explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3065: Square Units

2025-03-21T03:32:09Z

172.69.0.179: fixed missing time it takes insect to eat 1cm strip of grass

{{comic
| number = 3065
| date = March 19, 2025
| title = Square Units
| image = square_units_2x.png
| imagesize = 545x678px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The biggest I've seen in a published source in the wild is an 80-fold error in a reported distance, which I think came from a series of at least three unit conversions and area/length misinterpretations.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BUG IN A SQUARE AREA DEFOLIATION BOT - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, [[Megan]] is using her phone to read about an insect species that consumes (hyperbolically described as 'devours') one square inch of grass per day. As it is relayed through a chain of conversations, this measurement gets misinterpreted up to 12 times until [[Hairbun]] tells other people that it devours an area of grass equal to two times the land area of Australia per day, which is clearly impossible by one insect.{{citation needed}} This is similar to the premise of [[2585: Rounding]].

This gross error is the result of repeatedly misinterpreting the number of square units as the side length of a square, thus increasing the described area by the power of two. The chain also involves converting between {{w|imperial units}} and {{w|International System of Units|SI}} units, thus introducing smaller rounding errors, and frequently switching which measurement is "a single square with sides of a certain distance" and which is "the number of squares that are each of unit length". The upshot is that, while each statement has two (or more) roughly similar measurements of area, the chain of misunderstanding ends up escalating to ever larger relative expanses. The later participants in this chain also clearly forget to sanity-check their figures, blithely informing others that an individual insect is effectively consuming impossibly huge quantities of food, and travelling enormous linear distances every day to do so. In fact, assuming the insect can eat a 1 cm strip of grass per second, it would need to travel at (2,500 miles)2 / 1cm / 24 hours = 1.87×107 km/s, which is about 62 times the speed of light.

The title text tells us that [[Randall]] once found an 80-fold error in a reported distance in a published source.

===Table of conversions===
{{note|Table is (or used to be) too wide. "Acre" starts to overlap normal page area, everything else is beyond it. Suggest perhaps three or four significant figures ''plus'' scientific exponentiation on all figures where this does not increase a cell's minimum required width? Also, should the table use something else than gain percentages (like multiplication factors instead)? P.S. Perhaps also explain the meanings behind the different colors?}}
{| class="wikitable"
! step !! percentage gain !! total percent of original area !! square inch !! square cm !! square foot !! acre !! square meters !! square kilometers !! square miles
|-
! 1
| N/A || 100% ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 1||style="background-color:red;"| 6.4516 || 0.006945 || 1.594e-7 || 0.0006451 || 6.451e-10 || 2.490e-10
|-
! 2
| -7% || 93% || 0.93 ||style="background-color:pink;"| 6 || 0.006458 || 1.482e-7 || 0.0006 || 6e-10 || 2.316e-10
|-
! 3
| +500% || 558% || 5.580 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 36 (62)||0.03875 || 8.895e-7 || 0.0036 || 3.6e-9 || 1.39e-9
|-
! 4
| +3,500% || 20,090% || 200.9 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"|1,296 (362) || style="background-color:red;"|1.395 || 3.202e-5 || 0.1296 || 1.296e-7 || 5.004e-8
|-
! 5
| -28.3% || 14,400% || 144 || style="background-color:red;"|929.03 || style="background-color:pink;"|1 || 2.296e-5 || 0.09290 || 9.290e-8 || 3.587e-8
|-
! 6
| -3.12% || 13,950% || 139.5 || style="background-color:pink;"|900|| 0.9688 || 2.224e-5 || 0.09 ||9e-8 || 3.475e-8
|-
! 7
| +89,900% || 12,555,025.1% || 125,550.251 || style="background-color:lightgreen;"|810,000 (9002)|| style="background-color:green;"|871.9||0.02002 || 81||8.1e-5 || 3.127e-5
|-
! 8
| +3.22% || 12,960,000% || 129,600 || 836,127||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 900 (302) ||0.02066|| 83.61||8.361e-5 || 3.228e-5
|-
! 9
| +89,900% || 11,664,000,000% || 1.166e+8 || 7.525e+8 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 810,000 (9002) || style="background-color:green;"|18.59|| 7.525e+4 || 0.07525 || 0.02905
|-
! 10
| +7.55% || 12,545,275,491% || 1.255e+8 || 8.094e+8|| 871,200||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 20|| style="background-color:green;"|8.093e+5 || 0.08093 || 0.03125
|-
! 11
| +7,907,375% || 992,001,984,003,868% || 9.920e+12 || 6.4e+13|| 6.889e+13 || 1.581e+6 || style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 6.4e+9 (80,0002) || 6,400 ||2,471
|-
! 12
| +0% || 992,001,984,003,868% || 9.920e+12 || 6.4e+13|| 6.889e+13 || 1.581e+6 || 6.4e+9 || style="background-color:lightgreen;"|6,400 (802) ||style="background-color:green;"|2,471
|-
! 13
| +252,928% || 2,509,056,048,112,096,000% || 2.509e+16|| 1.618e+17 || 1.7424e+14|| 4.000e12 || 1.619e+13 || 1.618e+7 || style="background-color:lightgreen;"|6.250e+6 (2,5002)
|-
|}
The total area of Australia is 7,688,287 km² or 2,968,464 mi², making it the 6th largest country on Earth by area. A 2,500-mile square would actually be about 2.1 times greater than the land area of Australia, once again having a rounding error.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Arrows point to each consecutive panel.]

:[Megan is looking at her phone, with Cueball standing next to her.]
:Megan: This newly-described insect can devour up to a square inch of grass per day.
:Cueball: Oh, neat.

:[Cueball is speaking to Ponytail.]
:Cueball: ...it eats a square inch, or 6 cm², of grass per day...

:[Ponytail is speaking to Hairy.]
:Ponytail: ...a 6-centimeter (2½ inch) square of grass, or 36 cm²...

:[Arrows now point to each consecutive conversion.]
:Written out of panel: ...a 36 centimeter square, or over a square foot...
:Written out of panel: ...a square foot, or 900 cm²...
:Written out of panel: ...a 900 cm (30 foot) square...
:Written out of panel: ...a 30 foot square of grass (900 square feet)...
:Written out of panel: ...a 900 foot square, or almost 20 acres...
:Written out of panel: ...20 acres (8 hectares, or 80,000 square meters)...
:Written out of panel: ...an 80,000 meter (80 km) square...
:Written out of panel: ...a square 80 km wide, or roughly 2,500 square miles...
:Written out of panel: ...a 2,500-mile square, or twice the land area of Australia, per day...

:[An arrow points from the last conversion to the last panel.]
:[Hairbun is looking at her phone, with White Hat, Danish and Blondie standing next to her.]
:Hairbun: Did you hear about this insect that defoliates the entire land area of Australia twice a day?
:White Hat: Gosh!
:Danish: Wow.
:Blondie: I hope at least it's contained there...

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]

Talk:1061: EST

2025-01-19T06:47:58Z

172.69.0.179:

"24 hours 4 minutes" because the period of rotation of the Earth is 24 hours MINUS four minutes.

EST = Eastern Standard Time (USA) or England Standard Time (UK); there's no easy way to disambiguate this since it is a common time zone for English speakers in the USA and UK.

"Run clocks backward" a possible reference to the leap second.

"0.9144" because 1 yard = 0.9144 meters

"triple 4 hours after every full moon" = add on an additional 12 hours every full moon, to make the time between full moons exactly 30 "days" (in real life it's 29.5 days). [[Special:Contributions/75.103.23.206|75.103.23.206]] 21:44, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

: Erm, just like to say, as a UK resident for all my life (five decades, adult and child), that I've ''never'' heard of "English Standard Time". GMT is Greenwich ('Gren-itch') Mean Time, which is ''for most purposes'' the same as UTC (which officially took over in the early 70s, but most lay-people still ''say'' 'GMT') and all the various other prime standards in use (give or take leap seconds, planetary rotation/orbitting adjustments, adherence to atomic clocks, etc) and BST (British Summer Time, i.e. GMT+1)has just taken over for this sun-tilted part of the year. A brief check of the usual reference sites reveals no sign of EST existing any time since any form of standardised "Railway Time" was originally instituted in the days of the Industrial Revolution, but I might have missed it.

: Anyway, as such, the two ESTs is surely a constructed part of the joke not (as I read it) some fact from RL that needs explaining. Yes, there's EST (Eastern Standard Time) for the US (and versions for Australia and elsewhere?), as well as main Egyptian time-zone and European Summer Time (actually a over-term for the three varieties: Western, Central and Eastern). (The UK roughly matches up to Western European Time and Western European Summer Time accordingly, but that's by no means official except possibly by convention/shared heritage of definition.) But I think the joke with the two 'EST's is ''purely'' to do with something like the whole Yard/Metre(/Meter) thing. Although initially I imagined it might be something to do with UK/US Gallon differences, albeit that we now tend to have to use Litres. Or, if you prefer, 'Liters'. ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.99.20.83|178.99.20.83]] 21:49, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

I seem to recall that Narnia time ran usually much faster but sometimes much slower than real-world time. [[Special:Contributions/130.160.145.224|130.160.145.224]] 20:51, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

I always thought that Taiwan, Province of China missed a golden opportunity here to establish propaganda that they founded it. Instead they are known as a township in the US. [[Special:Contributions/66.88.136.254|66.88.136.254]] 20:01, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Think of what Jack Bauer could have done with 4 more minutes! {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.101}}

Not all possible attempts to make the calendar simpler would make it as complicated (or worse) than it is. For example, removing one day each from January and August to make February have 30 or 31 like the rest of the months would make the calendar (slightly) simpler and more logical going forward.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.174|173.245.50.174]] 18:39, 7 September 2015 (UTC)
:You'd have to rewrite {{w|Zeller's congruence}} and find a replacement for the {{w|Knuckle mnemonic}}, both of which depend upon the existing pattern, or you'd upset a lot of people!
:For the former, it relies upon the pattern of starting after February and observing that the days are 31,30,31,30,31 for March...July, the same again August...December and starting the same pattern again for January and, as far as it goes, February. Adjusting Zeller to use 12/5ths instead of 13/5ths might work out well. That seems (...back of an envelope calculation) to allow for 31 day months being March, ''June'', August, ''November'' and January (italics were 30 days), all the rest being 30 (demoting four previously 31-day months) except for the leap-February for which the ''extra''-extra-day causes no knock-on-effects.
:But you also ''could'' bring down every month to 30 days (use the factor 10/5ths, or actually just assuming the straight constant shift of +2 weekdays per month without needing to round down anything at all), except February which now has 35-or-36 days.
:(Even simpler, every month other than Feb could be 28 days - see how ''they'' like it, and Feb now be more than double the size to make up for historical wrongs. Which'd be reason enough to retain the year-downshift of Jan/Feb, but otherwise removes any month-number terms in Zeller, just the (adjusted) year-number bits because the year still ≠mod7 days.)
:...but I'd be sad to lose the Knuckles coincidence. Whatever other 'improvememts' you might think I'm suggesting! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.22|172.71.178.22]] 15:27, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

This might be a reference to the old TV show Babylon 5 here, but that's unlikely because the show is never mentioned anywhere else.[[Special:Contributions/208.97.36.166|208.97.36.166]] 3:18, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but it should be noted "1958" could also refer to the Discordian calendar, in which that is the year 3125 (5^5, 5 being the by far most significant number in a religion especially obsessed with numerology).--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.29|141.101.105.29]] 22:10, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

The historical Jewish calendar did have month names; four of them happen to come up in the Old Testament. Some do suspect that the names were only used rarely. The modern Japanese calendar - and I think a few others - does have numbered months only; don't recall if any historical ones do, unfortunately. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.44|141.101.80.44]] 09:53, 8 October 2015 (UTC)

: I agree that the connection to the Jewish (or for that matter Japanese) calendar is nonexistent. Will remove. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 02:58, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

I implemented it [https://solarzone1010.github.io/est-clock.html here] (maybe it should be added to the page.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.0.179|172.69.0.179]] 06:47, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Talk:1061: EST

2025-01-19T06:47:30Z

172.69.0.179:

"24 hours 4 minutes" because the period of rotation of the Earth is 24 hours MINUS four minutes.

EST = Eastern Standard Time (USA) or England Standard Time (UK); there's no easy way to disambiguate this since it is a common time zone for English speakers in the USA and UK.

"Run clocks backward" a possible reference to the leap second.

"0.9144" because 1 yard = 0.9144 meters

"triple 4 hours after every full moon" = add on an additional 12 hours every full moon, to make the time between full moons exactly 30 "days" (in real life it's 29.5 days). [[Special:Contributions/75.103.23.206|75.103.23.206]] 21:44, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

: Erm, just like to say, as a UK resident for all my life (five decades, adult and child), that I've ''never'' heard of "English Standard Time". GMT is Greenwich ('Gren-itch') Mean Time, which is ''for most purposes'' the same as UTC (which officially took over in the early 70s, but most lay-people still ''say'' 'GMT') and all the various other prime standards in use (give or take leap seconds, planetary rotation/orbitting adjustments, adherence to atomic clocks, etc) and BST (British Summer Time, i.e. GMT+1)has just taken over for this sun-tilted part of the year. A brief check of the usual reference sites reveals no sign of EST existing any time since any form of standardised "Railway Time" was originally instituted in the days of the Industrial Revolution, but I might have missed it.

: Anyway, as such, the two ESTs is surely a constructed part of the joke not (as I read it) some fact from RL that needs explaining. Yes, there's EST (Eastern Standard Time) for the US (and versions for Australia and elsewhere?), as well as main Egyptian time-zone and European Summer Time (actually a over-term for the three varieties: Western, Central and Eastern). (The UK roughly matches up to Western European Time and Western European Summer Time accordingly, but that's by no means official except possibly by convention/shared heritage of definition.) But I think the joke with the two 'EST's is ''purely'' to do with something like the whole Yard/Metre(/Meter) thing. Although initially I imagined it might be something to do with UK/US Gallon differences, albeit that we now tend to have to use Litres. Or, if you prefer, 'Liters'. ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.99.20.83|178.99.20.83]] 21:49, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

I seem to recall that Narnia time ran usually much faster but sometimes much slower than real-world time. [[Special:Contributions/130.160.145.224|130.160.145.224]] 20:51, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

I always thought that Taiwan, Province of China missed a golden opportunity here to establish propaganda that they founded it. Instead they are known as a township in the US. [[Special:Contributions/66.88.136.254|66.88.136.254]] 20:01, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Think of what Jack Bauer could have done with 4 more minutes! {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.101}}

Not all possible attempts to make the calendar simpler would make it as complicated (or worse) than it is. For example, removing one day each from January and August to make February have 30 or 31 like the rest of the months would make the calendar (slightly) simpler and more logical going forward.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.174|173.245.50.174]] 18:39, 7 September 2015 (UTC)
:You'd have to rewrite {{w|Zeller's congruence}} and find a replacement for the {{w|Knuckle mnemonic}}, both of which depend upon the existing pattern, or you'd upset a lot of people!
:For the former, it relies upon the pattern of starting after February and observing that the days are 31,30,31,30,31 for March...July, the same again August...December and starting the same pattern again for January and, as far as it goes, February. Adjusting Zeller to use 12/5ths instead of 13/5ths might work out well. That seems (...back of an envelope calculation) to allow for 31 day months being March, ''June'', August, ''November'' and January (italics were 30 days), all the rest being 30 (demoting four previously 31-day months) except for the leap-February for which the ''extra''-extra-day causes no knock-on-effects.
:But you also ''could'' bring down every month to 30 days (use the factor 10/5ths, or actually just assuming the straight constant shift of +2 weekdays per month without needing to round down anything at all), except February which now has 35-or-36 days.
:(Even simpler, every month other than Feb could be 28 days - see how ''they'' like it, and Feb now be more than double the size to make up for historical wrongs. Which'd be reason enough to retain the year-downshift of Jan/Feb, but otherwise removes any month-number terms in Zeller, just the (adjusted) year-number bits because the year still ≠mod7 days.)
:...but I'd be sad to lose the Knuckles coincidence. Whatever other 'improvememts' you might think I'm suggesting! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.22|172.71.178.22]] 15:27, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

This might be a reference to the old TV show Babylon 5 here, but that's unlikely because the show is never mentioned anywhere else.[[Special:Contributions/208.97.36.166|208.97.36.166]] 3:18, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but it should be noted "1958" could also refer to the Discordian calendar, in which that is the year 3125 (5^5, 5 being the by far most significant number in a religion especially obsessed with numerology).--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.29|141.101.105.29]] 22:10, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

The historical Jewish calendar did have month names; four of them happen to come up in the Old Testament. Some do suspect that the names were only used rarely. The modern Japanese calendar - and I think a few others - does have numbered months only; don't recall if any historical ones do, unfortunately. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.44|141.101.80.44]] 09:53, 8 October 2015 (UTC)

: I agree that the connection to the Jewish (or for that matter Japanese) calendar is nonexistent. Will remove. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 02:58, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

I implemented it at [[https://solarzone1010.github.io/est-clock.html]] (maybe it should be added to the page.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.0.179|172.69.0.179]] 06:47, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

3037: Radon

2025-01-13T21:11:50Z

172.69.0.179: /* Explanation */ more details about the sun

{{comic
| number = 3037
| date = January 13, 2025
| title = Radon
| image = radon_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x291px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = A good ²³⁸Umbrella policy should cover it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Basements can have high levels of radon due to natural decay of U238 from minerals in the earth. The radon accumulates when fresh air does not enter the basement. At high levels this turns deadly, as such {{w|Radon_mitigation|radon mitigation}} is often employed to keep the air safe and breathable.

The sun found in our solar system is an example of G-type main-sequence star, also known as a yellow dwarf, and in 4 to 7 billion years, the sun's outer layers will expand, turning the sun into a red giant. This process will render the Earth uninhabitable for humans within approximately 5 billion years.

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

:[Cueball is on the left, and is approached by Ponytail, who is reading a Geiger counter in her hand and is holding a toolbox in her other hand.]
:Ponytail: Radon levels in your basement are pretty high.
:Ponytail: When was the planet under this home built?

:[Ponytail stops walking and lowers the Geiger counter]
:Cueball: Uhh, about 4½ billion years ago, I think?
:Ponytail: Oof. I was afraid of that.

:Ponytail: This planet was contaminated with uranium it formed. You really should have let it fully decay before building.
:Ponytail: Wait another 100 billion years and these rocks will be fine.

:[Zoom in on Cueball's head]
:Cueball: But the Sun will burn out in 5 billion years.
:Ponytail: Yikes, you built around a short-lived yellow star? What a mess.
:Ponytail: Hope you have good insurance.
[Next Frame]

{{comic discussion}}

3037: Radon

2025-01-13T21:07:12Z

172.69.0.179: /* Explanation */ "radon" is not a proper noun and should not be capitalised

{{comic
| number = 3037
| date = January 13, 2025
| title = Radon
| image = radon_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x291px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = A good ²³⁸Umbrella policy should cover it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Basements can have high levels of radon due to natural decay of U238 from minerals in the earth. The radon accumulates when fresh air does not enter the basement. At high levels this turns deadly, as such {{w|Radon_mitigation|radon mitigation}} is often employed to keep the air safe and breathable.

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

:[Cueball is on the left, and is approached by Ponytail, who is reading a Geiger counter in her hand and is holding a toolbox in her other hand.]
:Ponytail: Radon levels in your basement are pretty high.
:Ponytail: When was the planet under this home built?

:[Ponytail stops walking and lowers the Geiger counter]
:Cueball: Uhh, about 4½ billion years ago, I think?
:Ponytail: Oof. I was afraid of that.

:Ponytail: This planet was contaminated with uranium it formed. You really should have let it fully decay before building.
:Ponytail: Wait another 100 billion years and these rocks will be fine.

:[Zoom in on Cueball's head]
:Cueball: But the Sun will burn out in 5 billion years.
:Ponytail: Yikes, you built around a short-lived yellow star? What a mess.
:Ponytail: Hope you have good insurance.
[Next Frame]

{{comic discussion}}

3004: Wells

2024-10-29T05:32:30Z

172.69.0.179: I'm bad at this, aren't I?

{{comic
| number = 3004
| date = October 28, 2024
| title = Wells
| image = wells_2x.png
| imagesize = 306x402px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = You do have to be careful, though--sometimes, instead of water, you hit this free fuel that you can sell for a lot of money instead.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MAGICALLY WATERLOGGED OIL DRILL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A water {{w|well}} is a hole dug in the ground, deep enough to reach underground {{w|aquifers}}. They have been used for thousands of years as a source of water by people who don't live close to usable surface water sources like rivers and lakes.

This comic pokes fun of the seemingly improbable characteristics of wells; talking about how water "randomly" forms below the surface of the ground and how they "magically" refill themselves. In reality there are complex systems (the {{w|water cycle}}) that dictate the formations of the underground pools that the wells take from and the underground rivers that refill them.

The title text points out that in some cases, people intending to drill water wells instead found oil beds. Oil is a very valuable energy source, so they became very wealthy as a result<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCfGVLKr5oM</ref>. This is the source of the idiom "struck oil" to mean receiving a windfall as a result of a lucky occurrence. But you have to be careful -- if you blindly "drink whatever you find at the bottom", as Megan says, you'll get very sick if it's oil rather than water<ref>https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/injuries-and-poisoning/poisoning/hydrocarbon-poisoning</ref>. Oil tends to be buried much deeper than water.{{cn}}

This theme of things that seem like they shouldn't work but do has also been used in [[2540: TTSLTSWBD]], [[2115: Plutonium]], and [[2775: Siphon]], among others

This comic bears similarity to a [https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/06/11 Calvin and Hobbes comic from 1993] that was popular in Randall's area, in that it points out properties of a common natural drink that can appear disgusting when the underpinnings are left out.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan is on the left hand side and is facing Cueball who is on the right side and facing her. Megan has her left hand raised.]
:Megan: I need water, so I think I'll dig a deep hole and drink whatever liquid I find at the bottom.
:Cueball: What will you do after you drink it all? Dig another hole?
:Megan: I dunno. Hopefully it magically refills itself or something.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's ridiculous that wells work.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geology]]