explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2766: Helium Reserve

2023-04-23T01:31:44Z

172.69.79.137:

So, uh... is the reason he can't say it out loud because he inhaled it all and the squeaky voice would give it away? [[User:LtPowers|LtPowers]] ([[User talk:LtPowers|talk]]) 12:34, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

That was my first thought. [[User:Darthpoppins|Darthpoppins]] ([[User talk:Darthpoppins|talk]]) 12:39, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

What do I say about the person who was in charge of giving me sole control of the helium reserves? I would definitely speak highly of him! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.252|172.70.90.252]] 15:42, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

I think he cannot say anything loud because helium is stored in porous rock underground (here is Tom Scott's video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOy8Xjaa_o8) and it is embarrassing to say that you just pump expensive gas into the ground. not sure tho [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.234|162.158.238.234]] 16:59, 22 April 2023 (UTC)
:Wouldn't that be just as embarassing to write down? "say out loud" clearly implies that the joke is about the squeaky voice. The last paragraph, with the "more realistic explanation", seems unnecessary. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:40, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Side note: [https://www.youtube.com/@theCodyReeder Cody's Lab] created a series of videos where he's not only using lighter-than-air gases, but also heavier-than-air gases. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 20:50, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

I would guess the remark about the government being embarrassed has to with the sell-off of the reserve being a bit of a political football since 1996

2754: Relative Terms

2023-03-27T21:08:02Z

172.69.79.137: /* Explanation */ Spelling. Qualification.

{{comic
| number = 2754
| date = March 24, 2023
| title = Relative Terms
| image = relative_terms_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x442px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Small sewing machines are sewing machines that are smaller than a sewing machine. A sewing machine is larger than a small sewing machine, but quieter than a loud sewing machine.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT THAT IS LARGER THAN A BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The terms "small" and "big" are used to refer to size; the terms "loud" and "quiet" are used to refer to (audial) volume.

While these terms are relative, they are often used even when there is nothing obvious being compared against (e.g. "A windmill is a big thing" or "An ant is a small thing"). This comic humorously suggests that the item defined to be in the middle of all four terms ("neither small nor big; neither quiet nor loud") is a sewing machine, as a sewing machine seems (at least in comparison to the other items on the graph) to be neither particularly big nor particularly small, neither particularly quiet nor particularly loud.

An alternative argument may be that the in the centre would be the average adult human (as this is the perspective from which most people use language), though this observation would lose some of the comic's comedic value.

The center of the chart is a sewing machine, and the comic is claiming that the scales of "loud and quiet" and "big and small" are measured in comparison to a standard size sewing machine. A standard sewing machine is roughly 60dB in volume and approximately 42” X 21”, although this is for industrial machines, and those in the home would be both smaller and quieter.

The title text is humorously tautological because it compares the standard against those things that are themselves defined against the standard.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Small and quiet (upper left)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Ant ||
|-
| Balloon ||
|-
| Book ||
|-
| Bun (rabbit or pastry) || "Bun" is an informal term for a rabbit and a loaf of bread, this comparison was made in [[1871: Bun Alert]]
|-
| Butterfly || This entry is found on the top left corner, corresponding to the extremes of quietness and smallness. Butterflies are small and make little noise.
|-
| Hat ||
|-
| Mouse || A mouse is a very small, quiet animal. This might also be a reference to the expression "quiet as a mouse", meaning very quietly.
|-
| Newt ||
|-
| Pin drop || The expression "hear a pin drop" is used to indicate that an area is exceptionally quiet; the idea is that the space is so silent that even something as insubstantial and tiny as a pin can be heard hitting the ground.
|-
| Snow globe || A {{w|snow globe}} is much smaller than a sewing machine. Some snow globes have a small music box that can be wound up to play a melody. Snow globes without a music box are silent.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Small and loud (upper right)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Baby || Babies are usually considered small, and can be quite loud when they cry.
|-
| Blender || Blenders make a lot of noise when in use. Most household blenders are smaller than a sewing machine.
|-
| Cricket || Top right corner. This would refer to the insect, which is pretty small and can be quite loud; the sport of cricket or a cricket game would be much larger and potentially much louder.
|-
| Fire alarm || The primary purpose of a fire alarm is to notify people of fire, so fire alarms are usually very loud.
|-
| Firecracker || A {{w|Firecracker}} is a small explosive firework that makes a very loud bang when lit.
|-
| Flute ||
|-
| Harmonica ||
|-
| Popcorn ||
|-
| Songbird ||
|-
| Whistle || This is of course the device known as a whistle, as it is small. The act by humans to whistle has no size (other than that of the whistler). A whistle is used functionally in place of a human that whistles. The loudest human whistle ever recorded was 8372 Hz and roughly 110 DB, which is a C9 in the standard musical scale and is roughly as loud as a jackhammer[https://www.vnews.com/West-Lebanon-man-sets-a-world-record-for-whistling-24480844#:~:text=Guinness'%20website%20says%20Stanford%20reached,in%20the%20standard%20musical%20notation.]. Since a whistle should be able to beat this it must be seen as loud.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Big and quiet (lower left)
|-
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Anaconda ||
|-
| Giraffe || Giraffes can be quite loud, but they usually vocalise using frequencies well below the range of human hearing. So, to a human, giraffes are quiet.
|-
| Northern lights || "In 2016, a Finnish study confirmed that the Aurora Borealis does produce a sound that can be heard" [https://www.techexplorist.com/listen-sound-aurora-borealis/47421/]
|-
| Shark ||
|-
| Statue || Most statues are larger than a sewing machine. Most statues are silent, but some have fountains or other devices that make sound.
|-
| The Moon || Lower left corner; the Moon is very, very big{{fact}}, but it is also completely silent as sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space.
|-
| Tree ||
|-
| Windmill ||
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Big and loud (lower right)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Airplane ||
|-
| Cannon ||
|-
| Riding mower ||
|-
| [[wikipedia:Calliope_(music)|Steam calliope]] || A large musical device which functions by sending steam (or more recently compressed air) through attached whistles.
|-
| Train ||
|-
| Tuba ||
|-
| Volcano || Lower right corner. Volcanic eruptions can be extremely loud. The {{w|1883 eruption of Krakatoa}} made a pressure wave of 180 dB, the loudest sound ever recorded.
|-
| Waterfall ||
|-
| Whale ||
|}

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

:[A chart, with "Quiet" to "Loud" on the X-axis, and "Small" to "Big" on the Y-axis. It is split into four quarters, with "Sewing machine" in the center.]

:[Upper left quadrant (Small & Quiet items):] Butterfly, Pin drop, Mouse, Ant, Bun (rabbit or pastry), Snow globe, Newt, Balloon, Book, Hat

:[Upper right quadrant (Small & Loud items):] Popcorn, Cricket, Songbird, Whistle, Baby, Harmonica, Flute, Fire alarm, Blender, Firecracker

:[Lower left quadrant (Big & Quiet items):] Shark, Tree, Anaconda, Giraffe, Statue, Windmill, Northern lights, The Moon

:[Lower right quadrant (Big & Loud items):] Tuba, Riding mower, Cannon, Airplane, Train, Waterfall, Steam calliope, Whale, Volcano

:[Caption below the panel:]
:''Big'', ''Small'', ''Loud'', and ''Quiet'' are relative terms. The thing they're relative to is a sewing machine.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Buns]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Food]]

2754: Relative Terms

2023-03-25T17:53:46Z

172.69.79.137: /* Explanation */ Changed titletext explanation (aside from the grammar/typo that was in it) because it didn't really highlight the key points.

Talk:2748: Radians Are Cursed

2023-03-11T04:16:26Z

172.69.79.137: No love for steradians

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)

Talk:2659: Unreliable Connection

2023-03-04T19:36:36Z

172.69.79.137: Undo revision 307225 by 172.70.114.79 (talk) A naturally dumb attempt to spam about artificial intelligence.

I don’t think this has anything to do with teleconferencing. Am I missing something? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 22:46, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
:Yes. The impliction is that people are expecting you to be available for online communications, and you can use the unreliable Internet connection as an excuse to get out of it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:51, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
::I think it's more about communication in general. He doesn't want anybody calling him or sending him emails, so by saying he has an "unreliable" connection people might assume it will be hard to get in touch with him.
:::Back in the day, email was usually configured so that it could easily overcome such unreliability, and it's still doable,[https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/running-from-home/6459/7] but today email for most people is a web or local client-server app, as opposed to a local mail store in a peer-to-peer app. Even people in urban areas can suffer unreliable internet, when squirrels or backhoes gnaw through data cables, copper theives strike, or 5G mind control base stations are congested. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.143|172.70.210.143]] 23:45, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
:::This could equally cover other instant communication methods where your availability is advertised (e.g. Whatsapp). It could also be about alleviating the social pressure the subject feels to continuously check and immediately respond to messages (including emails), because the immediacy is already hindered by the spotty connection (cf the standard "I will have limited access to email" out of office line, which gives the account owner psychological permission to check it infrequently). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.5|172.70.85.5]] 09:02, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

According to a PhET simulator (https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/plinko-probability/latest/plinko-probability_en.html) for this situation, the ideal standard deviation is 1.732 and ideal mean is 6. I don’t feel like doing the calculations :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.134|172.70.211.134]] 23:34, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
:If we assume 50-50 for each bounce, the probability that internet is off will be about (11 choose 3)/(2^11), or 8%.--[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 23:51, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
::My first thought was, why so complicated? ''If'' each of the twelve switches is equally (and solely) likely to be struck by each ball, it's (100/12)% of the time, or 8⅓%.
::Although the equal-chance is wrong, so you're definitely doing "end up with exactly 7 bounce rights and 3 bounce lefts, but in any combination" or similar are you? I'd have summed it differently, though. And not sure where the choose ''3'' comes in... Just one bounce left off any row-end pin 11 sends to 11 if all others bounce right. Three bounces left hits switch 9, not eight. If I'm counting correctly. Or am I doing telegraph-poles/wires miscounting?
::Too early in the morning for me to untangle. The only thing I'm sure about is your division by 2^11 (how many total paths there are to get down). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.78|172.70.91.78]] 05:00, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:::Me again. I hadn't checked that the transcript (which said it was switch #8) was correct. Have now, and found it to be wrong. Have hence also just corrected the Transcript. So I'm gonna assume your 11-choose-3 is entirely correct after all. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.78|172.70.91.78]] 05:08, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:It's actually 12 switches, not 11, but that doesn't affect the math too much. I originally thought "off" was switch 10, which would have changed the math (to 3%), but that's just the one the current ball hit. The actual "off" switch is switch 9. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]])
::It previously said that there were eleven "on" switches and one "off" switch (which is twelve in total, but it didn't add them up explicitly), and the change to say that there are 12 Ons and 1 Off made it wrong. I corrected/rephrased it (see if you agree with however it looks by the time you get around to reading this) to avoid that reading error (one which happened to me with my own first glance at the phrasing used, but I thought that was just me at the time) without adding any new misinterpretation or easy misinterpretationality.
::The maths above is indeed correct enough. The 2^11 relates to the total number of unique paths it can take (assuming a bounce left/right just enough to strike the nearest offset pin below to force a new left/right bounce choice) from the first divider through to any of the 11 final left-right pin-bounces (and onto the 12 switches, at which point we're not bothered with the bouncing - diagram suggests the balls leap outwards and don't hit any other switches).
::"11 choose 3" is a way how to ask, given 11 items (possible bounces), how many unique and unordered combinations of exactly 3 of these must exist (leftward-bounces, the rest being right-bounces) to filter onto the off-connected switch. (This is the same as "11 choose 8", if you decide to ask how many right-bounces are necessary, the rest being left-bounces.) That could be layer 1 (the 1-pin), 2 (the 2-pins) and 3 (...), before going consistently right to the final strike of the switch, or layers 9+10+11 (after being pure-right 1..8), but with many intermediate tracks across the pin-spacs (165 in total, as it happens; and it would be 55 to hit switch 10. Or 2, instead of 3, if you orientate things the other way round).
:: 165/2048 (paths hitting the off-switch (at #9) divided by all paths that might happen) is a tad over 8%. On the assumption that it's fair and unbiased and you don't get more rattling around than a simple (single half-step) left/right distribution. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.78|172.70.91.78]] 03:20, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

To whomever did [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2659:_Unreliable_Connection&diff=292862&oldid=292861], doesn't [https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2018/8817/pdf/LIPIcs-FUN-2018-26.pdf] prove that symmetrical configurations nearly identical to those shown can produce uniform distributions? They seem to show it's just a matter of horizontal pin spacing. However, I for one can not verify the proof, which uses unusual (novel?) non-Unicode math notation, and a fairly opaque method of proof. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.134|172.70.211.134]] 00:07, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:Not sure, but [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%98%E8%AA%BF%E6%95%B4 this Japanese Wikipedia article] is fascinating. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.213|172.70.206.213]] 01:51, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:Please see section 3.5 on pp. 16-18 of the currently first reference [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.05706.pdf]. I am particularly intrigued by, "Open Problem 2: Is every uniform distribution of output probabilities of the form 1/2k constructible by a 50-50 Pachinko?" on p. 18. However I haven't dived in enough to even know where the parentheses are supposed to be in that expression, yet. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 17:27, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
: Good question! https://ibb.co/sRwGwB9 don't look triangular, but it seems the proof might suggest much more triangular solutions. Worth thinking about! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.115|172.69.33.115]] 21:24, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

What is the chance that the ball will bounce off the first pin, go down the outside of the pins and miss all the switches?
:Probably quite high if it's a bouncy ball. With idealized physics though it'd just hit the leftmost/rightmost switch. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.127|172.70.254.127]] 00:45, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

I would describe the device as a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galton_board. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.109|172.70.230.109]] 00:30, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

I was watching the photo and hover-over text and the image disappeared and "Unreliable Connection" showed up in its place. I don't know how often this happens.
: Very neat if not a fluke! Can anyone replicate this experience on https://xkcd.com ? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.134|172.70.211.134]] 14:21, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

"An added source of humour is that Randall could likely achieve the same effect by looking through the router's settings - which most modern ones have a feature to turn on and off at scheduled times - or via purchasing a smart power strip." But by using these other methods, the connection would still be reliable. If it goes out at regular or pre-scheduled intervals then you know when it will be available or not, hence reliable. I think the joke here is that the contraption does in fact make the connection unreliable. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.77|172.70.114.77]] 14:18, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
: Addressed at [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2659:_Unreliable_Connection&diff=292926&oldid=292924]. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 14:44, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:(Edit conflicted by at least the above, but my answer to the same question...) From a user POV, unless they happen to know that at 11:53 each day (and 12:14, 15:02, 15:07, 16:31, etc...) the scheduler disables tracfic for one (or two, or three) minutes, it is still unreliable, if ultimately predictable ''once you know'' the schedule, having seen it go round a few times and taken note. Similarly a timered power-strip could be used (or even several, in serial, the two or three daily interventions by the first also stopping and delaying the subsequent strips' interventions, making their timings uneven, further down the chain) and until you got the pattern it might as well be 'random', not entirely deterministic. (I'm wondering about some OR-gate-like/etc implementation, so power can pass by at least one parallel timer-shut-off to maintain power at the lower levels while ''some'' mid-way timers get depowered and thus 'shuffled' in interesting ways, and the resulting single output is governed by an intricate multi-dependent set of routes, but I bet an electrician would be wary about wiring that up...)
:You could hack (or patch) the management firmware to be a bit more (pseudo)random about it, though it would still be pseudorandom LFSR/Xorshift with a (long) repetition cycle.
:Or make it dependant upon an external factor (if the modulo 12 of the cumulative sum of all observed packet-destination IPs is zero, shut off for the five times the prior modulo 12 test value, in seconds..?), but that's ''practically'' the pachinko solution but with software hacking rather than hardware-making/hacking as per the comic.
:More effort is needed to make it ultimately unpredictable, but it can still be considered unreliable if it goes out just when you 'want' it.... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.5|172.70.85.5]] 15:02, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

For real though, isn't this kind of a good idea? [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 14:34, 16 August 2022 (UTC)
:Talk to edtech people in the {{w|MOOC}} space and they will tell you asynchronous is worth it, but talk to people who study educational quality factors like time to receive answers to unanticipated questions, and they will have different ideas. [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 14:44, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

Does anyone have an openWRT (or other) implementation of this feature yet?
:You can induce it on stock firmware without reflashing, but you need to know the parameters like how often balls come out of the hopper, and what exactly the on/off switches do. As pseudocode:
::<tt>#!/bin/sh</tt>
::<tt>while true ; do</tt>
:::<tt>sleep </tt>''seconds''
:::<tt>if [ `rand100` -le 8 ] ; then</tt>
::::<tt>wifictrl off</tt>
:::<tt>else</tt>
::::<tt>wifictrl on</tt>
:::<tt>fi</tt>
::<tt>done</tt>
:[[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 00:38, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

There are spaces between the button that the balls can fall into, and this could complicate the stuff a bit. However if the ratio between probability of hitting ON and probability of hitting OFF remain the same (1883:165), the average OFF time will still be the same (165/2048 of the time). The behavior that the network is switching between ON and OFF will probably be changed though. [[User:Lamty101|Lamty101]] ([[User talk:Lamty101|talk]]) 04:44, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

I would have expected the negative reviews to have mentioned all the balls on the floor and perhaps the need to periodically refill the hopper. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 16:18, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
:If it's a Pachinko machine instead of just a Galton board, then refilling the hopper is done automatically by robotics behind the back wall of the device. Someday remind me to tell you about the Japanese recession caused by out-of-work hopper refillers when that innovation was introduced. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.95|172.70.206.95]] 02:12, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

2727: Runtime

2023-01-21T20:02:51Z

172.69.79.137: /* Explanation */ various grammar things / a timescale detail

{{comic
| number = 2727
| date = January 20, 2023
| title = Runtime
| image = runtime_2x.png
| imagesize = 399x389px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = At least there's a general understanding all around that Doctor Who is its own thing.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by (OCEAN'S) EIGHT BAD MOVIES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic presents two separate conversations, which boil down to the same premise and yet differing conclusions. In one, a particular TV show is being watched, in the other a film franchise.

While it is finding its feet, a new season of a television show (perhaps commissioned, on the back of some perceived interest in the story it will tell, for a dozen or so episodes of around 50 minutes - i.e. about ten hours at a minimum) is not necessarily going to get everything right in the writing style, the slant it puts on the subject matter, the cast of characters or other production values. Or at least not for mass appeal to the everyman, for whom [[Cueball]] is the archetypal representative. Nevertheless, the series ''did'' get further seasons, and [[White Hat]] (the optimist, and clearly won over by the production) is on the way to successfully convincing Cueball to view the series, or perhaps to continue to watch it after becoming jaded by its early failure to live up to its promise. It sounds reasonable to Cueball, just from his friend's recommendation, to get over the hump and appreciate it "when it gets good".

A series of films, however, are seemingly a different matter. By substituting 10+ hours of filmed-for-television with something more cinematic, the prospect of getting over the exact same scale of 'hump' in a long-running set of sequels (eight films at a not unreasonable average length of 85 minutes each would ''also'' require ten hours of commitment), is not at all enticing.

The mention of “after the first 8 movies” might be a reference to the long-running Fast and the Furious franchise, which now has 9 movies (plus a couple of spin-offs) at the time of this comic’s publication. The more recent movies are well-reviewed (rated “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes), even though the first four were widely panned by critics. Someone like Randall, who may have ignored the franchise when it first came out in 2001, may be wondering if he should watch the more recent ones that critics generally like; and, if so, does he need to catch up on the initial movies first?

The title text talks of the long-running British TV series that is {{w|Doctor Who}}. The original Doctor Who, running from 1963-1989 was typically low budget, for its time and locality, though initially considered cutting edge in many ways. Compared to more modern classics, and especially Hollywood sci-fi, it would be noticably not as good. The revived series (2005-present) has a much higher production budget and is typically much more aligned to modern viewers, who may wilfully ignore or not even know of the older episodes. Someone just starting to watching Doctor Who sequentially from the ''very'' first season (broadcast in 1963) would have to watch hundreds of episodes (26 'seasons', by some counts) before the series "gets good" to modern eyes, if the {{tvtropes|GrowingTheBeard|"good" point}} is the 2005 series revival, or even quite a few to reach any given key point in the original run. Thus Doctor Who is considered to be its own thing, and unlike other shows where the fans recommend you suffer through a poor first season to enjoy improvement in subsequent seasons, {{w|Whovians}} might recommend potential new fans to begin with the 2005 reboot (technically the 27th season), which was produced to appeal to all new-comers without even necessarily any cultural knowledge of what had been broadcast up until the long hiaitus a decade and a half before.

There is also the wrinkle that anyone wishing to start with the original run would be out of luck, seeing as many early episodes - before the late-70s - were {{w|Doctor Who missing episodes|lost forever}}. The BBC didn't see any value in keeping them as they couldn't rerun them, so random episodes would be disposed of or recycled for various reasons, and those episodes are gone, making many stories incomplete. Some have been recovered through discovering some fan having recorded them (in fact, the ''audio'' for every single episode has been preserved) but most lost episodes remain lost.

It is vague about Randall's precise opinion, but even the most dedicated fan would acknowledge that it has had a varying quality/charm/consistency/etc, according to one's personal tastes for such things. Comparing the original run (pre-Millenium, featuring seven key actors sequentially taking on the title role, and another for a standalone TV-movie) with the revived series (continuing the pattern with a further seven title-actors, and the eighth already announced), and any number of 'show-runners' (producers, main writers, etc) is one possible point of contention, probably more suited to British viewers. Possibly, in Randall's case, it is just the (perceived) ups and downs in the more recent era, which has been more consistently screened in the US.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Two situations are depicted between White Hat and Cueball.]
:[Situation 1:]
:White Hat: You should keep watching! After the first season it gets really good.
:Cueball: Oh yeah, I've heard that!
:[Situation 2:]
:White Hat: You should keep watching! After the first 8 movies, they get really good.
:Cueball: Haha, what? I'm not going to sit through '''''eight''''' bad movies!
:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's weird how it's way more normal and socially acceptable to suggest someone spend 10-15 hours watching something when it's TV rather than movies.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Doctor Who]]

Talk:2712: Gravity

2023-01-16T11:35:15Z

172.69.79.137:

this game is really hard...i got stuck on the sun, then tried again and got sucked into a black hole.[[User:(insert name here)|(insert name here)]] ([[User talk:(insert name here)|talk]]) 06:34, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

Whatever image is supposed to be in the center isn't showing up for me! D: Tried on both Safari and Chrome but it gives me the little broken picture icon. Hopefully it's fixed soon! (The comic's been up for about 10 minutes going by when the bot updated this page.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.117|172.70.126.117]] 22:28, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Is it me or are the planets way too close together, and if the gravity were real, they'd all smush together?

: The center image is trying to load this link, but there's nothing there: https://xkcd.com/tile/ship1/ship_gliding_2x.png. I hope that gets fixed soon. The "ship" seems to rotate a bit unpredictably over time. At first I thought it was responding to my mouse movements, but I don't think so anymore. [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 22:34, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
:: Still broken on the mobile site (Chrome, Android). I just see a rotating missing image box. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.133|172.71.134.133]] 11:39, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

: Ah, the center image is controlled by the javascript, of course: https://xkcd.com/2712/comic.js. So this is some sort of interactive comic? [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 22:36, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

: Okay, left/right arrow keys seem to control the rotation. I'll check back in later in hopes of seeing the ship so I have some idea what the point of it all is. [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 22:39, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

: And now it's working. You fly a little spaceship around the little planet. Luckily you have shields if you slam into the ground too hard. [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 22:43, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

: Catch the cannonball for a spaceship upgrade. Also, not so easy to find a stable orbit around this little planet. [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 22:49, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Found another planet (has a reference to the "Tires" chapter in How To) with a cannonball, which turned me into an astronaut.

You can transform the ship into a different (seems faster to me) one by running into the last cannon ball.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.249|108.162.241.249]]

Rough summary: The comic is an interactive space flight game, starting landed on an origin planet. The planet is static, and the player starts in a ship controlled by WASD or Directional keys. The ship can go up and down, and rotate left and right. Game simulates orbits and gravity, making navigation tricky. Around the player ship there are dots which indicate nearby planets - there are numurous planets, each with what seem to be drawings related to the What If book. Within the browser, planets are loaded in PNG format by chunk, names formatted as "planet_0_0" with numbers incrementing as grid co-ordinates. Planets and objects found: "origin" "europa", "road", "b612". NOTE: Several hazards exist, such as a field of black holes - if flown into, the ship can become stuck if let to be pulled close to the surface, locking in place. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.230|172.70.110.230]] 23:13, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

: Within browser dev console exists the objects "Ship" and "Comic", the latter containing a list of all objects and coordinates, as well as various setting for the game physics and settings. Comic contains the sub-object "Voyager", which contains the details and settings for the player ship, including location, speed, etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.230|172.70.110.230]] 23:13, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

:: There are 5 ship types in the game code, each with their own consumable transformative found in the world. The ship alternatives are (ship1, ship2, ship-tintin, ship-figure, ship-soccerball). These can be changed with console command [Comic.ship = "ship1"]. Note: At current, "ship-soccerball" returns an error and does not load correctly. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.230|172.70.110.230]] 23:13, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

:: The "ship.shields" is a boolean value that defaults to true, and when set to false, makes the game behave in a lunar lander mode (bad landing black screens the whole page). The "ship.engine" types I see in the code are "warp" (very fast speeds) and "infinite improbability drive" (teleports to 'improbable' places). Default engine is "standard", but it seems any value that is not the former two has the same effect. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.165|172.70.254.165]] 23:32, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

: In addition to Europa, the space road, and B-612, there is the "Edge of the Universe" (complete with Milliways restaurant nearby), a... tree (which is extremely hard to land on), a planet populated by the characters from Dinosaur Comics (and the main cast of Jurassic Park), the USS Enterprice (NCC 1701-C), and likely quite a bit more. Orbital mechanics make it tough to land on the smaller targets. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.46|172.71.254.46]] 23:07, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

:: Plus what appears to be Earth, complete with the LHC. There's a 2nd "cannonball" there for an additional ship upgrade, but at the time I found it, that graphic was unavailable. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.232|172.70.126.232]] 23:15, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
:: "Edge of the Universe" is part of "Outside". There is a hidden tunnel from the main universe to the bubble universe at coordinates (7597,24327) point nose of ship at words "EDGE OF THE" and fire thrusters. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.160|162.158.79.160]] 03:59, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

: I went out a long ways away, and eventually found The Great Attractor. It attracts really hard. I couldn't leave the surface. (I wasn't able to leave the center of Europa either, though, so, not saying much.) There are also some terrifying black holes (a binary system?), though something's weird about their gravity; you kinda bounce off of them a quarter screen away or so? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.77|108.162.216.77]] 23:10, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
:: I *think* thats a wormhole, you go in one and then out the other. I got stuck right between them. Speaking of getting stuck, there is a bug where if you hit a planet with enough gravity fast enough, the ship is inside the planet. Holding W makes you go backwards (or at least towards the center maybe?) and you can get all the way to the other end of the planet where you slow down a lot, but can eventually leave. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.82.166|172.70.82.166]] 23:19, 16 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

::There's one planet that's supposed to be the "remnant of the sun", is that what you mean with The Great Attractor? (It has a bridge on it with a coin(?) blocking part of the way, and a space ship actively crashing into its surface, drawn as several frames.) You can leave that by skidding over the surface like a skipping stone to gather momentum - it's tricky, due to various obstacles, but possible! (It's possible you need two ship power-ups?! If they're indeed power-ups and not just aesthetic changes, I didn't pay attention.)

:::No, it's labeled "The Great Attractor". It's big and white and has strong gravity. Lemme see if I have a screenshot. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.25|108.162.216.25]] 00:20, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
:::Here: https://github.com/Erhannis/random_garbage/blob/main/Screenshot%20from%202022-12-16%2017-47-48.png [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.25|108.162.216.25]] 00:24, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

::Screenshot of [https://imgur.com/a/NZulBlb the Enterprise] and [https://imgur.com/2VSZYp7 Dinosaur Comics planet]. Sorry for the broken image in the middle, I picked up two powerups and [https://xkcd.com/2712/tile/ship-soccerball/ship_landing_down_2x.png my current ship image is broken]. -(pinkgothic) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.143|172.68.110.143]] 23:22, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
:::[https://i.imgur.com/fLU1cWy.png Dog Park planet] [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.114|172.71.254.114]] 23:28, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Using a tablet (no keyboard, but seems to respond to touch), controls are confusing. Presuming that touching bottom left activates left-rotate and touching bottom right does right-rotate (can't see the presumably white-lije controls over the white planet) but I can't get ''thrust'' anything but 'reverse' into the planet centre. No obvious top-edge hotspots, either. Maybe I need to do a "You will not go to space today" and then reverse ''upward''... BRB, after a bit more testing, though... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.185|172.69.79.185]] 23:39, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
:Ok, the next go went 'better'. The browser keeps wanting to load "simplified content", but if I ignore that I can get full-screen, at one point I changed rocket-type (no idea how, can't do it again) and I ''easily'' get off the planet (hard to thrust just enough to get to the Hooke comment/cannon), with plenty of targets coming in range (but cannot slow down enough to not have it glitch and rebuild a totally new set of targets that I never can reach). Will try desktop version when I'm next on a suitable one... Looks to be a lot of interesting content. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.30|162.158.74.30]] 23:53, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Using the developer console, the ship can be teleported to different coordinates via console command [Comic.voyager.pos.x = 0, Comic.voyager.pos.y = -1461], provided here with start location coordinates. This can be used for manual navigation to known coordinates. List of locations per game code added below, append landing X,Y to each as determined. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.230|172.70.110.230]] 23:42, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

b612: [5280,-7601] dogplanet: [2598,-23168] earth: [33803,-32974] enterprise: [1898,-61215] europa: [24930,8022] goodhart: [-23372,5928] greatattractor: [-594782,248510] japanmoon: [x,y] maw1: [x,y] maw2: [x,y] maw3: [x,y] maw4: [x,y] maw5: [x,y] maw6: [x,y] maw7: [x,y] maw8: [x,y] maw9: [x,y] maw10: [x,y] maw11: [x,y] maw13: [x,y] maw14: [x,y] nojapan: [x,y] origin: [0, -1461] peeler: [x,y] pigeons: [x,y] present: [x,y] remnant: [x,y] roads: [x,y] soupiter: [x,y] steerswoman: [x,y] sun: [x,y]

Note: For ease of teleportation, reference the ''Comic.planetRects'' array and use the first two numbers as X,Y. This will get the ship close enough to the object to then land and determine a landed location, via ''Comic.voyager.pos''

In your developer console, enter <code>window.ship.engines = 'infinite improbability drive'</code> and pressing up will randomly teleport you to interesting places.
<code>window.ship.engines = 'warp'</code> will let you escape normally inescapable objects.

Unfortunately, the infinite improbability drive will sometimes result in an object's image and geometry failing to load. The same bug can occur with a manual teleportation too close to an object. For convenience, here are a list of coordinates which put you relatively close to various locations, but far enough away to trigger the object's loading:
'''Major Locations:''' origin: (0, -1500); dogplanet: (2480, -23484); earth: (28720, -36912); europa: (26360, 984); goodhart: (-26600, 2424); greatattractor: (-594000, 247952); qwantz: (22120, -51788); remnant: (39240, -9648); soupiter: (-16000, 16032); steerswoman: (-70140, 2952); sun: (-29900, -32352); Bubble Universe: (5000,21000);
'''Smaller Locations:''' b612: (5220, -8424); japanmoon: (-11860, 10576); nojapan: (-15360, 10676); enterprise: (2020, -61904); outside: (250,28500); peeler: (-18540, -2264); pigeons: (-18040, 3956); present: (45640, 36816); roads: (26480, 23500); light mode toggle: (1500,-200000)
'''Black Holes:''' maw1: (-63152, 17130); maw2: (-60422, 16638); maw3: (-55950, 15508); maw4: (-59092, 14918); maw5: (-59582, 14238); maw6: (-58656, 14126); maw7: (-59400, 13828); maw8: (-58330, 13296); maw9: (-61544, 12796); maw10: (-59032, 11618); maw11: (-58762, 11472); maw12: (-53664, 10832); maw13: (-63486, 8424); maw14: (-52142, 20624);

Also, I found the following javascript function helpful for teleporting around. <code>function tp(x,y){ Comic.voyager.pos.x = x; Comic.voyager.pos.y = y; Comic.voyager.pos.vx = 0; Comic.voyager.pos.vy = 0;}</code> --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.233|172.70.126.233]] 03:06, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

If anyone wants to download the planet images, they're at https://xkcd.com/2712/tile/<name>_i_j.png, for i,j = 0, 1, ..., going as high as needed for the planet size. For example, https://xkcd.com/2712/tile/origin_3_3.png gives the bottom-right part of the start planet.

; Proposal
It seems the most explanatory thing we can do is replace the blank starfield with the starting image screenshot, and label its four corners with their x and y coordiates, and then make a table of all the objects with their coordinates, a screenshot, and a description of their behaviors. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.204|172.70.206.204]] 23:55, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
: A map with insets would be better than coordinates since the frame rotates. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.231|172.71.158.231]] 00:17, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
:: Here are some overview images: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UPJ1_4xNQbsHVP5FplrTaVJa3e6WddjG The Great Attractor is much farther out than most of the planets. So I've also included a more zoomed-in image that doesn't include it. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.38|172.70.127.38]] 07:35, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Got images for all the locations: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CVADHsRgBtDPYca-gdfVwNW_nEsrJ-zj?usp=share_link [[User:Clam|Clam]] ([[User talk:Clam|talk]]) 00:03, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Looks like I was beat to the punch, but here's another way to access the raw images (on a dark background): https://aeromancer.dev/xkcd_2712/ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.90|172.70.211.90]] 01:15, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I’ve been able to glitch into the center of planets, but the ones with lower gravity I can get out of. I did this unintentionally by going headfirst into one really fast.

[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11pP8VbYkJDDWUOIFhUHO_DZmEbd9_E56 Here's] a version of the images on the starfields! Figured it would be the closest thing. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.29|172.70.111.29]] 02:23, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

; Table system
I've added the graph from good'ol hoverboard. Here's the format to add stuff.
|-

|Title, perhaps in triple apostrophes if they're a major feature, not on top of another planet.

|Transcription for people talking in that area. Don't do this for planets.

|Coordinates. 172.70.126.233 has a comment on a ton of coordinates and locations which need to be added. I don't know how he does that science stuff, but use it!

|Is it a reference to What If 2? Put a Y here if so.

|Is it a reference to XKCD? Put a Y here if so.

|Is it a reference to a movie? Put a Y here if so.

|Is it a reference to something else? Put a Y here is so. Leave these empty if not.

|Put the explanation here.

Please help out on adding stuff! There's a lot! Remove the newlines from in between the lines. I had to add those for them to format right.
[[User:Eelitee|Eelitee]] ([[User talk:Eelitee|talk]]) 04:33, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

OHNO
172.70.126.233 coordinates for teleportation specifically. I didn't read it right and put them in... I'm going through the data dump to try and extract them. Sorry!!
[[User:Eelitee|Eelitee]] ([[User talk:Eelitee|talk]]) 04:37, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Alright, fixed. A few things I'm thinking about to do next, but I don't have time for:
1. Add gravitation attractions in a new column. They're all in the json dump, I suggest using a json viewer for more convenience. Or doing some coding?
2. Add item locations. This one is important, as items are a major feature.
3. Organize the items, either by alphabetical, or by distance from Earth. This might be hard...
4. Get details in! We need more information. This is the most important by far, get to work! haha.

GL, HF!

[[User:Eelitee|Eelitee]] ([[User talk:Eelitee|talk]]) 04:48, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I'm was adding the "Y" tags for the different bodies, do we want to add a "Y" if there is any of that reference on the planet (for the planet row in the chart) or only add the Y on the specific comic fragments or POIs on the planet? On the one hand it seems like it would be helpful to see what kind of references are on a planet overall, but I also feel that it could quickly turn into every planet having every single box checked. Also, I feel we need a 2nd box for what if 1 vs what if 2, as well as TE and HT. I haven't explored the map very much yet, but if there are a lot of ST/SW/LR references they may need to be separated from movies, similar to the abbreviation system on hoverboard. I don't edit a lot and I have only edited "new" pages once or twice so if anyone has any advice or issues with what I have added feel free to add your opinions here. Thanks!

;Unlisted Planet
Hi all, first time poster so sorry if I'm formatting this wrong. I found a planet at (46070, 37936) which doesn't seem to be listed yet, and I didn't see it in the comics.js output or the google drive link from [[User:Clam|Clam]]. It's very small and has characters talking about the new book https://drive.google.com/file/d/19lfN8N06s18mKUhFkPcFddKYEXApAED4/view?usp=share_link Have we already accounted for this, and if not does anyone know where we might find a listing including this planet and possibly others like it? [[User:Jgendelgreen|Jgendelgreen]] ([[User talk:Jgendelgreen|talk]]) 06:07, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

No, you're doing alright. If you find something new, just add it to the list. Other people will correct it if it's wrong!
You can find a listing using the json dump that was posted underneath the list. I may have deleted the listing for that one accidentally... oops...
[[User:Eelitee|Eelitee]] ([[User talk:Eelitee|talk]]) 06:17, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Oh cool thanks! I think the one I found is "present"[[User:Jgendelgreen|Jgendelgreen]] ([[User talk:Jgendelgreen|talk]]) 06:23, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I wish to note that I'm using Safari on an iPad, which usually can't touch the interactive comics (I know hoverboard was a whole lot of nothing), for this one I can turn the rockets on and off, that's it. Seems like my path is predetermined, on autopilot (turns here then there, first time in an S, with nothing in sight to be modifying my flight). The first time I was going pretty fast, rockets off, then I turned them back on right before I blasted past SOME planet, flitted by in a blink, so I'm hoping to find it again, but I have no control except Thrust or No Thrust. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 07:12, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
:Check that, NOW if I tap the left side I get the right thruster and vice versa! Hey, I have control! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 07:24, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
::Found Jurassic Park planet and Dog Park planet, then found the sun, saw SOMEBODY saying something but I skidded to a stop too far away, and no, escape is NOT possible. I'm in the default rocket and turning on the thrusters just gives a little hop, not enough to then tun on ONE thruster to actually change position. I am unquestionably STUCK, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 07:42, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
:Does anyone know what [https://imgur.com/a/j7BAMrF this little island] is called? It's near the roads. It's been described as ''"A tree larger than the planet it's growing on"'' on the main page's table. -(pinkgothic) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.241|198.41.242.241]] 00:59, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
:: It's the "roads" tree planet, because the roads through portals need a center to show up as a point on the ship's mini-map system. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.205|172.70.214.205]] 08:58, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

;Cosmic topology?
Does space wrap around horizontally and vertically in a torus like the Atari ''Asteroids'' video game, or does it go on forever in all directions? If the former, how many times the area of the initial comic is it? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.159|172.71.154.159]] 07:33, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
: I've gotten to X = 1,000,000, no signs of wrapping around. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.189.113|172.70.189.113]] 22:52, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
:I think so... Or rather it's like an edge. ONCE I was flying a long distance, then something seemed odd and the page refreshed itself and I was back at the launchpad. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:44, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

;Game breaker
I found out that if run `ship.shields = false` and touch anything, the screen goes black forever.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.4|172.70.179.4]] 14:49, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

;Light mode

I don't see any mention yet of the "Light mode" button at X=1500, Y=-200000; it's clickable and inverts black and white for the comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.83|172.71.30.83]] 07:50, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
:I actually came across it a few days ago. I'm pretty sure I found it by holding down the thrusters from the starting position, but now that just sends me crashing into the USS Enterprise (and not even at the same angle every time, maybe due to lag) so either the position of something got changed or I'm remembering what I did wrong. [[User:SitkaFox|SitkaFox]] ([[User talk:SitkaFox|talk]]) 03:56, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

;More console shenanigans

Executing <code>window.python('import antigravity');</code> (referencing xkcd #353) in the console does what it says: gravity is reversed. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.83|172.71.30.83]] 07:50, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

;observations
this three-quarters planet seems to be impossible to get out of without the "warp" engines if you get in the center: https://i.imgur.com/tMchAa1.png

: Planet is not supposed to be three quarters, I'm guessing one of the tiles did not load for some reason. See [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wZSvRgB2dw03Md30PfDdSU03quygRVEw/view here]. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.69|172.70.35.69]] 18:08, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

i also got stuck in one planet by descending toward it very quickly https://i.imgur.com/9ilmtdK.png - in this state, descending and turning do nothing, but accelerating (pressing up) makes me slowly move downward and lets me turn very slowly

--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.7|172.70.114.7]] 15:01, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

also, i went toward this planet (downward) at high speed and became knit cap somehow https://i.imgur.com/JlRFuy4.png --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.160|172.70.230.160]] 15:16, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Instead of there being a wide "references" column with 4 sub-columns, I think it should be just a "references" column with what the reference is as the text, instead of it being a boolean. This also allows for more detail such as "What If 2, chapter 94: What if I made up a chapter name" or something like that [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.22|172.71.22.22]] 15:46, 17 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

There is a planet at {x: 34704, y: -25501} with a space elevator attached to it. In that same planet, at {x: 31682, y: -34551}, there's a guy complaining about the framerate being "really bad out today"; the screen will stutter if you fly by him.

I think that the planet labeled "Earth" in the table is actually Mars. Apparently it has two asteroids orbiting it. [[User:N-eh|N-eh]] ([[User talk:N-eh|talk]]) 19:45, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
:I questioned if it's actually Earth too, but if you mess around in the Console it's called "earth" in the code and can teleport there by name. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:44, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

I managed to stitch the tiles for each location and therefore created a complete image of each of the 34 locations. Where can I upload this to? I uploaded the code here: https://github.com/roee30/xkcd-scripts
: Is it possible to make a google maps type zoomable version of your images like [http://xkcd-map.rent-a-geek.de/] is for [[1110: Click and Drag]]? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.123|172.71.166.123]] 22:54, 18 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

It already exists!
See : https://old.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/zo07ji/xkcd_2712_static_and_zoomable/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.39|172.70.242.39]] 22:02, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

== What if 2 planet ==

It's got a dinosaur being offered a hamburger, a person firing a cannon (one cannonball nearly goes into orbit) and if you can get yourself struck by one of the cannonballs the ship transforms.

I'm not sure if the transformed ship is BETTER, but it is different.

--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.52|172.70.131.52]] 17:19, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I turned the ship into a person (Megan?) by hitting the cannonball next to the "HMMM Spiders!" [[User:SQB|SQB]] ([[User talk:SQB|talk]]) 16:46, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

== Underneath Europa's Crust ==

I managed to clip through the icy crust of Europa to the sea underneath (by flying at the planet really fast)... and there's stuff *down* here. Neat!

I'll update the table accordingly. [[User:TwilightWorlds|TwilightWorlds]] ([[User talk:TwilightWorlds|talk]]) 19:51, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

; I noticed some text that isn't written down on the transcript anywhere. Apologies if I'm doing something wrong, I've never contributed before. Here is the link to a screenshot of what I found. Not sure where it is, but hopefully it looks familiar. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11z1_mChMlWr2ZgJCksXEWiY17vosoMlI/view?usp=sharing

Maybe I'm crazy, but is it possible that the positions of some objects have been changed since the comic was posted? The other day, if I flew straight up from the starting point never disabling the engine, I'd get flung around by some gravity wells before being flung out in a direction that would, eventually, lead me right past the 'light mode' button. Today, however, I always end up crashing into the USS Enterprise, and to add to the weirdness, I don't even hit it at the same angle every time. Also, I hope I'm signing this right, it's my first post. [[User:SitkaFox|SitkaFox]] ([[User talk:SitkaFox|talk]]) 23:45, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I noticed that the coordinates in the game code are not the same as the coordinates given by <code>[Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y]</code>. To convert between the two, multiply the x-coordinate by 2 and the y-coordinate by -2. [[User:Hdjensofjfnen|Hdjensofjfnen]] ([[User talk:Hdjensofjfnen|talk]]) 00:01, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
: of which one? voyager x pos = 2 * in game x pos? or in game x pos = 2 * voyager x pos?

"Europa's crust, with a single entrance into the core demarcated by an octopus leaving a hole." - the entrance design is quite a lookalike to the sea level boundaries in ZX Spectrum computer game Scuba Dive from 1983, with octopus guarding the entrance.

== Stitched together image? ==

Would it be difficult to scrape the coords of everything and stitch it together into one large image/something with zoom-in and out a la those made for [[1110: Click and Drag]]?[[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.122|172.71.166.122]] 00:25, 18 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
: or maybe at least some zoom-out thing i can put into the console? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.64|172.71.30.64]] 00:35, 18 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
The pictures are tiles 1024*1024 px, file name as https://xkcd.com/2712/tile/origin_3_3.png, the last two digits varying from 0 to planet size. Done it for Origin but it seems I can't upload a file (?) [[User:Biem|Biem]] ([[User talk:Biem|talk]]) 08:09, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

Already working on this [[User:Majko|Majko]] ([[User talk:Majko|talk]]) 17:14, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

Done: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12ZxoMn4Val_9ccJKKE7OMYkfSq54ectq?usp=sharing (turned out it would be a HUGE image so the planets are separate files). I leave adding it to the page to whoever has the permission to upload files here. [[User:Majko|Majko]] ([[User talk:Majko|talk]]) 19:24, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

Basic Zoomable Version here: https://old.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/zo07ji/xkcd_2712_static_and_zoomable/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.46|172.71.254.46]] 04:33, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

== Different coordinate systems ==

Coordinates in the game you use to teleport are 2 per pixel ([1000, 0] is 500 pixels from the origin). Coordinates in the json file are 1 per pixel. Should the coordinates in the page be adjusted to be in the "teleport coordinates"? [[User:Majko|Majko]] ([[User talk:Majko|talk]]) 17:14, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

== Navigation display ==

I created a simple “navigation panel” to show my current coordinates and velocity; write this into the developer console:
<pre>
document.getElementById('bottom').innerHTML += '<div id="coorddisplay" style="position:fixed;top:0;left:0;width:30em;height:2em;background:white;border:1px black solid"></div>';
setInterval(function() { document.getElementById('coorddisplay').innerText = `${Comic.voyager.pos.x.toFixed(2)}, ${Comic.voyager.pos.y.toFixed(2)}; ${Comic.voyager.pos.vx.toFixed(3)}, ${Comic.voyager.pos.vy.toFixed(3)}` }, 500)
</pre>
--[[User:Mormegil|Mormegil]] ([[User talk:Mormegil|talk]]) 09:00, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

I've expanded on Mormegil's idea to provide a distance to other planets and objects as well, including the light mode button!

<pre>

function round2(num) {
return Math.round(num * 100) / 100;
}
function distanceTo(ax, ay) {
return Math.sqrt(Math.pow(ax - pos.x,2) + Math.pow(ay - pos.y, 2))
}
function planetIsNearby(p) {
const [px,py] = p.loc()
d = distanceTo(px, py)
const isNearby = d < p.radius * 5;
return [d, isNearby]
}
function compareDistances(pd1, pd2) {
return pd1.d - pd2.d;
}
function objectIsNearby(o) {
d = distanceTo(o.x, o.y)
const isNearby = d < 250;
return [d, isNearby]
}

comic = window.Comic
voyager = comic.voyager
opts = voyager.opts
pos = voyager.pos
remainingObjects = [...opts.objects];

let planets = [
{"id":"b612","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":82,"gravity":60,"x":5220,"y":-7400},
{"id":"dogplanet","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":337,"gravity":600,"x":2480,"y":-22460},
{"id":"earth","width":16384,"height":16384,"radius":3275,"gravity":21000,"x":28720,"y":-28720},
{"id":"enterprise","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":160,"gravity":200,"x":2020,"y":-60880},
{"id":"europa","width":8192,"height":8192,"radius":1625,"gravity":5000,"x":26360,"y":5080},
{"id":"goodhart","width":8192,"height":8192,"radius":1625,"gravity":9000,"x":-26600,"y":6520},
{"id":"greatattractor","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":800,"gravity":450000,"x":-594000,"y":250000},
{"id":"japanmoon","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":67,"gravity":50,"x":-11860,"y":11600},
{"id":"maw1","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-63152,"y":18154},
{"id":"maw10","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":15,"gravity":2000,"x":-59032,"y":12642},
{"id":"maw11","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":12,"gravity":2000,"x":-58762,"y":12496},
{"id":"maw12","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-53664,"y":11856},
{"id":"maw13","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-63486,"y":9448},
{"id":"maw14","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-52142,"y":21648},
{"id":"maw2","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-60422,"y":17662},
{"id":"maw3","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-55950,"y":16532},
{"id":"maw4","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-59092,"y":15942},
{"id":"maw5","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-59582,"y":15262},
{"id":"maw6","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-58656,"y":15150},
{"id":"maw7","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-59400,"y":14852},
{"id":"maw8","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-58330,"y":14320},
{"id":"maw9","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-61544,"y":13820},
{"id":"nojapan","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":200,"gravity":80,"x":-15360,"y":11700},
{"id":"origin","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":630,"gravity":2300,"x":0,"y":0},
{"id":"outside","width":16384,"height":16384,"radius":125,"gravity":200,"x":0,"y":29000},
{"id":"peeler","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":40,"gravity":50,"x":-18540,"y":-1240},
{"id":"pigeons","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":160,"gravity":100,"x":-18040,"y":4980},
{"id":"present","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":195,"gravity":300,"x":45640,"y":37840},
{"id":"qwantz","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":850,"gravity":1400,"x":22120,"y":-49740},
{"id":"remnant","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":537,"gravity":9000,"x":39240,"y":-7600},
{"id":"roads","width":16384,"height":16384,"radius":30,"gravity":40,"x":26480,"y":23020},
{"id":"soupiter","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":812,"gravity":1300,"x":-16000,"y":18080},
{"id":"steerswoman","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":520,"gravity":600,"x":-70140,"y":5000},
{"id":"sun","width":16384,"height":16384,"radius":540,"gravity":9000,"x":-29900,"y":-24160}
]
for (const planet of planets) {
planet.loc = () => { return [planet.x, planet.y]};
}
remainingPlanets = [...planets];

comicElem = document.getElementById('comic');
posbox = document.createElement("pre");
posbox.id = 'posbox'
comicElem.after(posbox)

objectNames = ['tintin', 'figure','ship2', 'soccer', 'lightmode'];
i = 0;
for (const obj of opts.objects) {
obj.id = objectNames[i];
i += 1;
}

function decreaseStrongGravity() {
//If you get a breakpoint in onTick you should be able to see the closure variable
// Hn, and if you set:
// planets = Hn;
// In the Console while you are breakpointed there, then this will allow you to
// take off from any planet
for (const p of planets) {
if (p.gravity / (p.radius * p.radius) > 0.02) {
p.gravity = 0.02 * (p.radius * p.radius);
}
}
}

let intv = 0
if (intv !== 0) {
clearInterval(intv);
}
intv = setInterval(() => {
const playerPos = `${Math.round(pos.x / 100)}, ${Math.round(pos.y / 100)}`
const playerVel = `${round2(pos.vx)}, ${round2(pos.vy)}, ${pos.va}`
const planetDistances = [];
for (const planet of planets) {
const [d, isNearby] = planetIsNearby(planet);
if (isNearby) {
planetDistances.push({d, s:` - ${isNearby ? "NEARBY" : ""} ${planet.id}: ${Math.round(d / 100)}`});
}
}
for (const planet of remainingPlanets) {
const [d, isNearby] = planetIsNearby(planet);
if (!isNearby) {
planetDistances.push({d, s:` - ${isNearby ? "NEARBY" : ""} ${planet.id}: ${Math.round(d / 100)}`});
}
}
planetDistances.sort(compareDistances);
// If you're very close to a planet, take it off the list
remainingPlanets = remainingPlanets.filter(p => {const [d, isNearby] = planetIsNearby(p); return !isNearby;})

const objectDistances = [];

for (const obj of opts.objects) {
const [d, isNearby] = objectIsNearby(obj);
if (isNearby) {
objectDistances.push({d, s:` - ${isNearby ? "NEARBY" : ""} ${obj.id}: ${Math.round(d / 100)}`});
}
}
for (const obj of remainingObjects) {
const [d, isNearby] = objectIsNearby(obj);
if (!isNearby) {
objectDistances.push({d, s:` - ${isNearby ? "NEARBY" : ""} ${obj.id}: ${Math.round(d / 100)}`});
}
}
objectDistances.sort(compareDistances);
// If you're very close to a coin or the button, take it off the list
remainingObjects = remainingObjects.filter(p => {const [d, isNearby] = objectIsNearby(p); return !isNearby;})

posbox.innerHTML = `${playerPos}` + "\n" + `${playerVel}` + "\n" + planetDistances.map(pd => pd.s).join("\n")+ "\n" + objectDistances.map(pd => pd.s).join("\n");
}, 500);

</pre>

-- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.80|162.158.146.80]]

== Inspiration for Japan missing? ==

Could it be a reference to Japan being absent from maps edited by the PRC's government? For example, this PRC-sponsored video features a map in the intro where Japan is missing. https://youtu.be/e0oJtuljYRo [[User:Ck|Ck]] ([[User talk:Ck|talk]]) 12:58, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

Not just PRC maps. Missing island on stylized world maps are pretty common. See https://old.reddit.com/r/mapswithoutJapan/ and https://old.reddit.com/r/MapsWithoutNZ/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.103|172.70.131.103]] 15:01, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

This is no longer plausible when *all* the other, much smaller islands, like especially Corsica and fine detail in the Philippines, are all present and correctly shaped! [[User:Ck|Ck]] ([[User talk:Ck|talk]]) 15:46, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

Perhaps a stretch, but in the Webcomic Starslip Crisis, [https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20050802.shtml Japan successfully launched itself into space]. [[User:Nedlum|Nedlum]] ([[User talk:Nedlum|talk]]) 16:18, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

Apparently you have not read WhatIf 2. One of the questions is "What if Japan wasn't there" This is a reference to that. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.124|172.69.33.124]] 00:02, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

The above assertion is probably/certainly the reason but, going with the general note of missing islands, it's [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3715512.stm not always ''islands'' that go inexplicably missing]... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.31|141.101.99.31]] 01:41, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

== Black Hole Maw ==

Is the cluster of black holes, labeled "maw", possibly related to the Maw Cluster in Star Wars?[[User:Nedlum|Nedlum]] ([[User talk:Nedlum|talk]]) 17:00, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

In the cluster of the black holes there is a small white planet about the size of the spaceship, which does not appear to show any gravity. It can be found at [-60050, 16150]. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.211|172.70.246.211]] 20:27, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

The "edge of the universe" planet is missing. Teleporting there with the console command teleports you a few seconds of flight between Soupiter and the Milliway Restaurant.

== Jurassic Park ninja ==
If you bump into the little dot next to the guy pushing a rock uphill, your spaceship turns into a little ninja guy. Not sure what the reference is.
: not Jurassic Park. It's on Goodhart. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.7|172.69.69.7]] 04:03, 20 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

https://xkcd.com/2713/ is up (Data Point).[[Special:Contributions/172.71.222.108|172.71.222.108]] 03:39, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

== What If? 1 scenario planet ==
Someone put it into the table, but does it really exist? No ID, no transcript, no explanation, no nothing. So I'm probably not the only one who never saw it. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.177|172.68.110.177]] 12:36, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

== Is the universe infinite ==
Space is big. Really, really big. But it's not infinite. Or is it? If you transport to positive coordinates > ~1000001019, the starfield freezes and becomes blurred. However, you still have momentum/can manouevre, and once you reach acceptable coordinates again it unfreezes. If you transport to negative coordinates < ~-2900000000000000000, the starfield looks fine, but you're frozen in place. Firing your rockets will only move you a short hop before you freeze again, until you manage to hop close enough to acceptable coordinates. It turns out physics is not the same everywhere in the universe after all...[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.175|172.70.85.175]] 12:26, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
: Floating-point errors [[Special:Contributions/172.70.142.253|172.70.142.253]] 23:53, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

== Not working at all for me ==
If I click and hold on the rocket on the xkcd page, I get a faintish grey copy of it that I can move about within the original pic, or out of the pic into other parts of the window. As soon as I release the button, the grey rocket disappears. What am I missing? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.142.95|172.70.142.95]] 09:35, 22 December 2022 (UTC)
:That sounds like fairly normal (modern) browser behaviour for 'loose' image objects on a web-page/similar. All controls so far mentioned are via keyboard, and no sign that mouse-control has been implemented in any way. Try cursors/wasd/hjkl (perhaps after a click to 'focus' on the dynamic image?) and it ''should'' work, or at least after a fashion. 13:31, 22 December 2022 (UTC)
::I eventually worked out that I needed to use the arrow keys, but all I got was a few passing dots that I couldn't interact with, and a lot of time where all there was just the rocket and black space, so I had no way of telling if the rocket was moving or not. No sign of the stuff other people have mentioned here. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.170.228|162.158.170.228]] 08:51, 23 December 2022 (UTC)
:::It's not guaranteed to work with every browser/platform, and you might just have it unlucky (I can only get it to work on my tablet's Chrome (not the also present Firefox) and it has crashes/oddities that might be resource limits being reached on such a relatively low-powered device. For desktop, I don't use Chrome at all (and I don't have Edge/etc, either), and it really doesn't like my Firefox setup, but that might be my long-standing settings/etc (for historical compatability) rather than innate inability.
:::For all I know, you're hitting similar roadblocks to (''some'' places for).me. Or perhaps you've just not found the 'touch' (which l, for my tablet/Chrome use, I had to learn and develop to get some sensible 'play' out of it) and so your trans-orbital slingshots are not giving you the chance to convert into any sort of slow-flyby or landing situation. Or a bit of both (technical issues ''and'' (perhaps because of that?) lack of proper practice with sufficient judicious thrust/rotate control. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.105|172.70.86.105]] 12:48, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

== Browser must have access to canvas ==
In case anyone can't fly the ship at all, the game requires browser to access the canvas, or your ship will be constantly "shielded" and unable to move more than a pixel or two at a time. Privacy-based browsers or those with fingerprint defender add-ons block canvas access or will report fake canvas values, so they must be disabled.

== Janelle Shane ==

On the <code>present</code> planet, the woman standing next to the cube with limbs may be Janelle Shane (the author of [https://www.aiweirdness.com/ AI Weirdness]), as the cube drawing bears a resemblance to the little cube robots that she uses in her drawings.

== Very small asteroid and stick figure ==

A very small asteroid and stick figure can be found at [36281, -36600] according to console.log([Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y]) --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.137|172.69.79.137]] 11:35, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

2593: Deviled Eggs

2023-01-01T01:54:38Z

172.69.79.137:

{{comic
| number = 2593
| date = March 14, 2022
| title = Deviled Eggs
| image = deviled_eggs.png
| titletext = The foil on the toothpick represents the blue flash.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|deviled egg}} is a dish created by cutting a hard-boiled egg into halves and replacing the yolk with a paste frequently made using the yolk itself, additional ingredients such as {{w|mustard}} and {{w|mayonnaise}}, and topped with a red spice (usually {{w|paprika}}). Importantly, the paste has a larger volume than the original yolk because of the added ingredients (and probably some air) into the originally homogeneous yolk substances. Randall Munroe parodies the dish by creating several alternative versions of the dish for other professions using word plays on the name of the dish.

;Chef - Deviled egg
The original dish with the excess paste piled above the egg white.
;Landscaper - Leveled egg
Many landscaping projects involve leveling irregular ground surfaces.{{Citation needed}} A landscaper may prefer to serve their deviled egg with a leveled flat surface. (This happens to resemble a normal hard-boiled egg cut in half.)
;Designer - Beveled egg
{{w|Bevel}}s are a design pattern of creating non-perpendicular surfaces between adjacent edges. A designer may prefer to serve their egg with the edge of the white beveled to give their eggs a more modern, aesthetically pleasing look.
;Physicist - Demon egg
This deviled egg is designed to look like the {{w|Demon Core}} which was a sub-critical plutonium sphere manufactured during the {{w|Manhattan Project}} to investigate the properties of {{w|Critical_mass|criticality}}. The Demon Core consisted of three parts: two plutonium-gallium hemispheres and a ring designed to keep neutron flux from "jetting" out of the joined surface between the hemispheres during implosion. The set of plutonium pieces got their name from the 2 {{w|criticality_accident|criticality incidents}} that occurred when scientists were investigating this property. The first accident resulted in the death of {{w|Harry Daghlian}}. In the second incident, experimenters covered the core with two neutron reflecting shells separated only by a handheld screwdriver. (No, really.) The screwdriver slipped, causing the core to become completely covered by the neutron reflecting shell, bringing the core past its criticality limit. A large amount of radiation caused the subsequent death of physicist {{w|Louis Slotin}}. The dome of the boiled egg and the toothpick resemble the configuration of the experiment.

The demon core was also referred to in [[1242: Scary Names]].

The title texts refers to {{w|ionized-air glow}}, a blue light emitted by air submitted to an energy flux from radiation and seen during the [https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/56722 incidents involving the demon core].

For a detailed explanation of the Demon Core, Kyle Hill produced an [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFlromB6SnU Youtube Documentary regarding the Demon Core. ]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[The comic consists of four variations of deviled eggs.]

:[A typical deviled egg, with half of the white part of a hard-boiled egg and a paste of yolk in a rough cone. The paste is speckled with red dots.]
:Chef
:Deviled egg

:[A deviled egg, except the paste has been flattened to be level with the white.]
:Landscaper
:Leveled egg

:[A deviled egg, except the edge of the white has bevels.]
:Designer
:Beveled egg

:[A deviled egg, except the paste is now two hemispheres, one set in (and level with) the white and the other on top with a toothpick wedged between the two hemispheres at the left egg keeping them separated. The toothpick has a small piece of blue foil wrapped around the edge of the toothpick.]
:Physicist
:Demon egg

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Physics]]

Talk:2717: L6 Lagrange Point

2022-12-30T23:32:54Z

172.69.79.137:

Daily comics. —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&printable=yes printable version] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&action=info page information] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:WhatLinksHere/User:While_False what links there] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&days=30&from=&target=User%3AWhile_False related changes] | a late contribution | current time: {{CURRENTTIME}}) 19:05, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

This came out about a year after JWST was launched, and it's stationed at a Lagrange point of the Sun and Earth. It might be related to the anniversary, although it would make more sense if it came out in a month, on the anniversary of the telescope reaching L2. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:49, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

Missed opportunity to reference [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grange,_Texas La Grange, Texas], the basis of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grange_(song) song] by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZ_Top ZZ Top]. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 21:13, 27 December 2022 (UTC)
: Well I hear it's fine, if you got the time [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.5|108.162.249.5]] 13:55, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

Not ''probable'' but maybe a reference to the recent "Ohio" meme?[[Special:Contributions/172.71.82.41|172.71.82.41]] 22:14, 27 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
: Probably not on purpose but it definitely fits in with the rest of the “Ohio” memes 22:38 27 December 2022 (ETC) Comi123

;Can I use a subscript notation in the transcript?

Any clues where to find the code? Comic seems to have the numeral portions of "L1" to "L6" as subscripts. Is that a standard notation for Lagrange points, if so should we also use it in the main article? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.66.102|172.68.66.102]] 06:14, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

:Sure. Use HTML tags. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.39|172.71.154.39]] 07:41, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

Why Cleveland? Well, Yakov Smirnoff said, "In every country, they make fun of city. In U.S. you make fun of Cleveland. In Russia, we make fun of Cleveland." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.168|172.71.26.168]] 12:14, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

The center of the Earth is also a Lagrange point (I think I'll call it L0). So Lagrange, OH is only 4,000 miles off, which should be close enough for many astronomers. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.135.100|172.70.135.100]] 16:12, 28 December 2022 (UTC)
:Well, LaGrange, OH is in a stable orbit around L0, so would this also be a Halo orbit? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.5|141.101.77.5]] 09:26, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

And I thought La Grange was in Texas I should not listen to three wise men with beards, even at this time of year. Wikipedia tells m there are over 25 across the US. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.223|172.71.242.223]] 10:38, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
:Two men with beards, one man named Beard. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.77|172.70.46.77]] 11:35, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
::Thus three men, each with a beard. (Actually the phrase "three wise men with beards" isn't explicit about how many beards they have between them.)

Normally cartoons come out MWF, but this came out on a Tuesday. Any known (or hypothesized) reason. Should the unusual timing get a mention. No comic in the normal Wed slot. [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 02:36, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
:In the light of there being "no Wednesday", in the obvious manner, we can make the presumption that this was supposed to be the Wednesday but (for some reason; ...other tween-holiday commitents? ...had the usual "what actual day ''is'' this of the season? ...distracted by family gatherings?) was released super-early. As in even Tuesday in more advanced timezones. Either that, or he was visiting a GMT+6 (or greater) place and posted it merely 'early Wednesday', but I don't think he would be visiting China (GMT+8) - for any number of reasons. Aus/NZ/etc? (Forgive me, just musing. Still no reason to think so.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.137|172.69.79.137]] 23:32, 30 December 2022 (UTC)