composed of {{w|particles}}, it is hard to find exceptions. Thus, this is very vague.
|-
|Knots||{{w|Knot}}s are things tied in ropes; they can hold things or just be there. This would be hard to put in a box without rope{{Citation needed}}. Could also refer to knots in a piece of {{w|wood}}, which are hard to put in the box without the rest of the wood. Knots could also refer to the {{w|Knot_(unit)|unit of speed}}, usually used in meteorology, and in maritime and air navigation which would be impossible to box as it is not a physical object.
|-
!Box 10 - Palette
|-
|Graphite||{{w|Graphite}} is a crystalline form of carbon, where the atoms are arranged in sheets. It is found in some household products (pencils and lubricant oil), though in either case the name of the end product would be a more likely box label. Graphite is also a color.
|-
|Taupe|| {{w|Taupe}} is a dark tan color in between brown and gray, again, not an object. May be a reference to Gliese 581f (a.k.a. Taupe Mars) from [[1253|xkcd #1253]].
|-
!Box 11 - Gaussian surface?
|-
|Field Lines||This could refer to {{w|field line}}s as used to depict electromagnetic fields, or possibly to the lines painted on an athletic field to mark the boundaries of play. The former are a visualization tool rather than physical objects; the latter consist of streaks of paint on grass or artificial turf, and thus neither kind of field line is the kind of physical object that could be packed into a box.
|-
!Box 12
|-
|Traps||May be a reference to 'My house is full of traps' from [https://what-if.xkcd.com/34// What-If #34]
|-
!Box 13
|-
|Edges||{{w|Edge_(geometry)|Edge}} is a line segment joining two vertices. Even though physical objects do have edges, you cannot store edges themselves as they are just mathematical constructs.
|-
|Tribes||{{w|Tribe}} is a social group of people, tribes existed before states were formed. It is impossible to store a group of people in the box{{Citation needed}}.
|-
|Dough||{{w|Dough}} is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic, paste made out of any grains, leguminous or chestnut crops. It is used in the process of cooking, but it doesn't make sense to pack it while moving.
|-
!Box 14
|-
|Dark Matter||{{w|Dark matter}} is what is believed to be a big part of the mass of galaxies, but we have never observed it, so it is not possible to pack it {{Citation needed}}. Alternatively, if all dark matter were permanently packed in boxes like this, it would explain why it has never been observed. According to the Copenhagen interpretation of the uncertainty principle, dark matter may both be in the box and somewhere else in the universe until somebody opens the box.
|-
!Box 15
|-
|Manifolds||In topology, {{w|Manifold|Manifolds}} are spaces with certain "nice" properties (i.e. they are locally Euclidean). This is yet another mathematical construct which is impossible to pack into a box. Manifold could also refer to a pipe or chamber branching into several openings, for example an engine exhaust manifold. While physical, it's unlikely that multiple are put in a box for moving.
|-
!Box 16
|-
|Triangles||Within the context of this comic, the reference is likely to the shape. On the other hand, it would not be unusual to pack one or more {{w|Triangle (musical instrument)}}s into a box.
|-
|Peat|| {{w|Peat}} is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation that forms in wetland bogs, moors, mires, and swamps.
|-
|Crowns|| These may be royal crowns, or may be the coin worth five shillings in UK pre-decimal currency.
|-
!Box 17
|-
|Scrolls||A {{w|scroll}} is a roll of papyrus, paper, or parchment that contains writing. It is a common item in fantasy games (as elves and traps).
|}

==Transcript==
:[A bunch of cardboard boxes stacked up, each labeled]
:{| class="wikitable" style="background:white" align=center
| style="visibility:hidden" |
| colspan="2" height="80px" width="80px" style="background:#CFBC92"|
Grids 
Bison 
Checkerboards 
Fog
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92"|
Beacons 
Elves 
Sand
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Hemoglobin
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Water 
Hooves
| style="visibility:hidden" |
|-|
| style="visibility:hidden" |
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Shorebirds
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Oil 
Vectors 
Silt
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Membranes 
Shards
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Shawls 
Glucose 
Kits
| style="visibility:hidden" |
|-|
| style="visibility:hidden" |
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Hydrants 
Particles 
Knots
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Graphite 
Taupe
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Field Lines
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Traps
| style="visibility:hidden" |
|-|
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Edges 
Tribes 
Dough
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Dark Matter
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Manifolds
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Triangles 
Peat 
Crowns
| colspan="2" width="80px" height="80px" style="background:#CFBC92" |
Scrolls
|}

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I always forget to label my moving boxes until they're sealed up and I've forgotten what's in them.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:2073: Kilogram

2018-11-17T13:49:34Z

172.68.51.178:

US weight and length units definition is strictly based on metric system:
"Standards for the exact length of an inch have varied in the past, but since the adoption of the international yard during the 1950s and 1960s it has been based on the metric system and defined as exactly 2.54 cm."{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inch}
"the most common today is the international avoirdupois pound, which is legally defined as exactly 0.45359237 kilograms" {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_(mass)}
Therefore the conversion proposed sounds recursive.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.178|172.68.51.178]] 13:49, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

I didn't know that weights and currencies could be converted 1:1, that's cool! [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 16:37, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

I wish they ''had'' redefined the kilogram a little bit. It would have been neat if 1 kg was exactly the weight of 1 dm^3 (1 litre) of water under one atmosphere of pressure. Right now it's soooo close. It's a good enough estimate for simple maths, but whenever you tell people that a litre of water weighs one kilogram the pedants comes out of the woodworks... [[User:Kapten-N|Kapten-N]] ([[User talk:Kapten-N|talk]]) 16:50, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

:You'll get pedants whenever you refer to a kilogram as weight; it's a mass. The difference is that stuff weighs less on the Moon - or on tall mountains - although the mass is the same. I think the article as I just read it gets away with this. And, sure, what is the standard kilogram but a weight, that you take and weigh... rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.59|162.158.91.59]] 23:57, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

::It ''used'' to be a mass. Now it's a ratio of the local gravitational strength versus the efficiency of an EM field. Kibble scales require EM shielding & an environment of ''precisely'' 1g, in order to be accurate. Since gravity isn't equal everywhere, our measurements of kilograms will now vary accordingly. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 08:36, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Up until 1964 a litre (and therefore actually the metre too) used to be defined as the volume that water with mass 1kg takes. But this is not good for exact measurements not only because you need exactly reproducable temperature, pressure (not so problematic, because you can measure them and then calculate the divergence) and gravity (not so easy to measure, because you need an exact mass and exact masses are impossible to keep the same), but also because you need pure water free of any polutions of other stuff (hard and expensive) and even free of tiny amounts of isotopes which are deuterium and tritium (even way more expensive).
Because the water that was used then was never close to pure the actual weight of water nowadays is 0.99997kg at 4°C and 1.013bar and I don't know which value for g. There is also another definition which I like, but is hard to measure in real life scenarios: E=mc². A kilogramm should be 1/c² of the mass which anything becomes heavier that you accelerate by the energy of one Joule. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.150|162.158.90.150]] 17:11, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:But how do you define/measure a Joule then? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 18:19, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:No, until 1964, meter and litre were totally independent, a meter has never been defined directly or indirectly in relation to a mass of water. It is only since 1964 that the liter is defined as a cubic decimeter.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.36|162.158.90.36]] 18:36, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:Also, in E=mc², E is the energy '''at rest''' (for a stationary object of mass m), so your definition using the acceleration makes no sense.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.254|162.158.88.254]] 18:47, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
Actually, for the new definition of the kilo using the Kibble balance you need to measure the gravity... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.16|162.158.134.16]] 17:34, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Welp, looks like 1 kg, a.k.a. 1 lb, a.k.a 2.2 lb, is now officially defined to have zero mass.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.50.28|172.69.50.28]] 16:56, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:…or infinite. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 16:59, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
::What I understand: the joke is not (only) about 1 (old) kg = 1 (old) lb, but (also) about 1 new kg = 1 old lb... or 1 new lb = 1 old kg :^) Or about a ring of positive characteristic --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.102.94|188.114.102.94]] 17:08, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:I'm so glad other people see the problem with this supposed "official" definition. We've gone from a unit of measure problematically prone to contamination error, to a unit of measure that changes depending on where you measure it! [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 08:36, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

what about the ambiguity of the pound? would they reference an Avoirdupois bound or a Troy lb? --wonderkatn {{unsigned ip|172.69.50.16}}

I don't believe the Imperial system is "no longer used". Gills have been retired, but yards and even chains are still in use, not to mention the Imperial <s>lb</s> pint. [[User:Yngvadottir|Yngvadottir]] ([[User talk:Yngvadottir|talk]]) 18:49, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:The imperial system has some good things about it. Feet are divisible by 12, and Fahrenheit is much nicer for human temperatures. [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 18:55, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
::Yeah, coz it's so easier to divide by 12 than to divide by 10! {{unsigned ip|162.158.89.61}}
:::No it is easier to divide by 2, 3, 4, and 6, and yes, I can divide the number of feet by 10 easily in my head. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:15, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:::The idea is that with twelve parts, you can have 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/12 all be integer number of parts. This is why these types of systems developed in the past, and why so many systems also had multiples of 60 (you can do the math here.). They were easy to divide by merchants without access to any sort of calculation method. The base-10 system is great if you're only ever dealing with halves or tenths. But if you want a quarter or a third of something, you have to split the base units. It's no longer necessary in modern life, but it had a real advantage in ancient times. [[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 19:18, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:::: No longer necessary in modern life... Which is why we should all switch to base-10 units of time! [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 08:36, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Ok, I'm going to point out something. What's a meter? 1000 milimeters. What's a milimeter? .....skipping the questions all the way to the end, the answer is "the wavelength of the color orange". Or at least that's what I read. So my question is: why orange? What's so special about orange? What as a species or as a solar system or as universe does the color orange have to do with anything? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.10|172.68.90.10]] 21:50, 16 November 2018 (UTC) SiliconWolf

: "The metre was originally defined in 1793 as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole." That's why orange. Think of those lines from equator to pole... and how an orange is divided in segments beneath the peel. This is why the "Terry's Chocolate Orange" is so called, because it resembles the fruit orange. rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.59|162.158.91.59]] 23:51, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

: The wavelength definition of the meter is not in use anymore either. Since 1983, the meter is defined as the distance the light (any light) travel in the vacuum in 1/299792458 seconds. Of course, all units have a part of arbitrary, and the value it is used to calculate the meter (the orange color, the 1/299792458 seconds...) are basically chosen because they are close to and more precise than the previous definition that existed, in order to not have to recalibrate things that don't need high precision. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.210|103.22.200.210]] 08:03, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

:I feel like we're starting to compare angstroms & millitrumps, here. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 08:36, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

'''Be very careful'''

An announcement to a new definition of the kilogram is published wildly (I mean what I'm saying) today. Please do not present this issue as a final fact, I'm still missing an official statement -- it's just press hype. And there are two possible definitions taken account, not only the one from the US. The final decision right now looks like some of Randall's compromises. Just sayin... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:01, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:OK then, here's an after-the-vote November 16 web page from NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, within the US Department of Commerce. It says it's a done deal. [https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2018/11/historic-vote-ties-kilogram-and-other-units-natural-constants historic-vote-ties-kilogram-and-other-units-natural-constants]. --JohnB [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.89|162.158.79.89]] 21:58, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
::Thanks, but my German sources still preset something like counting atoms [https://www.ptb.de/cms/forschung-entwicklung/forschung-zum-neuen-si/ptb-experimente/kilogramm-und-mol-atome-zaehlen.html Kilogram and MOL, counting atoms], just meaning I'm not sure what will be true in May 2019, do we know the truth??? And in fact it looks like Europeans are fighting against US scientists, or vice versa. This is far of a standard I would prefer. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:29, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:::I'm ''extremely'' skeptical of the Kibble scale definition. It won't maintain constant mass at different locations. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 08:36, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

It will be very funny when we find out one of those constants is not really constant ... sure, planck length is less likely to change than physical object, but it MIGHT. Like, maybe it gets longer the older the universe is ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:17, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
:Since they're proposing to measure the gravitational force exerted on a unit of mass against the force exerted by an electromagnetic field (instead of comparing the downward force exerted on two masses), the new definition ''isn't'' a constant. For instance, on the moon such a scale would define 1kg as about 13.3lbs! The "new official definition" is a bad one. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 08:36, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

You could not define the kilogram in terms of electric force when you defined the Amp in terms of the current that creates a given force. But by defining the amp in terms of numbers of elementary charges per second and setting Avogadro and other constants by fiat, you break the circle. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.190|162.158.38.190]] 23:54, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

In the Netherlands, we use the metric system. We also use the term "pond" to mean pound. However, we use metric pounds. Those are 0.500 kilogram, so it is actually easy to use.

1066: Laundry

2018-04-04T17:53:20Z

172.68.51.178: Added citation needed

{{comic
| number = 1066
| date = June 8, 2012
| title = Laundry
| image = laundry.png
| titletext = During the second semester, the path is briefly routed through the dishwasher.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is all about college laundry habits and how as time goes by, you end up just throwing clothes on the floor and then wearing them again.

In the first week, the student undertakes a proper laundry routine. However, due to increasing laziness and stress from due assignments, by the second week they have abandoned folding their clothes, and by the third week no longer bother hanging them in the closet. By the second month dirty clothes are no longer stored in a laundry hamper and are just dumped on the floor, and by the end of the semester clothes are not washed at all.

The title text seems to indicate that the student has a brainwave sometime later, to wash their clothes in the dishwasher along with the dishes, presumably as a timesaver. The experiment was brief because dishwashers aren't actually any good at washing clothes{{Citation needed}} as they wouldn't move the clothes about.

==Transcript==
:'''College Laundry Habits'''

:[Panel labeled "First Week". 5 ovals arranged in a rough circle, with a clockwise path connecting them: "Dresser & Closet", "On Body", "Hamper", "Washer & Dryer", "Folding Area" (and back to the first). The area outside the ovals is labeled "Floor."]

:[Panel labeled "Second Week". The path has been modified so that it does not go through "Folding Area" - only through the other 4 ovals.]

:[Panel labeled "Third Week". The path has been modified so that it does not go through "Dresser & Closet". Only "On Body", "Hamper", and "Washer & Dryer" remain.]

:[Panel labeled "Second Month". The path no longer passes through "Hamper" - only "On Body" and "Washer & Dryer".]

:[Panel labeled "End of Semester". The path no longer goes to "Washer & Dryer", instead just looping back around from "On Body" to "On Body" again after passing through the "Floor."]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]