explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2639: Periodic Table Changes

2022-07-02T23:32:56Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */ I'm editing this on mobile and WOW it looks bad ~~~~Bumpf

{{comic
| number = 2639
| date = June 29, 2022
| title = Periodic Table Changes
| image = periodic_table_changes.png
| titletext = It's nice how the end of the periodic table is flush with the edge these days, so I think we should agree no one should find any new elements after #118 unless they discover a whole row at once.
}}

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

The {{w|periodic table}} is a table used to arrange {{w|chemical elements}} according to their chemical and physical properties. This comic proposes "changes" to the periodic table that would be more pleasant aesthetically or make the periodic table look more regular. Some of these are (somewhat) practical changes to element abbreviations that could improve clarity in English, though changing documents to use different abbreviations would probably be more trouble than it's worth. However, other changes move elements around without taking into account that elements would stop being arranged by their properties. The periodic table would stop being useful after such changes unless said changes were meant to physically change the material properties of the elements, which would be impossible{{citation needed}}, although the comic plans to solve the problem with "free training" to their atomic behavior.

Other modifications make up new elements or remove existing ones from the table, which would not be a reasonable decision given that the periodic table is supposed to include all existing elements, whether they make the table neater or they don't.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Proposed change !! Explanation
|-
|Move helium over here. It fits nicely!||Helium is moved from the upper right corner to the second column next to hydrogen. However, the reason it is placed at the far-right Group 18 and not Group 2 is because it is a {{w|noble gas}}, rather than a reactive {{w|alkaline earth metal}}. You could say helium is in group 2 because it has two electrons in its outer shell, but normal periodic tables place it in group 18, the noble gases, with which it has far more in common. Hydrogen has similar problems being in group 1, as it's a non-metal and the elements below it are metals which don't have much in common with it chemically. There are periodic tables that show hydrogen floating above the periodic table for that reason.

Group 18 was not known at the time of the original table, which used I-VII (1-7) for the otherwise full-height columns, which turns out to reflect the number of free ('valence') electrons in their outer 'orbit', in one useful understanding of the atomic model. When added, the new final column was called either VIII (having a full outer shell) or Group 0 (having none free) and placed to the right of VII. It was originally thought that these so-called "noble gases" (no relation to Alfred Nobel of explosives and science prize fame) were unable to react with other elements. However, xenon compounds were discovered in 1962, and many other {{w|noble gas compounds}} have been discovered since then under a variety of conditions.

From the fourth row downwards the inserted block of Transition Metals represent a larger electron shell with more positions for free electrons and those elements to the right would have more electrons than those above them, by this measure, but their physical properties are still best dictated and aligned by the complement to the valence (i.e. the gap-size). The current numbering system shows the outer-shell electrons accurately in the rows where the ten new columns are, but the upper rows of columns 13-18 have ten more (or sixteen more, for Helium) than is the case. Similarly, once lanthanides and actinides are considered, the group number and outer-shell count becomes disconnected again in the opposite way. But it still seems useful enough to currently label in this manner under current {{w|IUPAC}} guidance.
|-
|Elements in this corner are cool. Add more!|| TBD (to be determined). Elements in that corner, such as carbon, oxygen, phosphorous, and nitrogen, participate in covalent bonding and are the primary elements involved in biochemical reactions, which may be why they are considered cooler than other elements.
|-
|Sp (Spite element)||Wedged between fluorine and neon. This is a reference to spite houses, houses jammed into a narrow space to block other construction, or spite fences, which are fences built to annoy neighbors. However, such an element would have an atomic number greater than fluorine's (9) but less than neon's (10).
|-
|Merge these boring metals with titanium to make *tixanium*||Tixanium (Tx) replaces five metals, including titanium (Ti). This may be a reference to the term "UX" (user experience) being used instead of "UI" (user interface) as more of an umbrella term.

While titanium certainly has an impressive name, and is used in the aerospace industry and other high-performance applications, the others are hardly boring; manganese, for example, was part of the cover story for the top-secret {{w|Project Azorian}}.
|-

|Update Latin/Neo-Latin symbols to match names. This isn't ancient Rome.
* Sodium: Na (Natrium) => So
* Potassium: K (Kalium) => Pm
* Iron: Fe (Ferrum) => I
* Silver: Ag (Argentum) => Sv
* Gold: Au (Aurum) => Gd
* Tin: Sn (Stannum) => Tn
* Lead: Pb (Plumbum) => Ld
|Since I is already used for Iodine, it gets a new abbreviation Io, and Gadolinium is re-abbreviated to Gm to free up Gd.

Note that most of these changes will actually make the table less readable if one considers languages other than English. For example, in European languages, 'I' for iron will work for Irish (but not for Dutch, as 'ijzer' doesn't really start with 'i' but with 'ij'. It would be capitalized, e.g. at the start of a sentence, as 'IJzer'.) while 'Fe' currently matches in French, Italian, Portuguese, and most of the languages in Spain. Similarly, Natrium is still used in most Germanic languages.

This group of changes doesn't include antimony (Sb -- stibium), but that’s because it gets replaced by “carbon III” (see below). Nor is copper changed from its "Cu" for "cuprum".
|-
|Replace the blander post-transition metals with new kinds of carbon||
* Indium (In) -> C II.
* Antimony (Sb) -> C III.
* Tellurium (Te) -> C IV.
* Thallium (Tl) -> C V.
* Bismuth (Bi) -> C VI.
Carbon can make four covalent bonds, which means it can form a huge range of chemicals, above all ones vital to life. The post-transition metals don't have this level of interest. If there were more chemicals like carbon, it could allow more exciting chemistry and perhaps new kinds of life.
|-
|That W annoys me|| Tungsten: W (Wolfram) -> Tg.

Another element whose symbol doesn't match its English name. "Wolfram" is the name for tungsten in some languages and is derived from the mineral wolframite, which comes from the name "wolf rām" in Middle High German (wolf soot).

Oddly, despite changing Latin and German abbreviations to English, Randall does not change the symbol for mercury (Hg from the Greek "hydrargyrum").

|-
|3.4% of all elements are named after Ytterby, Sweden (pop. 3,000). Let's keep Yttrium, but rename the other 3 after bigger cities (Tokyium, Delhium, and Jakartium?) to be more fair.
|Four elements -- yttrium (Y), ytterbium (Yb), terbium (Tb) and erbium (Er) -- are named after {{w|Ytterby}}, a Swedish village where they were discovered. Scandium (Sc), thulium (Tm), holmium (Ho) and gadolinium (Gd) were isolated from minerals found in the same quarry. Randall suggests naming 3 of them after some other major world cities, despite those cities having no connection to those elements.
* Terbium (Tb) -> Tokyium (Ty) - Tokyo
* Erbium (Er) -> Delhium (Dh) - Delhi
* Ytterbium (Yb) -> Jakartium (Jk) - Jakarta
Randall may be using using 2010 census data (2946); Ytterby mine is located on the island of Resarö, found under 0187TB103 in table [https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/environment/land-use/localities-and-urban-areas/pong/tables-and-graphs/localities-2020-population-land-area-population-density-per-locality/ MI0810], population 3212 (2020 census).

Interestingly, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov Isaac Asimov] made essentially the same remark in his science essay ''The Multiplying Elements'', saying that it was a waste of element names that could have been used to honor great contributors to chemistry. One obvious candidate would be [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moseley Henry Moseley] (mentioned in another of Asimov's essays, ''The Nobel Prize That Wasn't'') who used early X-ray spectroscopy to resolve the confusion over rare earth elements, finally put the Periodic Table on a firm ground and conceived the idea of "Atomic Number".
|-
|Inserting the lanthanides and actinides properly makes the table too wide. Triage is needed. Each element will be offered free training to help adjust to its new column.||Though the lanthanides and actinides typically are placed underneath the bottom of the table, they actually belong in the 6th and 7th rows of the table between the 2nd and 3rd columns, as they are numbered elements 57-70 and 89-102. This section of the table is typically excised to give the overall shape more appealing dimensions; including this section in the main table [https://sciencenotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PeriodicTableExtended.png extends the length dramatically]. This proves rather unwieldy especially when referencing the table for the lower-numbered elements, which are generally more common, and/or elements far to the sides of the table, which are often more influential in chemical reactions. Randall recommends that a subset of these elements be placed in a new row at the bottom of the table (making them elements 93-110) and they will receive "training" to adjust to their new columns.
|}

The title text suggests discovering elements only in entire rows at once. Elements with more protons than 118 could be discovered in future by collisions in particle accelerators, but aren't likely to be discovered in an entire row at a time.

Changing the periodic table was also the topic of [[2214: Chemistry Nobel]], and the red-ink style of "aesthetic" revision over a complex and established diagram is highly reminiscent of [[1902: State Borders]] and [[2351: Standard Model Changes]].

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

:Changes I would make to the periodic table
:[A modified periodic table is shown, with changes in red.]

:[Helium is moved from the upper right corner to the second column next to hydrogen.]
:Move helium over here. It fits nicely!
:[Two elements labeled TBD are added to the left of boron and aluminium.]
:Elements in this corner are cool. Add more!
:[A narrow triangular shape is wedged between fluorine and neon.]
:Sp (Spite element)
:[Tx replaces five elements: scandium, titanium, vanadium, chromium and manganese.]
:Merge these boring metals with titanium to make *tixanium*
:[The symbols of sodium, potassium, iron, silver, gold, tin and lead are changed to use letters from their English names.]
:Update Latin/Neo-Latin symbols to match names. This isn't ancient Rome.
:[The symbols of indium, antimony, tellurium, thallium and bismuth are changed to symbols containing the letter C followed by Roman numerals II to VI, respectively.]
:Replace the blander post-transition metals with new kinds of carbon
:[The symbol of tungsten is changed from W to Tg.]
:That W annoys me
:[Neodymium is highlighted.]
:Neodymium can stay—magnets are cool
:[A subset of lanthanides and actinides are to be placed under the bottom of the main table into a single row.]
:Move
:Inserting the lanthanides and actinides properly makes the table too wide. Triage is needed. Each element will be offered free training to help adjust to its new column.
:[The symbols of terbium, erbium and ytterbium are changed to Ty, Dh and Jk, respectively.]
:3.4% of all elements are named after Ytterby, Sweden (pop. 3,000). Let's keep yttrium, but rename the other 3 after bigger cities (tokyium, delhium, and jakartium?) to be more fair.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

2639: Periodic Table Changes

2022-06-30T14:42:07Z

172.70.230.53:

{{comic
| number = 2639
| date = June 29, 2022
| title = Periodic Table Changes
| image = periodic_table_changes.png
| titletext = It's nice how the end of the periodic table is flush with the edge these days, so I think we should agree no one should find any new elements after #118 unless they discover a whole row at once.
}}

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

The {{w|periodic table}} is a table used to arrange {{w|chemical elements}} according to their chemical and physical properties. This comic proposes "changes" to the periodic table that would be more pleasant aesthetically or make the periodic table look more regular. Some of these are (somewhat) practical changes to element abbreviations that could improve clarity in English, though changing documents to use different abbreviations would probably be more trouble than it's worth. However, other changes move elements around without taking into account that elements would stop being arranged by their properties. The periodic table would stop being useful after such changes unless said changes were meant to physically change the material properties of the elements, which would be impossible{{citation needed}}, although the comic plans to solve the problem with "free training" to their atomic behavior. The attitude is similar to impossible economic plans attempted with unpleasant results, possibly a current event.

Other modifications make up new elements or remove existing ones from the table, which would not be a reasonable decision given that the periodic table is supposed to include all existing elements, whether they make the table neater or they don't.

;Move helium over here. It fits nicely!
Helium is moved from the upper right corner to the second column next to hydrogen. However, the reason it is placed at the far-right Group 18 and not Group 2 is because it is a {{w|noble gas}}, rather than a reactive {{w|alkaline earth metal}}. You could say helium is in group 2 because it has two electrons in its outer shell, but normal periodic tables place it in group 18, the noble gases, with which it has far more in common. Hydrogen has similar problems being in group 1, as it's a non-metal and the elements below it are metals which don't have much in common with it chemically. There are periodic tables that show hydrogen floating above the periodic table for that reason.

Group 18 was not known at the time of the original table, which used I-VII (1-7) for the otherwise full-height columns, which turns out to reflect the number of free ('valance') electrons in their outer 'orbit', in one useful understanding of the atomic model. When added, the new final column was called either VIII (having a full outer shell) or Group 0 (having none free) and placed to the right of VII. It was thought that these Noble gases were thought to be unable to react with other elements, but xenon compounds were discovered in 1962, and many others have been discovered since then, that are formed by a process not as trivial as being spare-valances of one element 'keying' into valance-gaps of another.

From the fourth row downwards the inserted block of Transition Metals represent a larger electron shell with more positions for free electrons and those elements to the right would have more electrons than those above them, by this measure, but their physical properties are still best dictated and aligned by the complement to the valance (i.e. the gap-size). The current numbering system shows the outer-shell electrons accurately in the rows where the ten new columns are, but the upper rows of columns 13-18 have ten more (or sixteen more, for Helium) than is the case. Similarly, once lanthinides and actinides are considered, the group number and outer-shell count becomes disconnected again in the opposite way. But it still seems useful enough to curtently label in this manner under current {{w|IUPAC}} guidance.

;Elements in this corner are cool. Add more!
TBD (to be determined). Elements in that corner, such as carbon, oxygen, phosphorous, and nitrogen, participate in covalent bonding and are the primary elements involved in biochemical reactions, which may be why they are considered cooler than other elements.

;Sp (Spite element)
Wedged between fluorine and neon. This could be a reference to spite houses, houses jammed into a narrow space to block other construction, or spite fences, which are fences built to annoy neighbors; and to the phrase 'element of spite'.

;Merge these boring metals with titanium to make *tixanium*
Tixanium (Tx) replaces five metals, including titanium (Ti). This may be a reference to the term "UX" (user experience) being used instead of "UI" (user interface) as more of an umbrella term.

While titanium certainly has an impressive name, and is used in the aerospace industry and other high-performance applications, the others are hardly boring; manganese, for example, was part of the cover story for the top-secret {{w|Project Azorian}}.

;Update Latin/Neo-Latin symbols to match names. This isn't ancient Rome.
* Sodium: Na (Natrium) => So
* Potassium: K (Kalium) => Pm
* Iron: Fe (Ferrum) => I
* Silver: Ag (Argentum) => Sv
* Gold: Au (Aurum) => Gd
* Tin: Sn (Stannum) => Tn
* Lead: Pb (Plumbum) => Ld
Since I is already used for Iodine, it gets a new abbreviation Io, and Gadolinium is re-abbreviated to Gm to free up Gd.

Note that most of these changes will actually make the table less readable if one considers languages other than English. For example, in european languages, 'I' for iron will work for Irish and Dutch, while 'Fe' currently matches in French, Italian, Portuguese, and most of the languages in Spain.

This group of changes doesn't include antimony (Sb -- stibium), but that’s because it gets replaced by “carbon III” (see below).

;Replace the blander post-transition metals with new kinds of carbon
* Indium (In) -> C II.
* Antimony (Sb) -> C III.
* Tellurium (Te) -> C IV.
* Thallium (Tl) -> C V.
* Bismuth (Bi) -> C VI.

Carbon can make four covalent bonds, which means it can form a huge range of chemicals, above all ones vital to life. The post-transition metals don't have this level of interest. If there were more chemicals like carbon, it could allow more exciting chemistry and perhaps new kinds of life.

;That W annoys me
* Tungsten: W (Wolfram) -> Tg.

Another element whose symbol doesn't match its English name. "Wolfram" is the name for tungsten in some languages and is derived from the mineral wolframite, which comes from the name "wolf rahm" in German (wolf soot).

Oddly, despite changing Latin and German abbreviations to English, Randall does not change the symbol for mercury (Hg from the Greek "hydrargyrum").

;3.4% of all elements are named after Ytterby, Sweden (pop. 3,000). Let's keep Yttrium, but rename the other 3 after bigger cities (Tokyium, Delhium, and Jakartium?) to be more fair.
Four elements -- yttrium (Y), ytterbium (Yb), terbium (Tb) and erbium (Er) -- are named after {{w|Ytterby}}, a Swedish village where they were discovered. Scandium (Sc), thulium (Tm), holmium (Ho) and gadolinium (Gd) were isolated from minerals found in the same quarry. Randall suggests naming 3 of them after some other major world cities, despite those cities having no connection to those elements.
* Terbium (Tb) -> Tokyium (Ty) - Tokyo
* Erbium (Er) -> Delhium (Dh) - Delhi
* Ytterbium (Yb) -> Jakartium (Jk) - Jakarta

Interestingly. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov Isaac Asimov] made essentially the same remark in his science essay ''The Multiplying Elements'', saying that it was a waste of element names that could have been used to honor great contributors to chemistry. One obvious candidate would be [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moseley Henry Moseley] (mentioned in another of Asimov's essays, ''The Nobel Prize That Wasn't'') who used early X-ray spectroscopy to resolve the confusion over rare earth elements, finally put the Periodic Table on a firm ground and conceived the idea of "Atomic Number".

;Inserting the lanthanides and actinides properly makes the table too wide. Triage is needed. Each element will be offered free training to help adjust to its new column.
Though the lanthanides and actinides typically are placed under the bottom of the table, they actually belong in the 6th and 7th rows of the table between the 2nd and 3rd columns, as they are numbered elements 57-70 and 89-102. This section of the table is typically excised to give the overall shape more appealing dimensions: as Randall says, properly placing these elements makes the table "too wide". He recommends that a subset of these elements be placed at the bottom of the table (making them elements 93-110) and they will receive "training" to adjust to their new columns.

The title text suggests discovering elements only in entire rows at once. Elements with more protons than 118 could be discovered in future by collisions in particle accelerators, but aren't likely to be discovered in an entire row at a time.

Changing the periodic table was also the topic of [[2214: Chemistry Nobel]].

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

:Changes I would make to the periodic table
:[A modified periodic table is shown, with changes in red.]

:[Helium is moved from the upper right corner to the second column next to hydrogen.]
:Move helium over here. It fits nicely!
:[Two elements labeled TBD are added to the left of boron and aluminium.]
:Elements in this corner are cool. Add more!
:[A narrow triangular shape is wedged between fluorine and neon.]
:Sp (Spite element)
:[Tx replaces five elements: scandium, titanium, vanadium, chromium and manganese.]
:Merge these boring metals with titanium to make *tixanium*
:[The symbols of sodium, potassium, iron, silver, gold, tin and lead are changed to use letters from their English names.]
:Update Latin/Neo-Latin symbols to match names. This isn't ancient Rome.
:[The symbols of indium, antimony, tellurium, thallium and bismuth are changed to symbols containing the letter C followed by Roman numerals II to VI, respectively.]
:Replace the blander post-transition metals with new kinds of carbon
:[The symbol of tungsten is changed from W to Tg.]
:That W annoys me
:[Neodymium is highlighted.]
:Neodymium can stay—magnets are cool
:[A subset of lathanides and actinides are to be placed under the bottom of the main table into a single row.]
:Move
:Inserting the lanthanides and actinides properly makes the table too wide. Triage is needed. Each element will be offered free training to help adjust to its new column.
:[The symbols of terbium, erbium and ytterbium are changed to Ty, Dh and Jk, respectively.]
:3.4% of all elements are named after Ytterby, Sweden (pop. 3,000). Let's keep yttrium, but rename the other 3 after bigger cities (tokyium, delhium, and jakartium?) to be more fair.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

2639: Periodic Table Changes

2022-06-30T01:43:17Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */

2171: Shadow Biosphere

2022-06-26T21:58:59Z

172.70.230.53: added quotations for text copy/pasted from wikipedia. C'mon.

{{comic
| number = 2171
| date = July 3, 2019
| title = Shadow Biosphere
| image = shadow_biosphere.png
| titletext = The typical Shadow Biology Department is housed in a building coated in a thin layer of desert varnish which renders it invisible to normal-world university staff.
}}

==Explanation==

A {{w|shadow biosphere}} is "a hypothetical microbial {{w|biosphere}} of Earth that uses radically different biochemical and molecular processes than currently known life. Although life on Earth is relatively well-studied, the shadow biosphere may still remain unnoticed because the exploration of the microbial world targets primarily the biochemistry of the macro-organisms."
Because organisms based on RNA would not have ribosomes, which are usually used to detect living microorganisms, they would be difficult to find in normal circumstances.

The comic suggests that this hypothetical biosphere exists, and its study is funded by "shadow biotech" corporations. The field would be called "shadow biology", so people that study it would be "shadow biologists". However, this is reinterpreted to mean "shadow" biologist, meaning that anyone that studies it becomes undetectable. A "shadowy" figure, presumably a shadow biologist, is telling this to [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]], but they are not shadow biologists and can't hear him.

The title text references {{w|desert varnish}}, an orange-yellow to black coating found on exposed rock surfaces in arid environments, which has been suggested as a potential candidate for a shadow biosphere. Unless a building was made with already-varnished rocks, it would be impractical to cover a building in desert varnish (it forms naturally on rocks over thousands of years). Ignoring its impracticality, the joke is that if a building were covered in desert varnish, it would supposedly be invisible to biologists who don't study the shadow biosphere.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are standing facing each other. A shadowy figure is behind Megan.]
:Shadowy figure: These days most of our funding comes in from the shadow biotech industry.
:Megan: Did you hear something?
:Cueball: I think it's the wind.

:[Caption below the panel:]
: The shadow biosphere exists, but if you study it, you become a shadow biologist.

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

2637: Roman Numerals

2022-06-26T11:56:51Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2637
| date = June 24, 2022
| title = Roman Numerals
| image = roman_numerals.png
| titletext = 100he100k out th1s 1nno5at4e str1ng en100o501ng 15e been 500e5e50op1ng! 1t's 6rtua100y perfe100t! ...hang on, what's a "virtuacy"?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|100reate500 by a LXXXT  - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Roman numerals are the system of representing numbers used during the Roman Empire. The letters I, V, X, L, C, D, and M are used to represent numbers, with each letter representing a consistent value. Specifically, I represents 1, V represents 5, X represents 10, L represents 50, C represents 100, D represents 500, and M represents 1000. One way of stating the rules for combining Roman numerals next to each other are that a Roman numeral is added to a Roman numeral of equal or lesser value just to its right (e.g., II=1+1=2 because 1≥1, and VI=5+1=6 because 5≥1), and a Roman number is subtracted from a Roman numeral of greater value just to its right (e.g., IV=5-1=4 because 1<5, and IX=10-1=9 because 1<10). (Also, each place must be written separately, e.g., one cannot represent 49 via IL but instead must represent the tens place and ones place separately via XL IX—although the space would not be included in practice).

The modern system of representing numbers is a decimal positional notation using Hindu–Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9), which are so-called because they were invented in India. However, because they were introduced to Europe by Arabic merchants, Westerners often call them Arabic or Hindu-Arabic numerals. Instead of concatenating several 1s, the single character 2 represents 1+1, 3 represents 1+1+1, etc… all the way to 9 representing 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1. Integers larger than nine are represented as a sum of digits multiplied by different powers of ten. Each time a digit is moved one place to the left, the value that it represents is multiplied by ten (e.g., moving 3 to the left, starting in the ones place, changes the value that it represents from three to three tens to three hundreds to three thousands…). Positional notations require a character for the additive identity, 0, to fill in any gaps so that the digits to its left are positioned correctly. The string "4096" represents 4×103+0×102+9×101+6×100.

Thus in Roman numerals a digit always has the same absolute value but may be treated as positive or negative depending on the digit after it, whereas for Hindu-Arabic numerals, a digit's value changes by a power of 10 depending on its absolute position and is never subtracted.

Cueball's original equations in Roman Numeral form are:
<center>I + I = II</center>
<center>II + II = IV</center>
<center>IV + V = IX</center>

Translated normally into more familiar digits, these equations are:
<center>1 + 1 = 2</center>
<center>2 + 2 = 4</center>
<center>4 + 5 = 9</center>

But Randall/Cueball replaced each letter individually with its value in Hindu-Arabic numerals — ignoring the abovementioned rules for interpreting combined Roman numbers, instead using the rules of Roman Numerals. "I" is replaced with "1", "V" is replaced with "5", and "X" is replaced with "10". For example, for IX at the end of the last equation, "I" is replaced with "1", and "X" is replaced with "10", so "IX" becomes "110". Thus, the equations are written
<center>1 + 1 = 1 1</center>
<center>1 1 + 1 1 = 1 5</center>
<center>1 5 + 5 = 1 10</center>
where the spaces have been added for clarity.

The joke is that because Arabic numerals do not use the same rules of addition and subtraction as Roman numerals, the equations appear incorrect in both systems. The usual interpetation of 11 is 10+1, not 1+1 as it is under the rules for interpreting Roman numerals. Randall derives additional humor from the premise that Cueball seems to know Roman numerals better than Arabic numerals (as demonstrated by the fact that he translated only the symbology and not the grammar) so that he would do math in Roman numerals and have to remember to convert his equations to Arabic numerals at the end. Schoolchildren in the West have been taught to do math with Arabic numerals, not Roman numerals, for centuries.

In the title text, Randall applies the same idea of replacing Roman numerals with their values in Arabic numerals to strings of English words.

{| style="border:1px solid #ccd;"
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 100
| he
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 100
| k
| out
| th
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 1
| s
|
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 1
| nno
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 5
| at
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 4
| e
| str
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 1
| ng
| en
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 100
| o
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 501
| ng
|
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 15
| e
| been
|
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 500
| e
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 5
| e
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 50
| op
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 1
| ng!
|
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 1
| t's
|
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 6
| rtua
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 100
| y
| perfe
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | 100
| t!
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | C
| he
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | C
| k
| out
| th
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | I
| s
|
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | I
| nno
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | V
| at
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | IV
| e
| str
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | I
| ng
| en
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | C
| o
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | DI
| ng
|
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | IV
| e
| been
|
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | D
| e
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | V
| e
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | L
| op
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | I
| ng!
|
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | I
| t's
|
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | VI
| rtua
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | LL/C
| y
| perfe
| style="background-color:#ccd;" | C
| t!
|}

The original string (with letters that would be interpreted as Roman numerals capitalized) is, "CheCk out thIs InnoVatIVe strIng enCoDIng I'Ve been DeVeLopIng! It's VIrtuaLLy perfeCt!" For the first word, "Check," C is replaced with the value of that Roman numeral in Arabic numerals, i.e., "100", in both instances of the word, which results in "100he100k". Unlike in the comic, Randall combines Roman numbers using the proper rules of addition and subtraction. For example, he replaces "IV" with "4", not "15", e.g., "innovative" becomes "1nno5at4e", not "1nno5at15e". (However, "I've" becomes "15e", not "4e", presumably because the apostrophe was removed after, not before, replacing the Roman numerals with Arabic numerals. However, there is not an obvious reason why Randall removed the apostrophe.) However, there are problems with this. One example is that the double L in "virtually" is replaced with 100. This correctly remembers Roman numerals' rule of adding the value of a letter to the value of an equal-valued letter just to its right, but in Roman numerals, a single number should never have multiple Vs, multiple Ls, or multiple Ds, e.g., 100 should be represented by C, not LL. This would mean that a simplistic decoding script would erroneously decode "6rtua100y" to "virtuacy", not "virtually". Thus, this string encoding system is not actually perfect. (Until the modern codification in general use today, Roman numerals weren't standardised that much, so "LL" could have been a tolerated alternative to "C". For more on that, see {{w|Roman_numerals#Classical_Roman_numerals}}. However, having the decoding script use that would not solve the problem but instead would make the decoding script replace Cs with LLs instead, e.g., "delloding sllript".)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball writing on a wall or a whiteboard.]
:1+1=11
:11+11=15
:15+5=110

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Remember, Roman numerals are archaic, so always replace them with modern ones when doing math.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]

2637: Roman Numerals

2022-06-25T04:17:58Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2637
| date = June 24, 2022
| title = Roman Numerals
| image = roman_numerals.png
| titletext = 100he100k out th1s 1nno5at4e str1ng en100o501ng 15e been 500e5e50op1ng! 1t's 6rtua100y perfe100t! ...hang on, what's a "virtuacy"?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|100reate500 by a LXXXT  - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Roman numerals are an archaic system of representing numbers that uses the letters I, V, X, L, C, D, and M to represent numbers, which each letter representing a consistent value. Specifically, I represents 1, V represents 5, X represents 10, L represents 50, C represents 100, D represents 500, and M represents 1000. The rules for combining Roman numerals next to each other are that a Roman numeral is added to a Roman numeral of equal or lesser value just to its right (e.g., II=1+1=2 because 1≥1, and VI=5+1=6 because 5≥1), and a Roman number is subtracted from a Roman numeral of greater value just to its right (e.g., IV=5-1=4 because 1<5, and IX=10-1=9 because 1<10). (Also, each place must be written separately, e.g., one cannot represent 49 via IL but instead must represent the tens place and ones place separately via XL IX—although the space would not be included in practice).

The modern system of representing numbers is a decimal positional notation using Hindu numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9), which are so-called because they were invented in India. However, because they were introduced to Europe by Arabic merchants, Westerners often call them Arabic or Hindu-Arabic numerals. Instead of concatenating several 1s, the single character 2 represents 1+1, 3 represents 1+1+1, etc… all the way to 9 representing 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1. Integers larger than nine are represented as a sum of digits multiplied by different powers of ten. Each time a digit is moved one place to the left, the value that it represents is multiplied by ten (e.g., moving 3 to the left, starting in the ones place, changes the value that it represents from three to three tens to three hundreds to three thousands…). Positional notations require a character for the additive identity, 0, to fill in any gaps so that the digits to its left are positioned correctly. The string "4096" represents 4×103+0×102+9×101+6×100.

Thus in Roman numerals a digit always has the same absolute value but may be positive or negative depending on the digit after it, whereas for Hindu-Arabic numerals, a digit's value changes by a power of 10 depending on its absolute position and is never subtracted.

Cueball's original equations in Roman Numeral form are:
<center>I + I = II</center>
<center>II + II = IV</center>
<center>IV + V = IX</center>

Translated properly into more familiar digits, these equations are:
<center>1 + 1 = 2</center>
<center>2 + 2 = 4</center>
<center>4 + 5 = 9</center>

But Randall/Cueball replaced each letter individually with its value in Hindu-Arabic numerals — ignoring the abovementioned rules for interpreting combined Roman numbers, instead using simple concatenation. Specifically, "I" is replaced with "1", "V" is replaced with "5", and "X" is replaced with "10". For example, for IX at the end of the last equation, "I" is replaced with "1", and "X" is replaced with "10", so "IX" becomes "110". Thus, the equations become
<center>1 + 1 = 1 1</center>
<center>1 1 + 1 1 = 1 5</center>
<center>1 5 + 5 = 1 10</center>
where the spaces have been added for clarity.

The joke is that because Hindu numerals do not use the same rules of addition and subtraction as Roman numerals, simple concatenation makes the equations incorrect. For example, 11 is read as 10+1, not 1+1 as it should under the correct rules for interpreting Roman numerals. Randall derives additional humor from the premise that Cueball seems to know Roman numerals better than Hindu numerals (as demonstrated by the fact that he does not recognize that his equations are false when interpreted using the standard rules for Hindu numerals) so that he would do math in Roman numerals and have to remember to convert his equations to Hindu numerals at the end. Schoolchildren in the West have been taught to do math with Hindu numerals, not Roman numerals, for centuries.

In the title text, Randall applies the same idea of replacing Roman numerals with their values in Hindu numerals to strings of English words. The original string (with letters that would be interpreted as Roman numerals capitalized) is, "CheCk out thIs InnoVatIVe strIng enCoDIng I'Ve been DeVeLopIng! It's VIrtuaLLy perfeCt!" For the first word, "Check," C is replaced with the value of that Roman numeral in Hindu numerals, i.e., "100", in both instances of the word, which results in "100he100k". Unlike in the comic, Randall combines Roman numbers using the proper rules of addition and subtraction. For example, he replaces "IV" with "4", not "15", e.g., "innovative" becomes "1nno5at4e", not "1nno5at15e". (However, "I've" becomes "15e", not "4e", presumably because the apostrophe was removed after, not before, replacing the Roman numerals with Hindu numerals. However, there is not an obvious reason why Randall removed the apostrophe.) However, there are problems with this. One example is that the double L in "virtually" is replaced with 100. This correctly remembers Roman numerals' rule of adding the value of a letter to the value of an equal-valued letter just to its right, but in Roman numerals, a single number should never have multiple Vs, multiple Ls, or multiple Ds, e.g., 100 should be represented by C, not LL. This would mean that a simplistic decoding script would erroneously decode "6rtua100y" to "virtuacy", not "virtually". Thus, this string encoding system is not actually perfect. (Until the modern codification in general use today, Roman numerals weren't standardised that much, so "LL" could have been a tolerated alternative to "C". For more on that, see {{w|Roman_numerals#Classical_Roman_numerals}}. However, having the decoding script use that would not solve the problem but instead would make the decoding script replace Cs with LLs instead, e.g., "delloding sllript".)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball writing on a wall or a whiteboard.]
:1+1=11
:11+11=15
:15+5=110

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Remember, Roman numerals are archaic, so always replace them with modern ones when doing math.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]

2637: Roman Numerals

2022-06-25T04:13:46Z

172.70.230.53:

{{comic
| number = 2637
| date = June 24, 2022
| title = Roman Numerals
| image = roman_numerals.png
| titletext = 100he100k out th1s 1nno5at4e str1ng en100o501ng 15e been 500e5e50op1ng! 1t's 6rtua100y perfe100t! ...hang on, what's a "virtuacy"?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|100reate500 by a LXXXT  - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Roman numerals are an archaic system of representing numbers that uses the letters I, V, X, L, C, D, and M to represent numbers, which each letter representing a consistent value. Specifically, I represents 1, V represents 5, X represents 10, L represents 50, C represents 100, D represents 500, and M represents 1000. The rules for combining Roman numerals next to each other are that a Roman numeral is added to a Roman numeral of equal or lesser value just to its right (e.g., II=1+1=2 because 1≥1, and VI=5+1=6 because 5≥1), and a Roman number is subtracted from a Roman numeral of greater value just to its right (e.g., IV=5-1=4 because 1<5, and IX=10-1=9 because 1<10). (Also, each place must be written separately, e.g., one cannot represent 49 via IL but instead must represent the tens place and ones place separately via XL IX—although the space would not be included in practice).

The modern system of representing numbers is a decimal positional notation using Hindu numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9), which are so-called because they were invented in India. However, because they were introduced to Europe by Arabic merchants, Westerners often call them Arabic or Hindu-Arabic numerals. Instead of concatenating several 1s, the single character 2 represents 1+1, 3 represents 1+1+1, etc… all the way to 9 representing 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1. Integers larger than nine are represented as a sum of digits multiplied by different powers of ten. Each time a digit is moved one place to the left, the value that it represents is multiplied by ten (e.g., moving 3 to the left, starting in the ones place, changes the value that it represents from three to three tens to three hundreds to three thousands…). Positional notations require a character for the additive identity, 0, to fill in any gaps so that the digits to its left are positioned correctly.

Thus for Hindu-Arabic numerals, a digit's value depends on its absolute position, not on whether the digit after it is larger than it as in Roman numerals. The string "15" represents 1×101+5×100 while "51" represents 5×101+1×100. There is no subtraction rule.

Cueball's original equations in Roman Numeral form are:
<center>I + I = II</center>
<center>II + II = IV</center>
<center>IV + V = IX</center>

Translated properly into more familiar digits, these equations are:
<center>1 + 1 = 2</center>
<center>2 + 2 = 4</center>
<center>4 + 5 = 9</center>

But Randall/Cueball replaced each letter individually with its value in Hindu-Arabic numerals — ignoring the abovementioned rules for interpreting combined Roman numbers, instead using simple concatenation. Specifically, "I" is replaced with "1", "V" is replaced with "5", and "X" is replaced with "10". For example, for IX at the end of the last equation, "I" is replaced with "1", and "X" is replaced with "10", so "IX" becomes "110". Thus, the equations become
<center>1 + 1 = 1 1</center>
<center>1 1 + 1 1 = 1 5</center>
<center>1 5 + 5 = 1 10</center>
where the spaces have been added for clarity.

The joke is that because Hindu numerals do not use the same rules of addition and subtraction as Roman numerals, simple concatenation makes the equations incorrect. For example, 11 is read as 10+1, not 1+1 as it should under the correct rules for interpreting Roman numerals. Randall derives additional humor from the premise that Cueball seems to know Roman numerals better than Hindu numerals (as demonstrated by the fact that he does not recognize that his equations are false when interpreted using the standard rules for Hindu numerals) so that he would do math in Roman numerals and have to remember to convert his equations to Hindu numerals at the end. Schoolchildren in the West have been taught to do math with Hindu numerals, not Roman numerals, for centuries.

In the title text, Randall applies the same idea of replacing Roman numerals with their values in Hindu numerals to strings of English words. The original string (with letters that would be interpreted as Roman numerals capitalized) is, "CheCk out thIs InnoVatIVe strIng enCoDIng I'Ve been DeVeLopIng! It's VIrtuaLLy perfeCt!" For the first word, "Check," C is replaced with the value of that Roman numeral in Hindu numerals, i.e., "100", in both instances of the word, which results in "100he100k". Unlike in the comic, Randall combines Roman numbers using the proper rules of addition and subtraction. For example, he replaces "IV" with "4", not "15", e.g., "innovative" becomes "1nno5at4e", not "1nno5at15e". (However, "I've" becomes "15e", not "4e", presumably because the apostrophe was removed after, not before, replacing the Roman numerals with Hindu numerals. However, there is not an obvious reason why Randall removed the apostrophe.) However, there are problems with this. One example is that the double L in "virtually" is replaced with 100. This correctly remembers Roman numerals' rule of adding the value of a letter to the value of an equal-valued letter just to its right, but in Roman numerals, a single number should never have multiple Vs, multiple Ls, or multiple Ds, e.g., 100 should be represented by C, not LL. This would mean that a simplistic decoding script would erroneously decode "6rtua100y" to "virtuacy", not "virtually". Thus, this string encoding system is not actually perfect. (Until the modern codification in general use today, Roman numerals weren't standardised that much, so "LL" could have been a tolerated alternative to "C". For more on that, see {{w|Roman_numerals#Classical_Roman_numerals}}. However, having the decoding script use that would not solve the problem but instead would make the decoding script replace Cs with LLs instead, e.g., "delloding sllript".)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball writing on a wall or a whiteboard.]
:1+1=11
:11+11=15
:15+5=110

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Remember, Roman numerals are archaic, so always replace them with modern ones when doing math.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]

2637: Roman Numerals

2022-06-25T03:57:39Z

172.70.230.53:

{{comic
| number = 2637
| date = June 24, 2022
| title = Roman Numerals
| image = roman_numerals.png
| titletext = 100he100k out th1s 1nno5at4e str1ng en100o501ng 15e been 500e5e50op1ng! 1t's 6rtua100y perfe100t! ...hang on, what's a "virtuacy"?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|100reate500 by a LXXXT  - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Roman numerals are an archaic system of representing numbers that uses the letters I, V, X, L, C, D, and M to represent numbers, which each letter representing a consistent value. Specifically, I represents 1, V represents 5, X represents 10, L represents 50, C represents 100, D represents 500, and M represents 1000. The rules for combining Roman numerals next to each other are that a Roman numeral is added to a Roman numeral of equal or lesser value just to its right (e.g., II=1+1=2 because 1≥1, and VI=5+1=6 because 5≥1), and a Roman number is subtracted from a Roman numeral of greater value just to its right (e.g., IV=5-1=4 because 1<5, and IX=10-1=9 because 1<10). (Also, each place must be written separately, e.g., one cannot represent 49 via IL but instead must represent the tens place and ones place separately via XL IX—although the space would not be included in practice).

The modern system of representing numbers is a decimal positional notation using Hindu numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9), which are so-called because they were invented in India. However, because they were introduced to Europe by Arabic merchants, Westerners often call them Hindu-Arabic numerals or sometimes just Arabic numerals. Instead of concatenating several 1s, the single character 2 represents 1+1, 3 represents 1+1+1, etc… all the way to 9 representing 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1. For Hindu-Arabic numerals, each time a digit is moved one place to the left, the value that it represents is multiplied by ten (e.g., moving 3 to the left, starting in the ones place, changes the value that it represents from three to three tens to three hundreds to three thousands…). Positional notations require a character for the additive identity, 0, to mark empty positions. Thus for any digit d, the string d0 represents d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d, the string d00 represents d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0+d0, etc…. Integers larger than nine are represented by representing them as digits multiplied by powers of ten, where no power of ten is repeated, and zero is used to fill in any gaps so that it is obvious how many places each nonzero digit is to the left of the ones place. For example, sixteen cubed can be expressed as 4×103+9×101+6×100. (Representations like 4×103+5×101+4×101+6×100 are not allowed because 101 would be repeated, and representations like 4×103+8×101+16×100 are not allowed because 16 is not a digit.) However, writing it like 496 would make the digit 4 represent 4×102, not 4×103, so this is fixed by inserting a 0 to yield 4096. (One can think of this as expressing sixteen cubed as 4×103+0×102+9×101+6×100.)

The original equations in Roman Numeral form are:
<center>I + I = II</center>
<center>II + II = IV</center>
<center>IV + V = IX</center>

Translated properly into more familiar digits, these equations are:
<center>1 + 1 = 2</center>
<center>2 + 2 = 4</center>
<center>4 + 5 = 9</center>

But Randall/Cueball replaced each letter individually with its value in Hindu-Arabic numerals — ignoring the abovementioned rules for interpreting combined Roman numbers, instead using simple concatenation. Specifically, "I" is replaced with "1", "V" is replaced with "5", and "X" is replaced with "10". For example, for IX at the end of the last equation, "I" is replaced with "1", and "X" is replaced with "10", so "IX" becomes "110". Thus, the equations become
<center>1 + 1 = 1 1</center>
<center>1 1 + 1 1 = 1 5</center>
<center>1 5 + 5 = 1 10</center>
where the spaces have been added for clarity.

The joke is that because Hindu numerals do not use the same rules of addition and subtraction as Roman numerals, simple concatenation makes the equations incorrect. For example, 11 is read as 10+1, not 1+1 as it should under the correct rules for interpreting Roman numerals. Randall derives additional humor from the premise that Cueball seems to know Roman numerals better than Hindu numerals (as demonstrated by the fact that he does not recognize that his equations are false when interpreted using the standard rules for Hindu numerals) so that he would do math in Roman numerals and have to remember to convert his equations to Hindu numerals at the end. Schoolchildren in the West have been taught to do math with Hindu numerals, not Roman numerals, for centuries.

In the title text, Randall applies the same idea of replacing Roman numerals with their values in Hindu numerals to strings of English words. The original string (with letters that would be interpreted as Roman numerals capitalized) is, "CheCk out thIs InnoVatIVe strIng enCoDIng I'Ve been DeVeLopIng! It's VIrtuaLLy perfeCt!" For the first word, "Check," C is replaced with the value of that Roman numeral in Hindu numerals, i.e., "100", in both instances of the word, which results in "100he100k". Unlike in the comic, Randall combines Roman numbers using the proper rules of addition and subtraction. For example, he replaces "IV" with "4", not "15", e.g., "innovative" becomes "1nno5at4e", not "1nno5at15e". (However, "I've" becomes "15e", not "4e", presumably because the apostrophe was removed after, not before, replacing the Roman numerals with Hindu numerals. However, there is not an obvious reason why Randall removed the apostrophe.) However, there are problems with this. One example is that the double L in "virtually" is replaced with 100. This correctly remembers Roman numerals' rule of adding the value of a letter to the value of an equal-valued letter just to its right, but in Roman numerals, a single number should never have multiple Vs, multiple Ls, or multiple Ds, e.g., 100 should be represented by C, not LL. This would mean that a simplistic decoding script would erroneously decode "6rtua100y" to "virtuacy", not "virtually". Thus, this string encoding system is not actually perfect. (Until the modern codification in general use today, Roman numerals weren't standardised that much, so "LL" could have been a tolerated alternative to "C". For more on that, see {{w|Roman_numerals#Classical_Roman_numerals}}. However, having the decoding script use that would not solve the problem but instead would make the decoding script replace Cs with LLs instead, e.g., "delloding sllript".)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball writing on a wall or a whiteboard.]
:1+1=11
:11+11=15
:15+5=110

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Remember, Roman numerals are archaic, so always replace them with modern ones when doing math.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]

2604: Frankenstein Captcha

2022-06-25T02:50:05Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2604
| date = April 8, 2022
| title = Frankenstein Captcha
| image = frankenstein_captcha.png
| titletext = The distinction between a ship and a boat is a line drawn in water.
}}

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

This comic strip is a play on the meanings (and misunderstanding) of the name "Frankenstein". ''{{w|Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus}}'' is an 1818 novel by Mary Shelley about a medical student named Victor Frankenstein who creates an artificial life-form. The man he creates once describes himself as "the Adam of [Frankenstein's] labour" in the book, and strictly speaking is properly known as "Frankenstein's ''monster''" (or perhaps "creation" or "son"), but is often erroneously called "Frankenstein" himself. This has been fertile ground for many, many debates about whether the monster could also properly be called "Frankenstein," either as a family name, an honorific, or simply because it's more recognizable and convenient. Randall has weighed in on the debate himself in a previous comic, [[1589: Frankenstein]].

The CAPTCHA shown in the comic instructs the user to select all tiles containing Frankenstein. The tiles include both a reanimated corpse resembling Frankenstein's monster and a scientist yelling, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qNeGSJaQ9Q "It's alive!”] who is clearly intended to be Victor Frankenstein. The problem arises from the contrast between various definitions of the term Frankenstein. Going just off the book's text, the monster has no name, so the correct answer to the CAPTCHA is just the left square of the third row. However, the character depicted there is clearly ''Henry'' Frankenstein from the famous {{w|Frankenstein (1931 film)|1931 film adaptation}} (Victor Frankenstein never said the words "it's alive!" in the book), and likewise the creature depicted is clearly inspired by {{w|Boris Karloff}}'s iconic portrayal in that film and its sequels. If the images are captured from that film, then all four of them could be said to be "containing (a subset of) ''Frankenstein'' (the 1931 film)".

Some CAPTCHAs - especially Google's widely spread reCAPTCHA - nowadays serve a dual purpose: (1) to separate human users from bots by way of intelligent interaction, and (2) to train a neural network, hence the "correct answer" to image recognition CAPTCHAs is not known ahead of time and is merely based on the most commonly-chosen tiles. Thus, a user who knows that "Frankenstein" refers only to the scientist would face this CAPTCHA with dread, uttering "Oh No" as they realize that they must select the tiles containing the monster, and possibly not even be allowed to select the tile containing the actual scientist Victor Frankenstein if they want to pass the CAPTCHA.

Alternatively, this comic strip with its "Oh No" caption could be referencing [[1897]], which would imply that someone had actually created a Frankenstein's monster which needs to be located as soon as possible.

Many of the other tiles appear to be pictures of entities that inspire similar pedantry. For example, there is a picture of a turtle (or possibly a tortoise, or a reference to the {{w|Voight-Kampff_machine|Voight-Kampff test}} used in a manner analogous to CAPTCHA), a ship (or possibly a boat), {{w|Link (The Legend of Zelda)|Link}} (the name given to each of several protagonists that appear across generations and timelines, throughout the ''{{w|Legend of Zelda}}'' video games, who many erroneously refer to as Zelda), a pond (or possibly a lake, a puddle, or a {{w|mirage}}), a tomato (often subject to the ''fruit or vegetable'' debate), an erupting volcano (with lava, or is it magma?), the planet Pluto (or is it a dwarf planet?), and a man and a woman (who may be dating or just friends). Other tiles seem to be inspired by images that commonly occur in actual captchas, like the STOP sign or the traffic light. However, at least some of these may also be meant to fall into the category of entities that inspire pedantry, for example: because traffic lights can also be called traffic signals or stoplights; many people thinking that the shape of a stop sign is a hexagon, not an octagon; and the definition of a sandwich (previously discussed as a “random semi-ironic obsession” in [[1835]]).

The title text refers to one of the methods used to distinguish a ship from a boat. When making a turn, if the vessel leans towards the inside of the turn circle then it is considered a boat, whereas if the vessel leans away from the turn circle it is considered a ship[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1iM2CG5QQ8]. Since the vessel generates a wake as it moves, checking whether it is a boat or a ship can be done while it is literally drawing a line on the water (the wake). The phrase "a line drawn in water" is also an idiom for something ephemeral. Ironically, it has persisted for a long time and dates back at least to the early Buddhists. (e.g. [https://suttacentral.net/an3.132/en/sujato?layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin| AN 3.132] & [https://suttacentral.net/an7.74/en/sujato?layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin| AN 7.74]). The distinction between a ship and a boat is also unclear, having changed over time, with no universally accepted rule to {{w|Ship#Nomenclature|distinguish between the two}}. The title text is also a pun on the common idiom "drawing a line in the sand." The title text could also be referencing the image of a boat or ship that appears as one of the CAPTCHA tiles in the comic, where Randall has drawn a squiggly line often used in crude drawings to represent a waterline.

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

:[A captcha design, with a header and four rows of four pictures each below it. The header, in white lettering on a blue background, reads:]
:To continue, please click
:All squares containing
:Frankenstein

:[The pictures, all with gray backgrounds, are as follows, from left to right in each row:]

Row 1
* Tortoise (or turtle)
* Ship (or boat)
* Frankenstein's monster (often mistaken as Frankenstein) waking up from a slab, while lightning strikes.
::Monster: GRRR
* Link from Legend of Zelda series (often mistaken as Zelda)

Row 2
* Lake (or pond), possibly a mirage, in the Egyptian desert
* Megan (or Science Girl, or Danish--possibly a direct joke about this wiki)
* The top of a volcano spewing lava (or magma)
* Pumpkin (or squash [fruit vs vegetable])

Row 3
* A mad scientist (Victor Frankenstein) throwing a switch while lightning strikes outside
::Frankenstein: It's alive!
* Sandwich
* Stop sign
* Girl running away from Frankenstein's monster
::Girl: Monster!

Row 4
* Rocket (spaceship) flying by Pluto (planet or dwarf planet)
* Cueball and Ponytail standing next to each other
* Traffic light (also called a stoplight, possibly mistaken as stop sign?) (called a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light robot] in South Africa/Zimbabwe)
* Frankenstein's monster

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Oh no.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:CAPTCHA]]
[[Category:Frankenstein]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]

2636: What If? 2 Countdown

2022-06-23T20:44:17Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */ no need for that many sig figs

{{comic
| number = 2636
| date = June 22, 2022
| title = What If? 2 Countdown
| image = what_if_2_countdown.png
| titletext = If you don't end the 99 Bottles of Beer recursion at N=0 it just becomes The Other Song That Never Ends.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by LINCOLN KISSING - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic takes the idea of {{w|Among Us}}s, and takes it to the extreme. It uses rather absurd and/or obscure ways to measure the amount of time until [[Randall]]'s new book ''What if? 2'' is released, with esoteric units or esoteric numbers. And often both.

Some concepts that appear several times throughout the calendar are:

* '''{{w|SI prefixes}}''', which can be applied to the beginning of a unit's name to multiply or divide the unit by powers of 10 or 1,000. This is standard for units like meters and grams, but is rarely applied to measurements of time.
* The '''{{w|Gettysburg Address}}''', a famous speech delivered by U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in 1863, where he began by referring to the signing of the Declaration of Independence taking place "four score and seven years ago". A score is a dated term for the number 20, so "four score and seven" is equivalent to 87.
* A '''dog year''' is traditionally considered to be one-seventh the length of a normal human year, since a dog's overall lifespan is roughly one-seventh of a typical human's. The comic applies this to other units of time, such as minutes and months, each of which is also one-seventh the length of the standard unit.
* Other comparative durations of time that are not normally or usefully applied to day-length multiples. At the top end, there is the age of the universe, at the other there is {{w|Planck_units#Planck_time|Planck-time}} – with entire durations of periods of human history and the time needed to watch popular TV/film franchises in-between – most of which require a non-trivial multiplier or divisor to bring them to the necessary scale required.
* A '''{{w|baker's dozen}}''' is 13, or one more than a normal dozen. Here, the "baker's" prefix can be applied to any unit by adding an extra one of its constituent parts, like an extra hour added to a day.
* '''{{w|Irrational numbers}}''' like {{w|pi}} (3.14159...), {{w|Euler's number}} or ''e'' (2.71828...), the {{w|golden ratio}} (1.61803...), and the {{w|square root of 2}} (1.41421...). These are all interesting numbers because of their mathematical properties, but very impractical to use as arbitrary measurements of time because they have an endless series of non-repeating decimal digits.
* The teenage dating game {{w|Seven minutes in heaven}}.
* Rotation and revolution periods of various planets and moons in the Solar System.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Days !! Date !! Units !! Exact value !! Explanation
|-
| 83 || Jun 22 || πe millidecades || 82.0304 days || π =~ 3.14159, e =~ 2.718, so πe is about 22.459. A millidecade is 1/1000 decade, or 1/100 year, or about 3.6525 days. Multiplying these results in 82.03 days. This is a play on Euler's identity, eiπ=-1, but raising pi to the power of e instead.
|-
| 82 || Jun 23 || 7 megaseconds || 81.0185 days || 7,000,000 seconds
|-
| 81 || Jun 24 || e lunar months || 80.27247 days || A lunar month =~ 29.53059 days, e =~ 2.718
|-
| 80 || Jun 25 || 60 rotations of Foucault's pendulum in Paris || 79.67 days || Foucault's pendulum rotates once every 31.8 hours because of the rotation of the Earth and its latitude.
|-
| 79 || Jun 26 || 8 milligenerations || 78.89 days || A generation is in general 22-33 years, with a mean of 27; so 8 * 0.001 (milli) * 365.2425 (accounting for leap years) * 27 =~ 78.89 days
|-
| 78 || Jun 27 || 777,777 dog minutes || 77.16 days || A popular myth is that dogs age 7 times faster than humans, so 1 dog minute equals 1/7 human minutes.
|-
| 77 || Jun 28 || 7! episodes of ''Jeopardy!'' (skipping ads) || 77 days || 7!=7*6*5*4*3*2*1=5040 - The standard episode of ''Jeopardy'' is 22-26 minutes skipping ads - taking the lowest value you get 110880 minutes total, which is the exact value needed.
|-
| 76 || Jun 29 || 5,000 repeats of ''99 Bottles of Beer'' || 76.3889 days || Each verse of {{w|99 Bottles of Beer}} is "''N'' bottles of beer on the wall, ''N'' bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around, ''N-1'' bottles of beer on the wall." The entire song contains 99 verses. Randall apparently sings this rather slowly at around 72 bpm, taking about 13 seconds per verse.
|-
| 75 || Jun 30 || 5 baker's fortnights (15 days) || 75 days || A {{w|baker's dozen}} is a dozen (12) plus 1 extra item. Randall has generalized this to adding 1 to any unit. A fortnight is 2 weeks, so a baker's fortnight is 15 days. 5x15 is 75 days.
|-
| 74 || Jul 1 || √2 dog years || 73.79 days || See day 78 (Jun 27)
|-
| 73 || Jul 2 || π millivics (1/1000th of Queen Victoria's reign) || 72.966631 days || Queen Victoria ruled between 20 June 1837 and 22 January 1901 (23,226 days).
|-
| 72 || Jul 3 || 42 drives from NYC to LA (Google Maps estimate) || 71.75 days || According to Google Maps, the drive from New York City to Los Angeles via I-80 W (2789 miles or 4489 km) takes 41 hours.
|-
| 71 || Jul 4 || 1,000 viewings of ''Groundhog Day''|| 70.14 days|| Using 101-minute run time.
|-
| 70 || Jul 5 || 100,000 minutes || 69.44 days||
|-
| 69 || Jul 6 || 1/10th of Martian year || 68.70 Earth days || Martian sidereal and tropical years both round to 687.0 Earth days
|-
| 68 || Jul 7 || 1,234,567 sound-miles || 67.63 days || The speed of sound in air depends on the temperature. 15 °C or 59 °F gives the value 340 m/s and the travel time of 67.6349058 days.
|-
| 67 || Jul 8 || 2^π^e seconds ||5,766,073 seconds = 66.7 days || 2^(π^e)
|-
| 66 || Jul 9 || 2^16 beats (Swatch Internet Time) || 65.536 days || {{w|.beat}} is equal to 1/1000 day.
|-
| 65 || Jul 10 || 1,000 ISS orbits || 64.58 days || Each orbit of the ISS takes 90-93 minutes. Here a value of 93 minutes is used.
|-
| 64 || Jul 11 || Five hundred twenty five thousand (base seven) minutes|| 62.8833333333333 days || This refers to {{w|radix}}-7 arithmetic: 525,0007 minutes = 90,55210 minutes. Also references the opening and recurring line "Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes" from {{w|Seasons of Love}}, a song from the musical {{w|Rent (musical)|''Rent''}}, which is also referenced in [[1047: Approximations]]. "base seven" also has the same rhythm as "six hundred".
|-
| 63 || Jul 12 || 10^50 Planck times || 62.38 days || 10^50 x 5.39 x 10^-44 seconds
|-
| 62 || Jul 13 || 4,000 episodes of ''The Office'' (skipping ads)|| 62.5 days || {{w|The Office (British TV series)|''The Office''}} was originally a {{w|BBC}} television show which had no commercial breaks, but Randall is obviously more familiar with the {{w|The_Office_(American_TV_series)|US version}}. This US "half-hour" comedy format contains 22.5 minutes of content (including the title sequence) and 7.5 minutes of ads. 
|-
| 61 || Jul 14 || four score and seven kilominutes || 60.4166 days || 87 * 1000 minutes
|-
| 60 || Jul 15 || 2 lunar months || 59.06 days || There are a number of different ways to define the {{w|lunar month}}. The most common is the synodic month, because it relates to the phases of the moon, and it's approximately 29.53 days.
|-
| 59 || Jul 16 || half a day on Venus || 58.375 days || A Venus synodic day is 116 days 18 hours.
|-
| 58 || Jul 17 || 5 megaseconds || 57.8704 days || 5,000,000 seconds
|-
| 57 || Jul 18 || 30 microLits (1/1,000,000th of the time since the invention of literature) || 4681-4763 years x 10^-6 || Randall is stating that "literature" was invented approximately 2700 BCE. This is consistent with the earliest surviving coherent Sumerian texts, but the earliest proto-writing likely developed at least 500 years earlier according to {{w|History of writing}}.
|-
| 56 || Jul 19 || 1,000 viewings of ''Run Lola Run'' || 55.556 days || Using a run time of 80 minutes.
|-
| 55 || Jul 20 || one million sound-miles || 54.78 days || The speed of sound in air depends on the temperature. 15 °C or 59 °F gives the value 340 m/s and the travel time of 54.7843137 days.
|-
| 54 || Jul 21 || 30 Ionian months || 53.0741 days || Orbital period of Io around Jupiter is approximately 1.77 days.
|-
| 53 || Jul 22 || one dog year || 52.18 days || See day 78 (Jun 27)
|-
| 52 || Jul 23 || 60 viewings of ''Star Wars Episodes I-IX'' || 51.75 days || According to [[https://dorksideoftheforce.com/2021/05/04/how-long-to-watch-every-star-wars-movie/ Fansided]] the combined running times are 20 hours 42 minutes.
|-
| 51 || Jul 24 || 1/ 100,000,000,000th of the universe's age || 50.4035 days || The universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old.
|-
| 50 || Jul 25 || 5 milli-generations || 49.3 days || See day 79 (Jun 26)
|-
| 49 || Jul 26 || 10,000 games of ''7 minutes in Heaven'' or 7 games of ''10,000 minutes in Heaven'' || 48.61 days || {{w|Seven minutes in heaven}} is a teenage make-out game lasting seven minutes. 10,000 minutes in Heaven is almost a week of making out.
|-
| 48 || Jul 27 || φ^e^π minutes || 47.6164 days || 68,567.57 minutes
|-
| 47 || Jul 28 || 4 megaseconds || 46.2963 days || 4,000,000 seconds
|-
| 46 || Jul 29 || 2^16 minutes || 45.5111 days || 65,536 minutes
|-
| 45 || Jul 30 || e^e^e seconds || 44.1467 days || 3,814,279.10 seconds
|-
| 44 || Jul 31 || π fortnights|| 43.98 days || 3.14159 * 14 days
|-
| 43 || Aug 1 || one devil's spacewalk (666 orbits of the ISS) || 43.01 days || See day 65 (Jul 10). 666 is the {{w|number of the beast}} in the {{w|Bible}}.
|-
| 42 || Aug 2 || 1 kilowatt-hour per watt || 41⅔ days || 1000 hours
|-
| 41 || Aug 3 || e^π Ionian months || 40.9390 days || Orbital period of Io around Jupiter is 1.769137786 days
|-
| 40 || Aug 4 || 30 rotations of Foucault's pendulum in Paris || 39.8357 days || Refer to Day 80 (Jun 25)
|-
| 39 || Aug 5 || e fortnights || 38.0559 days ||2.71828 * 14 days
|-
| 38 || Aug 6 || π^π baker's days (25 hours) || 37.98 days || See day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 37 || Aug 7 || one deciyear || 36.525 days || One tenth of one year
|-
| 36 || Aug 8 || 7! milliweeks || 35.28 days || 5040 × 0.001 weeks
|-
| 35 || Aug 9 || 100,000 plays of the ''Jeopardy!'' "Think" music || 34.72 days || ''Think'' is the music played while the contestants try to answer the Final Jeopardy question; it takes 30 seconds.
|-
| 34 || Aug 10 || 1000 basketball games (game time) || 33.33 days || Uses the NBA game time of four 12-minute quarters, or 48 minutes
|-
| 33 || Aug 11 || 777 hours || 32.375 days ||
|-
| 32 || Aug 12 ||one millilincoln (1/1000 of fourscore and seven years) || 31.78 days || {{w|Abraham Lincoln}}'s {{w|Gettysburg Address}} begins with the famous phrase "Four score and seven years ago". 1 score = 20 years
|-
| 31 || Aug 13 || 1,000 episodes of ''60 Minutes'' (skipping ads) || 31.25 days || Uses a television 'hour' containing 45 minutes of content and 15 minutes of ads
|-
| 30 || Aug 14 || all of ''Star Trek'', consecutively || ||
|-
| 29 || Aug 15 || 777,777 nanocenturies || 28.4077 days || 777,777 × 10-9 × 102 years
|-
| 28 || Aug 16 || one sidereal lunar month || 27.3 days || The time it takes moon to return to the same position relative to the fixed stars
|-
| 27 || Aug 17 || 6 dog months || 26.1 days || See day 78 (Jun 27)
|-
| 26 || Aug 18 || π^π kilominutes || 25.3209 days || 36,462.16 minutes
|-
| 25 || Aug 19 || 7 games of 7! minutes in Heaven || 24.5 days || 7 x 5040 minutes. See also day 49 (Jul 26).
|-
| 24 || Aug 20 || 50 viewings of the extended ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy || ||
|-
| 23 || Aug 21 || a drive from NYC to LA where you keep remembering new things you forgot and have to go back 6 times || 22.21 days || See day 72 (Jul 3). This is for 6 round-trips and 1 one-way trip.
|-
| 22 || Aug 22 || ''It's a Small World'' sung at 1/10,000th speed || || {{w|It's a Small World}} is a song that was composed for the attraction of the same name at various {{w|Disney}} theme parks, and plays continuously at them in various languages.
|-
| 21 || Aug 23 || 500 hours || 20.8333 days ||
|-
| 20 || Aug 24 || √2 fortnights || 19.7990 days || 1.4142 × 14 days
|-
| 19 || Aug 25 || time it would take Vanessa Carlton to walk 1,000 miles || 18.94 days || {{w|Vanessa Carlton}} is an American singer, and {{w|A Thousand Miles}} is her most successful song. Randall estimates her walking speed at about 2.2 miles/hour.
|-
| 18 || Aug 26 || 100,000 breaths || .26 min/breath || Normal respiratory rate for adults is typically 12-20 breaths per minute. Randall may have a health problem or be a practitioner of "slow breathing".
|-
| 17 || Aug 27 || √2 megaseconds || 16.3682 days || 1.4142 × 1,000,000 seconds
|-
| 16 || Aug 28 || π^π^π πcoseconds || 15.5112 days || 1.3402 × 1018 picoseconds (i.e., 10-12 seconds), or 1.3402 megaseconds
|-
| 15 || Aug 29 || one baker's fortnight (15 days) || 15 days || See day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 14 || Aug 30 || one baker's dozen (13) baker's days (25 hours) || 13.5416 days || 325 hours; see day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 13 || Aug 31 || 300 hours || 12.5 days ||
|-
| 12 || Sep 1 || one million seconds || 11.57 days ||
|-
| 11 || Sep 2 || one nonstop bike ride from NYC to LA || 10.54 days || Google maps estimates the trip at 253 hours
|-
| 10 || Sep 3 || 1/1,000th of a generation || 9.86 days || See day 79 (Jun 26)
|-
| 9 || Sep 4 || 777,777 seconds || 9.002 days ||
|-
| 8 || Sep 5 || 100 viewings of ''Groundhog Day'' || 7.014 days || Based on a running time of 101 minutes
|-
| 7 || Sep 6 || 100 games of ''Lincoln Kissing'' (Fourscore and seven minutes in Heaven) || 6.04 days || 8,700 minutes
|-
| 6 || Sep 7 || one pico-universe-lifetime || 5.04 days || See Day 51 (Jul 24)
|-
| 5 || Sep 8 || the ''Baby Shark'' chorus for a family of 50,000 sharks || ||
|-
| 4 || Sep 9 || one centiyear || 3.6525 days ||
|-
| 3 || Sep 10 || Cyndi Lauper's ''Time After Time'' played 1,000 times || 2.79 days || Based on a length of 4 minutes, 1 second
|-
| 2 || Sep 11 || ''Speed'' (1994) played at one frame per second || 1.933 days || {{w|Speed_(1994_film)}} has runtime of 116 minutes = 6,960 seconds = 167,040 film frames at standard frame rate of 24 frames/second
|-
| 1 || Sep 12 || F(99) where F(N) means sing all the verses of ''N Bottles of Beer On the wall'' followed by F(N-1) || 0.7639 days || Each iteration contains ''N'' verses. ''N + N-1 + N-2 ... + 1'' equals ''N * (N+1) / 2'', so 99 recursions = 4950 verses. Using the same 13-second (72 bpm) rate as Jun 29, this is close to 18 hours. Probably refers to Donald Knuth's article {{w|The Complexity of Songs}}.
|-
| 0 || Sep 13 || ''What If? 2'' release day || ||
|}

The title text refers to the recursive time period on Sep 12. If you don't stop when you reach N=0 bottles, the repetition never ends, so that time interval beecomes infinite. He likens it to {{w|The Song That Never Ends}}, another repetitive children's song, which is specifically intended to go on forever. The difference is that the Beer song has a natural stopping point at 0, while ''The Song That Never Ends'' is completely repetitive.

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

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2635: Superintelligent AIs

2022-06-21T05:49:50Z

172.70.230.53:

my balls hert [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.53|172.70.230.53]] 05:49, 21 June 2022 (UTC)

2635: Superintelligent AIs

2022-06-21T05:49:12Z

172.70.230.53:

{{comic
| number = 2635
| date = June 20, 2022
| title = Superintelligent AIs
| image = superintelligent_ais.png
| titletext = Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they should, they didn't stop to think if they could.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AI RESEARCHERS - 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}}

Talk:1608: Hoverboard

2022-06-17T17:50:22Z

172.70.230.53: /* Washington Monument */ new section

Well, this will be the next incomplete explanation for a while. -[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.165|162.158.90.165]] 21:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)
:Still working on it now four months later. But not many other helping with it. ;-) Getting closer to the end though with the [[1608:_Hoverboard#Table_with_references|table]] in place. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:10, 26 March 2016 (UTC)
::It’s done! Rejoice

Yes, one thing to note is how to get the hell out of the cave near the volcano [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.159|108.162.249.159]] 22:38, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The image is made up of small images with addresses of the form http://xkcd.com/1608/XXXX:-YYYY+s.png (although not every coordinate inside the bounds has an image associated). A script could probably dump out all the images and paste them together. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.6|108.162.216.6]] 22:46, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

West -- Under Lava Pools -- Elon Musk's Secret Volcano Base (not as enjoyable as you might expect).

The Starship out east contains, among other things, Darth Vader, apparently explaining Steven Universe to a subordinate. (Steven and the Crystal Gems can be found a the west end of the ship, near an ice cream cooler.) The same ship contains an elaborate homage to the original Prince of Persia. {{unsigned ip|162.158.56.5}}

There, have at thee an image! [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 22:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

"teleport to next coin" code doesn't work[[User:(insert name here)|(insert name here)]] ([[User talk:(insert name here)|talk]]) 14:47, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

There are 168 coins spread throughout the map according to the source code [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 23:03, 24 November 2015 (UTC)
:It's actually 169 coins (t.length). --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 23:22, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

May I change the code for the display distance and direction thing to make the colors more appealing? I want to cheat but I don't want to stare at that yucky green the whole time. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.88|172.69.170.88]] 17:44, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

When using a device, instead of saying "use arrow keys to move", it says "tilt to move, tap to jump". It's also a lot harder to control. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.159}}
:What kind of device and is this through the normal xkcd home page? It does not work on my tablet by going to xkcd (anroid, leonov tablet). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:24, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

I got 153 coins!! :D There's two starships, one's a star destroyer with an expansive maze dropping regular torpedoes on the other. May be noteworthy that there are various references to Star Wars and Steven Universe throughout. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 23:27, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The second starship is the TantiveIV, Leia's ship at the beginning of episode 4. Note directly below the Tantive, the terrain seems to be sand dunes. Also there are two more space ships by the volcano; an X-wing at a gas station and an Apollo Command Module. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.24}}

https://xkcd.com/1608/tigl.js - Looks like there's an easier to read version of the code there. Maybe that'll help someone with extracting all the images. {{unsigned ip|

I've got all the images downloaded. Zipping/uploading now. Should I post a link here when complete or what's the best way to share these? I'm also working on setting up a zoomable map. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 23:57, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The collision detection is glitchy. I keep landing/bumping against platforms I'm far away from. Is getting stuck against walls normal? --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.234|199.27.130.234]] 00:01, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
:Yes, getting stuck against walls is normal. If the wall has at least 1 pixel sticking out under the hoverboard, then that pixel will be treated as the floor, and the hoverboard will stop falling. This is easier to see in goggles mode.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.118|108.162.216.118]] 13:15, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

Tiles are located here in a zip: https://up1.ca/#Gi51KPFyPRELe0T1D6q9Mw All I did was iterate over http://xkcd.com/1608/X:-Y+s.png from X=[916...1116] and Y=[916...1116]. I'm working on putting a zoomable map together. If anyone has interest in helping we could hop on IRC? [[User:Jcox|Jcox]] ([[User talk:Jcox|talk]]) 00:15, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
:This was great. But the zip file misses all images in column 1019-1021 as well as the 6 lowest images of 1022 (X coordinates 1019-1022, all Y coordinatesin the first three and then 6 lowest Y coordinates in the last). It was managable to download the last with my click skills. So thanks anyway. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:15, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

I've written a zsh script to iterate over all possible tiles (does anyone know the height limits? the source only gives the left and right limits) and glue them together into one giant file. I'll upload the results as soon as it's finished. [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 00:17, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I don't think it's limited vertically at all. I found a zoomable map on the reddit topic http://codepen.io/KyleDavidE/full/605dc87b614ff6b2bd716f4c6f640203/ (by kyledavide) [[User:Miraries|Miraries]] ([[User talk:Miraries|talk]]) 00:21, 25 November 2015 (UTC)Mirages

Here's a zoomed out map of all the game area: https://i.imgur.com/rNU9ZgN.png. From ''luke_in_the_sky'' at Reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxc1245]. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 00:35, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Alright, the full png of the entire map is almost finished, I should have used white tiles as blank tiles but I guess I can fix that up in gimp, and I'm not sure how to account for the 1 pixel overlap with just imagemagick convert. The last step is to merge allthe layer images into one giant image, wish my laptop the best of luck! [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 01:00, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Someone beat you to it, but keep on it: that one doesn't have right limit tiles. https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxc0p8x --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 01:19, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps we can change the screenshot at the top to this? It's a quickly hacked overview of the entire map: http://imgur.com/Mz9arHz [[Special:Contributions/199.27.129.167|199.27.129.167]] 01:27, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
: I think it might make more sense to just add it as another image, mediawiki supports this after all. The syntax should be: <nowiki>[[File:filename.png|thumb|Subtitle|alt=alt]]</nowiki> [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 01:34, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

[http://files.mckaysalisbury.com/xkcd/hoverboard.html] This one loads all of the images quickly (From the xkcd site), and uses browser zooming. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.47|173.245.54.47]] 01:29, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

:The impassible backgrounds are RGB(0,0,0), and the passable ones are RGB(1,1,1). <code>#explore > :first-child {filter:brightness(30);-webkit-filter:brightness(30);-moz-filter:brightness(30);-o-filter:brightness(30);-ms-filter:brightness(30);}</code> ... See https://twitter.com/BadPhysics/status/669354631869304832 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.155|108.162.249.155]] 03:40, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Here are all the secret passages marked I could find: http://imgur.com/a/fKE1Q --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.220|162.158.91.220]] 00:50, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I wrote a tampermonkey script that shows you your coordinates and lets you teleport; will make coordinate sharing a lot easier. You do need tampermonkey installed for this to work. [https://github.com/minerguy31/xkcd-hoverboard-mod/raw/master/XKCD%20Hoverboard%20Mod.user.js Click to install] [[User:Minerguy31|Minerguy31]] ([[User talk:Minerguy31|talk]]) 04:17, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I got 159 coins without the map. If you guys are still wondering how to escape the volcano, move to the right for as long as you think you can, then start spamming the up key while switching between holding the left and right keys. It worked for me on my first try.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.252.119|162.158.252.119]] 07:06, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

164 coins with the map. Guessing I might've missed the cotton ball pit bottom, some others in the star destroyer, and maybe one under the volcano. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.196|162.158.63.196]] 21:03, 24 January 2021 (UTC)

Didn't take down the coordinates, but the layout to the first level of the original Prince of Persia is in there, including the guard standing by with his scimitar! I found it in the ship atop the pyramid east of the play area. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.245|108.162.218.245]] 06:24, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Just thought this was interesting, when you "complete" the game by dropping coins, the following line of javascript is run, which sends your result to the server (L is number of coins, z is seconds used):
(new Image).src = "//xkcd.com/events.gif?coins=" + L + "&seconds=" + z;
Don't be tricked by the .gif extension, it doesn't show an image when opened, and the server probably handles this request by logging it to somewhere. {{unsigned ip|141.101.80.87}}
:It actually returns a 1 by 1 pixel white GIF. [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 13:14, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Is there a way that we can merge the "game" part of this comic with the map of [[1110: Click and Drag]]? Allowing us to explore that one in a similar way? [[User:Bon|Bon]] ([[User talk:Bon|talk]]) 11:03, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Well I managed to find (nearly) everything, except the floating rock island, and 162 coins without the map, but even with looking at several maps, I didn't pass any graveyard nor found the way to the grey ocean, which I assume is underneath the "continent". Does anyone know where the entrance is? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.218|162.158.90.218]] 11:54, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
:Search for any missing things in the complete [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]], and you shall find what you seek. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:40, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Just thought I should say; the comic supports some alternative movement controls, there's the arrow keys, WASD, and also the vi keys (hjkl), and the numpad (8426). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.125|108.162.242.125]] 13:29, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I was not able to get to some points because they were surrounded by text, people or other objects. Is that normal, or are there tricks to get to every coin without using cheats (console)? It would be nice if this could be mention / explained in the article. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.135.35|162.158.135.35]] 13:31, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
:In some cases you can come in from the side as opposed to trying to come down through or up through something. Example: at the X-Wing "gas station", to get that coin, land on the ground to the left of the X-Wing and move to the right on the ground towards the gas station. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:45, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
::No text is solid! You can use the full [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]] to find out how to get to every coin and place (or the great map linked at the top). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:40, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

The list of "areas" in the map would be much easier to read, and much easier to correlate with the map, if the origin were set to the starting area (that is, if the coordinates of the starting area were set to x:0, y:0). What is the reason for the very large numbers? --[[User:BlueMoonlet|BlueMoonlet]] ([[User talk:BlueMoonlet|talk]]) 15:50, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
: The large numbers are the actual ones used by the game code and displayed by the hacked-up "radar" so it was a natural choice to use them as they are. We could define some origin and count coordinates from it but we would have to agree on its position and then change the "radar" code and recalculate all coordinates written down already. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.224|162.158.90.224]] 08:53, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
::Coordinates is not very helpful to most people. It should more be in relation to the objects you pass. Either you just look at one of the maps (and then past the pyramid or in the volcano makes sense) or else you actually try the real experience, and again after the ocean comes a pyramid makes more sense than coordinates. Have moved this section to a trivia section. The table should be build differently. That is still work to be done. All things are at the moment mentioned in the complete [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:40, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

The starting area is in no way related to pac-man. The lines are not all right angles, there is a timer, there's gravity, there are no aggressors, you're collecting coins instead of pellets.... Not every line maze is pac-man. This is an erroneous reference that should be removed. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.167|198.41.235.167]] 17:16, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

The source code found at https://xkcd.com/1608/tigl.js does not seem to be complete. I would personally work on de-obfuscating the full source code using the fragment found there but technically the source is covered by implicit copyright laws and that means that if I published a derived work I would be breaking those laws. Should I just change the line from "The source code can be found at ..." to "The full (obfuscated) source code can be found at ...tigl.min.js and a deobfuscated piece of the source code can be found at ...tigl.js". [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 18:28, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I added quick coordinate / teleport access on right-click to the quick hack map. [[User:Kyledavide|Kyledavide]] ([[User talk:Kyledavide|talk]]) 20:45, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Can't be bothered working out how to edit the page, but the explanation contains the phrase "People holding anchor lines to a Star Destroyer" - they're holding anchor lines to a CR90 Corvette, specifically the Tantive IV, commonly referred to as the "Rebel Blockade Runner", which in turn is being *attacked by* a Star Destroyer. I'll get my coat. {{unsigned ip|162.158.153.47}}

That's no 'Children's Swimming Pool', it's a ball pit! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.222|162.158.2.222]] 23:46, 25 November 2015 (UTC)
:If it is, it's filled with water as well. There are waves on the surface and fish live in it. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.224|162.158.90.224]] 09:00, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

I slightly improved the "direction to next coin"-code by displaying a compas. Code can be found here http://pastebin.com/PL6fv5XK . I'm new to this wiki and don't want to mess up the page, so I didn't put the code in there myself ... --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.209|162.158.90.209]] 00:01, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Haven't read all the comments above so maybe someone has written about it?
If you click up it seems to count how many times. So it will just show white and then when you release again, it will take longer to hit the ground the longer you have pushed up. Tried with 100 clicks (9-10 seconds) and 200 clicks (20 seconds).
I got about 163 coins in about 15886 seconds. (4 hours and 24 minutes.) That was with breaks. It was written so shortly on the screen I did not manage to take it down for certain. But after that I read here about the 169 and found that there where at least three in the volcano I had not noticed at first. And it seems likely that there would be three more I have missed. But really fun to explore. I wrote a lot of the transcript along the way (not from the very start though) This I have now posted without any real order in the [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]] page. Hope fully a full and useful transcript can emerge from this. I hope my text can be used if not used as it is written at the moment.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 02:05, 26 November 2015 (UTC)
:Now a complete transcript... Took me about three weeks to get enough time to do that--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:42, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

I thought Atreyu's horse was Artax, not Artex. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.32|198.41.238.32]] 05:27, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

The beret guy riding a torpedo (/explosive device of some sort) looks like a Dr. Strangeloe tribute to me. {{unsigned ip|162.158.255.39}}

Just added in the 'collision detection' section the text "On a slow connection, it's possible to move into an 'open' area and then the black image loads in and (probably permanently, without tricks) traps you immobile." To expand upon this, if this is a risk to anyone else (I'm reliant on mobile internet, being away from any comparable landline capability) then you need to look out for perfectly horizontal/vertical edges. For example, hovering up the side of the Washington monument and encountering (typically above the 'bricks' line) a completely flat top. Drifting onto that soon gets you embedded in the remaining Monument, somewhere well below the eventual tip. Alternately, drifting sideways over the landscape and discovering a perfectly vertical cliff downwards (just past the bowling pins is a prime location) tempts you to drift down it and then suddenly the solid land 'happens' around you, forcing a page-refresh and restart (though doubtless there's also various console tricks that could be used). The well, also 'opens out', but it's a lie. I've ended up trapped 'in white' below the now closed black blocks that surround the well bottom (and not found any way back up). But if there a 'texture' (like other cliffs) or 'slope' (like the real Monument edge) to the surface, you're probably Ok. It's a genuine surface or wall that you can generally navigate around without fear of being misled. (Or so is my experience.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 09:12, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Doesn't show anything but a blank page on the first generation iPad. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.184.11|162.158.184.11]] 10:41, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

I agree with [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]]. I have changed the text referring to the source code, since it does not refer to the full sourde code, but just an obfuscated part.--[[User:Gamevang|Gamevang]] ([[User talk:Gamevang|talk]]) 14:36, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

I can't pass through text, anybody else experiencing this? I remember being able to pass through text without no clip mode earlier, but for some reason not anymore.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.36|173.245.54.36]] 18:16, 26 November 2015 (UTC)
:I found that I can't pass through ANYTHING non-white when using current version of Chrome on an iPad iOS 9.1. Makes the "game" much harder to play. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.63.144|173.245.63.144]] 04:23, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

----

We definitely need a better presentation of interesting objects/locations and their coordinates. Now, we have quite comprehensive multi-level bullet list and a newly-started table. Neither is perfect. We need some form that will show clearly what is where and where it belongs.

Issues to solve:
* Many objects are large and a single coordinates pair simply don't describe them well. We need a clear presentation form that will allow putting both a single pair and several ones, e.g. top and bottom for thin vertical objects (e.g. poles, The Monument), four corners for objects occupying large swaths etc.
* Grouping - we need to group objects that belong to an area, like all things within the Star Destroyer etc. Multilevel bullets are ok, but how to do that in a table?
* Order - within groups and between them, we need some ordering that will organize the entries. For example left-to-right then top-to-bottom or something like that.
* Coordinates system - the "native" game coordinates are large numbers, and negative values for the y coordinate to boot. Someone proposed setting a new origin and counting from there. I think it's a good idea, but will require a firm decision, rewrite of radar code and recalculating of all coordinates written down so far.

Any ideas?
-- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.224|162.158.90.224]] 09:24, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
:If it weren't for so much effort put in already, I think that we ''could'' re-class features as follows:
:* All coin locations, and/or links to the locations they are associated with (e.g. "in original game area" and "carried by a quadcopter drone"), if that's not considered 'unfair' to those wanting to actually play the game (without the self-discipline not to browse the list ;).
:* Locations of all characters, certainly all stick-figures, but maybe also 'wildlife' (or automata) of notable types.
:* All monologues/dialogues/labels (albeit that this is almost entirely a subset of the prior list).
:* Other notable landscape (or structural) features that are more than mere 'flavour' (e.g. the T-shaped mushrooms/whatevers to the east, but not random ground-boulders).
:* Notable move-through spots; inclusive of 'sink-into'able waters/magmas (waist-height, neck-height, fully-submerged?), even when not featuring further hidden routes, but excluding vegetation (ground-grasses/tree-trunks) that ''mostly'' are pass-throughable.
: Some of these are themselves useful references to other items (e.g. "inside front of Blockade Runner" or "beneath eastern stretch of magma") and so can probably be sub-grouped as all items in a given structure ("coins within the initial play area", "characters/speech within the Star Destroyer") and some things do occupy a swathe (the 'play area', the Monument, the ships, the kites, with their strings; the hail of (regular) torpedoes). And I bet there's a whole lot of arguments about what level of detail we could go to... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 10:21, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
When you deposit 42 coins, the response, "No answers here" is a reference to "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."[[User:Hax|Hax]] ([[User talk:Hax|talk]])
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.252.149|162.158.252.149]] 03:33, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
::The full and complete [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]] that I have made uses some of the ideas, and groups the stage into sections. Not saying these should be used as is. But all in the image has been described and text transcribed in there. So it would be easy to cut and paste something from them. I have used jump height and fall time as well as time elapsed when moving and the height of the hoverboard Cueball to measure distances/dimensions. I would suggest making pictures from the maps of larger rooms or items. And then zoom in on interesting features. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:50, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Where can I get the uncompressed (original) source code? The reason I am asking is, ''/tigl.js'' is incomplete (no Easter Eggs, etc.), and ''/tigl.min.js'' seems complete, but is unreadable due to "minification" (compression).

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.252.149|162.158.252.149]] 03:33, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

It's a great comic, but does anyone know what it has to do the with his new book? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.161|198.41.235.161]] 03:50, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

I've created desktop C++/SDL2 based version of 1608, maybe someone will find it useful: https://github.com/AMDmi3/hoverboard-sdl [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.212|162.158.90.212]] 17:57, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the coordinates are, so I'm reluctant to add it to the page proper, but I'm pretty sure Beret Guy riding the bomb near the Tantive IV is a nod to Dr. Strangelove [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.185|108.162.218.185]] 19:17, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

When I try to play the game on my machine (IE10, Win7), I have whole sections that are just straight lined black boxes, almost like a puzzle with pieces missing. The easiest one to find is by going to the left, the quadcopters are hovering over nothing. Is this a java issue, an IE issue, a Windows issue, or just a "shut up and reboot" issue?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.44|108.162.216.44]] 19:19, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

You use IE? Suicide! The Department of Homeland Security considers IE as a threat. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.36|173.245.54.36]] 22:39, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

Also: If you are using IE, no matter what the problem is, it will '''always''' be an IE issue.
* Stove fire? -- IE issue
* Alien obduction? -- IE issue

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.187|162.158.90.187]] 12:47, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Might be useful for exploration of the map: I have made a page that embeds hoverboard with a panel allowing you do perform various cheats and tricks. :) http://php.9kv.cu.cc/hoverboard/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.37|108.162.216.37]] 21:42, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Me Again: Here's a stitched-together image of the map (taken from reddit) with the areas that you can walk through that are normally black highlighted in red: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pnstn4oam15lvgf/hoverboard-collision-map.png?raw=1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.37|108.162.216.37]] 22:34, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

The full transcript of the entire comic is now complete [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]].--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 December 2015 (UTC)
:And I just tried it out to finally get all 169 coins and explorer the entire drawing the true way without cheating, in just 1½ hours: [[1608:_Hoverboard/Screen-shots#All_169_coins]].
::And then later I took the shortest route between coins and finished in less than 25 minutes (see same link as above). Seems like I'm the only one still working to complete this comic... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:39, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Here is a page with a fully sort-able table of all the links to images: [[1608: Hoverboard/All image links|All image links]]. It includes notes on which images there are people, text, animals, objects of some interest and coins. And it is designed so connecting images can be found by sorting on either locations, general content or the first word in the description. Only 3440 images described. Although more than 1600 of them are completely black and 40 more almost completely black as well as the 800 white. But still there was close to 1000 images left... Enjoy the easy way to find interesting stuff in the images --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:46, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

I got 26 coins and it said "undefined" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.220.227|108.162.220.227]] 00:29, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
:You are probably using explorer, see the explanation for this above: [[1608: Hoverboard#Messages in Play Area|Messages in Play Area]]. There even is some examples like [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d8/45_coins.PNG this]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:08, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

Good LORD, why is this still "incomplete"? If you look at the red comments in the table, they are inane and unnecessary. Half of the "Missing Explanation" entries do not even *need* an explanation as the title says exactly what it is. Can we finally close this incomplete explanation?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.55|173.245.54.55]] 14:13, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

Hi, but what you are saying is that some of the red text is self explanatory. However, some still needs background information. Also, like most comics, things can be read different ways so there can be alternate explanations. If you feel like you need to say something different from the explanation, just edit. There isn't anything that can't be undone with a simple undo here. [[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 04:15, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Under "Coins", the example says that it's a lamp and a broken lamp. Isn't it a beehive and then the remains of a 'stolen' beehive? Bees buzz. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.84|108.162.221.84]] 13:49, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

When going through tight passages as Gandalf, rapidly changing direction can cause the game to teleport the character to the room of the Star Destroyer containing two characters swinging through the air. This has happened for me in the well, as well as the passage from Elon Musk's lair to the room containing the universal grounding rod.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.118|108.162.216.118]] 13:15, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

; It works on iPad now!

Just noticed that it now runs on my iPad, though it lags often and the controls are awful—even if I'm tilting in the same direction, Cueball moves randomly, and sometimes he just flies in one direction, and there's no way to get him to go up or turn around. Then he gets stuck on something and you have to refresh the page... Which is quite annoying when you're looking for a certain image to explain and you have to start over from the play area. Still, it's better than nothing. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 03:32, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Actually, no, the title text isn't only visible on unofficial mobile viewers. You can see it at [https://m.xkcd.com/1608 m.xkcd.com], which is very much official. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.34|162.158.126.34]] 03:29, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Here follows an extensive Latin discussion:

The commentator attempts to explain the motto, "Cur ego committitur dictar latinae."

There is repeated suggestion of 'now' or 'just now' somehow arising from the text. And the commentator makes a beginner's error by suggesting that iustus/justus could be used to mean just as in, just now. English has multiple uses of just - as an adverb speaking about time or exclusivity, and as an adjective talking about right and appropriate. For instance:

Adverb time: "Well that just happened." synonyms: currently, now
Adverb exclusive: "Just do it." synonyms: only, merely
Adjective: "That was a just choice." synonyms: righteous, appropriate

Iustus (also spelled justus) is a translation of the adjectival form of English just/righteous. So the exmaple the commentator gives:
'Cur ego iustus committitur loquitur.'
Would mean:
'Why is the righteous I made to speak.'
or, if the adjective is being used as a noun:
'Why am I the righteous/just is made to speak.'

Also, committitur and loquitur in the example are both third person singular, so neither could properly connect to 'ego' (English 'I'). To make sense in the expected way, we would need to put loquo- into the first person singular form at least.

So if the commentator wants to insert the idea of 'just now' or 'currently,' I suggest they use an adverb:
1 recens, 2 jam/iam, 3 nunc, 4 iamiamque/jamjamque
1 recently, 2 now (inprecise), 3 now (this time), 4 now (at once, already, hurry it up man).

On the proper translation:
Dictus is a noun meaning word or speech, from the verb 'dico.' If you wanted to specifically imply that you were using audible words (rather than writing), you'd use the 'loquo-' base instead of 'dic-.' So dictus and dico (from dic-) mean 'words' and 'I say.'
Dicto is a rarer verb meaning I recite, I dictate, I repeat, or something similar. See:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dicto#Latin
The principal forms are dico, dictare, dictavi, dictatum. So we talking about a third declension verb, and the base is dicta-. Dictar would be the first person present passive imperfect. Typically that form would mean something like:
'I am being recited.'
But since a person (as a physical object) can't be spoken or recited, the meaning is probably:
'I am being caused/made/forced to recite.'
The exact nature of 'caused/made/forced' is described by the word, 'committitur.' The committ- base means commit, begin, or make happen. Committitur is the 3rd person (he/she/it) present passive indicative from:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/committitur
Meaning:
he/she/it is made/forced to. (Has become committed.)
So:
'Cur ego committitur dictar latinae'
means:
'Why am I being made/forced to recite/dictate in Latin.'

Also, it should be noted that while the Greeks invented many of the types of punctuation we use today, Romans usually only used periods. (And often Romans would use no punctuation at all. Sometimes they even left out the spaces between words.) Point being, the question mark; like the comma, colon, and semicolon; wasn't commonly used until after the introduction of the printing press. So the quote probably shouldn't end with one.

My Latin is rather rusty, so if you have any better suggestions, please send me an email:
dominicchessman@gmail.com

== The Hoverboard comic:1608 Main theme is the never ending stories nothing ==

In "The Never Ending Story" the main theme is the whole world is consumed by "The Nothing" which in this comic is the black part. The movie also includes [this clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE8mFDabqD0) where the horse is artax(this is already told in the explanation).

So my suggesion is to add the "the nothing" theme at the start of the description.

The paste.click link for the full image is broken, but I do not have a copy of that image. Could someone with the image upload it to Imgur and switch the link? Thank you!

== MetroidXK ==

It seems the original site is down. I wonder if anyone still has a copy of it.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.6|162.158.167.6]] 04:02, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

The volcano lair may be a reference to the podcast Bionic by Relay FM. I don't want to make the edit myself because the idea of Elon Musk (or other CEOs) having a volcano lair isn't super unique, and I'd want confirmation from someone else that this is a good enough connection for a reference. {{unsigned ip|172.69.48.154}}
:I'd say it is such a common trope, that it is not a specific reference. Also since this comic is from November 2015, and podcasts have seen their rise in the last few years only, (also they may have existed before 2015) such a reference would definitely need to be sanity checked if it was available before release of the comic. If so it could be given as an example to the trope.--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:11, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

So... I encountered an issue with the comic. Scrolling up I see that others appear to have found this before, where sometimes parts won't load, but I've never seen it this drastically... I left the destroyer, continued jumping until I reached the right side (when Cueball went all the way to the right), and fell, hoping to get down to the stork nest. I fell a minute or more before realizing something was wrong, after continuing to jump up for a long period of time I realized I'd been trapped underneath the ground (which was a smooth surface above Cueball's head). Turning on mewtwo, gandalf and noclip modes allowed me to get back up to the top, but I wanted to see how far down the tiles stop loading- I found it's three seconds in gandalf mode to get from the part under the ground to the bottom part of the volcano lair. Just thought you guys should know -- Anonymous Waste of Time, 2/8/21

== Washington Monument ==

The text for the Washington Monument indicates that the crack might refer to damage from the 2011 earthquake. Is it possible that it instead refers to the fact that the Monument has a clear color change about a quarter of the way up, due to a halt in construction and a change in the source of the marble?

2628: Motion Blur

2022-06-05T21:21:26Z

172.70.230.53: eek

{{comic
| number = 2628
| date = June 3, 2022
| title = Motion Blur
| image = motion_blur.png
| titletext = I can't speak for your other subjects, but MY motion was as smooth and natural as the framerate allowed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a bBboOotTt - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[White Hat]] is recording a video while rotating (''panning'') the camera. [[Cueball]] notices that the camera's shutter speed is too fast, which could cause the result to look unnatural or like a sequence of still images instead of like smooth motion when turning the camera. Cueball decides to solve this problem by making himself blurrier than normal, counteracting the problems of the high shutter speed.

This is analogous to something much more common that people do, by practicing moving their bodies relative to the motion of the camera: reducing blur when the shutter speed is too low.

The title text refers to the fact that only ''one'' object - in this case, Cueball - appearing blurry while everything else in the frame is sharp is even more exotic. It can also be seen as a celebration and sarcasm regarding the rare experience of valuing having exotic knowledge and skills. It seems likely Randall has practiced reducing blur, but not succeeded at increasing it, and was possibly exposed to somebody saying "high" shutter speed when they meant "low" shutter speed, but this is presently unverified.

This is somewhat similar to a trick 'used' by {{w|Flash (DC Comics character)#Jay_Garrick|some fictional characters}} who have the power to make themselves unclear to observers or cameras alike. In real-life it is the difference between "stop motion" and "go motion" tricks.

When light hits a human's retina, it is perceived for a short while even after the light has ceased. This means that objects moving across a human's field of vision at a sufficient speed will naturally appear blurry – in our perception, the light arriving right now from the trailing part of the object will mix with the light that arrived a moment earlier, from the leading part of the object.

A camera's shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter is open for each frame, allowing the image sensor to capture light. If the shutter speed is too high (relatively to the frame-rate), this blurring will not occur, and the motion will look unnaturally crisp – if something is too small and/or too quick, the illusion of motion may disappear altogether; the object instead will appear as a brief flash of multiple objects standing still, like in the case of a fast-moving mouse cursor on a screen. See for instance this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9bv00ZA-ao Videography - Slow Shutter Speed vs. Fast Shutter Speed Comparison].

In cinema, the shutter speed is generally set to double the frame-rate, e.g. 1/48 s for footage shot at 24 fps (one of the standard frame-rates, a remnant from the age of mechanical motion picture cameras and film projectors).

An opposing problem is that of a camera not sufficiently matching the relative motion of a moving object, with a shutter speed that is too slow (and may need to be, given the choice of aperture and lighting conditions). Sports photographers must learn how to scan-and-pan their subjects (runners, horses, vehicles, etc) with enough synchronicity to capture them sharply, and possibly seemingly hanging frozen in mid-air against an artistically-blurred background.

It is unclear how Cueball makes the motion blur include both his feet, as the friction with the ground should hinder them from vibrating horizontally in the manner that may cause for motion blur. Additionally, creating the kind of motion blur he does (with evenly distributed horizontal blur) requires extreme acceleration at both ends of the movement.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat is holding a camera up to his face looking to the left away from Cueball and Ponytail standing to his right. Cueball is holding one hand, with a balled up fist, up towards White Hat]
:White Hat: Okay, I'm going to pan around.
:Cueball: No, wait, your shutter speed is too fast, it will look choppy if—

:[White Hat turns clockwise towards Cueball and Ponytail, with the camera held up partly behind his head, so it points in the panel. Cueball clenches both his fists, held down now, and hunches his shoulders. Ponytail stands as before next to him.]
:Cueball: <big>''Hnnnnngh''</big>

:[White Hat has turned around and is now pointing the camera towards Cueball and Ponytail. Cueball now appears blurry while Ponytail looks normal.]

:[Caption below panel:]
:Expert photographers can learn to generate their own motion blur to compensate for other people's bad camera settings.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Photography]]

1181: PGP

2022-06-03T23:46:16Z

172.70.230.53: reverting gushy verbiage

{{comic
| number = 1181
| date = March 4, 2013
| title = PGP
| image = pgp.png
| titletext = If you want to be extra safe, check that there's a big block of jumbled characters at the bottom.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Pretty Good Privacy|PGP}} (Pretty Good Privacy) is a program which can be used to encrypt and/or sign data, including messages sent as emails. Encrypting means encoding data in a way that requires a secret key to decrypt and read; signing means that there is a code included in the data which can be used to verify the identify of the sender and that the data has not been altered in transit.

In the case of the email in this comic, it has only been signed; not encrypted (hence, the top of the first line of text can be seen and is legible in normal English). This is more common than encryption, as reading an encrypted message would require the recipient to already be a PGP user. In fact, the use of PGP even to sign email messages is so rare that most people have probably never seen a signed message. Because a signed email is so rare, and because it is already legible and unencrypted, [[Randall]] is making the tongue-in-cheek observation that few users, technical or otherwise, actually know how to use the signature to verify the authenticity of the sender using the PGP signature, and that such users can safely assume that since there ''is'' a signature, that is good enough evidence that the message is authentic. Further, because PGP signatures are so rare and probably ignored by most recipients, he suggests one would not expect anyone to even bother creating a false PGP signature; therefore the mere existence of a PGP header would suggest authenticity.

The title text extends the joke by suggesting you confirm there's a bunch of random characters in the footer (this is the actual signature that PGP generates which can be used to verify the authenticity of the email). Again, Randall is humorously suggesting that the existence of the block is itself sure evidence of authenticity.

==Transcript==
:How to use PGP to verify that an email is authentic:
:Look for this text at the top
:[In mail header, light grey.] Reply
:[Highlighted, with arrow pointing to it from the text "Look for this text at the top" above.]
:-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
:[In mail message, light grey.]
:HASH: SHA256
:Hey,
:First of all, thanks for taking care of

:[After mail message.]
:If it's there, the email is probably fine

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Email]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]

2626: d65536

2022-05-31T09:11:21Z

172.70.230.53: it is no longer the past. the present is now.

{{comic
| number = 2626
| date = May 30, 2022
| title = d65536
| image = d65536.png
| titletext = They're robust against quantum attacks because it's hard to make a quantum system that large.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HEXAKISMYRIAPENTAKISCHILIAPENTAHECTATRIACONTAKAIHEXAHEDRON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In binary computing, 16 bit numbers range from 0 to 65535 (or 1 to 65536). Generating large numbers randomly is a recurring problem in cryptography.

In roleplaying games (and occasionally in other tabletop games), dice are often referred to as d[number] according to their number of faces. A traditional six-faced die would be a d6, and many popular pen-and-paper roleplaying games use dice ranging between d4 and d20. Dice larger than a d20 are rare specialty dice, and are often nicknamed "golf balls" to emphasize how unwieldy they are.

Here, Cueball has constructed a d65536 for generating random 16 bit numbers, likely with a [https://www.shapeways.com/product/U9CN6MT6X/d256 3d printer] or other CAM tools. It has solved the problem of being secure from a cryptography standpoint, but presents a new set of challenges from its sheer size, dwarfing an average human. While large in itself, a die that big could still be emulated by rolling multiple dice (e.g. 8 4-faced dice or 16 coin flips) and converting the result into binary before getting the desired number. Part of the humor stems from the the comic completely failing to mention another big problem with this die: Deciding which of the 65536 faces is up.

The closest regular shape similar to the depicted in the comic could be a {{w|Goldberg polyhedron}}. However no such polyhedron exists with exactly 65536 hexagonal faces. The closest Goldberg Polyhedron has a mixture of 65520 hexagons and 12 pentagons, totaling 65532 faces. It is possible to construct a fair die without a matching regular shape.

The title text references how many cryptographic systems (especially RSA and other factoring-is-hard based systems) are vulnerable to quantum attacks as quantum computing technology develops. The title text is essentially punning on the idea of a "large" quantum system. "Large" in the quantum computing sense would be on the order of 64 qubits each of which would be an atom or two at most. This would still be microscopic and will never be as large as the giant die the comic is centered on. It also is an example of the concept that cryptography normally isn't broken (see [[538]]), but one somehow finds a way around it, like in this place not breaking the cryptographic algorithm or the code, but instead trying to find out what numbers the RNG produces.

==Trivia==
*If a real d65536 were constructed with each number having an equal area and each printed in 12 point font, the resulting die would be about 5 feet (1.5 meters) in diameter. If it were made out of standard acrylic, it would weigh about 2 tons (1700kg).
*This die would have a 0.00001526 chance of rolling a natural one (or any other number).

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

[Drawing of a large die with many sides, about ten meters in diameter; Cueball is standing next to it as a size reference. A small portion of the die's surface is zoomed in, showing elongated hexagonal faces with five-digit numbers.]

[Numbers on the zoomed in part of the die, "..." represents being cut off:]
:30827
:16[bottom part of a line][small circle]
:...38
:11875
:25444
:...[top part of a line]5
:12082
:28525
:3...
:13359
:13874
:2...

[Caption below the image:]
The hardest part of securely generating random 16-bit numbers is rolling the d65536.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Cryptography]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2626: d65536

2022-05-31T09:10:13Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2626
| date = May 30, 2022
| title = d65536
| image = d65536.png
| titletext = They're robust against quantum attacks because it's hard to make a quantum system that large.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HEXAKISMYRIAPENTAKISCHILIAPENTAHECTATRIACONTAKAIHEXAHEDRON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In binary computing, 16 bit numbers range from 0 to 65535 (or 1 to 65536). Generating large numbers randomly is a recurring problem in cryptography.

In roleplaying games (and occasionally in other tabletop games), dice are often referred to as d[number] according to their number of faces. A traditional six-faced die would be a d6, and many popular pen-and-paper roleplaying games use dice ranging between d4 and d20. Dice larger than a d20 are rare specialty dice, and are often nicknamed "golf balls" to emphasize how unwieldy they are.

Here, Cueball has constructed a d65536 for generating random 16 bit numbers, likely with a [https://www.shapeways.com/product/U9CN6MT6X/d256 3d printer] or other CAM tools. It has solved the problem of being secure from a cryptography standpoint, but presents a new set of challenges from its sheer size, dwarfing an average human. While large in itself, a die that big could still be emulated by rolling multiple dice (e.g. 8 4-faced dice or 16 coin flips) and converting the result into binary before getting the desired number. Part of the humor stems from the the comic completely failing to mention another big problem with this die: Deciding which of the 65536 faces is up.

The closest regular shape similar to the depicted in the comic could be a {{w|Goldberg polyhedron}}. However no such polyhedron exists with exactly 65536 hexagonal faces. The closest Goldberg Polyhedron has a mixture of 65520 hexagons and 12 pentagons, totaling 65532 faces. It is possible to construct a fair die without a matching regular shape.

The title text references how many cryptographic systems (especially RSA and other factoring-is-hard based systems) are hypothetically vulnerable to quantum attacks if we could build quantum computers large and coherent enough to actually compute on more than a few qubits. The title text is essentially punning on the idea of a "large" quantum system. "Large" in the quantum computing sense would be on the order of 64 qubits each of which would be an atom or two at most. This would still be microscopic and will never be as large as the giant die the comic is centered on. It also is an example of the concept that cryptography normally isn't broken (see [[538]]), but one somehow finds a way around it, like in this place not breaking the cryptographic algorithm or the code, but instead trying to find out what numbers the RNG produces.

==Trivia==
*If a real d65536 were constructed with each number having an equal area and each printed in 12 point font, the resulting die would be about 5 feet (1.5 meters) in diameter. If it were made out of standard acrylic, it would weigh about 2 tons (1700kg).
*This die would have a 0.00001526 chance of rolling a natural one (or any other number).

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

[Drawing of a large die with many sides, about ten meters in diameter; Cueball is standing next to it as a size reference. A small portion of the die's surface is zoomed in, showing elongated hexagonal faces with five-digit numbers.]

[Numbers on the zoomed in part of the die, "..." represents being cut off:]
:30827
:16[bottom part of a line][small circle]
:...38
:11875
:25444
:...[top part of a line]5
:12082
:28525
:3...
:13359
:13874
:2...

[Caption below the image:]
The hardest part of securely generating random 16-bit numbers is rolling the d65536.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Cryptography]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2611: Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects

2022-05-21T00:11:18Z

172.70.230.53: Undo revision 272291 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2611
| date = April 25, 2022
| title = Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects
| image = cutest_sounding_scientific_effects.png
| titletext = The Stroop-YORP number of a scientific paper is how many of the 16 finalist names (sans 'effect') it manages to casually sneak into the text.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] has compiled [[:Category:Tournament bracket|yet another]] {{w|Tournament bracket|single-elimination tournament bracket}} for a knock-out competition, by public vote, between 16 different scientific effect names that he seems to consider worthy of being cute-sounding.

As of the release day, he is determining the result in a [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518701311763570689 series of Twitter polls]. These results are shown [[#Result of the Twitter polls|here]].

See [[#Effects|below]] for explanations for what each of the 16 effects are.

Several unrelated scientific effects were previously combined in [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]], which also included the Stroop effect (the last S).

In the title text, Randall coins the term "Stroop-YORP number" as a count of how many 'casual' references a future publication can sneak into it from the 16 finalist names for cutest effect. It specifies that it should be without the word effect after the words (sans 'effect').

Tongue-in-cheek 'counting scores' are familiar in the likes of the {{w|Erdős_number|Erdős}} and {{w|Bacon_number|Bacon}} numbers, both of which are referenced by [[599: Apocalypse]] (the latter only in the title text). In these cases the ideal is to get the ''lowest'' number, whereas here higher is better. The cross-field hybrid {{w|Erdős–Bacon number}} is one in which the desired score is the lowest sum of both values (neither being undefinable) by dint of having participated in both arenas of respective achievement, but not necessarily (or practically) in a single combined presentation.

For instance the Stroop-YORP number could be high for a wildlife paper. That could possibly use "butterfly" and "rabbit" (possibly needing the latter to be specifically 'cutaneous', to count), which may both be found in "little parks" with some "popcorn" seen littered around without too much "oddity"; and of course a (Dr.?) "fox" could be in the area, getting a score of 6. But other words may be a stretch, with an imaginative reference to a "woozle" possibly easier to employ than to evoke anything of the "nocebo".

On the other hand, for a space-science paper there may be more obvious (mis)uses for physics-related terms, and mentioning YORP might well be expected. But it may need creative thinking to introduce the rabbit or the more psychological idea of Stroopicity, etc, without reason to discuss the responses of animal or human payloads being sent there.

It is not actually obvious whether Randall intends the score to only be valid if the insertions are off-field and/or undetected, such as when someone is wagered that they can slip unrelated song lyrics or a 'hello' to Jason Isaacs into a public speech without the rest of the audience twigging.

A search of google scholar indicates many articles with a score of 2 (e.g. [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/87559129.2012.714435 this paper], which refers to butterfly shaped popcorn), but 3 or more seems to not be attested.

==Effects==
;{{w|YORP effect}}: The YORP effect is the effect of sunlight on an asteroid with variations of shape and/or albedo, which can increase its rotation rate and/or modify its axis of rotation. It can cause objects to eventually spin apart or drastically change their orbit.
:It is an acronym of the names Yarkovsky, O’Keefe, Radzievskii and Paddack, who were instrumental in its discovery. More than a century ago, Yarkovsky determined that heat applied to a symmetrical rotating body would be asymmetrically re-emitted and apply a small but continuous thrust, and this was added to by considering the forces to non-symmetrical bodies.
;{{w|Nocebo effect}}: An effect in which a recipient of medication who believes that it will have negative side-effects is more likely to experience those negative side-effects, whether they can be really caused by the medication or not. Opposite of the {{w|placebo effect}}, which focuses on positive side-effects that arise beyond the true efficacy of a given treatment.
:''Nocēbō'' is Latin for “I shall harm”, coined to oppose ''placēbō'', “I shall please”.
;{{w|Woozle effect}}: If a study gets repeatedly cited and otherwise disseminated, then people will start to believe it regardless of whether it has any evidence behind it. And if there is not any evidence, it becomes an urban myth.
:Named after a Winnie-the-Pooh story in which Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet try to catch an imaginary animal called a woozle, and accidentally follow their own tracks in circles.
:A similar effect was discussed in [[978: Citogenesis]], wherein a sourceless statement on Wikipedia can become apparently credible via simple repetition.
;{{w|Stroop effect}}: The Stroop effect (referenced in [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]]) is a psychological phenomenon in which it is easier to name the visual color of a word when the word refers to its own color, than when the word refers to a different color; i.e. the fact that saying that '''Red''' is red is easier than to say that '''Blue''' is green.
:Named after {{w|John Ridley Stroop}}.
;{{w|Pockels effect}}: A phenomenon where an electric field passed through a medium can cause the medium's refractive index to depend upon the polarization and propagation direction of the refracted light, a property known as {{w|birefringence}}.
:Named after {{w|Friedrich Carl Alwin Pockels}}.
;{{w|Cheerios effect}}: A phenomenon where objects floating in a liquid appear to attract or repel each other.
:Named after the cereal Cheerios, which are an everyday demonstration of this phenomenon because many eat Cheerios in a bowl of milk.
;{{w|Hot chocolate effect}}: A phenomenon where the sound created by tapping a cup of hot liquid rises in pitch as a soluble powder is added.
;{{w|Perky effect}}: An experiment in which participants were asked to visualize an object while staring at a screen on which the outline of that object was subtly projected. Participants believed the projected shape to be only a product of their imaginations.
:Named after {{w|Cheves Perky}}.
;{{w|Bouba/kiki effect}}: An observation that people, despite different native languages, will relatively consistently assign names with certain sounds to blobby or spiky shapes, suggesting the association of sound and shape is non-arbitrary. ''Bouba'' and ''kiki'' were two of the words used in the experiment.
;{{w|Cutaneous rabbit effect}}: A phenomenon where, when tapped on one part of the body in rapid succession and then switching to another, the subject feels the tapping at locations in between the two.
:For example, if rapidly tapping the wrist then switching to the elbow, the subject will subjectively feel as if they are being tapped at progressive intervals between the wrist and elbow, when they are not.
;[https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smallfirmeffect.asp Small firm effect]: An economic theory that small firms usually perform better than larger ones
;{{w|Little–Parks effect}}: A phenomenon where a fluctuating magnetic field passed through a superconductor can slightly suppress its superconductivity, inducing small fluctuations in its electrical resistance.
:When juxtaposed against the "small firm effect", as in the bracket, one might get the impression that it is somehow related to urban architecture or civil engineering.
;{{w|Dr. Fox effect}}: A disputed theory that student evaluations of their teachers are likely unreliable, because they are largely based on the teacher's charisma instead of the quality of their content.
;{{w|Oddity effect}}: A theory that when fish assemble in shoals (large social groups), any that stand out appearance-wise will be attacked by a predator, explaining why shoals tend to have similar-looking members.
;{{w|Butterfly effect}}: The butterfly effect is the sensitivity of chaotic systems to small changes in initial conditions. The weather system of Earth is chaotic, and so an arbitrarily small change in air patterns (such as could be caused by the flapping of a butterfly's wing) could ultimately change the weather for the whole world.
;{{w|Popcorn effect}}: A phenomenon exhibited by crushed ore placed on a vibrating screen for separation in mineral processing, in which larger particles tend to bounce higher than smaller particles.

==Transcript==
:[A tournament bracket tree is shown with 16 scientific effect names, with 8 on the left and 8 on the right side. From both sides toward the middle the brackets reduce from eight to four, to two, then to one line where the latter join to a rectangle in the middle for the winners name of the final match. Above the bracket there is a title:]
:<big>Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects</big>

:[Left side:]
:YORP effect
:Nocebo effect

:Woozle effect
:Stroop effect

:Pockels effect
:Cheerios effect

:Hot chocolate effect
:Perky effect

:[Right side:]
:Bouba/kiki effect
:Cutaneous rabbit effect

:Small firm effect
:Little Parks effect

:Dr. Fox effect
:Oddity effect

:Butterfly effect
:Popcorn effect

==Trivia==
* Randall has created [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518701311763570689 Twitter polls] to determine the outcome of this version of his [[1819: Sweet 16|sweet 16]]:

===Result of the [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518698708824727554 Twitter polls]===
====First wave====
The first wave ran from April 25, 2022 at 5:19pm ET to the next day at 5:42pm ET.
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518701311763570689 '''YORP effect (67.7%)''' vs Nocebo effect (32.3%)], 8,996 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518702773075943425 '''Woozle effect (74.4%)''' vs Stroop effect (25.6%)], 8,517 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518704819720044544 Pockels effect (42.4%) vs '''Cheerios effect (57.6%)'''], 7,513 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518705352342228998 '''Hot chocolate effect (56.2%)''' vs Perky effect (43.8%)], 7,379 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518705724737662977 '''Bouba/kiki effect (64%)''' vs Cutaneous rabbit effect (36%)], 7,563 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518706168440541194 Small firm effect (18.4%) vs '''Little Parks effect (81.6%)'''], 7,209 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518706772999118848 '''Dr. Fox effect (67.5%)''' vs Oddity effect (32.5%)], 7,852 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1518707180320481280 '''Butterfly effect (56.5%)''' vs Popcorn effect (43.4%)], 7,825 votes

====Second wave====
The second wave started on April 26, 2022 at 5:56pm ET and ended around 11:56am ET.
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519073013781647365 YORP effect (35.7%) vs '''Woozle effect (64.3%)'''], 7,026 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519074868637147138 Cheerios effect (49.5%) vs '''Hot chocolate effect (50.5%)'''], 6,672 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519077131376074754 '''Bouba/Kiki effect (72.8%)''' vs Little parks effect (27.2%)], 7,466 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519079116993183749 Dr. Fox effect (47.9%) vs '''Butterfly effect (52.1%)'''], 6,752 votes

====Third wave====
The third wave started on April 27, 2022 at 6:54pm ET and ended around 12:54pm ET.
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519450011674759169 '''Woozle effect (71.2%)''' vs Hot chocolate effect (28.8%)], 8,237 votes
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519455938096373761 '''Bouba/Kiki effect (77.6%)''' vs Butterfly effect (22.4%)], 7,223 votes

====Fourth wave====
The fourth wave started on April 28, 2022 at 4:30pm ET and ended around 10:30pm ET.
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1519776107821740033 Woozle effect (46.1%) vs '''Bouba/Kiki effect (53.9%)'''], 10,774 votes

====Bonus wave====
* [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1520109683503161344 '''Bouba (57%)''' vs Kiki (43%)], 9,723 votes

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Tournament bracket]]

1299: I Don't Own a TV

2022-05-21T00:10:54Z

172.70.230.53: Undo revision 272290 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1299
| date = December 4, 2013
| title = I Don't Own a TV
| image = i_dont_own_a_tv.png
| titletext = Theory: Smugness is proportional to the negative second derivative of TV ownership rate with respect to time.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is [[:Category:Charts|yet another graph]], describing how people who don't own a television feel throughout several time periods. While televisions have existed since 1928, regular scheduled broadcasts of television programs did not begin until the late 1940s. So before the 1950s, it was common not to own a television and therefore most people's feelings about it would be fairly neutral. This changed as televisions became cheaper and more people started owning them, meaning that if someone didn't own a television, it was generally because they couldn't afford one. This might lead to someone feeling embarrassment when admitting they don't have a television.

Gradually, television ownership increased until eventually, nearly every household had at least one television, and those that did not were more and more likely to do so by choice rather than due to poverty. The graph therefore peaks at around the year 2000, when many people would be proud to say that they did not own a television. [[Randall]] suggests that these people would feel smug because they are resisting a popular trend (owning a television) which the rest of the public take part in. The graph tails downwards at the end, suggesting that Randall believes that people are becoming less smug. This could be because of the abundance of video content and other forms of entertainment on the internet and mobile devices. So, according to Randall, people are returning to not owning a television simply because it's not necessary and these people therefore feel neutral towards their lack of a television.

Another point of view is that, with the advent of the Internet for news and weather along with video-on-demand services such as Netflix, televisions have become obsolete for some households and thus not owning one can be seen as moving with the times, or those that don't own one see those that still have one as old-fashioned, hence the smug. However in recent times television has become imbued with new technologies such as Internet access (known as smart TVs) and thus owning a television is seen as trendy again, thus the level of smugness drops.

The initial upturn from embarrassment to smugness may also be a commentary on the quality of television programs over that period. In the 1950s and 1960s, television was a major source of news and information. Those without televisions might feel that they were missing out of the important stories of the day. Also, the limited number of stations and lack of recording devices meant that discussions of the previous night's television programming was far more inclusive, with more people watching the same programs at the same time. Until the advent of PVRs, the prior night's television programming was a popular "water cooler" topic (i.e. something discussed socially at the office the next day). This means that that those who had missed out on those programs might feel socially "out of the loop".

By contrast, since 2000, many programs were criticized as poor quality or "mindless", e.g. daytime talk shows and reality shows. So, someone might feel more smug for not watching so-called "mindless television". Similarly, as television viewership increased from the 1950s through the 2000s, it is possible that other activities such as reading has decreased; especially given that the younger generation today don't remember a time without television. So, someone who did not own a television set might feel more smug because they take part in more "beneficial" activities like reading, exercise, and studying.

The title text suggests that whether people feel embarrassed or smug doesn't depend directly on what percentage of the population owns TVs (TV ownership rate) or even on how quickly this percentage is growing (derivative of TV ownership rate with respect to time); instead it depends on how the change in this percentage is speeding up or slowing down (second derivative of TV ownership rate with respect to time). Specifically, as the rate at which people adopt TV ownership accelerates (positive second derivative of TV ownership rate with respect to time), people who don't own one feel embarrassed (negative smugness); and as the market is saturated and the rate at which people adopt TV ownership slows down (negative second derivative of TV ownership rate with respect to time), people who don't own one feel smug (positive smugness). If people feel twice as embarrassed/smug when this rate of acceleration/deceleration doubles, then we have Randall's formulation: "smugness is proportional to the negative second derivative of TV ownership rate with respect to time".

As evidence for this, the adoption of TV ownership should theoretically follow a {{w|Sigmoid function|sigmoid curve}}, which is the graph of something that starts small, grows in a spurt, and then approaches a maximum capacity (in this case 100%). [https://www.desmos.com/calculator/4j2ybqwfnc The negative second derivative of a sigmoid curve] looks very much like Randall's graph.

==Transcript==
:[A graph is shown with an x- and y-axis.]
:How people feel when they say
:"I don't own a TV"
:by year
:[The x-axis is labled: 1950, 2000, today.]
:[The y-axis is labled ''neutral'' at zero, ''smug'' at top, and ''embarrassed'' to the bottom.]
:[A plot, similar to a negative sine curve between approximately 1960 and 2000, is shown in red, starting at 1950, moving into negative values, reaching the zero level again at the beginning of the 1980s, reaching its maximum shortly after 2000, and decreasing again until today. An arrow shows the current direction.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Math]]

410: Math Paper

2022-05-21T00:10:27Z

172.70.230.53: Undo revision 272294 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk)

{{comic
| number = 410
| date = April 14, 2008
| title = Math Paper
| image = math_paper.png
| titletext = That's nothing. I once lost my genetics, rocketry, and stripping licenses in a single incident.
}}

==Explanation==
The math paper [[Cueball]] is in the process of describing in this comic turns out to be nothing but an elaborate setup for a joke about {{w|imaginary friend}}s by taking the concept of "{{w|friendly number}}s" into the complex (imaginary) plane, which comprises complex numbers that have both a real and an imaginary part (see details [[#Math|below]]).

Cueball is challenged on this setup by his superiors, specifically the Cueball-like guy sitting at the end of the table, who look straight through his first line-up for the joke, and ask him directly if this is just a build-up for this joke. Cueball tries at first to look like he has no idea what he's talking about, then lowers his head, in shame, and finally tries to state that ''it might not be'' such a setup. But it is too late now.

Such a pun is both so obvious and so terrible that Cueball's superiors deem that he should no longer have a {{w|Licence to kill (concept)|license to ''math''}}, and they thus revoke Cueball's "math license." Of course you do not need a math license{{Citation needed}}, but that is part of the comic's concept along the lines mentioned here below and further elaborated in the title text.

It is a [[:Category:Banned from conferences|recurring theme]] in earlier xkcd comics that Cueball (or [[Randall]]) ends up being banned from holding presentations at conferences after a presentation turns out to be just an elaborate pun.

The title text takes the joke a step further, with the added hilarity of making the audience question exactly how Cueball/Randall was able to work a {{w|striptease}} into a presentation about {{w|genetic engineering}} and {{w|astrophysical}} rocket study (or possibly genetics and rockets into a striptease), and then even manage to lose all three licenses in one go. This is what TV Tropes calls a "{{tvtropes|NoodleIncident|noodle incident}}."

The whole comic is basically Randall making the joke that Cueball never got around to, but packing it up so we think it is about something else. Randall has often made such feeble jokes, but by putting them into a context where someone listening may comment on how bad that joke is or have to explain the joke, it somehow becomes alright, and he can get away with these jokes anyway. (See for instance [[18: Snapple]]).

===Math===
An {{w|imaginary number}} is a number that can be written as a real number multiplied by the imaginary unit ''i'', which is defined by its property ''i2 = -1'' (an impossibility for regular, "{{w|real numbers}}," for which all squares are positive). The name "imaginary number" was coined in the 17th century as a derogatory term, since such numbers were regarded by some as fictitious or useless, but over time, many applications in science and engineering have been found.

An imaginary number ''bi'' can be added to a real number ''a'' to form a {{w|complex number}} of the form ''a + bi'' (the formula shown at the bottom of Cueball's slide ), where ''a'' and ''b'' are called, respectively, the real part and the imaginary part of the complex number. If ''a'' and ''b'' are both integers, the complex number is called a {{w|Gaussian integer}} (as Cueball mentions). The {{w|complex plane}} is an X-Y plot with ''a'' on the X axis and ''b'' on the Y axis. (Such a plane is shown at the bottom of Cueball's slide).

Joel Bradbury (once) had the below cited and wonderful explanation of {{w|friendly number}}s on his site:

:What are Friendly Numbers?
:We need first to define a divisor function over the integers, written σ(n) if you're so inclined. To get it first we get all the integers that divide into n. So for 3, it's 1 and 3. For 4, it's 1, 2, and 4, and for 5 it's only 1 and 5.

:Now sum them to get σ(n). So σ(3) = 1 + 3 = 4, or σ(4) = 1 + 2 + 4 = 7, and so on.

:For each of these n, there is something called a characteristic ratio. Now that's just the divisors function over the integer itself: σ(n)/n. (This is the formula shown at the top of Cueball's slide). So the characteristic ratio where n = 6 is σ(6)/6 = 12/6 = 2.

:Once you have the characteristic ratio for any integer n, any other integers that share the same characteristic are called friendly with each other. (This is what is written in the frame in Cueball's slide, spelling friendly numbers as ''friendly #s''). So to put it simply, a friendly number is any integer that shares its characteristic ratio with at least one other integer. The converse of that is called a solitary number, where it doesn't share its characteristic with anyone else.

:1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are solitary. 6 is friendly with 28; σ(6)/6 = (1+2+3+6)/6 = 12/6 = 2 = 56/28 = (1+2+4+7+14+28)/28 = σ(28)/28.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, holding a pointing stick, is using it to point at an equation on a panel. He is looking to the right. There are several parts of the panel that can be read. At the top, there is a formula. Below is a frame with text. Below again to the left is an X-Y plot with small dots all over all four quadrants, probably indicating the complex numbers with ''b'' on the Y and ''a'' on the X axis. Finally, right of this is yet another formula.]
:Cueball: In my paper, I use an extension of the divisor function over the Gaussian integers to generalize the so-called "friendly numbers" into the complex plane.
:Panel:
::σ(n)/n = d(n)
::Friendly #s share d(n)
::For a + bi...

:[The audience to the right of Cueball consist of two Cueball-like guys (one in front and one in the back), and between them are Hairbun, with glasses, and Megan. They sit around a table; only Hairbun is on the near side. The Cueball-like guy sitting to the right is at the end of the table, the other two are on the far side. The Cueball at the end of the table is talking, the other three have turned to look at him:]
:Guy at the end of the table: Hold on. Is this paper simply a giant build-up to an "imaginary friends" pun?

:[Back to Cueball, who stands speechless.]

:[One more beat panel with Cueball, who now looks down.]

:[Zoom out to Cueball and the front end of the table with the Cueball-like guy who has not spoken yet and Hairbun who now looks at Cueball. Cueball looks up again and speaks. The guy at the end of the table speaks off panel.]
:Cueball: It might not be.
:Guy at the end of the table (off panel): I'm sorry, we're revoking your math license.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Banned from conferences]]
[[Category:Number theory]]
[[Category:Puns]]

1035: Cadbury Eggs

2022-05-21T00:09:46Z

172.70.230.53: Undo revision 272293 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1035
| date = March 28, 2012
| title = Cadbury Eggs
| image = cadbury_eggs.png
| titletext = When they moved production from New Zealand to the UK and switched from the runny white centers to the thick, frosting-like filling, it got way harder to cook them scrambled.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Cadbury Creme Egg|Cadbury Eggs}} are a chocolate egg-shaped candy with a filling. They are supposed to replicate a real egg with a hard exterior and soft interior. However, unlike real eggs, the exterior is edible.{{Citation needed}}

In this comic, [[Cueball]] is trying to say that sodas have way too much sugar to even be appealing as beverages, because they contain as much sugar as 2 or 3 Cadbury Eggs, and one Cadbury Egg alone makes him feel gross. (A 12 oz can equals 355 mL, while a 20 oz bottle is about 590 mL.)

However, [[Megan]] interprets this in precisely the opposite way to what Cueball intended. Instead of comparing soda to Cadbury Eggs, she compares Cadbury Eggs to soda. If a [[1070|few]] Cadbury Eggs have the same amount of sugar as soda, Megan can eat as many as she wants year-round in place of soda, with no additional guilt. Cadbury Eggs are usually consumed around {{w|Easter}} — which is anywhere between March 22nd and May 7th, depending on whether one is consulting the Catholic or Orthodox calendar.

The title text mentions the closure of the {{w|Cadbury Creme Egg#Manufacture in New Zealand|manufacture in New Zealand}} in 2009 and the change of the filling from runny to thick as a consequence. The joke here is the comparison to real eggs, which can be cooked {{w|Scrambled_eggs|scrambled}}, the new thick filling is not liquid enough to be cooked in a pan, as was the old runny filling.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cadbury eggs, one in the foil, the other out of the foil and broken open to reveal the gooey center.]
:A Cadbury egg has about 20g of sugar. (25g outside the US.) "One Cadbury Egg" is a nice unit of sugar content.

:[A can of soda with an equals sign and two eggs; a bottle of soda with an equals sign and three eggs.]
:One 12oz. can of soda has about two Cadbury eggs worth of sugar. One 20oz. bottle has three.

:[Two unwrapped Cadbury eggs, with an arrow indicating they should be placed in a glass of water.]
:One Cadbury egg is enough to make me feel kinda gross. Now when I see Coke or Snapple or Nestea or whatever, I imagine drinking a couple of dissolved Cadbury eggs.

:[Megan puts her hand to her chin in thought, Cueball has his arms out in exclamation.]
:Megan: Wow. Huh. So the takeaway is... I can eat Cadbury eggs by the handful all season and feel no worse about it than I do about soda?
:Cueball: That's not really—
:Megan: This is ''awesome!''
:Cueball: *sigh*

==Trivia==
*Cadbury Eggs and the high sugar content of soda are referenced again in [[1793: Soda Sugar Comparisons]].
*The Cadbury egg/soda comparison is also mentioned in the what if? {{what if|74|Soda Planet}}.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Food]]

2619: Crêpe

2022-05-16T13:54:43Z

172.70.230.53:

{{comic
| number = 2619
| date = May 13, 2022
| title = Crêpe
| image = crepe.png
| titletext = A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ÇRÊPË - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[File:crêpe.png|thumb|The word "crêpe" in the comic]]
[[Cueball]] has made a {{w|crêpe}}, a thin pancake known for its legendary status in French cuisine, which he proudly announces. However, the {{w|circumflex}} (the accent above the e) is written strangely. Instead of the usual simple angle (^), it looks more like the outline of a flattened arrowhead (⮝). [[Megan]], who can apparently {{tvtropes|PsmithPsyndrome|hear the orthography}} of spoken text, comments on the odd shape with an appropriate pun.

Megan's response, "Weird circumflex but okay" is a play on the recent expression [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Weird%20flex%20but%20ok Weird flex, but ok]. A "flex" is bragging about something. A "weird flex" is used when the speaker acknowledges (perhaps ironically) that the first person is attempting to brag about something, but doesn't recognise the thing as brag-worthy.

Her answer could also be applied to the shape of the crêpe, as circumflex means "bent around".

In some dialects of English (e.g. British English), and in the original French pronunciation, "crêpe" is said so that the ê is pronounced as in "get", i.e. "cr-eh-p", but American English speakers pronounce it like an "A", i.e. "cr-ay-p".

The title text continues the wordplay by saying that "A medicine that makes you put two dots over your letters more often is a diäretic".

The word diäretic is a pun on {{w|diuretic}} (a substance promoting increased urine production), {{w|Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis}} (a symbol in the form of two dots placed above a vowel, as the ä in the made up word diäretic; the adjective form of diaeresis can be spelled "[https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Diaresis dieretic]") and {{w|diacritic}} (a glyph added to a letter to distinguish its sound from the normal version, what both the circumflex and the diaeresis are). See also the comic [[1647: Diacritics]] about the use of these. Taking a diäretic medicine would supposedly cause you to use diaeresis (also known as umlaut) över möre lëtters thän wöuld üsuallÿ bë thë cäse.

Diacritics are rarely used in English, potentially because of the diverse set of origin languages it developed from, or the wide variation of pronunciations within a same nation, but are a common feature of other languages. In English, they are normally only seen in specific loanwords (such as crêpe) or used for emphasis or decoration (for example the {{w|metal umlaut}} seen in rock bands like {{w|Motörhead}}, {{w|Mötley Crüe}}, {{w|Queensrÿche}}, or {{w|Spın̈al Tap}}). The exception to this is the diaresis, which when it is used at all, is placed over the second vowel in a double-vowel word to indicate a morphological break between them as opposed to a dipthong, e.g. naïve or coöperation. The diaresis is optional, and, especially with words beginning with the co- prefix (e.g. cooperation, coevolution, or coincidence), rarely used. The New Yorker magazine is a famous outlier, advising consistent use of the diaresis in [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis its style guide].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a plate up in both hand, showing Megan the crepe lying on the plate. His word for crêpe has a different diacritic over the "e" than the normal circumflex (^). Instead it looks more like an open arrow head.]
:Cueball: Check out this crêpe I made!
:Megan: Weird circumflex, but okay.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:1105: License Plate

2022-05-15T03:12:39Z

172.70.230.53: Alternate explanation suggestion

In New Jersey (USA), the laws allowing personalize license plates specifically disallows plates in the format of a standard plate.

Wouldn't this idea be more effective (theoretically) with 0's and O's (that is, zeroes and capital O's)? [[User:Erenan|Erenan]] ([[User talk:Erenan|talk]]) 15:58, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

Many localities disallow one or the other for specifically that reason. In my locality, the letter O is not allowed in *ANY* license plate, not even the randomly assigned ones, so AAN-999 would be followed by AAP-000, rather than the expected AAO-000. Although at a quick glance, a capital Q looks similar to a number 0. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.243|199.27.128.243]] 23:37, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Shouldn't this be comic 1111? Only 2 weeks to go. --[[User:Xkpd|Xkpd]] ([[User talk:Xkpd|talk]]) 19:32, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

The last line of title text should have been 'Clever girl'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO5wryDdEI0 --[[Special:Contributions/69.120.249.184|69.120.249.184]] 19:34, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

Discussing this comic over chat with a friend...
A: I thought he actually robbed the banks..and she pre-emptively ratted him out. Apparently, an alternative interpretation is that she committed the robbery. Which one of the two is it?
B: She robbed the banks.
A: Well, you can just fake any number plate. Why bother faking his unusual one specifically? Unless, she's a sadist of course...
B: Just 'cause he leaked his plans to her
A: lol #LessonsToBeLearnt #NeverTellWomenAnything
B: Agreeeed!

::I don't think she FAKED his plate, I think she bought another personalized plate with a different combination of 1's and I's which the police just assumed was his because of his already existing reputation as the guy committing crimes with the 1's and I's license plate. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 14:10, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

:::I was of the impression that he actually committed the robberies, and that the "clever"-ness was in getting him to admit that he was with his car (instead of his car being stolen or borrowed.) --[[Special:Contributions/193.150.8.123|193.150.8.123]] 15:13, 29 September 2012 (UTC)

::::I thought he had only committed the one crime (vandalization) and the police tricked him into admitting it by accusing him of 5 other fake crimes.[[Special:Contributions/38.118.83.250|38.118.83.250]] 19:58, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Um, I'm pretty sure the license plate office specifically forbids use of certain characters BECAUSE of their ambiguity. Like, I and O are not allowed in PA because of their similarity to 1 and 0. So this comic lives in the realm of fiction where they haven't thought of that already. --[[User:Tustin2121|Tustin2121]] ([[User talk:Tustin2121|talk]]) 16:35, 9 September 2012 (UTC)

Just after this ran, I saw a photo (on some internet "funny photo" site) of a car with an actual New Your state license plate made up of only Bs and 8s (e.g. "B88BB8B") for a similar effect.

I saw a BMW with license plate "I1IIIII" a day or two after this ran. 17:45, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

If they were ever brought to court in the US, assuming they were both driving the same type of car, they would be able to provide enought mutual reasonable doubt as to which one of them had done it. [[Special:Contributions/67.41.79.164|67.41.79.164]] 03:37, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

I played a game called Everybody Edits, where the 5 and S were the same. nobody could perform the /kick command on me >:D {{unsigned ip|‎184.11.73.88}}

Owning a car with a number plate is not considered a crime in Britain. I would have thought even if a non-sequitur is permissible in the US, it only applies to dark skinned people?[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 19:52, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

Is it just me, or are the lines in this comic really thick? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.102|162.158.122.102]] 00:37, 21 January 2017 (UTC)

The explanation suggests that they flagged the plate when it was registered, and Megan in the title text used a false plate. Could it be that they didn't automatically flag the plate, but Megan warned the police about him, and thus no false plate was needed?

2618: Selection Bias

2022-05-12T11:50:23Z

172.70.230.53: mrob moment

{{comic
| number = 2618
| date = May 11, 2022
| title = Selection Bias
| image = selection_bias.png
| titletext = We carefully sampled the general population and found that most people are familiar with acquiescence bias.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DOUSE THAT ROLLS NUMBERS LIKELY TO RESULT IN MORE ROLLS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Blondie]] is [[:Category:Public speaking|giving a talk]] at the conference "Statistics Conference 2022." By show of hands she and the audience learns that most of the listeners are familiar with {{w|selection bias}}. She uses this to conclude that it's a term most people know.

The joke is that she is thus falling for the very thing she's trying to explain. A statistics conference is likely to have an audience consisting of professional statisticians, or at least people interested in the subject, and it is expected that most of them would thus be familiar with any mainstream statistical term, like selection bias. Had she asked a random sample of people in the street, many of them would likely not be sure what selection bias is. This effect is also the subject in [[2357: Polls vs the Street]].

This joke also ties into how statistics as a whole can be highly counter-intuitive and sometimes almost paradoxical, where things like the {{w|Monty Hall problem}} and {{w|survivorship bias}} lead people into thinking the answer to a problem is definitely in a place it's not. That Blondie, presumably a statistician herself, made this kind of mistake is professionally embarrassing but not unprecedented.

The title text refers to {{w|Acquiescence bias}}, which is the tendency of people to respond positively to positive questions, for example "Are you familiar with the famous webcomic {{xkcd}}?" is more likely to generate the answer yes than "Are you familiar with that webcomic for engineers that nobody else understands until they go to [[Main_Page|Explain xkcd]]?"

==Transcript==
:[Blondie is standing on a podium behind a lectern with a microphone. She is standing under a hanging sign with large text. In front of the podium is an audience of five seated persons all with their hands raised above their heads. The audience includes two guys that look like Cueball, Hairbun and two other persons with dark and blonde hair.]
:Sign: Statistics conference 2022
:Blondie: Raise your hand if you’re familiar with selection bias.
:Blondie: As you can see, it’s a term most people know...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Cognitive Bias]]

2618: Selection Bias

2022-05-12T00:57:07Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2618
| date = May 11, 2022
| title = Selection Bias
| image = selection_bias.png
| titletext = We carefully sampled the general population and found that most people are familiar with acquiescence bias.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DIE THAT ROLLS NUMBERS LIKELY TO RESULT IN MORE ROLLS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Blondie speaks to a crowd at "Statistics Conference 2022" and, by show of hands, learns that most of the audience is familiar with {{w|selection bias}}. The joke is that she's falling for the very thing she's trying to explain. A statistics conference is likely to have a much higher percentage of statisticians in the audience than a truly random sample of the population would, and therefore be familiar with this statistical term, which describes exactly that phenomenon.

This joke also ties into how statistics as a whole can be highly counter-intuitive and sometimes almost paradoxical, where things like the {{w|Monty Hall problem}} and {{w|survivorship bias}} lead people into thinking the answer to a problem is definitely in a place it's not. That Blondie, presumably a statistician herself, made this kind of mistake is professionally embarrassing but not unprecedented.

The title text refers to {{w|Acquiescence bias}}, which is the tendency of people to respond positively to positive questions, for example "Are you familiar with the famous webcomic xkcd?" is more likely to generate the answer yes than "Are you familiar with that webcomic for engineers that nobody else understands until they go to Explain xkcd?"

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Blondie is standing at a lectern, under a hanging sign reading “Statistics conference 2022”. In front of her are two Cueballs, Hairbun, and Megan, all seated and raising their hands.]
:Blondie: Raise your hand if you’re familiar with selection bias.
:Blondie: As you can see, it’s a term most people know...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Cognitive Bias]]

342: 1337: Part 2

2022-05-11T18:20:39Z

172.70.230.53:

{{comic
| number = 342
| date = November 13, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 2
| image = 1337 part 2.png
| titletext = Trivia: Elaine is actually her middle name.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the second part of five in the "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series. The title 1337 is "L-eet," or "elite," using the {{w|Leet}} alphabet, a coding system used primarily on the internet (and on early text messaging system), meant to provide a bit of {{w|obfuscation}} to plain text both to make it harder to read and to show off in a creative way using in-group jargon.

All comics in the series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]
This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday, probably because he wanted to release comic 404 on april fools' day) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

"Like a ring in a bell" appears to be a reference to the {{w|Chuck Berry}} song {{w|Johnny B. Goode}}, in which Berry describes a young boy (like himself) who becomes a guitar-playing prodigy. The original lyric was "just like a-ringing a bell." Apparently, Elaine learned to program as quickly, easily, and skillfully as Johnny (and Chuck) learned to play rock 'n' roll.
{{w|Donald Knuth}} is a computer science Professor Emeritus at {{w|Stanford University}} who is famous for writing {{w|The Art of Computer Programming}} and developing the TeX computerized typesetting system. He may not have a mountain hideaway (a reference to ''{{w|Kill Bill}}'', by the way as is the whole training sequence), but he would be one of the best mentors a budding hacker could have.

The {{w|A* search algorithm}} and {{w|Dijkstra's algorithm}} are {{w|Graph traversal|graph search}} {{w|algorithm}}s. And what study of algorithms would be complete without a healthy study about finding complexities? {{w|Computational complexity theory|Time complexity}} is the amount of time an algorithm takes to execute. Upper and lower bounds for complexity is written in {{w|Big O notation}}. Best possible execution of an algorithm is constant time, or O(1), said in words, for any given data set, no matter how large, the algorithm will always return the answer in the same time. However, constant time is extremely difficult to achieve; linear time (O(n)) is also very good. For more complex algorithms, [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x*log%28x%29 O( n*log(n) )] is good, but [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x*log%28log%28x%29%29 O( n*log(log(n)) )] is better. (Note that logarithms in different bases are proportional to each other. So this would hold true for any base >1.)

From the evidence that [[Mrs. Roberts]] has two children, a daughter named [[Elaine Roberts|Elaine]], and a younger son named Bobby (presumably [[Little Bobby Tables]] aka "Robert'); DROP TABLE students;--"), we can assume that she is the same mother from [[327: Exploits of a Mom]]. Of course, the title text here explains that Elaine is only her middle name (assuming canonicity of title-text). In the title text to [[327: Exploits of a Mom]], we learned that her first name is "Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory". Mrs. Roberts appears to have had fun naming her children.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball standing an looking down at his Cueball-like friend, who is sitting on the floor near an armchair holding a cloth to his face.]
:Friend: So the greatest hacker of our era is a cookie-baking mom?
:Cueball: Second-greatest.
:Friend: Oh?

:[The next panel is only half height as Cueball's narration is written as a caption above the panel without a frame around it. In the panel to the left lies a young Elaine with a ponytail on the floor typing at a keyboard while looking at a screen connected to a computer behind it with lots of wires and open case. The computer appears to have been pieced together and there is a screwdriver lying next to her and an open box lies behind her. Little Bobby Tables (a kid version of Cueball) is painting with a broad brush at an easel to the left. There is a clear drawing with two parts going up and one down, but it's not easy to see what it should look like. He is holding his other hand up in the air, like he is enjoying the painting.]
:Cueball (narrating): Mrs. Roberts had two children. Her son, Bobby, was never much for computers, but her daughter Elaine took to them like a ring in a bell.

:[The front of a car is in frame with side mirror and steering wheel visible. Mrs. Roberts is waving goodbye to her daughter who is wearing a backpack and is holding a walking stick. She is about to begin climbing a staircase built into a rocky mountain side. The first 11 step are visible. Behind the two and the stair are two distant mountain peaks, and above them two clouds. Cueball continues to narrate, this time inside the panel:]
:Cueball (narrating): When Elaine turned 11, her mother sent her to train under Donald Knuth in his mountain hideaway.

:[Donald Knuth, drawn with hair only around his neck, is standing with a pointing stick at a chalk board with graph traversal patterns on it and two blocks of unreadable text the top may be a matrix. This small panel is also lower than the next panel, with Cueballs narration above:]
:Cueball (narrating): For four years she studied algorithms.
:Donald Knuth: Child—

:[Donald Knuth whips around from the board slashing the stick like a sword. Elaine jumps, making a somersault (indicated with a line curving on it self from floor to sword) and lands on the stick balancing with her arms out.]
:Donald Knuth: Why is A* search wrong in this situation?
:Stick: ''swish''
:Elaine: Memory usage!
:Donald Knuth: What would you use?
:Elaine: Dijkstra's algorithm!

:[Donald Knuth and Elaine are outside, seen from behind while they are both writing on a chalkboard with a thick line down the middle to separate their work. On both sides their writing can be seen but it is unreadable. Where there is only text visible on Donald Knuth's side there is also what appears to be a drawing or matrix at the top of Elaine's. But a similar thing could be behind Donald Knuth's head. Elaine is no longer wearing her hair in a ponytail but have long straight white hair like her mom Mrs. Roberts. To the left there is a stump from a tree, some grass and maybe a puddle of water. Further back there is a small jagged hill and a flat horizon. To the right there are four mountain peaks and a flat high plateau towards the horizon. The frame of the panel does not include the top and bottom corner, but cuts a rectangular section of both places. In these two sections outside the panel is the last two paragraphs of Cueball's narrating:]
:Cueball (narrating): Until one day she bested her master
:Donald Knuth: So our lower bound here is O(n log n)
:Elaine: Nope. Got it in O(n log (log n))
:Cueball (narrating): And left.

==Trivia==
*In this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24#t=21m30s Google-speech] Donald Knuth personally asked [[Randall]] what his ''n*log(log(n))'' algorithm for searching was, and Randall referred him to Elaine.
*Elaine is actually her middle name.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:1337|02]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|1337]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Little Bobby Tables]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]] 
[[Category:Computers]]

2031: Pie Charts

2022-05-04T01:44:12Z

172.70.230.53:

{{comic
| number = 2031
| date = August 10, 2018
| title = Pie Charts
| image = pie_charts.png
| titletext = If you can't get your graphing tool to do the shading, just add some clip art of cosmologists discussing the unusual curvature of space in the area.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Pie_chart|Pie Charts}} graph proportions as "slices" of a circle, like a pie that you cut into slices. The circle, or Pie, represents the whole sum of the slices, or 100% of the data. As such, if the data represented by the slices is expressed as percentages, the total of all the slices, by definition, must total 100%. This comic introduces a new technique for getting around that rule by "warping" the circle to allow more than 100% of the data to exist in the graph. Thus the total amount of 130% is represented with a shape presumably 30% larger in area than the circle.

The resulting warped circle is then actually part of a [[wikipedia:Hyperbolic geometry#Circles and disks|hyperbolic plane]], while a normal circle is part of a flat plane. Of course, it doesn't matter if the geometric shape is a circle or a hyperbolic plane: A changed graphic doesn't magically solve the misrepresentation of percentages. At best, it serves to highlight the methodical error. Regarding doctored statistics: If the same numbers were presented as absolute values instead of percentages, the error would still remain but would be less obvious, especially if you omit the total count of the sample (''Of '''all''' people asked, 40 selected green as favorite color, 45 selected red, 30 yellow and 15 blue.'' This statement omits that you surveyed only 100 people and several of them named several colors, and readers will assume a larger sample.)

Percentages that add up to more than 100% are often a sign that a math error has occurred, whether a typo somewhere or a sloppy case of taking numbers from different sources. However, they can arise naturally in cases where each item can belong to more than one group, such as [[wikipedia:approval voting|approval voting]] (40% of the people like green 45% like red etc., however there may be some that like both green and red). In such cases, a more accurate depiction would have some form of overlap of the pie pieces, not a warping of the space which they occupy, or a completely different representation, such as a bar chart. Minor cases can also occur if the percentages of the pieces have been rounded for readability - summing the rounded numbers can result in them adding to 99% or 101%.

Percentages don't ''need'' to add up to 100% to be correct. For example, if ten people wear blue t-shirts and ten wear red t-shirts, then 50% of them wear each color for a total of 100%. Now if one of each joins the group, 55% of the ''original'' population wears each color, for a total of 110%, as the total population risen by 10%. That said, this change should be represented by something like a bar graph, not by pie chart. If percentages are represented by a pie chart, the assumption is that the total should be 100%, independently of the math behind it.

In this case, the right image appears to be what happens when you cut the pie chart segments out of fabric, stitch them together, and let the resultant fabric flop around a bit.

The title text presents an alternative if shading is not possible, namely to excuse the percentage inaccuracy with scientists discussing curvature of space.

==Transcript==
:[Two colored circles are shown. The circle on the right is warped and bent in shape and shows some shadows from the middle to the outer edges, like a round piece of cloth with wrinkles going out from the center.]

:[The left pie chart:]
:Wrong:
:45% (red)
:15% (blue)
:30% (yellow)
:40% (green)

:[The right warped and bent pie chart with shadows:]
:Right:
:45% (red)
:15% (blue)
:30% (yellow)
:40% (green)

:[Caption below the frame:]
:How to make a pie chart if your percentages don't add up to 100

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Pie charts]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

2614: 2

2022-05-03T08:08:50Z

172.70.230.53: idk it donest relaly sound like my kindf of thing just going by the name. scp foudnatoin is kidn of cool do u like that

{{comic
| number = 2614
| date = May 2, 2022
| title = 2
| image = 2.png
| titletext = It's like sigma summation notation, except instead of summing the argument over all values of i, you 2 the argument over all values of 2.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 2 squared - Please change this comment when editing this page. The titletext needs to be worked in there, but I think I got everything else in some sort of order, pending general improvements. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This demonstrates the different ways in which the number 2 can be typeset in various scientific fields.

The dotted box represents any character (presumably a letter or bigram of letters). All the other notation consists only of the digit 2, in various fashions with occasional additional punctuation, and labelled as to what the 'purpose' might normally be of any particular element(s) as indicated, with respect to the general term, in the following fashions:
;Regular Math
:Precedes the term. "2x" indicates two times the value of ''x'' in normal {{w|algebra|algebraic}} use that should be familiar for many people.
;Physics
:A preceding superscript. "2H" would indicate the particular {{w|isotope}} of Hydrogen with the atomic weight of two, i.e. deuterium, which is most often encountered when working with the atomic level of matter where the total number of neutrons and protons in the atom is important.
;Chemical Physics
:A preceding subscript, "2He" indicates the atomic number of an atom, which is the number of protons it contains, and thus a guide to the number of electrons its unionised form usually has and hence meaningful in its potential chemical interactions with other atoms. This should be invariant for any particular named element, but is usually given simultaneously with the presuperscripted mass number where it can be indicative of the applicable nuclear physics.
;Regular Math or Footnotes
:A trailing superscript is typical of a {{w|Exponentiation|power value}}, in this case "x²" would be ''x'' multiplied by a second copy of itself, and a fairly typical mathematical standard.
:Additionally, superscripted numbers are one common way to mark words in a line of text in a way to refer to a {{w|Note (typography)|footnote}}, typically placed at the bottom of the page, with additional information that would not be appropriate or easily comprehendable to edit into the main text itself. The ambiguity between footnotes and exponents was used in [[1184: Circumference Formula]]
;Chemistry
:A trailing subscript is used in chemistry to indicate a multiple of the element (or group of elements, in brackets) in a {{w|chemical formula}}. "H2O" indicates two hydrogen atoms bond with a single oxygen atom in a molecule of water.
;Matrices!
:Extending the trailing subscript with a comma-separated value usually indicates a multidimensional array (e.g. establishing a 2-by-2 square of numbers, or this particular position in such an array), which is in the realms of {{w|Matrix (mathematics)|matrix mathematics}}. This is a little bit beyond 'everyday algebra' for many people, as seemingly indicated by the exclamation of the mere mention of matrices!
;The Physicists Are At It Again
:This label encompases a mark that turns the prior comma into a semicolon, as part of the trailing subscript. This is a common notation for the {{w|Covariant derivative}} of a tensor field, which is commonly used in the mathematics of general relativity.
;Either High School Math Function or Incomprehensible Group Theory
:The number 2 in parentheses that follow a term would normally be the argument to a {{w|Function (mathematics)|function}}, e.g. "f(2)", which means that you should take the value (in this case 2) and find the result if manipulated by the predefined function ''f''. It is generally taught as part of algebraic mathematics already described, i.e. at {{w|Secondary school|High School}}.
:In {{w|group theory}}, however, the number 2 in parentheses could indicate a cyclic subgroup or ideal generated by two or a special case of cycle notation for elements of symmetry groups used to mean an element that keeps 2 fixed. This may be somewhat beyond high-school level.
;Oh no. Whatever this is, it's cursed.
:A symbol centered underneath another symbol is normally reserved for doing summations, where the big symbol is Σ, or some other operation applied to a sequence of numbers.
:It does not make sense to have a single number there, as indicated in the alt text. As with [[2529: Unsolved Math Problems|other things]] in Randall's comic universe, the explanation for this particular anomaly is that it is 'Cursed'.

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

[An apparently scientific expression:]

[normal text:] 2 [superscript behind the box:] 2 [subscript behind the box:] 2 [an empty box with a dotted outline] [superscript:] 2 [subscript:] 2;2 [normal text:] (2) [smaller and beneath the last 2:] 2

;[Captions above the numbers]
:[with an arrow pointing to the first 2:] Regular Math
:[with an arrow pointing to the behind superscript 2:] Physics
:[with an arrow pointing to the regular superscript 2:] Regular math or footnotes
:[with an arrow pointing to (2):] Either high school math functions or incomprehensible group theory

;[Captions below the numbers]
:[with an arrow pointing to the behind subscript 2:] Chemical Physics
:[with an arrow pointing to the regular subscript 2:] Chemistry
:[with an arrow pointing to a grey circle around ";2":] The physicists are at it again
:[with an arrow pointing to a smaller grey circle inside the other circle that leaves out the dot of the semicolon:] Matrices!
:[with an arrow pointing to the 2 below the 2:] Oh no. Whatever this is, it's cursed.

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

2612: Lightsabers

2022-04-28T21:39:51Z

172.70.230.53: Undo revision 231363 by 172.70.131.106 (talk)

<noinclude>'':For the comic named "Lightsaber", see [[1433: Lightsaber]].''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 2612
| date = April 27, 2022
| title = Lightsabers
| image = lightsabers.png
| titletext = A lot of Jedi romances start with this turning into a Lady and the Tramp spaghetti situation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MAGNETICALLY CONFINED PLASMA-SABER REACTOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|lightsaber}} is a fictional beam-like sword weapon used by members of the {{w|Jedi}} order and the {{w|Sith}} in the ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' franchise. This comic shows a lightsaber fight starting between two [[Cueball]]-like Jedi, one already presenting their blade in challenge and the second activating theirs in response. When the first strike is made between the two lightsabers, they seemingly meld together, with a bloop sound, like the beams are made of a liquid. This then causes the two light beams to be stuck to each other. In in-universe "technical documents", lightsabers are said to be made from magnetically-confined plasma, so perhaps the magnetic fields which were projected from each hilt have merged instead of repelling (or presenting as mutually impervious) as is usually expected.

This scene actually looks a lot like what happens between Harry Potter and Voldemort's wands in the end of the fourth book, the {{w|Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire|''Goblet of Fire''}}. Here two spells hit each other and connect the two wands, the wand holders then unable to release or disconnect the wands.

In this situation one Jedi tries to shake the beam, maybe to break the bond, but instead the wave travels down the combined beam to also shake the other Jedi's hand-held hilt. When the vibration dies down the other Jedi then tries to deactivate his lightsaber as an attempt to end the connection. But the retraction of the entire double-sized light beam into the handle (as seen in the movies) causes both of the Jedi to be drawn together where they collide together, forcefully enough to render them both unconscious. The connected lightsaber handles lie next to them on the ground.

The title text implies that such events are how {{w|Jedi}} romances start, comparing it to the famous "spaghetti scene" from the 1955 Disney animated movie ''{{w|Lady and the Tramp}}'' where the two titular characters unintentionally kiss after sharing a strand of spaghetti. In the Old Republic, Jedi were forbidden from entering into romantic relationships (and discouraged from forming attachments in general), but in the pre-Disney ''Star Wars Legends'' continuity of the {{w|Star Wars in other media|Expanded Universe}}, {{w|Luke Skywalker}} and {{w|Mara Jade}} first met while fighting in the aftermath of the fall of the Empire, and then developed a romantic relationship.

Star Wars is a [[:Category:Star Wars|recurring theme]] on xkcd, and lightsabers have been prominently featured before in, for instance, [[1397: Luke]] and [[1433: Lightsaber]], where the problem with the physics of a light beam as a sword is shown. But in general light does not interact with light as {{w|photons}} are {{w|bosons}} and can thus pass through each other. Interference, yes, but two pure light beams cannot collide and bounce back as when two lightsabers collide. Also as the comic Lightsaber mentioned above shows, there is no compatible real-world way of confining a beam of light, making it stop after about a meter (or anywhere){{Dubious}} - see {{w|Optical cavity}}. So this is another time where [[Randall]] makes a joke about the physics of lightsabers.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueball like Jedi are engaging each other in a duel using lightsabers over 12 panels of equal size, with sound effects as the only sound. In the first panel the left Jedi has his lightsaber extended holding it in both hand pointing towards the other, who at this time is just turning his lightsaber on.]
:''Tssssss''
:Click

:[Almost same position of the Jedi, but the right Jedi's lightsaber has now extended, making a sound. He is holding it up near his head in both hands]
:''Tsss''

:[Then they run towards each other and swing their lightsabers towards each other, two small arcs indicating the swing of the lightsabers.]

:[The two beams hit each other and connects at the middle in a big bloop of light, with drops of "light" jumping off both above and below the connected lightsabers. Both Jedi still holds on to their handles with both hands. A loud sound comes out of the connection:]
:''Bloop''

:[The Jedi stands still holding their handles. The beam is now forming a bow between the two handles.]

:[The left Jedi violently shakes his handle causing a wave to travel down the beam towards the right Jedi.]
:Shake shake

:[As the left Jedi's end of the beam comes to rest the wave travels all the way the right Jedi's handle causing his hands to shake, although a bit less than the original shake.]
:Shake shake

:[Back to the bow of light between them, but the beam is visibly still shaking, but no wave is traveling any longer.]

:[Same setting but the shaking has stopped. The right Jedi turns his lightsaber off on his handle with a sound:]
:Click

:[The beam of light is retracted quickly into the handle of the Jedi turning his lightsaber off. So quickly that the two Jedi, still holding on to their handles are pulled up in the air and towards each other as the sound of the beam turning off is heard. Lines indicate their movement and shadows on the ground beneath them indicate they are in the air.]
:''Zhhhiiiip''

:[When the beam is completely retracted the two handles collide and so do the heads of the two Jedi with a loud sound. They still hold on to their handles with both hands. They still hang in the air with shadows on the ground beneath them.]
:''Bonk''

:[In the final panel the two Jedi lie unconscious on the ground with their heads towards each other and with their arms stretched out towards each other. The connected handles lie between them.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

1736: Manhattan Project

2022-04-26T08:36:18Z

172.70.230.53: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1736
| date = September 21, 2016
| title = Manhattan Project
| image = manhattan_project.png
| titletext = On the plus side, we definitely killed that cancer over there, even if we caused a bunch more everywhere else.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Manhattan Project}} was a big, expensive, secret research and development project that produced the first {{w|nuclear weapons}} during {{w|World War II}}. Because of the unprecedented scale of the project, which involved some of the brightest minds in science and the efforts of thousands of people, "Manhattan Project" has become a metaphor for any kind of all-out effort involving the top minds of a discipline to achieve a single objective, often expressed as [http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/11/14/is-nuclear-power-the-answer-to-climate-change/we-need-a-new-manhattan-project-to-deal-with-climate-change the] [https://backchannel.com/we-need-a-manhattan-project-for-cyber-security-76e6d8fc6447#.g0qcjzjlv phrase] "[http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/14445-a-new-manhattan-project We]
[http://riverlink.org/5420/ need] [http://issues.org/24-4/alexander/ a] [http://singularityhub.com/2015/01/22/we-need-a-manhattan-project-for-cyber-security/ new] [http://www.planetexperts.com/building-manhattan-project-sustainable-development/ Manhattan] [http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/why-we-need-to-stop-comparing-every-big-science-project-to-the-manhattan-project/ Project]".

The day before this comic was released the following announcement was made: [http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/microsoft-cancer-cure-research-solved-machine-learning-cells-programming-diseases-a7317616.html Microsoft will ‘solve’ cancer within the next 10 years by treating it like a computer virus]. And on the day this comic was released (but probably after the comic was released) there was a press conference where [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/technology/mark-zuckerberg-priscilla-chan-3-billion-pledge-fight-disease.html?_r=0 Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan Pledge $3 Billion to Fighting Disease] (all disease in general.) This is the kind of projects that could be called Manhattan type projects and these (at least the Microsoft announcement) could be the reason this comic came out now.

In this comic, [[Ponytail]] starts by making the suggestion that they should create a "new Manhattan Project" to cure cancer. Taken figuratively, this would imply a heavily-funded, massive collaborative effort involving the best scientists in the field of {{w|cancer research}}, and is not an unreasonable idea in itself. However, she and her fellow scientists all take the idea literally instead, and the New Manhattan Project ends up actually developing a nuclear bomb. In the final panel, Ponytail appears to realize that this runs somewhat counter to her original objective{{Citation needed}} (not to mention is redundant, as the original Manhattan Project already invented the nuclear bomb).

The title text hastily justifies this mistake by claiming a partial success; that their nuclear detonation did, indeed, kill all cancer within the blast radius of the explosion. However, it fails to mention that the blast would also kill everything ''else'' as well. It also admits that the explosion would most likely end up causing more cancer due to the {{w|ionizing radiation}} and {{w|fallout}}. The title text is reminiscent of both the main comic and the title text of [[1217: Cells]].

This was the first time since [[1355: Airplane Message]], more than two years prior, that [[Randall]] mentions cancer (on a banner!), a [[:Category:Cancer|recurring subject]] on xkcd, but mainly around the time when his then-fiancée (now wife) was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer in October of 2010. Interestingly enough there are only two facts in that previous comic, and that other fact (from the title text) was referenced the week before this comic came out in [[1732: Earth Temperature Timeline]]. But it could be a coincidence.

The Manhattan Project was the scene of [[809: Los Alamos]], and a story from the site is being told in [[1520: Degree-Off]]. According to [[980: Money]] the Manhattan project used $24,400,000,000. Nuclear weapons in general has been a recurrent subject on xkcd and their invention was also mentioned last week in [[1732: Earth Temperature Timeline]] around 1950 CE. The previous comic with a similar mushroom cloud was [[1655: Doomsday Clock]], and in that comics explanation at least three other "recent" comics about such weapons of mass destruction are mentioned.

==Transcript==
:[A five panel layout with each panel slightly smaller than the last.]
:[Ponytail holding her arms out speaks to Cueball.]
:Ponytail: What we need to cure cancer is a new Manhattan Project!

:[Cueball stands next to Ponytail on podium with a banner overhead. Ponytail is lifting her arms high up and addresses a huge crowd below the podium. Faces disappear into the distance, but at the podiums edge are four full faces, from left to right they are Hairy, a person with flat hair, a person with white hair and a Cueball-like guy.]
:Banner: Research Initiative

:[Cueball and Megan sitting behind a desk looking out and Ponytail standing to the right facing away from them wear laboratory goggles and laboratory coats. There are several Erlenmeyer flasks on the desk and Ponytail is also holding such a flask. There are other glass wares on the desk.]

:[Megan, holding a hand in front of her face, Cueball and Ponytail, all wearing some kind of glasses strapped around the back of their heads stand behind two chest-height barriers looking into the distance where a large mushroom cloud rises high in the air with the typical ring around the stem below the main cloud and smoke/dust surrounding the bottom of the stem. It is much higher in the image than the three mountains in the left background.]

:[Close up of Ponytail, as she faces to the right. She is wearing very dark protection glasses, looking like those used for looking at the sun during a solar eclipse.]
:Ponytail: Wait.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]] 
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]] 
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]

2611: Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects

2022-04-25T23:03:37Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */

Talk:2609: Entwives

2022-04-20T14:51:58Z

172.70.230.53:

This seems like one of the earliest-released comics in recent history [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 14:00, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

There seemed to be two versions of the title text; on mobile, there is a youtube link visible, but this is not present on my chrome desktop view [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 14:05, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

The mouseover text in android devices is this youtube link - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2qCjL6-n4]] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2qCjL6-n4 [[User:DefectedWBC|DefectedWBC]] ([[User talk:DefectedWBC|talk]]) 14:18, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

Is LotR the lowest scoring major motion picture on the {{w|Bechdel test}}? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.95|172.70.206.95]] 14:37, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

Unlikely, depending on how you define major motion picture.

As pointed out in YouTube’s comment section, the video seems to be a joke, not ''actually'' the only female interaction in the films. [[User:Chortos-2|Chortos-2]] ([[User talk:Chortos-2|talk]]) 14:49, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

Gender imbalance among readers and viewers of lotr as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.53|172.70.230.53]] 14:51, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

2604: Frankenstein Captcha

2022-04-08T20:53:34Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */

2604: Frankenstein Captcha

2022-04-08T20:53:20Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */

2604: Frankenstein Captcha

2022-04-08T18:11:40Z

172.70.230.53: /* Explanation */ punny title text

2593: Deviled Eggs

2022-03-15T03:11:12Z

172.70.230.53:

{{comic
| number = 2593
| date = March 14, 2022
| title = Deviled Eggs
| image = deviled_eggs.png
| titletext = The foil on the toothpick represents the blue flash.
}}

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

A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deviled_egg deviled egg] is a dish created by cutting a hard-boiled egg into halves and replacing the yolk with a paste frequently made from the yolk itself. Randall Monroe parodies the dish by creating several alternative versions of the dish for other professions using word plays on the name of the dish.

Many landscaping projects require a leveled ground to work on{{Citation needed}}. As such, a landscaper may prefer serve their deviled egg with a perfectly flat surface.

Bevel is a design pattern of creating non-perpendicular surfaces between adjacent edges. A designer may prefer to serve their eggs with beveled edges to give their eggs a more modern, aesthetically pleasing look.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core The Demon Core] is a piece of sub-critical plutonium created during the Manhattan Project to investigate the properties of criticality. The piece of plutonium got its name from the 2 criticality incidents that occurred when scientists were investigating this property. In the second accident, the core was covered between two neutron reflecting shells separated by a screwdriver. The screwdriver became dislodged, causing the core to become completely covered by the neutron reflecting shell, bringing the core past its criticality limit. A large amount of radiation caused the subsequent death of physicist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin Louis Slotin]. The dome of the boiled egg and the toothpick resemble the configuration of the experiment.

The title texts revers to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation Cherenkov Radiation], the "sonic boom" created by particles travelling faster than the speed of light in a medium.

==Transcript==
(Below image of ordinary deviled egg) '''Chef''' Deviled Egg (Below image of flat deviled egg resembling half of a hard-boiled egg) '''Landscaper''' Leveled Egg (Below image of egg resembling ordinary deviled egg, except with edges of white chamfered) '''Designer''' Beveled Egg (Below image of egg with hemispherical white as before, but full spherical yolk within and feathered toothpick inserted into core yolk sideways at a slight angle to the equator) '''Physicist''' Demon Egg{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}
This comic is one of a limited number containing color; in this case, the yellow of the egg yolk, burnt red of presumably paprika, and blue toothpick foil are the only colors added. The toothpick foil is drawn in a way vaguely resembling arrow feathering.