explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2584: Headline Words

2022-03-16T19:01:14Z

172.70.91.116:

It is ironic how Cueball, being bald, doesn't have any "headlines". [[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.68|172.68.11.68]] 06:48, 22 February 2022 (UTC)
:Actually, Cueball being bald would be cause greater susceptibility to the infamous corduroy pillow. [[Special:Contributions/165.225.57.165|165.225.57.165]] 23:03, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

I mean, I would be pretty annoyed too if someone talked like that instead of saying "Wow, I can't believe you shot down the idea for the party venue that everyone likes" and "I'm reconsidering my plan (to speak in headline words) since people are starting to get annoyed" (also, "Everyone hated the headline-word thing, so I'm gonna stop") [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.113|172.70.178.113]] 07:09, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

I have made a new section for trying to explain each of Cueball's three headlines. I tried to make some sense of the first, but think I failed... So please feel free to change or improve my text completely. For sure the above comment gets the correct meaning, but I do not think it is a translation, more a possible sentence to be said instead. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:55, 22 February 2022 (UTC)
: I tried to expand that :) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.34|108.162.238.34]] 13:02, 22 February 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
::After including the stipulation that they "remove grammar" (a vital element to compressing into Headlinese, except of course when it introduces unintentional ambiguity!) I went through and made my own changes to make the "Literal" versions each pad out into the more proper statement(s). I changed some 'literal' wording, but left most and still followed the general source-structure without it being a total rewrite. (Which left some compromises, but should allow the interested reader to still map the various chunks one-to-one and in sequence.)
::Obviously, I expect future-editors to advance (or retract) my changes in various ways because they disagree with my idea of 'literal' language, and indeed what is Headlinese. Which is perhaps more British-biased - If I read newspaper headlines (of papers that I often don't intend to pick off the stands) I seem to see a lot of needless alliteration also going into the mix. "Boris backs down over Brexit border boob!" might be a (made up, especially as he tends not to do that, but probably not far from someone's likely interpretation) certain tabloid-style pronouncement. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 15:42, 22 February 2022 (UTC)
:::”Squad helps dog bite victim” [[User:Szeth Pancakes|Szeth Pancakes]] ([[User talk:Szeth Pancakes|talk]]) 20:27, 22 February 2022 (UTC)
::Thanks for improving the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:16, 23 February 2022 (UTC)
:::I've tried adding a more staged translation, I'm sure some people will have their objections to my exact use, but the idea is to make the changes clearer. This way you can see where each bit maps to, and also see how that translates to proper meaning, all without too big of a jump... I'm not sure I've done a good job, but I can hope. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 19:01, 16 March 2022 (UTC)

It may be possible that Randall is reading the Pulitzer Prize winning novel “The Shipping News” which is written entirely in headline format. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.93|172.70.178.93]] 15:11, 22 February 2022 (UTC)
:Interesting, did not know that. Although I do not think this is the reason for this comic. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:16, 23 February 2022 (UTC)
::”[D]id not know that (The Shipping News “is written entirely in headline format”)” - Understandable, because it’s not at all correct. There is some Headlinese therein (the protagonist writes for a local paper), but it’s not remotely all of it. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 15:35, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2589: Outlet Denier

2022-03-05T03:32:03Z

172.70.91.116: Faked IP because I am the author of the thing I'm editing. Purely cosmetic, to avoid the inconsistency.

== undersde ==

A missing i in the title text
[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:47, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
:It's fixed now. I'm not sure what the policy is about updating here, I think we try to keep the original in a history page. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:46, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
:Try a Trivia? As last seen [[2587:_For_the_Sake_of_Simplicity#Trivia]], for reference.
:(Hmmm, I wonder how many (noticed!) re-edits there are. Not all will be exactly so marked, but every Trivia section can be checked - when someone has time.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.64|172.70.86.64]] 02:46, 5 March 2022 (UTC)

== Actually exists ==

Outlet deniers are a real thing. For example, the Instant Pot air fryer attachment has one of these on its plug to discourage people from using it at the same time as the main pot (which would be bad). Photo here: https://www.adventurousway.com/images/i/fzjll58c5a77/1536w/gear-reviews/instant-pot-air-fryer-lid-review/air-fryer-lid-plug.webp

== D shape? ==

Any idea what the D shape might be? Is it to deny some specific shape of power connection I'm having trouble visualizing, or simply a handle (though I also have trouble visualizing the designers of this adding such a convenient feature). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.135.78|172.70.135.78]] 23:32, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

:It might be the way to block the other outlet on a wall plug. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.253|172.70.114.253]] 00:01, 5 March 2022 (UTC)

::Wouldn't the long bars on the top and bottom already do that? [[User:N-eh|N-eh]] ([[User talk:N-eh|talk]]) 01:12, 5 March 2022 (UTC)

:I'm amused by the plug orientation. Over here, I'm used to 'horizontal spread' configuration, [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Protected-Extension-Socket-Electric-Protection-White/dp/B08R2ZMJNY like this], with the occasional rare [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invero%C2%AE-Extension-Adapter-British-Approved-White/dp/B01NASNRLT diagonally-skewed vertical assembly].
:But the 'Denier' seems to be only marginally-denying (possibly the D-handle will be awkward, but not more than the straight edge is a basic trip-hazard or full preventer of using 'badly'-placed sockets because of the floor).
:Of the three plugs currently in the 5-way I've got sitting flat on the bench next to me, one has the USB-charger-cable poking straight up (coaxial to the pins), one has the USB cable jutting out of the 'top' of the plug (towards me, as the strip has its Earth slots towards me) and the third is a standard pre-moulded plug (leading to a cloverleaf end plugged in a laptop power-supply module) and so the cable nuts out of the bottom (away from me) - this all being BS1363-compatible.
:But although there might be tricky situations for each plug (the coax-out wouldn't plug so easily into the socket on the wall in the other room, with the sofa up against it, though the up/down-cabled ones don't have problems.
:This denier (assuming UK-standard pins, but same orientation as shown) would actually plug into just ''one'' of my household wall-sockets (either of the two switched outlets it has, though it might block one of them if I choose the wrong one to plug to) because that's half way up a wall. I could probably get three of them in this 5-way 'extension strip' I mentioned, certainly two (and one other plug?). Depends upon the size of the D bit.
::''edit, for something other than a typo/misformat: ...the 'T-bar' would actually deny the half-up-wall-double-socket-unit's second socket, I realise, , though I may be able to put my coax-USB-plug through the D-hole. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 03:29, 5 March 2022 (UTC)
:But obviously there are weird things with US sockets. I've been to the states, and also know the plugs from the ones that sometimes come in boxed goods - usually supplemented with a UK version ''as well'', by the official distributor in this country. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 03:20, 5 March 2022 (UTC)

== Anti-expander? ==

This is basically the opposite of an outlet expander. Is that worth mentioning? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 23:51, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

User talk:Cwallenpoole

2022-03-04T02:58:20Z

172.70.91.116: /* Not a minor edit */

==Not a minor edit==
This [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2587:_For_the_Sake_of_Simplicity&diff=prev&oldid=227842 change] to [[2587: For the Sake of Simplicity]] was not a minor edit as you have made it look like by ticking the box "This is a minor edit" . Also I disagree with it. And have undone it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:22, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

That change was erroneous. I'm not sure how it happened. I was only trying to add a ",". [[User:Cwallenpoole|Cwallenpoole]] ([[User talk:Cwallenpoole|talk]]) 18:28, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

Look at [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2587%3A_For_the_Sake_of_Simplicity&type=revision&diff=227842&oldid=227802 this comparison]... I think you accidentally edited a historic version of the page,, adding in your comma but massively-reverting many* of the intervening changes (* - all those that weren't then wiped out by other changes in-between). It does try to warn you if you try such a thing, as I recall, but you might have been in a rush. Been there, (almost) done that! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 02:58, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2585: Rounding

2022-02-24T12:15:03Z

172.70.91.116:

Wot no {{w|FFF system|furlongs per fortnight}}? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 23:14, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

: I, too, was initially surprised that Randall hadn't used the standard joke measure. But, then I realized that F/F is so outrageously large that rounding wouldn't offer much advantage. [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 05:10, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

If we're using the table, can I suggest it be fully filled in, but mark "original (rounded)" value cells one key colour and the chosen conversion in another, so that scanning along (not necessarily adjacent/rightwards) then down (always next row) then along... you see the 'bounce around'. And we also get to appreciate what other fractional values ''could'' have been chosen, prior to rounding... Alternately, some flow-charty layout (perhaps contained within a nominally borderless version of the table?) with arrows leading across the width and filling in-between each down-step. Ideas only. I have others, but those seem the best bet to consider. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.113|172.70.85.113]] 01:32, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Disagree with the current (as of 23:27 US Eastern, 23 February) explanation. According to this site (https://ilovebicycling.com/average-bike-speed/), average downhill bike speed is over 45 mph. Since Cueball doesn't specify "on flat terrain", he should have no problem going 45 without exploiting imprecise conversions. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 04:30, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:Huh? This does not say average downhill speed is > 45, it says "fastest". Also why would Cueball need to do this bizarre rounding if he can actually go 45mph? This is an exaggeration because he can only go a typical speed of 17mph.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.145|172.69.33.145]] 04:52, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
::Fastest for average cyclist. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 05:05, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:As a cyclist of several decades experience, who has indeed attained such speeds on rare (reckless) occasions, I think that "fastest downhill speed for an average rider" is overstated. Maybe it is what average people are capable of on a well-surfaced, steep, straight, non-undulating road with sufficient vision (forward and of anything potentially moving into the road from the side) or at least confidence that you're not dealing with traffic/pedestrians/other unaware cyclists. Oh, and sufficient stopping distance for whatever brakes you have.
:Maybe everybody can do it ''once'', but a good bike-ride should be one you can walk away from at the end.
:(Also, that cycling-centric site might have a different idea of 'average' cyclist. The average person on a bike here can't even put their feet on the pedals correctly. If we're talking club-/competitive-cyclists (but still sub-pro) then I'd much more readily agree, but there are far more people these days who can't even ride on the roadway, it seems.)
:That bike, as drawn, looks like it'll be Okish (if kept well maintained) but not exactly set up as functional downhill racer, nor probably is the rider. I really think the machine probably could be ridden at 20+mph on the flat for as long as the rider can stand to, but the characterisation makes me not confident they're able to maintain that kind of average speed for a [https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/race-results/22059#anchor long ride], and I think they'd overbake a downhill speed-run too, or (sensibly) be more cautious. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.143|172.70.85.143]] 05:14, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:: Yep - the speeds on that site are for road bikes. Cueball looks to be riding a hybrid (flat bars), which would tend to put him in a more upright position, creating a higher frontal area and air resistance, and so slowing his progress. That would have even more of an effect at higher speeds. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 11:14, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Arguably, once you're up to numbers around 45, you're as likely, if not more so, to be rounding to the nearest 5 than the nearest unit (depending on context). So Cueball's initial statement could be taken as suggesting that he can ride at around 42.5 - 47.5mph (rather than 44.5 - 45.5mph). And if he could actually ride at over 45mph then he presumably wouldn't need to add the 'if you round' qualifier, so it could further be taken as just suggesting that he can exceed 42.5mph. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 11:22, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Note I find it kind of disappointing that the insane "KPH" unit is used in the comic. Nobody uses that in places where speed is actually measured in km/h.

2585: Rounding

2022-02-23T23:21:39Z

172.70.91.116: /* Explanation */ The bike as drawn is not a 'racer', but at least isn't encumbered by chunky tyres. We also don't now how long the rider rides for and if he uses a handy downhill, but I think the (unrounded) claim is valid, and possibly a bit pessimistic

{{comic
| number = 2585
| date = February 23, 2022
| title = Rounding
| image = rounding.png
| titletext = I've developed a novel propulsion system powered by loss of precision in unit conversion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT moving at 7 PB/s (rounded) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Normally, when you say you can ride a bike at 45 {{w|Miles per hour|mph}} if you round, you mean that you can ride at a speed between 44.5 and 45.5, but the joke is that he actually means if you go through a extremely long chain of rounding imprecisely, starting at 17 mph (which is not an improbable speed for an ordinary road-bike and a reasonably fit rider), you can get to the value of 45. The title text furthers the joke of rounding imprecisely.

#17 mph = 7.59968 {{w|Metre per second|m/s}}
#8 m/s = 15.5508 {{w|Knot (unit)|knots}}
#16 knots = 4.50083 {{w|fathom}}s/sec
#5 fathoms/sec = 2.72727 {{w|furlong}}s/min
#3 furlongs/min = 5.50001 fathoms/sec
#6 fathoms/sec = 39.5021 {{w|Kilometres per hour|km/h}}
#40 km/h = 21.5983 knots
#22 knots = 40.744 km/h
#41 km/h = 203.809 furlongs/hour
#204 furlongs/hour = 25.5001 mph
#26 mph = 11.623 m/s
#12 m/s = 3.57909 furlongs/min
#4 furlongs/minute = 14.6667 {{w|yard}}s/sec
#15 yards/sec = 7.5 fathoms/sec
#8 fathoms/sec = 14.6304 m/s
#15 m/s = 33.554 mph
#34 mph = 4.53332 furlongs/min
#5 furlongs/min = 32.5867 knots
#33 knots = 18.5659 yards/sec
#19 yards/sec = 9.5 fathoms/sec
#10 fathoms/sec = 35.549 knots
#36 knots = 5.52373 furlongs/min
#6 furlongs/min = 45.0001 mph

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

:[Cueball, wearing a bike helmet and standing next to a bike, is speaking to Megan.]

:Cueball: I can ride my bike at 45 MPH.
:Cueball: If you round.

:[To their right and proceeding down the rest of the comic, arrows show conversions from one measure into another unit.]

:17 MPH
:8 meters/sec
:16 knots
:5 fathoms/sec
:3 furlongs/min
:6 fathoms/sec
:40 KPH
:22 knots
:41 KPH
:204 furlongs/hr
:26 MPH
:12 M/S
:4 furlongs/min
:15 yards/sec
:8 fathoms/sec
:15 M/S
:34 MPH
:5 furlongs/min
:33 knots
:19 yards/sec
:10 fathoms/sec
:36 knots
:6 furlongs/min
:45 MPH

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:935: Missed Connections

2022-02-19T00:54:12Z

172.70.91.116: Undo revision 227213 by 162.158.202.177 (talk) Please forward your Spam to /dev/nul

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

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

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

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

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

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

2581: Health Stats

2022-02-17T14:21:58Z

172.70.91.116: /* Explanation */ Awkward phrasing, but correcting singular/plural

{{comic
| number = 2581
| date = February 14, 2022
| title = Health Stats
| image = health_stats.png
| titletext = You will live on forever in our hearts, pushing a little extra blood toward our left hands now and then to give them a squeeze.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball|Cueball's]] smartwatch seems to have a new health statistic to convey to him. Maybe after an update, which explains the difference in the box from the first to the other panels.

Now it can apparently, also, monitor the volume of blood currently in his left hand (specifically the one the watch is being worn on the wrist of), indicating this number in milliliters (ml). (It also tracks other stats, like his pulse, as seen later). While he studies this new information, the volume of blood changes constantly, with his pulse or due to the positioning of his hand (above/below his heart, held up or down; he changes the hand's position from panel to panel) or, more likely, just measurement inaccuracies normal for consumer devices. He tells this to someone off-panel, who replies to all his comments.

At first, Cueball just assumes the small change is normal, but when the changes of two measurements in a row both increase, this freaks him out as he [[605: Extrapolating|extrapolates these two data points]] into the future. If this rather selective trend continues, his hand may explode from its ever-increasing volume of blood. Either this, or Cueball noticed that the variation in the first three data points was ±0.025, but the variation suddenly surpassing this level by a factor of 10 becomes alarming. As a consequence of him freaking out his pulse also begins to rise, also documented by he watch, likely increasing his blood pressure, which could cause another rise in the volume of blood in his hand. And the pulse increase in itself, only makes him even more scared, causing a positive feedback loop.

The total difference between the maximum (22.09 ml) and minimum volume (21.81 ml) of blood in his hand is only 0.28 ml compared to an average of 21.9 ml, so less than 1.5% difference. This must be assumed to be a normal fluctuation from heartbeat to heartbeat and/or with change of posture. For that matter, Cueball has no idea what a normal volume of blood in his left hand would be, as indicated by his comment in the first panel that he's "not sure how to interpret" the initial measurement. However, he seems to have assumed that 21.83 ml was a normal measurement simply since it was the first one he saw (see {{w|Confirmation_bias#Preference_for_early_information|preference for early information}}).

Just before he freaks out, his off-panel friend begins to tell him to stop looking at the watch all the time, but is interrupted mid-sentence by Cueball starting to freak out. This final outbreak causes his off-screen companion to tease him by saying that "We will treasure your memory", thus joking that Cueball will soon die from the blood loss when his hand explodes.

The title text continues with this teasing where the friend jokes that after his demise he will live on forever in his friends' hearts. From there he will thus also be responsible for pushing a bit more blood into his friends' left hands, now and again, so they can feel this as a squeeze to remind them of how they lost their friend to a left-handed blood explosion.

This is likely meant to parody the tendency of people to monitor minute details of their own health without having a clear idea of what the data means. This is arguably much more common today with health devices readily available, which can give the average person data about their own body, but often don't offer useful context. Cueball is apparently sufficiently fixated on data that apparent changes to any metric causes him to panic. He doesn't know what the blood volume of his hand means for his health, or even whether it's a useful metric, yet he obsesses over perceived trends in the data. The irony is that his very focus causes a more important metric (his pulse rate) to elevate. This may be intended to suggest that excessive fixation on one's own health can cause elevated anxiety. Ironically, this anxiety can potentially be more harmful that the things that the person is anxious about.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is looking down and to the right at his bent arm, where a small device is radiating as shown with several small lines. Above him the message from the device is shown in a frame, that is divided in two by a line. The top part has one line of text, with a x at the end for closing the message. And below in the second half are two lines of text. Cueball is speaking to someone off-panel, who replies from a starburst at the panel's edge.]
:Box title bar: New health stat!
:Box: Left hand blood volume: 21.83 mL
:Cueball: Oh. Cool. Not sure how to interpret that, but good to know, I guess.
:Off-panel voice: I guess!

:[Same setting but Cueball has turned to the left, still looking at his device on his bend arm. The message on the device is now only showing the message part, so it is no longer divided into two parts.]
:Box: Left hand blood volume: 21.81 mL
:Cueball: Huh, it's going down. I guess that happens.
:Off-panel voice: Mhm.

:[In a frame-less panel, Cueball now has both arms bent with his hands close together in front of him. He has once again turned toward the right, and is still looking at the device.]
:Box: Left hand blood volume: 21.86 mL
:Cueball: Oh weird, now it's going up higher than before.
:Off-panel voice: Maybe you shouldn't look at-

:[Cueball now holds his arm with the device outstretched towards the right, with his other arm bent in front of him a finger raised.]
:Box: Left hand blood volume: 22.09 mL
:Cueball: It's going '''''way''''' up! '''''Is my hand exploding?!'''''
:Cueball: And now my pulse is rising! '''''Aaaaa!!!!'''''
:Off-panel voice: So sorry. We will treasure your memory.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]

Talk:712: Single Ladies

2022-02-13T05:08:41Z

172.70.91.116:

Glum? Really? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 00:05, 25 December 2013 (UTC)

And it's the wraith-like things that quicken the heart... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.230.113|108.162.230.113]] 10:45, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Sauron would have known that dwarves were created by Aulë, not Eru. This was a point of contention, but resolved gently, though sternly. -Merek (no user name yet) {{unsigned ip|199.27.133.83}}

I thought Sauron taught the elves and dwarves the art of making the Rings, not the other way around? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.60.17|162.158.60.17]] 06:48, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Sauron did teach the elves, I changed that bit around --[[User:Figvh|Figvh]] ([[User talk:Figvh|talk]]) 10:49, 13 March 2016 (UTC)

Why are there so many links to nonexistent Wikipedia pages here? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 05:08, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

2580: Rest and Fluids

2022-02-12T02:03:30Z

172.70.91.116: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2580
| date = February 11, 2022
| title = Rest and Fluids
| image = rest_and_fluids.png
| titletext = Remember not to take it easy. Put a hot washcloth on your forehead, remain standing, and breathe dry air while taking lots of histamines. You need to give your body a chance to get sick again.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DEHYDRATED EDITOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Black Hat]] congratulates [[Cueball]] on his recovery from some type of illness or injury. Common advice when someone is sick is to get plenty of rest and drink lots of water, to aid recovery and to ensure they don't ignore various common causes of fluid loss.

However, being Black Hat, he targets Cueball (who has been restored to full health) to tell him that he now should do the opposite of this. He should stop drinking water entirely and engage in an excessive amount of activity — in this case, by running on a {{w|treadmill}} to the point of physical collapse. The written caption explains this, saying that it is "important" to tell people who have recently recovered from sickness to stop resting and drinking fluids, clearly asserting that these behaviours are for the exclusive purpose of healing, and that they are useless (or even counter-productive) for someone who is now healthy.

(Obviously, because {{w|dehydration}} and over-exerting yourself is generally bad,{{Citation needed}} people should not take this advice.)

The title-text expands on this backward line of thinking by suggesting to do the opposite of common remedies for various usual remedies: a hot cloth, standing, breathing parched air, taking {{w|histamines}} (this is as opposed to reducing a fever with a cool compress, resting in bed, inhaling hot water vapours and using {{w|antihistamine}}s). Done inadvisedly, each of these can make one ill. Needless to say, this is the opposite of what most people want to achieve with their health.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and Black Hat are standing and talking to each other.]
:Black Hat: So glad you're feeling better!
:Black Hat: Be sure to get dehydrated and run on a treadmill until you black out!

:[Caption below the panel]
:Once people aren't sick anymore, it's important to remind them to stop resting and drinking fluids.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]

2580: Rest and Fluids

2022-02-12T02:02:48Z

172.70.91.116: /* Explanation */ General revisions and restructuring into a less monolithic explanation.

{{comic
| number = 2580
| date = February 11, 2022
| title = Rest and Fluids
| image = rest_and_fluids.png
| titletext = Remember not to take it easy. Put a hot washcloth on your forehead, remain standing, and breathe dry air while taking lots of histamines. You need to give your body a chance to get sick again.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DEHYDRATED EDITOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Black Hat]] congratulates [[Cueball]] on his recovery from some type of illness or injury. Common advice when someone is sick is to get plenty of rest and drink lots of water, to aid recovery and to ensure they don't ignore various common causes of fluid loss.

However, being Black Hat, he targets Cueball (who has been restored to full health) that he now should do the opposite of this. He should stop drinking water entirely and engage in an excessive amount of activity — in this case, by running on a {{w|treadmill}} to the point of physical collapse. The written caption explains this, saying that it is "important" to tell people who have recently recovered from sickness to stop resting and drinking fluids, clearly asserting that these behaviours are for the exclusive purpose of healing, and that they are useless (or even counter-productive) for someone who is now healthy.

(Obviously, because {{w|dehydration}} and over-exerting yourself is generally bad,{{Citation needed}} people should not take this advice.)

The title-text expands on this backward line of thinking by suggesting to do the opposite of common remedies for various usual remedies: a hot cloth, standing, breathing parched air, taking {{w|histamines}} (this is as opposed to reducing a fever with a cool compress, resting in bed, inhaling hot water vapours and using {{w|antihistamine}}s). Done inadvisedly, each of these can make one ill. Needless to say, this is the opposite of what most people want to achieve with their health.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and Black Hat are standing and talking to each other.]
:Black Hat: So glad you're feeling better!
:Black Hat: Be sure to get dehydrated and run on a treadmill until you black out!

:[Caption below the panel]
:Once people aren't sick anymore, it's important to remind them to stop resting and drinking fluids.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]

Talk:2578: Sword Pull

2022-02-11T19:30:12Z

172.70.91.116:

I was going to opine that the title text should have said "mini bike" instead of "dirt bike" since the former is usually started by a recoil pull rope and the latter by a kick start. But I guess technically neither one is started by a magic sword so kind of a toss up. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.221|172.70.126.221]] 22:48, 7 February 2022 (UTC)Pat
:I know nothing of these machines but a quick google search brought me to [https://www.funbikes.co.uk/sc67_pull-start-parts this page] with three items listed as "Dirt Bike Pull Start" so seems that is a thing? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:56, 8 February 2022 (UTC)
::I just thought it was a motor boat. Those pull start, and are partially submerged in the substrate. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.234|108.162.250.234]] 09:57, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

There is a pun with dirt mound / mount.

Hope u like my explanation {{unsigned ip|172.70.110.151}}

I though the sword belongs to {{w|Lady of the Lake}} ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:29, 7 February 2022 (UTC)
:The sword from the stone (proof of lineage/fate) really should be considered differently from the one from the lake ("strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88DZhwKqHM4 Citation])", but they do tend to be conflated by some versions of the storytelling. The various myths were already that confused/contradictory/clashing centuries ago. (Some versions have Excalibur drawn from the stone to start his destiny, but ultimately then have him (...have a trusted but reluctant knight to) 'return' it to the Lady Of The Lake, from whence it presumably came (before being set in the stone), at the end of his life.)
:But I choose to go with the strand of canon that says that the 'kingmaker' sword was separate, got broken in a personal combat he should not rightfully have fought, and that only after reparations for the incident was he directed to go receive Excalibur, as its replacement, from its watery source.
:Really though, it probably is all a mistelling (and probably very Freudian, in every way!) of what never quite happened anyway. Except for the version where the time-traveller does the setting up of the contest with tidally-powered electromagnets and possibly an unintended recipient of the legend made true... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 00:34, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

::I thought Lancelot (possibly one of the others?) received Excalibur as a proof of valor, and chose to pass it on to his king as a sign of respect; no longer the knight whose pride in his own virtue stops him bowing to a higher authority. Guess there's more versions than I know. ''Returning'' the sword I remember; but I thought he originally obtained it second hand, so the Lady accepting the sword back was the final proof that he had been worthy to have it. [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 02:03, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

:::Honestly, there are so many versions of the story, and so many unrelated stories merged into it, that it's probably impossible to identify the "canonical" version. Monty Python's version is no less valid than Geoffrey of Monmouth's. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.228|162.158.187.228]] 16:02, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

Merlin is a brand of motorcycle produced in Spain from 1980-1984. [[User:KingPenguin|KingPenguin]] ([[User talk:KingPenguin|talk]]) 01:36, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

:Wow, I heard of them but didn't realise the brand was so short-lived. [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 02:03, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

"Dirt bike" could also be interpreted as an -apparently motorized- bike made of dirt. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 16:25, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

Anyone else reminded of the weird moving rocks in Chronicles of Amber? The ones Random rode out of Chaos?
I mean, the comic is probably not a reference to that (doesn't need to be in the explanation or anything), but still, similar vibe. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.249|172.70.250.249]] 21:47, 8 February 2022 (UTC)
:I was reminded instead of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones moving rocks in Death Valley], which further reminded me of [[505:_A_Bunch_of_Rocks]]. There aren't many xkcd comics that contain stones as a focus object. (I forgot to sign my comment, [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.25|172.70.178.25]] 23:25, 9 February 2022 (UTC).)

::I was actually reminded of a clip from Spongebob Squarepants. "It's not just a boulder, it's a Rock! Pioneers used to ride these babies for miles!"--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.45|162.158.146.45]] 11:10, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Did the title change? I see "Sword Pull" now, Feb 11. {{unsigned ip|172.70.214.81}}
:I don't know if I'm missing something, but please explain what you thought it was before. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 19:30, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

File:iambic pentameter.jpg

2022-02-09T23:00:45Z

172.70.91.116: Undo revision 226851 by 108.162.238.56 (talk) Nice verse, I think, but overwrote standard file-page info. And you lost newlines in your copying, so do it properly if you want it here.

== Summary ==
XKCD Comic #79
== Licensing ==
{{XKCD file}}

[[Category:Comic images]]

378: Real Programmers

2022-02-09T20:27:10Z

172.70.91.116: /* Transcript */ Butterfly Cueball is clearly 'imagineering' himself in the part of the Butterfly-holding Cueball, in the vision he is invoking by his descriptive narration. Either a tale of himself or else a wishful-but-unreliable storytelling technique.

{{comic
| number = 378
| date = February 1, 2008
| title = Real Programmers
| image = real_programmers.png
| titletext = Real programmers set the universal constants at the start such that the universe evolves to contain the disk with the data they want.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a satire on the idea of a {{w|Real Programmer}}. To quote Wikipedia "...the computer folklore term Real Programmer has come to describe the archetypical 'hardcore' programmer who eschews the modern languages and tools of the day in favour of more direct and efficient solutions—closer to the hardware." The implication is that modern programmers are coddled by today's tools of the trade, which eschew detailed understanding for simple workflows.

The first figure is writing a piece of code when another programmer ridicules him for using {{w|GNU nano}}. Nano is a {{w|text editor}} - a program often used to edit the source code of other programs. It is basic and relatively easy to use, even having instructions displayed prominently at the bottom of the screen. He goes on to say that "REAL" programmers use {{w|Emacs}}. {{w|GNU Emacs}} is a popular editor known for its vast profusion of features and extensions to perform all sorts of functions beyond simple text editing, and is widely regarded as one of the best examples of software that succeeds despite being fully overtaken by {{w|feature creep}}. The comic continues from here as a series of programmers state progressively more obscure or outdated methods, culminating in the final programmer who claims that "real" programmers use butterflies.

His description of his rather surreal programming method is ludicrously complicated and would require an absurd amount of knowledge and forethought to pull off, bordering on omniscience. In the final panel, the Emacs programmer claims that there's an Emacs code to do that.

The characters present progressively more "old school" solutions to the problem of editing code:
* Emacs and {{w|Vim (text editor)|Vim}} are both text editors still in relatively wide use, with complex user interfaces and a range of features. While useful, neither is particularly easy to get started using. This high barrier to entry is what limits them to the so-called "real programmers".
* {{w|ed (text editor)|ed}} is a {{w|line editor}}. While relatively simple, it is extremely awkward to use since it was designed primarily for use on a {{w|teleprinter}}, not a computer screen at all. It does not even display the file the user is editing!
* {{w|cat (Unix)|cat}} is a Unix program that concatenates and outputs the contents of files; it's usually run from a {{w|Unix shell}}, which allows its output to be written or appended to a file. It isn't intended as an editor at all but is convenient to display files. Actually editing files with it would be even less convenient than ed.
* Using a magnetized needle to flip bits on a hard drive requires nanometric precision and intuitive mastery of binary code, but in the early days of programming, people did use needles sometimes to fix bugs on {{w|Punched card|punched cards}}.

When the final character suggests the utterly surreal idea of using butterflies, he is referring to the {{w|Butterfly effect in popular culture|Butterfly effect}}, a "phenomenon whereby a minor change in circumstances can cause a large change in outcome" as illustrated in the short story {{w|A Sound of Thunder}}. The joke at this point relies on stretching the connection between the ideas of "difficult-to-use" and "requires detailed understanding of underlying principles," to suggest that not only do ''Real'' Programmers know everything about how computers work, but they know how to manipulate the ambient physical environment in elaborate ways to cause computers to do what they want, akin to performing {{w|trick shot}}s that accomplish feats of programming.

The fact that Emacs already has a command for this simply exacerbates the other programmers' frustration with modern coding tools. For reference, Emacs commands are usually referred to by the keyboard sequence required to activate them, such as "C-x M-c" (Control-x Meta-c (this would be typed by holding control and pressing x, releasing both, then holding alt and pressing c, then releasing both)), though this exact key sequence is a bit different from most Emacs commands. The butterfly programmer saying "Dammit, Emacs" plays on Emacs' notoriety for its kitchen sink design approach of including all of the features and options that anybody might ever conceivably want. For example, later versions of Emacs actually added a totally useless "M-x butterfly" command as an easter egg, in reference to this very comic: see the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtxhuX6ano YouTube demo].

The title text further suggests manipulating the {{w|Physical constant|universal constants}} in order to create a universe in which the required computer data will exist. Programming of this sort would require power and knowledge akin to the Abrahamic God.

According to the logic, the programmers shown may even represent the fulfillment of this master programmer's plan. The universe may have been designed in such a way that the programmer's ancestry would result in his parents, who would meet and have a child, who would learn to program and eventually find himself in a position where he undertakes the task of creating a program that fills the disk with the desired data. In tandem, of course, all of the people involved with creating and developing all the required hardware, software, raw materials, computer science, electricity, logic (etc., etc., etc.) would have to be part of the master plan. Put simply, it would probably be simpler just to use Emacs.

The use of a magnetized needle may also be a reference to the {{w|Apollo Guidance Computer|Apollo AGC guidance computer}}, whose instructions were physically written as patterns of wires looped around or through cylindrical magnets in order to record binary code.

This comic hints at the "{{w|editor wars}}," an ongoing debate of Vim and Emacs users over which of the two editors is better. The editor wars are mentioned again in [[1823: Hottest Editors]].

==Transcript==
:[A Cueball-like man sits at a computer, programming. Cueball stands behind him and looks over his shoulder.]
:Cueball: <code>nano</code>? Real Programmers use <code>emacs</code>.

:[Megan appears behind him.]
:Megan: Hey. Real Programmers use <code>vim</code>.

:[A second Cueball-like man appears behind her.]
:Ed Cueball: Well, Real Programmers use <code>ed</code>.

:[A third Cueball-like man appears behind him.]
:Cat Cueball: No, Real Programmers use <code>cat</code>.

:[Hairbun appears behind him.]
:Hairbun: Real Programmers use a magnetized needle and a steady hand.

:[A fourth Cueball-like man enters, facing them all. We see him facing the last two Cueball-like men and Hairbun.]
:Butterfly Cueball: Excuse me, but Real Programmers use butterflies.

:[A Cueball-like programmer is standing much like Butterfly Cueball except for holding out a butterfly in front of his computer. The butterfly flaps its wings.]
:Butterfly Cueball (narration within the panel, not diegetic to the scene): They open their hands and let the delicate wings flap once.

:[The next two panels are smaller, and two sets of narrative text are written to span respectively above and below both panels. The first panel is the Cueball-like programmer with the butterfly and above him four curved arrows pointing up or down. The second panel shows the upper atmosphere, with large clouds far below and the earth even further down. Also here are shown seven of the same type of arrows.]
:Butterfly Cueball (narration above the panels): The disturbances ripple outward, changing the flow of the eddy currents in the upper atmosphere.
:Butterfly Cueball (narration below the panels): These cause momentary pockets of higher-pressure air to form,

:[The next two panels are also partial height, leaving room for narration spanning above both panels. The first panel shows the atmosphere, again with clouds, and four parallel lines coming from above, and then they begin to merge, getting quite close at the bottom of the panel. The second panel shows the four lines merging on a driver platter.]
:Butterfly Cueball (narration above the panels): Which act as lenses that deflect incoming cosmic rays, focusing them to strike the drive platter and flip the desired bit.

:[All the programmers who have commented so far stand in the order they have commented facing the last Cueball-like man, who slaps his forehead.]
:Cueball: Nice. 'Course, there's an emacs command to do that.
:Cat Cueball: Oh yeah! Good ol' <code>C-x M-c M-butterfly</code>...
:Butterfly Cueball: Dammit, Emacs.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Emacs]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Rankings]]

Talk:2578: Sword Pull

2022-02-08T00:42:09Z

172.70.91.116: Self-editing some issues I noticed I rushed over too quickly to spot.

2577: Sea Chase

2022-02-05T03:25:16Z

172.70.91.116: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2577
| date = February 4, 2022
| title = Sea Chase
| image = sea_chase.png
| titletext = There are two rules on this ship: Never gaze back into the projection abyss, and never touch the red button labeled DYMAXION.
}}

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

In this comic, Randall returns to one of his pet subjects: [[977: Map Projections|map projections]]. Unusually, this time it is from the perspective of people living - or, in this case, sailing - upon the world that is quite literally being mapped.

Two sailing ships, of circa 18th century design, are engaged in a close chase across the {{w|Atlantic}}, the aggressor flying the Skull And Cross-Bones of a stereotypical pirate vessel. The ship being chased, however, has a plan to escape. And the means to do so. At a crucial moment, [[Cueball]] is told to flip an incongruous large switch that (like several [[1620: Christmas Settings|other]] [[1763: Catcalling|artefacts]] in Randall's universe) alters the nature of their reality.

Whereas beforehand the world is directly represented upon a simply contiguous map, the {{w|Robinson projection}}, it is now changed to one (which is actually the new reality) known as {{w|Goode homolosine projection|Goode Homolosine}} in which the flattening of the world mitigates localised warping of angle/distance/area by introducing discontinuities in relatively 'unused' parts of the mapped world, such as the centre of the Atlantic.

By precisely timing the change (as they cross a particular {{w|meridian}}, possibly the 40°W one), they leave the pursuer now on the wrong side of the very real gap, allowing the pursued ship to escape whatever fate they were trying to avoid. Though there is still an oceanic connection, it requires sailing down the edge towards the tropics, rounding this particular rent in the planet's surface and heading back up the other side. This is vastly further than Cueball's ship needs to travel to reach (presumably) any European port in which they can safely moor.

The title text elaborates on the policies of the black-flagged ship: crewmates are never to look into the "projection abyss" and to never hit the red button labeled "DYMAXION."

The first rule suggests that changing the projection of physical reality produces a gap in reality, a void. This may be dangerous to gaze into or simply unnerving to crewmates, hence the rule.

The second rule references a button that seems to do the same thing as the lever but changes the world into a "Dymaxion" projection. The {{w|Dymaxion map|Dymaxion projection}} is somewhat notorious for projecting the globe of the Earth in a manner that creates sections of triangles in the effort to preserve land scale as much as possible, bucking the trend of most map projections in causing land masses and their relationships to each other to become more warped in various ways (length, area and/or angle) but at least be trivially connected to each other.

For the Dymaxion (a portmaneau of "dynamic", "maximum" and "tension", and a title shared across many disperate fields of design by {{w|Buckminster Fuller}}, the creator of many such things) the necessary discontinuities would be even more strange and mind-bending than with the 'interrupted' Goode Homolosine, so turning the world into this projection may be bad, and a good reason to create a rule against pressing the button in question.

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2576: Control Group

2022-02-04T19:05:02Z

172.70.91.116: Came for the typo, left after changing the scope. (Not sure I agree with additional separation, though, just the bit about staying away from direct contact.)

{{comic
| number = 2576
| date = February 2, 2022
| title = Control Group
| image = control_group.png
| titletext = Placeble 228 x/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CONTROL GROUP - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Wordle}} ([https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/]) is a web-based word puzzle game that was popular when this comic was released. In the comic, [[Ponytail]] asks [[Cueball]] whether he's playing the game; Cueball replies that he isn't, because he's "in the control group".

In scientific studies, the {{w|control group}} stands in opposition to the treatment group; whereas the treatment group receives the experimental "treatment", the control group does not, instead receiving a {{w|placebo}} or nothing at all. This is done to establish a baseline—what would happen without intervention—against which the result of the experimental treatment is compared later.

When Cueball replies that he's "in the control group", this implies that Ponytail and other Wordle players are part of a "treatment" group. This implies that playing Wordle may have some long-term effect worth studying.
Jokingly, this may also imply that Wordle is some sort of {{w|social experiment}}, perhaps a [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sociological-study-conducted-by-harvard-university sociological study conducted by Harvard]. As noted in the caption to the comic, [[Randall]] has been using this line as his new all-purpose excuse when he is not doing something. It's a clever way of saying that you're determined not to take part, as a control group requires him to avoid it.

More realistically, Cueball may be part of a real market research control group, who was not exposed to advertisements and memes supporting the game or anything associated with the game. Market research studies have been common since the advent of advertising.

The title text is a parody of Wordle's sharing feature, which users have been [https://twitter.com/search?q=wordle&f=live posting on Twitter] or other social media platforms to show their success or failure at the game. The title text shows a 5x6 grid, but calls it "Placeble" (a {{w|portmanteau}} of Placebo and Wordle) and has a number after it, suggesting that not only is the game a social experiment, but that a "placebo version" is being given to the control group. In the real Wordle sharing feature, the number represents the current day's game. On the date this comic was released, the Wordle website itself was on game 228, matching the number in the title text. Randall's placebo version of Wordle has blank/incorrect squares and has a score of "x/6" which is a loss in Wordle — unsuccessful after the maximum 6 tries.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is looking at her smartphone which she is holding in her hand, while she is talking to Cueball.]
:Ponytail: Are you playing Wordle?
:Cueball: No, I'm in the control group.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My new all-purpose excuse for when I'm not doing something

==Trivia==
*The image size shown in explain xkcd is much larger than normal.
**This is because Randall seems to have posted the same size both for the normal double size image displayed on xkcd, and the smaller normal size usually used here.
***[https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/control_group_2x.png control_group_2x.png] is the same as [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/control_group.png control_group.png].
***This is for instance not the case for the previous comics, for instance for [[2568: Spinthariscope]] that has similar size as this one:
****[https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spinthariscope_2x.png spinthariscope_2x.png] and [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spinthariscope.png spinthariscope.png]

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

Talk:2492: Commonly Mispronounced Equations

2022-02-04T16:14:34Z

172.70.91.116:

This comic is obviously a take on the generation Z style of writing words without vowels so that they fit on T-Shirts, text messages or to avoid censorship, like "BRLN", "O RLY", "PIX PLZ". Some of the people from that generation are now established scientist, leading their respective fields forward. Obviously this is how they refer to common equations. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.29|162.158.92.29]] 13:10, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

I think the wave equation is wrong based on units, but it's been a while. The wave speed ought to be squared. Of course, ''c'' could be a squared speed, but it's usually not. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.164|172.70.34.164]] 01:22, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

:I agree, normally it's written as C squared... The equations in order are 1: Gravitational Attraction, 2: Einstein's Mass / Energy Conversion, 3: Pythagorean Theorem (triangle side relations), 4: Area of a Circle, 5: Entropy equation, 6: Ideal Gas Law, 7: Euler's Identity, 8: Newtons Second law, 9: Wave equation, 10: The derivative of a function f, and, 11: The Quadratic Equation... I don't understand the linguistic rules being applied to the names, but they seem to be visual as much as anything [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.66|108.162.237.66]] 02:04, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
::You should turn that into a table in the explanation. We can have a column where we try to come up with the pronunciation rule. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:10, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

The equation for the thing I have as what it was made by is 𝓛 = i(ѱ-macron)γᵘ(∂ᵤ)ѱ-e(ѱ-macron)γᵘ(Aᵤ + Bᵤ)ѱ - m(ѱ-macron)ѱ - (FᵤᵥFᵘᵛ)/4 {{w|Quantum electrodynamics#Equations_of_motion|here is the link:}} [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_electrodynamics#Equations_of_motion These are both the links.]
For archival, this is the thing: LAGRONJ EYSIBARYMOODMOOSIOYLERSIBRYMOOAMOOBAMOOSIMASIBRSIQORTFAHMOOVYFAHMOOVY.
[[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 02:22, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

My friends and I actually pretty often say "PəV-nert" for the ideal gas law. First syllable is kind of vowel-less, sort of a schwa if anything. But also stressed? Didn't know you could stress a schwa but, guess I did.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.160|172.70.130.160]] 02:36, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
:My teachers always pronounced it PIV-nert. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.20|172.69.62.20]] 18:38, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

I think this is the XKCD that has made me laugh the most, out of all 2492.
:I'd say it might be the one that made me laugh the most, out of all {{LATESTCOMIC}}. I won't, because it didn't, but I could. --[[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 03:23, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
:"Doot-ca-doox" is so funny. I'm imagining Pingu saying that. !!!!

I tried to transcribe these pronunciations into IPA, because reading them like this is kind of ambiguous. I probably got a bunch of stuff wrong though.
fəˈdʒæmɚ |
ˈɛmkɑˌtu |
ætˈbutkut |
ˈæpɚˌtu |
həˈsplɒgpi |
ˈpævnɚt |
ˈaɪpɪn |
ˈfimɑ |
dut kəˈduks |
ˈfækslɪmˌoʊ ˈfæksəˌfɒx |
zəˈbɔbə fækˈtoʊɑ |
ˌɛpsɪˈhutəˌmu ˈdupsɪˌkwɔrps

Why is it a soft G in the gravity equation? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:10, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
:I believe it's a reference to the "gif" pronunciation debate. "Fuh-gam-er" is the obvious pronunciation, Randal is facetiously asserting "Fuh-jam-er" is correct.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.130|108.162.250.130]] 05:00, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
:I think it might be because the English letter "G" is pronounced "Gee" (i.e. "Jee"), which made its way into the pronunciation here.[[User:BenjaminTheBenevolent|BenjaminTheBenevolent]] ([[User talk:BenjaminTheBenevolent|talk]]) 10:27, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ok_GMxThuo How would you pronounce the word 'give'?] !!!!
:(The English ''letter'' pronunciation is "Jee". It's also pronounced as an "F" in "Enough" and "" in "Gnome", etc.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.197|162.158.158.197]] 19:37, 28 July 2021 (UTC)
The most similar time when equations are actually 'pronounced' a bit like this is the "soh cah toa" mnemonic for the trigonometric identities - should this be in the explanation? (the comic made at least me think that might be the original inspiration) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.204|141.101.99.204]] 06:42, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

:How is "soh cah toa" a mnemonic?? It's just a bunch of random letters. Normally you memorize random letters by coming up with words that fit together, not vice versa. I think this is much harder to remember than the thing it is supposedly a mnemonic for. If anyone actually finds it useful, can you explain how it works for you? I've seen this before so I suppose it's a real thing, but I find it baffling. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.220|108.162.221.220]] 04:15, 23 July 2021 (UTC)
::You ask how it's a mnemonic, yet you say you've seen it before. Think about that for a sec.
[[User:Klo876|Klo876]] ([[User talk:Klo876|talk]]) 01:58, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
::Not sure it's a mnemonic, no, but I was taught SOHCAHTOA by a very good (but strict) maths teacher as in "... (like?) that volcanic eruption". Given we were 10, 11 years old, I don't think we even ''knew'' about {{w|Krakatoa}} at that point (despite having also a very good Geography teacher who readily identified lumps of 'Gneissian schist' that I may have brought back from holiday - he also had a much better sense of humour...) so whether I (or the teacher?) was mistaken in understanding "Sohcahtoa" to be purported to be a (now ironically memorable) volcano rather than it was a "it rhymes with..." mnemonic, I don't now know. But since then I have always used SOHCAHTOA to confirm in my mind which trigonometric identity I should use. And, later, I learnt and never forgot that {{w|Krakatoa,_East_of_Java|Krakatoa is/was ''west'' of Java}}! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.230|141.101.98.230]] 08:20, 23 July 2021 (UTC)
::(PS - If I ever have to use the "Many Very Elderly Men Just..." mnemonic (or whatever it is, I was sure it had had Earthenware Vases, but maybe only in a reversed version!), I tend to have to ''backform'' it from my unclear recollection of the mnemonic(s) I've been told plus just ''knowing'' that it's "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, **, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune*, Pluto-if-we're-counting-it*" (* - except between 1979 and 1999 when it was "...Pluto-definity-counted-at-this-time, Neptune") (** - and then there's possibly an A, B or C here for Asteroid, Belt or Ceres; nobody I know has ever added Kuiper and/or Oort into the string of words to need remembering, though) using very non-mnemonical direct or indirect knowledge about the solar-system, like Clarke's written version of 2001 aiming at Saturn but Kubrik's film 'only' going as far as Jupiter. So I "(Sometimes?) Might Very Earnestly Make And Join Something Unprecedented Never Known Originally" on the spur of the moment.)
:: The point of soh-cah-toa is that you learn to say it aloud as one word (which is therefore memorable), and then can expand it out as an acronym for sin(x) = o/h, cos(x) = a/h, tan(x) = o/a, which wouldn't be memorable. Much like BIDMAS/PEDMAS is pronounced as one word to learn an acronym. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.176|162.158.158.176]] 18:32, 26 July 2021 (UTC)
:The circle area might be meant to read out like "upper two", referencing the square. I can't see the same for any of the others though. / [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.157|162.158.183.157]] 06:52, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

:Mneumonics are supposed to make it easier to remember the equations; this collection would actually make it more challenging to remember these. Mind you, as a math tutor, my first thought was that these were attempts at mnemonics that missed the mark, '''badly'''. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 15:04, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

I see nobody has attempted the Transcript yet. (Also I'm wondering how to 'properly' pronounce P-One V-One Over T-One Equals P-Two V-Two Over T-Two.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.157|162.158.155.157]] 10:41, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
:I started a transcript. --[[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 16:54, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

Sorry to come in as an amateur, but I think the equation pronounced Ha-SPLOG-pee is actually the equation for Shannon diversity. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.134|162.158.126.134]] 11:58, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
: In my opinion, most of the contributions here are from people pretending to know more than they do. Edit away. Be bold. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.172|172.70.114.172]] 21:04, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

The Pythagorean Theorem one made me think of the AT-AT debate for Star Wars
:The wave equation reminded me of Jimmy Durante's Ink A Dinka Doo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWqi9eWwXvk I think I'm dating myself (no one else will). [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:55, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

I don't think it's clear if the provided pronunciations are the ''Correct'' ones or the common ''mispronunciations''

It's worth noting that the majority of these equations are especially likely to be elided, and that the way they're routinely elided is generally incorrect - and more than that, the stressed syllable in particular is likely wrong. Especially notably "Fu-Jam-Er" should be "Fu-Gam-Er" and "Pav-Nert" should be "Piv-Nert". The joke works on the level of equation pronunciation being pretty intrinsically funny if you're not familiar with the specific equation, but also on the level of the specific equations having a standard pronunciation that pointedly isn't the one in the comic.

It would be interesting to try and reverse-engineer the original equations behind, for example, "Fus ro dah", or "Avada Kedavra". [[User:Cavaler|Cavaler]] ([[User talk:Cavaler|talk]]) 12:53, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

What is the pronounciation notation this comic is using?? I can't even find them in Oxford/Cambridge/Merriam-Webster/Collins dictionary, though I think I occasionally see them somewhere else. --[[User:Lamty101|Lamty101]] ([[User talk:Lamty101|talk]]) 08:43, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
: It's probably not actually right to consider it a notation, ''per se''. It's a trivial method that anyone can use (no need to use funny stuff like ɛ, ʑ or ɖʐ in IPA notation - or remember what they mean!), but it's also liable to inconsistency as you can be inconsistent in both production (some might consider "DOO" ''or'' "DU" an acceptible rendering for the same thing) or understanding (if "BAI" is written used, was that as in "good''bye''" (see also "BIE") or "e''Bay''" (also could have been "BAE"), etc?). How would you indicate syllable boundaries, "IN-DUH-KAYT" or "IND-UCK-ATE" or ? A Cockney or a Kiwi or a Cajun might each produce ''and'' voice notations completely differently. But it's better than nothing. And with either bolding (as in here), italicising or uppercase-contrasting-with-the-rest-in-lowercase you can indicate the stressed syllable(s). Maybe look at {{w|Pronunciation respelling for English}} (I didn't see a further link to qualify any 'standards' for this non-phonomic system, and doubt that there are any that travel well beyond any actual particular narrow dialectical territory).
: I actually think it's part of the joke that it's an imprecise 'pronunciation guide', rather than a technically advanced one like /aɪ pʰiː eɪ/ itself is, further confusing the deliberately confused issue. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.29|141.101.99.29]] 19:45, 24 July 2021 (UTC)

We teach the impulse-momentum equation f*(delta)t = m*deltaV as FAT MAV. And you're far more likely to hear a mentor remind a student to use 'FAT MAV' than 'the impulse-momentum equation' this comic seemed an obvious evolution that idea. [[User:Sraben|Sraben]] ([[User talk:Sraben|talk]]) 20:54, 25 July 2021 (UTC)

Something similar does indeed happen in reality, when you have to read things like tan y = sinh x, cot y = csch x. Many people read sinh like sin-ch, while some others read it as shine, etc. [[User:Yosei|Yosei]] ([[User talk:Yosei|talk]]) 23:22, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

Just undone [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2492:_Commonly_Mispronounced_Equations&diff=222584&oldid=222578 an apparent mistakenly placed comment]... Nearly moved it here, but I'm hoping the author sees this and understands. (Might explain why I just found (and edited for over-commaing!) comments on a File:(image) page. Hope the new editor isn't going to do this a lot...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.19|162.158.159.19]] 19:42, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

At a quick glance, and then a longer one, I just don't get [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2492:_Commonly_Mispronounced_Equations&curid=24270&diff=226488&oldid=223986 this 'correction'] as it looks like it does nothing to formulae with an already sufficient precedence (e.g. ''(whatever)/2a'' is already functionally ''(whatever)/(2a)''... you aren't confusing with the completely different and necessarily explicitly written ''((whatever)/2).a'' are you?). And the transcript change is more wrong than spelling it out in description as it adds parens not present in the comic if you assume it gets interpreted to anything meaningful that mentions them by any screen-readers. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 16:14, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

2453: Excel Lambda

2022-01-25T15:28:10Z

172.70.91.116: /* Explanation */ With that in mind, removing the next CN tag as guilding this particular lilly.

{{comic
| number = 2453
| date = April 21, 2021
| title = Excel Lambda
| image = excel_lambda_new.png
| titletext = Extremely rude how Turing's later formulations of the halting problem called me out by name specifically.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is computing and [[Ponytail]] criticizes him in a way that is reminiscent of the [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality series]], although not as harsh. Cueball has lots of strange [[:Category:Cueball Computer Problems|computer problems]], and this will most likely result in another one.

The comic begins with Ponytail finding out that {{w|Microsoft Excel}} is adding a {{w|Anonymous_function|lambda function}} to their function library. This was [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/announcing-lambda-turn-excel-formulas-into-custom-functions/ba-p/1925546 announced by Microsoft] for Beta users in December of 2020, but perhaps Ponytail has only discovered this recently. A lambda function is a fundamental mathematical structure that can (alternatively) be used to completely define all possible computations from the ground up, in what is known as {{w|lambda calculus}}, other than using for-loops, pointers and effect-ful functions that bear little resemblance to mathematical functions. They are commonly found in programming languages such as {{w|Lisp}}, {{w|Python}}, and many others. A lambda function is also called an {{w|anonymous function}} because in most languages it can be passed to other functions (including another lambda function) without needing to be given any formal name during coding, or given {{w|Closure_(computer_programming)|'closure'}} under whatever name(s) its calling procedures desire.

Finding that Excel is adding a lambda function pleases Ponytail. Cueball claims that the lambda function is unnecessary, as when he needs arbitrary computation he just adds a block of columns to the side of his sheet and has a {{w|Turing machine}} process it. This would technically work as lambda calculus is formally equivalent to Turing machines. People have created [https://www.felienne.com/archives/2974 Turing machines in Excel], although not for practical purposes.

Ponytail finds his solution absurd and is convinced Cueball is "doing computing wrong". But he claims that all computing is equally wrong, citing the {{w|Church-Turing thesis}}, a hypothesis which says that a function can be computed by executing a series of instructions if and only if that function is computable by a Turing machine. A classical Turing machine uses an infinitely long strip of tape as its memory; for Cueball, the large Excel column acts as the "tape". All ways of computing are "equally wrong" since, according to this thesis, they can all be translated to or from a Turing machine.

Ponytail and Cueball appear to have different ideas of 'computing'. Ponytail, like most programmers, probably includes efficiency and readability as important characteristics of 'doing computing right'. Cueball appears interested only in {{w|computability}}, a more theoretical point of view than Ponytail's.

Ponytail then says that Turing would change his mind if he saw Cueball's spreadsheet, presumably because of the extreme complexity of Cueball's code in the spreadsheet. Cueball's final statement is that Turing could ask him to stop, but would not be able to prove if he actually will stop.

Cueball's final statement is a reference to the {{w|halting problem}} mentioned in the title text. It is the problem of determining whether a given Turing machine will halt. The problem has been shown to be undecidable, i.e., it is impossible to build an algorithm that computes whether any arbitrary Turing machine will halt or not. Because of the way Cueball has behaved, he has been specifically mentioned in Turing's later formulations of the halting problem. Cueball finds this very rude. This is of course a joke, since Turing has been dead since 1954,{{citation needed}} presumably long before Cueball was born. But it would be crazy indeed if a scientist became so mad at a person that he would mention this person by name in his formulation of a serious problem.

Over-complicated spreadsheets were also mentioned in [[2180: Spreadsheets]].

While conditional loops with the ability to interact with the loop variable, and functions reading and altering parameters ''not'' passed to it, can be (ab)used creatively to great effect, the fact a same structure may have been vastly different control schemes puts burden on anyone reading preexisting code. Functional programming abstracts computation differently, and uses distinct constructs for plain iterating over a list ('''map''' and co., the inner function is forbidden to interact with the accumulator by semantics) and recursion and iteration with side-effects or implicit input (modeled as various flavors of monads). Constructs like '''map''' take functions as parameter, but giving every tidbit of code a name and hiding it 100+ lines away nullifies the readability. Lambda function is thus a much needed piece for a functional style of expression.

In the Excel example though, the point is you can finally create custom functions in the original '''formula''' language, not some too-powerful-not-to-be-abused-by-hackers macro language that any security-aware person would strip out before opening an Excel spreadsheet. Excel formulas take only explicit input (cells) and have explicit and controlled output (cells or function return value), fitting the Lambda notion nicely. Combine this with proper recursion support and you have a language that becomes Turing-complete without relying on evaluator abuse ([https://chandoo.org/wp/timestamps-excel-formula-help/ circular reference and F7 for next iteration]) or a [https://www.felienne.com/archives/2974 ''wall'' of Turing machine states]. Now one can '''express''' (pseudo-code follows) CellValue=iterate(recursive-function, num-of-steps) properly, with num-of-steps as an input not *number of F7 presses* or *starting value of a cell which get decremented to zero as recursion proceeds* or *row number from wall of states*. Excel probably still tracks the iteration with a variable in calculating the final value, but that implementation detail is decoupled from the language itself.

An example of a lambda function in Python that takes a parameter named '''a''' and computes the value '''a'''-squared minus 1:

lambda a: (a ** 2) - 1

Lambda values are often used as parameters to other functions, such as '''map''' which applies a function to each item of an "iterable" such as this list of the numbers 1, 2, and 3:

map(lambda a: (a ** 2) - 1, [1, 2, 3]) ''# will generate the values 0, 3, and 8''
You can copy/paste this statement into a Python interpreter (such as [https://www.tutorialspoint.com/execute_python_online.php TutorialsPoint]) to see it work (do not copy the leading spaces; that's a wiki thing):
print(list(map(lambda a: (a ** 2) - 1, [1, 2, 3])))

In the above example, '''map''' takes each element of the list containing the values 1, 2, and 3 in turn, sending each value to the lambda function (as the parameter "a") and so generating the sequence of values: 0, 3, and 8. These are then reconstructed into a '''list''' to '''print''' the complete result: '''[0, 3, 8]'''.

A recursive lambda might be:

def pointless_recursion(v):
# If current value (x) is evenly divisible by 4, return the source (v) * current (x)
# Otherwise, print current, and then try the process again with the current value of x + 3
r = lambda x: x * v if x % 4 == 0 else print(x) or r(x + 3)
return r(v)

pointless_recursion(12) # returns 144 (i.e., 12*12)
pointless_recursion(11) # prints 11, 14, 17 then returns 220 (i.e., 20*11)

In this instance, the function is given the name 'r', and features a (conditional) call back to this self-same 'r' within it. The 'x' is whatever value is the latest passed to 'r', while 'v' is that which was first passed to the container function.

Ideally, such techniques should be used to ''reduce'' {{w|Spaghetti code}}, not increase it. But this isn't a foregone conclusion, especially in Cueball's hands.

==Transcript==
:[In a narrow panel, Ponytail is walking in from the left, looking down at her phone]
:Ponytail: Oh cool, Excel is adding a lambda function, so you can recursively define functions.

:[Ponytail, holding her phone to her side stands behind Cueball, who is sitting in an office chair with a hand on a laptop standing on his desk. He has turned around to face her, leaning with the other arm on the back of the chair.]
:Cueball: Seems unnecessary.
:Cueball: When I need to do arbitrary computation, I just add a giant block of columns to the side of my sheet and have a Turing machine traverse down it.

:[In a frame-less panel Ponytail is standing in he same position behind Cueball, who has resumed working on his laptop with both hands on the keyboard.]
:Ponytail: I think you're doing computing wrong.
:Cueball: The Church-Turing thesis says that all ways of computing are '''''equally''''' wrong.

:[Ponytail is still behind Cueball, who has a finger raised in the air, and the other hand is on the desk. Cueball's head has a visible sketch layer which has not been erased.]
:Ponytail: I think if Turing saw '''''your''''' spreadsheets, he'd change his mind.
:Cueball: He can ask me to stop making them, but not prove whether I will!

==Trivia==
*In the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3b/excel_lambda.png original version] of the comic, in the final panel, there was a gray pencil outline, slightly different to Cueball's head that had not been removed.
**This was later fixed in a re-upload.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Spreadsheets]]
[[Category:Programming]]

2453: Excel Lambda

2022-01-25T15:26:41Z

172.70.91.116: /* Explanation */...and I think the wrong 'improper' use was removed. It being a joke is not certain, while Turing's death is (or more so), so by explainxkcd standards the unchallenged definitive item takes the injoke CN markup.

{{comic
| number = 2453
| date = April 21, 2021
| title = Excel Lambda
| image = excel_lambda_new.png
| titletext = Extremely rude how Turing's later formulations of the halting problem called me out by name specifically.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is computing and [[Ponytail]] criticizes him in a way that is reminiscent of the [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality series]], although not as harsh. Cueball has lots of strange [[:Category:Cueball Computer Problems|computer problems]], and this will most likely result in another one.

The comic begins with Ponytail finding out that {{w|Microsoft Excel}} is adding a {{w|Anonymous_function|lambda function}} to their function library. This was [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/announcing-lambda-turn-excel-formulas-into-custom-functions/ba-p/1925546 announced by Microsoft] for Beta users in December of 2020, but perhaps Ponytail has only discovered this recently. A lambda function is a fundamental mathematical structure that can (alternatively) be used to completely define all possible computations from the ground up, in what is known as {{w|lambda calculus}}, other than using for-loops, pointers and effect-ful functions that bear little resemblance to mathematical functions. They are commonly found in programming languages such as {{w|Lisp}}, {{w|Python}}, and many others. A lambda function is also called an {{w|anonymous function}} because in most languages it can be passed to other functions (including another lambda function) without needing to be given any formal name during coding, or given {{w|Closure_(computer_programming)|'closure'}} under whatever name(s) its calling procedures desire.

Finding that Excel is adding a lambda function pleases Ponytail. Cueball claims that the lambda function is unnecessary, as when he needs arbitrary computation he just adds a block of columns to the side of his sheet and has a {{w|Turing machine}} process it. This would technically work as lambda calculus is formally equivalent to Turing machines. People have created [https://www.felienne.com/archives/2974 Turing machines in Excel], although not for practical purposes.

Ponytail finds his solution absurd and is convinced Cueball is "doing computing wrong". But he claims that all computing is equally wrong, citing the {{w|Church-Turing thesis}}, a hypothesis which says that a function can be computed by executing a series of instructions if and only if that function is computable by a Turing machine. A classical Turing machine uses an infinitely long strip of tape as its memory; for Cueball, the large Excel column acts as the "tape". All ways of computing are "equally wrong" since, according to this thesis, they can all be translated to or from a Turing machine.

Ponytail and Cueball appear to have different ideas of 'computing'. Ponytail, like most programmers, probably includes efficiency and readability as important characteristics of 'doing computing right'. Cueball appears interested only in {{w|computability}}, a more theoretical point of view than Ponytail's.

Ponytail then says that Turing would change his mind if he saw Cueball's spreadsheet, presumably because of the extreme complexity of Cueball's code in the spreadsheet. Cueball's final statement is that Turing could ask him to stop, but would not be able to prove if he actually will stop.

Cueball's final statement is a reference to the {{w|halting problem}} mentioned in the title text. It is the problem of determining whether a given Turing machine will halt. The problem has been shown to be undecidable, i.e., it is impossible to build an algorithm that computes whether any arbitrary Turing machine will halt or not. Because of the way Cueball has behaved, he has been specifically mentioned in Turing's later formulations of the halting problem. Cueball finds this very rude. This is of course a joke, since Turing has been dead since 1954,{{citation needed}} presumably long before Cueball was born. But it would be crazy{{citation needed}} indeed if a scientist became so mad at a person that he would mention this person by name in his formulation of a serious problem.

Over-complicated spreadsheets were also mentioned in [[2180: Spreadsheets]].

While conditional loops with the ability to interact with the loop variable, and functions reading and altering parameters ''not'' passed to it, can be (ab)used creatively to great effect, the fact a same structure may have been vastly different control schemes puts burden on anyone reading preexisting code. Functional programming abstracts computation differently, and uses distinct constructs for plain iterating over a list ('''map''' and co., the inner function is forbidden to interact with the accumulator by semantics) and recursion and iteration with side-effects or implicit input (modeled as various flavors of monads). Constructs like '''map''' take functions as parameter, but giving every tidbit of code a name and hiding it 100+ lines away nullifies the readability. Lambda function is thus a much needed piece for a functional style of expression.

In the Excel example though, the point is you can finally create custom functions in the original '''formula''' language, not some too-powerful-not-to-be-abused-by-hackers macro language that any security-aware person would strip out before opening an Excel spreadsheet. Excel formulas take only explicit input (cells) and have explicit and controlled output (cells or function return value), fitting the Lambda notion nicely. Combine this with proper recursion support and you have a language that becomes Turing-complete without relying on evaluator abuse ([https://chandoo.org/wp/timestamps-excel-formula-help/ circular reference and F7 for next iteration]) or a [https://www.felienne.com/archives/2974 ''wall'' of Turing machine states]. Now one can '''express''' (pseudo-code follows) CellValue=iterate(recursive-function, num-of-steps) properly, with num-of-steps as an input not *number of F7 presses* or *starting value of a cell which get decremented to zero as recursion proceeds* or *row number from wall of states*. Excel probably still tracks the iteration with a variable in calculating the final value, but that implementation detail is decoupled from the language itself.

An example of a lambda function in Python that takes a parameter named '''a''' and computes the value '''a'''-squared minus 1:

lambda a: (a ** 2) - 1

Lambda values are often used as parameters to other functions, such as '''map''' which applies a function to each item of an "iterable" such as this list of the numbers 1, 2, and 3:

map(lambda a: (a ** 2) - 1, [1, 2, 3]) ''# will generate the values 0, 3, and 8''
You can copy/paste this statement into a Python interpreter (such as [https://www.tutorialspoint.com/execute_python_online.php TutorialsPoint]) to see it work (do not copy the leading spaces; that's a wiki thing):
print(list(map(lambda a: (a ** 2) - 1, [1, 2, 3])))

In the above example, '''map''' takes each element of the list containing the values 1, 2, and 3 in turn, sending each value to the lambda function (as the parameter "a") and so generating the sequence of values: 0, 3, and 8. These are then reconstructed into a '''list''' to '''print''' the complete result: '''[0, 3, 8]'''.

A recursive lambda might be:

def pointless_recursion(v):
# If current value (x) is evenly divisible by 4, return the source (v) * current (x)
# Otherwise, print current, and then try the process again with the current value of x + 3
r = lambda x: x * v if x % 4 == 0 else print(x) or r(x + 3)
return r(v)

pointless_recursion(12) # returns 144 (i.e., 12*12)
pointless_recursion(11) # prints 11, 14, 17 then returns 220 (i.e., 20*11)

In this instance, the function is given the name 'r', and features a (conditional) call back to this self-same 'r' within it. The 'x' is whatever value is the latest passed to 'r', while 'v' is that which was first passed to the container function.

Ideally, such techniques should be used to ''reduce'' {{w|Spaghetti code}}, not increase it. But this isn't a foregone conclusion, especially in Cueball's hands.

==Transcript==
:[In a narrow panel, Ponytail is walking in from the left, looking down at her phone]
:Ponytail: Oh cool, Excel is adding a lambda function, so you can recursively define functions.

:[Ponytail, holding her phone to her side stands behind Cueball, who is sitting in an office chair with a hand on a laptop standing on his desk. He has turned around to face her, leaning with the other arm on the back of the chair.]
:Cueball: Seems unnecessary.
:Cueball: When I need to do arbitrary computation, I just add a giant block of columns to the side of my sheet and have a Turing machine traverse down it.

:[In a frame-less panel Ponytail is standing in he same position behind Cueball, who has resumed working on his laptop with both hands on the keyboard.]
:Ponytail: I think you're doing computing wrong.
:Cueball: The Church-Turing thesis says that all ways of computing are '''''equally''''' wrong.

:[Ponytail is still behind Cueball, who has a finger raised in the air, and the other hand is on the desk. Cueball's head has a visible sketch layer which has not been erased.]
:Ponytail: I think if Turing saw '''''your''''' spreadsheets, he'd change his mind.
:Cueball: He can ask me to stop making them, but not prove whether I will!

==Trivia==
*In the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3b/excel_lambda.png original version] of the comic, in the final panel, there was a gray pencil outline, slightly different to Cueball's head that had not been removed.
**This was later fixed in a re-upload.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Spreadsheets]]
[[Category:Programming]]

2453: Excel Lambda

2022-01-25T15:23:30Z

172.70.91.116: /* Explanation */ Removing rogue character typoed in by last editor, presumably without their realising.

{{comic
| number = 2453
| date = April 21, 2021
| title = Excel Lambda
| image = excel_lambda_new.png
| titletext = Extremely rude how Turing's later formulations of the halting problem called me out by name specifically.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is computing and [[Ponytail]] criticizes him in a way that is reminiscent of the [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality series]], although not as harsh. Cueball has lots of strange [[:Category:Cueball Computer Problems|computer problems]], and this will most likely result in another one.

The comic begins with Ponytail finding out that {{w|Microsoft Excel}} is adding a {{w|Anonymous_function|lambda function}} to their function library. This was [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/announcing-lambda-turn-excel-formulas-into-custom-functions/ba-p/1925546 announced by Microsoft] for Beta users in December of 2020, but perhaps Ponytail has only discovered this recently. A lambda function is a fundamental mathematical structure that can (alternatively) be used to completely define all possible computations from the ground up, in what is known as {{w|lambda calculus}}, other than using for-loops, pointers and effect-ful functions that bear little resemblance to mathematical functions. They are commonly found in programming languages such as {{w|Lisp}}, {{w|Python}}, and many others. A lambda function is also called an {{w|anonymous function}} because in most languages it can be passed to other functions (including another lambda function) without needing to be given any formal name during coding, or given {{w|Closure_(computer_programming)|'closure'}} under whatever name(s) its calling procedures desire.

Finding that Excel is adding a lambda function pleases Ponytail. Cueball claims that the lambda function is unnecessary, as when he needs arbitrary computation he just adds a block of columns to the side of his sheet and has a {{w|Turing machine}} process it. This would technically work as lambda calculus is formally equivalent to Turing machines. People have created [https://www.felienne.com/archives/2974 Turing machines in Excel], although not for practical purposes.

Ponytail finds his solution absurd and is convinced Cueball is "doing computing wrong". But he claims that all computing is equally wrong, citing the {{w|Church-Turing thesis}}, a hypothesis which says that a function can be computed by executing a series of instructions if and only if that function is computable by a Turing machine. A classical Turing machine uses an infinitely long strip of tape as its memory; for Cueball, the large Excel column acts as the "tape". All ways of computing are "equally wrong" since, according to this thesis, they can all be translated to or from a Turing machine.

Ponytail and Cueball appear to have different ideas of 'computing'. Ponytail, like most programmers, probably includes efficiency and readability as important characteristics of 'doing computing right'. Cueball appears interested only in {{w|computability}}, a more theoretical point of view than Ponytail's.

Ponytail then says that Turing would change his mind if he saw Cueball's spreadsheet, presumably because of the extreme complexity of Cueball's code in the spreadsheet. Cueball's final statement is that Turing could ask him to stop, but would not be able to prove if he actually will stop.

Cueball's final statement is a reference to the {{w|halting problem}} mentioned in the title text. It is the problem of determining whether a given Turing machine will halt. The problem has been shown to be undecidable, i.e., it is impossible to build an algorithm that computes whether any arbitrary Turing machine will halt or not. Because of the way Cueball has behaved, he has been specifically mentioned in Turing's later formulations of the halting problem. Cueball finds this very rude. This is of course a joke,{{citation needed}} since Turing has been dead since 1954, presumably long before Cueball was born. But it would be crazy{{citation needed}} indeed if a scientist became so mad at a person that he would mention this person by name in his formulation of a serious problem.

Over-complicated spreadsheets were also mentioned in [[2180: Spreadsheets]].

While conditional loops with the ability to interact with the loop variable, and functions reading and altering parameters ''not'' passed to it, can be (ab)used creatively to great effect, the fact a same structure may have been vastly different control schemes puts burden on anyone reading preexisting code. Functional programming abstracts computation differently, and uses distinct constructs for plain iterating over a list ('''map''' and co., the inner function is forbidden to interact with the accumulator by semantics) and recursion and iteration with side-effects or implicit input (modeled as various flavors of monads). Constructs like '''map''' take functions as parameter, but giving every tidbit of code a name and hiding it 100+ lines away nullifies the readability. Lambda function is thus a much needed piece for a functional style of expression.

In the Excel example though, the point is you can finally create custom functions in the original '''formula''' language, not some too-powerful-not-to-be-abused-by-hackers macro language that any security-aware person would strip out before opening an Excel spreadsheet. Excel formulas take only explicit input (cells) and have explicit and controlled output (cells or function return value), fitting the Lambda notion nicely. Combine this with proper recursion support and you have a language that becomes Turing-complete without relying on evaluator abuse ([https://chandoo.org/wp/timestamps-excel-formula-help/ circular reference and F7 for next iteration]) or a [https://www.felienne.com/archives/2974 ''wall'' of Turing machine states]. Now one can '''express''' (pseudo-code follows) CellValue=iterate(recursive-function, num-of-steps) properly, with num-of-steps as an input not *number of F7 presses* or *starting value of a cell which get decremented to zero as recursion proceeds* or *row number from wall of states*. Excel probably still tracks the iteration with a variable in calculating the final value, but that implementation detail is decoupled from the language itself.

An example of a lambda function in Python that takes a parameter named '''a''' and computes the value '''a'''-squared minus 1:

lambda a: (a ** 2) - 1

Lambda values are often used as parameters to other functions, such as '''map''' which applies a function to each item of an "iterable" such as this list of the numbers 1, 2, and 3:

map(lambda a: (a ** 2) - 1, [1, 2, 3]) ''# will generate the values 0, 3, and 8''
You can copy/paste this statement into a Python interpreter (such as [https://www.tutorialspoint.com/execute_python_online.php TutorialsPoint]) to see it work (do not copy the leading spaces; that's a wiki thing):
print(list(map(lambda a: (a ** 2) - 1, [1, 2, 3])))

In the above example, '''map''' takes each element of the list containing the values 1, 2, and 3 in turn, sending each value to the lambda function (as the parameter "a") and so generating the sequence of values: 0, 3, and 8. These are then reconstructed into a '''list''' to '''print''' the complete result: '''[0, 3, 8]'''.

A recursive lambda might be:

def pointless_recursion(v):
# If current value (x) is evenly divisible by 4, return the source (v) * current (x)
# Otherwise, print current, and then try the process again with the current value of x + 3
r = lambda x: x * v if x % 4 == 0 else print(x) or r(x + 3)
return r(v)

pointless_recursion(12) # returns 144 (i.e., 12*12)
pointless_recursion(11) # prints 11, 14, 17 then returns 220 (i.e., 20*11)

In this instance, the function is given the name 'r', and features a (conditional) call back to this self-same 'r' within it. The 'x' is whatever value is the latest passed to 'r', while 'v' is that which was first passed to the container function.

Ideally, such techniques should be used to ''reduce'' {{w|Spaghetti code}}, not increase it. But this isn't a foregone conclusion, especially in Cueball's hands.

==Transcript==
:[In a narrow panel, Ponytail is walking in from the left, looking down at her phone]
:Ponytail: Oh cool, Excel is adding a lambda function, so you can recursively define functions.

:[Ponytail, holding her phone to her side stands behind Cueball, who is sitting in an office chair with a hand on a laptop standing on his desk. He has turned around to face her, leaning with the other arm on the back of the chair.]
:Cueball: Seems unnecessary.
:Cueball: When I need to do arbitrary computation, I just add a giant block of columns to the side of my sheet and have a Turing machine traverse down it.

:[In a frame-less panel Ponytail is standing in he same position behind Cueball, who has resumed working on his laptop with both hands on the keyboard.]
:Ponytail: I think you're doing computing wrong.
:Cueball: The Church-Turing thesis says that all ways of computing are '''''equally''''' wrong.

:[Ponytail is still behind Cueball, who has a finger raised in the air, and the other hand is on the desk. Cueball's head has a visible sketch layer which has not been erased.]
:Ponytail: I think if Turing saw '''''your''''' spreadsheets, he'd change his mind.
:Cueball: He can ask me to stop making them, but not prove whether I will!

==Trivia==
*In the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3b/excel_lambda.png original version] of the comic, in the final panel, there was a gray pencil outline, slightly different to Cueball's head that had not been removed.
**This was later fixed in a re-upload.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Spreadsheets]]
[[Category:Programming]]

2497: Logic Gates

2022-01-21T10:42:42Z

172.70.91.116:

{{comic
| number = 2497
| date = August 2, 2021
| title = Logic Gates
| image = logic_gates.png
| titletext = In C, the multiocular O represents the bitwise norxondor gorgonax.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SILICON LOGIC GATE TO A DIFFERENT DIMENSION AND/OR/XOR PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE. The table explaining what the made-up gates would do is incomplete. If it is going to reference quantum logic, it could be nice to have a brief description of any differences first. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic lists {{w|logic gate}}s. The first six are real but the last six are made up and get increasingly absurd. The names for these last six use the same letters and syllables as the first six so as to appear at a glance to be consistent with their naming conventions.

Some of the ways the gate parts are combined seemingly-impossibly can raise ideas in the mind of the reader of how quantum computing involves processing multiple possibilities at once, or how machine learning involves solving systems backward from their outputs to their inputs. The names ring of calling more and more profoundly to some mythological catastrophe.

{| class="wikitable"
!Name
!Explanation
|-
|{{w|AND gate}}
|An AND gate outputs true if and only if both inputs are true. (Inputs 1 '''and''' 2 must be true.)

By convention it is a symbol with a flat input end leading to a semicircular output end.
|-
|{{w|OR gate}}
| An OR gate outputs true if one or the other or both of the inputs are true. (Input 1 '''or''' 2 may be true.)

By convention it is a symbol with a concave input edge leading to an output end resembling a gothic pointed-arch, turned to point onwards.
|-
|{{w|NOT gate}}
|A NOT gate outputs true if and only if the input is false. (The sole input must '''not''' be true.)

The convention for the isolated NOT gate is to be a triangle (reminiscent of a diode or op-amp comparator), that conspicuously points in the direction of logical passage, tipped with a circle.
|-
|{{w|NOR gate}}
|A NOR gate outputs true if and only if both inputs are false. (Neither 1 '''nor''' 2 must be true; alternately interpreted as it must '''n'''ot be true that either 1 '''or''' 2 are true.)

The symbol is the OR shape with the NOT-circle at its tip.
|-
|{{w|XOR gate}}
|A XOR (short for "eXclusive OR") gate outputs true if one, or the other, but not both of the inputs are true. (Mutually e'''x'''cusively, either 1 '''or''' 2 must be true.)

This symbol is the standard OR one but with a further concave line stood-off slightly from the usual one to connect to the input lines to distinguish its more discriminating behaviour.
|-
|{{w|NAND gate}}
|A NAND (short for "Not AND") gate outputs true if one or the other or both of the inputs is false. (It must '''n'''ot be true that both 1 '''and''' 2 are true.)

The symbol is the AND gate with the NOT-circle at its tip.
|-
|NORX gate
|A ''single'' feedline leads into a standard OR-style input end, while two lines are seen departing from an AND-style output front.

If the gate obeys only AND logic and the input is not internally duplicated for the purpose then the result would always be false.

If the gate uses OR logic ''and/or'' the input is internally used for both traditionally-required inputs, then the output would be exactly of the state of the original input.

The two outputs appear to be duplications (unlike Out And Not Out pairings) so the overall effect may be to act as a non-interfering 'splitter' gate.

Alternately, if the single input carries a superposition of two signals (see NORG XORT, below) then this might be teased apart into two inputs, internally, processed (optionally making a new superposition of AND and OR results upon the separated inputs) and propagating onwards into two different and deliberately unentangled (but possibly still each superpositonal) outputs for further quantum processing.

(There are no NOT-type or XOR-type elements to the diagram, yet it is notable as being a partially-rearranged anagram of "XNOR Gate".)
|-
|GAND Ate
|Two inputs feed into an AND-style receiving end. The presumed output end features a mirrored XOR input design complete with two connections onwards.

Assuming it still accepts inputs from the left and produces outputs to the right, it is possible this gate initially acts as an AND-gate to the inward pair but then (randomly?) generates output signals that would, as inputs to an XOR, produce the same output. That is, if both inputs are true then the two outputs are paired as one as true and one as false (in either order); for any other inputs both outputs are in the same and identical (not-specified) logic-state.

(The name is a spoonerism of "AND Gate", but may not necessarily have any meaning beyond that.)
|-
|XAND Gort
|Two inputs, unconventionally, feed into what is otherwise a perfectly standard NOT-symbol with the traditional single output.

How a single NOT is intended to handle two inputs and merge them is not obvious. All obvious functions are already met by existing two-input gates. Perhaps it is logically identical to the NOR gate, but drawn and named to express its nature as "not A and not B" rather than the less intuitive equivalent "not (A or B)".

Or possibly this is intended to create (and then invert) a combined quantum superposition of the two singular input feeds and therefore act as a form of signal multiplexer.

(The name seems only trivially related to the gate names associated with the drawn elements of functionality. "Xand" is a familiar form of the name "Alexander" that is sometimes used for major figures in fantasy novels for its striking "X", while "Gort" is the name of a particularly powerful alien robot seen in various versions of the film The Day The Earth Stood Still. Neither of these facts may bear true relevance, however.)
|-
|NORG Xort
|The initial input end resembles an XOR gate, but with 'negation'-nodes unconventionally sited where the inputs lead inwards. The output end is given a NAND appearance.

An XOR gate should not ultimately react any differently with both inputs pre-negated, compared to how the straight inputs would be handled, but the promise of NANDness may not make things quite so simple, without straying into the possibility of quantum-logic (as suggested above) where it may 'merely' be just highly complex to understand.

(The name given references NOR and XOR, but may be entirely divorced from any logical interpretation of its logical implications.)
|-
|ANDORX Gant
|Two inputs appear to feed into an OR-receiving end-cap, but this transitions into feedlines into a follow-up XOR-receiver, which in turn transitions (without output-capping) into two output tracks each with an 'orphaned' NOT-node upon them.

Generously, it could be interpreted as an OR-gate whose internal result is sent to one output track while the opposite is output to the other track, then both are inverted. Or quantum (re-)superposition and separations may again be at work in this case in ways hard to narrow down.

(The nominal title is yet further lacking in obvious logic, starting with a possible rearrangement of XOR and AND followed by part of GATE with an N inserted. "Gant" could possibly be a reference to a particular sportswear manufacturer/retailer. There is, of course, also the {{w|Gantt chart}}.)
|-
|NORXONDOR Gorgonax
|Two inputs lead into a (N)OR-like entry, the continuing sides of which repurpose as connectors leading through a pair of full anti-parallel NOT gates, before resuming drawn purpose as a NOR-gate output tip. man this is cringe brooooooo

It is possible the peculiarly placed NOTs are acting as indications of some kind of two-way signal filter/rectifier, if they were to be taken seriously.

(The gate name, however, is a bizarre construct that may even be echoing fantasy/mythology references, such as Gondor and the Gorgon.)
|}

The only real-life logic gate that was omitted is the XNOR gate (short for "eXclusive Not OR"; it compares the inputs, and if and only if they are equal, it outputs true). Note that the "NORG XORT" gate would be logically equivalent to it, if it were tipped to match its uniquely XOR-style tail, since it would then be an XNOR gate with NOT on both inputs, a modification that has no ultimate effect on the logic as it merely switches the case of which exclusivity it needs to be, and does not care which version of same-input it might be responding to.

A double-NOT on an input would produce the identical output again (...if the input is '''not not''' true). Two NOTs preapplied to a (N)AND or (N)OR would produce the same output as a (further-)NOTed version of the (N)OR or (N)AND, conversely (...if '''not'''-1 '''and''' '''not'''-2 then this also means that neither 1 '''nor''' 2). Normally this would be shown, if necessary, as full NOT gates on the lead-in inputs but (see Transcript, below, and the NORG XORT description above) the shortcut element is occasionally used in further mix'n'match symbology (together with reinterpreting connectivity lines as partial shape-edges and vice-versa) in 'understandable' but definitely non-standard ways.

Along with the deliberate confusion of connector and shape-edge lines, directionality is also played with in several cases, with input 'ends' perhaps also at the (implied) output end and reversed sub-symbols implying a composite gate with substructural feedback or perhaps diode-rectification upon a bidirectional logic path.

Much like [[2360: Common Star Types]], as the list progresses, the names start to sound more like mythical creatures, closing with the "Norxondor gorgonax". As with the symbology, the names appear to be nonsensical recombinations of the standard ones (perhaps with off-subject inspirations, in some cases) but often do not match up with the symbolic (mis)use, such as an X in the name not implying/being implied by an XOR's unique drawn feature.

In the title text [[Randall]] claims that in the {{w|C (programming language)|programming language C}} the {{w|multiocular O}} (ꙮ) character, an exotic glyph variant of the Cyrillic letter O, is used to represent the bitwise version of the last operator Norxondor gorgonax (presumably ꙮꙮ represents the non-bitwise version), fitting as the multiocular O is used to refer to "many-eyed {{w|seraphim}}" (angels) in some religious literature. {{w|Gorgon}}s ([https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2360:_Common_Star_Types beige] or otherwise) have heads covered with snakes instead of hair, and so possess multiple eyes, the most famous was known as {{w|Medusa}} (she was [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e5/1608_1088x1074y_Medusa_and_floating_earth.png depicted] in [[1608: Hoverboard]]). The ꙮ character abstractly inspires ideas of great otherworldly demons like those of the Cthulhu mythos.

C is a low-level programming language, and as such, it has many operations that correspond to logical (i.e. bitwise) operations. These contrast with operations that work in a non-bitwise way. For example, "&&" is the non-bitwise "AND" operator that takes the operands as a whole, while "&" is the bitwise "AND" that combines the respective bits of its two inputs independently before spitting out the new single composite value the output bits represent. In non-bitwise operations, 0 always represents "FALSE", while any non-zero value means "TRUE" for inputs, and 1 is used to represent TRUE for outputs. Thus, "14 && 3" gives the result 1: TRUE AND TRUE -> TRUE. In the bitwise operation, using the same values, the decimal value 14 has the binary value 1110 and the decimal value 3 has the binary value 0011, and for this example we get:
1110 = 14
& 0011 = 3
0010 = 2

==Transcript==
:[The comic shows a chart with twelve electronic logic gates arranged in three rows of four. Each gate is depicted as a schematic symbol, with a label underneath. Above them is a header:]
:Common logic gate symbols

:[Here below follows a description of the 12 gates in the three rows, with their label given beneath each description:]

:[A standard gate symbol used in real life. Two inputs on the left lead to the vertical left edge of a solid D-shaped symbol. From the right side of the D there is one output.]
:AND gate

:[A standard gate symbol used in real life. Two inputs on the left lead to a convex-crescent left edge of a crescent-shaped symbol. The right side of the crescent symbol's shape forms a point at its output. From the right side of the crescent there is one output.]
:OR gate

:[A standard gate symbol used in real life. One input leads to a triangular symbol pointing to the right. There is a small bubble symbol connected to the triangle on the output, which leads right.]
:NOT gate

:[A standard gate symbol used in real life. This is identical to the OR GATE, except the output has a bubble attached, like the NOT GATE's output.)
:NOR gate

:[A standard gate symbol used in real life. This is identical to the OR GATE, except the left-hand arc at the input has a double-stroked line.]
:XOR gate

:[A standard gate symbol used in real life. This is identical to the AND GATE, except the output has a bubble attached, like the NOT GATE's output.]
:NAND gate

:[An unusual symbol. This symbol has one input on the left leading to a convex-crescent left edge, like the OR GATE. The output side as a smooth crescent like the AND GATE but has two outputs.]
:NORX gate

:[An unusual symbol. This symbol has two inputs on the left leading to a vertical left edge input, like the AND GATE. The output side has a convex-crescent double-stroked output like the mirror image of the XOR GATE's input. There are two outputs.]
:GAND ate

:[An unusual symbol. This resembles the NOT GATE except there are two inputs instead of one leading into the left side.]
:XAND gort

:[An unusual symbol. This has a double-stroked convex-crescent input like the XOR GATE, but the two inputs have bubbles attached. The single output has a smooth crescent shape with a bubble, like a NAND GATE.]
:NORG xort

:[An unusual symbol. Two inputs lead to a convex-crescent edge, and the two lines of this symbol now enter a double-stroked convex-crescent input like the XOR GATE. The two lines of -this- symbol have bubbles placed half way across their horizontal length, and are presumably the outputs.]
:ANDORX gant

:[An unusual symbol. The symbol is identical to the NOR GATE, except the upper and lower horizontal parts of the symbols hull have a NOT GATE placed on them - one pointing to the left on the upper line, and to the right on the lower line. There is one output to the symbol, with a bubble attached.]
:NORXONDOR gorgonax i hate my life i hate my life i hate my life i hate my life i hate my life i hate my life i hate my life i hate my life

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Programming]]

2570: Captain Picard Tea Order

2022-01-19T23:07:14Z

172.70.91.116: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2570
| date = January 19, 2022
| title = Captain Picard Tea Order
| image = captain_picard_tea_order.png
| titletext = We can ask the Earl for his order once he's fully extruded from the dispenser.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by EXTRUDED EARL GREY- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
*This was the fifth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=1 class="wikitable"
! Word !! Explanation
|-
| Hot
| A normal word to be used when ordering tea.
|-
| Iced
| {{w|Iced Tea}} is a normal variant of tea.
|-
| Decaf
| Some teas have caffeine in them. Asking for {{w|Decaffeination|decafeinated}} tea is normal.
|-
| Good
|
|-
| Lukewarm
|
|-
| Tasty
|
|-
| Boiled
|
|-
| Watery
|
|-
| Sour
|
|-
| Meaty
|
|-
| Solid
|
|-
| Dry
|
|-
| Raw
|
|-
| Deep-fried
|
|-
| Sticky
|
|-
| Grilled
|
|-
| Fossilized
|
|-
| Magnetic
|
|-
| Ballistic
|
|-
| Unstable
|
|-
| Blessed
|
|-
| Blurry
|
|-
| Loud
|
|-
| Virtual
|
|-
| Intravenous
|
|-
| Expanding
|
|-
| Ironic
|
|-
| Segmented
|
|-
| Verbose
|
|-
| Cursed
|
|-
| Unexpected
|
|-
| Bipedal
|
|-
| Afraid
|
|-
| Infinite
|
|-
| Tea for him, too
|
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[There is a line going towards the bottom of the panel in a curve with marks and words next to them. Various pictures of Captain Picard, are displayed next to the curves.]
:[Caption at top of the panel:]
:Other words Captain Picard tried at the end of his tea order before settling on "hot"
:[Subtitle below the caption:]
:From most normal to least
:[Picard stands next to a machine labeled 'REPLICATOR', giving a command. Some options such as 'Good,' 'Cold,' 'Dry,' and 'Pink' are displayed perpendicularly adjacent to 'Hot', the latter clearly selected.]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
:[Below, another version of Picard standing next to the replicator is displayed. Picard is holding a cup, with sticky lines connecting his hands and the machine]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Sticky.
:[This time, Picard is holding a vibrating cup and large letters are displayed in the background to the exclusion of all else.]
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Loud.
:Teacup: '''TEEEEEEEEEEEEEE'''
:[Words on the arrow from start to finish. The tail of the arrow is labeled 'Normal.' There is a parallel arrow pointing in the same direction labeled 'Less normal.']
:Hot
:Iced
:Decaf
:Good
:Lukewarm
:Tasty
:Boiled
:Watery
:Sour
:Meaty
:Solid
:Dry
:Raw
:Deep-fried
:Sticky
:Grilled
:Fossilized
:Magnetic
:Ballistic
:Unstable
:Blessed
:Blurry
:Loud
:Virtual
:Intravenous
:Expanding
:Ironic
:Segmented
:Verbose
:Cursed
:Unexpected
:Bipedal
:Afraid
:Infinite
:Tea for him, too

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Star Trek]]

336: Priorities

2022-01-18T20:25:04Z

172.70.91.116: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 336
| date = October 31, 2007
| title = Priorities
| image = priorities.png
| titletext = You should start giving out 'E's so I can spell FACADE or DEFACED.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] is a student, who apparently didn't turn in his homework assignment repeatedly, for which he gets a warning from his Cueball-like teacher.

In some schools in the United States, a student's grades are determined mainly using letters for quick reference. In most schools, the letter grades are given as follows:

::A — 100%–90%
::B — 89%–80%
::C — 79%–70%
::D — 69%–60%
::F — 59%–0%

Traditionally, these schools send '{{w|report card}}s' in which the student's current grading of the semester or even the entirety of the class the student is taking is denoted using these letters, for example:

::English — A
::Mathematics — D
::Science — B
::Social Studies — B
::World Building — C

The student may have noted that, if he aims for certain scoring (for example: altering the quality of his homework or even sending out his homework only at the times needed for his grades to reach a certain level), he could make the report card spell every letter grade in alphabetical order. Deriving from the previous example, the student would aim for the following report card:

::English — A
::Mathematics — B
::Science — C
::Social Studies — D
::World Building — F

Interestingly, since in some schools even a 0% grade would produce the required 'F' grade, the student does not need to work at all (not even turn in any school assignments) to get the required 'F' grade, this leading to the situation presented in the comic above. Rather than a letter upon a continuum (as it might be assumed if 'E' were not skipped) it is generally accepted that 'F' actually stands for 'Failed' and covers any situation where insufficient credit was gained to obtain any other letter-grade. There are some schools, though, where turning in nothing would result in the class being marked "incomplete" or "inc" instead of having a grade shown at all.

The title text references that, not only can the grades in the report card inadvertently spell out certain words (for example: 'CAB' or 'FAD'), but also that the letter grade system denoted omits the letter 'E' in standard letter grading. The reason for the missing "E" is complex and explained in [http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/08/e_is_for_fail.html this Slate article]. However, this is not universal in the United States: Ohio State University, for example, uses 'E' for failing.

==Transcript==
:[A teacher is talking to a student, sitting at a desk.]
:Teacher: If you don't turn in at least one homework assignment, you'll fail this class.
:[The student holds up his report card.]
:Student: Yeah. But if I can fail this class, the grades on my report card will be in alphabetical order!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:2565: Latency

2022-01-12T21:11:40Z

172.70.91.116:

Ha! Welcome to my life. Just thought to check if there was a new xkcd yet (at 04:45, GMT) after spending the last five hours messing semi-manually with some geodata. Ok, the first three hours was in the text editor looking at the raw JSON file, and the next two was writing a Perl script to redo everything I had already done (and more, but not yet everything I will eventually want to do) without the fallible human element. Once the fallible human element has polished the script up to account for unforseen circumstances. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 04:51, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

what is SCAPDFATIAT {{unsigned ip|172.70.126.87}}
:OH what is says in the Comic {{unsigned ip|172.70.126.87}}
::Right, Someone Copies and Pastes From a Thing Into Another Thing [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.183|172.70.210.183]] 05:36, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

I can relate to this. In fact, i use 2 computer screens just for that: I copy data from software ''X, screen 1'' to quickly paste it into software ''Y, screen 2''. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.232|162.158.183.232]] 06:09, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

I suspect that "cumshots" in the last paragraph is either a (very lame) joke or an incidence of spam. Either way, please remove it! Thanks. {{unsigned ip|172.69.71.187}}
:It was this IP, 172.70.174.169, that was [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2565%3A_Latency&type=revision&diff=223831&oldid=223829 the perpetrator], but it was undone less than 20 minutes later... :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:20, 9 January 2022 (UTC)

Often the reason for the SCAPDFATIAT step is that A Thing has no direct connection to Another Thing. So someone has to design a way for them to communicate to get the human out of the loop. Unless this process is done frequently, it doesn't reach the top of the priority list. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 13:48, 8 January 2022 (UTC)
: There are tools for such automation (they're usually called either workflow or orchestration tools) and have been for decades, but they tend to be ''really'' fragile. If the services being orchestrated aren't aware of it, it is very easy for them to change things and break the coordination in a way that just fails silently. BTDT. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 15:46, 8 January 2022 (UTC)
: There are many organizations where such automation workflow just _cannot_ happen because the IT or upper management will ignore the users request to integrate X with Y. Can be due to anything from incompetence, to relying on 3rd party vendors that don't offer any support, to financial reasons ("too expensive"), to power struggles, or all of the above. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 19:01, 8 January 2022 (UTC)
:: In my experience, company can more easily afford unqualified person spending day on something than me, the programmer, half hour. It gets less clear if the thing needs to happen repeatedly, but still, my time is costly and my list of tasks I need to work on endless. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:41, 9 January 2022 (UTC)

Someone had called this a [[:Category:Bar_charts|Bar chart]] in the transcript. But it is not such a graph. But does this kind of graph have a specific name. Is it a kind of timeline? Or something different or do this not even have a specific name? I have deleted the bar graph from the now complete transcript (except if there is a better name for this type of graph.) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:20, 9 January 2022 (UTC)
:Kynde, this type of graph is a type of histogram. {{unsigned ip|172.70.126.215}}
::(Moved your reply to a better position here in Talk. Also added the most basic Unsigned detail.)
::It's a rather limited subset of histogram (area-keyed, fixed 'height', thus 'bucket-width' is the only indicator of value), if you want to class it as that. One might as well call it a {{w|Gantt chart}}, simplified/collapsed down to one minimal line.
::(We've seen Gantt Charts and derivatives used by Randall, before, so the general form is no unfamiliar with him.)
::I do think there's probably a better name. Even if it's only "Workflow Timing Diagram" or something more literal. Though my Google-Fu doesn't help confirm/correct that, without spending ateast a little more effort on the possible search-terms I need.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 21:11, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

I personally hate customer service bots that reply within a split second, instead of within a working day. I tend to contact customer service for problems that cannot be resolved by finding a word that happens to be found in the FAQ and sending me the FAQ entry that contains it --[[User:Gunterkoenigsmann|Gunterkoenigsmann]] ([[User talk:Gunterkoenigsmann|talk]]) 02:59, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

To me this comic is the perfect prologue for [[1319: Automation]]. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 07:16, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

(first time editing, please forgive etiquette violations) Note that having a human in the loop is not always a sign of outdated processes and sometimes plays a very real safety and security role (either intentional or historical/coincidental). In terms of security, a human will interrupt code injection attemps or other attacks. In terms of safety, a human will (in most instances) use their judgement to avoid propagating failures. Replacing humans by automation is possible but requires a thorough exercise regarding security/safety and might involve tools much more complex than copy-paste. An example can be taken from Airbus ECAM messages: the computer detects a failure and suggests a course of action to the pilot - it does not fulfil the action itself, and this is the reason why.

See also [[1205: Is It Worth the Time?]] [[User:Esherril|Esherril]] ([[User talk:Esherril|talk]]) 16:06, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

This is one reason it is nice to have a job that you honestly understand and isn't being closely monitored. If you can even partially automate a process like this, you can reduce your workload and increase your productivity, freeing time for more valuable tasks. Just be sure no one finds out you've changed your job title from data entry technician to macro babysitter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.43|172.70.174.43]] 17:01, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

==Countdown==
See [[Countdown in header text]]. Discussion has been moved here [[Talk:Countdown_in_header_text]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:09, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2566: Decorative Constants

2022-01-11T22:38:38Z

172.70.91.116:

I don't have any idea what to put in the actual description, but whoever does should probably note that r(in) - r(out) equals zero, not one. And multiplying by a constant 0 absolutely changes the value! [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 21:59, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
: rout and rin are different values. The subscripts represent different instances of the same variable at different point. In the same way, you might calculate something happening over a time interval tend - tstart . [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.77|172.69.71.77]] 23:02, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
::Yes for sure they are two different values. On the other hand if μ is not 1 then the it is not just decorative! D on the other hand is just a proportionality constant, which may have a value other than 1. I have tried to put something in the explanation here. Quite a bit. Do not really now anything about Drag, so just took it from the wiki page. Also I hope someone can explain the formula in the image, as I'm sure it is just something about the flow, that would relate it to a drag equation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:41, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

Note that the title text is pretty much word-for-word a repeat from Randall's book *How To*. In Chapter 11: *How to Play Football*, he misuses the drag equation, and mentions this fact in more depth, in a footnote. Bit of trivia! --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.79|162.158.134.79]] 23:13, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:Nice, I will have to check up on that. Thanks. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:41, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:Can confirm this, the book mentions that the "traditional tribute to Euler and Bernoulli" comes from Frank White's ''Fluid Mechanics'' textbook. [[User:Clam|Clam]] ([[User talk:Clam|talk]]) 01:08, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:: There it is, page 266 in the 1986 2nd edition: "They both have a factor ½ as a traditional tribute to Bernoulli and Euler, and both are based on the projected area..." https://books.google.com/books?id=wGweAQAAIAAJ&q=traditional -- [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 02:13, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:::Great thanks have included both references in the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:32, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:Wait, wouldn't the values be twice as big (rather than half as big) if you left off the 1/2? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.154|141.101.69.154]] 12:43, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

Of course, the c^2 im e=mc^2 is just as decorative, when using natural units where c=1.... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.171|172.68.50.171]] 00:29, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
: And the resulting equation is then just e=m - or m=e which is beautiful and profound. "Mass is Energy". Without the complications, you stop thinking of it as a PROCESS for converting one into the other and get the more profound point that Mass and Energy are the exact same thing. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 03:33, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

==Count down clock==
;Keep discussion of comic above this, and further discussion of countdown here below!!!
Any idea what's going on with the clock that's counting downwards in the banner? Currently counting down from 20 days 16 hours? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.95|172.70.214.95]] 22:08, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:(Simultaneous edit) What is the days-hours-minutes in the box above the comic referring to? The image itself is dated yesterday, as you can see by saving it. Worst-case-scenario, is this a countdown to the end of XKCD? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.223|108.162.245.223]] 22:11, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:: It's going to hit zero at around midnight on Jan 31st 2022 CST? [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 22:16, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:::'''Posted [[Talk:2565:_Latency#Countdown|this]] on the previous comics discussion. But lets take it here where there will be more traffic:''' --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:44, 10 January 2022 (UTC) -- Copy paste from previous comics discussion:
::::Damn you beat me to it ;-). But I have made a [[2565:_Latency#Trivia|Trivia]] here on this comics page and links to more detail on the [[xkcd Header text]] page. I believe you are a day of, but someone will likely correct me if I'm wrong. As I can see it will be January 31st, 9:59 in Randall's home town Boston.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:06, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::But damned if I can wait. Sure millions will watch the page when it goes to zero! At least it is no April 1st. :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:10, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
::::Yeah - you're right - I messed up. So as I type this, it's Jan 10th 2022 at 4pm - 1600 hrs Mountain time - which is 1800 hours EST. At this moment, the countdown reads 20d 16h 0m - so Jan 30th + (18+16) hours = which is Jan 30th + 34 hours - which is Jan 31st + 10am in Boston (EST). [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 23:05, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:::::Hey great, can see they agree in the link to reddit below. So happy I got it right both in UTC and Boston. It will be 15:59 here in DK. Not 16:00. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:44, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

Counting down to Backwards Day? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.88|162.158.91.88]] 23:28, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
:There's a reddit thread discussing it: https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/s0oynl/xkcd_countdown_timer_20d_21h_49m_remaining_until/ I think the most likely guess is that Randall has a new book coming out. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:40, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
::Would still seem strange if it came out that day with only promotion before being a count down. But then again, he will have the xkcd communities boiling if he gives no other hint. So every one will see if he promotes a book. Also as they wrote at the time I looked at reddit I do not think it is the end of xkcd, or Webb related. Although Webb was the first I thought about. But I mean even if it came to L2 at that day, it is not going to any specific point but just in orbit. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:47, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

::The date fits the idea of it being Backwards Day (https://nationaldaycalendar.com/backward-day-january-31) but what about the choice of time? [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 03:38, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:::Backwards day... Never head of it until now. Is it big in the US. I mean when looking after dates so obscure they are not mentioned on wikipedia then there are probably lots of things happening on that day? But maybe it is a think in the US? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:48, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:::: I haven't heard of it until now either, so it is probably one of the bajillions of holidays no one actually cares about, and is unrelated to the countdown. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 13:22, 11 January 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

Someone has noticed the image is changing with pixels added at the bottom left corner and is keeping track of it here: https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.107|198.41.238.107]] 05:49, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:Looks like an image is "moving" into the frame because at the moment you can see some white pixel in the lower left, i.e. the black part might end up as a line as part of some comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.8|162.158.89.8]] 08:31, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
::Thanks used that to pinpoint the start of the countdown. Have added this info to the header text page, and the original trivia. Also just added a line of trivia to this explanation with the link. This was when this comic came out most people noticed the count down. But it did came out while [[Latency]] was up. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:43, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

The header changes page says that it's forcing "Friday" to move down to the next line. Not for me. Did he fix it, or is it browser-specific? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:58, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

This is much more likely a count down related to the James Webb Space Telescope. At approximately the day the count down indicates the telescope will be orbiting the L2 gravitational spot.Perhaps most of the mirrors will be approximate place to allow for months of fine tuning. An example of a slightly similar idea is https://www.space.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-next-steps
[[User:Punchcard|Punchcard]] ([[User talk:Punchcard|talk]]) 15:35, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

I think the Countdown should get its own entry. What do we think? [[User:Sure|Sure]] ([[User talk:Sure|talk]]) 16:25, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
: I think it should! What with the count itself, the speculation about what it could mean, and now the slowly arriving image (?) this seems like something beyond either of the two comics since it started! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.49|108.162.219.49]] 18:00, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
: I'm surprised it doesn't have one already. This is one of the more unique situations in a long while, more speculation could happen. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 22:26, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

If you take a look at this [[https://xkcd.com/count-wimRikmef/state|link]] it displays this: '''{"img":"72cb154b23f959f908f5dc8eb03069c6df3f0f54aae896a0e7ed27befb2ee639.png","start":"2022-01-10T17:00:00Z","target":"2022-01-31T15:00:00Z","until":"2022-01-11T20:55:38.205303701Z"}''' [[User:Hoodiesandboba|Hoodiesandboba]] ([[User talk:Hoodiesandboba|talk]]) 20:58, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
:To correct your link:
:"...If you take a look at this [https://xkcd.com/count-wimRikmef/state link] it displays..."
:As to where the "72cb154b23f959f908f5dc8eb03069c6df3f0f54aae896a0e7ed27befb2ee639.png" is rooted, I haven't dug into that (or what transforms might be being applied), but it looks like a manipulation of browser states might be able to prematurely reveal it. (I'm on mobile at the moment, and it's significantly more fiddly to poke into the page-scripting and markup than I can be bothered with this moment, but I know what I'd do with a good acreage of screen, mouse control and a proper keyboard to rattle away at. And the combined minds here surely can do even better than myself.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 22:38, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

Talk:1569: Magic Tree

2022-01-11T00:20:19Z

172.70.91.116:

Explanation may benefit from adding that cell phone tower appearance has evolved to be more treelike.
[[http://www.linkedin.com/in/Comet Comet]] 05:07, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

I know XKCD isn't really heavy on proportions, but the heads look slightly bigger in all but the last panel. It kinda makes both characters look like children initially. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 07:02, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

Could the "giants in yellow helmets" be a reference to Clash of Clans? [[User:Aruta|Aruta]] ([[User talk:Aruta|talk]]) 10:13, 26 August 2015 (UTC)
:I don't think so. [[User:Sobsz|Sobsz]] ([[User talk:Sobsz|talk]]) 10:30, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

;It's not Batesian mimicry

Evolutionary biologist here: '''it's not Batesian mimicry. It's mimesis.'''

Archetypal mimesis is a stick insect looking like a twig, because predators don't care about twigs. It's the same thing here: trees looking like telegraph poles, because people don't care about telegraph poles.

It has nothing to do with the telegraph pole's defences (what would that mean?). Without defences, you can't have Batesian mimicry. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.176|141.101.98.176]] 11:29, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

Cell phone towers evolved to look like trees to defend themselves against people who would object to their presence on grounds of visual blight.
http://www.wired.com/2013/03/dillon-marsh-invasive-species/
[[http://www.linkedin.com/in/Comet Comet]] 22:41, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

How is Beret Guy climbing that utterly smooth metallic cylinder? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 16:21, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
: Magnetic knees? (Prove me wrong!) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 00:20, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

I think that cell towers do have defenses. When you wound them, they start emiting utility workers, policemans and lawyers. (I'm sure the operator will get message if BTS is disconnected.) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:49, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

At the time of this comic, there was a website devoted to cell towers that were camouflaged to look like trees. The site was FraudFrond.com and had several euphemisms for them. Fake firs, sham shrubs, bogus botanicals, and my favorite, counterfeit conifers.

I don't if it is relevant but there is an old MSX game called magical tree that displayed the tree in side view in a very similar way. http://www.mobygames.com/game/msx/magical-tree ZeroA4 {{unsigned ip|188.114.98.202}}

:That is a striking resemblance and an identical name. Makes me wonder if it was an inspiration. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.148|108.162.241.148]] 05:36, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

The third paragraph needs amending. "...attempt to mimic cellphone towers" implies conscious evolution, and the reference to the tower's "defenses" is a relic of the Batesian mimicry reference. What I'm guessing is happening (I'm not an evolutionary biologist) is that trees with a slightly more towerlike appearance are slightly less likely to be cut down by predatory Beret Guys, and will survive to pass similar traits onto their offspring, and over millions of years certain lineages of celltowertrees will increasingly resemble treecelltowers built by humans in turn to resemble them. The claim that this is a "standard textbook example of convergent evolution" is tongue-in-cheek more than facetious; a real example of it ought to be used rather than the Terry Pratchett reference, which seems to illustrate conscious evolution.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 17:00, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

;Original transcript
Randall's original transcript (no changes by me) is this:
:[Beret guy excitedly points to a pillar about a meter across. There's a sign on the side. Beret guy is pointing it out to his friend, Fancy Haircut]
:Beret: Check it out! I threw my magic beans on the ground here yesterday, and this big tree appeared!

:[Now in silhouette we see the pillar is several hundred feet tall, covered in antennae, and the figures are as ants in its shadow.]
:haircut: that's a cell tower.
:beret: no way-- it has branches! See? I'm gonna climb it!

:[Beret guy begins to shimmy up the side of the pole. Somehow. With impressively powerful thighs I guess.]
:haircut: No, they just put those there to make it look-- ...never mind.

:[Later...]
:haircut: Why do I have no signal?
:beret, with an axe: there were scary giants with yellow helmets in that tree! luckily, I cut it down before they ate me.

Is Megan "Fancy Haircut"? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:22, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

2564: Sunshield

2022-01-06T14:39:07Z

172.70.91.116:

{{comic
| number = 2564
| date = January 5, 2022
| title = Sunshield
| image = sunshield.png
| titletext = RIP the surface of Mars
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE BRILLIANCE OF THE JWST SCARRING THE FACE OF THIS WIKI- Please continue expanding and improving the explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is another comic presenting a [[:Category:Facts|fact]], that is not a [[:Category:Fun fact|Fun fact]]. Instead it is an Astronomy Fact.

JWST stands for {{w|James Webb Space Telescope}}, a space telescope that was launched 12 days prior to publication of this comic, see more details here [[2559: December 25th Launch]].

It has a {{w|James Webb Space Telescope sunshield|sunshield}} to protect its instruments from the heat of the sun and to keep them below 40 K (-233 °C/-388 °F). Deployment of the sunshield was completed the day before the comic was published. The JWST has to undergo a complex sequence of deployment steps to unfold parts that had to be packed tightly for launch. This sequence has 344 possible points of failure that would render the very expensive space telescope useless; 75% of them led up to the successful full deployment of the sunshield. Thus successful steps are widely celebrated, with this comic an example of such a celebration.

Ordinary cameras use a {{w|Flash (photography)|flash}} to take pictures in low-light situations. Outer space is very dark{{Citation needed}}, so this comic posits that the JWST has a very powerful flash to compensate for this. Most astronomical cameras don't use flash photography -- they depend on the light either emitted by objects themselves (e.g., stars) or from nearby very bright objects (e.g., Solar System planets will reflect the Sun's light, while distant clouds of gas and dust may be largely illuminated by the light of supernovae or recently formed stars within or near them). A flash generally doesn't work for many reasons:
* It would take too long for the light of the flash to return to the telescope - at least twice the time that it had already taken for the original image to arrive on its own.
* The shutter in this comic operates (with a click) ''before'' the flash is emitted, so light from the flash wouldn't even reach the camera's {{w|photodetector}}. It is however possible that the camera is using a time exposure and that the shutter was still open when the flash occurred.
* Not enough 'flash' light would return due to it uselessly spreading in all directions. Instead, in a telescope mirrors and/or lenses focus the light, and long exposure times are used to collect enough of the current light to form a decent image.
* A flash powerful enough to overcome the previous difficulty would have to be inordinately powerful. This would raise significant questions about powering it, and would damage (or at least disturb) many of things the flash would still be able to illuminate.
* The objects and phenomena of interest of JWST are, by dint of their extreme distance, being seen as they were in the early stages of the universe, and emit light that potentially gives vital clues about that era, only marginally this side of the current visible-horizon of our apparently expanding universe. Should our flash ever reach them (assuming they still exist) and we have the patience to await the return (assuming ''we'' still exist), this will only reveal the much older versions of whatever they have become and only in the form of light that we have swamped them with.
* Before this, any intervening civilization that possesses (or can still develop) the necessary capabilities will have at the very least responded, if not retaliated, to the original flash. Their response might be far less humorous.

There are some examples of astronomical research done using things similar to a flash. {{w|Radar astronomy}} involves emitting radio waves (microwaves) that bounce off distant planets, asteroids, comets, etc., and analyzing the returned waves. The {{w|Lunar Laser Ranging experiment}} uses lasers, which are loosely related to flashes for photography, to measure the distance between Earth and Moon. The outward light is concentrated upon the approximate area of the lunar target, which employs an {{w|Retroreflector|optical trick}} to send most of that which actually struck it back to the approximate area of the source equipment.

The comic assigns the sunshield a new, comical purpose of shielding the Sun (and Earth ,which is roughly in the same direction as the Sun, due to the deployment at the {{w|Lagrange point|L2 Lagrange point}}) from this flash, rather than the other way around. When the camera is taking a picture, the comic shows space in front of the shield lit up while there is a totally dark shadow behind the shield (in the direction of Earth and Sun).

The comic also has the camera making a "click" sound. In traditional mechanical cameras, this sound comes from the {{w|Shutter (photography|shutter}} opening and closing, and digital cameras mimic this sound so the user (and subject, when human) knows when the picture is being taken. JWST won't actually click -- it doesn't have a shutter, as it takes long-exposure digital images, and [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/taglines in space no one can hear you click].

The telescope also tells the universe to smile for the picture. The universe doesn't have a mouth to smile with{{Citation needed}}, although there are a number of features both on Solar System objects and in deep space that look like faces; this is a phenomenon called {{w|pareidolia}}. The most well known is the {{w|Man in the Moon}}, but there are numerous others both in the [https://www.universetoday.com/121551/faces-of-the-solar-system/ Solar system], most famous is probably the {{w|Cydonia (Mars)|Face on Mars}} and out among the galaxies, like the [https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151127.html Cheshire Cat galaxy group] named after the {{w|Cheshire_Cat#In_science|Cheshire Cat}} from {{w|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland|Alice in Wonderland}}.

The title text suggests that, due to the sunshield not being angled to shield Mars, Mars's surface has been badly scarred by the flash. This implies ''incredible'' strength of the flash, perhaps to ensure the light can return from its destinations, comparable to {{tvtropes|KillSat|death-ray satellites}} in fiction.

==Transcript==
:[The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is floating through space, shown in white on a pitch black background. The two mirrors are seen in front of the sunshield, which is kite shaped. A white line goes from the telescope up to two lines of white text, connected with a small white line.]
:JWST: Okay, universe-
:JWST: Smile!

:[Same setting, but now only a small thin white line goes up to a line of white text representing a sound made by the telescope.]
:JWST: ''Click''

:[Same setting, but now it turns out that a small bulb on the front of the telescope is a flash light. A bright flash glows from the bulb, turning most of the panel white. A cone on the left side is blocked and kept pitch black by the telescope's sunshield. The light fades a bit towards the edges of the picture, giving the light cone a rounded appearance. Thus the image actually looks a lot like Pac-Man in the process of eating the telescope.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Astronomy fact: The purpose of the JWST sunshield is to protect the Sun and the Earth from the telescope's powerful flash.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Facts]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

Talk:2563: Throat and Nasal Passages

2022-01-05T08:43:18Z

172.70.91.116: Added comment about Peanuts cartoon - aware of your tongue.

at time of publishing, the title text contained a typo ("neeeded"). Im pretty sure it is going to be corrected soon though.

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.115|162.158.233.115]] 13:08, 3 January 2022 (UTC)
:Hasn't yet been corrected, but I'm sure it will be. Anyways I added a transcript and although I did try my best I doubt it's good, so if you can improve it, I won't exactly be mad. *[[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk]]) 15:30, 3 January 2022 (UTC)
::I have added a [[2563:_Throat_and_Nasal_Passages#Trivia|Trivia]] about the error. When/if it gets corrected this should be mentioned here. I also changed the transcript. Not so much the content more the order. Also I believe that all text written in the picture should be written beneath explanations of the image. And try to leave out any explanations or theories, leaving that part to the explanation above. The transcript should help people that cannot see the comic well enough to get the idea, so they can form their own ideas, before reading what others think ;-) But always great when people fill in the transcript. So thanks for the effort. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:54, 3 January 2022 (UTC)
:It's a day later and the title text still has the typo. If there's a way this could be intentional and somehow related to the topic, I can't think of it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:06, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

I think the title text might be related to [[972: November]], since that also dealt with people being made aware of their tongue. Should it be added in the explanation? (I know that editors should be at least somewhat bold, but it seems a bit of a tenuous connection, so I want an opinion from a more experienced editor). --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.213|172.70.130.213]] 18:34, 3 January 2022 (UTC)
:Thanks for mentioning it. I have included it in the title text explanation. Much of what needs to be said on this subject stands there already, so I deleted a lot of the current title text explanation referring to that instead. It is perfect. Also nice to read the Peanuts version of it again which is on that page, collapsed though!. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:20, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

I have changed the introductory sentence on the pandemic as it isn't really a 2020 pandemic anymore, and also started a discussion thread on this on the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category_talk:COVID-19 Covid-19 Cagetory page]. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:35, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

As a generally curious-minded person, one would think that the amount that Randall would want to think about throat and nasal passages would be non-negligibly >0. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.121|172.70.90.121]] 15:58, 4 January 2022 (UTC)
:If it's a decent and unmisleading graph (e.g. vertical axis is at zero where the horizontal axis crosses. So it is non-zero. Exactly how unnnegligibly so depends upon the scale used. (It could even be a Log axis!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.105|162.158.159.105]] 18:02, 4 January 2022 (UTC)
::Seeing that comment, [[833: Convincing]] comes to mind... "I can do better than someone who doesn't label her axes." --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:20, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

My association with the meme of being aware of your tongue was a Peanuts cartoon from way back - don't know if it was original then - but a copy is here: [https://www.davidgagne.net/2017/05/24/being-aware-of-your-tongue] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.116|172.70.91.116]] 08:43, 5 January 2022 (UTC)