explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:893: 65 Years

2022-12-01T20:37:17Z

172.70.178.220:

I wonder if it would be possible to identify ''individual people'' who are behind those vertical jumps in the graph (in the not projected part)... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 19:18, 14 December 2012 (UTC)
*Glad you asked! </Information Hen> Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in July 1969; that's two. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean joined the group that November; that's four. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell in February '71; that's six. David Scott and James Irwin in July '71; that's eight. John W. Young and Charles Duke in April '72; that's ten. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in December '72; that's twelve. Irwin died in '91, dropping it to 11. Shepard and Conrad died in '98 and '99 respectively, making it 9 as of the date this comic was published. Armstrong died in '12, so our current number is 8. The oldest living person to have landed on the moon is Aldrin, 83. There are two 82-year-olds, two 80s, one 78 and two 77s. [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 13:28, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Almost prophetic and very, very sad. RIP Neil Armstrong ------

Can we add the 5% and 95% columns to the table? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]])
::i dont feel like this would add to the explanation of the comic and would require us to know a great deal about the author's calculations. rather than attempt to redo the actuarial calculations performed to make the chart and assign this to the individuals in the table we should rather explain the concepts behind the 5% and 95% and preserve the intention of actuarial information as applying to demographic groups. 5% of people in the demographic the author selected live to _ age 95% of those people live to _ age and how this affects our subject population. [[User:Mrarch|Mrarch]] ([[User talk:Mrarch|talk]]) 21:43, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Why is this explanation incomplete? The second paragraph does a good job explaining what the 5th percentile and 95th percentile are referring to. [[User:String userName = new String();|String userName = new String();]] ([[User talk:String userName = new String();|talk]]) 23:35, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

I prefer to think of the inhabitable planets as extensions to earth reserved for when we have learned not to kill all the inhabitants of the only inhabited planet in the universe.

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 22:39, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

I see no reason this is marked as incomplete; I've tidied up the percentile explanations, but haven't really added much more. I think it's fine, and will remove the incomplete tag in a few days if nobody objects. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 13:53, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

'''UPDATED GRAPH:''' I've updated the image with a red line showing actual moon walker deaths. View here: [https://i.imgur.com/G7DbbBi.png]. Sadly, it's right on track. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.59|172.68.58.59]] 22:19, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

As of mid April, 2020, this prediction is still accurate, but I'm really scared of what it'll be by the end of 2020 or 2021. Stay healthy everyone, astronaut or not! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 07:04, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Interesting that 6/12 of all the people who walked on the moon were born in 1930, and all bar Alan Shepard was born 1930-1935. Reminds me of some of the ideas in Malcolm Gladwell's *Outliers* about there being especially good birth years to succeed at high levels in given fields. It seems you want to have been mid-30s to early-40s (Shephard the outlier at 47) in the late 60s/early 70s. This also makes the comic more dramatic - if there had been a wider spread of ages, then the "death curve" would be a lot more gradual. -[[User:Honeypuppy|Honeypuppy]] ([[User talk:Honeypuppy|talk]]) 01:15, 30 September 2020 (UTC)
What? No. That's a false correlation. The moon program took place over a very short span of time, and was looking for very specific qualification. Including age.

Honorary mention: Michael Collins (1930-2021), RIP this date. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.104|162.158.158.104]] 17:44, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

IMO the saddest part isn't astronauts dying - it's lack of any new people getting to walk on another planet. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.157|162.158.90.157]] 14:04, 5 October 2021 (UTC)

324: Tapping

2022-11-15T02:34:13Z

172.70.178.220: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 324
| date = October 3, 2007
| title = Tapping
| image = tapping.png
| titletext = Sometimes the best fun looks like boredom.
}}

==Explanation==
In the first panel, [[Cueball]] makes the chance observation that tapping different points on a desk's surface results in different pitches being produced, a consequence of the desk's different {{w|Acoustic_resonance|resonant frequencies}} at these points. He soon learns that by using the pitches produced, he can replicate the [https://youtube.com/watch?v=-NqaupGcCpw well-known theme music] to the film {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}}. The third panel depicts that, given a lack of other entertaining stimuli, Cueball soon becomes engrossed in his newly discovered musical instrument, and his music grows in complexity.

This is a fun observation about part of human nature, to which many people can relate. Sadly, Cueball doesn't feel like telling Megan what he did, and instead, he just gives her an empty answer. Cueball perhaps feels, as [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] suggests in the title text, that he could not explain why the tapping activity was fun in its own right and not just a consequence of boredom, so he avoids having to explain in the first instance.

Other comics have shown the idea of feeling embarrassed by what one likes, to the point of refusing to admit that one likes it. Examples are [[245: Floor Tiles]] and the title text of [[1103: Nine]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk, tapping various parts of it.]
:Cueball [thinking]: Hey, I can get different pitches by tapping on different parts of the desk.
:''Tap Tap''
:''Tap Tap''

:[Cueball starts tapping faster, with both hands.]
:Cueball [thinking]: Sweet, I can do the Jurassic Park theme!
:''Tap Tap''
:''Tap Tap''
:''Tap Tap Tap''

:[Cueball taps the desk very rapidly, legs crossed.]
:''Tap Tap Tap''
:''Tap Tap Tap''
:''Tap Tap''
:''Tap Tap''
:''Tap Tap''
:''Tap Tap''

:[Later, elsewhere.]
:Megan: So, what did you do all afternoon?
:Cueball: Hung out.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Jurassic Park]]

Talk:2696: Precision vs Accuracy

2022-11-09T11:10:58Z

172.70.178.220:

87.532% of all statistics are just made up. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.220|172.70.178.220]] 11:10, 9 November 2022 (UTC)