explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3007: Probabilistic Uncertainty

2024-11-05T20:56:28Z

172.70.162.185:

Emotional spirals are useless. I've been coping by pretending we're in scenario 1, it keeps me sane. If I'm wrong, I'll jump off that bridge when we come to it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:23, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
:And I have a friend whose strategy is baking. It's both therapeutic and delicious. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:41, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

:I see I don't know US geography well: which bridge you can jump from to leave it? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 02:34, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
::Most of them. Some of them may be 'caged in' for safety/anti-suicide/anti-DropThingsInThoseBelow purposes (or a {{w|covered bridge}}). Relatively few of the others will be ones that you would have no qualms about vaulting the railing, but (as well as it clearly being a witticism by Barmar) I think you could easily ''find'' a bridge that you could jump off. And the resulting falling part isn't at all the difficult bit. Landing safely (or, in extremis for those desperate enough, in a guaranteed immediately fatal manner) is more the challenge. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.206|172.70.86.206]] 14:48, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

I can't help but think that at preparing for the negative outcome regardless of which outcome is more likely (unless that outcome is *very* unlikely) is a healthy thing to do. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.141|172.71.147.141]] 20:30, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
: "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst" is my usual approach to things. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:45, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

This comic appeared the day before the 2024 United States Presidential Election. At publication time, polls were strongly suggesting about a 50/50 odds that either major candidate would win. Recent news items included advice from mental-health professionals on how to deal with election-related anxiety. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.195|172.71.167.195]] 20:32, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
:Definitely related. This should be in the text, not in the comments, frankly. The yanks are going nuts about the election right now. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.124.243|172.71.124.243]] 20:57, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
:Did the advice suggested narcotics? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 02:34, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

My personal policy is to expect and prepare for the worst. That way I can be surprised when it doesn't happen, and not surprised when it does, rather than the other way around. I don't "do" emotions, so it's basically just planning and mumbling colloquialisms involving the digestive system... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.64|172.71.134.64]] 21:31, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
:As someone who used to think this way, this is obstructively cynical, and downright ''sad''. I mean, in theory you should be pleasantly surprised by the good, and prepared for the bad, but in practice you just dismiss anything good and focus exclusively on the bad. As someone with experience in this type of thinking, it isn't healthy. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.85|172.71.22.85]] 15:15, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

I can't help but feel that it's mostly Democrats that are anxious, where Trump winning is the bad case. Not being an American I don't have much perspective. Are many Republicans likely to also be anxious, and if so, why? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.60.170|172.69.60.170]] 21:55, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
:Not sure about "anxious", for Trump-supporting Rs (as opposed to Trump-opposing ones, who are both anxious and tremendously conflicted), but there's certainly a buzz of some emotion. That, if ''their'' expectations/hopes/desires are dashed, seem more likely to turn into more direct push-back than Ds would in their case. i.e. if Trump truly wins, there'll be turmoil as the legitimate government forcefully pushes against large subsets of the people, if Harris truly wins then small but determined fractions of the people will push back against the legitimate government. (If it's any way ambiguous, for long enough, which 'truth' indicates a win, it could easily be people vs. people for at least as long as the confusion lasts, with very little reason to believe that it'll be Harris supporters throwing the first stone, probably making Florida 2000 look like a "neat transition"). But this is just what it looks like at this moment. Within a day we ''might'' get to see whose words get eaten, or it could be at least a month of building tensions (due to the US system of elections, deliberately legislated to be so much more inefcicient than it needs to be, compared to various other Western nations). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.106|172.68.186.106]] 15:28, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

:From what I've seen the ones in public-facing forums seem pretty indifferent. They do talk a lot about election fraud though. {{unsigned ip|172.70.34.117|22:42, 4 November 2024 (UTC)}}

I like that the comic leaves "good" and "bad" open to interpretation.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.83|172.70.211.83]] 22:29, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
:He doesn't want to start fights in the comments/discussion pages/replies! Good to see him appealing to no specific demographic in this one. -[[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 22:40, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
::Considering that the "Harris for President" banner is still active, I'm not sure I agree with that. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.4|172.68.22.4]] 22:53, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
:::yeah, for that reason i think it's more just so the comic can have further longevity, as this way it can be applied to any number of things with two outcomes, not just the current election [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.193|141.101.109.193]] 00:02, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
::Well, so far so good ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 02:34, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

Re [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=3007:_Probabilistic_Uncertainty&oldid=355799 Further, with regards to N/A - the odds of "precisely" 50/50 are probabilistically zero]: Bear in mind that with the Electoral College system and the fact that only 7 US states are "likely in play," we are talking only hundreds or thousands of realistic possibilities. The odds of a 269-269 tie in the Electoral College are far more than 0. One possibility of a tie that is "on the radar" is if the Republicans take Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and the 2nd Congressional District of Nebraska (which is very likely to go Democratic) and the Democrats take Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. If you consider just the 7 "in play" states but Arizona "flips" from Republican to Democratic, there are 3 combinations that yield a 269-269 tie. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.249|172.70.210.249]] 01:29, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
: If there's a 269-269 tie, that's basically going to be a Trump win due to how the contingent election process works. (For that matter the far more plausible 270-268 to Harris, which happens if she wins Nevada but not Pennsylvania, is likely going to result in Trump getting the presidency as well, but let's ignore that.) However, many analysts, when faced with numbers like Nate Silver's 50.015%, are going to round it to 50% or 50.0% in the public-facing reports, resulting in apparent exact 50/50 odds even if mathematically they actually favor one side slightly. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.130.3|172.71.130.3]] 10:07, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
::There's little point in being so precise, since the fraction is far less than the margin of error in the polling. Anything between 49% and 51% is essentially a toss-up. If the 51% is in your favor you can feel hopeful, but hardly confident. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:11, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

Re '''We contacted several researchers who are experts in emotional spirals to ask them, but none of them were in a state to speak with us''': Is it a stretch to think that the emotional-spiral experts were all "in Puerto Rico" (which is not a state), emotionally speaking? In the last week a supporter of one of the candidates insulted Puerto Rico and by extension, people of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican descent, causing an emotional uproar all over the inter-tubes. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.210|162.158.90.210]] 01:37, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

Created an account just to say this; don't get mad at me but in my opinion, both candidates are equally bad, which has led to a weird sense of calmness in me due to my belief that we'll be equally screwed no matter what, just in different ways. Tbh in my opinion both candidates are in between what their supporters think of them and what their opponents think of them. Please be civil if you reply, no ad hominem please. [[User:BurnV06|BurnV06]] ([[User talk:BurnV06|talk]]) 05:24, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
:No, one of them is clearly worse than the other. How do you feel about LGBTQ+ rights? Abortion? Medicare? Teaching kids that racism and homophobia in schools is bad? Well, if Project 2025 is anything to go by, one side ''clearly'' is the unpreferable unless you're a white, Christian, rich, and male. This is not a "both sides" issue. One is clearly the worse option. And frankly, I wish centrists knew this. I can agree to disagree on some issues but I just cannot elect someone who wants to punish people for the egregious crime of, ''gasp'', not conforming to societal standard of gender and romance.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.85|172.71.22.85]] 15:15, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
::... And Project 2025 is absolutely nothing to go by. It's what a (private) conservative think tank (privately) wants to see implemented. Trump had no involvement in its contents or publication. The Heritage Foundation has been publishing things like it since 1981; it only attracted attention THIS year because politically-motivated people are trying to scare you, and were running out of ideas. It should not surprise you to learn that people who you already disagree with, have ideas that you also disagree with, and might publish compilations of those ideas you disagree with on a regular basis. Freaking out over Project 2025 is like if conservatives started freaking out over a set of published policy recommendations by the Center for American Progress. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.96|172.68.3.96]] 16:56, 5 November 2024 (UTC) MeZimm
::Fair enough, but the point still stands that this is explicitly ''not''a both sides issue. Even taking Project 2025 out of account, one side is clearly worse.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.71.44|172.68.71.44]] 17:02, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
:"Equally bad" is highly subjective, Burn. More people would consider "a total disaster" vs "at least they're not a total disaster!" as a closer truth (whether their own personally-configured disastermeter comes in a Red or Blue casing), and consider balancing dead in the center of the fence to be the most inexplicable position to take. (Not to mention those like above, and also their antithesis opinions, who have a very definite good/bad opinion 9n the pair.)
:Not that I'd support being mad at you, as the problem with politics today is ''too much'' extreme polarization (we need more moderate voices, rather than wedging open an ever wider void between both limits of opinion). But there's just no realistic middle-ground to gather support around, and what middle-ground there is might also be moving one way or another (depending upon who you ask), so I'm afraid that the strictly neutral "as bad as each other" types are just guaranteed to be setting themselves up to be disappointed. In the 'best' case scenario, disappointed that things aint turning out to be as bad as feared, but I'm not sure that's reassuringly likely enough to comfort you. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.106|172.68.186.106]] 15:28, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
:Well said, and I think it's important to mention that the reason there isn't any moderates is that the moderates ''just don't care anymore''. At least online, complete political apathy is a position I've seen a lot of people take ("Why are they constantly slamming politics into my face, I just don't care"). Unfortunately, these kinds of people are also the moderates, people who aren't particularly one side or the other. This leads to a political landscape where you have 2 extremes, and a bunch of people in the middle who couldn't care less because of said extremes. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.31.24|172.71.31.24]] 15:39, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
:Not to be a “Discord mod” here, but the entire idea of the 50-50 portion of the comic alluding to the election today is just a theory. Y’all are reading in wayyyyyyy too deep. The comic isn’t even directly saying if one candidate is better (although the Header text is supporting Harris). The discussion is supposed to be for discussing the comic and how to improve it, not clash over ideological differences. Maybe instead of arguing about who’s the better candidate, we can finish up the comic explanation, which is extremely bare bones? TL;DR: break it up, people. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 18:19, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

I think it's funny that so many Democrats are genuinely terrified of the results and spend their days anxiously refreshing 538, whereas Republicans are filled with optimism and already know that the democrats have run the weakest candidate since Dukakis. Ah well, maybe in four years you'll actually get to vote for who leads your ticket instead of having them be appointed by the party elites directly without a vote. ;) {{unsigned ip|172.71.22.120|07:35, 5 November 2024}}
:Given the indirect democracy system the US has, there's a number of problems with who gets to be President. And if Harris is weaker than H. Clinton, but it's still on a knife-edge of popular/EC voting, does that mean that Trump's win was therefore less legitimate? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.106|172.68.186.106]] 15:28, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
::Do I really have to remind you that election results are not the same thing as poll results? In 2016, [https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/ FiveThirtyEight gave Trump a 28.6% chance vs Clinton's 71.4% chance.] Most polls were even more egregiously in favor of Clinton. Yet Trump won. Now in 2024, you say "it's still on a knife-edge of popular/EC voting" - somehow pretending the PREDICTIONS of right now are in any way comparable to the ACTUAL RESULTS of 2016. Yet polls get "shy Tories" and pranksters and all kinds of complicating factors (even assuming the pollsters are being honest - which is not something you should EVER "simply assume"). Polls are a little bit better than astrology in terms of actual predictive power. So comparing "polls now" to "actual election then" is completely wrongheaded. You have to compare predictions to predictions. And the predictions of 2016 were "the odds are MASSIVELY in Clinton's favor" - yet now they are running a WEAKER candidate and rate her has having even LESS probability of winning than Clinton did. Don't worry, though, I'm sure they figured out some way to solve all the problems with their 2016 process, and are now 100% trustworthy again! /s [[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.127|172.68.3.127]] 19:45, 5 November 2024 (UTC) MeZimm
:::Whatever direction we're going with the rest of the arguments, don't lead us down the route of misanalysing (say) 28.6% vs. 71.4% as meaning anything other than that's the predicted chance (by a necessarily incomplete process) of the process coming out one way or another (even by just one vote that swings just one EC contribution). It doesn't mean that the popular vote will split by that proportion or the EC votes will split that way, it is just an assessment of how much the (each slightly biased) coins will fall either majority heads or majority tails. But we only see the one end result (itself a fudge of a fudge of many possibly imperfect opinions) and try to read the entrails all while hearing "but the predictions were 29/71, and it was much closer than that, so obviously those stats guys were wrong".
:::Do try not to fall for such statistical fallacies. The polling will be refined for all the things that it can be refined for (accounting for the kinds of people who do vote but don't answer to pollsters, or don't vote even though they say they will, etc) and should come with error bars which can be very telling but rarely get mentioned in 'executive summaries' that get selectively quoted by the headlines of organisations with less integrity and more of their own message to try to promulgate.
:::But looking across many polls, you can see even the 'headline figure' end predictions, shorn of the most obviously optomistic/pesimistic extremes, smeared from several percentage points one way to a similar the other. If the result is within one, two or three swingstates'-worth of ECs, it'll still vindicate most of the polling opinions. Though doesn't mean you can guarantee the reverse. Anyway, not long now until the process stops being fed by votes and starts being fully chewed on by those who produce the 'answer' to this year's big question. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 20:56, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

I'm reminded of some of my coding theory class, where the absolute worst bit error rate is 50%. Less than 50% and you can repeat the data to detect and correct the errors to some vastly low probability of an incorrect result, and more than 50% and you can invert the signal which flips it to less than 50%, then do the same. At exactly 50% you're essentially getting random noise, and there's nothing you can do about that (but allow allows a one-time pad encryption to be unbreakable if done correctly). --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.214.13|172.71.214.13]] 18:03, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

There's been talk about pollsters potentially herding because of just how tight the race allegedly is across all of the swing states (which should be more inclined D/R relative to each other, not all exactly even). I think Nate Silver made a tweet about the odds that the odds are so close. Could that be related to this comic, indirectly? {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.61|20:02, 5 November 2024}}

Talk:2992: UK Coal

2024-10-01T03:33:58Z

172.70.162.185:

nuclear power is better in all aspects anyway [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.105|172.70.90.105]] 19:40, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

Here before the explanation :) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.9|172.71.154.9]] 20:12, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

I made an initial explanation, but it needs a lot of work still; hopefully someone with more experience editing on this wiki can improve it (this is my first explanation) [[User:MathEnthusiast|MathEnthusiast]] ([[User talk:MathEnthusiast|talk]]) 20:27, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

: the sole rabbit-run coal plant was shut down in the 1990s. [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 20:43, 30 September 2024 (UTC)
Just checking, but this isn't referencing some particularly egregious, badly managed coal power plant in the U.K., is it? [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 20:43, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

:I don’t think so; I believe it’s simply that Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant is the last UK coal plant to be shut down.

Randal uses SI units in the formula, as every person with the tiniest bit of tech/science education would, but then gives the result in inches (3.15) instead of centimeters (8.0). Americans are weird. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.110.162|162.158.110.162]] 20:56, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

:^^ This! {{unsigned|172.70.90.109}}

One should not forget that the 3 inches are very unevenly distributed. Some areas on top of coal mines have sunken in much further creating new flooding risks that require continued future interventions.
--[[Special:Contributions/172.64.236.34|172.64.236.34]] 21:08, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

I understand that Watership Down is sometimes categorized as "children's literature", but it always catches me off guard. The Wikipedia page for it calls it an "adventure novel" and it's in the adult fiction section at my library. I'm just wondering if perhaps the explanation here should be a little less specific in its categorization of the book.[[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 21:35, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

From the perspective of someone who lived through the 1980s Miner's Strike (not directly affected, my father worked at a steel-works, not at a pit like my friends' fathers) and then the decline of the steel manufacturing industry (which ''did'' affect my father, obviously), I have rather naturally kept a general eye on the extraction and use of coal. There still are working coal-mines (though there isn't going to be that new one, in Cumbria), and there are still uses for UK coal (enough to import to add to tht which we dig out). It's really a bit early to say that the layer of total coal dug out ''won't'' deepen slightly (very, very slightly) in the future. And coal that is dug is only loosely associated with coal which is turned into electricity, so the last coal-generator stopping seems like an oddly off-topic detail for Randall to leap into the amortised accumulation of extracted volume. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.165|172.68.205.165]] 22:01, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

Full conversion to US Customary Units (AKA US Bullshit Units):

(25e9 Tonnes / (1.3 kg/L * 2.4e5 km^2)) * (1000 kg / 1 Tonne) * (1 km^2 / (1000 m)^2 ) * (1 m^3 / 1000 L) * (39.37 in / 1 m ) ~= 3"

--[[User:JayTeeEll|JayTeeEll]] ([[User talk:JayTeeEll|talk]]) 22:57, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

He has not added the amount of "flotation" that results from the removal of all that material from the islands. Have the islands risen more than 3 inches in the crust, due to the removal? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 23:37, 30 September 2024 (UTC)
:Scotland's still going up (after the last Ice-Age melt) and the south of Britain is still going down, IIRC. Which'll confuse matters. But I don't see how the component contributions to raising level (due to the digging out) could outpace the removal (due to that digging), by any significant amount. Rebound takes a while, and the effects should roughly equal out (so long as we haven't been digging too deep). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.151|172.68.205.151]] 23:41, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

I have a nagging feeling that although rabbit-run coal plants aren't (known to be) a thing, there must be Victorian children's books (e.g. Beatrix Potter) in which bunnies use coal scuttles or coal fires. "When Horace Hedgehog arrived, it was tea-time, so Mr Hoppy put some more coal on the fire..." [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 00:36, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

UK DESNZ refers to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which is a ministerial department of the UK government. So basically that text is citing the source for the data.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 03:33, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

2974: Storage Tanks

2024-08-21T14:38:48Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2974
| date = August 19, 2024
| title = Storage Tanks
| image = storage_tanks_2x.png
| imagesize = 321x251px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We're considering installing a pressurization system to keep the tanks at constant pressure solely to deter them.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by SUBSTITUTE CALCULUS TEACHER MR. MUNROE ... WITH THE POWER DRILL ... IN THE CONSERVATORY - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic two workers with hardhats are on a scaffold overlooking an industrial area with two large tanks. One of them is instructing the other that, as head of security, "your primary task" is to "watch for calculus teachers trying to drill holes in their bases." Sadly they are not alert at this moment and [[Miss Lenhart]] is seen running away with an electric drill after having drilled a hole near the bottom of the tank furthest from the guards.

A common question in introductory {{w|calculus}} courses asks [https://www.haywardflowcontrol.com/media/contentmanager/content//downloads//VessTime.pdf how long it will take a tank to empty.] Assuming the tank is shaped like a cylinder and is open to the environment (so that air can enter the tank to replace water as it flows out), the amount of fluid left in the tank above the hole will follow a quadratic decay, as the rate of pressure decrease will be proportional to the instantaneous pressure at any given moment. (Advanced variations of this question may consider more complicated tank geometries, in which case the pressure at the base will not be simply proportional to the volume of fluid remaining in the tank.) Specifically, the rate at which water flows out of the hole is governed by {{w|Torricelli's law}}, which states that the speed 𝑣 of the water flowing out is proportional to the square root of the height ℎ(𝑡) of the water above the hole.

Also, it's common practice for STEM teachers to use real-world examples to make abstract concepts more memorable for their students (though practical demonstrations like this wouldn't generally be used to teach calculus more than once per term per class).

This comic combines these ideas, implying that there's a rash of calculus teachers that go around drilling actual holes in storage tanks to demonstrate the underlying math principle, so much so that the primary job of the head of security is to prevent this pedagogically-motivated destruction. Perhaps Miss Lenhart's class is watching from afar. (Adding to the drama is the warning triangle (⚠) on the tank, implying the liquid is toxic.)

The title text jokingly alludes to the fact that by maintaining a constant pressure in the tank, the rate of flow would itself become constant, which would simplify the problem greatly from a calculus exercise to a simpler algebraic one, thus deterring calculus teachers — though it may inadvertently attract similarly adventurous algebra teachers. (If the pressure applied was higher than expected, it could also result in a nasty shock to the teacher drilling into it, as the liquid rushes out surprisingly fast.)

An easier deterrence option — compared to installing a pressurization system — would be to make the problem more complex by simply having the tanks fully closed to the environment, forming a vacuum as liquid drained out, which would represent a more complicated problem suitable to an advanced undergraduate or graduate course in Fluid Dynamics or Advanced Differential Equations.

===Analysis and Calculation===
Observation of the comic suggests the following assumptions:
* Tank height above hole: ~20 feet
* Tank radius: ~6 feet
* Type of drill bit: Normal (not a hole saw)
* Size of drill bit: 1 inch (largest commonly available twist drill bit)
* Goal of Miss Lenhart: To demonstrate quadratic decay to her students

With a tank that is 20 feet high, has a 6-foot radius, and a 1-inch diameter drill hole, it would take approximately 21.5 hours for the tank to empty completely — too long for a suitable class demonstration, and likely to be fixed by nearby workers who notice the leak.

That suggests the exploits are being filmed and shown later in an abridged (time-lapse) form.

Another way to put this is that her drill and drill bit seem to be laughably small for the job at hand.

(If she is using a large "hole saw" drill bit — which can be up to 6 inches in diameter — then that would explain the quantity of gushing liquid, and the tank could be emptied in about 36 minutes, but the drill doesn't seem to have that kind of bit on it.)

The most likely explanation to all this is that Randall didn't think through the drill and drill bit size in relation to the apparent hole size, leaving it only to nitpicky editors of a comic explainer website to even notice and care.

==Transcript==
:[Two guards with helmets are standing on scaffolding to the left of two large tanks with labels at the top. The tanks are cylindrical with a smaller base than the tank above it. The left tank has a small sign with unreadable text and near the bottom of the right tank there is a triangular warning sign with an exclamation mark inside it and a line of unreadable text below it. The guard on the left is talking to the other guard. Miss Lenhart is seen running away from the right tank with an electric drill in one hand. There is a hole in the base of the right tank which has caused the liquid inside to leak out of the tank splashing on the ground in the direction of Miss Lenhart.]
:Left guard: As head of security, your primary task is to monitor the storage tanks and watch for calculus teachers trying to drill holes in their bases.
:Label: Tank #3
:Label: Tank #4

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2971: Celestial Event

2024-08-14T09:59:05Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2971
| date = August 12, 2024
| title = Celestial Event
| image = celestial_event_2x.png
| imagesize = 471x300px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If we can get a brood of 13-year cicadas going, we might have a chance at making this happen before the oceans evaporate under the expanding sun.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CURSED SHOP THAT APPEARS EVERY FOUR POINT THREE BILLION YEARS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic was posted shortly after some people reported seeing the aurora in conjunction with the perseids meteor shower.<ref>https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/the-2024-perseid-meteor-shower-and-northern-lights-overlapped-in-a-rare-cosmic-display-see-photos-of-the-dazzling-event/ar-AA1oJKKC</ref>. It lists several events that are considered special to be witnessed due to their rarity. Total solar eclipses, auroras and comet sightings are all rare events. This year, all three of these events happened in parts of the United States, where the author lives.

Although it might be, conceivably, possible to witness all three at once in a given location (in this case, the author's neighborhood), the odds stack up to make that occurrence extremely improbable. To boot, those events can only be observed with a clear sky (a 50:50 chance), so that too has to be accounted for in the calculation.

"Total eclipse" presumably refers to total solar eclipses, as total lunar eclipses are visible from any side of the earth that the moon is visible. Randall's hometown of Cambridge, MA has, in the modern era, experienced total solar eclipses on average every 130 years, far more often than his estimate of every 350 years. The last total solar eclipse in Cambridge happened at sunrise on October 2, 1959, but it did not align with clear skies. The one before that was on June 16, 1806, though one on August 31, 1932 was visible from nearby Cape Ann and Cape Cod. The next total eclipse in Cambridge will be at sunrise on May 1, 2079, and the next after that will be on April 14, 2200.

17-year {{w|Periodical cicadas|cicadas}} are also special in the sense that a brood will only emerge from the ground once every 17 years. Periodical cicadas recently became the object of media furor in 2024 as a 13-year brood and a 17-year brood happened to emerge together, an event that only happens once every 13x17 = 221 years. This caused a lot of noise and double the amount of dead cicadas after they had mated. Needless to say, having a cicada emergence co-occur with all those previously mentioned events would be extra rare, and thus extra special.

How rare, exactly, is the point of this calculation. The resulting product is the expected frequency that all of them would occur at the same time at that location. The value he calculates is once every 4.3 billion years. This is in the same ballpark as the current age of the Earth, about 4.5 billion years.

There are multiple inaccuracies in this type of calculation, although, given the extravagant nature of the proposed event and the unfeasible time scale, that hardly matters. Multiplying probabilities only works for random variables that are entirely independent. If nothing else, orbits are (luckily[maybe]
) not random.{{cn}} It also requires that all of the probabilities remain constant over time. In reality, cicadas will not exist for very long compared to the time scale, since Earth will become uninhabitable to complex life within a billion years' time and all life will be extinct within {{w|Future of Earth|4 billion years}}. Also, the moon is moving away from Earth, and total solar eclipses will cease to occur in about [https://www.space.com/37627-total-solar-eclipse-earth-moon-alignment-future.html 600 million years]. Luckily, this is not the time that you are ''always'' going to wait, merely the (usual) period between one occurance and the next. A person starting to wait at a random point in the cycle, and no knowing anything else, would ''on average'' only have to wait ''half'' the time. (If very lucky, it could happen tomorrow, as it hypothetically might have done a bit over four billion years ago; if unlucky, it would indeed be slightly more than four billion years, having most recently happened yesterday; if ''very'' unlucky, the frequencies are slightly less defined, do not actually align as expected for the next conclusion of the cycle and additional billions of years need to be waited until the next example when it 'might' indeed occur as anticipated. Finally, if '''extremely''' unlucky, you will never get a clear sky. Ever.

In order for the math to work out, some unit conversion is necessary. To solve "20 days / 11 years", one can consider 1 year = 365.24 days (a reasonable approximation that accounts for most leap years). For "2 months / 50 years" and "2 months / 17 years", the simplest way is to convert 1 year into 12 months. Unit cancelation works out, and you end up with a number in years that corresponds to the average amount of time between events when all those different things are happening at once. (the implied unit for eclipses is events per year, and that's the unit you get as a result, so the actual length of the eclipse doesn't influence the result much).

In the title text, Randall mentioned swapping 17-year cicada broods for 13-year ones, to have some chance at witnessing the proposed super-event before life on Earth becomes impossible. Massachusetts is near the northern limit of {{w|Periodical_cicadas|Magicicada}} distribution, and only one 17-year brood is established there (and not in Cambridge, MA). However, the introduction of a different brood could, with some help from global warming, be feasible.

Earth's oceans may evaporate in about one billion years<ref>https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131216142310.htm</ref>. In order to beat that, we need to better our odds. Using 13-year cicadas in our calculations reduces the average interval between events to 3.29 billion years. We can lower that further by hoping that we'll have clear skies by then (who knows, we might get good enough at manipulating weather that we can *make* it happen). That gives us an average interval between events of about 1.6 billion years. Which means a larger than 50% chance that we'll get our special super-event to happen within a billion years, therefore beating ocean evaporation. Of course, cicadas may not last that long.[baseless conjecture] [trust the cicadas]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Approximate frequency in my area

:Active northern lights: 20 days per solar cycle

:A naked-eye "Great Comet": 2 months every 50 years

:Total eclipse: once every 350 years

:Clear skies: 50% of the time

:17-year cicada emergence: 2 months every 17 years

opening bracket

20 days over 11 years multiplied by

2 months over 50 years multiplied by

1 over 350 years multiplied by

one half multiplied by

2 months over 17 years

closing bracket to the power of -1

equals 4.3 billion years

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Every 4 billion years or so, my neighborhood gets to see a ''really'' spectacular show.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Solar eclipses]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2970: Meteor Shower PSA

2024-08-12T10:44:44Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2970
| date = August 9, 2024
| title = Meteor Shower PSA
| image = meteor_shower_psa_2x.png
| imagesize = 561x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you hold the meteor too long, it may imprint on you and form a contact binary, making reintroduction to space difficult.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REHABILITATED BOT ABOUT TO BE RELEASED BACK INTO THE WILD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a {{w|public service announcement}} (PSA) regarding what to do in case you discover a {{w|meteorite}} from the upcoming {{w|Perseid}} {{w|meteor shower}}. (See here regarding [[1723: Meteorite Identification]]).

In the first panel of the comic [[Cueball]] discovers a {{w|meteorite}} on the ground from the {{w|Perseids}} meteor shower. He then proceeds to try and throw it into space again. This is of course not possible, but this is not the reason why this action is marked as wrong with an X.

Rather, the PSA claims, in the next panel, that what he should do is contact, and then deliver the meteorite to, an observatory where astronomical "rehabbers", like [[Ponytail]], will care for it, and hopefully release it back into the wild with the next space launch. This is marked with a check mark to show that this is the correct procedure to save meteorites.

This conflates meteoroids that have fallen to the Earth from the sky with baby animals separated from their parents, and in need of rehabilitation (especially baby birds that have fallen from their nests, though more often in trees rather than "the sky"). If you find a sick, injured, or orphaned wild animal, your best bet is to find a nearby wildlife rehabilitator to care for it and return it to the wild, as members of the public will rarely have the same knowledge and expertise as someone who has the training and experience. However, this advice does not apply to meteors. Also, while it may be possible to return the animal to its parents, inadvertent disturbance caused in the process may cause the parents to abandon the young.

The title text says that if you handle the meteor too long you'll form a {{w|contact binary (small Solar System body)|contact binary}}, which in this context is two space rocks lumped together. A contact binary is also a type of binary star system, but it's unlikely that a person and a rock will form this.{{cn}} In the process of rehabilitating young animals, preventing imprinting is important, since the animal cannot rely on the human caregiver to succeed in the wild (in either sense).

[[1475: Technically|Technically]], [[Randall]] has the terminology wrong. "Meteor" refers to the shooting star you see in the sky when a meteoroid enters the atmosphere. If it makes it to the ground, the piece that survives is called a "meteorite" (although some call it [[1405: Meteor|magma]]). But this may just be part of the "lost baby bird" analogy, in that (as a meteor, just like the chicks of birds that don't practice {{w|Bird nest#Type|some variation of ground-nesting}}) an 'actual meteor' should never have been found on the ground in the first place.

If you find a recently fallen meteor(ite), or a {{w|Meteor air burst|surviving fragment}} of one, do not touch it since it may be ''very cold''. Although the surface of the meteor will have been {{w|Aerodynamic heating|heated by the atmosphere}}, the interior will still be about as cold as space and quickly cool whatever surface was not already ablated or lost. The size/fragmentation and time it has lain on the ground will dictate how cold it is, unless it was {{w|Impact crater#Impact craters on Earth|big enough}} to release enough further heat from the {{w|Lithobraking|impact}} itself.

A more important reason, from the perspective of experts who would wish to study your find (rather than 'return it to the sky'), is that handling it directly may contaminate it more than necessary. (Or, in the case of {{tvtropes|GreenRocks|more dangerous examples}}, it could contaminate ''you''!)

==Transcript==
:[A two panel comic with the panels next to each other.]

:[In the left side of the first panel, Cueball spots a meteorite on the ground. It lies a bit buried in the earth between tufts of grass. On the right side, he's shown throwing the rock into the air, with small lines indicating the flight of the meteorite. There's an "X" above him. Above this there is the following text:]
:This meteor shower weekend, remember: If you find a meteor on the ground, don't try to return it to the sky yourself.

:[In the left side of the second panel, Cueball is holding the meteorite in one hand and talking on his cellphone in his other hand, there's a check mark above him. In the middle of the panel Cueball is holding the meteorite out in both hands handing it to Ponytail who is also holding both hand out to receive it. To the right in the panel a rocket is blasting upwards with fire coming out beneath it and a plume of smoke showing its ascending path. Above this there is the following text:]
:Instead, contact an observatory where astronomical rehabbers will care for it, and hopefully release it back into the wild with the next space launch.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

2970: Meteor Shower PSA

2024-08-12T08:26:13Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2970
| date = August 9, 2024
| title = Meteor Shower PSA
| image = meteor_shower_psa_2x.png
| imagesize = 561x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you hold the meteor too long, it may imprint on you and form a contact binary, making reintroduction to space difficult.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REHABILITATED BOT ABOUT TO BE RELEASED BACK INTO THE WILD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a {{w|public service announcement}} (PSA) regarding what to do in case you discover a meteorite from the upcoming {{w|Perseid}} {{w|meteor shower}}. (See here regarding [[1723: Meteorite Identification]]).

In the first panel of the comic [[Cueball]] discovers a {{w|meteorite}} on the ground from the {{w|Perseids}} meteor shower. He then proceeds to try and throw it into space again. This is of course not possible, but this is not the reason why this action is marked as wrong with an X.

Instead the next panel shows what he should do (the PSA), namely contact and then deliver the meteorite to an observatory where astronomical "rehabbers", like [[Ponytail]], will care for it, and hopefully release it back into the wild with the next space launch. This is marked with a check mark to show that this is the correct procedure to save meteorites.

[[Randall]] conflates meteoroids that have fallen to the Earth with rehabilitating baby animals, lost from their parents, especially baby birds that have fallen from their nests (often up in the air, as per this comic's objects, albeit in trees rather than "the sky"). Like he says, if you find a sick, injured or orphaned wild animal, your best bet is to find a nearby wildlife rehabilitator to care for it and return it to the wild, as members of the public will rarely have the same knowledge and expertise as one who has the training and experience. However, this advice does not apply to meteors.

The title text says that if you handle the meteor too long you'll form a {{w|contact binary (small Solar System body)|contact binary}}, which in this context is two space rocks lumped together. A contact binary is also a type of binary star system, but it's unlikely that a person and a rock will form this.{{cn}} In the process of rehabilitating young animals, preventing imprinting is important as the animal cannot rely on the human caregiver to succeed in the wild (in either sense). Also sometimes it will be possible to return the animal to its parents, but if it smells of humans, then they might not accept it back.{{acn}}

[[1475: Technically|Technically]], Randall has the terminology wrong. "Meteor" refers to the shooting star you see in the sky when a meteoroid enters the atmosphere. If it makes it to the ground, the piece that survives is called a "meteorite" (although some call it [[1405: Meteor|magma]]). But this may just be part of the "lost baby bird" analogy, in that (as a meteor, just like the chicks of birds that don't practice {{w|Bird nest#Type|some variation of ground-nesting}}) an 'actual meteor' should never have been found on the ground in the first place.

If you find a recently fallen meteor(ite), or a {{w|Meteor air burst|surviving fragment}} of one, do not touch it since it may be ''very cold''. Although the surface of the meteor will have been {{w|Aerodynamic heating|heated by the atmosphere}}, the interior will still be about as cold as space and quickly cool whatever surface was not already ablated or lost. The size/fragmentation and time it has lain on the ground will dictate how cold it is, unless it was {{w|Impact crater#Impact craters on Earth|big enough}} to release enough further heat from the {{w|Lithobraking|impact}} itself.

A more important reason, from the perspective of experts who would wish to study your find (rather than 'return it to the sky'), is that handling it directly may contaminate it more than necessary. (Or, in the case of {{tvtropes|GreenRocks|more dangerous examples}}, it could contaminate ''you''!)

==Transcript==
:[A two panel comic with the panels next to each other.]

:[In the left side of the first panel, Cueball spots a meteorite on the ground. It lies a bit buried in the earth between tufts of grass. On the right side, he's shown throwing the rock into the air, with small lines indicating the flight of the meteorite. There's an "X" above him. Above this there is the following text:]
:This meteor shower weekend, remember: If you find a meteor on the ground, don't try to return it to the sky yourself.

:[In the left side of the second panel, Cueball is holding the meteorite in one hand and talking on his cellphone in his other hand, there's a check mark above him. In the middle of the panel Cueball is holding the meteorite out in both hands handing it to Ponytail who is also holding both hand out to receive it. To the right in the panel a rocket is blasting upwards with fire coming out beneath it and a plume of smoke showing its ascending path. Above this there is the following text:]
:Instead, contact an observatory where astronomical rehabbers will care for it, and hopefully release it back into the wild with the next space launch.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

2969: Vice President First Names

2024-08-08T14:03:20Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2969
| date = August 7, 2024
| title = Vice President First Names
| image = vice_president_first_names_2x.png
| imagesize = 364x556px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = [Political pundit on the ScrabbleTV News channel] "After four years of defying orthographic pressure, Joe ceded the top of the ticket to Kamala, who--after considering Josh, Mark, Andy, Roy, and Pete--picked Tim."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by CORNELIUS LYSANDER THROCKMORTON "BOT" BOTTINGFORD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Randall correctly observes that American {{w|Vice President of the United States|Vice Presidents}} since the 80s have almost all had short first names; each yellow name in the VP column uses the shortened form of their first name (as with Joseph 'Joe' Biden). This comic was published one day after {{w|Kamala Harris}} (who replaced Biden as presidential candidate) chose {{w|Tim Walz}} as her running mate for the {{w|2024 United States presidential election|2024 presidential election}}. Both the Republican and Democratic tickets are present for 2024, since the 2024 election had not yet concluded when this comic was made. Either party winning would match the observation. JD Vance is a special situation, since "JD" is a preferred nickname based on his initials.

In the comic's caption, Randall amusingly describes this as an emerging "political consensus."

While not a "political" consensus per se, the observed phenomenon is a type of consensus — reflecting a multi-decade change in US societal norms — and is not simply a random coincidence.
* There has been a national US trend toward shorter names since the 1980s and 1990s, with a rise in the popularity of baby names like Ryan, Kyle, Amy, and Lisa. (The trend has continued, with even shorter names like Ava, Mia, and Max becoming more common in the 2000s and 2010s.)
* This has paralleled a trend in shorter business names, with companies like Dell, Cisco, and eBay before the turn of the millennium and Google, Uber, and Lyft after. Product naming also began to simplify in the late 20th century, driven by marketing strategies that favored brevity and memorability, exemplified by Apple's iconic "iMac" and "iPhone" products.
* All of these naming trends reflect a ''general'' societal trend toward minimalism and less formality, also seen with corporate logos, product design (Apple), clothing design (Gap), furniture design (IKEA), and web/app design.

This societal shift may explain why many politicians with given names like Danforth, Albert, and Richard might have preferred to go by shorter, more approachable names like Dan, Al, and Dick, to match the zeitgeist. Indeed, the politicians' since the 1980s not in yellow mostly have names that don't easily shorten, such as George, Barack, and Kamala.

The exception, Donald Trump (which can be shortened to Don), did not become a politician until late in life, when he was already nationally famous using his full name.

The '''title text''' amusingly suggests (1) the existence of a ScrabbleTV News channel (named after {{w|Scrabble|the word game}}) staffed with (2) political pundits who (3) report Biden's decision to end his re-election campaign as being driven by orthographic (related to the writing of words) pressure to conform to the aforementioned political consensus. As long as Kamala was VP, this orthographic consensus was being violated. This could also be a subtle joke about political pundits tending to give confident, inaccurate hot-takes. (Biden's decision was driven, among other things, by worsening polling, a poor debate performance against Trump, and subsequent pressure from other leading Democrats.)

The other Democratic vice-presidential candidates mentioned were all considered to be the top six candidates during the final days before Harris' VP announcement of Tim Walz: Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly, Andy Beshear, Roy Cooper, and Pete Buttigieg. (Interestingly, of the three other VP candidates vetted by the Harris campaign in late July 2024, two had short names: Wes Moore and Gina Raimondo.)

This is Randall's second recent comic engaging in observational comedy about US politics and Kamala Harris, the first being [[2962: President Venn Diagram]] which was published right after she rose to the top of the Democratic ticket.

===Trivia: Other ways to shorten names===
Politicians can also use a more casual name by employing their middle name (as with {{w|Mitt Romney|Willard Mitt Romney}}). Even when they're not shortened to four or fewer letters, names can be made more casual in other ways (as with {{w|Bernie Sanders|Bernard 'Bernie' Sanders}}). As well, some politicians were commonly called by short nicknames even if they did not run under those names (Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower).

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Presidential Ticket Names
! Year !! President !! Vice-President
|-
| 2024 || Donald (John {{w|Donald Trump|Trump}}‎) Kamala (Devi {{w|Kamala Harris|Harris}}) || '''JD''' (''James David'' {{w|JD Vance|Vance}}, né James Donald Bowman)‎ '''Tim''' (''Timothy'' {{w|Tim Walz|Walz}})
|-
| 2020 || '''Joe''' (''Joseph'' Robinette {{w|Joe Biden|Biden}} Jr.) || Kamala (Devi Harris)
|-
| 2016 || Donald (John Trump)‎ || '''Mike''' (''Michael'' Richard {{w|Mike Pence|Pence}})
|-
| 2012 2008 || Barack (Hussein {{w|Barack Obama|Obama}} II)‎ || '''Joe''' (''Joseph'' Robinette Biden, Jr.)
|-
| 2004 2000 || George (Walker {{w|George W. Bush|Bush}}) || '''Dick''' (''Richard'' Bruce {{w|Dick Cheney|Cheney}})
|-
| 1996 1992 || '''Bill''' (''William'' Jefferson {{w|Bill Clinton|Clinton}}, né W. J. Blythe III) || '''Al''' (''Albert'' Arnold {{w|Al Gore|Gore}} Jr.)
|-
| 1988 || George (Herbert Walker {{w|George H. W. Bush|Bush}})‎ || '''Dan''' (James ''Danforth'' {{w|Dan Quayle|Quayle}} )
|-
| 1984 1980 || Ronald (Wilson {{w|Ronald Reagan|Reagan}})‎ || George (Herbert Walker Bush)
|-
| 1976 || ‎Jimmy (''James'' Earl {{w|Jimmy Carter|Carter}} Jr.) || Walter (Frederick {{w|Walter Mondale|Mondale}})
|-style="background-color:lightgray"
| 1974 || ‎Gerald (Rudolph {{w|Gerald Ford|Ford}} Jr, né Leslie Lynch King Jr.) || Nelson (Aldrich {{w|Nelson Rockefeller|Rockefeller}})*
|-style="background-color:lightgray"
| 1973 || ‎Richard (Milhous {{w|Richard Nixon|Nixon}}) || Gerald (Rudolph Ford Jr.)*
|-
| 1972 1968 || ‎Richard (Milhous Nixon) || Spiro (Theodore {{w|Spiro Agnew|Agnew}})
|-
| 1964 || Lyndon (Baines {{w|Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson}}) || Hubert (Horatio {{w|Hubert Humphrey|Humphrey}} Jr.)
|-style="background-color:lightgray"
| 1963 || Lyndon (Baines Johnson)† || ''vacant''
|-
| 1960 || '''John''' (Fitzgerald {{w|John F. Kennedy|Kennedy}}) || Lyndon (Baines Johnson)
|-
| 1956 1952 || Dwight (David {{w|Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower}}, né David Dwight Eisenhower) || Richard (Milhous Nixon)
|}

:Darkened rows show transitions not made via an {{w|List of United States major party presidential tickets|electoral 'ticket'}}.
::''* Replacements made in response to political scandal''
::''† Accession to Presidency due to assassination, VP position left unfilled until next election (not shown in comic)''

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Tables are bad? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A table is shown in a panel. Names of "Four letters or fewer" are shown in the comic on a yellow background (bolded in the table below).]
:{| class="wikitable"
! !! President !! VP
|-
| 2024 ||? Kamala ? Donald || '''Tim ? JD ?'''
|-
| 2020 || '''Joe''' || Kamala
|-
| 2016 || Donald‎ || '''Mike'''
|-
| 2008 || Barack‎ || '''Joe'''
|-
| 2000 || George || '''Dick'''
|-
| 1992 || '''Bill''' || '''Al'''
|-
| 1988 || George || '''Dan'''
|-
| 1980 || Ronald‎ || George
|-
| 1976 || ‎Jimmy || Walter
|-
| 1974 || ‎Gerald || Nelson
|-
| 1973 || ‎Richard || Gerald
|-
| 1968 || ‎Richard || Spiro
|-
| 1964 || Lyndon || Hubert
|-
| 1960 || '''John''' || Lyndon
|-
| 1952 || Dwight || Richard
|}

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Since the 1980s, a political consensus has emerged: vice presidents should have short first names.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Elections]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]

2968: University Age

2024-08-07T11:37:25Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2968
| date = August 5, 2024
| title = University Age
| image = university_age_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x388px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This only makes it more urgent that we adopt my roadmap for the next 10 years, which should put us solidly in the lead.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the HR HEAD OF THE OLDEST UNIVERSITY DESTRUCTION DEPARTMENT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] has been the leader of a university for the last five years. In a speech, he declares that his goal during those five years has been to make his university overtake the age of the oldest university in his state, which is obviously impossible.{{Citation needed}} The other university was then two years older than his own (215 years vs 213 years old). He states he has funded an intensive program to make the university five years older, or three years older than the rival university was. That would have happened anyway, whatever he had done short of such gross mismanagement as to cause his university to cease operations, or if he'd done nothing at all.

The final line of Cueball's speech, "Unfortunately, I have terrible news", presumably precedes the announcement that the rival university has also aged 5 years and is therefore just as far ahead as they were before.

Universities often plan ambitious initiatives to boost prestige. However, true success often depends on factors outside administrative control, such as student quality, alumni achievements, faculty research, historical reputation, and external economic and social factors. While administrative efforts are important for operations and gradual improvements, a university's overall prestige cannot be engineered quickly through planning alone.

In the title text, Cueball's proposed "roadmap for the next 10 years" implies more of the same ineffective efforts. It could also mean using more extreme methods of possibly dubious execution, such as merging his university into another institution that was founded before the rival university, undermining the rival university in order that it ceases operations or placing the rival university in a spacecraft on a near-light speed journey (an even more ambitious and incredibly unlikely plan that slows the apparent age of the rival university with relativistic time dilation).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing behind a lectern on a stage. He has raised a finger in the air while addressing an unseen audience.]
:Cueball: When I took the helm five years ago, our university was 213 years old – the second oldest in the state, just behind our 215 year old rival.
:Cueball: Under my leadership, we've funded an intensive program to increase our age to 218, overtaking our rival by 3.
:Cueball: Unfortunately, I have terrible news.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Time]]

Talk:2966: Exam Numbers

2024-07-31T18:20:06Z

172.70.162.185:

pre-algebra: 4, calculus: pi^2 / 4 (about 2.467), physics: cosmological constant: depends on how you measure it [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.48|162.158.167.48]] 18:11, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Game theory: -5x10⁶ (maybe helpful, maybe not... just be thankful I didn't include an ''i'' factor in there somewhere...) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 18:20, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2117: Differentiation and Integration

2024-07-31T10:03:36Z

172.70.162.185: /* Issues with Math display */ "fails to redtext" looked like "fails *to become* redtext". Though my later workthrough has now given me a very good idea (if not exactly 'know') what is wrong, not updating the initial declaration. ;)

Darn, I have no idea what this comic is about. Randal has eluded my yet again. [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 17:43, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
:Calculus. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.143|162.158.79.143]] 18:16, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
::Basically, differentiation is easy to do by hand, but integration, even of things that look simple on paper, can be very difficult, as well as easy to mess up or get lost in. [[User:Glassvein|Glassvein]] ([[User talk:Glassvein|talk]]) 01:52, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

And Calc 2 is why I stopped being a Computer Science major and moved (eventually) to majoring in English. Consistent 4.0s in math through Trig and Calc I ... 1.6 in Calc II, retook and got a 1.8. Without the Calc, couldn't do the physics; without the physics, couldn't get my 2-yr degree and move on from community college to a full university. I don't know what all the integration stuff in the flowchart is (since I didn't do well in Calc and it was a long time ago), but there's so very many things that become [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonelementary_integral nonelementary integrals] that all sorts of special tricks have to be employed for things that look like they should be easy. It's like having a problem that's very easy to do division on, but requires special advanced mathematical tricks to use multiplication upon.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.208|108.162.216.208]] 19:07, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

Going to start learning integration in 3 weeks... Wish me luck. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.96|162.158.62.96]] 12:53, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

Basic ideas:
Integration by parts is the reverse of the Product Rule.
Substitution is the reverse of the Chain Rule.
Cauchy's Formula gives the result of a contour integration in the complex plane, using "singularities" of the integrand.
Partial fractions is just splitting up one complex fraction into a sum of simple fractions, which is relevant because they are easier to integrate.
Stokes theorem is the relationship between an integral over an area, and an integral over the boundary of said area.
Riemann integration was the first rigorous definition of integration. This has been superseded by Lesbesgue integration.
Bessel functions are like 2d versions of sin and cos, and turn up sometimes when doing integration.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.61|162.158.89.61]] 20:14, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
:"Lesbesgue integration." Best. Freudian. Slip. Ever. SCNR :P [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.59|162.158.91.59]] 08:28, 28 February 2019 (UTC)
I know what you mean ;). After all, Gen 8 Pokemon was announced the other day, so you read it as "Pokemon League Integration". Completely understandable. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.28|172.68.78.28]] 14:40, 28 February 2019 (UTC)
Shouldn't Wolfram Alpha be somewhere in that flowchart? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.142|162.158.255.142]] 20:54, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

Glad to see I'm not the only one who is too dumb to integrate [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.36|162.158.90.36]] 21:02, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
:Symbolic differentiation is just going through algorithm ; there are few functions which don't have it but they tend to be constructed in complicated way, and if function have differentiation it's usually easy to find it. Symbolic integration requires lot of thinking and trial and error ; even very easy function may lack primitive function and even if they don't, you may be unable to find it except randomly. If it's exercise in book, the ones for differentiation are done by thinking about some interesting function and putting it there. The ones for integration are done by thinking about some interesting function and putting it's differentiation there. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:38, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

Oddly enough it mentions Riemann integration, but that is the integral most people know how to use. Turns out there are a lot more (e.g. lebesgue and generalized riemann integrals). I'm halfway through a second semester of real analysis and was floored by how involved integration can be. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.106|172.68.34.106]] 21:36, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

One of my professors once said: "Never try to integrate a function. Almost all (in a strict mathematical sense) functions are impossible to integrate, so there is no reason why you should even try." --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.128|162.158.88.128]] 07:52, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

How is there no "+ C" joke in there [[User:Blagae|Blagae]] ([[User talk:Blagae|talk]]) 13:16, 28 February 2019
(UTC)

Probably because he put a +C joke in 1201:_Integration_by_Parts. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.160|108.162.219.160]] 13:48, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

Why is all the maths broken [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 22:24, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
== Risch algorithm ==

I thought I could contribute to the article with a better explanation of the Risch algorithm, since I have a bit of expertise here -- I've read all the original papers, plus the Cherry papers that add the extra features like Li and erf. I pulled out some of the old papers to review my knowledge of symbolic differential algebra (it's been a while!) then typed up a careful explanation which corrected some errors in the original description and fleshed out many more details... possibly excessively, but hey, that's kind of our calling here.

Then I saw that Glassvein completely removed my version for what appears to be the original without so much as a mention in the edit description. What gives? I

[[User:CRGreathouse|CRGreathouse]] ([[User talk:CRGreathouse|talk]]) 04:59, 28 February 2019 (UTC)
: Probably due to simultaneous editing. I've restored your definition. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.128|162.158.88.128]] 16:52, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

:: OK, wasn't sure if it was intentional (if somehow it was worse). Thanks! [[User:CRGreathouse|CRGreathouse]] ([[User talk:CRGreathouse|talk]]) 01:34, 1 March 2019 (UTC)
That was indeed an accident due to simultaneous editing. My bad!
[[User:Glassvein|Glassvein]] ([[User talk:Glassvein|talk]]) 02:47, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

== Numerical Integration ==
Better still...plot the graph - cut along the line - weigh the part under the line. :-) [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 20:46, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

[Anonymous: I understand mathematically that integration is much more difficult than differentiation, but is there a possibility that Randall is making the comment that the same is true for Society? Integration has proved very difficult, and has led to riots, but experience shows that dividing our society up into small subgroups (that then argue with each other, but don't spend enough time together for riots) is relatively easy.]{{unsigned ip|108.162.219.112}}

:Good luck plotting {{w|Weierstrass function}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:05, 9 March 2019 (UTC)

== overstates the case? ==

Current summary says that the comic overstates the case of how difficult integration can be. I'm not sure that's true. Sure, you can use numerical integration to get a specific area under the curve, but that's not what the comic is referring to. Unless some mathematician can show here how integration can be done by repeatedly following a set of fixed rules, Ithis comic is actually completely accurate. And that's why it's funny. :-)

== Purify the Power rule? ==
The derivative power rule shown is combined with the chain rule. I think it should be stated to be a pure power rule, without the chain rule components. When I tried making that adjustment, I got error messages that I could not resolve, so could someone who knows how the MATH feature works remove the chain rule from the power rule? [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 18:44, 26 December 2021 (UTC)

== Change to explanation of substitution ==

So the LaTeX on this wiki is apparently broken, meaning we can't change the math things without stuff screwing up. Unfortunately, there are a lot of alterations I'd like to make. Most are minor, like simplifying the power rule explanation, but more importantly, the explanation for integration by substitution is straight-up wrong. I'm going ahead with the change anyway, because hey, a broken explanation can't be any worse than a wrong explanation, right? I'm just gonna wait and hope that this gets fixed in the future. [[User:ISaveXKCDpapers|ISaveXKCDpapers]] ([[User talk:ISaveXKCDpapers|talk]]) 14:39, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

== Issues with Math display ==

I'm not a CS student... but I do software engineering and web servers including MediaWiki. The issue is described here: [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Enable_TeX/problems#Error_:_Failed_to_parse_(Missing_texvc_executable) Missing texvc executable error]

I will note that the installed version of Math per the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:Version Special:Version] page is 7 years old... Yikes. [[User:EricM|EricM]] ([[User talk:EricM|talk]]) 03:41, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

:It's from [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2117:_Differentiation_and_Integration&diff=prev&oldid=344193 this point] that the math-markup went wrong (it was corrected, factually, but using unsupported markup). I don't have enough experience with MathML to know why the Substitution rewrite fails and becomes redtext whilst the Cauchy markup (and others) does not, with substantially the same invoked formatting. Is it just an unbalanced paren or incorrect delimiter..? Visually, seems not, but the failover text seems to refer to errors in the layers of parsing module(s) beyond the edited source and thus not as explanatory or demonstrably obvious as to where the mishandling gets invoked.
:From a purely eyeballed parsing, the markup grammar looks consistent, though. I mean, the difference between the <code><nowiki><math></nowiki></code> being immediately followed by the apparently more usual algebra of having a ''whitespace'' between it and the algebra seemed to be a possibility (an easy work-around, one perhaps imagining that the current library has a slight regex error when looking for initial components), but that doesn't really match the pattern of what does and doesn't (apparently) work.
:So let's look at three things that don't and do render...
<math> d(f(u)) = f'(u) \frac{du}{dx} dx </math> '''note: is mathtag-space-algebra, still does not work'''
<math>f(u) = \int f'(u) \frac{du}{dx} dx</math>
<math>\int f'(u) \frac{du}{dx} dx</math>
:...and compare with one (more complicated) bit that clearly does work...
<math> \frac{d^n}{da^n}f(a) = \frac{n!}{2\pi i} \oint_\gamma \frac{f(z)}{\left(z-a\right)^{n+1}}\, dz.</math>
:Try sub-elements, first testing \frac usage
<math> \frac{du}{dx} </math> '''fails'''
<math> \frac{x}{y} </math> '''fails''' (so not du or dx at fault
<math> \frac{d^n}{da^n}f(a) = \frac{n!}{2\pi i} \oint_\gamma \frac{f(z)}{\left(z-a\right)^{n+1}}\, dz.</math> '''works''' (as we know, taken from Cauchy)
<math> \frac{d^n}{da^n}f(a) = \frac{n!}{2\pi i} \oint_\gamma \frac{f(z)}{\left(z-a\right)^{n+1}}\, dz</math> '''does not work''' (just an ending dot removed)
<math> \frac{du}{dx}.</math> '''fails''' (dot added to barebones, so it's not that)
<math> d(f(u)) = f'(u) \frac{du}{dx} dx.</math> '''fails''' (dot added to full version)
<math> \frac{d^n}{da^n}f(a) = \frac{n!}{2\pi i} \oint_\gamma \frac{f(z)}{\left(z-a\right)^{n+1}}.</math> '''does not work''' (just a trailing ending term removed)
:...you know, this set of results (described as failed or working as I currently see them, in case this changes in the future) leads me to just one particular conclusion. The working Cauchy formula is cached from when the "TEX validator and converter" worked (and piped through the postcript/whatever rendered), meaning that this formula image isn't broken because it's remembered from when it was Ok.
:Anything ''new'' we try, however, finds no cached result and fails because of an actual (failed) later update of the texvc. (Conceivably, the >7yo version of Math would be happily working, even today.) Note that there are many comments that Latex (if we use that) can be finicky, and getting ImageMagick binaries manually compiled properly (if that's the chosen renderer) has been known to be very difficult.
:One could say that it's more that it was actively broken, rather than fell into unupdayed obselesence. Yes, by not updating something, there may be further dependancies that later get invoked that fail/complain about the older element (perhaps for good reasons, or perhaps just for "I'm not going to test my product against anything older than <version X>, so I'll just make it failover to make it the end-user's problem") and stagnating software isn't exactly best practice, but I see no obvious signs that the vital (half-)updated library was actually necessary to patch anything as severe as a security exploit, probably just version-tweak that the lack of probably shouldn't have mattered too much unless a specific new feature (not being used here) was desired.
:But then, I'm personally running software and OSes a full quarter of a century old (knowing how much 'risk' I'm taking... practically zero, given that it's not networked up) on hardware that's slightly older, ''plus'' have some of the very latest systems that have totally annoying new behaviours (how on earth can you make Notepad more difficult to use..? ...and my muscle-memory is now nearly useless when trying to use Win11's folder windows with long-used keyboard shortcuts that have worked pretty much since Windows3.0!), so perhaps I'm naturally more ambivalent against just updating everything at all times (never mind anything like CrowdStrike, which I thankfully dodged being affected by).
:So, anyway, yes something (system-deep) needs updating ''properly''. Or else get another system to render what we want and then upload ''that'' image to use here as an inline image. If I actually had an upload-enabled account then that's what I'd try myself, next. Or perhaps the solution (this side of the necessary server-priviliges) is access an existing version as a cross-server transcluded resource. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.166|172.69.43.166]] 09:54, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2117: Differentiation and Integration

2024-07-31T09:59:36Z

172.70.162.185: /* Issues with Math display */

Darn, I have no idea what this comic is about. Randal has eluded my yet again. [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 17:43, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
:Calculus. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.143|162.158.79.143]] 18:16, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
::Basically, differentiation is easy to do by hand, but integration, even of things that look simple on paper, can be very difficult, as well as easy to mess up or get lost in. [[User:Glassvein|Glassvein]] ([[User talk:Glassvein|talk]]) 01:52, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

And Calc 2 is why I stopped being a Computer Science major and moved (eventually) to majoring in English. Consistent 4.0s in math through Trig and Calc I ... 1.6 in Calc II, retook and got a 1.8. Without the Calc, couldn't do the physics; without the physics, couldn't get my 2-yr degree and move on from community college to a full university. I don't know what all the integration stuff in the flowchart is (since I didn't do well in Calc and it was a long time ago), but there's so very many things that become [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonelementary_integral nonelementary integrals] that all sorts of special tricks have to be employed for things that look like they should be easy. It's like having a problem that's very easy to do division on, but requires special advanced mathematical tricks to use multiplication upon.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.208|108.162.216.208]] 19:07, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

Going to start learning integration in 3 weeks... Wish me luck. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.96|162.158.62.96]] 12:53, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

Basic ideas:
Integration by parts is the reverse of the Product Rule.
Substitution is the reverse of the Chain Rule.
Cauchy's Formula gives the result of a contour integration in the complex plane, using "singularities" of the integrand.
Partial fractions is just splitting up one complex fraction into a sum of simple fractions, which is relevant because they are easier to integrate.
Stokes theorem is the relationship between an integral over an area, and an integral over the boundary of said area.
Riemann integration was the first rigorous definition of integration. This has been superseded by Lesbesgue integration.
Bessel functions are like 2d versions of sin and cos, and turn up sometimes when doing integration.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.61|162.158.89.61]] 20:14, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
:"Lesbesgue integration." Best. Freudian. Slip. Ever. SCNR :P [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.59|162.158.91.59]] 08:28, 28 February 2019 (UTC)
I know what you mean ;). After all, Gen 8 Pokemon was announced the other day, so you read it as "Pokemon League Integration". Completely understandable. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.28|172.68.78.28]] 14:40, 28 February 2019 (UTC)
Shouldn't Wolfram Alpha be somewhere in that flowchart? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.142|162.158.255.142]] 20:54, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

Glad to see I'm not the only one who is too dumb to integrate [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.36|162.158.90.36]] 21:02, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
:Symbolic differentiation is just going through algorithm ; there are few functions which don't have it but they tend to be constructed in complicated way, and if function have differentiation it's usually easy to find it. Symbolic integration requires lot of thinking and trial and error ; even very easy function may lack primitive function and even if they don't, you may be unable to find it except randomly. If it's exercise in book, the ones for differentiation are done by thinking about some interesting function and putting it there. The ones for integration are done by thinking about some interesting function and putting it's differentiation there. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:38, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

Oddly enough it mentions Riemann integration, but that is the integral most people know how to use. Turns out there are a lot more (e.g. lebesgue and generalized riemann integrals). I'm halfway through a second semester of real analysis and was floored by how involved integration can be. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.106|172.68.34.106]] 21:36, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

One of my professors once said: "Never try to integrate a function. Almost all (in a strict mathematical sense) functions are impossible to integrate, so there is no reason why you should even try." --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.128|162.158.88.128]] 07:52, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

How is there no "+ C" joke in there [[User:Blagae|Blagae]] ([[User talk:Blagae|talk]]) 13:16, 28 February 2019
(UTC)

Probably because he put a +C joke in 1201:_Integration_by_Parts. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.160|108.162.219.160]] 13:48, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

Why is all the maths broken [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 22:24, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
== Risch algorithm ==

I thought I could contribute to the article with a better explanation of the Risch algorithm, since I have a bit of expertise here -- I've read all the original papers, plus the Cherry papers that add the extra features like Li and erf. I pulled out some of the old papers to review my knowledge of symbolic differential algebra (it's been a while!) then typed up a careful explanation which corrected some errors in the original description and fleshed out many more details... possibly excessively, but hey, that's kind of our calling here.

Then I saw that Glassvein completely removed my version for what appears to be the original without so much as a mention in the edit description. What gives? I

[[User:CRGreathouse|CRGreathouse]] ([[User talk:CRGreathouse|talk]]) 04:59, 28 February 2019 (UTC)
: Probably due to simultaneous editing. I've restored your definition. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.128|162.158.88.128]] 16:52, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

:: OK, wasn't sure if it was intentional (if somehow it was worse). Thanks! [[User:CRGreathouse|CRGreathouse]] ([[User talk:CRGreathouse|talk]]) 01:34, 1 March 2019 (UTC)
That was indeed an accident due to simultaneous editing. My bad!
[[User:Glassvein|Glassvein]] ([[User talk:Glassvein|talk]]) 02:47, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

== Numerical Integration ==
Better still...plot the graph - cut along the line - weigh the part under the line. :-) [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 20:46, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

[Anonymous: I understand mathematically that integration is much more difficult than differentiation, but is there a possibility that Randall is making the comment that the same is true for Society? Integration has proved very difficult, and has led to riots, but experience shows that dividing our society up into small subgroups (that then argue with each other, but don't spend enough time together for riots) is relatively easy.]{{unsigned ip|108.162.219.112}}

:Good luck plotting {{w|Weierstrass function}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:05, 9 March 2019 (UTC)

== overstates the case? ==

Current summary says that the comic overstates the case of how difficult integration can be. I'm not sure that's true. Sure, you can use numerical integration to get a specific area under the curve, but that's not what the comic is referring to. Unless some mathematician can show here how integration can be done by repeatedly following a set of fixed rules, Ithis comic is actually completely accurate. And that's why it's funny. :-)

== Purify the Power rule? ==
The derivative power rule shown is combined with the chain rule. I think it should be stated to be a pure power rule, without the chain rule components. When I tried making that adjustment, I got error messages that I could not resolve, so could someone who knows how the MATH feature works remove the chain rule from the power rule? [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 18:44, 26 December 2021 (UTC)

== Change to explanation of substitution ==

So the LaTeX on this wiki is apparently broken, meaning we can't change the math things without stuff screwing up. Unfortunately, there are a lot of alterations I'd like to make. Most are minor, like simplifying the power rule explanation, but more importantly, the explanation for integration by substitution is straight-up wrong. I'm going ahead with the change anyway, because hey, a broken explanation can't be any worse than a wrong explanation, right? I'm just gonna wait and hope that this gets fixed in the future. [[User:ISaveXKCDpapers|ISaveXKCDpapers]] ([[User talk:ISaveXKCDpapers|talk]]) 14:39, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

== Issues with Math display ==

I'm not a CS student... but I do software engineering and web servers including MediaWiki. The issue is described here: [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Enable_TeX/problems#Error_:_Failed_to_parse_(Missing_texvc_executable) Missing texvc executable error]

I will note that the installed version of Math per the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:Version Special:Version] page is 7 years old... Yikes. [[User:EricM|EricM]] ([[User talk:EricM|talk]]) 03:41, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

:It's from [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2117:_Differentiation_and_Integration&diff=prev&oldid=344193 this point] that the math-markup went wrong (it was corrected, factually, but using unsupported markup). I don't have enough experience with MathML to know why the Substitution rewrite fails to redtext whilst the Cauchy markup (and others) does not, with substantially the same invoked formatting. Is it just an unbalanced paren or incorrect delimiter..? Visually, seems not, but the failover text seems to refer to errors in the layers of parsing module(s) beyond the edited source and thus not as explanatory or demonstrably obvious as to where the mishandling gets invoked.
:From a purely eyeballed parsing, the markup grammar looks consistent, though. I mean, the difference between the <code><nowiki><math></nowiki></code> being immediately followed by the apparently more usual algebra of having a ''whitespace'' between it and the algebra seemed to be a possibility (an easy work-around, one perhaps imagining that the current library has a slight regex error when looking for initial components), but that doesn't really match the pattern of what does and doesn't (apparently) work.
:So let's look at three things that don't and do render...
<math> d(f(u)) = f'(u) \frac{du}{dx} dx </math> '''note: is mathtag-space-algebra, still does not work'''
<math>f(u) = \int f'(u) \frac{du}{dx} dx</math>
<math>\int f'(u) \frac{du}{dx} dx</math>
:...and compare with one (more complicated) bit that clearly does work...
<math> \frac{d^n}{da^n}f(a) = \frac{n!}{2\pi i} \oint_\gamma \frac{f(z)}{\left(z-a\right)^{n+1}}\, dz.</math>
:Try sub-elements, first testing \frac usage
<math> \frac{du}{dx} </math> '''fails'''
<math> \frac{x}{y} </math> '''fails''' (so not du or dx at fault
<math> \frac{d^n}{da^n}f(a) = \frac{n!}{2\pi i} \oint_\gamma \frac{f(z)}{\left(z-a\right)^{n+1}}\, dz.</math> '''works''' (as we know, taken from Cauchy)
<math> \frac{d^n}{da^n}f(a) = \frac{n!}{2\pi i} \oint_\gamma \frac{f(z)}{\left(z-a\right)^{n+1}}\, dz</math> '''does not work''' (just an ending dot removed)
<math> \frac{du}{dx}.</math> '''fails''' (dot added to barebones, so it's not that)
<math> d(f(u)) = f'(u) \frac{du}{dx} dx.</math> '''fails''' (dot added to full version)
<math> \frac{d^n}{da^n}f(a) = \frac{n!}{2\pi i} \oint_\gamma \frac{f(z)}{\left(z-a\right)^{n+1}}.</math> '''does not work''' (just a trailing ending term removed)
:...you know, this set of results (described as failed or working as I currently see them, in case this changes in the future) leads me to just one particular conclusion. The working Cauchy formula is cached from when the "TEX validator and converter" worked (and piped through the postcript/whatever rendered), meaning that this formula image isn't broken because it's remembered from when it was Ok.
:Anything ''new'' we try, however, finds no cached result and fails because of an actual (failed) later update of the texvc. (Conceivably, the >7yo version of Math would be happily working, even today.) Note that there are many comments that Latex (if we use that) can be finicky, and getting ImageMagick binaries manually compiled properly (if that's the chosen renderer) has been known to be very difficult.
:One could say that it's more that it was actively broken, rather than fell into unupdayed obselesence. Yes, by not updating something, there may be further dependancies that later get invoked that fail/complain about the older element (perhaps for good reasons, or perhaps just for "I'm not going to test my product against anything older than <version X>, so I'll just make it failover to make it the end-user's problem") and stagnating software isn't exactly best practice, but I see no obvious signs that the vital (half-)updated library was actually necessary to patch anything as severe as a security exploit, probably just version-tweak that the lack of probably shouldn't have mattered too much unless a specific new feature (not being used here) was desired.
:But then, I'm personally running software and OSes a full quarter of a century old (knowing how much 'risk' I'm taking... practically zero, given that it's not networked up) on hardware that's slightly older, ''plus'' have some of the very latest systems that have totally annoying new behaviours (how on earth can you make Notepad more difficult to use..? ...and my muscle-memory is now nearly useless when trying to use Win11's folder windows with long-used keyboard shortcuts that have worked pretty much since Windows3.0!), so perhaps I'm naturally more ambivalent against just updating everything at all times (never mind anything like CrowdStrike, which I thankfully dodged being affected by).
:So, anyway, yes something (system-deep) needs updating ''properly''. Or else get another system to render what we want and then upload ''that'' image to use here as an inline image. If I actually had an upload-enabled account then that's what I'd try myself, next. Or perhaps the solution (this side of the necessary server-priviliges) is access an existing version as a cross-server transcluded resource. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.166|172.69.43.166]] 09:54, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

2964: Olympic Sports

2024-07-30T08:13:04Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2964
| date = July 26, 2024
| title = Olympic Sports
| image = olympic_sports_2x.png
| imagesize = 553x328px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Thankfully for everyone involved, the Winter Olympics officials spotted me and managed to stop me before I got to the ski jump.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A VERY CONCERNED OLYMPIC OFFICIAL - Provide an explanation of each sport for the convenience of those unfamiliar with some or all listed sports. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic was officially published on the day of the opening ceremony of the {{w|2024 Summer Olympics|2024 Paris (Summer) Olympics}}, though it actually appeared early the following day.

In this comic, [[Randall]], who has no athletic training, imagines himself participating in various Olympic events, with his degrees of failure measured in terms of their humor potential.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Olympic sports ranked by how funny it would be if a regular person competed
! How funny !! Sport !! Reason
|-
|rowspan=5| Not that funny || {{w|Rowing}} - One or more people row a boat to a destination.|| The person would struggle to row effectively, falling out of cadence and fouling the oars of the other rowers in their boat. However, if Randall competed in the single sculls, such coordination would not be an issue, and he would likely just be much slower than the other competitors. Or fall in the water.
|-
| {{w|Fencing}} - Two contestants attempt to land hits on each other with a long fencing weapon.|| Contrary to what is often portrayed in movies, sword fights of any kind are very quick, often lasting just a few seconds. Olympic fencing matches are especially fast, and an untrained layman watching the fight would probably be unable to tell the difference between a fight between two experts and a fight in which one person had no experience, aside from that said person would lose every bout.
|-
| {{w|Weightlifting}} - Contestants lift weights, which, in the Olympics, get heavier with each round, until all but one fail to lift.|| They might just fail to lift the weights.
|-
| {{w|Golf}} - Contestants attempt to use golf clubs to hit a golf ball into one or more holes in as small a number of hits as possible.|| They would likely miss the ball or hit poorly, due to an incorrect stance/swing when hitting, using a club whose loft (angle of the front face) is inappropriate, or just basic lack of skill.
----
''The comic illustrates this by having Randall putt and miss the hole at very close range.''
|-
| {{w|Archery}} - Using a bow and arrow, contestants attempt to hit a target with as much accuracy as possible.|| Arrows might miss the target, but this wouldn't be particularly amusing (unless Randall forgoes armbraces & discovers the bowstring's propensity for smacking the inside of his wrist after releasing it).
----
''The comic shows Randall missing all his shots on the target.''
|-
|rowspan=5| Pretty funny || {{w|Swimming}} - Contestants swim to a destination or complete lengths as fast as possible.|| They might struggle to stay afloat (particularly in open water swimming, where they would be buffeted by other contestants) or {{w|Eric Moussambani|swim awkwardly}}. They are also likely to have a markedly different physique to the other competitors, which would have a comic effect.
|-
| {{w|Long jump}} - Contestants, with a running start, attempt to jump as far as possible.|| They would likely make a very short jump, or perhaps foul every jump.
|-
| {{w|Pole vault}} - Using a bendable pole, contestants attempt to propel (vault) themselves over a bar.|| They might miss the plant and end up dropping the pole and running under the bar. If they did manage to get some lift, but failed to get enough to reach the mat, it would probably be concerning, rather than funny.
|-
| {{w|Diving}} - Contestants attempt to fulfil multiple criteria while diving into water.|| Awkward or painful-looking dives could ensue. Potential for injury would be high.
|-
| {{w|Hurdles}} - Contestants run on a track with hurdles positioned at various places.|| They might trip and fall over the hurdles, or just knock them all over as they fail to clear them.
----
''Drawn in this section, Randall repeatedly and unpleasantly runs into the hurdles, unable to jump over any of them. He has his arm raised bent in front of his face in a classic hurdler's pose, but appears to have failed to get much, if any, height off the ground.''
|-
|rowspan=5| Incredibly funny || {{w|Figure skating}} [The only Winter Olympic discipline featured in the main comic] Competitors perform artistic routines set to music while skating on an ice rink, and are judged on a combination of skating skill, composition, and presentation. || They might slip and fall continually on the ice, with a high risk for sprained joints or bone fractures. This might have particular comic potential if Randall were skating as part of a pair, awkwardly attempting to lift and spin a partner, or perhaps doing nothing but being lifted and dragged around by them.
|-
| {{w|Horizontal bar}} - A horizontal bar is used to perform gymnastics.|| They might fail to perform any flips or lose their grip on the bar, falling to the safety mats below. In all likelihood, having been lifted to the bar, they would simply hang helplessly beneath it, managing minimal swings backwards and forwards.
|-
| {{w|Equestrian sports}} - Various activities involving the use of horses.|| They might struggle to control the horse or fall/get thrown off.
----
''Randall is shown completely unable to control his horse. He is in the process of falling off and is flailing his arms.
|-
| {{w|Freestyle BMX}} - Contestants ride BMX bikes and perform various tricks, and are then judged by trick quality.|| They might crash or fail to perform tricks.
|-
| {{w|Pommel horse}} - Using a gymnastic device somewhat similar to a horse, gymnasts perform various tricks.|| They might awkwardly flop around, fall off, or lose their balance & risk crushing {{tvtropes|GroinAttack|a particularly squashy part}} of their anatomy, which could, depending on one's sense of humor, the context, & the exact aesthetics of the incident, elicit laughter.
----
''Depicted, Randall is awkwardly perched atop a pommel horse with the rather basic {{w|The_Lexicon_of_Comicana|agitrons}} surrounding him suggesting that he is wiggling some body parts but otherwise not moving much at all. However, he seems to be unaware of this, excitedly demanding that people look at what he presumably thinks is an impressive feat of athleticism.
|}

The title text may be a reference to ski jumper {{w|Vinko Bogataj}}, whose spectacular crash at a (non-Olympic) {{w|Ski_flying|ski flying}} event in 1970 in Oberstdorf, (then) West Germany became emblematic of the expression "the agony of defeat" in the opening narration of the popular US television program "{{w|Wide World of Sports (American TV program)|Wide World of Sports}}". Alternatively the reference may be to {{w|Eddie the Eagle}}, whose poor performance in the {{w|Ski_jumping|ski jump}} at the {{w|1988 Winter Olympics}} led to the introduction of a rule requiring entrants to be ranked internationally in the top 50 and top 30%.

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

:[Header above three panels:]
:Olympic Sports ranked by how funny it would be if I, a regular person without athletic training, snuck onto the team to compete:
:[Three panels are shown with a header, a bullet list with five listed sports in each, and one or two depictions of sports.]

:Not that funny
:Rowing
:Fencing
:Weightlifting
:Golf
:Archery
:[Cueball putts a ball with a golf club and misses the hole from a close distance.]
:[Cueball is aiming with a bow. Three arrows are on the ground at various distances from the target.]

:Pretty funny
:Swimming
:Long jump
:Pole vault
:Diving
:Hurdles
:[Cueball runs stomach-first into a hurdle, while holding an arm in front of his head. Another hurdle behind him has fallen down.]
:Cueball: [Bonk] Ow! [Bonk] Ow!

:Incredibly funny
:Figure skating
:Horizontal bar
:Equestrian
:BMX freestyle
:Pommel horse
:[Cueball tries to balance himself on a pommel horse. His both hands and one leg are down, while the other leg is slightly raised.]
:Cueball: Look! Look!
:[A horse rider wearing a black helmet is struggling to maintain balance on the running horse, with both hands and one leg raised.]
:Horse rider with black helmet: AAAAA!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]

2962: President Venn Diagram

2024-07-26T08:10:58Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2962
| date = July 22, 2024
| title = President Venn Diagram
| image = president_venn_diagram_2x.png
| imagesize = 445x398px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hard to imagine political rhetoric more microtargeted at me than 'I love Venn diagrams. I really do, I love Venn diagrams. It's just something about those three circles.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 2,382,203 Massachusetts write-in ballots for Randall Munroe - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{notice|This comic contains just one opinion as interpreted by [[Randall|the comic's author]].
Please take care to not add anything to the main article that might be your own personal political opinion. |image=warning!!.png|**NB. This warning could remain as long as Harris is a candidate in the election. Once this process concludes, we might need a different warning.}}

On the Monday that this comic was published, US Vice President {{w|Kamala Harris}} became the new presumptive {{w|Democratic_Party_(United_States)|Democratic Party}} nominee for the 2024 presidential election, having received verbal endorsements from a majority of Democratic state delegations; the day before, President {{w|Joe Biden}} had {{w|Withdrawal_of_Joe_Biden_from_the_2024_United_States_presidential_election|suspended his re-election bid}} and endorsed Harris. These major events resulted in Harris replacing Biden as one of the top two candidates for {{w|President of the United States|President}} in the 2024 election.

This comic features a three-way {{w|Venn diagram}} (which [[2721: Euler Diagrams|is also an Euler diagram]]). The three circles represent eligibility for US presidency, ability to do a good job as the US president, and love for Venn diagrams:

# '''Good President:''' The dominant Internet topic of conversation on the day this comic was published was Harris and people's opinions about her, and [[Randall]] personally thought she'd be a good president but that he himself would not be.
# '''Eligibility:''' According to Article II of the {{w|US Constitution}}, someone is {{w|President_of_the_United_States#Eligibility|eligible for the presidency}} if they are a natural-born citizen of the United States, are at least 35 years old, and are a resident in the United States for at least 14 years. Both Randall Munroe and Kamala Harris meet these qualifications.
# '''Vocal Venn diagram affection:''' Harris' affection for Venn diagrams is something of a meme, and has been used by her in her campaign [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kamala-harris-campaign-memes-gen-z-b2583802.html]. Randall is also known for his love of Venn diagrams, which feature heavily in xkcd. Randall especially loves Venn diagrams ABOUT Venn diagrams, like this one. While Harris frequently uses Venn diagrams with three intersecting circles as props, she also has [https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5125622/user-clip-circle-venn-diagram discussed them in the abstract, without reference to any physical diagram, even when discussing more than three intersecting categories.]

Part of the humor arises from the contrast of putting on a level playing field three characteristics that range widely from the momentous to the quirky, as well as the implication that Randall and Harris are quite similar in all but one area: their fitness to serve as US President, per Randall's opinion.

The diagram does not indicate anyone who Randall would include in the six other areas (categories) of the Venn diagram besides the two in which he listed himself and Harris.

The title text [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWR2uTfrh-k quotes Kamala Harris on her affection for Venn diagrams], and implies that the best way to target Randall with political ads is to mention how amazing Venn diagrams are.

Randall seems to express support for a Democrat Presidential candidate every 8 years, including in a 2016 comic [[I'm With Her]] endorsing {{w|Hillary Clinton}} and in [https://blog.xkcd.com/2008/01/28/obama/ a 2008 blog post] endorsing {{w|Barack Obama}}. In 2032 he will endorse [attention time-travelers/future editors, please edit this part to fill in whoever is running for president, and whether [[1688|the spiders are able to vote]].], followed by [same here] in 2040, Gabriele Cirulli in 2048, and X Æ A-12 Musk in the 2056 United States of America and Mars (USAM) election.

==Transcript==
:[A Venn diagram with three circles.]
:[Upper left circle:] Eligible to be President
:[Upper right circle:] Would be a good President
:[Lower circle:] Unusually vocal about love of Venn diagrams
:[Intersection of all three circles:] Kamala Harris
:[Intersection of the upper left and lower circles:] Me

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category: Venn diagrams]]
[[Category: Politics]]
[[Category: Elections]]
[[Category: Comics featuring politicians]]

850: World According to Americans

2024-07-24T23:42:48Z

172.70.162.185: Undo revision 347067 by ChristmasGospel (talk) That warning doesn't apply here. Not sure why one would think it should.

{{comic
| number = 850
| date = January 21, 2011
| title = World According to Americans
| image = world according to americans.png
| titletext = It's not our fault we caught a group on their way home from a geography bee. And they taught us that Uzbekistan is one of the world's two doubly-landlocked countries!
}}
*A [http://xkcd.com/850_large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd.com - the comic's page can also be accessed by clicking on the comic number above.

==Explanation==

There's a somewhat well-circulated image on the internet entitled "The World According to Americans" which plays on the stereotype of the ignorant American. In it, the entirety of Eastern Europe and most of Asia are entitled "commies" and the Middle-East as "evil-doers," and so on. Later, other people created similar maps to re-do the concept. It later spread to other cultures.

This comic is an anti-joke playing on that idea. You expect to see something which plays on the {{w|stereotypes}} that exist in American culture of various parts of the world. However, instead, the map is remarkably well-informed, and shows how sampling bias can be used to conflate results. See below the [[#Table of items in the map|table of items in the map]].

The title text jokes that it was "not their fault" that the Americans involved were coming from a {{w|National Geographic Bee|geography bee}}. On the other hand, if even apparent geography buffs use vague labels such as "rest of South America" and "various former Soviet states" instead of using more detailed labels, the average American are likely even less geographically knowledgeable. (Although, as the illustrators wrote below Cape Horn, the reason they did not draw Antarctica or many South American, Middle Eastern and British countries and the lack of detail may be because the people who asked them to draw this map were beginning to 'look impatient' since they did not get the expected ignorant result.)

A {{w|landlocked country}} is a country that does not border any major bodies of water. Furthering the concept, a {{w|Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked|doubly-landlocked}} country is a country that not only has no connection to water, but is only bordered by ''other'' landlocked countries. As the title text states, there are only two such countries in the world as of 2012: {{w|Uzbekistan}} and {{w|Liechtenstein}}. This is the type of fact that may be stereotypically expected of a geography bee competitor.

===Table of items in the map===
{| class="wikitable"
!style="width: 25%;"|Annotation
! Further details
|-
| Hey so what projection should we use? I’ll aim for "Robinson".
| Any flat [[977|map projection]] of a sphere must have inaccuracies. {{w|Mercator projection}} displays shapes well at the expense of size. For example, Mercator's Greenland appears larger than South America, but is actually one eighth the size. {{w|Gall-Peters projection}} does the opposite, showing accurate surface area with distorted ("awful") shapes. {{w|Robinson projection}} compromises between shape & size for aesthetics; hence Greenland is "still too big".
|-
| Did you know Maine is actually the US state closest to Africa?
| The distance is about 5076 km (~3754 mi). Measurement points are {{w|Sail Rock (disambiguation)|Sail Rock (Maine)}}, the most eastern point of the USA, and a point which seems to be the most southern (and as such western) point of el-Beddouza Beach, {{w|Morocco}}. It's not the most western point of Morocco (or Africa), though.
|-
| Hispañola
| For some reason, the map labels the island of {{w|Hispaniola}} using an archaic and now rarely-used spelling of its name.
|-
| Do we have to label all the Virgin Islands?
| Which are {{w|Virgin_Islands#Larger_Islands|9 larger}} and about 100 {{w|List of Caribbean islands#British Virgin Islands|smaller}} {{w|List of Caribbean islands#United States Virgin Islands|islands}} - surely a lot of labels. The location of the label suggests this actually refers to the larger chain of islands which makes up the {{w|Lesser Antilles}}.
|-
| French, and I think Dutch and English
| The three separated areas are (from west to east) {{w|Guyana}} (former British colony), {{w|Suriname}} (former Dutch colony) and {{w|French Guiana}} (still officially part of France). The former two often switched between French, Dutch and British colonial rule. The latter was French most times except for a short Portuguese episode.
|-
| Brazil (Portugese-speaking)
Rest of South America (Spanish-speaking)
| In green is Portuguese-speaking (misspelled) Brazil, and in blue are the Spanish speaking Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.
|-
| {{w|Greenland}} (Still too big!)
Yeah, but the Peters map is awful
| Relating back to the choice of map projection, the apparent size of Greenland is one of the most commonly known projection based inaccuracies. The {{w|Gall-Peters projection}} shows accurate surface area, but with distorted ("awful") shapes.
|-
|Scandanavia
| A typo of {{w|Scandinavia}}. The area shown includes Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, but the actual area of Scandinavia excludes Finland. The Scandinavian peninsula countries include Norway, Finland, and Sweden, and those can be collectively (and nerdily) referred to as "Fennoscandia."
|-
| Western Europe
Eastern Europe
| The line here approximately follows that of the {{w|Iron Curtain}} that separated the {{w|Warsaw Pact}} states (the Soviet Union and other Communist allies) from the {{w|NATO}} (US-allied) and neutral states. However, all of Germany is included in Western Europe (when during the Cold War it was divided into East and West Germany) while Austria (which was officially neutral in the Cold War but closely tied to the West and therefore blocked off from its Communist neighbors) is marked as Eastern Europe. Here, Eastern Europe also includes the {{w|Balkans}} (the southern peninsula east of Italy), which are usually considered separate. During the Cold War, the Balkans were divided between Soviet-allied Albania (which later left the Pact) and Bulgaria, NATO-allied Greece and Turkey, and Yugoslavia, which was a neutral Communist state. It's also worth noting that there should be a blob of Russian red in the middle of Eastern Europe, representing the Russian exclave of {{w|Kaliningrad oblast}}.
|-
| British Isles
Ireland
| Although {{w|Ireland}} belongs to the {{w|British Isles}} geographically, it does not belong to the {{w|British Islands}} politically. That may be the reason why Ireland is labeled additionally - to show it's known that Ireland does not belong to the {{w|United Kingdom}}. {{w|Northern Ireland}} does, though.
|-
| Rainforest DRC
| The area shown is actually not completely the {{w|Democratic Republic of the Congo}} (DRC), but since one of the persons who made this map says they don't know the African map very well (see statement below), it's fairly accurate. Also the area called rainforest is somewhat larger than the area depicted as {{w|tropical rainforest}} on Wikipedia, although this might be due to {{w|deforestation}} and {{w|desertification in Africa}}
|-
| So this is one of those things where you point out our ignorance and stereotypes?
Yeah – I mean I freely admit I don’t know the African map very well, which speaks volumes in itself.
| Here two of the persons involved in drawing this map discusses what their lack of knowledge about Africa says about them. The African portion of the map is for sure the most poorly labeled, which lends weight to the stereotype of the 'Ignorant American'. Although it has to be mentioned, that the geography of Africa is in general not well known - at least within the Western world. So that's not really an American thing, here. The few countries which are labeled here mostly are well known because of their unstable political situation or because of their remarkable location. The labeled locations (and the presumably reasons of their "publicity") are west to east, north to south: {{w|Morocco}} ({{w|Arab Spring}}, location), {{w|Algeria}} (Arab Spring, {{w|Algerian Civil War|Civil War}}), {{w|Sahara|Sahara Desert}} (largest hot desert of the world), {{w|Sudan}} ({{w|Second Sudanese Civil War|Civil war}}, Arab Spring), {{w|West Africa}} ({{w|West Africa#Postcolonial eras|Lots of Civil wars}} and thus bad humanitarian situation, {{w|Blood diamond|Blood diamonds}}), {{w|Somalia}} ({{w|Somali Civil War|Civil war}}, {{w|Piracy in Somalia|pirates}}), {{w|Lake Victoria}} (largest lake of Africa, quite remarkable even at large scale maps (as here)), {{w|Mozambique}} ({{w|Mozambican Civil War|Civil war}}), {{w|Angola}} ({{w|Angolan Civil War|Civil War}}) and {{w|Madagascar}} (one of the worlds large island at the east coast - quite remarkable).
|-
| Cape Horn
| {{w|Cape Horn}} is the southern tip of ''South America'', not ''Africa''. The southern tip of Africa is called {{w|Cape Agulhas}}.
|-
| Should we include {{w|Antarctica}}?
Let’s not – these guys are looking impatient
| Here it is made clear that those who came with this assignment are getting impatient since their project of proving how little Americans know about the world has failed miserably. It also shows that if some labels or parts are missing, then it could be because of this and not for lack of knowledge. This is also a joke on the lack of labels that would be required for the map of Antarctica. Drawing Antarctica and labeling it would probably take less time than having the discussion about whether to include it, and then writing that discussion on the map.
|-
| {{w|Aral Sea}} (Gone)
| Formerly one of the largest fresh-water lakes of the world, now actually not completely gone, but almost.
|-
| Various former Soviet states
| Which are (west to east) {{w|Kazakhstan}}, {{w|Turkmenistan}}, {{w|Uzbekistan}}, {{w|Tajikistan}} and {{w|Kyrgyzstan}}. The former {{w|Soviet Union|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics}} was dissolved in 1991 and thus the {{w|Cold War}} ended.
|-
| Middle East
| Drawn here to include {{w|Egypt}} and {{w|Turkey}}. Whether these should be included depends on whether you mean the phrase ''Middle East'' politically or geographically. They are both Muslim countries, but geographically Egypt is in Africa and Turkey is usually not included because of its close affiliation with Europe.
|-
| Boxing Day quake
Wait, "Boxing Day"? There’s no way you’re American.

I read BBC News, OK?
| On December 26, 2004, a {{w|2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami|huge earthquake}} struck off the coast of Indonesia, causing severe tsunamis. December 26, the day after {{w|Christmas Day}}, is celebrated as {{w|Boxing Day}} in the UK, Canada, Australia, and some other English-speaking countries, but not the US. As such, the earthquake became known as the Boxing Day Quake.
One of the people who came asked these people to draw this map picks up on the use of 'Boxing Day' as something no American would say and questions if this person is, in fact, American. But an American reader of {{w|BBC News}} (part of the British Broadcasting Corporation) may start to use the phrase "Boxing Day" about the Tsunami.
|-
| India -> Mostly Muslim
India -> Mostly Hindu
| In general {{w|India}} is separated in {{w|Religion in India|two religious groups}}. Muslims in the north-west, Hindus in the rest. As visible on the [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Religion_in_India.svg map] in Wikimedia Commons, the area with a predominant Muslim population is far smaller (and mostly concentrated to Kashmir) than depicted in the comic.
|-
| Tibet (contested)
| The area was annexed by the {{w|People's Republic of China}} in the 1950s. Since then there are {{w|Tibetan independence movement|moves to gain}} some degree or other of independence. The marked area is fairly inaccurate, though. Today's {{w|Tibet Autonomous Region}} (former {{w|Kingdom of Tibet}}) is roughly the southern half of the marked area extended a bit to the south-east.
|-
| Kamchatka Peninsula, but I admit I only know this one from Risk
|''{{w|Risk (game)|Risk}}'' is a board game played on a map of the world, where players own territories and battle each other for world domination. The person in the comic admits to knowing {{w|Kamchatka Peninsula}} only from the territory "Kamchatka" in the game. Kamchatka is notable among the territories in the game because it and Alaska are connected, despite being on opposite sides of the board- a fact that can easily be overlooked.
|-
| Koreas
| The two Koreas are the "{{w|Democratic People's Republic of Korea}}" (North Korea) and the "{{w|Republic of Korea}}" (South Korea).
|-
| Japan, duh.
| Well...{{w|Japan}}.
|-
| Taiwan (actually called "The Republic of China" – it's complicated).
| This is a reference to the complicated political history of {{w|Taiwan}}. After the {{w|Chinese Civil War}}, the Nationalists fled {{w|mainland China}} for the island of Taiwan and set up a {{w|martial law in Taiwan|martial law}} there, vowing to return. In the intervening 70 years or so, Taiwan eventually began to transform into a democracy, being a self-governing state in its own right, but hasn't shed the name, or the animosity with the new rulers of mainland China. According to Americans, China and Taiwan are {{w|Taiwan Relations Act#Since 2000|separate countries}}, but many other nations do not feel able to treat with the latter to that degree, given the political pressures from the former. The government of China claims ''de jure'' {{w|Political status of Taiwan|sovereignty of Taiwan}}, even though there is ''de facto'' separation of governance, and the island is not represented as a sovereign territory by the United Nations …hence the "it's complicated" tag. There is also a missing end-paren here, which is likely a typo. The tag "it's complicated" is one of the options for relationship statuses on Facebook, and denotes two people whose relationship defies the usual labels. In this case, it is the relationship between the "countries" which is complicated.
|-
| Sulawesi
| As a running gag, the island of {{w|Sulawesi}} (formerly known as Celebes) is depicted in several map-like drawings and charts (see [[256: Online Communities]], [[273: Electromagnetic Spectrum]], [[802: Online Communities 2]], and [[1555: Exoplanet Names 2]]). Of course, there are good reasons to show it on an actual world map like the one here.
|-
| Paupa New Guinea
| A spelling mistake of {{w|Papua New Guinea}}.
|-
| Phillipines
| A spelling mistake of the {{w|Philippines}}.
|-
| Southeast Asia
| {{w|Southeast Asia}} is a region in Asia, which includes Buddhist-majority countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, Muslim-majority countries of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, and Christian-majority countries of the Philippines and Timor-Leste. However, in this map, Indonesia is depicted separately from the rest of SE Asia.
|-
| Malaysia
| Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia (it is not known why it was excluded on the map)
|-
| Indonesia
| Indonesia is another country in Southeast Asia (it is not known why it was excluded on the map).
|-
| Sri Lanka
| Sri Lanka is a small island country near India.
|-
| Tasmania
| Tasmania is an Australian state.
|}

==Transcript==
:THE WORLD
:According to a Group of
:'''AMERICANS'''
:who turned out to be unexpectedly good at geography, derailing our attempt to illustrate their country's attitude toward the rest of the world.

:[Left to right, up to down.]

:[North of Canada.] Hey so what projection should we use?
:I'll aim for "Robinson."

:[North America.] Alaska; Canada; Hudson Bay; Québec; United States
:Did you know Maine is actually the US state closest to Africa?; Bermuda (British!)

:[Central America.] Baja California (Mexico); Mexico; Central America; Panama Canal; Gulf of Mexico; Cuba; Hispañola; POR.; Jamaica
:Do we have to label all the Virgin Islands?

:[South America.] Rest of South America (spanish-speaking); Brazil (portugese-speaking); French, and I think Dutch and English; Tierra del Fuego

:[Greenland.] Greenland (still too big!); Yeah but the Peters map is awful; Iceland

:[Europe.] British Isles; [https://iecasimile.com/ Ireland]; Gibralter; Scandanavia; Western Europe; Eastern Europe; Black sea; Middle East

:[Africa.] Morocco; Algera; Sahara Desert; West Africa; Sudan; Rainforest DRC; Lake Victoria; Somalia; Angola; Mozambique; South Africa; Cape Horn; Madagascar

:[West of DRC.] So this is one of those things where you point out our ignorance and stereotypes?
:Yeah – I mean, I freely admit I don't know the African map very well, which speaks volumes in itself.

:[West Asia.] Russia; Aral sea (Gone); Various former Soviet states; Afghanistan & Pakistan; India; Mostly Muslim; Mostly Hindu

:[Indian Ocea.] Sri Lanka; Boxing Day Quake
:Wait, "Boxing day"? There's no way you're American.
:I read BBC News, OK?

:[East Asia.] Mongolia; Tibet (contested); China; Southeast Asia

:[Pacific Ocean.] Kamchatka Pennisula, but I admit I only know this one from Risk.
:Koreas; Japan, duh.; Taiwan (actually called "The Republic of China." – it's complicated.); Phillipines; Malaysia; Indonesia; Sulawesi; Paupa New Guinea; Australia; Tasmania; New Zealand

:[South of Africa.] Should we include Antarctica?
:Let's not – these guys are looking impatient.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Board games]]

User talk:Unpopular Opinions

2024-07-22T13:21:59Z

172.70.162.185: Several such edits have occured, reverting because it doesn't smell right or make sense.

Hi. {{w|Scone|Unpopular Opinions}} ([[User talk:Unpopular Opinions|talk]]) 20:23 6 February 2020 (UTC)
{{kick}}

2956: Number Line Branch

2024-07-20T21:58:30Z

172.70.162.185: /* Transcript */ Best not to rely upon screen-readers to comprehend random unicode, and do our best with natural language. Also searching for "delta", e.g., would home in on this better than a random triiangular unicode.

{{comic
| number = 2956
| date = July 8, 2024
| title = Number Line Branch
| image = number_line_branch_2x.png
| imagesize = 469x235px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Attention all passengers: This is an express sequence to infinity. If your stop is not a power of two, please disembark now.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SECOND BOT TO REDUCE CONGESTION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic likens the {{w|number line}} to a line of a railroad or subway system. These often have branches where different trains continue on to a different destination, with different stops along the way, or travel on parallel lines to allow faster trains to bypass slower ones. In the number line, one branch (presumably the original) contains ordinary numbers, while the newly opened branch consists of some completely different numbers, denoted with various symbols as an analogue to those we use as digits. The branches seem to split at π. The new branch maintains the same scale-separations as the 'normal' one (as far as it goes) but, due to a longer initial curve away from the junction, the new-branch digits are also consistently slightly offset from the horizontal positions of the respective old-branch ones.

The sequence ending with a bold mark at Δ (whereas the original number line fades out) suggests that it is the end of this branching sequence. Mathematicians, apparently, could only afford to construct 5 additional numbers, or their research hasn't yet found other numbers. The branch may have been intended to run much further, but been {{w|High Speed 2#Cancellation of Phase 2, October 2023|scaled back}} due to budget overruns and cutbacks.

The title text makes a parallel between a train stopping at a station and a numerical sequence "stopping" at a number – that is, taking it as a value. It's a spoof of announcements that are typically made on trains, so that passengers can confirm that they're on a train that goes to their desired station; an "express train" typically makes fewer stops so it can serve the most popular stops and reach its final destination sooner. In this case, the express train only stops at powers of 2; presumably the "local" stops at every integer. Powers of 2 are 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and so on, such that the interval between stops grows exponentially larger.

Mathematically, an express train like this would get to its scheduled stops much faster, but it would not actually have any fewer stops overall. Mathematicians that study infinities generally regard all "{{w|Countable_set|countably}}" infinite sets as being the same "size." Infinity is not a fixed value, rather it's the concept of "does not end," so it's paradoxical to try to take a train to a destination that is, by definition, not a single destination. By way of analogue, it's akin to promising to stop hitting your little brother only after you've done so forever.

A fictional number was previously shown in [[899: Number Line]] ("gird"), and fictional ''numerals'' were shown in [[2206: Mavis Beacon]]. And similar treatment of mathematics as public infrastructure was seen in [[2735: Coordinate Plane Closure]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A diagram reminiscent of both the number line, and a transit system diagram. The line starts at the left and goes right through points labeled 0, 1, 2, and 3, at which point there is a bifurcation into two branches. The top branch continues: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, …. The bottom branch is shorter, labeled with five curious glyphs: a square, a near-vertical with two short horizontals jutting out from it, a phi-like/lollipop symbol, a spiral and a delta/triangle symbol.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Good news!
:After thousands of years, mathematicians have finally opened a second branch on the number line to reduce congestion.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

2960: Organ Meanings

2024-07-19T18:14:08Z

172.70.162.185: Undo revision 346721 by 172.69.195.6 (talk) I agree with the past edit at https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2960:_Organ_Meanings&diff=prev&oldid=346698

{{comic
| number = 2960
| date = July 17, 2024
| title = Organ Meanings
| image = organ_meanings_2x.png
| imagesize = 407x346px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = IMO the thymus is one of the coolest organs and we should really use it in metaphors more.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT'S PINEAL GLAND - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is a graph by [[Randall]] ranking how well he understands the function of certain human organs, compared to how much he understands {{w|metaphor}}s using them. 

A number of organs (and other body parts) are used in common vernacular for metaphorical meaning. The English language is full of sayings like "she had a lot of heart", "go with your gut", and "he hasn't got the stomach for it". One might expect understanding an organ's role and its use in metaphor to be strongly correlated, since the metaphors generally work by drawing a parallel to biological function. However, since our understanding of biological functions has evolved dramatically over time, and metaphorical language does not always keep up, the correspondence is often much looser. To complicate matters, many such anatomical metaphors vary from culture to culture, even though the biological functions remain largely consistent.{{Citation needed}}

The {{w|pineal gland}}, located in the center of the brain, was described as the "Seat of the Soul" by the {{w|Mind–body dualism|mind-body dualist}} {{w|René Descartes}} in the 17th century. If this was true, the metaphors that might be derived from it would be quite clear. It was only in the mid-20th century that its real neuroendocrine (hormone-producing) biological role was grasped. Thus, the real meaning of the metaphor "the pineal gland of something" is uncertain, as is its actual function for the layman. It was also described as a "third eye", as its regulation of the circadian rhythm used to be linked to light perception in the organ, and still is in {{w|Tuatara|Tuataras}}. It is also jokingly stated as still the location of the soul within discordianism.

The {{w|thymus}}, highlighted in the title text, plays an important role in the immune system. It is not commonly used in metaphors,{{Citation needed}} but is perhaps ripe for use in ones describing such things as resilience, indomitability, and adaptability to changing circumstance, were more people to know what it was.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Organ !! Biological understanding !! Metaphor understanding !! Biological function !! Metaphor meaning(s) !! Comments
|-
| {{w|Appendix_(anatomy)|Appendix}} || 3% || 85% || Maintaining gut flora, introducing pathogens to the immune system || Uselessness; extraneousness || The appendix is vestigial and was long assumed to have no useful function, and thus could be removed with minimal consequences. Modern research has shown that it retains utility as reservoir for useful micro-organisms. It is also unclear whether metaphorical usages have in mind the body part, or the alternative usage referring to a part of a publication.
|-
| {{w|Nerves}} || 40% || 90% || Sensing stimuli, and controlling muscles and organs || Courage; lack of courage; unsettledness; arrogance; (emotional) feeling ||
|-
| {{w|Spine}} || 50% || 80% || Holding other bones up, protecting the spinal cord || Courage; resoluteness; structural integrity; centrality ||
|-
| {{w|Heart}} || 80% || 90% || Circulation of blood || Emotion; feeling; sympathy; love; courage; resilience; core; essence; the vulnerable self || The function of the heart is (relatively) easy to understand, since it is, in essence, a circulatory pump. However, it has long been culturally associated with emotion and resolve.
|-
| {{w|Bones}} || 75% || 80% || Holding the body up, protection of underlying organs || Basic/underlying structure; something hidden; core; essence; an issue of debate || Bone marrow is the actual source of blood, associated with {{w|four humours|sanguine moods}}, previously believed to be created in the liver
|-
| {{w|Stomach}} || 70% || 65% || Repository for cake and other, less important, foods || Ability to tolerate unpleasant circumstances; motivation || The stomach's primary function is as part of the digestive system, but it's often one of the first organs impacted by illness or disgust, which has made a strong stomach a metaphor for constitution and resolve.
|-
| {{w|Liver}} || 10% || 48% || Processing alcohol and other less important metabolic functions like glycemia regulation, toxin processing, decomposition/production of amino acids and lipids, etc. || Courage or lack thereof (e.g., lily-livered) || Actual source of yellow bile, stored in the gall bladder, associated with {{w|four humours|choleric moods}} but previously believed to be the source of blood
|-
| {{w|Lungs}} || 60% || 52% || Oxygenation of blood, exhalation of carbon dioxide || Loudness (e.g., of singing); purification; aerobic stamina || Source of phlegm, associated with {{w|four humours|phlegmatic moods}}
|-
| {{w|Spleen}} || 22% || 34% || Storing extra blood, filtering blood for damaged cells and pathogens || Anger; viciousness, "venting one's spleen" || Source of black bile, associated with {{w|four humours|melancholy}}
|-
| {{w|Thymus}} || 10% || 13% || Training immune cells (T-Cells) || ||
|-
| {{w|Kidneys}} || 47% || 19% || Filtering blood for metabolic wastes and excess minerals || ||
|-
| {{w|Pineal gland}} || 2% || 2% || Produces melatonin || || Philosophers from Herophilus to Descartes speculated that the pineal gland might be the seat of the soul, or regulate the flow of vital spirits, or otherwise serve an important metaphysical function.
|-
| {{w|Tongue}} || 70% || 5% || Taste, chewing, speaking || Language; unidentified speakers (particularly in relation to gossip/secrets); something long and extended ||
|}

As [[Randall]] does not provide any examples, only his general ratings, it is not entirely clear whether he has restricted himself to metaphors drawing upon the nature of organs (e.g. "heart of the city" or "bone dry") and/or metaphorically describing these organs in terms of another idea ("a heart of gold" or "his bones turned to jelly"). As well as metaphor, the assessment might also involve all closely related (or overlapping) rhetorical devices such as {{w|simile}} ("his heart fluttered like a butterfly"), {{w|metonymy}} ("my mother tongue"), other references with an intent more figurative than literal ("he was a bundle of nerves"), or misattributed bodily functions ("I feel it in my bones"). As such, any contributed examples given here could be disputed in all but the broadest of terms.

==Transcript==
:[A graph is shown with X and Y-axis without arrow or ticks. To the left of the Y-axis and below the X-axis there are labels with an arrow pointing up from the top of the Y-axis label and an arrow pointing right above the X-axis label, just beneath the x-axis.]
:Y-axis: How well I understand what it means when used in metaphors
:X-axis: How well I understand its actual biological function

:[On the graph is a scatter plot with 13 labels. Each label is written inside a line that goes just around the words. There are most in the top right corner, but they are spread all over the graph. Here in approximate reading order from top left with indicating of where on the graph the words are located:]
:[Top left:]
:Appendix
:[Top middle:]
:Nerves
:Spine
:[Top right:]
:Heart
:Bones
:Stomach
:[Center left:]
:Liver
:Spleen
:[Center right:]
:Lungs
:[Bottom left:]
:Thymus
:Pineal gland
:[Bottom middle:]
:Kidneys
:[Bottom right:]
:Tongue

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:2960: Organ Meanings

2024-07-19T09:48:33Z

172.70.162.185:

how is thymus formed [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.102|172.70.85.102]] 07:00, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
: It grows from seed.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.97|172.69.194.97]] 12:23, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

You think Randall might have made this one as a ploy to have explain xkcd educate him on the organs and metaphors mentioned? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.33|162.158.146.33]] 07:59, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Why is 'Liver' so high up on the metaphor scale? The only one I can think of is 'lily-livered', which doesn't appear to make much sense at all. On the other hand, I'd have 'Spleen' nearer the top, and 'Tongue' fairly high up as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 08:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:Agreed; personally I’d have liver and tongue switch places, and I’d guess the one who added silver-tongued and biting one’s tongue would probably agree also. But that might be because I understand the biological function of a liver better than the average person does. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.5|172.70.210.5]] 08:21, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:: Are those really metaphors, though? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.40.152|162.158.40.152]] 09:24, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
::: They aren't, or at least not metaphors to the tongue. Just done an edit, before having read this, to remove the visibility of "silver tongue" (a tongue that is metaphorically as silver... or maybe even quicksilver) and a "bitten tongue" (the tongue as if restrained by biting). Though there are other forms, the metaphor to biological function must be of the general "it is the tongue of the <something else>" type, maybe such as a tongue of lava or the tongue of an oil-can (one being an extending appendage, the other additionally being a contact depositor of liquid - though not always consistent in application).
::: Something can more easily be understood as the metaphorical heart/nerves/spine/etc of something, and we also have a good understanding of what the originals do. A sewage treatment plant can be considered the kidneys of a town (arguably more understood than a liver of one, for example, so I'd have personally switched the two), but it gets more complex with some of them. In the case of the appendix, we pretty much ''only'' know (in lay-use) that it's a spare fleshy bit that might or might not have any use, so the metaphorical 'equivalent biological function' of a "town's 'appendix'" is probably more understood than a body's ''actual'' appendix, for most people, the opposite of the situation with metaphorical/actual tongues. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.64|172.70.91.64]] 10:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:::: Your understanding of metaphors is... unique. A "silver tongue" certainly is a tongue-based metaphor; we're referring to someone's manner of speech as their "tongue".{{unsigned|Collapsinghrung}}
::::: From my perspective, that's a tongue-''targetting'' metaphor. "He has a tongue of silver" (in this case "tongue" is a metonym of "manner of talking", not a metaphor). Your understanding of what the tongue refers to is different from metaphor/simile, etc, as it ''is'' the thing (the talking) that is refered to. It's the silverness that's an metaphorical element. Or, like "To bite one's tongue", having become an established idiom. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.145|172.70.86.145]] 16:46, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
: The one I think of is "What am I chopped Liver". Though according to google that is usually a Jewish metaphor (which I am) {{unsigned ip|162.158.158.103}}
:Liver has medieval English metaphors for bravery too, but afaik usually in the context of weak-liver = cowardly; e.g. lily-livered. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.130.19|172.69.130.19]] 14:25, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:Euch ist wohl ne Laus über die Leber gelaufen! (German proverb, "=someone angered you?!") [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.115|172.71.160.115]] 07:12, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm not convinced that 'Metaphor meaning' is going to work as a column in the table - several of these have multiple metaphors associated, often with varied and little-related meanings.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.249|172.70.160.249]] 12:20, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

I just added the line about anatomical metaphors varying from culture to culture. Would people like to include any examples of culturally variable metaphors? I think it was Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" where an Eastern European character kept shouting out "spleen". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.172|172.70.46.172]] 12:58, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
:One example off the top of my head - and might need a proper reference to add - is the common use of Kidneys in metaphor. Afaik, the most common-slang in NA for that is "ow my kidneys" as in "I laughed so hard, my kidneys hurt now." Meanwhile, in many East Asian cultures, references to the 'kidneys' is most commonly used as an euphemism for sexual performance due to the connection to traditional medicine, where having sex is seen as 'exerting/damaging the kidneys.' E.g., feeding someone food 'good for the kidneys,' references to 'oh, your kidneys have been overexerted lately,' 'are your kidneys okay,' etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.38|172.69.214.38]] 14:05, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
::Kidneys are also often referred to, typically facetiously, as a high value object one can sell in a pinch. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.140.184|172.69.140.184]] 08:44, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

I think tongue is placed strangely low on the metaphor axis. Usage of "tongue" to mean language, conversation, or other speech (i.e. "mother tongue," "silver-tongued," "speaking in tongues") is well-established. Secondly, I also feel kidneys should be higher with the added metaphorical definition of value, as in "you'd have to sell a kidney." [[Special:Contributions/172.69.140.184|172.69.140.184]] 08:44, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
:Tongue (as per language) is a metonym, not a metaphor. And other examples I'm seeing are verging upon similes (also different from metaphors). People seem to be confused about this, but possibly also Randall (hard to tell, as he doesn't really give examples, just his graphic conclusions). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 09:48, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

==Humors==
Bodily fluids ({{w|humors}}) had the same overlap, with early doctors thinking that fluids influenced moods (giving us terms like "sanguine", "phlegmatic", "bilious"). Could someone add a section about that? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.23|172.70.47.23]] 15:28, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

== Confusion about "appendix" ==

Your table in the article says that "appendix" has a metaphorical meaning of "uselessness", but I don't think this is true. Can you find a dictionary that has a figurative sense? Wiktionary for example does not [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/appendix]. I think Randall may be a little confused about what is a metaphor, and may have intended "appendix" here in the sense of an extra part added to a book or academic paper etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.138|172.70.85.138]] 08:05, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

2960: Organ Meanings

2024-07-18T13:34:37Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

2960: Organ Meanings

2024-07-18T13:26:04Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

Talk:2960: Organ Meanings

2024-07-18T08:06:49Z

172.70.162.185:

how is thymus formed [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.102|172.70.85.102]] 07:00, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

You think Randall might have made this one as a ploy to have explain xkcd educate him on the organs and metaphors mentioned? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.33|162.158.146.33]] 07:59, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

Why is 'Liver' so high up on the metaphor scale? The only one I can think of is 'lily-livered', which doesn't appear to make much sense at all. On the other hand, I'd have 'Spleen' nearer the top, and 'Tongue' fairly high up as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 08:06, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

2959: Beam of Light

2024-07-18T07:57:49Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2959
| date = July 15, 2024
| title = Beam of Light
| image = beam_of_light_2x.png
| imagesize = 235x419px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Einstein's theories solved a longstanding mystery about Mercury: Why it gets so hot. "It's because," he pointed out, "the sun is right there."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT FLYING ALONGSIDE A BEAM OF LIGHT NYYOOOOOOOOOOM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Albert Einstein}} is famous for his theory of {{w|special relativity}} (which deals with the interactions between high speeds and the perceptions of time), and he developed this theory, in part, by imagining himself flying alongside a beam of light. {{w|thought_experiment|Thought experiments}} such as this can reveal what appear to be fundamental principles of the universe that can revolutionize scientific understanding.

In this comic, Einstein is depicted having his very first thought experiment about turning into a beam of light. Comic Einstein is at the early stages of theory development, so his thought experiment is less about breaking down the complex nature of relativity and more about how fun it would be to go really fast. So his thought experiment is currently just, so to speak, a flight of fantasy. (Although even Einstein's "NYYOOOM" sound of a car whizzing by is the sound of the {{w|Doppler effect}}, which alludes strongly to the {{w|Relativistic Doppler effect}}.)

In a similar vein, the title text refers to one of the long-standing issues about Mercury: {{w|Tests_of_general_relativity#Perihelion_precession_of_Mercury|its orbit around the Sun}} doesn't ''quite'' match what {{w|Newtonian physics}} would predict. We now know that this is accounted for by {{w|general relativity}}, another of Einstein's notable theories (which relates to how gravity, or the space-time curvature that we understand as gravity, influences time and space, including planetary orbits). Again, we find ourselves overhearing his thoughts before he reaches any insights that will start to explain this. Instead he is stuck at just 'imagining' that Mercury is hot due to its proximity to the Sun, which isn't a particularly novel or useful conclusion, or close to what we would now recognize as Einstein's much-lauded theory.

At around the time of the comic's scenario, being only the first stages of Einstein's thoughts about Relativity, the issue of the Sun's heat was still considered a mystery. The {{w|Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism}} was proposed as the cause of the Sun's heat but was later superseded by the more modern understanding of nuclear fusion. The {{w|Yarkovsky effect}} had also been previously described as how thermal effects may influence orbital dynamics; this is still useful to know about in the case of asteroids but is not considered a significant factor for Mercury. Neither of these things were ever the focus of Einstein's own studies, though in 1915 he showed that General Relativity could explain Mercury's anomalies and independent observations during a 1919 solar eclipse helped confirm the principles and make Einstein famous.

An older version of Einstein was previously drawn in [[1206: Einstein]] and [[1233: Relativity]].

==Transcript==
:[Albert Einstein (a relatively young version, drawn with dark curly hair and a dark moustache) sitting on a chair, with a thought bubble above his head. There are papers, books and a cup on the desk in front of him.]
:Einstein (thinking): ''Nyoooooooooom!''
:Einstein (thinking): I'm so fast!
:Einstein (thinking): ''Nyyooooooooom!''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The first few times Einstein imagined flying alongside a beam of light, he didn't have any particular insights.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2959: Beam of Light

2024-07-16T08:22:34Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2959
| date = July 15, 2024
| title = Beam of Light
| image = beam_of_light_2x.png
| imagesize = 235x419px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Einstein's theories solved a longstanding mystery about Mercury: Why it gets so hot. "It's because," he pointed out, "the sun is right there."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT FLYING ALONGSIDE A BEAM OF LIGHT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|thought_experiment|Thought experiments}}, such as those posited by {{w|Albert Einstein}} to illustrate the principles of {{w|Special Relativity}} (that deals with the interactions between high speeds and the perceptions of time), can sometimes reveal what appear to be fundamental principles of the universe that can revolutionise scientific understanding. But it is not always so. In this comic, we find Einstein being thoughtful about the scenario that would later help to make him famous, but at a point in time before any particularly profound revelations have been established. It is currently just, so to speak, a flight of fantasy.

In a similar vein, one of the long-standing issues about the orbit of Mercury is that it doesn't ''quite'' orbit the Sun in the way that Newtonian physics would suggest. We now know that this is accounted for by {{w|General Relativity}}, another of Einstein's suggestions (that relates the effects of gravity upon time perception), but we once more find ourselves overhearing his thoughts well before we get anywhere near any developments that we know will start to explain this, and is stuck at just 'imagining' that Mercury is hot due to its proximity to the Sun, which isn't a particularly novel or useful conclusion, or close to what we would now recognise as Einstein's much lauded theory.

The largely irrelevant (at least in any basic terms of Relativity) issue of the heat from the Sun would seem to have more relevance to the {{w|Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism}}, at one time proposed as the cause of the Sun's heat but superseded by the eventual discovery and understanding of nuclear fusion, or the {{w|Yarkovsky effect}}, in which thermal effects were shown to have an influence upon the orbital dynamics of minor bodies. Neither of these things were the focus of Einstein's own studies.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Albert Einstein sitting on a chair, with a thought bubble above his head.]
:Einstein: ''Nyoooooooooom!''
:Einstein: I'm so fast!
:Einstein: ''Nyyooooooooom!''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The first few times Einstein imagined flying alongside a beam of light, he didn't have any particular insights.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Physics]]

Talk:1754: Tornado Safety Tips

2024-07-12T16:40:58Z

172.70.162.185: Hmm, I'd side against the person being clearly disrespectful. That Conlang/other-aliased guy has had their own problems, but I vote for keeping the place civil, *even* when discussing them. Explicit death threats(/hopes) have no place here.

Just to avoid edit wars and be clear with each other - Yeah. I don't want people reverting over and over without knowing our reasons. [[User:Jacky720|Jacky720]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]]) 14:30, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

Is the title-text a Ghostbusters reference? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.127|172.68.54.127]] 18:01, 2 November 2016 (UTC)
:I do not think so. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:03, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

Anyone who can explain the PSA better. As a non native english speakers I have never heard of PSA before, and although I understand what it means with the current explanation it is not really something that pops up when googled. A nice link would be great. I have also found [https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b3/ba/02/b3ba0231f99bf14622a347b65ad30ea7.jpg a picture with this very title] but it seems to only be on pinterest, so I'm not sure we could use it in this explanation... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:06, 2 November 2016 (UTC)
:Does what I added help? It probably didn't aid things either that PSA, at least in 'Murica, actually stands for "Public Service Announcement," not the more specific "Public Safety Advisory," and the only thing I was able to find when searching for the latter was information about government committees named that. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.127|172.68.65.127]] 01:59, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
::What is there now is great. I could not find that wiki page when I searched. Thanks. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:31, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

I was just about to create a new category [[:Category:Tornadoes]], but when I posted the first link on the very first tornado comic, the link was already active. It turned out that [[User:Jacky720|Jacky720]] had just created it earlier today. Turns out there were already ten comics referencing tornadoes before this one. Now we just need to create a category for volcanoes as well, I think they are just as often referenced... ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:03, 2 November 2016 (UTC)
:How about categories for Weather and Geologic Activity? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.196|108.162.210.196]] 23:22, 2 November 2016 (UTC)
::That could also make sense. But that would not rule out the volcano or tornado category. They would be soub categories. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:31, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

Should there be quotation marks around Tornadoes in the sentence "Tornadoes is a recurring subject on xkcd."? I realize that the construction is being used as "(category) is a recurring subject" with "Tornadoes" being a single category, but I can't help but cringe a little when I read "Tornadoes is"; my instinctual grammar sense is in conflict with the fact that on analyzing it I know it is following the rules. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.48|108.162.238.48]] 12:00, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
:No I agree that is should have been are. My bad. Someone has already corrected it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:46, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

Can someone explain why Black Hat is on the poster? It's the only part that confuses me. {{unsigned ip|108.162.241.57}}
: [[Black Hat]] is well known for his controversial statements or actions in the XKCD universe. He is often the character that will ruin something just for the sake of it, even more so if it may have dire consequences for ''others''. Many safety posters feature a person or character giving the advice for more emotional impact and this seems exactly like the kind of confusing and potentially dangerous poster he would create and he would not be ashamed of being featured on it. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 16:18, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

The sentence "in 937: TornadoGuard. Sadly that seems to also have been made by Black Hat!" seems unsubstantiated. Nothing in 937 mentions Black Hat. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 15:56, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

2956: Number Line Branch

2024-07-11T08:02:54Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2956
| date = July 8, 2024
| title = Number Line Branch
| image = number_line_branch_2x.png
| imagesize = 469x235px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Attention all passengers: This is an express sequence to infinity. If your stop is not a power of two, please disembark now.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SECOND BOT TO REDUCE CONGESTION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic likens the {{w|number line}} to a line of a railroad or subway system. These often have branches where different trains continue on to a different destination, with different stops along the way, or travel on parallel lines to allow faster trains to bypass slower ones. In the number line, one branch (presumably the original) contains ordinary numbers, while the newly opened branch consists of some completely different numbers, denoted with various symbols as an analogue to those we use as digits. The branches seem to split at π. The new branch proceeds slightly more quickly than the traditional numerical branch.

The sequence ending with a bold mark at Δ (whereas the original number line fades out) suggests that it is the end of this branching sequence. Mathematicians, apparently, could only afford to construct 5 additional numbers, or their research hasn't yet found other numbers.

The title text makes a parallel between a train stopping at a station and a numerical sequence "stopping" at a number – that is, taking it as a value. It's a spoof of announcements that are typically made on trains, so that riders can confirm that they're on a train that goes to their desired station; an "express train" typically makes fewer stops so it can serve the most popular stops and reach its final destination sooner. In this case, the express train only stops at powers of 2; presumably the "local" stops at every integer. Powers of 2 are 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and so on, such that the interval between stops grows exponentially larger.

Mathematically, an express train like this would get to its scheduled stops much faster, but it would not actually have any fewer stops overall. Mathematicians that study infinities generally regard all "countably" infinite sets as being the same "size." Infinity is not a fixed value, rather it's the concept of "does not end," so it's paradoxical to try to take a train to a destination that is, by definition, not a single destination. By way of analogue, it's akin to promising to stop hitting your little brother only after you've done so forever.

A fictional number was previously shown in [[899: Number Line]] ("gird"), and fictional ''numerals'' were shown in [[2206: Mavis Beacon]]. And similar treatment of mathematics as public infrastructure was seen in [[2735: Coordinate Plane Closure]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[The number line for natural numbers, going from 0 to 10 and trailing off, with a marker at 0 to indicate that it is the start of the sequence. At about pi, the line branches off into a second line, which contains five odd-looking symbols, and stops at the fifth one. The first, below 4, is a square, the second is a pi rotated 90° counterclockwise, the third resembles a closed phi, the fourth is a spiral, and the fifth is a triangle.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Good news!
:After thousands of years, mathematicians have finally opened a second branch on the number line to reduce congestion.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

2954: Bracket Symbols

2024-07-04T19:35:37Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */ Correction and additions.

{{comic
| number = 2954
| date = July 3, 2024
| title = Bracket Symbols
| image = bracket_symbols_2x.png
| imagesize = 592x569px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = ’"‘”’" means "I edited this text on both my phone and my laptop before sending it"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ([{《"complicated function"》}]) - Please~~ change this comment when editing this page. Do *NOT* delete this tag too soon.}}
Brackets, also called parentheses, are typographical symbols used to delimit a section of text. Unlike most typographical symbols, brackets usually come in pairs, and the end bracket is typically the mirror image of the start bracket.

This comic shows a variety of (mostly) real bracket symbols, along with Randall's description.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Descriptions
|-
! Symbols
! Comic text
! Real use
! Explanation of the joke
|-
|()
|Regular parentheses for setting stuff aside
|The regular curved bracket is the most commonly used in literature, and typically denotes aside remarks that are relevant to, but not part of, a sentence (for example, a clarifying explanation). It is also frequently used in mathematical expressions and programming languages as a grouping operator, to force a particular order of evaluation.
|Randall explains, accurately, that these are regular parentheses. No joke yet.
|-
|[]
|Square brackets (more secure)
|In literature, square brackets often denote meta-textual information, such as glosses, omissions, translator and editorial notes. In mathematics, they are often used for {{w|Matrix (mathematics)|matrices}} or {{w|Interval (mathematics)|closed intervals}}. Sometimes they are used as outer parentheses for easier visual matching in complicated expressions. In programming languages, square brackets are commonly used as the indexing operator, with the index being placed inside the brackets. They may also be used to denote specific data structures such as lists.
|The straight edges and sharper corners make these brackets resemble a solid box, presumably made of a hard material, which would be a more secure container than the "soft"-looking curved brackets. They also resemble staples, which are used to hold things in place securely.
|-
|{}
|This stuff is expensive so be careful with it
|Rarely used in normal text, although may be used in expanded form to 'enclose' multiple optional lines following/preceding a single element of common purpose (similar to the 'split and recombined tracks' of [[2243: Star Wars Spoiler Generator]]). In mathematics, usually used to denote {{w|Set (mathematics)|sets}}, but other usage is possible. In programming languages most often used to denote begin and end of a separate block of code, but other uses are also extant.
|All that graphical detail in the bracket, if manufactured as a physical object, would increase the production cost making it more expensive than "regular" brackets. Their relative rarity compared to "regular" or square brackets might also increase the monetary value. They may also look 'fancy', like gates with ornate ironwork.
|-
|‶‶
|Someone is talking
|Used to denote speech or citations in normal text. There are various styles from the identical pairing "" to the 66-and-99-like “” which differentiates opening and closing quotes. The comic appears to use a handwriting-only slope-variation.
The first version is commonly used in programming languages to denote text that is text data, rather than code, such as literal messages intended to be displayed to the user. Word processors commonly implement “smart quotes” by detecting the use of the single-type keyboard character at each end of a possible quote and converting it into the fancier left/right versions (though this is not always desired, leading to the default behaviour being disabled or reverted).
|Normal quotation marks. Some languages or communities use different typographical conventions such as „German quotation marks“. See also below for British and French.
|-
|‵‵
|Someone British is talking
|[https://www.grammarly.com/blog/single-vs-double-quotes/ Allegedly 'British quotation marks'], although this may be disputed by actual Brits who were taught otherwise.
Often programming languages use the "..." version to denote non-program string data. In the Pascal family of languages, for example, <nowiki>''</nowiki>s indicate character-class data, with ""s being string-class data (as an inbuilt shortcut to a character-array record). As with the prior double-quotes, the comic versions appear to be handwriting-specific, with no easy-to-use equivalents in commonly used computer fonts.
|Some British media use these to note when people are talking, for historic reasons, though in modern usage the double quotes may be more common [https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/quotes/marks and acceptable]. Single quotes might be more often used as '{{w|scare quotes}}' or a related form of 'emphasis' marker. One possible distinction is that single-quotes give non-literal paraphrasing, wherever double-quotes are used for the verbatim reporting of words (spoken or written).

Single quotes within double quotes (and/or double quotes within single, as necessary) can also be used to more clearly indicate reported words as part of an outer quote, i.e. when you're quoting one person and their statement contains a quote of someone else. The main quotation would be surrounded with double quotes, while the nested quotation is delimited with single quotes (or vice-versa, depending upon the house style in use). This may even be further alternated to arbitrary depth!
|-
|‹› or <>
|An Animorph is talking
|{{w|Bracket#Angle_brackets|Angle brackets}}. Aside from telepathic speech in prose, it's often used in comics to indicate that a character is speaking a foreign language that has been translated for the reader's benefit – at least notionally.
|Books like the series {{w|Animorphs}} or science fiction novels use these when a character is communicating nonverbally, for example via telepathy.
|-
|«»
|A French Animorph is talking
|French quotation marks. Used for quotes within quotes in some languages. For quoting conventions in different languages, see [https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/formex/physical-specifications/character-encoding/use-of-quotation-marks-in-the-different-languages this document].
|These symbols are literally called French quotation marks and are used in French texts as the first-level quotes. Here Randall is mixing the SF convention described above with actual French use.
|-
|<nowiki>|</nowiki>|
|I'm scared of negative numbers but these sigils will protect me
|Vertical bars in mathematics are used for the Absolute Value function.
|The absolute value of a number is its value with all negative and positive signs stripped off; in practical terms this is used to ensure a given value is positive (ex. <nowiki>|-69| = 69</nowiki>). If for whatever reason you need to "protect" your equations from negative numbers (which does come up in programming from time to time) the absolute value function has you covered — though it may not always be denoted with vertical bars. {{w|Sigil}}s are symbols used in magic, and some kinds of magic are thought to protect people from evil.
|-
|**, __, //
|I have a favorite monospaced font
|These symbols are conventionally used in text-based computer communications (such as emails, chats, Usenet News articles) to denote *bold*, _underlined_, or /italic/ font; some client programs interpret them and display actual bold text etc.
|{{w|Monospace font}} is a font (set of shapes used for letters, numbers and symbols) in which every character has the same width, unlike {{w|Typeface#Proportional_font|variable-width (proportional) font}}, in which the letter I is much narrower than W. While proportional font is more pleasant to read, monospace is easier to represent in simple mechanical or electronic devices, and has been used almost exclusively in the advent of computer technology, specifically in text-only environments such as {{w|computer terminals}}; these most often had only one factory installed font. Today, a person still using these symbols is probably using a {{w|terminal emulator}}, which allows to select one's favorite (preferably monospace) font from a wide set of fonts installed in the operating system.
|-
|~~
|I'm being sarcastic and I had a Tumblr account in 2014
|
|Strikethrough markup commonly used on sites like Tumblr to indicate that you don't really mean something you said. This usage is somewhat archaic.
|-
|[([{()}],)]
|These Python functions are not getting along
|The square brackets denote a mutable [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/introduction.html#lists list], the round brackets an immutable [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#tuples-and-sequences tuple] , and the curly brackets a [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#sets set]. It is valid to have them nested like this. [] could also be a slice (a bit of a list or tuple) and {} could be a [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#dictionaries dictionary], but the syntax is wrong for these.
|Random parentheses - Spaghetti code (badly maintained or written) in programming languages including Python will often be badly organized creating a mess of indentations and brackets used to create functions or loops etc.
|-
|⌊⌋
|Help, I'm a mathematician trying to work with actual numbers and they're scary
|Mathematical symbols meaning "floor" (i.e. round down to the nearest lower integer).
|Mathematicians stereotypically prefer to work with abstract symbols and concepts rather than numbers or indeed anything that might pertain to the real world. When presented with an actual number, it is possible that a mathematician may wish for it to be rounded to the nearest integer so that they can treat it as part of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_theory number theory] rather than anything to do with reality.
|-
|∫ ∫
|Why are you trying to read my violin?
|∫ looks like the {{w|Integral symbol}} which itself is derived from a {{w|Long s}}. In mathematics it is usually paired with the differential of the variable of integration (e.g., dx). A reverse integral symbol is not used in Western mathematics typesetting; it occasionally appears in mathematical texts written in Arabic, along with other symbols likewise adapted to Arabic's right-to-left writing direction. The symbol also looks like a lowercase {{w|Esh (letter)|esh}} (ʃ), used in phonetic transcription.

There is no unicode symbol for the reversed version - it is displayed here as a reversed ∫. The esh symbol has a reversed counterpart in Unicode, but it's quite a bit shorter (ʅ).
|Violins are known for their characteristic {{w|F-hole}}s.
|-
|<nowiki>|⟩</nowiki>
|Don't stop here–this is quantum country
|This {{w|Bra–ket notation|notation is used in quantum mechanics}} to notate a vector. This is called a ket, and the mirrored sign <nowiki>⟨|</nowiki> is called a bra. Combining them as bra-ket gives the inner product <nowiki>⟨|⟩</nowiki>.
| This is paraphrasing "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" where Johnny Depp's character Raoul Duke says: "We can't stop here, this is bat country!" while wasted on drugs, though not as wasted as later in the movie.
|}


The title text includes different kinds of quotes, including the ASCII " and ', and Unicode “” (which have both an opening and closing version).
Phones and laptops often have different input systems, and one of them may use a different kind of quote, thus mixing inconsistent quotes together, something most people may not notice or understand.

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

:Bracket Symbols
:and what they mean

:( ) Regular parentheses for setting stuff aside

:[ ] Square brackets (more secure)

:{ } This stuff is expensive so be careful with it

:" " Someone is talking

:' ' Someone British is talking

:‹ › An Animorph is talking

:« » A French Animorph is talking

:| | I'm scared of negative numbers but these sigils will protect me

:<nowiki>*</nowiki> * _ _ / / I have a favorite monospaced font

:~ ~ I'm being sarcastic and I had a Tumblr account in 2014

:[ ( [ { ( ) } ] , ) ] These Python functions are '''''not''''' getting along

:⌊ ⌋ Help, I'm a mathematician trying to work with actual numbers and they're scary

:ʃ ʅ Why are you trying to read my violin?

:| ⟩ Don't stop here--this is quantum country

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Animorphs]]

2954: Bracket Symbols

2024-07-04T16:32:49Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2954
| date = July 3, 2024
| title = Bracket Symbols
| image = bracket_symbols_2x.png
| imagesize = 592x569px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = ’"‘”’" means "I edited this text on both my phone and my laptop before sending it"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ([{《"complicated function"》}]) - Please~~ change this comment when editing this page. Do *NOT* delete this tag too soon.}}
Brackets, also called parentheses, are typographical symbols used to delimit a section of text. Unlike most typographical symbols, brackets usually come in pairs, and the end bracket is typically the mirror image of the start bracket.

This comic shows a variety of (mostly) real bracket symbols, along with Randall's description.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Descriptions
|-
! Symbols
! Comic text
! Real use
! Explanation of the joke
|-
|()
|Regular parentheses for setting stuff aside
|The regular curved bracket is the most commonly used in literature, and typically denotes aside remarks that are relevant to, but not part of, a sentence (for example, a clarifying explanation). It is also frequently used in mathematical expressions and programming languages as a grouping operator, to force a particular order of evaluation.
|Randall explains, accurately, that these are regular parentheses. No joke yet.
|-
|[]
|Square brackets (more secure)
|In literature, square brackets often denote meta-textual information, such as glosses, omissions, translator and editorial notes. In mathematics, they are often used for {{w|Matrix (mathematics)|matrices}} or {{w|Interval (mathematics)|closed intervals}}. Sometimes they are used as outer parentheses for easier visual matching in complicated expressions. In programming languages, square brackets are commonly used as the indexing operator, with the index being placed inside the brackets. They may also be used to denote specific data structures such as lists.
|The straight edges and sharper corners make these brackets resemble a solid box, presumably made of a hard material, which would be a more secure container than the "soft"-looking curved brackets. They also resemble staples, which are used to hold things in place securely.
|-
|{}
|This stuff is expensive so be careful with it
|Rarely used in normal text, although may be used in expanded form to 'enclose' multiple optional lines following/preceding a single element of common purpose (similar to the 'split and recombined tracks' of [[2243: Star Wars Spoiler Generator]]). In mathematics, usually used to denote {{w|Set (mathematics)|sets}}, but other usage is possible. In programming languages most often used to denote begin and end of a separate block of code, but other uses are also extant.
|All that graphical detail in the bracket, if manufactured as a physical object, would increase the production cost making it more expensive than "regular" brackets. Their relative rarity compared to "regular" or square brackets might also increase the monetary value. They may also look 'fancy', like gates with ornate ironwork.
|-
|"", ″‶, or “”
|Someone is talking
|Used to denote speech or citations in normal text. The first version is commonly used in programming languages to denote text that is not a program, such as messages displayed to the user.
|Normal quotation marks. Some languages or communities use different typographical conventions such as „German quotation marks“. See also below for British and French.
|-
|<nowiki>''</nowiki>, ′‵, or ‘’
|Someone British is talking
|British quotation marks. Some programming languages use the first version to denote non-program text. In the Pascal family of languages, for example, <nowiki>''</nowiki>s indicate character-class data, with ""s being string-class data.
|Some British media use these to note when people are talking, though in modern usage the double quotes above are more common, while single quotes are more often used as '{{w|scare quotes}}'.
|-
|‹› or <>
|An Animorph is talking
|{{w|Bracket#Angle_brackets|Angle brackets}}. Aside from telepathic speech in prose, it's often used in comics to indicate that a character is speaking a foreign language that has been translated for the reader's benefit – at least notionally.
|Books like the series {{w|Animorphs}} or science fiction novels use these when a character is communicating nonverbally, for example via telepathy.
|-
|«»
|A French Animorph is talking
|French quotation marks. Used for quotes within quotes in some languages. For quoting conventions in different languages, see [https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/formex/physical-specifications/character-encoding/use-of-quotation-marks-in-the-different-languages this document].
|These symbols are literally called French quotation marks and are used in French texts as the first-level quotes. Here Randall is mixing the SF convention described above with actual French use.
|-
|<nowiki>|</nowiki>|
|I'm scared of negative numbers but these sigils will protect me
|Vertical bars in mathematics are used for the Absolute Value function.
|The absolute value of a number is its value with all negative and positive signs stripped off; in practical terms this is used to ensure a given value is positive (ex. <nowiki>|-69| = 69</nowiki>). If for whatever reason you need to "protect" your equations from negative numbers (which does come up in programming from time to time) the absolute value function has you covered — though it may not always be denoted with vertical bars. {{w|Sigil}}s are symbols used in magic, and some kinds of magic are thought to protect people from evil.
|-
|**, __, //
|I have a favorite monospaced font
|These symbols are conventionally used in text-based computer communications (such as emails, chats, Usenet News articles) to denote *bold*, _underlined_, or /italic/ font; some client programs interpret them and display actual bold text etc.
|{{w|Monospace font}} is a font (set of shapes used for letters, numbers and symbols) in which every character has the same width, unlike {{w|Typeface#Proportional_font|variable-width (proportional) font}}, in which the letter I is much narrower than W. While proportional font is more pleasant to read, monospace is easier to represent in simple mechanical or electronic devices, and has been used almost exclusively in the advent of computer technology, specifically in text-only environments such as {{w|computer terminals}}; these most often had only one factory installed font. Today, a person still using these symbols is probably using a {{w|terminal emulator}}, which allows to select one's favorite (preferably monospace) font from a wide set of fonts installed in the operating system.
|-
|~~
|I'm being sarcastic and I had a Tumblr account in 2014
|
|Strikethrough markup commonly used on sites like Tumblr to indicate that you don't really mean something you said. This usage is somewhat archaic.
|-
|[([{()}],)]
|These Python functions are not getting along
|The square brackets denote a mutable [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/introduction.html#lists list], the round brackets an immutable [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#tuples-and-sequences tuple] , and the curly brackets a [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#sets set]. It is valid to have nested them like this. [] could also be a slice (a bit of a list or tuple) and {} could be a [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#dictionaries dictionary], but the syntax is wrong for these.
|Random parentheses - Spaghetti code (badly maintained or written) in programming languages including Python will often be badly organized creating a mess of indentations and brackets used to create functions or loops etc.
|-
|⌊⌋
|Help, I'm a mathematician trying to work with actual numbers and they're scary
|Mathematical symbols meaning "floor" (i.e. round down to the nearest lower integer).
|By "actual numbers" Randall means {{w|real number}}s. Unlike {{w|natural number}}s, they are somewhat difficult to understand to a person learning basic mathematics and thus "scary". The "floor" operation makes a (positive) real number a natural number, thus not "scary".
|-
|∫ ∫
|Why are you trying to read my violin?
|There is currently no such type of bracketing used in typography. See Explanation.
∫ looks like the {{w|Integral symbol}} which itself is derived from a {{w|Long s}}. In mathematics it is usually paired with the differential of the variable of integration (e.g., dx). A reverse integral symbol is not used in Western mathematics typesetting; it occasionally appears in mathematical texts written in Arabic, along with other symbols likewise adapted to Arabic's right-to-left writing direction. The symbol also looks like a lowercase {{w|Esh (letter)|esh}} (ʃ), used in phonetic transcription.

There is no unicode symbol for the reversed version - it is displayed here as a reversed ∫. The esh symbol has a reversed counterpart in Unicode, but it's quite a bit shorter (ʅ).
|Violins are known for their characteristic {{w|F-hole}}s.
|-
|<nowiki>|⟩</nowiki>
|Don't stop here–this is quantum country
|This {{w|Bra–ket notation|notation is used in quantum mechanics}} to notate a vector. This is called a ket, and the mirrored sign <nowiki>⟨|</nowiki> is called a bra. Combining them as bra-ket gives the inner product <nowiki>⟨|⟩</nowiki>.
| This is paraphrasing "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" where Johnny Depp's character Raoul Duke says: "We can't stop here, this is bat country!" while wasted on drugs, though not as wasted as later in the movie.
|}


The title text includes different kinds of quotes, including the ASCII " and ', and Unicode “” (which have both an opening and closing version).
Phones and laptops often have different input systems, and one of them may use a different kind of quote, thus mixing inconsistent quotes together, something most people may not notice or understand.

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

Bracket Symbols

and what they mean

( ) Regular parentheses for setting stuff aside

[ ] Square brackets (more secure)

{ } This stuff is expensive so be careful with it

" " Someone is talking

' ' Someone British is talking

‹ › An Animorph is talking

« » A French Animorph is talking

| | I'm scared of negative numbers but these sigils will protect me

<nowiki>*</nowiki> * _ _ / / I have a favorite monospaced font

~ ~ I'm being sarcastic and I had a Tumblr account in 2014

[ ( [ { ( ) } ] , ) ] These Python functions are '''''not''''' getting along

⌊ ⌋ Help, I'm a mathematician trying to work with actual numbers and they're scary

ʃ ʅ Why are you trying to read my violin?

| ⟩ Don't stop here--this is quantum country

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Animorphs]]

Talk:2953: Alien Theories

2024-07-03T08:19:25Z

172.70.162.185:

I understood this differently. I think the UFOs have come to Earth to investigate our conspiracy theories about UFOs with capabilities far beyond what the "real" UFOs posses. [[User:Baruch|Baruch]] ([[User talk:Baruch|talk]]) 07:43, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

== Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence ==
A skeptical human would '''not''' confront UFO believers with evidence that aliens do not exist. They would confront them with the fact that none of the supposed evidence so far has held water, making (extraterrestrial) UFO's not more likely to be real than any other random fantasy. Quite a different matter, since there's rarely verifiable evidence of things '''not''' existing. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.90.9|172.71.90.9]] 08:27, 2 July 2024 (UTC)
: +1 [[Special:Contributions/172.70.243.213|172.70.243.213]] 10:28, 2 July 2024 (UTC)
::How far do you take it though? If I look in the cupboard and it's empty, I can say there are no cans of soup in the cupboard. But you could say "There's a chance they are in there...but you've been hypnotised so you can't find them!" or some other thoroughly improbable but technically possible story. Everyone would think that pretty far fetched. There comes a point where people accept that - functionally - a vanishingly small likelihood is the same as a negative. So, where's the point at which you say "Be reasonable. It's not a thing."?
::Because without it, you become the man in the shack, refusing to accept the veracity of anything. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 19:01, 2 July 2024 (UTC)
::: There's a simple answer to this: whenever it feels reasonable to do so. This doesn't feel very nice to a certain type of mind that loves thinking (like mine), but my life experience has taught me relatively recently that there are things you should do without thinking about it. (In this particular case, well, the solar system is much bigger than a cupboard! If we learned there have been aliens watching us, not wanting to be detected, my sense of reality would not be shattered, its not stupidly implausible. I can believe this while still believing any conspiracy theories telling you specifics about what they are doing are just making it up/mistaken/mentally ill/etc etc)[[User:Terdragontra|Terdragontra]] ([[User talk:Terdragontra|talk]]) 23:29, 2 July 2024 (UTC)
::: A cupboard is easy to exhaustively search. But there are things I thought I had lost somewhere that later turned up in the house anyway. Some things are just good at hiding. (The "black swan" is an example of that.) If an alien probe crashed in the rainforest 100 years ago, we may never know. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.133|172.71.160.133]] 05:14, 3 July 2024 (UTC)

==The 5 Observables==
Nowadays, the believers' gold standard for <s>UFOs</s> UAPs is this:
{{quote|There are five, consistent observations we continue to see that are uniquely associated with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or UAPs. Understanding these characteristics and their application requires us to have a very good understanding of advanced physics at the quantum level.

''The five observables can be categorized as follows:

# Sudden and instantaneous acceleration
# Hypersonic velocities without signatures
# Low observability
# Trans-medium travel
# Positive lift
|TTSA|https://tothestars.media/de-de/blogs/press-and-news/five-characteristics-unique-to-uaps}}
Basically, if it seems to break physics, it's a UFO. Aliens who got here using established physics would naturally be curious about that. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.243.214|172.70.243.214]] 10:14, 2 July 2024 (UTC)
:It must be said that a given 'observation' could convey all the above by: 1) Camera wobble, 2) Camera panning, 3) Optical artefacts, 4) Scale/distance misunderstanding, w.r.t the background/foreground features, 5) Subsequent unfounded assumptions about trajectory.
:Which is not to say that it's all bad camera use/interpretation of playback. Radar might be involved (with the possibility of radio-mirages) or even a combination of Mk1 Eyeball and electronic recordings which rule out some 'trivial' counter-explanations. But extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence, and it would be silly to let something perhaps as simple as camera-shake from a moving vehicle suggest that we need to probe quantum physics for operational loopholes.
:It is at least as bad to "want to believe" as it is to want to ''disbelieve''. And while many such cases may share the same basic anomolies, that make it look like some things are consistently anomolous, this doesn't mean that each case is ''identically'' anomolous. If a bright light disappears, in one case it might be because it's no longer reflecting off the background, in another that the (mundane) source is now shaded by a cloud, in a other it's because the camera lens is no longer subjected to flare, or the video compression artefact is no longer generated, or the observer who verbally reported it no longer has it in the corner of their eye/mentally extrapolated as part of their central blind-spot.
:There's undoubtedly a lot of interesting unknown (so far!) stuff out there, to be witnessed. But lumping in ball lightning, in one instance, with the Sun momentsrily gleaming off the crest of a wave in another, with a perfectly legitimate isolated doorbell-/windshield-cam shot of a meteor in another should not result in an assumption of "bright flash == alien spaceship" as explanation all round.
:If aliens are as super-advanced, technically, as many believe, is there any reason to assume that they even need to leave such teasing evidence of their existence? If you can already twist quantum physics around your little-pseudopod, at will, isn't it more likely that you're already getting past mere human/earthtech monitoring of the skies entirely unseen and ''none'' of the UFO-'sightings' are of you. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.121|172.70.163.121]] 12:37, 2 July 2024 (UTC)
::Yeah, there's no hard evidence for any of it. But the claims are there. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.174|198.41.242.174]] 14:32, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

==Cueball is an alien?==
A previous edit suggested that Cueball is an alien. Is this canon or a conspiracy theory? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.243.213|172.70.243.213]] 10:26, 2 July 2024 (UTC)
:I did not see this prior form of edit, but I did nearly add my own (conspiracy-)theory that:
:*The aliens are seeing the traces of (vastly more superior) other-aliens around Earth,
:*Said other-aliens are ''only'' leaving significant traces here, not on the original aliens' world/other places they visit,
:*The other-aliens are therefore keen to stay out of observation from the non-other aliens,
:*Or at least generate enough deniability (similar to these aliens being sufficiently deniable to any regular human) so that those who ''are'' convinced get described as 'quack-UFOlogists',
:*Obviously,{{Actual citation needed}} a useful tool in this disinformation war would be to have a human(-looking) representative trying to out-argue the (actually correct, but logically tenuous) alien speculations with diversionary tactics and misdirection.
:Thus Cueball is trying to get the visible aliens to abandon their beliefs in the non-visible aliens by making them think that "anything alien" is ''them'' (those present), and ignore the signs of any subsequent 'visitation'.
:(Note though, that given the prior prediliction for the saucer-people to irrationally believe in Bigfoot, beyond even their own level of ubiquitous monitoring, what we probably have here is Cueball being 'the only sane being in the room'. Unusually, for Cueball. Or at least the san''est'', versus a particularly non-sane other. And standing under an open sky, of course.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.74|141.101.99.74]] 11:46, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

== Quotes ==

{{quote|They are people like me who see this as an incredible mystery and enigma that that needs to be resolved.|Chris Mellon|https://www.history.com/news/chris-mellon-ufo-investigations}} [[Special:Contributions/172.68.194.201|172.68.194.201]] 10:51, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2952: Routine Maintenance

2024-07-02T20:46:37Z

172.70.162.185:

Ooooh, if this were only true... All the "Nobody tells me what to do" stubborn people would have died out years ago, and Covid would have been a LOT shorter! :) Added an initial explanation, all I found here was a basic transcript.

The vent off of Alaska is poking out, is there a volcano around there? Feels a little north to be Mount Fuji, but I have a suspicion most if not all are supposed to be actually volcanos... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:12, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
:Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula (the long "teardrop" hanging below the Siberian Peninsula) is very volcanically active. The others look like reasonable places to expect volcanoes - I've added a couple of lines. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.207|172.68.64.207]] 05:25, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

Is the image SUPPOSED to be that tiny? It's not even 800 pixels! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.166|141.101.109.166]] 05:46, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

Should the direction of up/down actually being away/towards the planet due to gravity and not the panel's up/down direction be addressed in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.31.150|172.71.31.150]] 13:34, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

The current explanation says that cans of compressed air are pressurized with a propellant gas. This seems unlikely to me, but it's not ''impossible''... it's just that I'd expect a can of compressed air to be only that, without needing a propellant. What I'm seeing in a quick search on-line supports that. Do cans of air/propellant exist? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:09, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
:It would be impractical to have ''just normal air, compressed''. A typical spray can cannot hold the pressures needed to have significant (i.e. useful) amounts of compressed 'normal air' (still gas, but a ''lot'' of it... think, basically, of a cylinder of Nitrogen gas, because air is mostly that anyway). And 'typical air' doesn't readily liquify (the way of concentrating it without ''necessarily'' extreme pressure), not without applying/maintaining extremely low temperatures.
:On the whole, regular mostly nitrogen plus significant oxygen plus some CO2 and a host of trace gases would never practically fit in a handy spray can such as you could hold (and, probably, afford to use) as an alternative to any pumped compressed (or fan-blown) air in 'trivial' tasks such as just blowing a tiny bit of dust off of a mobo.
:What the 'air' is, in such cans, is probably (mostly) whatever handy liquid-adjacent gas is usable as an actual propellant. As you only need the 'general gas', you might as well just put propellant in the thing (one that works well) and ''nothing else''. (Unlike things like air-fresheners/bug-spray, which need the 'freshener'/insecticide as well. There's no advantage to reducing the propellant to fit 'air' in, which would soon be so diluted by gasified propellant that you'd basically have no 'air' left).
:The listed possible gases in a {{w|gas duster}} are the likes of butane, propane, 1,1-difluoroethane, 1,1,1-trifluoroethane or 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane, with the first two being flammable (so would be problematic in some circumstances) and the rest being more inert but still not being 'safe' if improperly used. Or abused.
:I don't actually have a can, at hand, or I'd check its stated ingredients (and warnings). I probably am more likely to (carefully) blow dust away with my own breath, or get the vacuum cleaner out with a suitable attachment. In fact, I've used very few, ever, though I probably first did back in the early '80s (which means it ''might'' even have been basically an example (or mix) of a CFC gas, before the problems with that became 'a thing'), as part of a cleaning kit sold to service my BBC Micro. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.35|172.70.86.35]] 17:44, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
:The popular 'can dusters' are '''NOT''' compressed ''air'' (oxygen/nitrogen mix) despite the label -- air cannot stay liquid at room temperature, it is high above the critical points of both nitrogen and oxygen. Many of such dusters don't display ingredients, but have a prominent '''FLAMMABLE''' warning sign! It is a propane/butane mix most of the time, maybe some CFCs in old ones. You could make a flame torch out of them! so be careful, turn off your device and provide very good ventilation. Best use it outdoors or on a patio, etc. -- [[Special:Contributions/172.68.159.20|172.68.159.20]] 18:04, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
::I was looking at [https://www.amazon.ca/EMPACK-EMP47020-Duster-500-295-74-Moisture-Free/dp/B007Z7OK3Y this] product, which claims to be VOC-free. But when I dug into [https://emzone.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/p7-047020___________emzone_air_duster_-_284_g_en.pdf its SDS], I saw that it's based on 1,1-difluoroethane. "Non-flammable product. However, content in liquid form is flammable." [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 22:38, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

The image looks SO much like a first-draft storyboard for [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceballs 'Spaceballs']. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:15, 2 July 2024 (UTC)
: Given that a second one is apparently in the making... Maybe Randall knows more than we would guess. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:53, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm thinking that the 'tidal' effect of the can is probably going to start tearing both earth and can apart, so it's unlikely to become secondary to losing magnetic field.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.176|172.70.90.176]] 08:57, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

Why isn't the Yellowstone Hotspot on the map? {{unsigned|Cwallenpoole|19:31, 2 July 2024}}
:Are there any actual magma vents, currently, in Yellowstone? From what I recallz and without checking, there are geysers (which are seeps of water driven up by the thermal conduction from the hot rock) but no 'eruption' points that might readily release dust-busting gas as well. (That might, in fact, be the problem. If magma pressure builds up there, it'll take a while to fracture the surface and vent, erupting massively, as opposed to a relatively slight eruption in a currently active/semi-active volcanic zone like Iceland/etc, being locally disruptive but not so bad if not confounded by glacier-topping or whatavyer...) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 20:46, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

I added an explanation that this is almost certainly a reference to the book The Little Prince, in chapter 9 there is a detailed explanation of how important it is to clean out volcanoes. [[User:satur9nine|satur9nine]] 19:33:25, 02 Jul 2024 (UTC)

2952: Routine Maintenance

2024-06-29T14:07:41Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2952
| date = June 28, 2024
| title = Routine Maintenance
| image = routine_maintenance_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x413px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The worst was the time they accidentally held the can upside down and froze all the Earth's magma chambers solid.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an ONCOMING LETHAL DUST CLOUD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A recommended routine maintenance step for many electronics, such as desktop computer towers, is to remove the buildup of dust on a regular basis. This bit of routine maintenance can help prevent the electrical components from overheating, and lengthen the lifetime of these electronics. There exists {{w|Gas duster|cans}} of high-pressure gas, as depicted, to blow dust out without a person blowing themselves, thus allowing them to keep their distance and not get a faceful of dust, or adding unintended moisture to the electronics.

This is suggesting that this is a maintenance step performed on the Earth itself, blowing gas into the Earth to force out the dust. However, filling the atmosphere with dust would be unhealthy and fatal to living beings, so as a safety measure everyone would have to take shelter. This is a reference to one theory about the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, that a crashing meteor sent so much dust into the air that it killed off all non-avian dinosaurs in a much wider area as could have been directly affected by the initial impact.

The image suggests that the "routine maintenance" for Earth would involve using the {{w|Hawaii hotspot}} (possibly via its most active volcano, {{w|Kilauea}}), as the point to insert the high-pressure gas, causing volcanoes to erupt in Iceland, the {{w|Aleutian Islands}} or the {{w|Kamchatka Peninsula}}, the {{w|Andes}}, and elsewhere; the two geographically-indeterminate plumes may represent Italy and Indonesia.

The title text mentions using the can upside-down, and this freezing solid the magma chambers. Canned "air" normally uses some kind of refrigerant, as their low vapour pressures allow for safe storage in liquid form. When the can is reversed, part of the liquid refrigerant escapes through the nozzle, and when it reaches the outside, the sudden reduction in pressure causes it to vaporize. This state change is accompanied by it stealing heat from the surroundings, significantly dropping the temperature. Under 'normal' use, the main temperature change (or reallotment of heat energy) is concentrated in the can with the cooling of the spray a secondary effect (being the canister gas/ex-propellant that has been cooled by the pressure-producing liquid 'boiling off' within the can), making the body of the can itself cool to the touch. By directly releasing the 'pre-evaporated' liquid, it will then boil off upon the external target of the spray and instead take a {{w|Enthalpy of vaporization|majority of its heat}} from whatever the narrow stream of pre-evaporate lands on, which is often a much smaller body than the can itself and thus experiences a notably more extreme temperature drop for the (essentially) identical total redistribution of heat energy. Spraying canned "air" in reverse is a party trick used to very quickly cool beverages, being able to bring them down from room temperature to nice cold in seconds, if performed correctly.

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

:[The nozzle of a "Dust-Off" gas duster can is pointing into a hole on the Earth's surface in the Pacific Ocean around where Hawaii is located, and its trigger is pressed as an arrow indicates, resulting in dust clouds being released from five visible spots of the Earth. These eruptions can be seen in the Aleutian Islands or Kamchatka Peninsula, Iceland, the Andes, and two further in the eastern hemisphere on the other side of the Earth.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I know routine maintenance is important, but I hate how we all have to take shelter for 48 hours every year while they flush out the Earth's magma system for cleaning.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Geology]]

Talk:2950: Situation

2024-06-27T09:31:59Z

172.70.162.185: /* Formatting */

For reference, the bridge in question is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 18:57, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
:Noting that in all cases ''except'' the Tacoma Narrows, the design flaws were but a part of the issue, with operational decisions at the time playing a big part in the designed-in risks becoming reasons for an actual incident. The bridge could never have been "run safely", once built, unlike trying to ignore bunker fires whilst speeding through iceberg-alley or conducting stress tests in parallel with other non-standard procedures or just not refusing to conduct flights under certain weather conditions. Yes, the other things, by skipping the 'bad end' they actually had, would still be susceptible to future incidents (lessons not now having been properly learnt, or even known to be learnable, so still liable to being mishandled).
:But the only thing that could have saved the Tacoma bridge was to have been so much more alert (and less 'amused') by Galloping Gerti and immediately rushed into developing the better analytical models that could lead to an expensive in-situ retrofit (as with the Millenium Bridge, across the Thames, though that didn't have unavoidable wind issues and ''could'' be managed 'at leisure', whilst being made safer). And, without the rather spectacular demonstration of failure, it was probably not on the cards to 'not do nothing', even if it wasn't already too late to avert history in any reasonable way.
:It's human hubris/failings (at various levels) in each case, of course. But operational and design-time errors do more damage in combination than either by themselves. (Case in point, no deaths from the bridge collapse... actually handled pretty well, considering.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.186|172.70.162.186]] 22:00, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

And for the record, the Challenger engineers *did* warn about the O-ring risk, but were overridden by management. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.95|172.68.35.95]] 19:25, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

It would have been so easy to draw a dam about to burst just behind the ocean liner {{unsigned ip|172.70.43.54|20:22, 24 June 2024}}
:Any particular dam-burst? There are many, but I'm not sure that we have an 'iconic' one... There's perhaps Taum Sauk, Vajont Dam, Brumadinho dam, El Cobre, Uttarakhand, Dale Dike Reservoir or Derna, picking a selection of notable ones. You couldn't count the deliberate Operation Chastise breaches or the (probably-)deliberate Kakhovka Dam one, nor all those 'nearly a disaster' ones (like Ulley and Toddbrook, two relatively recent concerns in the UK). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.186|172.70.162.186]] 22:00, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
::For whatever reason, the first thing that springs to my mind, is the flood scene from Team America World Police. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 07:02, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
::Johnstown Flood is what came to mind, caused by the South Fork Dam is the most iconic US one, and long enough ago to joke about relative to more recent, larger ones [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.140|162.158.159.140]] 16:52, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
::Also a huge molasses tank would have been a good reference to one of the worst non-water floods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_non-water_floods [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.140|172.70.43.140]] 17:07, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Winds caused by maintenance on a nuclear reactor... What? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.208.173|172.69.208.173]] 22:46, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah, this explanation text is reaching, hard. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 07:00, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Calling what leaked from the O-ring 'fuel' somewhat understates the issue. The O-ring failure let the SRB rocket exhaust itself burn through and damage the attachment strut and the external tank. [[User:Dkfenger|Dkfenger]] ([[User talk:Dkfenger|talk]]) 23:11, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
:But, rocket fuel can't melt metal struts! ;S [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 06:58, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
::But it can get it hot enough that it then rips apart, causing other failures. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 15:09, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
:::That was sarcasm, silly. ;P [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:38, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

I can't help but think that the ship/bridge combination also refers to the Key Bridge collapse, given that MV ''Dali'' just left Baltimore today, passing through the wreckage of the Key Bridge and under a Chesapeake Bay Bridge temporarily closed to traffic. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.222.92|172.71.222.92]] 03:01, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
:Not shown: Ship electrical system with redundant buses, multiple breaker trips, and all bus ties closed. Not existent: Dolphins and breakers surrounding the piers of a fracture-critical bridge. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.84|172.70.175.84]] 03:52, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
:Nothing in the comic implies anything about the Key Bridge. Coincidence of timing, at best. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 15:09, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

I feel like there's potential here, for a Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock kind of game, where each disaster can cause two others & prevent two others. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 07:07, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

50 comics until 3000! [[user talk:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 04:06, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

In the section labeled "Hydrogen-filled [...] Airship [...]", should we remove the ellipses and show the entire label instead? Is there a good reason for not showing the full label? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 15:02, 26 June 2024 (UTC)
:I'm going to be bold and change this to the full label. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 15:08, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

I'm going to hazard a conjecture that the reactor kicked off the whole megadisaster when it exploded. The enormous blast from the explosion caused the bridge to collapse. It fell over on the airship and exploded it, and the ocean liner, without its trusty iceberg scout, sank (either on an iceberg or on one of the numerous pieces of wreckage from the bridge or airship). Feel free to use it if it seems plausible. {{unsigned ip|172.69.34.129|20:46, 26 June 2024}}

Why doesn't this page have a "next" button at the top? Or is that only happenning for me? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.186|172.70.162.186]] 09:31, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2939: Complexity Analysis

2024-06-24T21:02:14Z

172.70.162.185:

I could be mistaken, but I think the "Best case" doesn't actually describe a situation where the algorithm takes the minimum amount of time. Rather, it describes that the algorithm wasn't necessary in the first place, possibly due to something like the list incidentally already being sorted. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.74|172.68.23.74]] 23:25, 29 May 2024 (UTC)
:If you want to check that it's sorted, then you need to traverse the entire list at least once (worst case is that the list is in fact sorted and you need to run through the whole thing) O(n). The best case example would be like checking for orderliness and finding the first two items out of order and quitting. THEN congress enacts the time shift and you could have taken some "negative" amount of time to run that "check_if_sorted" routine. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.134|172.69.71.134]] 14:36, 30 May 2024 (UTC)
::I think the joke is that someone externally decides that the algorithm is redundant, and so terminates it before completion (or never runs it at all).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 17:05, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

I think, in the best case scenario the Congress would need to make a surprise revert of Daylight Saving Time to really gain an hour. As during Daylight Saving the clock is set into the future it still would be virtually one hour later if suddenly Daylight Saving starts. But if it stops suddendly, you gain one hour on the clock. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.238|162.158.94.238]] 05:56, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

Sounds like a matter of conventional definition among those familiar with Deep Algorithm Magicks. As a mere initiate, I'd say that defining an algorithm's performance in terms of factors outside the algorithm's context, such as the possibility that it might not need to run at all, brings in a host of reference problems that I'd rather not take up arms against.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.121|162.158.41.121]] 06:14, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

I'd say using Big-O for the average case if a very bad one exists is NOT an abuse. Big-O in first place defines the behavior
of a *function*, not a set of functions. Thus, I wouldn't have the slightest problems if a publication writes, say, "Algorithm A takes O(n) steps if x!=y, but unfortunately, O(n^n) steps if x=y, which happens very rarely..." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.70|172.71.160.70]] 07:35, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

I think the table in the Transcript section that reproduces the table from the comic should be moved to the Explanation section and rewritten in paragraph form in the Transcript section. We only include text within the Transcript section to help vision-impaired readers. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 12:40, 30 May 2024 (UTC)
:It should be re-written for the transcript. I'm not convinced that reproducing it in the explanation would add anything of value to that though.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.5|172.69.195.5]] 12:46, 30 May 2024 (UTC)
::You're not wrong! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 13:10, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

"[...] conventionally closed systems are now behaving in open manners [...]" - unless this is a badly phrased way of saying something like "real-world engineering is always more complicated than a simple technical analysis would suggest", I think these parts of the explanation are going way off base. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.186|172.70.162.186]] 19:02, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

Interesting he‘s not using theta(…) and Omega(…) but O(…) only. {{unsigned|Grimaldi|20:03, 24 June 2024}}

2949: Network Configuration

2024-06-24T09:07:08Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2949
| date = June 21, 2024
| title = Network Configuration
| image = network_configuration_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you repeatedly rerun the development of technological civilization, it turns out that for some reason the only constant is that there is always a networking utility called 'netcat', though it does a different thing in each one.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOBNETCAT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, [[Cueball]] takes an uncommon networking bug (needing to establish a fresh connection for each packet sent) to the extreme. Instead of merely redoing the appropriate handshakes for data transfer, he is reconstructing the entire {{w|Human_history|history of human civilization}} each time.

As this originally took multiple millennia, doing it for every {{w|network packet}} would make communication ''extremely'' slow; in modern networking, we send and receive thousands of packets every second.

In the final frame, Cueball looks shaggy and dirty, with a {{w|Hoe_(tool)|grub hoe}} behind him, as though he had been performing these tasks in real life just to get his network working again. He says the network packet was stuck in the {{w|Neolithic}} era, the final period of the Stone Age that marked the transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. Apparently Cueball had to go through the effort of inventing farming, one of the developments of the {{w|Neolithic Revolution}}, to keep communicating with Ponytail.

Randall Munroe is familiar with the popular creative nonfiction topic of what it takes to rebuild civilization, the subject of a book he blurbed on its cover, [https://www.howtoinventeverything.com/ How to Invent Everything], by Ryan North, fellow cartoonist.

The title text discusses netcat, a simple utility to make a tcp connection which comes in annoyingly incompatible [https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/netcat-traditional/nc.1.en.html nc.traditional] and [https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/netcat-openbsd/nc.1.en.html nc.openbsd] varieties. This is likely a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide series which states that 85% of civilizations developed a drink that sounds like "Jynnan Tonnyx" ({{w|Gin and tonic}}) before inventing interstellar flight. The drinks are only related by their name and have nothing else in common.

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

:[Ponytail is sitting on an office chair at her computer with a headset on. A zigzag line indicates what is shown on the computer screen]
:Ponytail (typing): Ugh, your connection is so laggy.
:Computer: Yeah, sorry.

:[Cueball is sitting on an office chair at his laptop]
:Cueball (typing): It's because I messed up my network configuration and now I have to rebuild a separate civilization from scratch for each packet.

:[Ponytail at her computer]
:Ponytail (typing): Huh?
:Ponytail (typing): What are you talking about?
:Ponytail (typing): ...Hello?

:[Beat panel]

:[Cueball, with dirt on his head and around him, is at an old computer setup with an agricultural tool resting on his now non-office chair]
:Cueball (typing): Sorry, got stuck in the Neolithic that time.
:Cueball (typing): Inventing farming takes '''''forever'''''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

1795: All You Can Eat

2024-06-21T12:35:26Z

172.70.162.185: /* Kevin */ Improvements to the addition (to the best of my ability, having just gone and looked it all up, to resolve the meaning of some strange grammar).

{{comic
| number = 1795
| date = February 6, 2017
| title = All You Can Eat
| image = all_you_can_eat.png
| titletext = After my absent-mindedness resulted in a bad posterboard-related stomachache, I learned to do the sign-making place last.
}}

==Explanation==
An all-you-can-eat {{w|buffet}} is when a restaurant will charge you once for entry and then continuously serve you more food at no additional cost until you have eaten all-you-can-eat. Part of the "[[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]]" series, this comic shows [[Randall]] wishes to prepend "all-you-can-eat" to random stores.

With the exception of the pet store, which sells pet food, these stores do not sell food, so the very idea of eating their product would be ridiculous for most humans. However, this is what Randall's stunt makes the stores he defaces seem to advertise. Most people would not seriously consider eating the products these stores sell{{Citation needed}} even with the signs suggesting they should, as they sell {{w|tires}}, {{w|hair cuts}}, {{w|lumber}} and {{w|flooring}} and {{w|pets}}.

The "all-you-can-eat" signs obscured the top line for three of the four shops signs. It is not really possible to read the obscured part of the first two signs, although it is likely that the first and last letters in the first sign are A and K. And also since the A is taller than the white sign, this first letter must be larger than the others which do not show above the white sign. There could be room for anything from 8 to many more letters hidden as it can be seen in the second line below that the I's take up much less space than the other letters. But from the letters below it seems likely there were 9 (maybe including a space) if no I's were used resulting in a word or two like "A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ K". All letters in the comic seem to be capital, but Randall sometimes uses small caps, where the first capital letter is larger than the others. This would fit with this sign.

The third sign is fully visible, and it makes sense as it is not a name in the top line but part of the description of what the store provides.

The last sign is clearly readable even though the white sign covers the name at the top, and it says "Kevin's Pet Store". There actually exists a [http://kevinspetshopcom.weebly.com/ web page with the name "Kevin's Pet Shop"], supposedly located in "brownsville texas , CA", but there is very limited information on the page. See more about the use of Kevin in xkcd in the [[#Kevin|trivia]] below.

In the title text, Randall seems to have fallen for his own prank. After he puts the "all-you-can-eat" sign onto the signmakers' place, he proceeds to heed his own sign literally and eat the poster boards that he is supposed to make signs from. To remind himself not to make the same mistake again, he tells himself to "do the sign-making place last."

It should also be noted that sometimes "all-you-can-eat" is used to mean "unlimited usage". An all-you-can-eat data plan, for example, is another way to say unlimited data. If this definition of the word were used, all-you-can-eat would mean "unlimited copies of our product for a one time fee". A {{w|kapsalon}} can, arguably, also be called an all-you-can-eat hair salon.

Note that some animals regarded as pets are instead considered food in other cultures; rabbits are commonly kept as pets as well as served as food, dogs are consumed in some areas in eastern Asia, guinea pigs in South America and Africa, and [http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/alf/images/9/92/Cat_sandwich.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110128060130 some fictional characters] are known for eating cat. Even more normally, a cat owner that wants to buy an "all-you-can-eat" bird feast for their cat would be happy with this last store.

Aside from pets, pet stores also sell pet food, and while frowned upon by some, it is common practice to give human nutrition supplements to pets and vice versa. Some animal snacks are considered very tasty by many people, and there even exist several brands of snacks designed to be eaten both by people and their pets so that the owners could feel somehow closer to their beloved companion. Premium pet foods are made to standards that are no worse than standards for human food, so eating them poses no health risks in the short term - long term, most pet diets would fail to deliver the right balance of nutrients needed by humans.

And it would also be very weird for a pet store to have a buffet in general, even if the food is edible.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[The comic shows the facades of four stores next to each other on a street, with the sidewalk shown in front of them. To the top of each store's name there has been appended white signs. Three of the white signs partially cover the name part of the sign above three of the stores, but the fourth sign is placed entirely above the text of the third store. Thus that white sign's top is higher up than the building's.]

:[First store from the left. The top line of two on the store's sign is obscured by the white sign:]
:White sign: All-you-can-eat
:Store sign: Discount Tires

:[Second store from the left. The top line of two on the store's sign is obscured by the white sign:]
:White sign: All-you-can-eat
:Store sign: Hair Salon

:[Third store from the left. The white sign on this store is slightly tilted, and most of it is above the top of the store completely above the store sign:]
:White sign: All-you-can-eat
:Store sign: Lumber and
:Store sign: Flooring Depot

:[Fourth store from the left. The top line of two on the store's sign is obscured by the white sign. However, the name can still be deduced, and the top line says "Kevin's".]
:White sign: All-you-can-eat
:Store sign: Pet Store

:[Caption below the frame:]
:My hobby: Going out at night and adding "all-you-can-eat" to every store's sign

*'''Click''' to expand for a more detailed image description without any more text:
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
 
:[First store from the left has one small rectangular section next to the door and then a larger window. The first section may be a poster with information about the store. It could also be a small window. Through the large window (or on it) two rectangular signs can be seen with unreadable text. There are also three half circles at the bottom of the large window, possibly chairs or tires on display. On the normal sized door there hangs an open/closed sign, but no text is visible. On the stores sign the top line of text, likely with the name of the store, is obscured by the white sign so most of the letters are completely covered. Less than half of the first capital letter and ditto for the last letter is visible. It looks like the first letter is an "A", and the last a "k".]

:[Second store from the left has two posters over each other, the top one with unreadable text, the bottom a picture of a person with messy black hair, seen from the torso and up. Next to this is a double door with large windows from below the middle and up near the top. Next to the door there is a small window. On the stores sign the top line of text, likely with the name of the store, is completely obscured by the white sign. This line is shorter than the white sign, but the letters are taller, so top and bottom of the letters can be seen. But it is not easy to guess any letters.]

:[Third store from the left has two posters over each other, but the lower poster is smaller and more to the right. Both has unreadable text, and the top one also some kind of image with two tilted rectangles. Similarly there are three signs above each other with different size and text on the right side of the store. Between them is a large open door. Wider than the double doors of store two, but there is no sign of the doors. Inside the store there are two signs, one hanging down from two rods from the ceiling, both with unreadable text. The one from the ceiling is in the center the other is partly obscured by the door frame to the left. Left and right there are two rectangular structures, which both goes behind the frame. The left is taller. In the middle there is one broad but low rectangular structure with another higher rectangle on top, which does not go to either side of the one below. The white sign on this store is slightly tilted, and most of it is above the top of the store, and thus also almost completely above the store sign. Only the top of the first and last letter in the last word in the top line is touched by the sign.]

:[Fourth store from the left has a window to the left. Behind the window is a flat surface on which two rectangular structures are standing on their long sides. Over the lowest to the left there is sign with unreadable text. Below the window there is a thin sign with more text. The normal sized door has a window from below the middle and up. There are three several signs up the left sign, and possible another three small signs at the bottom of the window. The top right corner has a curved line around the corner. No text is visible on the door. Next to the door is another square. It could be a window of a place to post things. There are one large posters to the left with unreadable text and to the top right another smaller white rectangle. Below along the bottom of the square there are three small rectangles shown in full, and two more is only partly shown, which could indicate that it is a window and that they are inside the store. On the stores sign the top line of text, with the name of the store, is obscured by the white sign. The name is just a bit longer than the white sign, and as the letters are a bit higher than in store two it can be deduced that it says "Kevin's".]
</div>
 

==Trivia==
===Kevin===
*The name Kevin has been used twice before this comic and quite recently.
**That makes this comic the third with a Kevin in only 77 comics:
***In [[1719: Superzoom]], Kevin worked in a shop that sold superzoom cameras.
***In [[1729: Migrating Geese]], Kevin was the different goose.
***In [[1795: All You Can Eat]] (this one), Kevin has a pet shop, with his name in the shop's name.
**In the previous 1718 comics there seems to have been no use of Kevin except when referring to real persons like:
***Actors [[1412: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Kevin]] [[599: Apocalypse|Bacon]] or [[1555: Exoplanet Names 2|Costner]].
***[[1392: Dominant Players|Chess players]] Gariett and Durant.
***Kevin would later become the fan-name given to the right head of {{w|King Ghidorah}}, from the {{w|Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019 film)|2019 film of the Godzilla franchise}}. It was depicted as constantly being easily distracted, and was (temporarily) decapitated by Godzilla.
**So maybe Kevin is Randall's new go to name when he just needs one!
***This has also been discussed in the Geese comic, see the last entry in the [[1729:_Migrating_Geese#Table of labels|table]].
**After this comic it took half a year and 78 comics before the next Kevin appeared but still a short span compared to before the three others:
***In [[1873: Email Reply]], Kevin is addressed in an e-mail by [[Cueball]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]

2948: Electric vs Gas

2024-06-21T08:18:47Z

172.70.162.185: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 2948
| date = June 19, 2024
| title = Electric vs Gas
| image = electric_vs_gas_2x.png
| imagesize = 284x385px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HYDROGEN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE RUNNING A GENERATOR. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Internal combustion engine|Internal combustion engines}} (ICEs) are the most common technology used to propel motor vehicles. In US vernacular, the most common motor fuel is known as "{{w|gasoline}}", or "gas" for short, leading to these engines being referred to as "gas engines". Gasoline is a product of petroleum refinement, leading to the name "petrol" being used in other dialects.

{{w|Traction motor|Electric motors}} would seem the more well-suited method for propelling a vehicle, and as early as 1885 were an actual form of motor car engine with which the fledgling internal combustion engine had to compete. Despite this early popularity, over most of the 20th century electric motors were sidelined in everyday car design, as supplying the electricity was considered to be impractical for most forms of transportation. Modern forms are rapidly rising in popularity, and now constitute 18% of all global vehicle sales.{{acn}} [[Randall]] has long been a strong proponent of electric vehicles.

In this strip, [[White Hat]] claims to be comparing the pros and cons of electric motors and gas engines. The joke is that every point he makes goes in favor of electric motors. Despite it being posed as a dilemma, it may be very clear which side of the debate White Hat is promoting. On the other hand, it may indicate that one of the things we might consider a pro in electric motors (the instantaneous power now available, exceeding that of many non-electric engines) he would consider a problem — perhaps more accurately, a problem with the ''drivers'' of such vehicles — recklessly using the enhanced capabilities to accelerate to high speeds at all opportunities, whether safe to do so or not.

The strip offers the following points in favor of electric motors:

* "Cleaner and more efficient". ICEs produce and vent harmful combustion products and toxic chemicals, while electric motors produce no emission byproducts at the point of use. The efficiency of both gas and electric motors vary, but the typical ICE vehicle in the US converts around 25% of available energy into motion, while the typical electric vehicle is in the neighborhood of 80%. Even when considering inefficiencies in the source production and transmission and storage and release of energy, battery-driven electric vehicles are generally more efficient than internal combustion propelled vehicles[https://www.factcheck.org/2024/02/electric-vehicles-contribute-fewer-emissions-than-gasoline-powered-cars-over-their-lifetimes/]. It should be noted that all of this refers to the motors only, and ignores how the fuel and electricity are produced, or the wider environmental impact of the vehicle.

* "More powerful". Electric motors are able to deliver a lot of power from a small motor ''if'' an ample energy supply is available, and can do so 'on demand', often far quicker than a fuel-powered engine that has to put its power through a gearbox in order to service a wide range of road velocities, from standstill to the eventual top speed. Due to battery limitations, short or partial runtime use cases (such as dragsters, hand tools, yard tools, toys and electric scooters) net the most benefit from the small size of a high-powered electric motor.

* "Annoyingly loud". ICEs, by their nature, produce significant noise. Despite noise attenuation measures such as mufflers, they contribute significantly to urban noise. Properly designed electric motors are nearly silent. In particular, {{w|blowoff valve|turbocharger blowoff valves}} make particular noises that are completely lacking in an all-electric vehicle being driven at a similar performance level. This might legitimately be considered a problem, though, when everyone is used to a rapidly approaching vehicle providing a very noisy warning of its approach. EV makers have sometimes added [https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-car-ev-fake-engine-sound-hyundai-dodge-toyota-2023-7 fake ICE noises] to appeal to older drivers, and in the U.S. and some other countries, EVs are required to have {{w|Electric_vehicle_warning_sounds|warning sounds}} at low speeds for pedestrian safety.

* "WAY less {{w|torque}} available at standstill". ICEs need to continually operate within a specific range of rotational speeds, which means that a complex system of {{w|transmission|transmission gearing}} is needed to convert this motion into the specific speeds needed at the wheels. When starting from a standstill, this means that torque must be applied to the wheels relatively gradually to avoid stalling the engine. In addition, when a vehicle is standing still, the motor is typically idling at (very) low speed and must be sped up before it produces significant acceleration. Electric motors, in contrast, generally produce their peak torque when at a standstill. This results in electric vehicles having significantly better acceleration and engine responsiveness. Again, this could cause a legitimate problem with drivers changing from ICE to electric motors, because the new cars accelerate more than the driver is used to and provide different feedback. The audible clues of gear changes, whether from automatic or manual systems, are part and parcel of what many people have grown up with and come to rely on in anticipating what might need paying attention to.

The strip offers no points in favor of internal combustion (gas) motors, even those framed as if they were such.

It should be noted that White Hat is deliberately confining his arguments to electric vs gas ''motors'' rather than electric or gas-powered ''vehicles''. Doing so ignores the basic reason why internal combustion vehicles have long dominated transportation in certain specific countries: hydrocarbon fuels are a very dense and fairly easy to handle form of energy ''storage''. Providing electrical power to a moving vehicle requires either that the vehicle remain in contact with a power line, like a train, a tramway, a subway does, or a high-capacity battery and the ability to recharge that battery in a reasonable amount of time. More popular in the USA is a hybrid system, where a combustion engine provides at least some of the power to an electric motor, which was impractical until comparatively recently. Other methods, such as hydrogen fuel cells (a form of "combustion" that can be used more directly to form electricity), have been proposed, but remain niche, due to various barriers to adoption, or experimental. In the EU, the sale of new ICE cars is banned from 2035 in an effort to move to EVs.

A more comprehensive comparison would include the cons of electric cars. Especially in the United States, this topic is highly contentious for political, economic, engineering, and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal tribal] reasons. A quick look at the edit history of this page will confirm that. Issues raised typically include:

* Higher cost of purchase (primarily due to the cost of batteries and, in the USA, now a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs), although partially offset by lower costs of operation
* Long charging times compared to refilling a gas tank (there are some approaches which mitigate this by operating either very high powered chargers or a battery swap model, rather than charging in-car, but these are not widely adopted)
* Relatively limited range ([https://ev-database.org/compare/electric-vehicle-longest-range 100-400 miles per charge] as of 2024)
* Shortened range in hot weather and significantly shortened range in cold weather (although ICE vehicles also have this problem)
* Limited charging infrastructure in some places (although ICE vehicles also have this problem)
* Higher vehicle weight, and resulting higher particulate emissions (from tires, but not brakes, because EVs use of regenerative braking reduces wear on their traditional brakes)
* Reliance on various mineral and metal extraction industries in the building of batteries
* Issues disposing of/recycling batteries at end of life
* Increased demand on electricity production

Advancing technologies, political policies, and economic realities are rapidly changing the relevance and seriousness of these points. The current adoption rate of EVs (well under 50%, even in California) is an indication that the general population thinks the cons still win.

Other real (or asserted) pros of electric cars aren't mentioned, which is still not the point of the comic
* Lower costs of operation (partially offset by higher costs of purchase)
* Can "fill" them at home or while parked without having to stay with them (partially negates the "long charging times" con)
* Higher reliability
* Lower carbon footprint, and reduced dependence on the fossil fuel industry

Future economic and political policies may make fueling and maintenance of gas powered personal cars an issue. If in 10 years 100% of cars sold are electric, then after the average 12 year vehicle lifespan of fuel cars has ended it may be that legacy fuel stations are harder to find (and recharging stations easier) in comparison to the other type. At the 20-year mark, most gasoline-fueled cars will be gone and the economic value of providing ubiquitously available fuel to a dwindling number of cherished hold-out 'classic' vehicles will have forced the supply chains to pivot. Maintenance for such cars may become an art of the past and finding a specialized mechanic may be necessary. (As, until recently, it would have been difficult to find an independent EV-qualified mechanic.)

==Trivia==
The etymology of "gasoline" is disputed: it may derive from "gas", or perhaps from the brand-name fuel "Cazeline" or "Cazelline" sold by a man called John Cassell; "Petrol" has also been a registered brand name for other businesses' motor-fuel products.

While ICE vehicles have, to date, proven more popular than electric equivalents, worldwide, bicycles have been outselling cars [https://www.bikeradar.com/features/bike-vs-car-the-sales-race|since at least WWII].

==Transcript==
:[White Hat, with his palm raised, is talking to Cueball.]
:White Hat: Electric motors and gas engines each have their pros and cons.
:White Hat: On one hand, electric motors are cleaner and more efficient. On the other hand, electric motors are more powerful.
:White Hat: So it's hard to say which is better overall.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Climate change]]

2948: Electric vs Gas

2024-06-21T08:05:41Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */ not necessarily obvious, particularly to the lay reader

{{comic
| number = 2948
| date = June 19, 2024
| title = Electric vs Gas
| image = electric_vs_gas_2x.png
| imagesize = 284x385px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HYDROGEN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE RUNNING A GENERATOR. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Internal combustion engine|Internal combustion engines}} (ICEs) are the most common technology used to propel motor vehicles. In US vernacular, the most common motor fuel is known as "{{w|gasoline}}", or "gas" for short, leading to these engines being referred to as "gas engines". Gasoline is a product of petroleum refinement, leading to the name "petrol" being used in other dialects.

{{w|Traction motor|Electric motors}} would seem the more well-suited method for propelling a vehicle, and as early as 1885 were an actual form of motor car engine with which the fledgling internal combustion engine had to compete. Despite this early popularity, over most of the 20th century electric motors were sidelined in everyday car design, as supplying the electricity was considered to be impractical for most forms of transportation. Modern forms are rapidly rising in popularity, and now constitute 18% of all global vehicle sales. [[Randall]] has long been a strong proponent of electric vehicles.

In this strip, [[White Hat]] claims to be comparing the pros and cons of electric motors and gas engines. The joke is that every point he makes goes in favor of electric motors. Despite it being posed as a dilemma, it may be very clear which side of the debate White Hat is promoting. On the other hand, it may indicate that one of the things we might consider a pro in electric motors (the instantaneous power now available, exceeding that of many non-electric engines) he would consider a problem — perhaps more accurately, a problem with the ''drivers'' of such vehicles — recklessly using the enhanced capabilities to accelerate to high speeds at all opportunities, whether safe to do so or not.

The strip offers the following points in favor of electric motors:

* "Cleaner and more efficient". Internal combustion engines produce and vent harmful combustion products and toxic chemicals, while electric motors produce no emission byproducts at the point of use. The efficiency of both gas and electric motors vary, but the typical ICE vehicle in the US converts around 25% of available energy into motion, while the typical electric vehicle is in the neighborhood of 80%. It should be noted that all of this refers to the motors only, and ignores how the fuel and electricity are produced, or the wider environmental impact of the vehicle. Even when considering inefficiencies in the source production and transmission and storage and release of energy, battery-driven electric vehicles are generally more efficient than internal combustion propelled vehicles[https://www.factcheck.org/2024/02/electric-vehicles-contribute-fewer-emissions-than-gasoline-powered-cars-over-their-lifetimes/].

* "More powerful". Electric motors are able to deliver a lot of power from a small motor ''if'' an ample energy supply is available, and can do so 'on demand', often far quicker than a fuel-powered engine that has to put its power through a gearbox in order to service a wide range of road velocities, from standstill to the eventual top speed. Due to battery limitations, short or partial runtime use cases (such as dragsters, hand tools, yard tools, toys and electric scooters) net the most benefit from the small size of a high-powered electric motor.

* "Annoyingly loud". Internal combustion engines, by their nature, produce significant noise. Despite noise attenuation measures such as mufflers, they contribute significantly to urban noise. Properly designed electric motors are nearly silent. In particular, turbo-charger blow-off valves make particular noises that are completely lacking in an all-electric vehicle being driven at a similar performance level. This might legitimately be considered a problem, though, when everyone is used to a rapidly approaching vehicle providing a very noisy warning of its approach. EV makers have sometimes added [https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-car-ev-fake-engine-sound-hyundai-dodge-toyota-2023-7 fake ICE noises] to appeal to older drivers, and in the U.S. and some other countries, EVs are required to have {{w|Electric_vehicle_warning_sounds|warning sounds}} at low speeds for pedestrian safety.

* "WAY less torque available at standstill". Internal combustion engines need to continually operate within a specific range of rotational speeds, which means that a complex system of transmission gearing is needed to convert this motion into the specific speeds needed at the wheels. When starting from a standstill, this means that torque must be applied to the wheels relatively gradually to avoid stalling the engine. In addition, when a vehicle is standing still, the motor is typically idling at (very) low speed and must be sped up before it produces significant acceleration. Electric motors, in contrast, generally produce their peak torque when at a standstill. This results in electric vehicles having significantly better acceleration and engine responsiveness. Again, this could cause a legitimate problem with drivers changing from ICE to electric motors, because the new cars accelerate more than the driver is used to and provide different feedback. The audible clues of gear changes, whether from automatic or manual systems, are part and parcel of what many people have grown up with and come to rely on in anticipating what might need paying attention to.

The strip offers no points in favor of internal combustion (gas) motors, even those framed as if they were such.

It should be noted that White Hat is deliberately confining his arguments to electric vs gas ''motors'' rather than electric or gas-powered ''vehicles''. Doing so ignores the basic reason why internal combustion vehicles have long dominated transportation in certain specific countries: hydrocarbon fuels are a very dense and fairly easy to handle form of energy ''storage''. However worldwide, bicycle have been outselling cars [https://www.bikeradar.com/features/bike-vs-car-the-sales-race|since at least the WWII]. Providing electrical power to a moving vehicle requires either that the vehicle remain in contact with a power line, like a train, a tramway, a subway does, or a high-capacity battery and the ability to recharge that battery in a reasonable amount of time. More popular in the USA is a hybrid system, where a combustion engine provides at least some of the power to an electric motor, which was impractical until comparatively recently. Other methods, such as hydrogen fuel cells (a form of "combustion" that can be used more directly to form electricity), have been proposed, but remain niche, due to various barriers to adoption, or experimental. In the EU, the sale of new ICE cars is banned from 2035 in an effort to move to EVs.

A more comprehensive comparison would include the cons of electric cars. Especially in the United States, this topic is highly contentious for political, economic, engineering, and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal tribal] reasons. A quick look at the edit history of this page will confirm that. Issues raised typically include:

* Higher cost of purchase (primarily due to the cost of batteries and, in the USA, now a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs), although partially offset by lower costs of operation
* Long charging times compared to refilling a gas tank (there are some approaches which mitigate this by operating either very high powered chargers or a battery swap model, rather than charging in-car, but these are not widely adopted)
* Relatively limited range ([https://ev-database.org/compare/electric-vehicle-longest-range 100-400 miles per charge] as of 2024)
* Shortened range in hot weather and significantly shortened range in cold weather (although ICE vehicles also have this problem)
* Limited charging infrastructure in some places (although ICE vehicles also have this problem)
* Higher vehicle weight, and resulting higher particulate emissions (from tires, but not brakes, because EVs use of regenerative braking reduces wear on their traditional brakes)
* Reliance on various mineral and metal extraction industries in the building of batteries
* Issues disposing of/recycling batteries at end of life
* Increased demand on electricity production

Advancing technologies, political policies, and economic realities are rapidly changing the relevance and seriousness of these points. The current adoption rate of EVs (well under 50%, even in California) is an indication that the general population thinks the cons still win.

Other real (or asserted) pros of electric cars aren't mentioned, which is still not the point of the comic
* Lower costs of operation (partially offset by higher costs of purchase)
* Can "fill" them at home or while parked without having to stay with them (partially negates the "long charging times" con)
* Higher reliability
* Lower carbon footprint, and reduced dependence on the fossil fuel industry

Future economic and political policies may make fueling and maintenance of gas powered personal cars an issue. If in 10 years 100% of cars sold are electric, then after the average 12 year vehicle lifespan of fuel cars has ended it may be that legacy fuel stations are harder to find (and recharging stations easier) in comparison to the other type. At the 20-year mark, most gasoline-fueled cars will be gone and the economic value of providing ubiquitously available fuel to a dwindling number of cherished hold-out 'classic' vehicles will have forced the supply chains to pivot. Maintenance for such cars may become an art of the past and finding a specialized mechanic may be necessary. (As, until recently, it would have been difficult to find an independent EV-qualified mechanic.)

==Trivia==
The etymology of "gasoline" is disputed: it may derive from "gas", or perhaps from the brand-name fuel "Cazeline" or "Cazelline" sold by a man called John Cassell; "Petrol" has also been a registered brand name for other businesses' motor-fuel products.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat, with his palm raised, is talking to Cueball.]
:White Hat: Electric motors and gas engines each have their pros and cons.
:White Hat: On one hand, electric motors are cleaner and more efficient. On the other hand, electric motors are more powerful.
:White Hat: So it's hard to say which is better overall.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Climate change]]

2948: Electric vs Gas

2024-06-20T08:22:47Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2948
| date = June 19, 2024
| title = Electric vs Gas
| image = electric_vs_gas_2x.png
| imagesize = 284x385px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HYDROGEN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE RUNNING A GENERATOR. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Internal combustion engines (ICE) are the most common technology used to propel vehicles. In US vernacular, the most common motor fuel is known as "gasoline", or "gas" for short, leading to these engines being referred to as "gas engines". Gasoline is a product of petroleum refinement, leading to the name "petrol" being used in other dialects. (The word "gasoline" does not actually refer to any gaseous state, but derives from the brand-name fuel "Cazeline" or "Cazelline" sold by a man called John Cassell, and "Petrol" has also been a registered brand-name for another business's motor-fuel product.)

Electric motors would seem the more obvious method for propelling a vehicle, and as early as 1885 were an actual form of motor-car engine with which the fledgling internal combustion engine had to compete. Despite this early popularity, over most of the 20th century electric motors were sidelined in everyday car design, as supplying the electricity was considered to be impractical for most forms of transportation. Modern forms are rapidly rising in popularity, and now constitute 18% of all global vehicle sales. [[Randall]] has long been a strong proponent of electric vehicles.

In this strip, [[White Hat]] claims to be comparing the pros and cons of electric motors and gas engines. The joke is that every point he makes goes in favor of electric motors. Despite it being posed as a dilemma, it may be very clear which side of the debate White Hat is promoting. On the other hand, it may indicate that one of the things we might consider a pro in electric motors (the instantaneous power now available, exceeding that of many non-electric engines) he would consider a problem - perhaps more accurately, a problem with the ''drivers'' of such vehicles, recklessly using the enhanced capabalities to accelerate to high speeds at all opportunities, whether safe to do so or not.

The strip offers the following points in favor of electric motors:

* "Cleaner and more efficient". Internal combustion engines produce and vent harmful combustion products and toxic chemicals, while electric motors produce no emission byproducts at the point of use. The efficiency of both gas and electric motors vary, but the typical ICE vehicle in the US converts around 25% of available energy into motion, while the typical electric vehicle is in the neighborhood of 80%. It should be noted that all of this refers to the motors only, and ignores how the fuel and electricity are produced. Even when considering inefficiencies in the source production and transmission and storage and release of energy, battery driven electric vehicles are generally more efficient than internal combustion propelled vehicles[https://www.factcheck.org/2024/02/electric-vehicles-contribute-fewer-emissions-than-gasoline-powered-cars-over-their-lifetimes/].

* "More powerful". Electric motors are able to deliver a lot of power from a small motor '''if''' an ample energy supply is available, and can do so 'on demand', often far quicker than a fuel-powered engine that has to put its power through a gearbox in order to service a wide range of road velocities, from standstill to the eventual top speed. Due to battery limitations, short or partial runtime use cases, such as dragsters, hand tools, yard tools, toys, and electric scooters net the most benefit from the small size of a high-powered electric motor.

* "Annoyingly loud". Internal combustion engines, by their nature, produce significant noise. Despite noise attenuation measures (such as mufflers), they contribute significantly to urban noise. Properly designed electric motors are nearly silent. In particular, turbo-charger blow-off valves make particular noises that are completely lacking in an all-electric vehicle being driven under a similar performance level. This might legitimately be considered a problem, though, when everyone is used to a rapidly approaching vehicle providing a very noisy warning of its approach. EV makers have sometimes added [https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-car-ev-fake-engine-sound-hyundai-dodge-toyota-2023-7 fake ICE noises] to appeal to older drivers and {{w|Electric_vehicle_warning_sounds|warning sounds}} for bystanders.

* "WAY less torque available at standstill". Internal combustion engines need to continually operate within a specific range of rotational speeds, which means that a complex system of transmission gearing is needed to convert this motion into the specific speeds needed at the wheels. When starting from a stand-still, this means that torque must be applied to the wheels relatively gradually to avoid stalling the engine. Electric motors, by contrast, generally produce their peak torque when at a standstill. This results in electric vehicles having significantly better acceleration and engine responsiveness. Again, this could cause a legitimate problem with drivers changing from ICE to electric motors, because the new cars accelerate more than the driver is used to and provide different feedback. The audible clues of gear-changes, whether from automatic or manual systems, are part and parcel of what many people have grown up with, in anticipating what vehicles might need paying explicit attention to.

It should be noted that White Hat is deliberately confining his arguments to electric vs gas ''motors'' rather than electric or gas-powered ''vehicles''. Doing so ignores the basic reason why internal combustion vehicles have long dominated transportation: hydrocarbon fuels are a very dense and fairly easy to handle form of energy ''storage''. Providing electrical power to a moving vehicle requires either that the vehicle remain in contact with a power line, like a train does, or a high-capacity battery and the ability to recharge that battery in a reasonable amount of time. More popular in the USA is a hybrid system, where a combustion engine provides at least some of the power to an electric motor, which was impractical until comparatively recently. Other methods, such as hydrogen fuel cells (a form of "combustion" that can be used more directly to form electricity), have been proposed, but remain experimental.

A more comprehensive comparison would include the cons of electric vehicles, including:

* Higher cost of purchase (primarily due to the cost of batteries and, in the USA, now a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs), although partially offset by lower costs of operation
* Long charging times compared to refilling a gas tank (there are some approaches which mitigate this by operating a battery swap model, rather than charging in-car, but these are not widely adopted)
* Relatively limited range
* Shortened range in hot weather and significantly shortened range in cold weather (although ICE vehicles also have this problem)
* Limited charging infrastructure in some places
* Higher vehicle weight, and resulting higher particulate emissions
* Reliance on various mineral and metal extraction industries in the building of batteries
* Issues disposing of/recycling batteries at end of life

Advancing technologies may change how serious these cons are, but they currently remain genuine issues.

Other pros of electric vehicles aren't mentioned
* Lower costs of operation (partially offset by higher costs of purchase)
* Higher reliability
* Lower maintenance and repair costs
* Lower carbon footprint

==Transcript==
:[White Hat, with his palm raised, is talking to Cueball.]
:White Hat: Electric motors and gas engines each have their pros and cons.
:White Hat: On one hand, electric motors are cleaner and more efficient. On the other hand, electric motors are more powerful.
:White Hat: So it's hard to say which is better overall.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Climate change]]

2946: 1.2 Kilofives

2024-06-15T11:23:41Z

172.70.162.185: /* Trivia */ Expanding. Explaining where M (probably/partially) came from.

{{comic
| number = 2946
| date = June 14, 2024
| title = 1.2 Kilofives
| image = 1 2 kilofives 2x.png
| imagesize = 256x342px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Oh yeah? Give me 50 milliscore reasons why I should stop.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MICROMILLION BOTS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Abraham Lincoln's {{w|Gettysburg Address}} features the phrase "four {{wiktionary|score#Noun|score}} and seven"‍ to refer to 87 (a score refers to the number 20). Cueball (possibly representing [[Randall]]) likes the idea of unusual ways to refer to numbers so he uses a metric prefix to state the population of the town.

{{w|Metric prefix|Metric prefixes}} can be added to a unit to scale up or down its magnitude; for example, {{w|Kilo-|"kilo-"}} increases the unit's magnitude by a factor of 1,000, so a kilometer is as long as 1,000 meters. Although metric prefixes can be added to all sorts of units, they're not ordinarily added to number words to modify their magnitude{{Citation needed}}. The expression "kilofive" to mean 5,000 is therefore unusual. Such modification of magnitude can be accomplished by adding the corresponding word, for example in this case "five thousand".

Taking "kilofive" to be a unit meaning 5,000, the population of East Hills, 6,000, can therefore be expressed as 1.2 kilofives.

In the title text, Cueball has apparently annoyed White Hat with his confusing expressions of numbers, but he doubles down, now directly including the word "score". 50 milliscore, or 50 × 1&frasl;1000 × 20, would be equal to 1.

The comic might refer to the village of {{w|East Hills, New York}}. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 7,284, or around 1.2 kilosixes.

==Trivia==
In Roman numerals, {{w|Roman_numerals#Large_numbers|symbols can be added to numerals}} to denote orders of magnitude. In this system, 1,000 might be written as "CIↃ". This rough pattern of marks, as typically chisled or impressed into wax by a stylus, would later be refined and expressed in the not dissimilar shape of the "M" as most often seen these days to represent the thousands value in dates/etc. Alternately "I" (nominally '1') could be given a bar above it, as would any other such numerals involve in that expression, to indicate the value being denoted being of the higher order.

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

:[Cueball, with his palm raised, is talking to White Hat. There is a sign on the ground in the background.]
:Cueball: It's a pretty small town—the population is just 1.2 kilofives.
:[The sign reads:]
:Welcome to
:<big>East Hills</big>
:Pop. 6,000

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I don't know why Abraham Lincoln should be the only one who gets to come up with weird ways to say normal numbers.

:[Title text:]
:'Oh yeah? Give me 50 milliscore reasons why I should stop.'

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2945: Broken Model

2024-06-15T10:53:39Z

172.70.162.185: Undo revision 344349 by Rei (talk) Adding a (joke) citation-needed tag to an actual citation doesn't really make sense. (Edit summary suggested *no* citing link needed, instead, but I'm not removing it.)

{{comic
| number = 2945
| date = June 12, 2024
| title = Broken Model
| image = broken_model_2x.png
| imagesize = 278x448px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In addition to eating foxes, rabbits can eat grass. The grass also eats foxes. Our equations chart the contours of Fox Hell.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by Judas Priest. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Otherwise, the KILLER RABBIT may come for you.}}
This comic shows [[Miss Lenhart]] explaining a mathematical model of a predator-prey relationship. The model has the terms swapped, showing that 400 rabbits are preying on 20 foxes. The teacher realizes this mistake and says "If this were an ecology class, I would have to fix that." Instead of fixing the model, though, she instead begins to calculate using this flawed model, and notes that this model implies that rabbits are carnivores.

The equations start with Nrabbits(0)=400 and Nfoxes(0)=20, the number of rabbits and foxes at time 0, followed by what looks like the {{w|Lotka–Volterra equations}}, a pair of first-order nonlinear differential equations, frequently used to describe the dynamics of biological systems in which two species interact. One of the pair of equations describes the number of prey over time, the other the number of predators over time, differing only by a negative sign (and coefficients). It is easy to mix up which equation describes which species, leading to the inverted predator-prey relation described.

If this was indeed the case the rabbits would soon render the foxes extinct. The reason this doesn't happen in reality for rabbits is that they outnumber the foxes (20 foxes vs 400 rabbits) and thus can survive being preyed upon. Often the predator takes the old and sick animals first, thus keeping the rest of the animals more healthy. But following the math of the wrong formula would soon lead to zero foxes. As per the title text, the rabbits could survive without the foxes to prey on, since they still eat grass. However, this reality is terrifying for the foxes, because they are rendered as prey.

The title text extends the joke by looking at a even more flawed model. This model has grass as well, but instead of grass and foxes not interacting, grass eats foxes, creating a "Fox Hell."
In the real world, grass doesn't hunt foxes{{citation needed}}, but instead, grass pulls nutrients from air and soil and synthesizes its energy through [https://soandmo.com/blogs/blog/where-does-the-grass-plant-get-its-energy-from photosynthesis], and may use foxes that have already died from other causes as fertilizer. Foxes do occasionally [https://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/animals/article/red-fox-diet-what-foxes-eat eat grass], although not as food, but for other health reasons.

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart is holding a pointer to a whiteboard, indicating the last part of the last line of text.]
:Miss Lenhart: Hmm, looks like I accidentally swapped the predation terms.
:Miss Lenhart: If this were an ecology class, I would have to fix that.
:Miss Lenhart: Unfortunately for those 20 poor foxes, this is calculus, and the math says these 400 rabbits are hungry for meat.

:[There are three lines on the white board, where the '...' ellipses in the bottom line are illegible:]
:Nrabbits(0) = 400
:Nfoxes(0) = 20
:dN0/dt = ... dN.../... = ...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Every broken mathematical model is just a glimpse into a terrifying alternate universe.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:2916: Machine

2024-06-11T00:31:08Z

172.70.162.185: /* Is the Machine now 'complete'? */

rather late for an april fools comic innit? also there doesn't seem to be anything exciting in this one lol, none of the usual cool exploration easter eggs, as far as i could tell at least [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.76|172.71.178.76]] 16:41, 6 April 2024 (UTC)Erfaniom
:Randall posted an eclipse comic on Apr. 1. All April Fools comics are interactive. [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|Z1mp0st0rz]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 15:27, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

: We're exploring crowdsourced human creativity here, in a way, so it can be a lot more interesting then Randall's exploration comics, at least for me, because i did take two years of GCSE psychology and enjoyed it. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.130|172.64.238.130]]

: looks like the egg's on my face lmao, i think i was among the first people to make anything, so everywhere was under construction for me, i didn't even understand that it was like a crowd thing [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.52|172.70.210.52]] 14:19, 9 April 2024 (UTC)Erfaniom

Just popped over using Chrome on Android and all I see is four "missing picture" logos spinning around, plus another down the bottom right... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.193|141.101.68.193]] 18:13, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Okay, followup: it behaves quite differently on the non mobile site. You get two entry points with red balls and yellow balls and you need to place the various gizmos to direct the balls to the correct exit point. Once enough have correctly passed to turn the red X into a green tick, you have the option to submit. If you do, once you have named your design it will be added to the grid with other submissions all of which exist to push red and yellow balls around. (if you come across "Memories of Ragnarok", that's mine)
Mine are "Balancing Act" and "100% Success Rate" [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.14|172.71.146.14]] 21:11, 15 April 2024 (UTC)
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.207|172.71.134.207]] 18:27, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
::The number of inputs appears to vary between 1 and 4, each of a different color, with one color-coded output for each. [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

On the "machine" section, you see lots of "under construction cells". Perhaps this will develop as more are submitted. I notice the "under construction tape" has "DJIA" and "31415", perhaps a reference to "dow jones industrial average" and the first five digits of pi. [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 18:37, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Whenever someone submits a cell, it fills in one of the under construction cells. [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
[Robert'); DROP TABLE Student!:;--] i just got a machine with 3 outputs one yellow another red and a third blue AND green and 3 inputs one green one blue and one red blue and yellow https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=7&yt=50 hope its still there {{unsigned ip|172.70.115.173|18:01, 9 April 2024}}
:I think I just 'did' one with a Red+Yellow source (also separate singular Blue and Green) and a combined Blue+Green sink (and separate Yellow and Red). Got it working well, actually using fan-levitation to separate the R+Y enough to route them to their destinations, the Y then having to cross the occasional flying Green (which I was forced to "Bonk" and bounce up, entry being nearly at the bottom on right, exit being nearly at top on left) for its exit, everything else fairly simple. No idea if it got integrated, of course. Never seen any of my machines be accepted (when I later look around at what's there), so I'm still unsure if there's anything I can do to increase my chance of a successful square being made permanent on the grid.... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.49|172.70.163.49]] 20:58, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
:...still had it sitting there [https://imgur.com/kZdp3kH on my browser], though note that the Red+Yellow supply (mid-left) and the Green supply (right) aren't working here, through the "move the screen around, lose the feeds from 'Under Construction' squares" issue, or similar. But still I managed to submit it. The occasional Yellow and Red are falling from the Blue entrance in the top (I've not done anything special to filter those out/send them to a more proper exit, and it's too late to do so now anyway, it was just a Blue entry during the development process, of course).
:It's a pity you can't see it working, but I quite like my Yellow/Red separation. This might be the only time you see it in place, though, so a shame I didn't take a screenshot immedediately after submitting it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.49|172.70.163.49]] 21:30, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
:I encountered a puzzle with five distinct pairs of in/out (none combined): Two blue, two red, one yellow. It was difficult! AFAIK five pairs is the highest reported so far. When I submitted the solution to the Machine, it had Under Construction above and to each side, and (IIRC) empty below, and no balls were provided, alas.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.216|172.69.134.216]] 03:46, 12 April 2024 (UTC)
I wanted to add an image for each object, but do not have the necessary access, can someone who has access add the images that I linked in the table so they can be included? [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

I found a discussion with some guy talking about the API at https://euphoria.leet.nu/room/xkcd/ ; this could be useful for the wiki.

<code>
[c+1] now time to try fucking with the api
[c+1] https://incredible.xkcd.com/
[userwithnoaccount] 404
[c+1] it seems there are numbered machines under incredible.xkcd.com/machine/x
[c+1] returns a grid of individual machinlets
[c+1] which are uids like 3a7af27c-5389-5dcb-b660-3feab6be2ceb
[c+1] they're stored at urls like incredible.xkcd.com/folio/3a7af27c-5389-5dcb-b660-3feab6be2ceb
[c+1] there appear to be 33 machines total
[c+1] the json it returns seems to refer to these as "versions"
[c+1] $ curl -s https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/21 | jq ".version"
21
[c+1] there is a machine/0, but it's all null
[c+1] going to https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/current redirects to the current machine
[c+1] $ curl -sL https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/current | jq ".version"
35
[c+1] wait, is that the *total* number of mahcines?
[c+1] i would've thought there'd be more
[c+1] this whole think is rather esoteric
[c+1] Written in rust, too: https://rapier.rs/
[c+1] Uh oh.
https://i.hypercone.us/?v=8e283d
[c+1] HMMM
https://i.hypercone.us/?v=079f8f
[c+1] it seems there is no limit
[c+1] i've uploaded a ~50M title
</code>

With this I was able to make a script that visualizes paths of the balls. I was hoping that there would be an interesting pattern somewhere but it appears to be mostly random (https://i.imgur.com/ZvLlucU.png) --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.131.24|172.71.131.24]] 17:12, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/172.70.57.146|172.70.57.146]]

Had quite a lot of fun, added a few 'successful' machines to the grid. Noted that whenever I try to use the Prism that (after a short delay) the comic-pane blanks and I need to refresh the page/get a completely new 'challenge' to start from scratch, so I'm just not using the prism at all (used most of the other items, in combination or 'just the one across the whole board', whichever seems most fun). But it doesn't seem to do what I'd like it to do, which is sort multiple colours from the same inflow into different outflow directions. Which would be ''very'' useful in a 'crossroads' situation, the general solution of directing them cross-path being too prone to random collisions. Also might be useful in the 'submitted machine grid', as I note that errors propagate, whereas adding a filter on all inputs would clean out (dispose of/send off to a valid gate?) the rogue balls. Anyway, gonna have to come back to this later when there's more time... Maybe then I'll even have something useful to add to the Explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 19:03, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

The balls appear to be different weights. I just saw a machine that used fans to separate yellows from greens and blues in a sort of 'wheat from the chaff' manner to direct them to their correct outputs. I wonder what other hidden tricks are included. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.1.159|172.68.1.159]] 19:40, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

They're not all accepted, though it makes you think they are. Or something else more complex is going on we haven't realized yet. I made a machine that was working reliably, submitted it, and saw it on the overall grid. Reloading from a different browser I found the same location of the machine, with the same surroundings, but my machine had been replaced. It's nowhere else on the grid either. The first browser still shows it (but not after a reload with a cache clear). I'm not sure if there's some kind of "save" event that needs to happen beyond seeing your machine in the broader one, or if all user collaboration is an illusion, or if the system changes its mind about us somehow.

: Yeah, i've been seeing this too. Please tell me if you find any of my machines, images at https://i.hypercone.us/?v=22d562 , https://i.hypercone.us/?v=ad8e3a , and https://i.hypercone.us/?v=8d4d6a . I want to be one of the few to have added Catalan and Spanish to the grid. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.164|172.71.134.164]] 20:56, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

I've added some more observations to the page. Also, a guess which is too uncertain to put on the main page: The ball launcher for the yellows on the far left side misses a lot, and the yellow container isn't the one on the left. So I think the whole machine with crossing streams will result in the colors being sorted in their container order, and possibly have the streams combined and deposited at the bottom just above the containers. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.100|172.71.147.100]] 21:07, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

has anyone seen the boat at the very bottom? [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 21:21, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

trying to see it on Firefox for Ubuntu and it just tells me to "visit xkcd.com to view" - THAT'S WHERE I AM?! Tried clearing website data (but not my entire cache) and that didn't help. Is there something I'm missing?

Oooh, just had one with four ball-entries (four colours) and ''three'' exits (one caters for two arrows). Pity it's rather complicated to get entries to exits (even if I can merge two of the streams). Might have to give up on it, but I'd like to have seen how it fits in with the 'submited grid'. i.e. someone else gets a two-colour introduction spot. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.119|162.158.74.119]] 22:37, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Me again. I'm just refreshing the page, looking at the pattern of entries/exits (just a dozen or so screens in, getting some repeats of pattern, indicating that it's going back to tiles it was suggesting before, probably depends on how many others are contributing and extending...)
:Found another 'double-colour' example. Two yellows ''from the same side'', which probably means that there's a two-yellows been asked to exit from the neighbour (will check shortly).
:Quickly adapting from my spreadsheet notation, "R, Y, G, B" in order, each "(Entry, Exit)", I've been using <dir> of L/R/T/B and a number (nominally percentage, though seems to include only values of 20, 30, 50, 70 and 80, so it ''might'' be more 1/6..5/6?) relating to the distance along from L to R (for T/B) or T to B (for L/R).
:This line is therefore (0,0)(L20+L70,R30+B70)(R80,L80)(T70,L50) ... no reds, two yellow pairings, a red pairing, a blue pairing. Would require at least two path-crossings (but I was going to calculate those things later, and double-colours might confuse my intended simple line-intersection calculation).
:...anyway, spent some time on this message, which might mean I'll get into a 'new batch' of available patterns as people have succeeded some of the challenges that I've been 'swiping left'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 19:28, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:...very next click: (0,0)(T30+L20,R20+R70)(R80,L80)(R50,B50), which is clearly the actual left-neighbour of the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.19|172.70.162.19]] 19:32, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:Ok, stopped my refreshing to [https://imgur.com/a/OMFOmzy 'solve' a screen]. First of all I routed both yellows entries (right-upper and upper-right) to one yellow exit (middle-left) and gradually teased the greens across (lower-left to middle-right), as that way I was avoiding a criss-cross of balls, but the the other yellow exit (left-lower) was, of course, invalid.
:Changed it to drop one stream of yellows down towards the lower exit, across the rapidly firing greens (added a fan to filter away the occasional yellow that gets bounced over there, not much of an opportunity to filter falling-greens out of the yellow exit, so apologies to whoever gets the sceen below). Submited as "Two Yellows, One Green!", whether or not that'll save (apparently, I should continue to contribute and not refresh/close, or else the server will not keep the solution?).
:Interestingly, all four adjacent tiles are "Under construction", and if I scroll up... *DARN* the comic has blanked out (nothing there between the upper PREV/RANDOM/NEXT buttons and the lower ones, just whitespace). This may mean that it did not save. This is the kind of 'page crash' I get when I try using a Prism or get too many balls rattling around on top of a Black Hole. Perhaps it doesn't like that I'm scrolling into an Under Construction that shouldn't be there? (But then, why ''is'' it there?)
:Anyway, all extra information for everyone.
:I'll just refresh the page and go back and do some more entry/exit mapping, maybe? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 20:17, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

If you combine a bunch of these silly claw things in the middle by just spamming it, it begins to lag and do some chaotic collisions, even without balls colliding on it. It's curious how it does that seemingly randomly though. I wonder how calculations are added and if there's a tiny sprinkle of RNG. (Also, errors occur and say something about damaging recursion in the Rust programming language, so I guess we know how it was made. It's also pretty weird how there's not a lot of opening combinations? It's possible that the machine loops over in chunks of gears or something (that's what I'll call them). ([[User talk:Leo|talk]]) 13:15, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

If you place a black hole in the centre of a wheel, it makes the wheel behave unpredictably between resets. Sometimes it's almost normal, sometimes it's a lot faster than usual, and sometimes it's stopped but launches balls that touch it with extreme force. I was able to use this to submit a machine which didn't actually let a single ball through after being submitted. https://i.hypercone.us/?v=928bcd [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.149|162.158.33.149]] 01:19, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

The page says that (and I have taken note of) the ball hue is ''coded'' to certain values, but is there a logic to those values that might be derived from the colour (either as RGB triplet or HSV/other colourspace definition). For example, the two ball-types with zero green component in their makeup are 'unit density' (green is far heavier "green+red" is far lighter, so it's not a simple relationship, unless it converts from °hue, in some way) and the only secondary colour exhibits non-zero drag. There's the possibility that it just derived from "we need different properties, we need different colours, we have no reason to connect either with other deliberately" or even some non-mathematical symbology (fire=red, water=blue(?), earth=green, air(/sunlight?)=yellow). But it makes me wonder what combination of properties cyan/magenta balls might have, if added. (Or is the choice of those four colours constrained, anyway? Though R/G colorblindness is already something of an accessibility failure, if anyone suffers that.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.205|172.69.194.205]] 17:02, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:For color vision issues, on Mac, open System Preferences, select Accessibility, select Display (in the Vision group), select the Color Filters tab, select Enable Color Filters, then finally try the different filters in the Filter Type menu. One of them should help make the colors distinct.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.216|172.69.134.216]] 03:40, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

[https://pastebin.com/7PAiLnyF Python script to get the URL and title of each Cell in the current machine]

[https://pastebin.com/xBhywGde Result of running that script at the moment] (encoded with ROT13 because pastebin wouldn't let me save it otherwise)
:has anybody at all whatsoever been able to find their creation using this API? [[User:Bellydrum|Bellydrum]] ([[User talk:Bellydrum|talk]]) 21:58, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

[https://pastebin.com/jN5MP2za Result of running that script on the first 42 machines], at least on these it looks like the only difference is that one cell is added each time? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.195|172.71.99.195]] 17:22, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

I've submitted four now, none of which was accepted. I tend to spend a lot of time getting them just right. Any hints as to what the acceptance criteria might be? Or do I just stink at this?
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.204|172.69.59.204]] 19:47, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

There appears to be a new object: a cat that bats things that touch it.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.39|172.69.214.39]] 20:17, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

Is anyone else experiencing the bug where prisms cause the comic to disappear (leaving only the white background where it was) after a while? It makes viewing the whole machine basically impossible. (On further testing it appears to be firefox-exclusive.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.38|172.70.162.38]] 20:31, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:I've had the "Prisms break things" from the beginning (before any practical content). As in, trying to use them in a design breaks things. But I ''did'' glance upon their occasional use in the 'view submissions grid'. Right now I'm suffering from "white only" issue (see my "multi-yellow" accounts, above). I ''am'' using Firefox, if that's indeed relevant to this issue, but right now I'm not near any other up-to-date browser I care to use. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:37, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:I'm getting the same issue with black holes (which probably makes more sense - put a black hole there and you'd expect everything else to disappear :o) - except that on one occasion I was able to put about 6 black holes in before the 7th one vanished everything.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.121|172.69.194.121]] 09:15, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Has anyone seen their own cell in the machine at all yet? A manual approval system is probably necessary for obvious reasons, but if so it does seem to be moving quite slowly.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.24|172.69.65.24]] 02:58, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

I've never seen one of my own cells after refreshing the page. :( [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.122|172.70.110.122]] 20:27, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

How on earth is everyone seeing different parts of the grid? If I request "view machine" I can only see my own square, and the edges of everyone elses. Nothing else, definitely not all of the machine. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.149|172.68.64.149]] 21:11, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
::You should be able to click and drag the view around. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.54|172.71.242.54]] 21:41, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Whoever designed the room entirely full of fans is evil - every time I scroll near it my entire browser freezes up and becomes unresponsive. And then the comic usually blanks.[[;8Special:Contributions/172.69.194.81|172.69.194.81]] 08:23, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

None of [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2916:_Machine&diff=339487&oldid=339486 these edits] were anything to do with "grammar", so why would anyone describe the change as such? The spelling of "colo(u)r" is an internationali[s|z]ation issue, of note, and why I usually prefer to defer to using words like "hue", instead, in such contexts on this site. The change of the link from "The Incredible Machine" (where the page exists) to "The Credible Machine" (where it doesn't, because that's really just this comic's own joke) I aready changed back... If you think it doesn't properly explain the pun/negation, then rewrite; but don't make it an invalid link to something that doesn't even exist, as you'd know if you had even followed the link(s). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.141|172.69.194.141]] 15:22, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

Folks might be interested in my list of all published blueprints with their titles and permalinks: https://github.com/scpso/incrediblexkcd. scpso [[Special:Contributions/172.68.144.147|172.68.144.147]] 13:18, 14 April 2024 (UTC)

== Level scrolling bug ==

When one views the whole machine, and scrolls down far enough, everything just disappears, and the comic is completely unresponsive. Has anyone else seen this? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.236.152|198.41.236.152]] 20:38, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

:I'm now seeing the same issue, I wasn't before. (I'm using Chrome) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 21:06, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

::A hard refresh appears to have fixed this for me (same person as above). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.101|141.101.99.101]] 10:28, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

:I've been having this issue as well (I'm using firefox). Opening the site in Edge instead seemed to work around it for me, so it might only affect Firefox (and derivatives). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:27, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
::See also the 'firefox bug' comments currently immediately above this section. (Please don't ask me to start Edge up, I hate it, won't use it any more than the system requires me to...) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:37, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

:Update - I did a hard refresh so I could play around with the new additions and I'm no longer encountering the bug, even on firefox. I think the "white screen" bug is fixed now and you just need to hard-refresh to download the fixed JS instead of using the cached one. (same person as 172.70.163.31 and 172.70.162.38) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.16|172.70.86.16]] 11:16, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

==New Category: Ball Pit?==

What do you think about a new category for comics with [[ball pits]]? [[150]], [[219]], [[485]], [[498]], [[2916]]? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.229|162.158.134.229]] 21:50, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

[[:Category:Playpen balls]] already exists.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.133|172.70.174.133]] 17:35, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

== Prism Use? ==

Can the prism be used to sort balls by color? (or in any other way that is useful and different?) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.61|172.68.34.61]] 12:11, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:From what I've seen, no. Though may be ''extremely'' susceptible to incident angle. As far as my own use has been, they seem to randomise the trajectory (possibly also do a total-internal-reflection, I've had balls bounce around and exit at ''really'' weird angles), but it's hard to collimate a feed of balls into a single exact track, even straight down from a ceiling-feed (if you have a ceiling feed directly over the floor exit, lucky you, it'll still occasionally perturb balls off to the sides just enough to be bounced out as a gate-miss, unless you add 'funnel' architecture of one kind or another). Oh, and when balls do a lot of 'internal bouncing' it often forced me to reload the comic (overloaded the physics engine?), so could not continue to tweak the same design.
:On the other hand, perhaps this was the ''intent'', and just code/browser failings made it work erratically. Maybe would be an idea to go back and retest for this (anybody who can), do a little !!science!! to be recorded and explained on the page. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 12:51, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:So, ive did some testing and found..nothing. i ''did'' find some uses for the prism though. Like outting them diagonally makes the balls follow a "path", speeding up more and more (not really that great but it works with yellows), and that any ball hitting the left edge will try to go the the right edge. Not sure what else it can do, though. [[User:Begocc|Begocc]] ([[User talk:Begocc|talk]]) 09:35, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
::I did some thorough testing on a combined Red/Blue set of balls (carefully managed so that they were dropping into the target area as similarly as possible) and both rotated and moved the prism in various ways to check for any effects - like needing to enter parallel/perpendicular to the colour-bands, either to land on the 'target band' or start to pass across it, with the band then either facilitating or angling its 'fall through'. (Just visually checked, at first, then later adding 'buckets' below and to the sides, to try to catch balls departing on various trajectories in various 'clumps' making note of any that hit the 'bucket'-boundaries and bounced off elsewhere.)
::I found no significant sorting, and some balls would jitter around so much (within the prism) that they even launched almost straight back up where they came from (less poerfully than a Bonk-buffered ball, but not far off - also not reliable enough to use as a ball-elevator).
::In my experience, Yellow-sorting is easy (even against Blue and/or Red) by other means. Green is the easiest to have everything else sorted ''from'' (because it resists the fan method). The hardest to unmix are Reds from Blues, which one might think ''should'' be the most prism-differentiated but I'm afraid I just can't invoke that. Easier to have them fall a long way then bounce off a suitable bit of 'furniture', I can then get them to distribute ''fairly'' distinctly in two handy recepticles/onward-feed-hoppers, though it does need some careful placement of items to do it justice. It appears that none of my designs have made it to the 'public wall', but I have made a submitable machine or two that does such sorting sufficiently successfully to send it out (theoretically) to be seen. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.30|172.70.163.30]] 11:38, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

== Bugs and Exploits ==

You can use a sword to break the physics on the hinge thingy and create your very own "magnetic hill": https://imgur.com/a/IRZ0AlL [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.108|162.158.134.108]] 13:02, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:Hard to tell from that what other fans (perhaps) you've got completely off-clip.
:Those hinge-thingies can definitely be shifted by horizontal (outwith ball-weight pressures), but I've not found them to be reliable components as the "Stop" button (ball reset) seems to let those 'hinges' slring back to level, which might need a re-reset by moving them back past the thing that's holding them off-level.
:I have tried a few things with them:
:*'Ticker' mechanism, almost like a clock escapement, nudged by the rotating 'waterwheel', perhaps to try to release balls through a stream of other balls whilst keeping the path clear of collisions for each set, in turn.
:*'Batch dumper', accumulating a number of balls (above the 'hinge', behind a vertical bulkhead) until there's weight enough to 'open the hatch' and roll them out. (Again, an attempt to reduce collisions, by clumping batches together).
:*Finely configured inclines, by shoving something up into a free end of hinge with better angular resolution (but, as mentioned, this doesn't seem to want to 'hold', so probably would fail upon submission).
:...I had wondered if there was supposed to be a "falling anvil creates a catapult/ballista" idea behind the piece, but we don't ''have'' falling anvils (and definitely not in a repeating manner), and ball-powered catapult (esssentially "clown/acrobat jumps on one end of seesaw, clown/acrobat on other end flies up into the air") also doesn't seem practical.
:I'll try to recreate ''your'' design, work out if there's anything new about it, but right now looks like it's a fan-powered incline-raiser. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.38|172.70.162.38]] 14:23, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:: No fans! Here's a wider view: https://imgur.com/a/xPJcsor
:: It survives the reset, because the balls falling on the lever push it down to the sword and it gets stuck there every time. But you need to place the sword just right to make the gravity bug happen. And even then it depends on the number of balls in some ways. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.243.27|172.68.243.27]] 14:46, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
::: I've replicated the "tip of sword grabs the 'hinge'" thing, which is very interesting, but not the anti-gravity effect. The movement still seems ''to me'' more like a fan's 'area of effect' thing, than a wonky sense of gravity, the way that the balls are rolling/resisting/interacting with each other. No, I can't see where you've 'hidden' the fan (and I'm sure that fans can't act across submission-grid-boundaries, which was my next guess), so it's a bit of a funny thing that you've got there. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.49|172.70.163.49]] 21:35, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

On occasion, two balls will fall from the containers as a pair, as if glued together. When this happens, they float down as if under much lower gravity, and then suddenly explode violently away from each other.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.182|172.69.43.182]] 10:56, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
:What contaniners?? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.252|172.70.110.252]] 14:58, 12 April 2024 (UTC)
::At the bottom of the grid are four containers that the balls are fired in to, from where they drop in to a pit with a boat.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.38|172.70.162.38]] 08:40, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

When the browser is running slowly, sometimes the chamber doors will open, but none of the balls in them will drop, which can lead to huge backlogs of balls building up. However, there appears to then be a limit to how many will dispense in one opening - only half a dozen or so layers are released before the door closes again.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 12:01, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

== The USS Buoyancy ==

Guys. The Buoyancy. She ''floats''. When all four sets of balls reach the ball pit there aren't further additions. The boat starts floating on them. I've been watching it for a while. It seems she moves left and will probably end up escaping the ball pit. [[User:DL Draco Rex|DL Draco Rex]] ([[User talk:DL Draco Rex|talk]]) 20:44, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:Update: A new row spawned in and it reset just before the Buoyancy could escape. Here's a screenshot I grabbed a while before the reset, she'd moved further left by the time the reset occurred. https://imgur.com/gallery/8UCASCu [[User:DL Draco Rex|DL Draco Rex]] ([[User talk:DL Draco Rex|talk]]) 20:51, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Alright, I'm almost 100% of the time seeing Buoyancy sink. Yes, she *floats* at first. But as she drifts to the sides, instead of yellows going underneath, reds and greens pile on top. Then, as the balls under expire (90 second timeout), she will start to sink. Very consistent behavior over time.
[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 19:20, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

What is the Bouaancy i cant find it anywhere??? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.252|172.70.110.252]] 14:58, 12 April 2024 (UTC)
== Added key combinations, found in source ==

ctrl+alt+b
ctrl+shift+option+d
wheel: arrow keys

: Can you clarify what "option" is? I have tried alt, function, and "operating system", and none are doing it.
::It is alt [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.252|172.70.110.252]] 14:58, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

== Fixed Number of Possible Machinelets? ==

I was resetting my browser to try and find new machinelet configurations, but there seem to be fewer and fewer as the game progresses. Hypothesis: the 'under construction' machinelets are set, and once one of them gets approved and added to the grid, that specific configuration of entrances/exits can't show up again.

== Advanced components? ==

How does one get access to the full set of components to build from? I'm only given planks, mallets, swords, scoops, anvils, bricks and fans. I never get any pillows, bumpers, cats, stick figures et cetera. Do they need to be "unlocked" through some achievement, or what? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.102|162.158.222.102]] 11:04, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

:This caught me for a while as well. I have since discovered that the tool box has a scroll bar and can be scrolled down; that's where the others are hiding.
::Invisible scrollbars – every GUI obfuscator's favorite tool for making users' lives harder. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.142|162.158.222.142]] 18:17, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

== Limit of 100 components? ==

Has anyone else seen this? At some point I started getting a count "95 / 100" towards the bottom of the toolbar. When it hits "100 / 100" the rest of the toolbar greys out, and I can't add anything more. (I suppose the physics engine has to keep a ceiling on the number of possible interactions between components.) —[[User:Scs|Scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 11:53, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
:Yes, quite early on I was dealing with a quite simple 'drop from ceiling straight down to floor' setup. After adding just enough 'funnel' to deal with 'splatter', I then built a castle wall in the open space just to make it fun (with some figures on/below it, that I've also tried to decorate in later submissions), of the 'grey blocks'.
:I actually hit the 100/100 ''exactly'' as I placed my final intended block. (No doubt that it's easy to hit the limit by just overlapping things so you can't see most of them, and other 'useless' placement, too...) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.48|172.70.85.48]] 19:57, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

== uss boyancy ==

Why have i not been seeing any uss boyancy [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.122|172.70.110.122]] 14:04, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Haha I dare you to go to https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=7&yt=57 and stare at the two black holes next to eachother >:) [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|Z1mp0st0rz]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 15:27, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

== Build a "working" machine from parts? ==

Has anyone started working on this idea:

Since any given machine segment seems to be saved, even if not in the final result, *and* since these segments are failing when combined in the whole, how about a "really working" machine that starts replacing failing segments when they jam or otherwise fail to work in the real machine?

The idea being something like, start the machine. Watch the top row, and see where the parts are failing to pass balls properly after two minutes. Replace the segments that are failing/jaming/etc, and let the new part process balls.

As you work your way down, over about 2 hours at the current size, you will eventually get a machine that properly sends balls down to the bottom, without jamming, without having to "pretend" that off-screen parts are working.

I mean, it's not like a gigantic, 600 segment machine will overflow memory on modern 32gb systems, nor consume so much power that these big huge CPU's will fail, right?
There is a 100 piece limit sadly
[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 17:41, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
ps.: Why do white holes, black holes, prisms, etc, cause problems on some machines like mine and not others?

== Foreshadowing ==

I think that this Machine comic / game is foreshadowed by comic # 2785 titled Marble Run. {{unsigned ip|172.70.130.120|22:15, 11 April 2024}}

== Implementation? ==

Should we have a section on how this thing is implemented? How much is known? Obviously it's hugely dependent on [https://rapier.rs/ Rapier], as credited in the header text. I assume everything else is written in {{w|Rust (programming language)|Rust}}, too. But how is it deployed? Does Rust compile to {{w|Web Assembly}}, or what? Under Color Routing, our explanation mentions that the ball "values were extracted from the code" — how much of the code is actually visible? —[[User:Scs|Scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 16:39, 12 April 2024 (UTC)
:There are source maps available for the client side. So most of the client source is pretty much there an available. DevTools will load these maps automatically by default, and you can find the ball parameters under incredible/src/components/widgets/Balls.tsx. As for the server, it has a Server header of Warp/3.3.31, a web server used for WAI applications in Haskell. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.44|172.70.114.44]] 13:37, 14 April 2024 (UTC)
::The source is available at https://github.com/xkcd/incredible --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.253.130|172.68.253.130]] 17:58, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

== XKCD Prize ==

I propose the award of "Good Job" trophies for answers to the following weighty questions:

Cells ...

:C1. There is always at least one entry-exit (same color) pair. I have seen up to five pairs. Is there a limit?

:C2. I have never seen a two-color entry or exit, in over 100 tries, but I have seen pictures posted of this case. How rare are they?

Entry points (where balls enter the cell) ...

:E1. The entry rate varies randomly. Is there a limit to the range of time between two balls?

:E2. Some entries produce balls much faster than others, forever. Does this depend on color? Location? Anything else?

Exit points (where balls leave the cell) ...

:X1. At exits there is a display indicating x or check, and a ring meter showing progress towards check. Eating the wrong color reduces the ring score. By how much? Is it the same amount as is gained by eating the correct color?

:X2. The ring countdown starts about 4 seconds after the last ball, and lasts about 10 seconds. Does this ever vary?

Object properties ...

:O1. The pillow clearly absorbs energy. What other objects have variation in bounce, and how much? By sending a stream of green balls at high speed into targets, it can be observed that the brick and the shot glass (outside edge) are more bouncy than the anvil, which in turn is more bouncy than the plank. Are other colors (such as red) affected the same way?

:O2. Does the bounciness of any objects vary over their shape? The head of the mallet seems a little bouncier, but it's hard to set its angle to precisely match other test objects. The shaft of the pivot thing seems to be sticky. The dead edges of the triangle bonkers seem to absorb all inward energy from green balls, but only some energy from red balls.

:O3. Do the bonkers give a constant exit speed, or does it depend on something like the arrival speed or ball color? Does the exit speed replace the entry speed, or are they combined somehow? Like the dead edges (see O2) I suspect the live edge also absorbs inbound energy before it fires, so the outbound energy may be constant, though maybe not for all colors.

Cats ...

:K1. Over what range and direction will the cat swat at a nearby ball?

:K2. Does the cat always add the same amount of energy when swatting a ball?

:K3. Does the cat always add energy in the same direction when swatting a ball? At first glance the direction seems to be random over a range of angles, but this may be due to random entry points, speeds, and directions for the balls, rather than due to randomness by the cat.

:K4. Is there a rate limit for how often the cat will act?

Black holes and Repulsers ...

:B1. At their default size, repulsers are much stronger than black holes. How much stronger?

:B2. How does effect scale with distance? Are black holes inverse-square? What about repulsers?

:B3. Is there frame dragging around black holes? (good luck :)

:B4. At an exit, does the rate of ring decay slow down if a black hole is nearby?

Bonus observation: Black holes have large solid centers. A red ball stuck to a black hole can be seen bouncing off the center.

Spoiler for B1 and part of B2: If five default size black holes and one default size repulser are all placed at the default center, they seem to cancel out exactly, at all distances, though the solid centers still repel direct collisions. So the ratio is 5:1 and the distance equation (whatever it is) seems to be the same for both objects.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.94|162.158.167.94]] 15:53, 14 April 2024 (UTC)

: C1: Current (as of y=70 filled) maximum across the machine is 5 pairs, only occuring 5 times, so I suppose it doesn't go higher. C2: So far there are only three combined gates in the machine, all two-color: one between (3, 8) and (4, 8) and two between (6, 50) and (7, 50). So yes, they are very rare. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.206|172.70.250.206]] 21:38, 14 April 2024 (UTC)

:Re. X1, I'm pretty sure (but don't have evidence, that the answer is 'no - a bad ball reduces it by more than a good ball increases it'. I can also think of an X3 - Does a good ball always increase the counter by the same amount; does this vary by colour or anything else? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.229|172.69.195.229]] 08:47, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

: E1: In the machine there is a value called ms_per_ball. Its value is 1000. Ie, a ball should be spawned every 1 second into the overall machine per entry. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.212|162.158.111.212]] 18:56, 15 April 2024 (UTC)
:: Measuring five random new puzzles, I found most entries deliver 1 ball per second, or almost that much. But I found one green entry that only provided 1 ball every 2 seconds (15 in 30, forever). When I delivered those green balls to the green exit point, I found the ring meter there filled up twice as much per ball consumed. Later I found a red entry that produced only 8 balls in 30 seconds, forever. Those red balls also filled the red exit ring meter much faster than usual. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.17|172.69.134.17]] 12:51, 8 May 2024 (UTC)
: K1: There are 3 collision zones defined for the cat swat: The head, its butt & a zone in front of it ("swat sensor"). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.212|162.158.111.212]] 18:56, 15 April 2024 (UTC)
: K2: Yes. There is in fact a hidden property called catMass. Its value is 2. I am not aware of any machines which submitted a different value. I have submitted my own (sadly not accepted) with stronger cats (a higher catMass value). [https://incredible.xkcd.com/folio/02092fc5-9e23-5468-990e-fba7d67d82c6 Here's an example]. This value is multiplied by 8 and then divided by the minimum of inverse mass of the ball or JS' Number.MIN_VALUE. So to answer your question: yes, it is the same, unless this value got altered (through external methods) and depending on the ball type. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.212|162.158.111.212]] 18:56, 15 April 2024 (UTC)
::I observe the cat imparts the same velocity to yellow balls and to green balls. The green balls weigh about 30x more than the yellow balls, so I think for "same energy" the answer appears to be no.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.28|162.158.167.28]] 15:29, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
: K4: A cat will at the fastest swat every 200 ms. However up to another 400 ms are added by random. So the limit is a range from 200 to 600 ms. (Simplified, there is a period called "baby jail" where the cat has stopped the 'swat' animation but still cannot swat a new ball. This time is included in the previous calculation.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.212|162.158.111.212]] 18:56, 15 April 2024 (UTC)
: C2: After trying well over 200 reloads, I obtained a cell with three entries (inputs) and four exits. One of the entries produces both blue and red balls, at different rates. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.17|172.69.134.17]] 12:47, 8 May 2024 (UTC)
: E1, E2, X1, X2 and X3: The example link posted above regarding K2 is very enlightening. It reveals (in JSON) that entries and exits have assigned speeds called "rate"s (partly addressing E1, E2, X1, X2 and X3). Rates range from at least 0.55 to 0.76 (maybe balls-per-second, and maybe up to 1.0). It also reveals the items we add are "widgets" and they each have names such as "board" and "catswat". Also the entries and exits are called "inputs" and "outputs", and the balls have types including 1 and 2 which probably correspond to colors. Further review of such examples could be used to update and harmonize the main explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.16|172.69.134.16]] 12:53, 8 May 2024 (UTC)

== Submission Rules ==

Has anyone had any luck determining what the rules for submission are? Like many others, I've submitted a few that I've taken painstaking care to get right only to have them disappear after the refresh, never to be seen again. At first I assumed it was first come, first served, with the first submission getting included, but I'm not so sure.

I took a look at the "[https://pastebin.com/jN5MP2za first 42]" versions that someone provided above, and noticed:
* The very first submission, "Pretty Bad" at (0,0) is still there.
* The second submission is "Don't Forget to Switch Your Fans" which is actually (7,0). It's also still there.
* These are followed by "sword" at (2,0) and "Fred" at (1,0), also still there.
* Next is "Pinball Bouncer" which is actually (0,1).
* Next is "undercomplicated". However this is then replaced by "OnlyFans" which is then replaced by "popcorn". "popcorn" appears at (3,0) and is still there.

What caused these to be added, then removed/replaced if it's first come, first served?

I also noticed over the weekend that I was getting assigned blocks that weren't even in the machine yet. I had rows 67 and 68, and the machine was only on row 65.

Also, I did two on row 68, then one on row 67.

None of these got added, which I assume means that someone else completed them before me, BUT that I started before they finished, otherwise I would hope I wouldn't have been assigned one that was already done.

Just now, I created one for a simple red-in, red-out at (7,73). I completed and submitted it. Then I refreshed and hit the edit button a few times and after a few tries I got another red-in, red-out with the input and output at the exact same place. I threw a couple of boards into it and submitted it and it showed it at the exact same spot, (7,73). So I was able to create a new one for the same spot I had already submitted one. I feel like this implied it's not first come, first served, as if so, why would it allow more people to submit for the same spot that someone had already successfully submitted? FWIW, the lowest row on the actual machine at this point is 70. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.54|172.70.134.54]] 15:16, 15 April 2024 (UTC)
:: The criteria is not known yet. But it seems you are supposed to be able to make multiple submissions per specific cell / puzzle type (there is a list of puzzles sent to the client, when you submit one, the server picks a position which fits that puzzle.). Then one seems to be chosen manually for a specific cell. There are times of day when the machine is being updated very often, and other times when nothing happens for a while, indicating it is likely a manual process. When a puzzle is added to the grid, the value `snapshot` is populated under its corresponding /folio/ URL. Otherwise it is null. The submission time does not seem to have an effect on if your machine would be accepted. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.195.183|172.68.195.183]] 18:29, 15 April 2024 (UTC)
:It's not simply the first submission, because then we'd see many more simple solutions. Most of the trivial cells get artistic designs and overcomplicated contraptions, which take longer to build and would have lost to simpler and quicker solutions. It's not always the most elaborate contraption, because there are a few really minimal solutions where surely someone else submitted something more complex. It's often not the most correct solution, because many designs get clogged quickly or lose many balls, and I've seen some good solutions get replaced with ones that mis-sort many more balls. It's not always a bad solution either, because there are some that work really well.
:It's possible that the server collects submissions for a while and then chooses one at random. It's also possible that the selection is manual, or maybe the manual step is just a final approval to ensure that no hate speech or other garbage gets in.

man I love messing with the hinges lol [[Special:Contributions/172.70.54.165|172.70.54.165]] 18:49, 18 April 2024 (UTC)Maxalon

==Is the Machine now 'complete'?==

For the first time, I'm seeing a machine with no 'under construction' cells. Do we think it has now stopped processing new submissions (despite still having the option to build them)? [NB - even with all the bottom row cells providing balls to the chambers, the Bouyancy is still only reaching the side of the pit and then sinking.][[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.146|172.70.91.146]] 11:57, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
:On the contrary, here. I submitted some machines. (Even did a hard-reload of the page, between them, in case I had to 'update' the scripting behind it.) I get my solution placed at the bottom layer (in once case, it had a "chuck across to the ball-bins" pipe, though nothing got sent across to the ball-bin/no activity was happening in the ball-pit and there's no USS Bouyancy floating around, in another, it just went into nothing) but I'm ''surrounded'' (to the sides, and above) with Under Construction Tape machine-cells. In one example, I had to scroll up 19 layers before I hit any actual machines (in another, it was well into the 20s, but I lost count).
:Latest submission was [https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=9&yt=65&v=896 this one], didn't keep a note of the immediately prior ones. Not sure what it looks like from anybody else's perspective. (Nor [https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=9&yt=66&v=896 a] [https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=8&yt=69&v=896 selection] [https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=10&yt=67&v=896 of] [https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=1&yt=72&v=896 those] [https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=1&yt=71&v=896 that] [https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=5&yt=69&v=896 I] [https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=1&yt=72&v=896 noted] previously... And given that there are two "xt=1&yt=72"s in that list, it looks like I later 'redid' a cell anyway, presuming the "v=896" is my constant UID, as it has never changed since I started to note these things.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.139|172.69.79.139]] 23:30, 25 April 2024 (UTC)
:Postscript: "[https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=9&yt=65&v=896 this one]" doesn't even send ''me'' to my own just done machine, when I test it! In fact, I'm fairly sure that the one I was linking had green and red (maybe red) balls that needed 'servicing', not the Blue/Red of the "LBC" cell. If not that, it was green, red and blue, but I think that was the one before the hard-refresh. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.145|162.158.33.145]] 23:36, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

:Definitely still under construction - it's up to version 1233 as of now. I've been keeping an eye on it - you can see a list of all published machines with permalinks on my [https://github.com/scpso/incrediblexkcd github page] and search for the names of machines you've submitted to see if they ever got published, or download the csv if you want. None of mine have been published but I've still had a lot of fun. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.144.154|172.68.144.154]] 13:27, 27 April 2024 (UTC)

:As of May 23 2024 it looks complete - no "under construction" cells (except during page load). I also notice that the new blank machines on offer for solving have become simpler. Most have only one or two pairs of inputs/outputs now; rarely three. When the page was new it was possible to get four or even five pairs. BTW many of the submissions are very clever, so congrats to those who were chosen. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.116|172.71.158.116]] 20:03, 23 May 2024 (UTC)
::Nope, it's still going. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.204|172.69.59.204]] 23:35, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
::Maybe the reduction in input/output counts is intentional, to assist in fitting accepted submissions into the machine. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.56|172.69.22.56]] 14:44, 27 May 2024 (UTC)
:::I believe it might be complete now. I just submitted one and it replaced one of the existing cells not near the end of the machine. There are no "under construction" cells. [[User:InTheSky|InTheSky]] ([[User talk:InTheSky|talk]]) 09:09, 28 May 2024 (UTC)
::::Just yesterday, I had "construction all the way round" my submission (well, left, right, I was not on the bottom layer and the cell above had yellow tape; did not scroll to see diagonals/further), but I can't test the situation ''right now'', so it might have changed. But I am so used to entries being within a mass of 'taped off' neighbours (and not yet, SFAIK, had a permanent entry into the recurring composite 'board' that lasted beyond the period of submission). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.18|172.70.162.18]] 10:09, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

:Getting the machine layout in a JSON form (see above) always revealed a sructure with 128 rows, gradually filling up from version to version. I assume the complete version would have 128 rows filled. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.187|172.70.246.187]] 07:54, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
:: Guess you were right, you can no longer play the game, just see the grid. Which is sad. I would still like to play if I had an idea, even without submitting [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 00:31, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

== Balls have spin ==

This is subtle, and hard to see because the balls no visible texture: The balls carry spin. It can be seen, with effort, using green balls (which are heaviest). Rolling down a slope (say, two boards), green balls accumulate spin in the direction they are rolling. Let them drop off the end and then bounce off a brick such that they travel upward, but with very little sideways motion. Then "catch" the balls with a brick just past their apex, when they are moving slowly. If the ball lands on a horizontal brick, it can be seen that the ball will suddenly accelerate left or right based on the spin. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.155.18|172.71.155.18]] 15:17, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

== Stacking Objects ==

Stacking certain objects seems to stack their effects. For instance, enough Fans placed directly on top of each other are strong enough to redirect even green balls in mid-flight.

Multiple Bonks create a more powerful bounce, sometimes fast enough to make the ball seem to disappear briefly. These effects can be useful in overcoming certain restrictions and difficulties, or just for the joy of watching balls rocket around.

Stacking moving objects like Hinged Hooks and Wheels creates a completely different effect. Multiple hooks of either handedness - left or right - will lock together and then start to rotate slowly or swing wildly, together or separately, in both directions. Even when the hooks are moving slowly, balls that interact with them will sometime either rocket away or stick to them with a gravitation effect.

Combining left and right hooks has similar effects, but more than 4-6 of either hook will typically slow the animation, and eventually freeze it completely.

More Wheels can be stacked than hooks, with numbers in the dozens still allowing the animation to proceed. They will act in a similar fashion, sometimes locking and sometimes spinning wildly. Balls that strike them will be projected away at high speed, sometimes disappearing, or reappearing in a different section (a round Bonk will often flash briefly with no visible interaction).

Other interaction include sucking the ball into the interior of the wheel, where it sometimes disappears, or clinging to the surface like a gravitational attraction. The more Wheels, the more likely that the ball will simply disappear.

These techniques create interesting chaotic environments in the cell, but make it difficult to meet the ball feed requirements for submission. With multiple inputs it becomes effectively impossible. One work around is to separate streams for the balls at the source, protecting one stream to feed it into the output while allowing the rest to interact with the chaotic object. This is easiest with a single input at the top of the cell, but is still possible with one or more side inputs, depending on the location of the outputs.

The easiest way to stack hooks is to leave them at the spawn point and spawn more on top. Moving hooks and stacking them manually makes it hard to realign them perfectly to get the chaotic interaction, although they will still interact in unexpected ways. Wheels however can be effectively moved and stacked manually.

Adding another object on top may freeze the movement if the object is large large enough. A brick or a round Bonk will not significantly affect the Wheel, nor will a Black Hole or Repulser, but a Board, which extends beyond the Wheel, will lock it in place. The chaotic effects remain even when the wheels aren't moving - the balls seem to react as if they were spinning at high RPMs. [[User:Yusagi Yojimbo|Yusagi Yojimbo]] ([[User talk:Yusagi Yojimbo|talk]]) 17:22, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

== Wheel/Fan page crash ==

If you place a fan close to a wheel, such that the middle of the fan is about in line with the bottom edge of the lower wheel blade, and the fan blades are just barely touching the wheel blade, then the wheel accelerates apparently without bound. Eventually any ball that touches the wheel simply disappears from the page. Around 20 seconds later (as the wheel continues to accelerate apparently) the page crashes upon the next ball impact, with a javascript error:

<pre>Uncaught RuntimeError: unreachable executed
stepWithEvents rapier_wasm2d_bg.js:2726
step physics_pipeline.js:16
step world.js:111</pre>

At that point you lose your creation, which sadly I learned the hard way. This is fairly easy to reproduce. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.206|172.71.166.206]] 01:23, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

I can't seem to get this to work. It could be because I'm dumb, though. That happens sometimes. [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 00:00, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

https://imgur.com/a/EhzlbCV --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.26.74|172.68.26.74]] 13:48, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

== Another glitch ==

Some pairs, like "xt=6&yt=124" and "xt=7&yt=124" cause a glitch. It is not related to the machine, for it is consistent for me (Fx 126.0.1, Windows 11). Does anyone else have these issues? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.11|172.70.34.11]] 19:02, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

2174: First News Memory

2024-06-07T09:44:40Z

172.70.162.185: Undo revision 343973 by 172.70.162.185 (talk) Not even a paraphrase of the first paragraph of the wikilink. One who needs to know more is already going to find that out, to the word...

{{comic
| number = 2174
| date = July 10, 2019
| title = First News Memory
| image = first_news_memory.png
| titletext = Psychology researchers say our 'flashbulb' memories of big events can be unreliable, but I clearly remember watching live on CNN as Challenger crashed into and destroyed the Berlin Wall.
}}

==Explanation==

Seven xkcd characters are discussing their "first news memory", their first memory of an event that was reported by the news media. Typically, very young children are unaware of even major news events. At some period in childhood, a news event will be significant and widely covered enough that the child will notice and remember it. Which specific event this is impacted by the person's age, where they live, and how prominently the news is featured in their homes and surroundings.

In the first panel, [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] report that they remember the {{w|1988 United States presidential election|1988 US presidential election}} and the {{w|Berlin_Wall#Fall_of_the_Berlin_Wall|the removal of the Berlin wall}} in 1989 respectively. These are normal 'firsts' for Americans born in the early 1980s, as both of these events dominated media coverage at the time when people of that age would first be old enough to notice and remember it.

[[Hairy]] then recalls watching the {{w|Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|''Challenger'' explosion}} in school. A number of schools in the United States showed the footage of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' being launched, only to be shocked when the rocket exploded shortly after take-off. This would indeed have been a formative memory for the many students who saw it live, but Hairy subverts this expectation by clarifying that he saw it in 1995, nearly a decade after the explosion. He mentions that his teacher was fired soon after, presumably for deliberately exposing young students to a traumatic event without a good reason.

[[White Hat]] says that his first news memory was about the 2016 election (presumably the {{w|2016 United States presidential election|2016 US presidential election}}), which is only three years prior to the publication date of this comic. As he is in his 30's the fact that he can't remember any earlier news events surprises his friends, as he apparently was entirely unaware news events for most of his life.

The final memory comes from [[Black Hat]], who says he remembers "when we landed on the moon". This implies that he's talking about the first {{w|moon landing}}, which occurred on July 20, 1969, and that "we" refers to the United States (which launched the mission in question). For people who where children in the 1960's, having the first moon landing as a memory is quite common.

Black Hat subverts this interpretation by saying 'my second memory is my mom telling us we were moving to Earth instead, to blend in with the humans.' This completely re-interprets his first sentence, as it suggests that the "we" refers to himself and his family actually landing on the moon. It also implies that he's an alien who landed on the moon as a stopping point before relocating to earth. [[Hairbun]] remarks that this revelation "explains a lot", implying that Black Hat's fundamental disregard for normal standards of human behavior make more sense if he is, in fact, not human. Of course, it's equally valid to conclude that Black Hat is simply lying to mess with the people around him, which would be fully in character for him. This could also mean that Black Hat and White Hat are brothers, and thus, since it is unclear when they landed, it's possible the election was the first news episode White Hat ever watched.

===Title Text===
The title text gives [http://theconversation.com/flashbulb-memories-of-dramatic-events-arent-as-accurate-as-believed-64838 the claim] that {{w|Flashbulb memory|flashbulb memories}} of big events can be unreliable. Randall (or another character in the comic, possibly Hairbun or Black Hat, who would want to spread misinformation) denies this claim, claiming to remember watching on CNN as the ''Challenger'' spacecraft crashed into the Berlin Wall. This is an inaccurate memory of these two events, as the ''Challenger'' explosion occurred in 1986 over the Atlantic Ocean, just east of Cape Canaveral, Florida, and did not occur near the Berlin Wall (in Berlin, Germany). Also, the Berlin Wall was intentionally demolished starting in 1989; it was not damaged by a space shuttle.{{Citation needed}} It is possible that this memory also conflates those events with those of the {{w|September 11 attacks}} since the latter ''did'' involve three winged craft crashing into and destroying landmark structures.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, Hairy, White Hat, Black Hat and Hairbun are all at a party, discussing their earliest news memories.]

:[Panel with Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, and Hairy]
:Ponytail: What's your first news memory?
:Cueball: I always like this question! Mine was the 1988 election.
:Megan: Berlin wall for me. You?

:[Frame-less panel with Megan, Hairy, White Hat, and Black Hat]
:Hairy: Watching the ''Challenger'' launch in class. We were so excited; everyone was horrified when it blew up.
:Hairy: It was 1995.
:Hairy: Our teacher got fired soon after.

:[Panel with Hairy, White Hat, Black Hat, and Hairbun]
:White Hat: Mine's the 2016 election.
:Hairbun: ...aren't you in your 30's?
:White Hat: Look, we're not all great about keeping up with the news, OK?

:[Panel with White Hat, Black Hat, and Hairbun]
:Black Hat: My first memory is when we landed on the moon.
:Black Hat: My second memory is my mom telling us we were moving to Earth instead, to blend in with the humans.
:Hairbun: This explains a lot.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]

2174: First News Memory

2024-06-07T09:05:40Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2174
| date = July 10, 2019
| title = First News Memory
| image = first_news_memory.png
| titletext = Psychology researchers say our 'flashbulb' memories of big events can be unreliable, but I clearly remember watching live on CNN as Challenger crashed into and destroyed the Berlin Wall.
}}

==Explanation==

Seven xkcd characters are discussing their "first news memory", their first memory of an event that was reported by the news media. Typically, very young children are unaware of even major news events. At some period in childhood, a news event will be significant and widely covered enough that the child will notice and remember it. Which specific event this is impacted by the person's age, where they live, and how prominently the news is featured in their homes and surroundings.

In the first panel, [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] report that they remember the {{w|1988 United States presidential election|1988 US presidential election}} and the {{w|Berlin_Wall#Fall_of_the_Berlin_Wall|the removal of the Berlin wall}} in 1989 respectively. These are normal 'firsts' for Americans born in the early 1980s, as both of these events dominated media coverage at the time when people of that age would first be old enough to notice and remember it.

[[Hairy]] then recalls watching the {{w|Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|''Challenger'' explosion}} in school. A number of schools in the United States showed the footage of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' being launched, only to be shocked when the rocket exploded shortly after take-off. This would indeed have been a formative memory for the many students who saw it live, but Hairy subverts this expectation by clarifying that he saw it in 1995, nearly a decade after the explosion. He mentions that his teacher was fired soon after, presumably for deliberately exposing young students to a traumatic event without a good reason.

[[White Hat]] says that his first news memory was about the 2016 election (presumably the {{w|2016 United States presidential election|2016 US presidential election}}), which is only three years prior to the publication date of this comic. As he is in his 30's the fact that he can't remember any earlier news events surprises his friends, as he apparently was entirely unaware news events for most of his life.

The final memory comes from [[Black Hat]], who says he remembers "when we landed on the moon". This implies that he's talking about the first {{w|moon landing}}, which occurred on July 20, 1969, and that "we" refers to the United States (which launched the mission in question). For people who where children in the 1960's, having the first moon landing as a memory is quite common.

Black Hat subverts this interpretation by saying 'my second memory is my mom telling us we were moving to Earth instead, to blend in with the humans.' This completely re-interprets his first sentence, as it suggests that the "we" refers to himself and his family actually landing on the moon. It also implies that he's an alien who landed on the moon as a stopping point before relocating to earth. [[Hairbun]] remarks that this revelation "explains a lot", implying that Black Hat's fundamental disregard for normal standards of human behavior make more sense if he is, in fact, not human. Of course, it's equally valid to conclude that Black Hat is simply lying to mess with the people around him, which would be fully in character for him. This could also mean that Black Hat and White Hat are brothers, and thus, since it is unclear when they landed, it's possible the election was the first news episode White Hat ever watched.

===Title Text===
The title text gives [http://theconversation.com/flashbulb-memories-of-dramatic-events-arent-as-accurate-as-believed-64838 the claim] that {{w|Flashbulb memory|flashbulb memories}} (vivid, long-lasting memories about a surprising or shocking event that has happened in the past) of big events can be unreliable. Randall (or another character in the comic, possibly Hairbun or Black Hat, who would want to spread misinformation) denies this claim, claiming to remember watching on CNN as the ''Challenger'' spacecraft crashed into the Berlin Wall. This is an inaccurate memory of these two events, as the ''Challenger'' explosion occurred in 1986 over the Atlantic Ocean, just east of Cape Canaveral, Florida, and did not occur near the Berlin Wall (in Berlin, Germany). Also, the Berlin Wall was intentionally demolished starting in 1989; it was not damaged by a space shuttle.{{Citation needed}} It is possible that this memory also conflates those events with those of the {{w|September 11 attacks}} since the latter ''did'' involve three winged craft crashing into and destroying landmark structures.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, Hairy, White Hat, Black Hat and Hairbun are all at a party, discussing their earliest news memories.]

:[Panel with Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, and Hairy]
:Ponytail: What's your first news memory?
:Cueball: I always like this question! Mine was the 1988 election.
:Megan: Berlin wall for me. You?

:[Frame-less panel with Megan, Hairy, White Hat, and Black Hat]
:Hairy: Watching the ''Challenger'' launch in class. We were so excited; everyone was horrified when it blew up.
:Hairy: It was 1995.
:Hairy: Our teacher got fired soon after.

:[Panel with Hairy, White Hat, Black Hat, and Hairbun]
:White Hat: Mine's the 2016 election.
:Hairbun: ...aren't you in your 30's?
:White Hat: Look, we're not all great about keeping up with the news, OK?

:[Panel with White Hat, Black Hat, and Hairbun]
:Black Hat: My first memory is when we landed on the moon.
:Black Hat: My second memory is my mom telling us we were moving to Earth instead, to blend in with the humans.
:Hairbun: This explains a lot.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]

2940: Modes of Transportation

2024-06-03T11:39:53Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2940
| date = May 31, 2024
| title = Modes of Transportation
| image = modes_of_transportation_2x.png
| imagesize = 510x518px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My bold criticism might anger the hot air balloon people, which would be a real concern if any of them lived along a very narrow line directly upwind of me.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Transportationally convenient but insidiously dangerous robotic car - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Randall's chart compares different modes of transportation by how convenient and dangerous they are. At the top-left (high in convenience and low in danger) are airliners and trains, as these are both fast-moving vehicles on which many millions of dollars have been spent to make them safer. In the top-right, motorcycles are at the same convenience level, but are rated much more dangerous, since they are easy to lose control of at high speeds, and careless drivers (of cars) can easily hit a motorcycle and cause extreme harm. Things like unicycles (bottom-left) are considered much lower on the convenience scale, being not very fast or easy ways to travel, but relatively safe, while towards the centre, skis are apparently moderately convenient and moderately dangerous, since they are relatively easy to fall on if going fast downhill. Way out on their own in the bottom-right, hot air balloons appear to be unique in being rated least on convenience and highest on danger. Presumably, modes of transportation similar to hot air balloons (like zeppelins and blimps) are left off the chart to increase the gap for comedic effect.

Because a hot air balloon is rated so poorly, if an optimization algorithm considers it the optimal mode of transportation, it must be the result of a sign error (e.g. having a minus sign where a plus sign is supposed to be, or vice versa), making the algorithm optimize for the opposite result by mistake. This could be because, unusually, on the y axis of the chart higher is better, whereas on the x axis lower is better. If these were treated the wrong way around, it would result in the air balloon appearing to be the best result. More typically, you might plot convenience vs ''safety'', so that a higher value on either axis would represent a better result. However, both measures are still likely to need to take underlying data (for safety, incident counts, etc.; for convenience, travel time, etc.) and invert them, leading to potential for errors.

In order to compare the relative danger from each mode of transport, one can look at statistics of fatalities and injuries sustained during each activity. Traditionally this can be reported in fatalities/{{w|Killed_or_Seriously_Injured|KSI}} per mile driven or passenger mile (or other unit of distance), to account for the fact that some modes are used much more than others and make valid comparisons. They may also be reported per capita (but this ignores the relative usage of different modes), or per journey (but this doesn't take into account the fact that different modes typically have different journey lengths and times). All of these are somewhat flawed, since they are really measuring the danger ''to'' users of that mode of transport, both from their own conveyance, and from other sources such as other road users. Since ballooning is not a very common mode of transport, hot air balloon incidents are [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9533500/ correspondingly uncommon], and flights are not routinely monitored or registered, it is difficult to draw strong conclusions from the data for hot air balloons.

The title text makes a joke that if a hot air balloon enthusiast disagrees with the ranking and is angered by it, they may wish to remonstrate or retaliate, but will have a difficult time getting to Randall's house with their preferred mode of transportation, because they are limited to travelling in the direction of the wind. If they chose an alternative form of transport, they would be making his point for him. In reality, hot air balloons have some freedom to choose their direction of travel, since by controlling their altitude they can access different wind directions at different heights. Randall should, therefore, be concerned about hot air balloonists who live within a wedge spanned by the various wind directions accessible on a given day. In principle, if the weather conditions are favorable, this could cover every direction from Randall's house. The phrase "hot air balloon people" is reminiscent of "autogyro people" from the title text of [[1972: Autogyros]].

Curiously, the comic includes most common forms of transport, and a number of less common ones, but omits examples such as buses (a mass transit solution arguably more convenient than trains). It is not clear if this is an error, or a deliberate choice to maintain the comic's layout and presentation.

This is the second comic in a row to feature an algorithm.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Transportation !! Description !! Convenience !! Danger !! Zone
|-
|{{w|Train}}s
|Mass transit on rails
|data-sort-value=""|Very convenient ''if'' scheduled services along established routes are reliable and well suited for your journey. Can carry many people while using relatively little space.
|data-sort-value=""|Travelling on dedicated tracks allows the environment to be controlled and separation from other traffic, resulting in high levels of safety. Incidents can affect many people at once, but are comparatively rare.
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Airliner}}s
|Mass transit aircraft As long as there are convenient airports, and operators. Air travel is ''very'' safe, accounting for the number of miles traveled and passengers carried. (Accidents can be catastrophic both to the passengers/crew and potentially anybody on the ground, however.)
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Car}}s
|Motorised road vehicle Most common method of long distance travel used to get anywhere from a mile to 200 miles. It is mostly safe (for those ''inside'' the car), since many safety features have gradually been introduced, either as the result of regulation, or as selling features.
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|Scooters
|Either: 
*{{w|Kick scooter}} - ...
*{{w|Motorized scooter|Engine-powered scooter}} - ...
*{{w|Scooter (motorcycle)|Low powered motorbike/moped}} - ...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Bicycle}}s
|Human-powered (or {{w|Electric bicycle|mostly so}}) two-wheeled road vehicle ...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Boat}}s
|Watercraft of various types ...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Walking}}
|Personal bipedal ambulation 
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Motorcycle}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Helicopter}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Light aircraft}}
|In the United States, the general category of [https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/design_approvals/small_airplanes/categories small aircraft] covers a variety of aircraft certified to weigh 19,000 pounds (8618 kg) or less at takeoff. Maximum allowed weight varies by specific category.
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Go-kart}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Skateboard}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Inline skates|Rollerblades}}
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Ski}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Unicycle}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|Can be a [https://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/24351890.wellington-teen-circumnavigates-globe-unicycle/ practical form of transport] for skilled riders, but similar limitations in range to bicycles.
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Sled}}s
|
|data-sort-value=""|Useful in limited conditions which other forms of transport might struggle to cope with.
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Bumper Cars}}
|
|data-sort-value=""|Only really convenient for making ''very'' short journeys.
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Hot Air Balloon}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|?????
|}

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

:[A chart is shown, where the Y axis is labeled "Convenient for travel" and has an arrow pointing up and the X axis is labeled "Dangerous" and has an arrow pointing right.]
:[The following modes are shown in the "Zone of practicality" (a large irregular area fitting in to the top left corner of the chart), highlighted with a gray background, starting with the first few bunched at highest convenience, :]
:Trains [very convenient, very safe]
:Airliners
:Cars
:Scooters [the most dangerous of this set, at medium-low danger]
:Bicycles
:Boats [medium-high convenience, a slight amount of danger]
:Walking [the least convienient, at roughly half, and lowest danger of this set]
:[The following modes are shown in the "Zone of specialty and recreational vehicles" (a large irregular swathe from the top right to the bottom left, not quite touching the prior zone), highlighted with a gray background, the nodes spread in rough order from high convenience/danger to low convenience/danger:]
:Motorcycles [highly convenient, nearly maximum danger]
:Helicopters [not quite fully convenient, most danger]
:Light aircraft
:Go karts
:Skateboards
:Rollerblades
:Skis
:Unicycles
:Sleds
:Bumper cars [lowest convenience and lowest danger item]
:[The following is labeled "?????" (in the bottom right corner), and has a gray background all to itself in a small blob notably distant from the nearest other group:]
:Hot air balloons [placed as almost the least convenient and most dangerous, of all labels]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Hot air balloons are the optimal mode of transportation, if your optimization algorithm has a sign error.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]

1457: Feedback

2024-06-03T10:48:40Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */ punc, and nonredirected template, if you must have this here...

{{comic
| number = 1457
| date = December 8, 2014
| title = Feedback
| image = feedback.png
| titletext = A new study finds that if you give rats a cell phone and a lever they can push to improve the signal, the rats will chew on the cell phone until it breaks and your research supervisors will start to ask some questions about your grant money.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a joke about the psychological theory that animals conditioned using seemingly random rewards and punishments promotes superstitious behavior, and then extrapolates this theory to humans and Wi-Fi or (more likely) Cellular signal integrity.

Often when connecting to unfamiliar Wi-Fi networks or when in a poorly covered area of a cell network, the signal displayed by the connecting device varies wildly, especially as distance increases. Poor wireless signal and drops in connection can be extremely frustrating, and hence [[Cueball]] has likely tried a variety of methods to improve the signal. As a result of his desperation, he replicates scenarios that are unlikely methods to increase his signal, but in some way mirror conditions where he has been successful finding a signal in the past. His past conditions have somehow led him to having the superstition that holding a pineapple while standing on top of a chair may resolve the problem. Likely, the signal increased at random while he was standing on a chair holding the pineapple, and he erroneously concluded that the chair and pineapple ''caused'' the signal strength increase. It is almost inconceivable that this technique could have any positive effect on the signal. This is related to the idea in comic [[552: Correlation]]. See also the much later [[2259: Networking Problems]].

[[Megan]] questions his ridiculous behavior, but it seems Cueball has become extremely erratic due to the inconsistent signal strength.

The title text refers to a fictive study that apparently examined the behavior of rats in response to signal strength on a cellphone. It is a reference to {{w|B. F. Skinner}}'s [[#Skinner's real experiment|experiments]]. In these experiments, rats and, more frequently cited, pigeons are taught superstitious behavior by being rewarded at random intervals. In this new experiment the rats naturally could not understand the concept of signal strength,{{Citation needed}} so they chewed up the cellphone till they broke, leading to the research supervisors questioning the validity of the study and questioning whether the grant money for the study was well used.

===Skinner's real experiment===
Skinner placed a series of hungry pigeons in a cage attached to an automatic mechanism that delivered food to the pigeon "at regular intervals with no reference whatsoever to the bird's behavior." He discovered that the pigeons associated the delivery of the food with whatever chance actions they had been performing as it was delivered, and that they subsequently continued to perform these same actions.

One bird was conditioned to turn counter-clockwise about the cage, making two or three turns between reinforcements. Another repeatedly thrust its head into one of the upper corners of the cage. A third developed a 'tossing' response, as if placing its head beneath an invisible bar and lifting it repeatedly. Two birds developed a pendulum motion of the head and body, in which the head was extended forward and swung from right to left with a sharp movement followed by a somewhat slower return. Skinner suggested that the pigeons behaved as if they were influencing the automatic mechanism with their "rituals" and that this experiment shed light on human behavior.

See this [https://youtu.be/BR-eMMCp7tg Mind Field episode] where this experiment has been performed on humans!

==Transcript==
:[Megan is looking up at Cueball who is standing on a chair facing away from her. He is holding a pineapple at breast height in his right hand while he is looking up at his smartphone, which he is holding up above head height in his left hand.]
:Megan: Why are you standing on a chair holding a pineapple?
:Cueball: '''''I wasn't getting good reception but now I am!'''''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The erratic feedback from a randomly-varying wireless signal can make you crazy.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Phones]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]

Talk:2939: Complexity Analysis

2024-05-30T17:05:46Z

172.70.162.185:

2939: Complexity Analysis

2024-05-30T07:46:36Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2939
| date = May 29, 2024
| title = Complexity Analysis
| image = complexity_analysis_2x.png
| imagesize = 430x361px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = PERPETUALLY OPTIMISTIC CASE: Early in the execution, our research group makes a breakthrough on proving P=NP.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PERPETUALLY OPTIMISTIC BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is teaching about an algorithm's complexity. The average-case runtime of the algorithm is written as O(n log n), in {{w|Big O notation}}, expressing the asymptotic runtime of the algorithm as the number of inputs to it grows larger and larger. This is an error by [[Randall]] (or Cueball), as Big-O notation represents only the worst-case, not average-case time complexity.

The "best case" for an algorithm is typically its runtime when its inputs have optimal values and it runs in as little time as possible. The joke here is that not only does it run quicker than this by being terminated early because it's 'unnecessary', but its runtime is actually an hour shorter still because of an act of Congress changing daylight saving time, potentially giving it ''negative'' 'runtime'. [[:Category:Daylight saving time|Daylight saving time]] is a recurrent theme on xkcd, and it is clear that Randall is not a fan, so Congress making surprise DST changes is another way for Randall to mock the concept.

The "worst case" refers to the movie {{w|Groundhog Day (movie)|Groundhog Day}}, in which the same events occur over and over in a sort of time loop. And thus if the hardware running the algorithm is stuck in this kind of loop that resets to a previous time before it ever gets finished then the algorithm would never terminate. In the movie we must expect that the whole world is reset after every day, and not just the city where the movie takes place. But if it is just a town outside the rest of the world, where you can still connect to their hardware from outside, then this situation could arise. For those in the town, the algorithm never uses much time, since they do not experience the reset of the day. That was only the main character who lived the same day over and over. For all other in the movie it was their first time living that day, every day. And if the main character did nothing everyone else would have the same day over and over.

This may be an indirect reference to the {{w|halting problem}}, a famous problem in computer science of determining whether a given algorithm will ever halt. The halting problem is {{w|undecidable}}, meaning that there is no general algorithm that can tell whether a given algorithm will halt. The movie has been referenced before in [[1076|1076: Groundhog Day]].

The title text refers to perhaps an even more famous problem in computer science, {{w|P versus NP problem|P versus NP}}. This asks whether every problem whose solution can be quickly verified (in nondeterministic polynomial time, {{w|NP_(complexity)|NP}}) can also be quickly solved (in polynomial time, {{w|polynomial time|P}}). The P-versus-NP problem is one of the seven {{w|Millennium Prize Problems}}, and as such has a $1 million prize for its solution. Presumably, the problem discussed here is in NP, so if P=NP, its worst-case runtime would be some polynomial ''O(nk)''. However, P vs. NP is a Millennium Prize Problem for a reason, and most computer scientists expect that P != NP, so hoping for a breakthrough in proving P=NP is "perpetually optimistic".

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a presentation pointer stick, pointing to a table behind him that towers above him. The table has a heading above it and then two columns and three rows. the first column is slim and the second much broader.]
:Results of algorithm complexity analysis:
:{| class="wikitable"
|Average case
|O(n log n)
|-
|Best case
|Algorithm turns out to be unnecessary and is halted, then Congress enacts surprise daylight saving time and we gain an hour
|-
|Worst case
|Town in which hardware is located enters a Groundhog Day scenario, algorithm never terminates
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

2938: Local Group

2024-05-28T16:00:16Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */ ..what I originally started editing to do! But forgot.

{{comic
| number = 2938
| date = May 27, 2024
| title = Local Group
| image = local_group_2x.png
| imagesize = 547x266px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Cosmologists estimate the spaghetti strand to be about 200 septillion calories, though it could be higher depending on the nutritional value of dark matter.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COSMIC SPAGHETTI BOWL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In {{w|Timeline_of_the_far_future|less than 5 billion years}} into the future, the {{w|Andromeda Galaxy}} is expected to {{w|Andromeda–Milky Way collision|collide}} with the {{w|Milky Way}}. This comic suggests this will happen when both galaxies get into a kissing distance after having slurped the same cosmic spaghetti strand.

This is a spoof of a famous scene in the movie ''{{w|Lady and the Tramp}}'', where the titular dogs are eating spaghetti in an Italian restaurant. They happen to be eating the same strand from opposite ends, so they end up meeting in the middle and kissing. This scene has been mentioned before in [[2612: Lightsabers]].

The spaghetti strand may be a reference to a {{w|galaxy filament}}, although those are much larger structures than the {{w|Local Group}}.

It's possible that this is also a reference to {{w|Flying_Spaghetti_Monster|Pastafarianism}}, the spoof religion which claims that the universe might have been created by a "flying spaghetti monster". If both galaxies are eating one of the deity's "noodly appendages" they may be doing what the monster wishes, since one of the religion's holidays is about eating lots of pasta.

The title text figure of 200 septillion (2×1026) calories for the Milky Way-Andromeda noodle equates to approximately 2500 calories per foot of noodle. This value makes sense only if Randall is referring to the physics/chemistry "small" {{w|calorie}} (= 4.184 joules) rather than the dietary "large" calorie (= 4184 joules). Dietary calories, also labelled as kilocalories (kcal) in parts of the world, would be the usual usage in a food-related context like this one, but Randall was trained as a physicist and apparently used the small calorie here. Having 2.5 dietary calories per foot is roughly correct for a noodle size between thin spaghetti and angel hair pasta. It could also be implying an unusually thick noodle.

The nutritional value of dark matter refers to the fact that evidence of 'dark matter' is particularly found in [https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11224 cosmic filaments] and the [https://www.space.com/dark-matter-detected-cosmic-web-filaments-universe-evolution-subaru-telescope cosmic web], implying that such "cosmic spaghetti" would have an appreciable amount of dark matter "sauce" on it. But, because the exact nature of dark matter is unknown, it is likely even more difficult to identify the calorific content that it might provide.

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

:[Two galaxies, positioned on the left and right sides of the panel, are each eating a single noodle of spaghetti, originating from a bowl of spaghetti in between them.]
:[Left galaxy:] ''Sluuurp''
:[Right galaxy:] ''Sluuurp''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Astronomers have determined that the Milky Way and Andromeda are currently slurping up the same strand of cosmic spaghetti, suggesting that in 5 billion years they will likely kiss.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]

Talk:439: Thinking Ahead

2024-05-27T16:39:34Z

172.70.162.185:

I don't think the girl pictured is Megan, it seems to me that it's another girl and he is conflicted about talking to her because of unresolved feelings with Megan, which may come back to bite him if he doesn't explore them fully before becoming committed to another. Due to the beginning of the description it seems like this is just a silly mistake.{{unsigned ip|50.198.145.13}}
:It's fixed, and look at the trivia.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:24, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
::Where is this original transcript that I have seen people mention several times?[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 05:40, 12 June 2014 (UTC)
:::I believe it might be xkcd volume 0? --[[User:Flewk|flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 17:47, 28 December 2015 (UTC)
On to the actual problem mentioned in the article (i.e. Thinking Ahead), it's a common issue with intelligent guys who spend a lot of time thinking to start imagining all the ways a relationship could go wrong before it even starts. ([http://www.sosuave.com/romance/david/art61.htm "Why Very Intelligent Men Fail With Women, Reason #4: They psych themselves out"]) [[User:Donny2112|Donny2112]] ([[User talk:Donny2112|talk]]) 02:08, 3 July 2016 (UTC)
:sorry, non-native speaker here. Free to mock me, but I had a hard time understanding “I’m moving in the fall”. I thought it was some obscure idiom about rushing things and falling in love. Then I got that it probably just means “Next autumn I will move to another town”… right ? Thanks in advance --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.164|162.158.91.164]] 15:03, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
::As a native ''British'' speaker of English, it's one of the many words/phrases that I've had to gradually learn. (The ubiquitousness of Hollywood movies and US import TV shows quickly get one used to much of the strangenesses, but even after forty-odd years I'm occasionally surprised by something.) "Separated by a common language" indeed (see [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/table#Verb table as a verb], items 4 and 5, for polar-opposite uses of such a simple word), and [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeparatedByACommonLanguage if you want to dive down a rabbithole] there are plenty of places that go into examples.
::So, no, I won't mock you. I'm sure your grasp of any given English dialect is far better than my understanding of whatever your native language is. (German? If it is, mein Deutsche ist nicht sehr gut. If not, I'm probably even worse.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.43|172.70.90.43]] 16:56, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
I notice the difference between US and British English here. In England, we would say 'jump out *of* the window', not 'jump out the window'. Just thought it was interesting. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 16:39, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

2936: Exponential Growth

2024-05-24T14:44:32Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2936
| date = May 22, 2024
| title = Exponential Growth
| image = exponential_growth_2x.png
| imagesize = 545x264px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Karpov's construction of a series of increasingly large rice cookers led to a protracted deadlock, but exponential growth won in the end.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an INFINITELY NESTED SET OF RICE COOKERS - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

{{w|Exponential growth}} is the principle that if you keep multiplying a number by a value larger than 1, you will pretty quickly get very large numbers. Even if you start with 1 and simply double it each time, you'll have a 10-digit number after about 30 iterations.

This principle is often illustrated using a story that generally follows the narrative of a king of India (or elsewhere) wishing to thank a man for creating the game of {{w|chess}}, or perhaps some other chess-related service, and asked him to name his own reward. The man asks for a single grain of wheat (or, in some versions, rice) to be placed on the first square of a chessboard, and then for each subsequent square adding twice as many grains as the one before, until {{w|Wheat and chessboard problem|all 64 squares are filled}}. The king grants his strange request and immediately orders one wheat grain to be placed on the board, imagining this to be a trivial gift compared to the vast riches he had expected to be asked for. For the second square two more pieces are placed, and the square after has four pieces (the tale may involve waiting a day between each placing of grains, delaying the unravelling and subsequent outcome of the story). However, by the 20th iteration, there are over 500,000 grains on the board and the king has to dig deep into his supply to continue to pay his dues. On the 24th the king finds he owes more than 8 million grains. By the 32nd, the king finds himself owing over 2 billion grains and has to give up, realising the essential impossibility of the task.

In some versions of the story, the man is executed for embarrassing the king/being over-greedy; in others, he's rewarded for his cleverness; in yet others he becomes king himself as a consequence. There are also other versions that [https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/finnemore_souvenir_programme/episodes/7/5/ subvert the well-known tale] by the king not being so naïve as to fall for the 'trick' played by the creator of the problem.

Since a chessboard contains 64 squares, the final square would contain 263 (approximately 9.2 quintillion) grains. This would be around 600 billion tonnes of wheat (even in modern times, this is more than 750 years of global wheat output). Worse, that's just for the final square – adding up all the squares would require about double that (264-1 which is approximately 18.4 quintillion grains).

Instead of this being a (possibly apocryphal) story, [[Black Hat]] enacts it literally during a game of chess to annoy his opponent into quitting. Black Hat begins describing the metaphor, only to reveal it wasn't a metaphor at all. Black Hat had been playing actual chess games, and tried to force his opponent to resign by burying the chess pieces in rice, as implied by the multiple large sacks bluntly labelled 'rice' on his side of the chessboard. (This is not the first comic to feature large quantities of rice labelled in this manner – in [[1598: Salvage]], a gargantuan tank of rice has simply the word 'rice' written on the side in equally gargantuan capital letters.)

{{w|Garry Kasparov}} is a world renowned Russian chess master. He had the highest {{w|FIDE}} chess rating in the world - one of 2851 points - until {{w|Magnus Carlsen}} surpassed that in 2013 by 31 points. The [https://www.chess.com/openings/Sicilian-Defense-Taimanov-Szen-Kasparov-Gambit Kasparov gambit] is an opening in chess, a variation of the {{w|Sicilian Defense}}.

In 1984–1985 Garry Kasparov played {{w|Anatoly Karpov}} in a 5-month-long 48-game championship tournament which was abandoned. In these matches Kasparov was losing 4-0 with 6 wins being required to win. Kasparov proceeded to draw 35 times before the match was abandoned. The title text implies that Kasparov actually tried this method on Karpov, who attempted to consume all the rice with "increasingly large rice cookers", but eventually couldn't keep up, causing the game to be abandoned in the 5 month period. While this is obviously fictional, it fits with the principle of exponential growth. If exponential growth is unrestricted, it will eventually grow beyond the constraints of anything that could plausibly be built to contain it.

In a 1985 rematch, Kasparov defeated Karpov for the world championship title, which he retained in their next rematch in 1986.

There are several articles in the International Chess Federation (FIDE)'s [https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/LawsOfChess.pdf Laws of Chess] that might prevent Black Hat from winning in this way:
* 7.3 "If a player displaces one or more pieces, he shall re-establish the correct position (...). The arbiter may penalise the player who displaced the pieces."
* 12.1 "The players shall take no action that will bring the game of chess into disrepute."
* 12.6 "It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any manner whatsoever. (...)"

The amount of rice collected on each square of the chess board is listed below. It all sums up to around 400 billion tons (or {{w|tonne}}s, the various distinctions being not so important), taking each grain as weighing approximately 0.02 grams. This is 500 times the annual world production.

The last day, alone, would require 200 billion tons. But the implicit nature of this doubling is that the amount of rice you put on at any stage is exactly equal to the amount of rice already on the board ''plus one extra grain''. So there were around 200 billion tons already, before the last square required a virtually identical additional amount.

* First row:
** a1: 1 grain
** a2: 2 grains
** a3: 4 ...
** a4: 8
** a5: 16
** a6: 32
** a7: 64
** a8: 128
* Second row
** b1: 256
** b2: 512
** b3: 1,024
** b4: 2,048
** b5: 4,096
** b6: 8,192
** b7: 16,384
** b8: 32,768
:
* First of each subsequent row
:
** c1: 65,536 grains (~ 1 kg)
** d1: 16,777,216 (~ 400 kg)
** e1: 4,294,967,296 (~ 100 tons)
** f1: 1,099,511,627,776 (~ 25,000 tons)
** g1: 281,474,976,710,656 (~ 6 million tons)
:
* ...
:
* Eighth row, in detail
** h1: 72,057,594,037,927,936 (~ 1.5 billion tons, more than the 2022 world harvest)
** h2: 144,115,188,075,855,872
** h3: 288,230,376,151,711,744
** h4: 576,460,752,303,423,488
** h5: 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
** h6: 2,305,843,009,213,693,952
** h7: 4,611,686,018,427,387,904
** h8: 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (~ 200 billion tons)

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Wheat_Chessboard_with_line.svg Example on chessboard (SVG diagram)]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Black Hat is talking to Cueball standing next to him, arm raised.]
:Black Hat: Exponential growth is very powerful.

:[Closeup on Black Hat. Next to him is an image of the lower left part of a chessboard. The four leftmost squares in the bottom row have grains of rice on them -- one, two, four, and eight grains respectively.]
:Black Hat: A chessboard has 64 squares.
:Black Hat: Say you put one grain of rice on the first square, then two grains on the second, then four, then eight, doubling each time.

:[Black Hat has emptied a bag of rice on a chessboard. There are two additional bags next to him and a pile of rice already on the table. A small pile of rice is growing at Black Hat's feet. A frustrated Hairy is walking away, fists clenched. On Hairy's side of the chessboard there is a white King and Pawn]
:[Caption above panel, representing Black Hat continuing to speak:]
:If you keep this up, your opponent will resign in frustration.
:It's called Kasparov's Grain Gambit. Nearly impossible to counter.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2936: Exponential Growth

2024-05-23T22:51:21Z

172.70.162.185: /* Explanation */ Tweaks

{{comic
| number = 2936
| date = May 22, 2024
| title = Exponential Growth
| image = exponential_growth_2x.png
| imagesize = 545x264px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Karpov's construction of a series of increasingly large rice cookers led to a protracted deadlock, but exponential growth won in the end.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an INFINITELY NESTED SET OF RICE COOKERS - Please change this comment when editing this page. No mention of the title text yet.}}

{{w|Exponential growth}} is the principle that if you keep multiplying a number by a value larger than 1, you will pretty quickly get very large numbers. Even if you start with 1 and simply double it each time, you'll have a 10-digit number after about 30 iterations.

This principle is often illustrated using a story that generally follows the narrative of a king of India (or elsewhere) wishing to thank a man for creating the game of {{w|chess}}, or perhaps some other chess-related service, and asked him to name his own reward. The man asks for a single grain of wheat (or, in some versions, rice) to be placed on the first square of a chessboard, and then for each subsequent square adding twice as many grains as the one before, until {{w|Wheat and chessboard problem|all 64 squares are filled}}. The king grants his strange request and immediately orders one wheat grain to be placed on the board, imagining this to be a trivial gift compared to the vast riches he had expected to be asked for. For the second square two more pieces are placed, and the square after has four pieces (the tale may involve waiting a day between each placing of grains, delaying the unravelling and subsequent outcome of the story). However, by the 20th iteration, there are over 500,000 grains on the board and the king has to dig deep into his supply to continue to pay his dues. On the 24th the king finds he owes more than 8 million grains. By the 32nd, the king finds himself owing over 2 billion grains and has to give up, realising the essential impossibility of the task.

In some versions of the story, the man is executed for embarrassing the king/being over-greedy; in others, he's rewarded for his cleverness; in yet others he becomes king himself as a consequence. There are also other versions that [https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/finnemore_souvenir_programme/episodes/7/5/ subvert the well-known tale] by the king not being so naïve as to fall for the 'trick' played by the creator of the problem.

Since a chessboard contains 64 squares, the final square would contain 2^63 (approximately 9.2 quintillion) grains. This would be around 600 billion tonnes of wheat (even in modern times, this is more than 750 years of global wheat output). Worse, that's just for the final square – adding up all the squares would require about double that (2^64-1 which is approximately 18.4 quintillion grains).

Instead of this being a (possibly apocryphal) story, [[Black Hat]] enacts it literally during a game of chess to annoy his opponent into quitting. Black Hat begins describing the metaphor, only to reveal it wasn't a metaphor at all. Black Hat had been playing actual chess games, and tried to force his opponent to resign by burying the chess pieces in rice, as implied by the multiple large sacks bluntly labelled 'rice' on his side of the chessboard. (This is not the first comic to feature large quantities of rice labelled in this manner – in [[1598: Salvage]], a gargantuan tank of rice has simply the word 'rice' written on the side in equally gargantuan capital letters.)

{{w|Garry Kasparov}} is a world renowned Russian chess master. He had the highest FIDE chess rating in the world - one of 2851 points - until {{w|Magnus Carlsen}} surpassed that in 2013 by 31 points. The [https://www.chess.com/openings/Sicilian-Defense-Taimanov-Szen-Kasparov-Gambit Kasparov gambit] is an opening move in chess, a variation of the {{w|Sicilian Defense}}.

In 1984-85 Garry Kasparov played {{w|Anatoly Karpov}} in a 5-month-long 48-game championship tournament which was abandoned. In the 1984-85 match Kasparov was losing 4-0 with 6 wins being required to win. Kasparov proceeded to draw 35 times before the match was abandoned.

In a 1985 rematch, Kasparov defeated Karpov for the world championship title, which he retained in their next rematch in 1986.

There are several articles in the International Chess Federation (FIDE)'s [https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/LawsOfChess.pdf Laws of Chess] that might prevent Black Hat from winning in this way:
* 7.3 "If a player displaces one or more pieces, he shall re-establish the correct position (...). The arbiter may penalise the player who displaced the pieces."
* 12.1 "The players shall take no action that will bring the game of chess into disrepute."
* 12.6 "It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any manner whatsoever. (...)"

The amount of rice collected on each square of the chess board is listed below. It all sums up to around 400 billion tons (or {{w|tonne}}s, the various distinctions being not so important), taking each grain as weighing approximately 0.02 grams. This is 500 times the annual world production.

The last day, alone, would require 200 billion tons. But the implicit nature of this doubling is that the amount of rice you put on at any stage is exactly equal to the amount of rice already on the board ''plus one extra grain''. So there were around 200 billion tons already, before the last square required a virtually identical additional amount.

* First row:
** a1: 1 grain
** a2: 2 grains
** a3: 4 ...
** a4: 8
** a5: 16
** a6: 32
** a7: 64
** a8: 128
* Second row
** b1: 256
** b2: 512
** b3: 1,024
** b4: 2,048
** b5: 4,096
** b6: 8,192
** b7: 16,384
** b8: 32,768
:
* First of each subsequent row
:
** c1: 65,536 grains (~ 1 kg)
** d1: 16,777,216 (~ 400 kg)
** e1: 4,294,967,296 (~ 100 tons)
** f1: 1,099,511,627,776 (~ 25,000 tons)
** g1: 281,474,976,710,656 (~ 6 million tons)
:
* ...
:
* Eighth row, in detail
** h1: 72,057,594,037,927,936 (~ 1.5 billion tons, more than the 2022 world harvest)
** h2: 144,115,188,075,855,872
** h3: 288,230,376,151,711,744
** h4: 576,460,752,303,423,488
** h5: 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
** h6: 2,305,843,009,213,693,952
** h7: 4,611,686,018,427,387,904
** h8: 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (~ 200 billion tons)

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Wheat_Chessboard_with_line.svg Example on chessboard (SVG diagram)]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Black Hat is talking to Cueball standing next to him, arm raised.]
:Black Hat: Exponential growth is very powerful.

:[Closeup on Black Hat. Next to him is an image of the lower left part of a chessboard. The four leftmost squares in the bottom row have grains of rice on them -- one, two, four, and eight grains respectively.]
:Black Hat: A chessboard has 64 squares.
:Black Hat: Say you put one grain of rice on the first square, then two grains on the second, then four, then eight, doubling each time.

:[Black Hat has emptied a bag of rice on a chessboard. There are two additional bags next to him and a pile of rice already on the table. A small pile of rice is growing at Black Hat's feet. A frustrated Hairy is walking away, fists clenched. On Hairy's side of the chessboard there is a white King and Pawn]
:[Caption above panel, representing Black Hat continuing to speak:]
:If you keep this up, your opponent will resign in frustration.
:It's called Kasparov's Grain Gambit. Nearly impossible to counter.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
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