explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1518: Typical Morning Routine

2024-10-28T16:42:10Z

172.70.130.85: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1518
| date = April 29, 2015
| title = Typical Morning Routine
| image = typical_morning_routine.png
| titletext = Hang on, I've heard this problem. We need to pour water into the duct until the phone floats up and ... wait, phones sink in water. Mercury. We need a vat of mercury to pour down the vent. That will definitely make this situation better and not worse.
}}

==Explanation==
Waking up to an alarm can be annoying, especially when it is your partner's alarm, and they are slow to wake up and even then have difficulty figuring out how to turn the alarm off. This comic takes this situation to a ridiculous extreme, from whence the comic derives its humor, especially when paired with the title describing this situation as a "Typical Morning Routine". Of course the typical could refer only to the part of the "routine" until the phone is dropped into an air vent.

In this comic, [[Hairy]] with morning hair is shown using his smartphone as his alarm clock. Another unseen person is sharing the bed with Hairy and growing more irate as Hairy's alarm continues beeping.

Even simple actions like turning off an alarm can be easily fumbled by a just-awakened groggy person. In this case, Hairy accidentally exited the alarm app without stopping the alarm. In some OSes, simply exiting the app doesn't close it, requiring you to use the app switcher to close it.

After giving up on shutting down the alarm the usual way, Hairy, in annoyance, decides to remove the battery, which will disable the phone's entire operation. However, while trying to remove the battery in the dark, he accidentally drops his device down a floor {{w|air vent}} (most likely part of {{w|forced air}} {{w|central heating}} common in North America) next to the bed. While the vent is covered by a grille, it is apparently coarse enough (or perhaps missing a few pieces, creating a large hole) to allow the phone to pass through if it falls at a particular location and angle. Also, the vent apparently does not descend very far before bending, allowing the phone to survive the fall intact.

As of when this comic was posted, [[Randall]] uses both iOS and Android according to [[1508: Operating Systems]]—although there is no reason to be certain that the character in this comic is using the same operating systems as Randall. However, the fact that Hairy tries to remove the battery strongly suggests it cannot be an iOS device, given that all iOS devices have non-removable batteries.

If he were a little handy, Hairy might be able to open the vent and retrieve the phone—or perhaps not, if the phone slid further into the ventwork or Hairy lacked the necessary tools. Instead of trying to physically recover the phone, Hairy attempts to remotely {{w|Brick (electronics)|brick}} the phone from his laptop, permanently disabling all its functions (including the alarm app).

This attempt fails because Hairy had accidentally put the device into {{w|airplane mode}} before dropping his phone, thereby cutting off all {{w|wireless}} communications with the device and preventing any attempt at remote control. Airplane mode also has the unfortunate (in this situation) side effect of increasing the phone's battery life (though playing loud sounds incessantly should still limit it to a day or so, notwithstanding the pessimistic assessment of Hairy's companion).

Rather than finding a solution to the problem with the phone, Hairy proposes that they just move out instead.

Relevant for the title text: There is a semi-common logic puzzle involving a ping-pong ball falling down a pipe with a kink in it. In this puzzle, the solution is to pour water into the pipe until the ping-pong ball floats up.

In the title text, one of the two characters remembers this problem and attempts to apply it to this situation. Since phones do not float in water, a modified version is proposed using {{w|Mercury (element)|mercury}} instead. The phone would certainly float on mercury, as it is a very dense liquid (the only metal that is liquid at room temperature).

The extremely toxic nature of mercury makes pouring it into the air supply a very dangerous idea. Also the required amount of mercury would be extremely expensive. The weight of the mercury would also be substantial (13.5 kg/liter or 113 lb/gallon), and would likely break something in the air duct system. Both mercury and water could also push the phone further into the duct system instead of bringing it back. The end of the title text, declaring that the mercury idea would ''definitely make this situation better and not worse'' could be either a sarcastic commentary on these problems or a desperate attempt to bolster confidence that this extreme solution will work when everything else has failed.

Given that Hairy was willing to sacrifice the phone anyway (by attempting to brick it), he would probably be better off pouring water down the vent; it wouldn't bring the phone within reach, but – provided the phone isn't sufficiently waterproof – it would disable and thereby silence it.

Of course, Hairy probably wouldn't have gotten into this mess if he had not just been awakened brutally by a very loud alarm, making it difficult to think clearly (or, alternatively, if he just had a standard alarm clock that he could have unplugged or even a mechanical one that he could, say, {{tvtropes|Main/RingRingCrunch|hit with a hammer until it broke}}; or just flip the off switch).

==Transcript==
:[The panel is completely black, with white text. Small lines indicate from where the two voices are coming, and also from where the alarm goes off. A small broken square surrounds the first word spoken.]
:Alarm: '''Bleep Bleep'''
:Voice (right): Urgh
:Voice (left): Your alarm is going off
:Voice (right): Huh?
:Voice (left): Make it stop.
:Voice (right) Urrgh

:[The panel is completely black, with white text. Small lines indicate from where the two voices are coming. Several small lines surrounds the last "sound" which is not spoken. The alarm noise is continued from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame directly into the next panel.]
:Alarm: '''Bleep Bleep Bleep B'''
:Voice (left): Hit snooze.
:Voice (right): I'm ''trying''. I closed the alarm app and I can't... I'll just pop out the battery.
:Voice (right): Whoops!
:Clang

:[The lights have turned on so it is now a white panel with black text. The voice to the right came from Hairy with morning hair. He is leaning over the side of the bed, looking down the air vent through which he has dropped the phone. The other person to the left is not shown. The alarm noise (now coming from the air vent as visualized by the lines coming out of the vent) still continues from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame directly into the next panel.]
:Alarm: '''eep Bleep Bleep Ble'''
:Off-Screen voice: Make it stop!
:Hairy: It... fell down the vent.

:[Hairy is sitting in his bed with a laptop. The person to the left is still off-screen. The alarm noise still continues from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame out of the comic on the right.]
:Alarm: '''ep Bleep Bleep Bleep Ble'''
:Off-Screen voice: Can you brick it remotely?
:Hairy: Trying... I think I fumbled it into airplane mode?
:Off-Screen voice: The battery could last for weeks.
:Hairy: You know, maybe we should just move.

==Trivia==

This comic follows a similar storyline to [[349: Success]] and [[530: I'm An Idiot]], where [[Cueball]], like Hairy here, encounters an issue and attempts progressively more absurd solutions.

There is a callback to this in the title text of [[1946: Hawaii]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Sarcasm]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Phones]]

Talk:3002: RNAWorld

2024-10-25T13:09:45Z

172.70.130.85: lol

Is any of this specific to Disneyland or could it be Disney World, which would be more fitting for the title? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.93|172.70.43.93]] 18:43, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
:Yes, Ariel is from The Little Mermaid, which is a Disney film, Ratatouille is another Disney film, and Elsa is from Frozen and Frozen II, both of which are Disney films. I believe that RNAWorld is a play on Disneyworld. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:04, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
::I'm sure .43.93, above, understands that they are definitely Disney characters that are equally relevent to either Disney World or Disneyland (or Eurodisney, or...). It's the "World" bit that was important (and now is correctly referenced, so far as I can see). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.10|172.69.194.10]] 19:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
:::Pfft. "Euro Disney" is 'so' 1994. It reminds me of the arguments I had with people ~20 years ago who honestly thought the currency in much of Europe was officialy the "Eurodollar". Sure, Joachimsthal is in Europe... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.103.172|172.71.103.172]] 21:11, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
::::Depends what they meant by {{w|Eurodollar|'officially'}}, and when. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.107|172.68.186.107]] 22:08, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

the rat's name is Remy [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 20:06, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

What should we call the girl with the Mickey/Minnie ears? Or is a physical description good enough? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 01:08, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:Is he not a boy? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.206|172.70.90.206]] 02:59, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
::can't tell tbh [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 06:31, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:::'He' has short hair and no ponytail, so probability 79% a XY mutant (all men are{{Dubious}} ;-) )' so for symmetry, how about Jack? [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:16, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:::: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1662:_Jack_and_Jill --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.252|162.158.134.252]] 09:07, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

Okay so some guy removed literally everything, I undid that. But just for good measure, I also got rid of the guy saying there isn't abiogenesis. I didn't think a comic about RNAWorld would get as much controversy as the COVID comics but I guess I was wrong. Thanks guys for proving my theory that most people are just stupid [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.84|172.69.71.84]] 11:46, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Recommend locking the page because the same guy keeps doing it. Stupid human being. I hope he steps on some hot Legos. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.84|172.69.71.84]] 11:58, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi! I would like to inform you that you guys need some better work on citing your sources{{Citation needed}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.85|172.70.130.85]] 13:09, 25 October 2024 (UTC)
== Someone keeps wiping my user pages ==

First it was Victoria, now me too. What is happening? [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 12:14, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

:Please post your complaint [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Admin_requests|here]]. [[User:ConscriptGlossary|ConscriptGlossary]] ([[User talk:ConscriptGlossary|talk]]) 12:33, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

1203: Time Machines

2024-10-25T13:06:12Z

172.70.130.85: Added a "citation needed"

{{comic
| number = 1203
| date = April 24, 2013
| title = Time Machines
| image = time machines.png
| titletext = 'All time machine systems nominal... T-minus ten... eleven ...'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] activates a time machine to go back into the past. The time machine rewinds time, but in the process rewinds the event where the time machine itself was turned on, turning the time machine off in the process. He is now a few seconds in the past, prior to having activated the time machine, but he is baffled that he does not seem to have accomplished anything and turned off the time machine unintentionally. It would seem that the time machine is the world's most technologically-advanced{{Citation needed}} "{{w|useless machine}}" (a device whose only purpose is to switch itself off when it is switched on).

The title text mimics a countdown to an event. "T minus 10," for example, means 10 seconds until the event{{Citation needed}}. When the event is the activation of a time machine traveling back in time, after 10 seconds it will once again be "T minus 10," and a second later it will be "T minus 11," counting up rather than down. This casts doubt on the value of the countdown because, from the perspective of the time traveler, the event has already taken place.

Cueball is only able to travel back in time a few seconds{{Citation needed}} because in this comic time is seen as continuous and linear from Cueball's point of view, so he can only travel back in time to the moment he activated the machine (the first series of "E"s is the machine warming up and the second series of "E"s is that in reverse) the logic behind this is that because time appears to be continuous, Cueball's input was required for the machine to work. Since it does not appear to be a traveling vessel, it is also possible that Cueball could trap himself in the past by traveling to a time before the machine was created, and it would remain in the present.

It is very fortunate that Cueball retains knowledge of the future/events of the time traveling during the process; if he didn't, then the universe would become trapped in a time loop, with Cueball flipping the machine on, which then reverts time back to before it was turned on, leading Cueball to (believing that he has not yet turned on the machine) immediately reactivate it, dooming the universe to repeat the same few seconds indefinitely.

==Transcript==
:[Small caption above the first panel:]
:The problem with time machines:
:[Cueball has his hands on the lever of a time machine.]

:[Cueball flips the switch from OFF to ON.]
:Switch: ''Click''
:Time machine: EEEEEEEEEE

:Time machine: EEEEEEEEEE
:Switch: ''Click''
:[Cueball flips the switch from ON to OFF.]

:[Cueball looks at his palms.]
:Cueball: ???

==Trivia==
This comic's title is very similar to [[716: Time Machine]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Time Machines]]

2393: Presidential Middle Names

2024-07-19T13:37:07Z

172.70.130.85: added Bill Clinton's nickname

{{comic
| number = 2393
| date = December 2, 2020
| title = Presidential Middle Names
| image = presidential_middle_names.png
| titletext = The bottom of the list remains unchanged. Poor Rutherford Birchard Hayes.
}}

==Explanation==
A list of what Randall perceives will be the prettiest presidential {{w|middle names}} after the inauguration on January 20, 2021. [[Joe Biden|Joe Robinette Biden]] (46th president-elect) will take the second slot bumping previous second-place holder {{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin Delano Roosevelt}}, the 32nd president, back to third. {{w|Warren G. Harding|Warren Gamaliel Harding}}, the 29th president, remains in first. Robinette is Biden's [https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2008/08/joe_bidens_middle_name_is_robi.html grandmother's maiden name].

Overall, the ranking would not include every president, as many early presidents, such as {{w|George Washington}} and {{w|John Adams}}, lacked middle names. Some presidents were also more commonly known by their middle names as opposed to their first names, particularly John {{w|Calvin Coolidge}}, Stephen {{w|Grover Cleveland}}, Hiram {{w|Ulysses Grant}}, and Thomas {{w|Woodrow Wilson}}. In the case of Grant, the Senator who enrolled him at West Point messed up his full name as Ulysses Simpson Grant, hence he is widely known as ''Ulysses S. Grant'' with the spurious middle "S". Also, {{w|Harry S Truman}}'s middle name was just the letter S and was not an initial of a name; Truman's parents could not agree on which of his grandfathers' names to give him, but luckily they both started with the letter. One president has even changed his entire name: {{w|Gerald Ford}} was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., officially changing his name in 1935. The humor is based on the sheer oddity of ranking people by the perceived prettiness of their obscure middle names. There is no evidence in the comic for how Randall’s list would deal with these cases.

The title text announces that {{w|Rutherford B. Hayes|Rutherford Birchard Hayes}}, the 19th president, remains at or near the bottom.

===List of Presidents with middle names===
(updated for 2021, as the comic)
{| class="wikitable"
|+ (Ordered by middle name)
! President
! Presidential order
|-
|James ABRAM Garfield
|20
|-
|Chester ALAN Arthur
|21
|-
|Lyndon BAINES Johnson
|36
|-
|Rutherford BIRCHARD Hayes
|19
|-
|John CALVIN Coolidge
|30
|-
|Herbert CLARK Hoover
|31
|-
|Dwight DAVID Eisenhower
|34
|-
|Franklin DELANO Roosevelt
|32
|-
|James ("Jimmy") EARL Carter
|39
|-
|John ("Jack") FITZGERALD Kennedy
|35
|-
|Warren GAMALIEL Harding
|29
|-
|Stephen GROVER Cleveland
|22, 24
|-
|William HENRY Harrison
|9
|-
|George HERBERT WALKER Bush
|41
|-
|William HOWARD Taft
|27
|-
|Barack HUSSEIN Obama
|44
|-
|William ("Bill") JEFFERSON Clinton
|42
|-
|Donald JOHN Trump
|45
|-
|Franklin KENDRICK Pierce
|14
|-
|James KNOX Polk
|11
|-
|Richard MILHOUS Nixon
|37
|-
|John QUINCY Adams
|6
|-
|Joseph ("Joe") ROBINETTE Biden
|46
|-
|Gerald RUDOLPH Ford
|38
|-
|Harry S. Truman (The S itself is the middle name)
|33
|-
|Hiram ULYSSES Grant (Ulysses SIMPSON Grant during his presidency)
|18
|-
|George WALKER Bush
|43
|-
|Ronald WILSON Reagan
|40
|-
|Thomas WOODROW Wilson
|28
|}

The Presidents without middle names — almost all of those before Grant, and a few a bit later — were George Washington, John Adams, {{w|Thomas Jefferson}}, {{w|James Madison}}, {{w|James Monroe}}, {{w|Andrew Jackson}}, {{w|Martin Van Buren}}, {{w|John Tyler}}, {{w|Zachary Taylor}}, {{w|Millard Fillmore}}, {{w|James Buchanan}}, {{w|Abraham Lincoln}}, {{w|Andrew Johnson}}, {{w|Benjamin Harrison}}, {{w|William McKinley}}, and {{w|Theodore Roosevelt}}.

==Transcript==
:<big>Prettiest</big>
:Presidential Middle Names Official Rankings
:(Updated for 2021)

# Gamaliel (Warren Harding)
#Robinette (Joe Biden) '''(NEW!)'''
#Delano (Franklin Roosevelt) 

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Rankings]]