explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2794: Alphabet Notes

2023-06-27T09:03:32Z

172.70.162.229:

{{comic
| number = 2794
| date = June 26, 2023
| title = Alphabet Notes
| image = alphabet notes.png
| titletext = Listen, you're very cute, but if you rearrange the alphabet to put U and I together it will RUIN the spacing!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BAD U&I JOKE. Do NOT rearrange the alphabet too soon.}}
This comic is a joke about the {{w|English alphabet}}, a {{w|Latin-script alphabet}} used to write modern English. It is organized around an A to Z alphabet, in black, evenly spaced letters, from left to right. Around it are many red annotations:

#At the top, the vowels are listed. Randall apparently likes how these are spaced. He places a question mark near Y, as it sometimes functions as a vowel but sometimes functions as a consonant as well. Plus he seems to think the last five letters (maybe even six) of the alphabet should have been left out, see below.
#"A" is described favorably as the start.
#Randall considers the early consonants other than "D" to be ok, but rather weak.
#The words "hi" and "no", which both appear uninterrupted when the letters of the English alphabet are listed from A-Z, are highlighted.
#That "ij" (in lowercase) are considered friends might relate to the {{w|IJ (digraph)|Dutch digraph}} or else just the appearance that somewhat resembles two people in a close proximity (at least one figurative limb crossing over to hug or caress the other).
#"Jk" ("just kidding") is an abbreviation originating from instant messaging, as is "LOL" (for "laughing out loud").
#In the standard "{{w|Alphabet song|alphabet song}}" for the US (sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"), most letters occur upon the beat of an easy and sedate tempo. But to scan ''and'' rhyme, the letters L-O are run through at double the tempo, with perhaps P best considered to cross two of the quick beats that end this musical phrase.
#Randall considers the placement of "Q" strange. He may even consider the existence of "Q" strange.
#Randall considers "RST" a strong cluster of consonants. Both "strong" and "cluster" include the letters R, S and T.
#Randall seems to be confused about "VW", it could refer to {{w|Volkswagen}}, or he might wonder why "W" is called "double U" rather than "double V".
#Randall questions whether "X" is even a letter. It is the Roman numeral for 10, though he does not complain about C, D, I, L, M or V in the same way so he is most likely talking of ''x'' as used in algebraic contexts. Alternatively, he could simply be talking about the appearance of the letter "X".
#The comment that the alphabet may have been better if it had stopped at "T" is likely a reference to the fact that {{w|Phoenician alphabet|the original Phoenician script}}, which is the ancestor of many modern scripts including English, had as its last letter {{w|Taw}}, which the modern letter "T" is derived from. It is still the last letter of the modern Hebrew alphabet, although the Greek alphabet added several letters after it, some of which persist into modern English. Randall seems to believe that the Phoenician script was fine as-is and that the letters U-Z are weird and/or unnecessary.

The title text makes a joke about the pick-up line "If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put 'U' and 'I' together.", where the letters "U" and "I" are pronounced like the pronouns "you" and "I". It is such a corny act of flirtation that any recipient of it could easily have a rejection (''or'' a flirty acceptance, if they so wish) ready to respond with in an appropriate vein. As well as reflecting the diagram's noted preference for well-spaced vowels, it might be presumed that anyone (unironically) using the "U and I" line might be left dumbfounded at the rather technical nature of the riposte. This pickup line was also the subject of [[1069: Alphabet]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[A list of the letters of the alphabet, from A to Z, in black]
:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

:[A red line above the letters, with tick marks and their associated vowels at A, E, I, O, and U. Y has a question mark instead of a tick.]
:Love the spacing between the vowels!

:[Red annotations near various letters.]

:A: Strong start!
:BCD, FG: Decent consonants but no real heavy hitters here in the first third ("D" is solid, at least)
:HI: Hi!
::ij: The dotted letters are friends!
:JK: Jk (lol)
:LMNOP: Part that's fun to sing
::Weird how the line between "M" and "N" is the halfway mark.
::They're similar, but "MN" only shows up in fancy words like "mnemonic", "column", "amnesty", and "hymn", significance??
:NO: No
:Q: Why is this ''here?''
:RST: Strong cluster!
:U: Weirdest of the main 5 vowels by far
:VWXYZ: Haunted letters (keep out!!)
:VW: ??
:X: Not sure this is even a letter. Did you include a number by mistake?
::...Listen.
::Maybe we should've stopped at "T".

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Design notes on the alphabet

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]

Talk:2790: Heat Pump

2023-06-19T13:34:29Z

172.70.162.229:

woah! an xkcd with color what was the last one with color? (im kinda new to xkcd) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.122.48|172.71.122.48]] 21:17, 16 June 2023 (UTC)Erfaniom
:I guess the last one with a lot of color was [[2750]]. More at [[:Category:Comics with color]]. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.11|162.158.167.11]] 17:29, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

I suppose color was needed to show the air temperature. Odd, though, that in summer (in the northern hemisphere), the character is trying to increase the indoor temperature. [[User:Davidhbrown|Davidhbrown]] ([[User talk:Davidhbrown|talk]]) 21:27, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
:He's not. He's moving the hot air from inside to the cooler outside. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:18, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
:he's actually heating it, the comic is set in winter. It's a reference to the discussion about regulating heating systems in Germany. I added something about that in the explanation, but I don't think I made the citation right (I'm not to editing wikis) [[User:Marta]] ([[User talk:Marta|talk]]) 05:25, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
::The citation does not appear to strongly relate to the comic to me. I might be curious if Randall had a lot of comics queued and actually published a winter one in the summer, for example. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.112|172.69.59.112]] 00:19, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
:::I agree, I think the Germany thing might probably be coincidental. Randall lives in North-Eastern America. It's unlikely, though quite possible, he was inspired enough by such foreign matters to base a comic on it. Still, you never know from whence inspiration may strike, in which case he published when he thought of it instead of when it'd be relevant... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:40, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
::::News of this had not otherwise reached me over the German Ocean (i.e. North Sea), never mind where Randall is, way over the Pond (i.e. Atlantic). Not saying it wasn't a prominant bit of news, in his media feeds, but usually the problem is that something 'popularly heard about' state-side confuzzles anyone in (say) Europe/ex-Europe when used as inspiration for a comic without enough setup to it. Now, ''if'' say Penn./Mass. state legislature were being similarly proactive on such matters, I'd say it might be the cue for this. Otherwise, it might be better as an afterthough/Trivia instead of the lead-on paragraph. But I also don't know enough to know that it ''isn't'' worthy of such prominance, so this is just my thoughts, leaving others to alter it if they so wish... Anybody can do it, after all... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.96|162.158.74.96]] 09:55, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
::Nearly right. Simple "insert URL" as a 'number' is single []s, or [<url><space>some text] to have it given linking text (preferable).
:::Plus you seem to have not used the four tildes, i.e. <code><nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></code> to sign the above comment (made it correct, for you), plus confusingly replied ''before'' another reply (so I indented you a bit more, as well as it now having that timestamp to make precedence clear).
:::But these are all things you'll pick up, I'm sure, if you're going to be getting [used] to wikis... Welcome! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.139|172.71.178.139]] 05:35, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
::I actully think he's warming the inside, already warmer than outside, by effectively (and literally!) squeezing the heat out of the cooler outdoors air.
::By compressing the cool outdoor air, he increases its temperature (p1v1/t1=p2v2/t2) to warmer than the warm indoor air, creating a squeezebox->room flow of heat energy, then returns to the outside before decompressing and lowering the temperature in his squeezebox below the cool-air temperature in order to create an outdoors->squeezebox flow of energy and repeat. (The comic has the cycle start at roughly half-way through that, and wraps round, but the heat-to-room seemed the most obvious starting place here.)
::Right now, I'd not wish to heat my indoors up (even at 11:30pm, like now), so I agree that it's a funny time of year show heat-adding (rather than heat removing), but it definitely is that. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.154|172.70.86.154]] 22:31, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
:::Assumption(?): Indoors is on the LHS and higher, outdoors on the RHS and lower, door opens outwards and steps down to "outside". He COULD instead be cooling a basement apartment with a door that opens inwards (like mine)... however he seems to make a noticeable difference to the red, not the blue, so... probably not. :-/ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.160|172.70.34.160]] 02:36, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
::: Since panel 3 shows it at its widest and bluest with "Release", I understand that to mean he's releasing the heat outside from inside - like an A/C does. The weird thing is then showing the reddest/smallest with "Radiate", that word means "make and release heat" to me. The thing is, past experience tells me Randall lives in roughly the same part of the world as me, same climate. That he's in the northern states (like, within a day's drive of the Canadian border), and the Eastern time zone, and it's summer for us. Only heat pumping people should want is pumping heat OUT of the house... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:16, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
::::Releasing the spring. At that point, there's the same amount of heat within the device, but it's spread out more so that the temperature is lower (than it was, but also than the surrounding air, which is also ''negligibly'' compressed outwards of course). NB, it does ''not'' draw air into it.
::::Now he has a cool device, heat naturally flows into it until (sufficiently) equalised after a small wait. Take the outside-cool (and expanded) device inside and compress it (it does not expel air!) to have that amount of heat be in a smaller space and thus a higher temperature. High enough to (quite naturally) flow into the room. Thus low-temperature heat taken from outside and used to increase the higher-temperature heat inside, which is different to what happens if you trap and move cold ''air'' into a warm room. Though perhaps it looks like that on first appearance, except for the colour-cues going all screwy. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.96|162.158.74.96]] 09:55, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
::::This all rather assumes that Randall came up with the comic in response to his immediate situation, rather than just musing generally and abstractly on heat pumps and the way they work.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.51|172.71.178.51]] 10:20, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

Wasnt there a "My hobby is to open my refrigerator and when people tell me that doesnt help, I sneak into their house and use their AC?" Comic? I cant find it, but we should link it in the "how leaving a fridge open doesnt help" section [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.158|172.71.142.158]] 23:36, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
:Sounds like Steven Wright, he has lots of those "my hobby is" jokes. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 13:29, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

I think it's talking about leaving the door open in general i.e. forgetting to close it when getting groceries, not specifically when he's moving the heat pump [[User:Firestar233|Firestar233]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|talk]]) 23:40, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

I can't think of a good reason to say this, but my new fridge doesn't warm up on the back. It warms on the sides. A bad (and quite a PITA reason) is I had to get a new fridge. Protip: don't panic, and do put the sacks of ice into something that won't leak. First time I've met a fridge that doesn't warm on the back.
Btw, red hot blue cold. Pink? Light blue? A light blue a pink? Shrug. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.31|172.70.43.31]] 23:57, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

How many trips would this take? I'll leave the exact parameters of the calculation up to you. (Nerd sniping attempt.) ~ Megan she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 00:20, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
: 42. But stick figures are just lines and have no surface area for heat transfer.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.236|172.70.134.236]] 01:02, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Currently, the explanation says you use a heat pump to "transfer heat from a relatively cold area to a relatively hot area". I don't know anything about the named "ideal gas law" in order to be sure enough to change this, but isn't that the wrong way around? If an area is ALREADY cold, why would anybody transfer heat FROM it? 04:49, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
:Let's say it's winter, and it's cold outside. It's warmer inside, but not as warm as you'd like it to be, so you need to warm it up. Where are you going to get the heat from? Traditionally you'd use a boiler to heat up water or electric coils, but these use lots of energy. A heat pump is more efficient, it moves some of the heat from the cold air outside to the inside. You need a pump because it won't move spontaneously -- heat always goes from warmer to colder areas. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 09:49, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
:[edit conflict with the above reply, thus repetition, but as I was adding other stuff too...] It's fridge-logic! i.e., that's what fridges do... and if you're living in a cool climate, you can potentially heat your house above "too cold for indoors" temperatures by extracting heat from the "far too cold for indoors" air that is outside. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.96|162.158.74.96]] 09:55, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Technically, it's not the ''ideal'' gas law in play, since air isn't an ideal gas, and the system would behave similarly for closer-to-reality gas behaviour models. But I can't think of a good way of modifying the article to reflect that. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:04, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Noting you could make hand-crank manual heatpumps that are much easier to use than the one depicted. If it’s doable it’s of meaning because a heatpump can be a big electricity draw, and sometimes electricity is not available. You could also connect a horse, waterwheel, or windmill to it. Making homemade windmills out of bicycle parts is a thing. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.147|172.69.59.147]] 20:03, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
:You can make a [https://hackaday.com/2016/08/25/a-refrigerator-cooled-by-rubber-bands/ rubber band heatpump] which works the exact opposite: rubber bands ''heat'' when stretched and ''cool'' when the force is released. This seems counterintuitive, but stretching is adding entropy (as is compressing a gas) and releasing the tension is bringing the entropy back to normal levels again (as is relasing the gas pressure). [[User:IIVQ|IIVQ]] ([[User talk:IIVQ|talk]]) 05:04, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

Folks seem to be assuming that the red side is "indoors", and the blue side is "outdoors", but in my experience exterior doors tend to swing in, not out. The hinge pins on an outwards-swinging door can more easily be accessed, which makes an out-swinging door a poor choice as an exterior door. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.224|172.70.100.224]] 20:26, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
::But why would you have steps leading up to the door from the inside? [[User:Firestar233|Firestar233]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|talk]]) 21:55, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
:::Many exterior doors open outwards as a matter of safety, especially emergency exits. It's not a big deal if only one or two people are expected to try to exit in event of an emergency, since whoever opens the door can probably take a step backwards to make way for the door. But if there's likely to be crowding at the door, there isn't room for it to swing inwards. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 22:28, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
::::For sure he is trying to heat up his house. And yes many places doors open in, but not always, and specifically not in public buildings for safety as just mentioned. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:34, 19 June 2023 (UTC)
:::::Given his obvious lack of grasp of the impracticality of the solution, maybe he's actually trying to cool down the outside.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.229|172.70.162.229]] 13:34, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

2785: Marble Run

2023-06-07T13:51:45Z

172.70.162.229: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2785
| date = June 5, 2023
| title = Marble Run
| image = marble_run_2x.png
| imagesize = 438x512px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I have so many plans. It would incorporate a Galton board, a Ranque-Hilsch marble vortex tube, and a compartment lined with pinball bouncers with a camera-and-servo Maxwell's Demon that separated the balls into fast and slow sides.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MAXWELL'S DEMON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT roll away this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|Rube Goldberg machine}} is a fancifully complex system (either real or imagined), which makes use of an overly elaborate chain of actions. The name comes from an American cartoonist who was one of those who became famous for depicting convoluted and outlandish processes for accomplishing simple tasks.

There's a long history of people building actual contraptions along these lines. Such devices are almost never intended for practical purposes, but exist entirely for entertainment, and as an exercise in building complex and carefully planned systems. This has become particularly common in the internet age, as videos of particularly interesting examples can gain popularity online. The most common category of these systems is probably the marble run (also known as a {{w|rolling ball sculpture}}), in which the goal of the system is to move one or more balls or marbles from the beginning of the arrangement to the end in interesting ways. This contrasts to the {{w|Domino toppling|domino run}} where motions are transferred by many intermediate pieces painstakingly arranged, although both aspects are commonly combined in such contrivances.

When [[Megan]] tries to show [[Cueball]] an example of such a video, he refuses, not because he lacks interest, but because of how he predicts it will impact him. Cueball (likely as a stand-in for [[Randall]]), has sufficiently strong interest in things like designing, building and engineering complexity that he's certain he will eventually adopt building such systems as a hobby, and that it will dominate his time and attention. Accordingly, he appears to be deliberately delaying his exposure to them so that he can continue to pursue other hobbies, with the assumption that he will eventually succumb to this one. Randall foresees the amount of time he might use if he first began trying to construct his ideas into a marble run.

Megan responds that he knows where he's going, but is taking "a really interesting and circuitous path" to get there. This draws a parallel between the type of systems he's avoiding and his approach to life more generally, which Cueball expands upon by suggesting he would do some of the things a marble typically would in a marble run.

The title text mentions specific ideas Cueball plans to incorporate into such a device.

A {{w|Galton board}} is a device that distributes falling balls into a {{w|normal distribution}}. Its design is similar to those used in {{w|pachinko}}-style games.

A Ranque-Hilsch {{w|Vortex tube}} is a device for separating compressed gas into hot and cold streams. While such a device isn't directly applicable to marbles, one can imagine using the principle to separate a stream of marbles based on speed.

Pinball bouncers are properly supposed to be the {{w|Pinball#Bumpers|Bumpers}} in {{w|Pinball}} machines. In Randall's marble run there will be a compartment where the walls are lined with these bumpers. Supposedly there will be many marbles on the floor of this segment of the run, which will hit these bumpers and get a kick so they will move fast and randomly around the compartment, which is where the Demon comes in.

{{w|Maxwell's Demon}} is a thought experiment by James Clerk Maxwell which would violate the {{w|Second Law of Thermodynamics}}. Maxwell proposed that, if a container of air was separated by a divider, with a door that allowed only one molecule through at a time, and a theoretical "demon" were to control the door to sort high-energy atoms into one side and low-energy atoms into the other, the two sides would develop a temperature difference with no energy input. The problems are many: first of all, how would the door open and close without using energy; and how would the demon gain knowledge of the speed and position of all the molecules, particularly at the same time, in violation of Heisenberg's {{w|uncertainty principle}}?

Randall's version of this apparently involves a large number of marbles bouncing around inside the bouncer-lined compartment, with an automated system to divert the fastest moving marbles into one side, and the slowest moving into the other. As these are macroscopic scales this would not be impossible, just really difficult. It would be interesting to see the result, but if it was possible to construct the device, soon one segment would have slow moving balls and the other lots of fast moving balls.

Knowing Randall and his fans, some might design something using his ideas from this comic.

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

:[Megan is walking towards Cueball and showing her phone. Cueball holds a hand to his face and looks away.]
:Megan: Check out this cool video of a Rube Goldberg marble run.
:Cueball: No! Not yet.

:[Megan has lowered her phone. Cueball has his hand in a fist.]
:Cueball: I've always known I'm doomed to eventually become one of those people who builds elaborate marble runs in their garage.
:Cueball: I can feel the pull.
:Cueball: So satisfying.

:[Close-up on Cueball.]
:Cueball: I just want to do as many other things as I can before I give in and disappear into that world.

:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: So you know where you're going to end up, but you're trying to take a really interesting and circuitous path to get there.
:Cueball: Exactly. Bounce around, maybe go off a few jumps.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

2785: Marble Run

2023-06-07T13:43:06Z

172.70.162.229: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2785
| date = June 5, 2023
| title = Marble Run
| image = marble_run_2x.png
| imagesize = 438x512px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I have so many plans. It would incorporate a Galton board, a Ranque-Hilsch marble vortex tube, and a compartment lined with pinball bouncers with a camera-and-servo Maxwell's Demon that separated the balls into fast and slow sides.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MAXWELL'S DEMON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT roll away this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|Rube Goldberg machine}} is a fancifully complex system (either real or imagined), which makes use of an overly elaborate chain of actions. The name comes from an American cartoonist who was one of those who became famous for depicting convoluted and outlandish processes for accomplishing simple tasks.

There's a long history of people building actual contraptions along these lines. Such devices are almost never intended for practical purposes, but exist entirely for entertainment, and as an exercise in building complex and carefully planned systems. This has become particularly common in the internet age, as videos of particularly interesting examples can gain popularity online. The most common category of these devices is probably the marble run (also known as a {{w|rolling ball sculpture}}), in which the goal of the system is to move one or more balls or marbles from the beginning of the device to the end in interesting ways. This contrasts to the {{w|Domino toppling|domino run}} where motions are transferred by many intermediate pieces painstakingly arranged, although both aspects are commonly combined in such contrivances.

When [[Megan]] tries to show [[Cueball]] an example of such a video, he refuses, not because he lacks interest, but because of how he predicts it will impact him. Cueball (likely as a stand-in for [[Randall]]), has sufficiently strong interest in things like designing, building and engineering complexity that he's certain he will eventually adopt building such devices as a hobby, and that it will dominate his time and attention. Accordingly, he appears to be deliberately delaying his exposure to such devices so that he can continue to pursue other hobbies, with the assumption that he will eventually succumb to this one.

Megan responds that he knows where he's going, but is taking "a really interesting and circuitous path" to get there. This points out the irony that the very avoidance of building Rube Goldberg machines follows the same principle on which such machines work.

The title text mentions specific ideas Cueball plans to incorporate into such a device.

A {{w|Galton board}} is a device that distributes falling balls into a {{w|normal distribution}}. Its design is similar to those used in {{w|pachinko}}-style games.

A Ranque-Hilsch {{w|Vortex tube}} is a device for separating compressed gas into hot and cold streams. While such a device isn't directly applicable to marbles, one can imagine using the principle to separate a stream of marbles based on speed.

Pinball bouncers are properly supposed to be the {{w|Pinball#Bumpers|Bumpers}} in {{w|Pinball}} machines. In Randall's marble run there will be a compartment where the walls are lined with these bumpers. Supposedly there will be many marbles on the floor of this segment of the run, which will hit these bumpers and get a kick so they will move fast and randomly around the compartment, which is where the Demon comes in.

{{w|Maxwell's Demon}} is a thought experiment by James Clerk Maxwell which would violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Maxwell proposed that, if a container of air was separated by a divider, with a door that allowed only one molecule through at a time, and a theoretical "demon" were to control the door to sort high-energy atoms into one side and low energy atoms into the other, the two sides would develop a temperature difference with no energy input. The problems are many: first of all, how would the door open and close without using energy; and how would the demon gain knowledge of the speed and position of all the molecules, particularly at the same time, in violation of Heisenberg's {{w|uncertainty principle}}?

Randall's version of this apparently involves a large number of marbles bouncing around inside the bouncer-lined compartment, with an automated system to divert the fastest moving marbles into one side, and the slowest moving into the other. As these are macroscopic scales this would not be impossible, just really difficult. It would be interesting to see the result, but if it was possible to construct the device, soon one segment would have slow moving balls and the other lots of fast moving balls. Randall foresees the amount of time he might use if he first began trying to construct his ideas into a marble run.

Knowing Randall and his fans, some might design something using his ideas from this comic.

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

:[Megan is walking towards Cueball and showing her phone. Cueball holds a hand to his face and looks away.]
:Megan: Check out this cool video of a Rube Goldberg marble run.
:Cueball: No! Not yet.

:[Megan has lowered her phone. Cueball has his hand in a fist.]
:Cueball: I've always known I'm doomed to eventually become one of those people who builds elaborate marble runs in their garage.
:Cueball: I can feel the pull.
:Cueball: So satisfying.

:[Close-up on Cueball.]
:Cueball: I just want to do as many other things as I can before I give in and disappear into that world.

:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: So you know where you're going to end up, but you're trying to take a really interesting and circuitous path to get there.
:Cueball: Exactly. Bounce around, maybe go off a few jumps.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

Talk:2781: The Six Platonic Solids

2023-05-27T10:46:57Z

172.70.162.229:

Does he know about Homestar Runner? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.137|172.70.131.137]] 06:02, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

Why Jorb? Only thing I can find is [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jorb Jorb on wikitionary] just meaning spelling of bad pronunciation of Job. And yes the episode of Homestar Runner [https://homestarrunner.com/toons/a-jorb-well-done A Jorb Well Done] comes up. Also this episode that is the top meaning of jorb on [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Jorb Urban dictionary]. Would really like there to a better idea than that Plato did a great Jorb making a sixth solid to rule the mathematicians. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:18, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

What if there're much more of them, like a [https://xkcd.com/2657 Ď̩̰odec̭ähedron], but our minds can't properly comprehend their shape?
: There are a bunch of other regular polyhedra besides the Platonic solids. Most notable are the triangular, square, and hexagonal tilings (which are planar and infinite) and the four Kepler-Poinsot polyedra (which are nonconvex). And there are dozens more if you don't require faces to be planar. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.234|172.70.178.234]] 09:44, 27 May 2023 (UTC)
::See https://youtu.be/_hjRvZYkAgA for an overview of every regular polyhedron in Euclidean 3-space. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.40|162.158.146.40]] 09:59, 27 May 2023 (UTC)
I think this is a reference to how the Utah Teapot is nicknamed “the sixth Platonic solid” due to its presence beside real Platonic solids in demonstrations of 33D rendering. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.118.133|172.68.118.133]] 08:52, 27 May 2023 (UTC)
:...yeah, but you need to render that 33D shape on a proper 32D monitor, ideally, because even on a 31D monitor the two different forced perspectives/projections you need to collapse the extra dumensions down tend to look confusing. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.229|172.70.162.229]] 10:46, 27 May 2023 (UTC) *insert winky-face as necessary*

Should we think about Jorb, perhaps, as "J orb," which might lead us to think about (''i'',''j'') coordinates, i.e. notational systems where ''j'' is the square root of minus 1? (blah blah engineering vs. mathematics, what does ''i'' mean, &c., &c., &c.) Maybe not! [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 10:41, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

840: Serious

2023-05-04T07:57:47Z

172.70.162.229:

{{comic
| number = 840
| date = December 29, 2010
| title = Serious
| image = serious.png
| titletext = Not to be confused with Serious PuTTY, the Windows terminal client where everything is in Impact.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a play on words with the child's putty known as "{{w|Silly Putty}}", which is "silly" because it likes to be played with{{citation needed}}. Whereas Serious Putty does not even like to be touched.

As it says in the title text {{w|PuTTY}} is a Windows Terminal client. {{w|Impact (typeface)|Impact}} is a font that is distributed with Windows that is used in the vast majority of "{{w|internet meme|meme}}" image macros, such as {{w|lolcat}} pictures.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing next to a table. There is a can on the table.]

:[The label on the can reads, "Serious Putty".]

:[Cueball is looking at the table again.]

:[He reaches out to touch the can. The can speaks.]
:Can: Don't touch me.

==Trivia==
*[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:LongPages&limit=20&offset=2540| This is the shortest comic explanation] on explainxkcd, as of writing this. This still holds as of 10/22/2022, ignoring the 268 bytes this trivia section occupies.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2600: Rejected Question Categories

2023-04-19T19:23:34Z

172.70.162.229: /* Question categories */ Removed unwarranted supposition from the prior edit (otherwise good)

{{comic
| number = 2600
| date = March 30, 2022
| title = Rejected Question Categories
| image = rejected_question_categories.png
| titletext = You can click to preorder to get a copy of What If? 2 when it comes out 9/13, assuming we all make it past the spider situation(?) on Tuesday(?).
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] recently announced, in [[2575: What If? 2]], that he is publishing a new ''[[what if?]]'' book based on reader-submitted questions. This comic is another [[:Category:Book promotion|promotion]] of the book, and the entire comic is a link to his [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2] page on xkcd.

This comic shows the [[#Question categories|categories of questions]] he claims to have received, but rejected to use in his book, giving an example question for each category. In typical xkcd fashion, these begin out by being plausible, although often unlikely to have been submitted as a ''what if?'' question, moving in to more and more absurd types of questions, especially with the last question, that appears to be a combination of all previous categories and is therefore marked "?????"

The title text refers to the launch date of the book September 13, rendered in the American style 9/13. This format can be confusing to non-Americans, although usually not when the date is larger than 12, since it would then appear to reference the 9th day of the 13th month. This "13th month" was, however, referenced in the first comic about the book: [[2575: What If? 2]]. See also Randall's take on the date format, {{w|ISO 8601}}, in [[1179: ISO 8601]].

Randall then continues the title text by referencing the second to last category with vague ominous questions. The example question here asks if there is need to worry about spiders after Tuesday. So Randall notes that the release date, 5.5 months after the release of this comic, is of course assuming anyone will survive past next Tuesday (2022-04-05).

Tuesday has been notably referenced in [[277: Long Light]], [[564: Crossbows]], [[1099: Tuesdays]] and most notably in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]], where it seems that the last day ever will be a Tuesday. Tuesday is the second day of the week, and notably, the Tuesday of the week following the publication of this cartoon (April 5th, 2022) was the Day of the Spiders.

==Question categories==
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Category'''
|'''Question'''
|'''Explanation'''
|-
| People cheating on homework
| What if I made a pendulum by hanging a rock on a 2.75 meter string? What would its period be in seconds? (Show your work!)
| This appears to be a physics student trying to get out of doing their work by presenting the question for Randall to answer in ''What If'' (which is a common occurrence on question-and-answer sites such as Stack Overflow). Most school homework requires the student to "show their work", i.e. write out their process of solving the question. Making students show their work serves two purposes: it allows students to score partial credit on an incorrect answer if they show the right methodology and basic understanding even if they make a wrong turn along the way; it also prevents students from simply cheating by looking up the right answer without showing how they got that answer — the student including this caveat in their email is a giveaway as to their tactic (along with the boring nature of their inquiry).
|-
| Medical advice
| What if you got a scratch and the next day your hand looked like this [''📎 attachment'']? Should you see a doctor or what?
| Randall is not a physician, is not qualified to give medical advice, and will not answer medical questions. This was a problem on early Wikipedia which, for a time, required all articles covering medical topics to point to a {{w|WP:MEDICAL|Medical Disclaimer}}. This was also an issue covered in the 1st ''what if?'' book, under Weird and Worrying Questions from the Inbox, where a reader asks about the effects of a toxin on the excretory system. If your body is not behaving in the way you expect, consulting with a medical professional is, in general, a good idea.
|-
| Personal
| Why don't the squirrels in my yard like me???
| Randall has no way of knowing why the wildlife in a given area dislike a specific person, especially if this hints at a specific animosity/belligerence and not just general avoidance of humans as a perceived threat. These kind of questions are common on sites like reddit, and are usually covered by general explanation of animal behaviors unless the asker supplies more information in the comments. However, the choice of squirrels are likely not random since [[:Category:Squirrels|Squirrels]] are a recurring theme on xkcd and has often been [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Squirrels#Uses_in_other_xkcd_media: used in what if?] (sometimes as {{what if|105|placeholder}} for a potentially horrible image).
|-
| Spam
| Do you want to meet lonely singles in your area tonight?
| This is a common online popup advertisement and is generally considered undesirable. An unavoidable side effect of Randall having an email address published where the public can find it is that spammers have just as much access to it. Most people do not respond to spam emails, and Randall is no exception.
|-
| Phishing
| Have you recently been the victim of phishing? To check, log in to your account by clicking here.
| Again, because Randall's What-If email is publicly available, phishers have access to it and can probe the recipient for information. Randall is experienced enough to recognize a phishing attempt and ignore it. This type of phishing scam, in which the scammer requests your personal data for the purported purpose of checking if it has been "stolen" thereby "stealing" it himself, has become more common as people have become aware of phishing, and phishers have thus embraced the possibility of exploiting a new niche in the layers of naivete.
|-
| Requests for help with a crime
| Using modern science, what would be the fastest way to get through this bank vault door? [''📎'' blueprints]
| No, Randall is ''not'' going to help a criminal commit breaking and entering or robbery, thank you very much. A common problem{{Citation needed}} with heist movies is that they show a believable{{Citation needed}} method for breaking in to a vault which people then try to replicate in real life. Such movies often portray an expert in some other field being "smart enough" to craft the plan, sometimes unwittingly.
|-
| Unanswerable
| Why am I me and not someone else
| There is a lot in this question that could be unpacked, and Randall doesn't want to touch on any of it.

At face value the question is asking about {{w|Philosophy of mind}}, a branch of philosophy with many questions that are unanswerable due to our own imperfect understanding of mind. The asker is inquiring as to what process is responsible for designating that their consciousness be tied to the body in which they currently reside, as opposed to another body presumed to have consciousness; furthermore, they likely wish to know the mechanics behind how this process works. There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer.

It's also quite possible the asker is feeling melancholic and unsatisfied with their life. Randall doesn't feel qualified to try diagnosing or treating someone's existential depression.
|-
| Vague
| What is going to happen? (Be specific)
| Some humor is derived from the request for specificity in the question, which completely lacks any sort of specificity of its own.
|-
| Vague and ominous
| Will I have to start worrying about spiders after Tuesday?
| This implies some event that occurs on a (possibly next?) Tuesday. This event may relate to spiders in some way, and cause those who do not currently worry about spiders to do so. If you do not currently worry about spiders, this question does not give enough specifics for Randall to intelligently answer whether or not you should start.
Possibly a [[:Category:Red Spiders|red spiders]] reference. Could also be a reference to [[1688: Map Age Guide]] where some dangerous event involving spiders was apparently set to happen in 2022.
|-
| ?????
| Hi, we're lonely singles in your area, and we're wondering what would happen if we shot a nuclear bomb into a volcano! Click here to log in and tell us ...
| If nothing else, this entry is clearly made up by Randall, as it appears to be a combination of as many prior categories as he has room for, specifically Spam, Phishing, and an already-answered question, before getting cut off by the bottom of the panel.

"Would it be possible to stop a volcano eruption by placing a bomb (thermobaric or nuclear) underneath the surface?" was a question featured in the first ''what if'' book. Randall answered with an emphatic "No!"
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In ''What If? 2'' (xkcd.com/whatif2), I answer ridiculous questions sent in by readers about everything from volcanoes to spaceships to soup.

Here are a few of the common types of question that I did ''not'' answer:

[In separate boxes for each category]

[In row 1:]

People cheating on homework: What if I made a pendulum by hanging a rock on a 2.75 meter string? What would its period be in seconds? (Show your work!)

Medical advice: What if you got a scratch and the next day your hand looks like this [''📎 attachment'']? Should you see a doctor or what?

Personal: Why don't the squirrels in my yard like me???

[In row 2:]

Spam: Do you want to meet lonely singles in your area tonight?

Phishing: Have you recently been the victim of phishing? To check, log in to your account by clicking here.

Requests for help with a crime: Using modern science, what would be the fastest way to get through this bank vault door? [''📎'' blueprints]

[In row 3:]

Unanswerable: Why am I me and not someone else

Vague: What is going to happen? (Be specific)

Vague+Ominous: Will I have to start worrying about spiders after Tuesday?

?????: Hi, we're lonely singles in your area, and we're wondering what would happen if we shot a nuclear bomb into a volcano! [partially cut off horizontally:] Click here to log in and tell us

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]

Talk:892: Null Hypothesis

2023-04-19T19:18:08Z

172.70.162.229: Undo revision 310652 by 172.70.82.180 (talk) Unsigned contextless single word addition. If relevent, needs more substance to it.

If you get a 50% discount at two shops and buy stuff from both of them, you have a 100% discount. Math. That's how it works, bitches. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:05, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
:I would feel entirely justified punching someone who said that unironically. Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.205|108.162.249.205]] 00:59, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
:I mean, if the two items cost the same, then you would technically get a 100% discount on one. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 13:31, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

That's a misleading thing about percentages. Like this:
Prices of coffee increase by 2% this year, then by 3% next year. That's a 1% increase between years, or a 50% increase between years (from 2 to 3). So which is it? 1 or 50?
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.240|141.101.98.240]] 08:26, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
:It's a 50% increase and an increase of 1 percentage point. There's a difference between the two. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.235|162.158.158.235]] 16:37, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

That's why they've invented the "base points" in financials, to denote the percentages of percentages. It's 1% absolute but 50bpp (base point percentage). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.11|108.162.246.11]] 18:35, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Oh really. If you say it increased by 2% this year, then by 3% next year. It increased 3%. Unless you mean it will increase by 3% from LAST YEAR to NEXT YEAR. Then it really increased by 2% then .97%. But for this purpose let's throw that out and make it simple. It increased by 2% this year, and will increase by 3% next year. 50% isn't how much it increased, but how much the increase increased. That's called acceleration. The rate of increase per year is always 2 or 3%. So, 1% doesn't factor into this equation at all no matter how you do the math. The answer is 1.02*1.03. It increased by 5.06% over the last two years. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.114|108.162.216.114]] 14:59, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Don't these discussion points belong in a different comic? Or perhaps the garbage? Except (1), he lol'd me. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 21:23, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

:They should be on [[985: Percentage Points]] or [[1102: Fastest-Growing]] --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 11:35, 23 October 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1165: Amazon

2023-04-17T19:21:50Z

172.70.162.229:

I believe it is not about {{w|Amazon Forest}}, but about {{w|Amazon River}}. {{unsigned|‎194.85.224.35}}
:That'd be a ridiculous amount of rain! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 06:42, 30 May 2014 (UTC)

;Skeletonize a cow

Isn't there an urban myth that pirahnas can skeletonize a cow in under 2 minutes? [[Special:Contributions/81.138.95.57|81.138.95.57]] 10:32, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

:According to [http://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/piranha-eat-cows1.htm], it's not myth - you only need few nets and few hundreds of piranhas. It was not mentioned how far they needed to go to get that number of piranhas, but I would suppose setting up that kind of practical joke can't take more that few days. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:55, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

:If the cow were a calf, why not? But a grown cow, I don't think a few hundred piranhas can fit and reach the whole cow within 2 minutes. [[User:Lysdexia|Lysdexia]] ([[User talk:Lysdexia|talk]]) 02:19, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

Does Amazon sell beef by any chance? I mean: while amazon.com can probably ship a package from Iquitos to Manaus, the Amazon can only nearly, because Manaus is situated a few kilometers upstream of a river branch where the package from Iquitos would float by. Makes me think whether there is a similiar comparison with skeltonized cows. Hence beef. [[Special:Contributions/46.142.28.57|46.142.28.57]] 15:25, 25 January 2013 (UTC) madd

:There was a TV programme of the Michael Palin type that took a boat trip up or down the Amazon. One of the fish mentioned in the river could strip the meat off a cow in seconds. It was a deep water dweller, not the common piranha and "IIGC" a bottom feeder so its normal cuisine was "probably" already done to falling off the bone. I saw this programme once long long ago.

If the package was being delivered by dugout on the river its speed could well exceed the 4 to 6 or more knots likely experienced in mid channel. (I seem to recall figures in the region of 8 to 12 knots.)

"lost it at 'Minutes to skeletonize a cow'." sounds like food for thought being off-putting. The stripping would not have been done by an Amazon courier as slaughtering a cow takes a lot longer by human than the minutes suggested here. The time that it would have had to lose would be considerably more than minutes considering the likely gain that a canoe piloted at mid channel as constantly as possible would make Amazon.com a lot faster even if the canoe was just drifting and not under power.

A package drifting in the Amazon would quickly get entangled in the growth along the banks and might even, on occasion, drift up-stream[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 17:48, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

;Reason for comparison

I think the main reason for this comparison is the dispute over the .amazon TLD between Amazon.com on one side and Brazil and Peru on the other. --[[Special:Contributions/176.101.146.145|176.101.146.145]] 11:38, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

I assume you mean this article (or alike): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2242994/Brazil-Peru-web-giant-Amazon-battle-amazon-domain-name.html
[[Special:Contributions/78.52.195.25|78.52.195.25]] 09:40, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

:Indeed, they are comparing who is “more worth” the domain name and this comic shows how to compare them --[[Special:Contributions/176.101.146.145|176.101.146.145]] 19:12, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

Just want to say that I always thought it was a mistake to add to the (generally) three-character traditional non-geographic TLDs that they used to have. This despite buying myself a .info when that first came out, mostly as a novelty similar to the acre of Moon. (But .aero? .museum? Really?) Still, can't begrudge them the drift to non-Western characters (just wish it'd been ''direct'' non-Western equivalents to .com, .org, .mil, .gov, etc... Anyway, what's wrong with just letting each national TLD logically and self-consistently expand upon their own existing standards (.co.uk, .com.au, etc) in a manner the locals would understand, and let significant metanational organisations (UN) do the same for their own subset of responsibilities in their own pseudo-national TLD. (You see, I over-think these things.) [[Special:Contributions/178.105.155.170|178.105.155.170]] 16:20, 28 March 2013 (UTC)
:I was a'waiting the question mark but found none. Thus you said your own predicate is wrong. [[User:Lysdexia|Lysdexia]] ([[User talk:Lysdexia|talk]]) 02:19, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

;Is anyone else thinking what I am?

Its been a while since Munroe has given something seriously good/thoughtful.... I am getting the inner feeling that he is planning something big. Like '''''BIG '''''. Anyone here concurs with me? [[Special:Contributions/117.194.86.32|117.194.86.32]] 14:18, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

I will second that. It has been a while since he has had any labour intentive jokes. [[Special:Contributions/72.38.90.50|72.38.90.50]] 16:57, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

;Rounds 1-13

Am I the only one who wants to know what the other 11 criteria might be? [[Special:Contributions/71.201.53.130|71.201.53.130]] 19:10, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

No. But we know 3 of them, right? So we just need 10 more. [[Special:Contributions/117.194.83.200|117.194.83.200]] 18:52, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

We need 11 more. This is criterion 14, and we know 3 of them including this one. [[Special:Contributions/71.201.53.130|71.201.53.130]] 22:46, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

;Confused
"Of course, it would take slightly longer for Amazon.com to skeletonize a cow because the death ray takes time to heat up."
I don't like being more confused after reading the explain than before. What death ray? [[User:Mumiemonstret|Mumiemonstret]] ([[User talk:Mumiemonstret|talk]]) 14:54, 16 March 2015 (UTC)
:I thought it was just a joke that doesn't really have any deeper meaning? Hmm... Now I'm curious too ._. [[User:SuperSupermario24|Just some random derp]] 21:28, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

:I am pretty sure it's just a joke. But who writes these explanations? (Now that I posted this, will you amazon people let me go?) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.49|141.101.104.49]] 22:23, 7 May 2015 (UTC)

Edit comment ''(→‎Explanation: The SI symbol for litres is a capital L, I corrected this from a lowercase l.)'' ...actually, in case that editor is reading (an IP, like me), it's either "L" or "l". And I'd handwrite a loopy-l, which also is acceptable. But at least we both agree on the spelling. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.229|172.70.162.229]] 19:21, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

Talk:935: Missed Connections

2023-04-16T19:55:53Z

172.70.162.229: Undo revision 310495 by 162.158.63.146 (talk) Spam/scam link...

A "Juggalo" is a fan of the band Insane Clown Posse, about as diametrically removed from a democratic politician as you could think of. [[Special:Contributions/75.103.23.206|75.103.23.206]] 17:09, 13 December 2012 (UTC)
:More specifically, she has a reputation for being stern and somewhat humorless making her an even better contrast to a Juggalo [[User:KingDragonlord|KingDragonlord]] ([[User talk:KingDragonlord|talk]]) 17:30, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

I'm new so I don't want to overstep bounds and just edit the page but I think it would be clearer to just say the TARDIS is a time travel device. Anyone not familiar with the tv series is not going to care what TARDIS is an acronym for. [[User:KingDragonlord|KingDragonlord]] ([[User talk:KingDragonlord|talk]]) 17:27, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

:I think having the expansion of TARDIS is fine, but you are correct there should be a mention of what a TARDIS is, and a link to the wikipedia article for the TARDIS. You are fully free, and welcomed to edit any explanation that you think is lacking information. The worst that could happen is someone reverts your edit and leaves a note on your talk page about why. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 19:22, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

According to Craigslist itself, Missed Connections has ''never'' worked. They're still waiting for a testimony for its first success.[[Special:Contributions/76.29.225.28|76.29.225.28]] 18:20, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

The Nancy Pelosi/Juggalo entry was a specific reference to an event at the White House that Republican commentators branded as a wild party even though it was not. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.86}}

I thought that the second entry was a reference to Plato's cave... Anyone else think that? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.185|141.101.98.185]] 18:22, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
:Apparently not! -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 02:11, 15 February 2016 (UTC)

Talk:2760: Paleontology Museum

2023-04-09T12:10:19Z

172.70.162.229:

Turtles aren't rocks. ? [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 03:04, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
:Maybe referring to shell of turtles? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.212|172.71.22.212]] 03:56, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

I thought this was a joke where Cueball thinks rocks were cooler in Þe Olde Dinosaur Times, because ÞODT had rocks shaped like dinosaur bones. Maybe I'm completely off. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.47|172.69.65.47]] 04:15, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
:I appreciate your use of the letter thorn. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.209|172.69.65.209]] 09:21, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
::You mean þorn [[Special:Contributions/172.70.42.86|172.70.42.86]] 00:31, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
::NB, this was [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests#user edits someone else's comment|someone else's edit]]. However funny/intelligent it was, it was bad form. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.229|172.70.162.229]] 12:10, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

My interpretation is that paleontologists picked up all of the interesting rocks, and now only boring rocks are left—and turtles. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.159|162.158.94.159]] 09:41, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turtles Rocks] were cool. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.144|108.162.216.144]] 13:15, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qcxq3RVf1gQ#heavy heavy rocks] are cooler [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.178|172.70.242.178]] 05:47, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

It seems unlikely to me that Cueball is referring specifically to the plates on the stegosaur's back. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:05, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

I added my own interpretation where Cueball thinks that dinosaurs actually were made of rocks, therefore making them cooler than our rocks. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.42|172.70.211.42]] 18:37, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

2756: Qualifications

2023-03-29T20:39:30Z

172.70.162.229: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2756
| date = March 29, 2023
| title = Qualifications
| image = qualifications_2x.png
| imagesize = 265x316px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'So how DID you go from working at the employment records office to becoming president of MIT and CEO of IBM?' 'I guess I just have an eye for opportunities.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a 600-YEAR-OLD BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Black Hat]] is being interviewed for some unidentified position. From the conversation, it seems clear that he has used some prior access to the employment records at some employment record office to fraudulantly manufacture a history of having worked there for 600 years. He also claims an additional pair of prestigious jobs, but it is unclear whether these 'facts' were entirely due to false records or, knowing Black Hat's [[498: Secretary: Part 5|other]] [[1094: Interview|interviews]], briefly true but only as a result of false representation/underhanded actions.

His interviewers are not entirely unaware of the implausibility, but seem content to have just verified the validity of the claim. The 'validation' arises from the clearly tainted information source, given the whole chain of supporting evidence that may have been falsified.

Employers often encounter resumés that have implausibly padded experience claims. Most applicants try not to be this implausible, and few employers are so credulous as to take self-supporting lies at face value.

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

:[Black Hat sits in an office chair, Cueball facing him sits at his desk and Hairbun stands behind him. Cueball is holding documents in his hands.]
:Cueball: Impressive résumé.
:Cueball: It says that you have over '''''six hundred''''' years of experience at the employment records office? That can't be right.
:Hairbun: I thought so too, but it checks out.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Job interviews]]

Talk:2351: Standard Model Changes

2023-03-29T19:44:23Z

172.70.162.229:

Re: "but for the most part [the changes] are nonsensical"
I find the symbol changes pretty compelling, actually. Much clearer :)
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.210|172.69.34.210]] 00:05, 27 August 2020 (UTC) Related: I was going to respond to Randall here with Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" :=) [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 10:04, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

Honestly, I'd vote to change every nu in physics to something else since its so damned hard to write differently and read lazily.

Yeah. Can we get the president of physics in here please? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.140|172.69.34.140]] 01:35, 27 August 2020 (UTC)
:There is no president. Changing names is probably ok, but if you want to change the physics like with removing of neutrinos, you need to talk to God. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:41, 27 August 2020 (UTC)
::So... We need to talk to the ''pontiff'' of physics, then? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.110|162.158.159.110]] 03:44, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Top/Bottom should probably be In/Out or Front/Back or something. And that's even before Randall's proposed changes. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.70|141.101.98.70]] 01:51, 27 August 2020 (UTC) "T" and "B" originally were going to be short for [redacted] and Bums , back when sexism was rampant. Possibly that's an urban legend, but having been in Physics grad school around the time quarks became a thing, I can believe it. [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 10:04, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

Didn't t/b stand for truth and beauty at some point, thus formerly lining up more favorably with strange and charm? Also, a "cool bugs" ''boson'' with spin 1/2 would itself be a cool bug, in the sense of a glitch. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.150|172.69.34.150]] 05:07, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

It's a bit weird that he added left/right since most of the particle already come in left- and right-handed chirality.

Comic 2240 has a "cool bug epoch" in the expansion of the universe that could be linked from the "cool bug" particle in this comic. ----

The explanation says that the cool bugs particle goes into the scalar boson group, which isn't right because there isn't such a group here. Vin Diesel is a scalar, but the general agreement is that graviton has spin 2 (and for this reason it's also not really correct to move it to the gauge boson group). The group is more accurately called the everything else group. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.110|162.158.202.110]] 11:22, 27 August 2020 (UTC) anon

I posit the reason for "left, right" being in the order they are (instead of the more logical "right, left") is due to the Konami code being up, up, down, down, '''left, right''', etc... [[User:SiliconCarbide|SiliconCarbide]] ([[User talk:SiliconCarbide|talk]])
:Standard (American) English pairs Up-Down, Top-Bottom, and Left-Right, in that order, much like To-Fro, Here-There, Salt-Pepper and Shoes-Socks. It is unusual to refer to Right-Left ordering in English. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.209|162.158.74.209]] 17:37, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

The Right/Strange description box included this: "What's strange is how Randall assigns the charm quark the left and the strange quark the right, when so many languages have it the other way around. But since when has Randall cared?"
Which is not at all clear. What is it that languages have what other way around?
I moved it because it is so vague to seems meaningless. If it was a useful observation, please clarify so somebody who doesn't know what it means already can understand. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.244|162.158.106.244]] 17:32, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

Isn't a τ-Lepton just the same as two π-Leptons? That's why it's superflous. -[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.86|162.158.202.86]] 17:54, 27 August 2020 (UTC)
:Except that π is a meson, not a lepton. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.108|108.162.215.108]] 04:39, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Most recent revision "(→‎Leptons: neutrons are universally lower-case n, ..." isn't strictly true in its reversion of a prior statement. {{w|Neutron|Wikipedia}} (amongst other places) states possible symbols of "n, n⁰, N⁰". The replacement information is probably not wrong, though. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.185|162.158.158.185]] 11:38, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

"Randall apparently considers magic to exist and be a particle, both of which are blatantly false." - but both the text of the comic and the sentence immediately after this one clearly state that it is ''intentionally'' inaccurate, so this seems like a strange claim to make. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.156|172.69.34.156]] 01:59, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

This is the first time I have seen an explainxkcd that blatantly and intentionally lies in the explanation. Jokes are common, especially the 'citation needed' meme. But your supposed to do that ''without'' any lies. Someone please fix it (especially the bug section) to be a funny, but accurate explanation as per the norm. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.226|108.162.237.226]] 17:37, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

I misread the right-most vertical caption [in the explanation's chart] as "secular bosuns" and didn't understand what the religious beliefs of seaman have to do with the rest. [[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]]) 09:18, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Neutrinos naturally undergo flavor-changing oscillations, so the idea of getting rid of the extra generations is more reasonable than it seems at first. Electron neutrinos change to mu and tau neutrinos in flight and vice versa. Mentioning this simply because I didn't see anyone else mention it. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino_oscillation

"Higgs" loosely rhymes with "Pigs". I guess that's the reason why [[Randall]] doesn't want to use the name "Higgs". [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 08:05, 29 March 2023 (UTC)
:Higgs ''exactly'' rhymes with Pigs, but there's absolutely no reason to believe that hS anything to do with anything. Stupid comment, made for stupid reason, and I think this needs highlighting more than it deserves to be swept under the carpet. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.229|172.70.162.229]] 19:44, 29 March 2023 (UTC)