explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2729: Planet Killer Comet Margarita

2023-01-25T20:21:19Z

172.70.175.115: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2729
| date = January 25, 2023
| title = Planet Killer Comet Margarita
| image = planet_killer_comet_margarita_2x.png
| imagesize = 607x942px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I'll take mine on the rocks, no ice.
}}

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

2720: Biology vs Robotics

2023-01-04T22:41:24Z

172.70.175.115: Change the creator

{{comic
| number = 2720
| date = January 4, 2023
| title = Biology vs Robotics
| image = biology_vs_robotics_2x.png
| imagesize = 546x260px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Sorry, I've just always had these random things I don't like--like olives, or robots drilling holes in me without warning.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BIOLOGICAL ROBOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Joke funny haha because robots are not people and do not heal biologically! Funny Randall!

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

{{comic discussion}}

2661: Age Milestone Privileges

2022-12-19T21:54:56Z

172.70.175.115: /* Explanation */ added links

{{comic
| number = 2661
| date = August 19, 2022
| title = Age Milestone Privileges
| image = age_milestone_privileges.png
| titletext = If you reach 122, you get complete unrevertible editorial control over Jeanne Calment's Wikipedia article.
}}

==Explanation==
This is a list of "age milestones" in the United States. As usual for Randall, he has added many fictional entries to supplement some real life ones. The real milestones are the ages at which Americans are generally allowed to do certain things for the first time. These are a mix of legal restrictions (such as the age for driving and voting), rules from private companies (such as movie theaters and car rental companies) and medical guidance (like the shingles vaccine).

{| class="wikitable"
! Age || Privilege || Real? || Description
|-
| 16 || Drive || Yes || Legal driving age in the US is set by the individual states, but the general rule is that Americans are allowed to begin driving on public roads at age 16. There are various levels of restrictions on this privilege, however. In Randall's state of {{w|Driver's licenses in the United States#Licenses for adults and minors; GDL laws|Massachusetts, and in 8 other states}}, 16 is the minimum age to apply for a learner's permit. {{w|Driver's licenses in the United States#/media/File:Restricted license age requirements by US state.svg|In most of the country, 16 years is the minimum age for a restricted driver's license.}}
|-
| 17 || Attend R-Rated movies alone || Yes || In the US, the Motion Picture Association assigns {{w|Motion_Picture_Association_film_rating_system|ratings}} to movies based on whether they consider the film's content to be suitable for children. In this classification, "R" stands for "restricted", and the guidance from the MPAA is that no one under the age of 17 should be allowed to see it if not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. It should be noted that this guidance does not have force of law, but is sufficiently accepted that nearly all US theaters adopt it as a policy.
|-
| 18 || Vote || Yes || The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents a minimum age of voting from being set above eighteen, meaning that eighteen-year-olds are old enough to legally vote anywhere in the country. Some states allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they will turn 18 before the general election, but Randall's state of Massachusetts is not one of them.
|-
| 21 || Buy alcohol || Yes || While individual states have official power over the drinking age, the {{w|National Minimum Drinking Age Act}} restricts federal funding from states that do not enforce a drinking age of 21 years. This has resulted in a ''de facto'' national drinking age of 21 in the US, which is higher than most countries. It should be noted that some states allow minors to drink alcohol under certain circumstances, but no state allows anyone under 21 to buy alcohol.
|-
| 25 || Rent a car || Generally || Car rental companies set their own age restrictions on renting cars. The industry standard in the US is to charge a higher rate for drivers under the age of 25. Thus, there was not a "prohibition" per se, but 25 is a milestone for "regular" rates and fees on car rentals.
|-
| 30 || Run for Senate || Almost || This entry is slightly incorrect: According to {{w|Article_One_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Clause 3: Qualifications of senators|Article 1, Section 3, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution}}, one must be at least 30 years old in order to ''become'' Senator, not ''run'' for Senate. For example, Joe Biden was 29 years old when he was first elected to Senate but turned 30 before being sworn in.
|-
| 32 || Rent a Senator's car || No || This is the first joke entry in the table. For one thing, most Senators do not rent out their cars, which they probably need to use regularly themselves because they have jobs{{Citation needed}} to commute to, and it would be a security hazard to allow random strangers access to their vehicle.

This could also be a reference to the Ambassador, a now defunct car brand.
|-
| 35 || Run for president || Almost || In the United States, according to {{w|Article Two of the United States Constitution#Clause 5: Qualifications for office|Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution}}, a person must be at least 35 years old to be eligible to hold the Office of President. Similar to the age 30 entry, this is slightly incorrect. However, unlike the Senate case, this technicality has not been relevant for anyone elected as United States president—at least not yet (as of 2022).
|-
| 40 || Rent a flying car || No || A 25-year-old might be able to rent a non-flying car today, but not a flying car, because the technology is not mature enough to the point where they're available to rent. The joke is that by the time a 25-year-old reader becomes 40, the technology will exist and they'll be able to rent a flying car. Unlike the earlier lines, the limitation has nothing to do with their age, just technological development.
Alternatively, even once flying cars are developed, their usage will be more restricted. For example, young people are perceived to be more reckless and/or otherwise dangerous.

This whole issue may be virtually negated if the newly developed flying cars are introduced only as ''self-''flying cars (an off-shoot of self-driving technology but devoid of many of the dangers of navigating roads, i.e. person-controlled vehicles, pedestrians and other ground-based hazards), in which case the age (or even presence) of the renter may be very much more irrelevant than the nature of any route/destination the guidance computer is tasked to fulfill. The question would then be how much a potential passenger would trust pure electronics to avoid all the actual dangers for what is essentially a flying taxi, compared to a human controller who may be fallible but presumably at least has their own fully developed common sense and a degree of self-preservation as well as any requisite training.
|-
| 45 || Learn about the God-Empress || No || Obviously, the God-Empress does not actually exist because this comic is visible to people under 45 years old.{{Citation needed}} According to [[1413]], she will be public knowledge by 2040 anyway.
|-
| 50 || Join AARP || Yes || Full {{w|AARP}} (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) membership is available to anyone age 50 and over. Officially, there are no age restrictions to membership, but members under the age of 50 do not have access to full benefits.
|-
| 50 || Get a shingles vaccine || Recommendation || At the time of the comic, the [https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shingles/public/shingrix/index.html CDC recommended] that adults 50 years and older get the shingles vaccine called Shingrix (this line was not in the original version of the comic, corrected later)
|-
| 52 || Click to skip captchas || No || Older people might have more difficulty understanding [[:Category:CAPTCHA|captchas]]. Also, they could be more inconvenienced because some older people move more slowly, so it would take them longer to move the mouse, and people would care more about older people anyway. However, this would be impractical to implement because if the computer knew the person's age, it would know that the user is a person, not a bot, so there would be no point in a captcha anyway.
|-
| 55 || Vote for God-Empress || No || It appears that a person must have knowledge of the existence of the God-Empress for ten years before they are sufficiently qualified to elect a new one. Since the God-Empress is (presumably) in power for life, it is likely that most people would have to wait much longer than ten years.
|-
| 62 || $80 national parks lifetime pass || Yes || The US National Parks Service has a [https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm lifetime membership pass] for Americans ages 62 and over, which allows access to national parks and other areas managed by the NPS.
|-
| 65 || Eligible for Medicare || Yes || {{w|Medicare (United States)|Medicare}} is a US government-run health insurance for older people, and indeed begins eligibility at age 65 for the general public.
|-
| 67 || Collect Social Security || Yes || {{w|Social Security (United States)|Social Security}} is a system of benefits for retired individuals, disabled persons and widows/widowers. U.S. individuals may collect reduced Social Security benefits starting at age 62, and they can collect increased Social Security benefits if they wait until age 70. 67 is considered "Full Retirement Age." There is some debate about whether one would be better off waiting or taking it right away, but for most people Full Retirement Age (67) is at least close to optimal.
|-
| 68 || See "Skip ads" button on live TV|| No || Some DVRs and streaming applications have a feature to skip over commercial breaks in recorded programs, but this could not be available in live TV, since it would require jumping forward in time. Time travel is currently impossible.{{citation needed}}
|-
| 70 || Run for God-Empress || No || The name suggests that this would also only be available to women.
|-
| 75 || Ride any animal in a national park || No || The National Parks Service probably could institute this relatively safely because most people over 75 would not be able to run fast enough to outrun/catch up to an animal and mount it{{Citation needed}} and would not have the rebellious/risk-taking/adventurous streak that would incline them to try.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| 80 || Eligible for Megacare || No || This is based on becoming eligible for Medicare at age 65.
|-
| 85 || Click to toggle whether an ad is positive or negative about the product || No || In line with previous milestones regarding advertisements, this implies the ability to control reality and change the mood of the ad one is watching as it is running. Obviously, this is impossible, but could potentially be pulled off by adding an option to change the ad to another ad about the same product, but with the opposite viewpoint of the product. Ignoring the issue that ads that are just negative about a specific target don't tend to be commissioned. Except perhaps in certain areas of political campaigning. Furthermore, the wording appears to imply the new ad is the same as the one you were watching previously, ie. same actors, rather than a different ad about the same product.
|-
| 90 || Click to make any movie R-rated || No || It is unclear whether this would actually make the movie less appropriate or change the Motion Picture Association's rating to be erroneous. Also, what if the rating was previously NC-17?
|-
| 100 || Get a letter from the president || No || In the US (which other milestones, such as running for president starting at age 35, indicate is the country being referred to), you can instead get [https://www.today.com/series/today-celebrates/celebrate-today-ask-al-roker-wish-your-loved-ones-happy-t69606 congratulated] by the weatherman ({{w|Al Roker}}) on the {{w|Today (American TV program)|Today Show}}. However, the United Kingdom is much closer. People there can [https://www.royal.uk/anniversary-messages-0 apply to receive a card] (formerly a telegram, later a TeleMessage) from the Queen on their 100th birthday.
|-
| 102 || (35+67) Collect a {{w|Former_Presidents_Act#Pension|presidential pension}} || No || The idea behind this joke is that it is the minimum age of presidency plus the minimal age to collect Social Security. There are several reasons why this must be a joke. Two are that Social Security begins 67 years after the person was born, not 67 years after the person's job started, and that the United States government would not bother to set up such a system because the vast majority of people, including former presidents, do not live to 102 years old. In fact, as of 2022, no former United States president has ever lived to 102 years old. The current oldest former U.S. President is Jimmy Carter at 97. Good luck Jimmy, only 5 more years!
|-
| 105 || Get a birthday card from the God-Empress || No || Being a God-Empress would be more important than being the leader of a single country. This would make the God-Empress's time more valuable, so she only has to send a birthday card to the few people who reach the age of 105. Contrariwise, the God-Empress is presumptively all-powerful and furthermore capable of delegation of ministerial tasks such as card transmission, so the utilitarian fact that the scarcity of 105-year-old people reduces workload is not a plausible justification.
|-
| 111 || Leave your own birthday party early by putting on a magic ring || No || This is a reference to the {{w|Lord of the Rings}} where Bilbo leaves his eleventy-first birthday party (the Bilbo Baggins Farewell Birthday Party) invisibly by using {{w|the One Ring}}.
|-
| 118 || Vote 100 times || No || Presumably a joke meaning the person can now cast 100 votes, for each election issue that a younger person can only vote for once, giving their opinion a vastly increased personal weight (or subtlety, if they vote more across the board than merely grant 100 votes to the same outcome), although it may not greatly change the result unless sufficient voters exist (of a like mind) to disproportionately swing the result towards the result desired more by these elder voters than their one-vote juniors.
It is the 100th anniversary of their having (potentially) first voted, and as such is a century milestone. But if there were exactly one election at the same time each year, the first vote on or after their birthday would actually be the 101st vote the person has been eligible to cast in their lifetime. If the sole election of each year were held at a different time of each year, someone who voted in every election might vote for the 100th time at either age 116, 117, or 118. However this milestone would happen earlier because there are often multiple elections per year, e.g., primaries, general elections and possibly runoffs. There may also be several reasons why the person may not have been given the opportunity to vote every year since they were 18, e.g. prior to the {{w|Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|women's suffrage}} being officially ratified barely 100 years ago, but most importantly that the mandated minimum voting age was 21 until {{w|Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution|much more recently}}.
|-
| 120 || Collect the pensions of all elected officials || No || It is very unlikely that any government would award the pensions of all elected officials to anyone because they have reached the age of 120 years.{{cn}}
|-
| 125 || Drink alcohol in an R-rated movie while getting a shingles vaccine from the president || No || This entry references four earlier milestones (attending an R-rated movie, drinking alcohol, becoming President, and getting the shingles vaccine) whose corresponding ages (17, 21, 35, and 50) sum to 123. While not exactly 125, this may have contributed to the inspiration or age selection of this milestone.
|-
| 128 || Age rolls over, become a baby again || No{{Citation needed}} || {{w|Integer overflow}} happens in computers when there are not enough bits (binary digits) to store the result of a calculation, and typically happens in computers at a given power of two, such as 128. An unsigned 7-bit number can hold the values 0 to 127 (127 being 27 - 1) and an attempt to go beyond 127 will overflow, also called rollover, back to zero. 7-bit numbers are not common native values in today's computers. For the more usual integers of one byte (8 bits), while a signed byte would roll over after 127, it would typically rollover to -128 rather than to zero, whereas an unsigned byte would rollover to zero but not until after 255. 

|}

The title text mentions {{w|Jeanne Calment}}, who holds the record for the oldest person ever (there are biblical references to older people, such as {{w|Methuselah}}, who supposedly lived to 969, but their ages haven't been verified). She reportedly was age 122 when she died in 1997. There's some controversy whether Calment actually claimed her mother's records, including birth certificate, as her own. "Editing wars" have been fought over her Wikipedia page. Randall claims that if you match her age you get sole editorial control over that article. However, if anyone managed to exceed her achieved age, presumably they would get their own page (albeit that they should not be encouraged to {{w|Wikipedia:Editing Your Own Page|edit it}} themselves) and hers would cease to be as interesting - although that might depend on what use is made of the unparalleled editorial control now granted.

==Transcript==

<big>Age Milestones</big> 
and associated privileges

16  Drive 
17  Attend R-rated movies alone 
18  Vote 
21  Buy alcohol 
25  Rent a car 
32  Run for senate 
35  Run for president 
40  Rent a flying car 
45  Learn about the God-Empress 
50  Join AARP 
50  Get a shingles vaccine 
52  Click to skip captchas 
55  Vote for God-Empress 
62  $80 National parks lifetime pass 
65  Eligible for Medicare 
67  Collect Social Security 
68  See "Skip Ads" button on live TV 
70  Run for God-Empress 
75  Ride any animal in a national park 
80  Eligible for MegaCare 
85  Click to toggle whether any ad is positive or negative about the product 
90  Click to make any movie R-rated 
100  Get a letter from the president 
102  (35+67) Collect a presidential pension 
105  Get a birthday card from the God-Empress 
111  Leave your own birthday party early by putting on a magic ring 
118  Vote 100 times 
120  Collect the pensions of all elected officials 
125  Drink alcohol in an R-rated movie while getting a shingles vaccine from the president 
128  Age rolls over, become a baby again

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:CAPTCHA]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

2712: Gravity

2022-12-17T15:39:15Z

172.70.175.115: /* Explanation */ xkcd.com/1608/hoverboard is a 404 anyway

{{comic
| number = 2712
| date = December 16, 2022
| title = Gravity
| image = gravity_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x700px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's a long way down.
}}

*To experience the interactivity, visit the [http://xkcd.com/2712/ original comic].
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by HOTBLACK DESIATO'S TAX RETURNS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this interactive comic, the viewer pilots a small spaceship throughout a vast area in space. The viewer is capable of exploring various bodies and planets within the play area, many containing easter eggs alluding to What If? 2 and previous xkcd comics. The flight mechanics are largely, if not entirely, Newtonian, so the vessel is capable of using the gravity of planets to alter its trajectory or even enter orbit. The spaceship has several indicator circles around it which appear when a gravitational body comes into range, showing the direction towards their center of gravity.

After launching the spaceship, it is entirely possible to actually catch glimpses (for the fraction of a second) of other celestial bodies than the player's rocket, every 30 minutes or so, as long as the players keep pointing the nose of the rocket towards the gravity indicators.

Throughout the play area are coins that change your rocket ship into different rockets and non-space based vehicles, including humans.

The comic promotes Randall's new book [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ What If? 2], which was released in September and is available for purchase. Many of the planets contain references to various What If? articles.

The comic is similar to [1608: Hoverboard], which celebrated Thing Explainer instead.

===Spoiler Alert!===

The following is an incomplete table of features:

{|class="wikitable sortable"
!
!
!
! colspan="4"|References
!
|-
! Description
! Transcript
! Tiles (X, Y)
! What If
! XKCD
! Movies
! Other
! Explanation
|-
|'''Earth'''
|
|(14360, 14360)
|
|
|
|
|The starting planet. The player begins on the launch pad in a landed position.
|-
|Earth's core
|
|
|
|
|
|
|[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] floating in a small space in the center of the planet in inverted rotations.
|-
|'''Europa'''
|
|(13180, -2540)
|
|
|
|
|Europa, one of Jupiter's many moons (in real life). A broken, icy crust has a single path into its core.
|-
|Europa's crust
|"It's so unfair we don't get to compete in EuroVision."
"The region of the solar system where liquid water can exist on the surface is the habitable zone, and the region where it can exist beneath the surface of moons is the Eurozone."

"WHIRRRR"
|
|Y
|
|
|
|Europa's crust, with a single entrance into the core demarcated by an octopus leaving a hole.
Cueball states that Europa is in the Eurozone, a pun on the ''other'' Eurozone, with liquid underneath its surface.

A roomba whirs across the icy crust.

Cueball has a hairdryer and is melting the surface of the crust. A direct reference to [https://what-if.xkcd.com/35/ What If's Hairdryer].
|-
|Europa's core
|
|
|
|
|
|
|A watery ocean with octopi looking out into the great unknown using telescopes. This is a reference to octopi's intelligence here on earth! There's also a secret path leading to a book club, through the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
|-
|'''B-612'''
|"Asteroid deflection mission to earth. The package is delivered. Commencing planetary threat neutralization."
|(2610,3700)
|
|Y
|
|
|A reference to [https://xkcd.com/618/ Asteroid]. The little prince is having his asteroid blown up as it was heading towards Earth, apparently.
|-
|'''Dog park planet'''
|
|(1240, 11230)
|
|
|
|
|A planet with a dog park. Covered in dogs, along with dog walkers and some fences. There's a hole being dug by two dogs and a dog bone empty space in the center.
|-
|'''What If? 2 scenario planet'''
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|'''The Sun'''
|
|(-14950, 12080)
|
|
|
|
|Difficult to escape from if you hit the core.
|-
|Sun's core
|
|
|Y
|
|
|
|Difficult to escape from. Can be escaped by rotating around the sun until an escape-like velocity could be reached.
|-
|'''Soupiter'''
|
|(-800, -9040)
|Y
|
|
|
|A planet made of soup, with a core. As commented by Cueball, noodle soup. Has several small versions of other planets floating around it.
|-
|'''Earth without Japan'''
|
|(-7680, -5850)
|Y
|
|
|
|Earth, except it's missing japan.
|-
|'''Just Japan'''
|
|
|Y
|
|
|
|
|-
|'''A blob labeled "Pigeons"'''
|
|(-9020, -2490)
|Y
|
|
|
|
|-
|'''Starship Enterprise'''
|
|
|
|
|Y
|
|Star Trek reference
|-
|'''Dinosaur planet'''
|
|
|
|
|Y
|
|An homage to [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaur Comics], a webcomic Randall has mentioned several times before. All the dinosaurs on the planet are black-and-white versions of the clip art dinosaurs in that comic. Also references the Jurassic Park movies, in which the long grass depicted is a plot point in later films.
|-
|'''What If? 1 scenario planet'''
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|'''Cat blocking traffic flowing through portals'''
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|'''Edge of the Universe'''
|
|
|
|
|
|
|It looks like a planet labeled "edge of the universe". Outside the universe, so inside the "edge of the universe planet", is another universe, the bubble universe.
|-
|'''A tree larger than the planet it's growing on'''
|
|
|
|Y
|
|
|May be a reference to [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2:_Petit_Trees_(sketch) Petit Trees]. More probably, a reference to ''The Little Prince'', a french children's novel about a traveller from a distant asteroid. In the novel, baobab trees are a serious threat to the Prince's home asteroid, as they are so large that their roots would engulf the asteroid entirely. Randall has alluded to The Little Prince numerous times before, especially in what-if articles.
|-
|'''Milliways'''
|
|
|
|
|Y
|
|Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy reference
|-
|'''The Great Attractor'''
|
|
|
|Y
|
|
|
|-
|'''Present'''
|
|(22820,-18920)
|
|Y
|
|
|The XKCD cast react to giving each other What if 2? as a present. Gravity at the bottom of the missing quarter of the planet is inescapable. Black Hat gives Cueball a "gift" which he claims "might not be a bobcat", a reference to [[A-Minus-Minus]]
|-
|'''Black hole cluster'''
|
|
|
|
|
|
|A cluster of black holes with extremely high gravitational strength, set to the maximum of 2048. Not particularly easy to land on with multiple conflicting gravitational fields, but once landed on, rather difficult to escape.
|-
|'''Remnant'''
|"All right, that's close enough"
"Oh no"

"So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out"

"In 5 billion years, the Sun will run out of fuel and suffer gigennial burnout."

"The immense gravity of the sun's remnant means that this is the tallest possible skyscraper."
|(19620, 3800)
|
|
|
|
|A stellar remnant, with high gravity (making it difficult to escape, although it's possible to achieve escape velocity by flying sideways). Has various small landmarks, including a "skyscraper" and suspension bridge. There are bombs being dropped from above the planet, with one that seems to be sledding on the planet.
|}

==Data Dump==

extracted from a JSON blob near the bottom of <code>https://xkcd.com/2712/comic.js</code>.
I believe this to be all the data but i'm not sure. this should probably be on a different page but i'll leave that up to the smart people
<pre style="height:10em;overflow-y:scroll;">
{
"items": {
"coin-cannonball": {
"consumable": "yes",
"effect": "transformship|ship-tintin",
"image": "coin",
"loc": [
359,
-815
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"size": [
40,
40
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"coin-figure": {
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"effect": "transformship|ship-figure",
"image": "figure",
"loc": [
-15050,
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"size": [
40,
40
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},
"coin-regular": {
"consumable": "yes",
"effect": "transformship|ship2",
"image": "regular",
"loc": [
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"size": [
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"coin-soccerball": {
"consumable": "yes",
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"image": "soccerball",
"loc": [
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11140
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"size": [
40,
40
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}
},
"locations": {
"b612": {
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"height": 2048,
"loc": [
2610,
3700
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"radius": 82,
"width": 2048
},
"dogplanet": {
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"height": 2048,
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"radius": 337,
"width": 2048
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"earth": {
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"radius": 3275,
"width": 16384
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"enterprise": {
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"height": 2048,
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"radius": 160,
"width": 2048
},
"europa": {
"gravity": 5000,
"height": 8192,
"loc": [
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"radius": 1625,
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"goodhart": {
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"radius": 1625,
"width": 8192
},
"greatattractor": {
"gravity": 450000,
"height": 4096,
"loc": [
-297000,
-125000
],
"radius": 800,
"width": 4096
},
"japanmoon": {
"gravity": 50,
"height": 2048,
"loc": [
-5930,
-5800
],
"radius": 67,
"width": 2048
},
"maw1": {
"gravity": 2000,
"height": 2048,
"loc": [
-31576,
-9077
],
"radius": 18,
"width": 2048
},
"maw10": {
"gravity": 2000,
"height": 2048,
"loc": [
-29516,
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</pre>
==Hacks==
'''Modes''' are activated by opening the Javascript Console (F12 [Or Command-Alt-I in most browsers under Mac OS X] to open Developer Tools, then Console tab) and writing corresponding commands. 
'''Click to expand:'''

<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">

*'''Googles:''' ''ze.googles()'' - returns a warning: "they do nothing!"
*'''Speedhack:''' ''ship.engines = "warp"'' - Speed hacking, sets speed to 1.4x set to "standard" to reset to normal speed
*'''Chaos Mode''' ''ship.engines="infinite improbability drive" '' - Seems to randomly teleports the ship
</div>

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

Welcome!

To celebrate the world of what if? 2, here is your very own planet to explore!

Give someone the science question-and-answer book what if? 2 for Christmas:
xkcd.com/whatif2

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Bobcats]]

2712: Gravity

2022-12-17T03:34:04Z

172.70.175.115: /* Explanation */

759: 3x9

2022-12-16T04:10:52Z

172.70.175.115: /* Explanation */ weird screenreader mucking up stuff?? no reason for it not to be normal text besides for it looking more "mathy"

{{comic
| number = 759
| date = June 28, 2010
| title = 3x9
| image = 3x9.png
| titletext = Handy exam trick: when you know the answer but not the correct derivation, derive blindly forward from the givens and backward from the answer, and join the chains once the equations start looking similar. Sometimes the graders don't notice the seam.
}}

==Explanation==
In college courses with a very large number of students (picture the huge, tiered, amphitheater-style lecture halls shown in any movie or TV show about college), teaching assistants are often employed to help the professors grade student work. In math and science courses, students are expected to solve the problems and show their work as supporting evidence. Due to the high volume of work to grade, whether it's being done by the professor or a TA, the grader may get lazy and look for correct answers and the existence of work without checking that the work is accurate.

The math shown in this comic switches from √ being square root notation to it being division notation midway. That is an illegal operation.{{Citation needed}} But the correct answer is reached anyway, because 27 is the correct answer to 3 × 9, 3√81, ''and'' 81 ÷ 3.

More generally, this pattern holds true for any number and its square; namely, xy = y² ÷ x whenever y = x².

The title text describes another technique usable when you remember the answer but not the calculations. It requires modifying the equation and the answer at the same time, hoping that at one point they'll look similar. Some students picture every step in the calculations, others skip some, as they seem obvious to them. Merging the equations once they look similar may trick the examiner into thinking that the step between them is obvious to the student, even if they ARE checking the calculations. The side effect (not mentioned) is that while doing this, you may actually realize what the calculations should be.

Alternatively, the title text could be a description of the calculations shown in the comic.

==Transcript==
:[A problem is given on an arithmetic test: "4) 3x9=?". In handwriting, the student's work follows. The student has accurately reformatted the question as 3 times the square root of 81, which visually resembles the long division problem of 3 divided into 81, and then solved the latter to get 27 — the correct answer to both.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:2695: Soil

2022-11-07T15:43:33Z

172.70.175.115:

Published unusually early? —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]]) 11:05, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
:Lately yes, I usually didn't see the monday comics on monday European time. (Maybe if I would have checked during evenings) - But in the past publishings were often during European daytime. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:00, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
:And an AM (central Europe; or UK, give or take that hour diffence) is far more rare. Slightly pre/post end-of-day midnight is when I tend to expect anything, early evening being a pleasant surprise. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.58|172.70.91.58]] 13:19, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
:This is the first time I have seen the Monday comic on Monday in Aus. [[User:TomW1605|TomW1605]] ([[User talk:TomW1605|talk]]) 13:22, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
::(¡ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀ ollǝH ...I know, I probably talk to Australians all the time, without knowing it, and have done for years, but it's nice to be told about these things occasionally. ;) ) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.24|172.70.85.24]] 13:29, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
:::We tend to pop up suprisingly often, i am often suprised to find how many Australians there are in a given small online comunity (happens a lot on discord). [[User:TomW1605|TomW1605]] ([[User talk:TomW1605|talk]]) 13:43, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
:::: another Australian here. Just missed seeing his on Monday where I am. When it came up early i thought it might be election related but i guess its only Tuesday for me so not special where Randall is [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 14:05, 7 November 2022 (UTC)

This is totally a Little Prince reference. Randall has referenced him multiple times before! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.115|172.70.175.115]] 15:43, 7 November 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

56: The Cure

2022-11-06T20:21:39Z

172.70.175.115: No

{{comic
| number = 56
| date = January 30, 2006
| title = The Cure
| image = the_cure.jpg
| titletext = My first try at drawing a real face in years.
}}

==Explanation==
The "real face" is that of {{w|Robert Smith (musician)|Robert Smith}}, best known as the singer of the musical group {{w|The Cure}}, hence the title.

The joke in this comic is very simple: When Robert would sing the above lines of {{w|Coldplay|Coldplay}}'s song "{{w|Clocks_(song)|Clocks}}", fans of his music would know the answer: he's part of The Cure.

In the title text, Randall notes that he has not tried to draw a real face in years, as he mainly does stick drawings. In that way this comic also sticks out.

==Transcript==
:[A charcoal drawing of Robert Smith's head and face.]
:[Caption below:]
:Robert Smith should do a cover of Coldplay's ''Clocks,'' so when he sings "Am I part of the cure or am I part of the disease?" we can say, "Ooh, we know this one!"

==Trivia==
*This was the first comic released only on xkcd, and not on [[LiveJournal]].
**The 11 previous comics were [[:Category:Posted on LiveJournal after xkcd|posted both on LiveJournal and xkcd]].
*The comic before this one, [[55: Useless]], was the 52nd and last comic originally posted also to LiveJournal.
**Two other comics were inserted among the first 52 at some point after xkcd was launched, thus making it a total of 54 comics before this one.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]