explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

User talk:ColorfulGalaxy

2023-06-03T23:03:53Z

172.71.158.7:

==12==
Hi, what happens in [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:ColorfulGalaxy&curid=25508&diff=301086&oldid=292141 12 edits]? Have a life-changing day in a good way! —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&printable=yes printable version] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&action=info page information] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:WhatLinksHere/User:While_False what links there] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&days=30&from=&target=User%3AWhile_False related changes] | [https://www.google.com Google search] | current time: {{CURRENTTIME}}) 21:56, 11 December 2022 (UTC)

: I meant that I need 12 more edits to get [[explain_xkcd:Autoconfirmed_users|autoconfirmed]] so I can create more pages in my user page. The computer that I'm using runs awfully slow. My other computer blocks CAPTCHA automatically. [[User:ColorfulGalaxy|ColorfulGalaxy]] ([[User talk:ColorfulGalaxy|talk]]) 07:51, 13 December 2022 (UTC)

::Cool —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&printable=yes printable version] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&action=info page information] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:WhatLinksHere/User:While_False what links there] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&days=30&from=&target=User%3AWhile_False related changes] | [https://www.google.com Google search] | current time: {{CURRENTTIME}}) 07:58, 13 December 2022 (UTC)

::: I just made it! Thanks for confirming my account! Now I can stop using that slow computer. --[[User:ColorfulGalaxy|ColorfulGalaxy]] ([[User talk:ColorfulGalaxy|talk]]) 09:08, 13 December 2022 (UTC)

== Google search link ==

A couple of times, recently, you provided a Google search link to something. I don't like following those (with their "q=..." stuff and hangover metadata in other POST data) when you could perhaps give the direct link you intend instead?

i.e. right-clicking on the Google page's item and copying that link is wasteful (and not ''always'' correct), you should instead follow the link you intend and then copy the true address (if proven to be what you wish) from the address-bar. And, even then, best to cut away any "&referer=..." type stuff (and retest the cut down link!) so that everyone who follows you has a bare-bones link that works without having to mess with reconstructing the metadata that means "<nowiki>http://whatever.com/foo/bar/baz.html#indexpoint</nowiki>", or howsoever it should resolve.

Just a tip. To streamline and not unneccessarily obfuscate the use of your contributions... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.77|172.70.91.77]] 15:15, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

== This is probably the first numbered comic whose title... ==

''Probably'' you could just confirm these claims, ''before'' making them? It seems easy enough to do, and you seem to have the time to do it. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.141|172.71.242.141]] 23:25, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

==Help==
I need your help creating these pages and uploading the pictures I needed. Please, please, you know that we are close friends IRL. --[[User:ChristmasGospel|ChristmasGospel]] ([[User talk:ChristmasGospel|talk]]) 20:34, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
:Look, [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User_talk:ColorfulGalaxy&curid=25878&diff=305104&oldid=305057 this is clearly a stupid move] to try to look legitimate. If you're truly IRL friends then it could have waited for an IRL meeting (or whatever other social media blinks you have), at which point your 'friend' could have provided a lot more practical help without waiting for such silly messages. Laughable, really. But do as you're going to do, I'm sure I can't stop you from going through with this clear pretence to whatever end you're leading up to. And no apologies if I'm wrong, just pity. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.230|162.158.34.230]] 19:19, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

== So many broken links on your User page. ==

I presume you are fully aware that pretty much everything you're linking to on your User page is a dead link. Both internal and external ones (even inter-wiki). I presume you are also aware that your quite obvious use of multiple alts and logins is very visible. Either that, or you are remarkably unaware of third parties (with bad MOs) making so many terrible edits in some quite definitely targetted way.

Either way, you might want to just get things working how you want to get things working, and bring it all to fruition, and not leave us all hanging... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.57|172.70.85.57]] 13:39, 4 March 2023 (UTC)

== Who are the other CGs? ==

Do you know [[User:ConscriptGuide]], [[User:CarcassonneGuide]], [[User:ConceptisGallery]], [[User:ConscriptGallery]] and [[User:ChristmasGospel]]? [[User:AndroidTheLucario|AndroidTheLucario]] ([[User talk:AndroidTheLucario|talk]]) 05:54, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
:So it would seem that [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2293:_RIP_John_Conway&diff=308507&oldid=308506 this is you], as well, CG. The question we must all be wondering is why? Quite an army of alt-logins you seem to be building up, and the actions of the less nicely behaving ones (you know which I mean) don't exactly make me feel unconcerned about it.
:It wouldn't be so bad if you were doing useful edits or actually made your Conlang links into a working (and ideally relevant) reference system that we could all enjoy. But you seem to have no intent to do that. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.224|172.70.85.224]] 06:38, 14 March 2023 (UTC)
::The neography reproducing project involves uploading a lot of images, mostly vector images. If you would mind my uploading (Sorry I can't upload currently), then please consider opening a neography wiki on the fandom.com website. My account is used for introducing the [[:Category:Rhythm_Games|rhythm games]]. [[User:ChronoGames|ChronoGames]] ([[User talk:ChronoGames|talk]]) 06:58, 14 March 2023 (UTC)
:::Your explanation makes no sense... Your neography clearly has no real connection to xkcd. The images required here should be xkcd ones (or derived material). You haven't shown absign of contributing any of those. One account (sufficiently validated) is enough to upload, as you'll already know. There's no connection to fandom.com, at all. That's not even a local category (like almost every other link around here, you leave it redlinked). You don't need to create many special logins for anything you have done (for the most part, I can do everything worthwhile for the site with no account at all, and you have a clear history of doing unworthwhile things with many accounts, a number of them now banned.
:::So I call bullshit. I've seen others try to help your 'new users' out, with things you've messed up (done it myself, see above) just to be ignored, and then it becomes clear that you continue with whatever game you think you're playing, under an expanding host of aliases. Not cool. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 13:02, 14 March 2023 (UTC)
::::See [http://langmaker.github.io/db/alp_a2z_index.htm this]. It looks like you're going to combine [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:WhatLinksHere/User:ConscriptGallery/tagline neography with XKCD quotes]. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.33|162.158.91.33]] 09:04, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
::::Someone had made a request on [http://conlang.fandom.com/wiki/Talk:Portal:Main?diff=196196&oldid=138343 this website]. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.98|172.69.134.98]] 09:49, 16 March 2023 (UTC)
:::::Nothing much to do with here, though, is it? Do it on that site, if it's what they talk about. Or wait for Randall's future comic that ''specifically'' sparks a need here and then Explain it as succinctly or fully as you necessarily feel like you can. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.62|172.71.242.62]] 12:52, 16 March 2023 (UTC)
:The "CG" initial is a requirement for admission in ColorfulGalaxy's group. However, ColorfulGalaxy doesn't want to be referred to by the initials, as a chatbot with nearly the same initials (There are two extra capital letters after the G) came up. [[User:ClassicalGames|ClassicalGames]] ([[User talk:ClassicalGames|talk]]) 06:17, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
::There is actually a successful request to creating a neography wiki, the link is . (or click ) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.229|172.71.154.229]] 07:12, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

== Glossary page ==
Could you create [[User:ConscriptGlossary/Ligature]]? It's related to a recent comic and it is also part of the neography project.
:The neography showcasing project is possibly settling down on another wiki.
::That may be a popular idea. Hopefully you're as good at tidying up after yourself as you are deleting others' comments. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.67|172.70.85.67]] 01:24, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:::Unfortunately, that wiki has gotten haunted by spammers. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.228|172.71.154.228]] 22:56, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
::::(Irony?) My sympathies, but I now assume that you have no need for whole pages of invalid links (etc) on this Wiki, as you work to maintain the neography wiki.
::::When I checked, it was underused (by neographers or spammers), not been back yet. Single-handedly keeping it interesting and relevent might be difficult, but I'm sure that if you have a good little community then it'll have developed well since then. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.101|172.70.90.101]] 08:22, 14 May 2023 (UTC)
:::::The spammer has been banned. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.4|172.71.154.4]] 09:02, 17 May 2023 (UTC)
:::::: Unfortunately, The spammer came back. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.7|172.71.158.7]] 23:03, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

== Now lemmé tell you about it. ==
I'm gonna let you know about this. It's absolutely YOU who wrote the lyrics. You contributed the majority of it. The email says it's your name "on explain xkcd". It even has your ID card number on it. Sooner or later you'll have to admit it. Or maybe you will make a Freudian slip and say "my song..." or something like that. Anyway, it's you. [[User:Omg Oriental Music Group|Omg Oriental Music Group]] ([[User talk:Omg Oriental Music Group|talk]]) 23:02, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

892: Null Hypothesis

2023-04-20T18:18:26Z

172.71.158.7: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 892
| date = April 29, 2011
| title = Null Hypothesis
| image = null_hypothesis.png
| titletext = Hell, my eighth grade science class managed to conclusively reject it just based on a classroom experiment. It's pretty sad to hear about million-dollar research teams who can't even manage that.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic (and the title text) is based on a misunderstanding. The {{w|null hypothesis}} is the hypothesis in a statistical analysis that indicates that the effect investigated by the analysis does ''not'' occur, i.e. 'null' as in zero effect. For example, the null hypothesis for a study about cell phones and cancer risk might be "Cell phones have no effect on cancer risk." The ''alternative hypothesis,'' by contrast, is the one under investigation - in this case, probably "Cell phones affect the risk of cancer."

After conducting a study, we can then make a judgment based on our data. There are statistical models for measuring the probability that a certain result occurred by random chance, even though in reality there is no correlation. If this probability is low enough (usually meaning it's below a certain threshold we set when we design the experiment, such as 5% or 1%), we ''reject'' the null hypothesis, in this case saying that cell phones ''do'' increase cancer risk. Otherwise, we ''fail to reject'' the null hypothesis, as we have insufficient evidence to conclusively state that cell phones increase cancer risk. This is how almost all scientific experiments, from high school biology classes to CERN, draw their conclusions.

It is very important to note that a null hypothesis is a specific statement relative to the current study. In mathematics, we often see terms such as "the Riemann hypothesis" or "the continuum hypothesis" that refer to universal statements, but a null hypothesis depends on context. There is no one "''the'' null hypothesis." It refers to a method of statistical analysis (and {{w|falsifiability}}, not a ''specific'' hypothesis). Given that, [[Megan]]'s response would probably be to facepalm.

==Transcript==
:[A student works at a desk, and Cueball is talking to Megan.]
:Cueball: I can't believe schools are still teaching kids about the null hypothesis.
:Cueball: I remember reading a big study that conclusively disproved it ''years'' ago.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]
[[Category:Kids]]

Talk:2764: Cosmological Nostalgia Content

2023-04-19T17:34:42Z

172.71.158.7:

When I added the transcript it broke the "Created by a BOT" tag on explanation, even though I didn't touch explanation [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.98|172.71.151.98]] 05:30, 18 April 2023 (UTC)
:No, it was broken before your edit. Someone else changed "BOT" to "Z=90s KID". The equal sign causes problems for mediawiki, but it's been fixed now. --[[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 06:03, 18 April 2023 (UTC)
::For anyone who would benefit from a deeper explanation: 
::In the syntax for templates, equals signs come after parameter names (see [[mw:Help:Templates#Parameters|Help:Templates § Parameters]]). So, <code>Created by a Z</code> was parsed as the name of a nonexistent template parameter, and <code>90s KID - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.</code> was passed in as that parameter's value. 
::That still wouldn't necessarily be a problem. It just also left the first parameter empty. This specific template is programmed to show an error message when that happens. [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]] 06:13, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Two times the red tint around Megan has been mentioned, in explanation and transcript... I cannot see that, no matter how much I zoon in. Is it actually there (can it be measured on the image file?) or is it just someone who wished it was like that? If it can be measrued it should be explained and if not then the mention should be deleted --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:13, 18 April 2023 (UTC)
:What I meant was that Megan's line art in this comic appeared more brownish/reddish to me than the line art of the other characters. Specifically, the colour hex #472425 using an online colour hex checker. --[[User:Multiuniverse|Multiuniverse]] ([[User talk:Multiuniverse|talk]]) 07:22, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

:It's definitely there, but I didn't notice it until I saw it mentioned. It's subtle enough that I imagine certain displays or differences in individual color perception could make it harder to see, but trust me, it's certainly there. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.5|162.158.222.5]] 07:24, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

::Why is everyone so unsure? it's definitely there. [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 09:00, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

:::Not all monitors have the same quality, I can imagine that on some cheapish laptop screens it can be a lot harder to see -- [[Special:Contributions/172.71.131.134|172.71.131.134]] 12:20, 18 April 2023 (UTC)
:::: On this laptop (Dell Latitude 600 - good for its time, a rather archaic thing now) it shows ''just''. Took the explanation mentioning it for me to notice. (And, yes, I'm using pretty archaic kit, at this moment. Though not my oldest, because I tend not to throw away 'perfectly working' things. That said, when it comes to remembering how the universe is, I'm not ''quite'' in the "I remember when all this was fields" category...) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.203|172.71.242.203]] 19:31, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

:::For me: {{w|Congenital_red–green_color_blindness|red green color blindness}} [[User:Josot|Josot]] ([[User talk:Josot|talk]]) 12:27, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

For anybody wondering: the current (accurately measured) {{w|Redshift#Highest_redshifts|Highest redshifts}} is z = 11.1 [[User:Josot|Josot]] ([[User talk:Josot|talk]]) 12:31, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Isn't it a bit ironic that Randall now clearly identifies "Want to feel old" content as clickbait, while I remember that he himself did a number of comics around that topic some years ago? I imagine that he changed his opinion BECAUSE that became such a popular clickbait topic. Could you link to some of these older comics?
("Want to feel old? Randall Munroe did "want to feel old" comics closer to the inception of xkcd than to today.")--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.38|172.71.160.38]] 07:47, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

Light's velocity is limited only by the speed of causality. As such, I'd recommend modifying the language about light having a "finite" velocity. Technically speaking, the speed of a photon, from the photon's perspective, is non-existent, and what the photon sees, traveling at the speed of causality, is everything happening all at once across it's path. In other words, from the perspective of the photon, there is no passage of time. However, simultaneity varies based on the perspective of the observer.

== InB4 ==
Before anyone embarrasses themself by asking, "multimanteau" is obviously a portmanteau of "multiple" and "portmanteau". Sheesh, get with the neurolinguistic program. "Phrasemanteau" would also be an acceptable neologism. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 11:48, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

:I'm not fond of a explanation needing an explanation :/
The first relevant use of "multimanteau" found by Google is this page
[[User:Victor|Victor]] ([[User talk:Victor|talk]]) 09:01, 19 April 2023 (UTC)
:Presumably that makes everything else a unimanteau?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.67|172.70.85.67]] 14:40, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

== Inconstant "Constant" ==
I find it weird that so much professional study still refers to an assumed "cosmological constant", when it is observably ''not'' constant. Feels like we should be calling it "the cosmological value", since expansion has not been occurring uniformly & considerable localized variation in "vacuum energy" seems relatively certain. Parts of the observable universe are considerably older than the "big bang" that so much theory is hung upon; what part of "these laws are localized effects, not unchanging constants" has ''not'' been obvious, for >30 years?
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:31, 18 April 2023 (UTC)
:This may be related to the fact that there are so many actual problems around the cosmological "constant" that noone wants to bother renaming it before getting better idea what it actually is. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:01, 18 April 2023 (UTC)
: I'm in agreement with you,[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]], with a slight change. In most of the sciences we call something that's not constant a "variable". Thus we'd have the "cosmologicial variable". Which admittedly does not roll off the tongue as easily. Maybe "cosmic variable" instead? Which seems too alike a "Cepheid variable" star now. Hmm. Maybe I agree with [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] afterall. 😂 [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 13:40, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2293: RIP John Conway

2023-04-14T06:10:15Z

172.71.158.7:

💣

__NOTOC__

This is really very impressive. The design of the stick figure to allow it to release a glider that ascends upwards (the "soul" rising to "heaven" or whatever) with the body decaying - that's a hard thing to get right using just the Game of Life rules. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.175|172.69.68.175]] 17:49, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
:Although Randall is clever, the Game of Life has been studied for so long that I'm sure this is a well-known animation. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 18:29, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
:: I played with the game a bunch in the past, but I've only done a bit of research after this appeared. I don't immediately find any previous report of this starting arrangement
:: This is unlikely, as the Game of Life has an uncountable number of patterns of this size, some of which are still being discovered. The pattern above is 7 cells wide by 9 cells tall - the number of distinct patterns that can be drawn in that box nears 2 --> 60 --> 1 (2^60). It's most likely that patterns such as this one are commonplace, and Randall just fiddled around until he reached one that he desired. The pattern itself, however, has likely never been discovered before. (As a fun postscript, [http://catagolue.appspot.com/object/xp16_0c2w3vz33032988/b3s23 a notable 8-cell wide, 9-cell tall pattern oscillating at period 16], just slightly larger than the one above, was discovered in February 2020.)[[User:Hdjensofjfnen|Hdjensofjfnen]] ([[User talk:Hdjensofjfnen|talk]]) 21:31, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
:::I suspect it's probably more likely that he worked it out backwards, rather than "just fiddled with it." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.244|108.162.216.244]] 04:24, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
::::AFAIK, many CAs such as Life have the property of being irreversible, which is the entire point for various pattern search efforts.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.54|162.158.92.54]] 07:13, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
:::::He probably started with the floater, and adjusted the rest so it wouldn't interfere. Most figures decay in the game of life (I learned when playing with it, decades ago) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.79|162.158.111.79]] 10:45, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
:::::The Game of Life has been researched a lot. One sub-problem is finding an arrangement of cells that cannot be produced by a prior arrangement of cells. They are called Garden of Eden patterns, and the known ones are not small. Glider generators are rather common, so it is most likely that the initial pattern was created by working backward from an existing glider generator.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.125|173.245.54.125]] 17:33, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
:::I like the comment above by Hdjensofjfnen, where 2^60 is written using [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway_chained_arrow_notation Conway’s chained arrow notation]. That’s a slick way to honor Conway. Anyway, when the number of possible candidates is around 2^64 or less, you can find a desired solution by brute-force search if you have to, provided that the problem is relatively simple and well-defined (i.e. if you can write an efficient program). In this case, the number of the candidates of the initial state is very small, if it should be a tiny, pixel image of a stick figure. So, intuitively, an exhaustive search should be easy—at least it should be doable. (PS: I mean, the idea of this comic is cool and awesome; it’s not trivial at all for you to come up with this. But if you do come up with this problem, then the solution may not be so difficult.) [[User:Yosei|Yosei]] ([[User talk:Yosei|talk]]) 17:35, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

was there a placeholder comic posted before the gif went live?

:I am certain there was one with "uh oh one of the lights went out" "that's not supposed to happen" and a picture of a pattern that I did not recognise, which I found to be quite sad. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.54|162.158.92.54]] 10:35, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

::This was SMBC, and the pattern is a glider generator. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.211|188.114.111.211]] 12:30, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

Looks like this is second animated comic in xkcd, besides 1116(though 1190 could be possibly counted together) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.190.16|172.69.190.16]] 19:34, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
:Uh, [[1331: Frequency]] and [[1264: Slideshow]] immediately come to mind, and then I remember about [[961: Eternal Flame]]. There's a lot more than two. [[User:Volleo6144|Volleo6144]] ([[User talk:Volleo6144|talk]]) 19:43, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
::[[:Category:Comics with animation]]; just added it. [[User:Yngvadottir|Yngvadottir]] ([[User talk:Yngvadottir|talk]]) 20:19, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

The explanation says that the simulation is run on an infinite grid, but even when the grid is calculated out beyond the border of the viewable area, bounding errors & boundary formations can occur. I've never seen ''any'' implementation that actually produces an infinite, nor even ''practically'' infinite grid. (In fact, wasn't there a Minecraft mod that runs until it lags out the engine?) Can anybody point me to a truly infinite grid implementation? Conway's ''definitely'' was not infinite, he even commented at length about the boundary formations that show up at the grid edges (which are among the most subjectively beautiful, incidentally). I think the explanation needs correction?
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:59, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
: The explanation is describing Conway's game of life, not any particular implementation IMHO. No change needed IMHOA. Also, the previous post was not signed properly. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.167|162.158.107.167]] 21:47, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
::Except many of Conway's observations about the "game" & even ''his initial description'' of it explicitly state & indeed hinge upon the fact that it's not (& thus far ''cannot'' be) implemented as an "infinite" grid. Part of the whole point of his experiment with it & the various demonstrations is to illustrate edge effects resulting from a finite range of calculations. '''It's extremely relevant that it's''' '''''not''''' '''infinite.''' It's actually kinda the whole point of his creating it, much the same way people working with fractals likewise tend to become very interested in bounding errors. The boundaries are where the interesting work is done. Apparently someone agreed with me at least in part, because they edited the wording. Thanks... Brian? I think we should actually '''add''' to the description of the "game" info highlighting the edge effects, because that's the primary focus of the project & its outgrowths in the first place. (We can't adequately simulate infinity & that's a big part of the interest in it.) Also, I frequently have to submit & then refresh & sign afterward because of the device I'm on. In this case I'm glad I did, because I saw your reply & the other new stuff!
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:17, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
:Golly uses a grid of arbitrary size by default. It can very easily be verified to at least ±210000. (Note that it also includes finite rectangular and toroidal grids.) [[User:LegionMammal978|LegionMammal978]] ([[User talk:LegionMammal978|talk]]) 01:39, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
:Winning Ways, p. 817 (3rd printing): 'Life is a "game" played on an infinite squared board.'--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.208|172.68.54.208]] 13:45, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
No computer [Citation Needed] can run an ''actual'' infinite grid, but with some intelligent bounding you can mitigate early signs of problems by maintaining "bubbles" of cells with offsets. You get into problems once you start machine-gunning out gliders (offsets will eventually overflow or awkwardly lose precision, depending on the var-types used; and maintaining a longer and longer bubble, or more and more bubbles just above glider-sized, is probably your other challenge) but it's probably good enough for most purposes. If you somehow have finite patterns that move out in huge (wasteless) cycles from the 'origin' and hold that path until enacting hugely-delayed doglegs (mathematically, it must be a point no further away than can be reasonably enumerated by the bits of information contained within each formation, and significantly less as it'd be a far less efficient count-down cycler than any folded LFSR, but it's ''imaginable'') to meet again at some arbitrary (though deterministic and replicable) distance out in the far far reaches of your abstracted bubble-land then it's possible you could ''pretend'' you have infinite space. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.101|162.158.91.101]] 22:26, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]], do you have a source for your claim that the main point of Conway's creation of Life was to study the edge effects? [https://conwaylife.com/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life The page for Life on its own wiki] describes the Life grid as "infinite" and only mentions edge effects as inaccuracies to be avoided, and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Plq-D1gEk this Conway interview about Life's creation] doesn't mention edges at all.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.24|108.162.241.24]] 23:34, 13 April 2020‎ (UTC)
:First of all, as a tip, reply directly to the comment when you want to talk with someone. Secondly, yeah, I'm pretty sure that person's just blasting ass ham. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.28|172.69.69.28]] 02:49, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

Possibly worth noting is the bit of artistry in the rendering. Munroe alters the step period of the iterations so that the deconstruction of the humanoid shape happens more quickly, with the stepping of the glider translating away occurring more slowly. [[User:Fixer|Fixer]] ([[User talk:Fixer|talk]]) 21:52, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

I like the comic very much, and I'm afraid to say I hadn't heard of his death in amongst... well, everything else. RIP.
While I'm here, though, I'm a bit concerned about the current cell generation cycle explanation, as it feels awkward. Currently it is (paraphrased) "live cells survive if just enough neighbours / dead cells come to life with exactly enough neighbours / any other dies or stays dead". I'd prefer something that more delineates it as birth (dead to live, by propogation from the right number of live neighbours), death (live to dead due to ''either'' isolation ''or'' overcrowding) and continuation of state in all other cases. Can't work out a good phrasing yet, but ''may'' try it out later. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.101|162.158.91.101]] 22:26, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
: Agreed 100%. I believe the problem lies in the confusion between "cell as in biology" versus "cell as in jail". It would be better to avoid the word "cell" and describe a grid with squares that are either inhabited or empty; inhabitants with two or three neighbours survive to the next generation, otherwise they die (square becomes empty the next generation); exactly three neighbours to an empty square will give birth (become inhabited) in the next generation; and any other empty square stays empty.

Given the cause of death, should this comic be listed among the Covid-19 series? [[User:Momerath|Momerath]] ([[User talk:Momerath|talk]]) 05:02, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
:Yes.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:51, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
:No. This is about John Conway. It would have presumably run regardless of the cause of death.

Interesting to see if the next comic is also a Covid-19 comic, because then it will be the 19th covid-19 comic... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:53, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

I really think this should not be regarded as a Covid-19 comic, since it's a memorial one and the cause of death is not important for this comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.105|162.158.93.105]] 14:18, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
:Agree with the others, this is a memorial comic, NOT a COVID-19 comic. I feel like too many comics are being forced into the COVID-19 theme, when they have little to no relation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.62|172.69.22.62]] 16:12, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
::Covid-19 is obviously not directly the topic of the comic, but it is related quite close. So I vote to re-add it to the category, but to put the mention of the connection with the other comics not into the explanation, or on its bottom. If this is acceptable, [[961: Eternal Flame]] should also be included to [[:Category:Cancer]]. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:43, 15 April 2020 (UTC)
:::Of course this is one in the Covid series. Randall very rarely makes tributes and it has been 5 year since the last. Conway is not very famous, and had he died a year ago, chances are Randall would not have made this comic. But because he died of Covid while all Randall's comics is about Covid he makes a tribute now. For the same reason I do not think that Eternal flame has anything with the cancer category. Because this was a tribute Randall made without any connection to a series of cancer comics. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:25, 15 April 2020 (UTC)
::::Thanks for correcting my spelling errors :D all of that is speculation. How do you know, that Randall is not a huge Conway fan? seems to play exactly into his geekynes. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:47, 15 April 2020 (UTC)
:::::I also disagree that Randall is not a huge Conway fan. I believe he would be familiar and interested in the Game of Life automata, as a nerd/geek. It was previously mentioned over 10 years ago in [[696: Strip Games]]. I agree with Lupo's suggestions for this comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.44|172.69.34.44]] 17:01, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

== Is this original? ==

It would seem remarkable if Randall was able to create this starting pattern at such short notice. If it's copied from somewhere, we should provide that detail. [[User:Stevage|Stevage]] ([[User talk:Stevage|talk]]) 03:54, 15 April 2020 (UTC)
:I do not know if it is taken from another place or a common/known pattern (the comments above seem to suggest otherwise), but it is not uncommon to have an obituary / memorial in stock for elderly persons of relevance. So it might be possible, that e.g. Randall played around with putting stick figures into a simulation, and accidently found this, deciding to keep it somewehere in his archive for this occasion. The seperation of the decaying body and the everlasting part going upward is actually obvious enough to connect with the idea to use it for this occasion. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:36, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

== First popularized? ==

The game's popularization "to the general public" in Windows 3.1 really depends on your definition of popular - how many members of the general public had PCs then? I mention this to point out that it was really Martin Gardner's article in SciAm in October 1970 that showed the game to a pretty wide public, although admittedly few people were in a position to program it at the time. As I maintained the University of Cambridge's version on the PDP-7 (then their only computer with a graphics display) in 1971-72 I'm still astonished at how early this publication was. Gardner then did the same for the Mandelbrot Set (which originated in the Other Cambridge...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.74|162.158.78.74]] 04:23, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

== Leaving the grid ==
<blockquote>"However, any given Game of Life is on a finite grid, so once the glider leaves the grid, it has ceased to exist."</blockquote>

Maybe a philosophical nitpick, but I'd like to dispute this. I submit that it is not possible for anything to "leave the grid". A glider can certainly hit the boundary of a bounded grid, but at that point boundary conditions disrupt the pattern and it ''ceases to be a glider''; thus, gliders cannot leave the grid.

Additionally, the grid can be finite and yet still have no boundary; it is quite common for Life grids to wrap one side of the screen to the other. On such a grid, the glider would in fact persist indefinitely. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 09:18, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
:Also we don't know if the grid maybe is larger than the screen shown in the comic. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 11:36, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

== Triple whammy ==
FYI: Richard Guy, who found the glider first, and is coauthor of Winning Ways with Conway, already died this March. In the biblical age of 103, so possibly nobody even bothered to check for the cause. (The third author, Elwyn Berlekamp, died a year ago.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.32|141.101.77.32]] 18:02, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

== Conway was not a fan of his fame for Life ==

" He’d like to remembered for any of his accomplishments except the Game of Life. He once said he checked the index of every book and if it listed the Game of Life he would refuse to read it." -- https://twitter.com/standupmaths/status/1249105201992171522 [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.146|172.69.22.146]] 00:04, 17 April 2020 (UTC)

== Conway died on a Doomsday ==

The thing I remember Conway for (in addition to Game of Life) is discovering the Doomsday rule/algorithm for determining days of the week (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_rule). Of course, I'm nowhere near anywhere as fast as he is (I'm happy if I can do it without making a mistake in 10 seconds, more if I'm calculating under the influence). I find it fitting that Conway died on a Doomsday (Saturday for 2020).[[User:Tovodeverett|Tovodeverett]] ([[User talk:Tovodeverett|talk]]) 05:41, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
:Trivia: I was introduced to Conway's Game of Life through the book "The Magic of Lewis Carroll", by John Fischer (1973). One of the Life patterns was the "Cheshire Cat", which was a cat-like face that became a smile, then a paw-print (2x2 stable block). Conway developed the Doomsday algorithm from Lewis Carroll's initial formula, primarily by noting the even month pattern (4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, 12/12) and the 9 to 5 at 7-11 mnemonic.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.191|172.69.63.191]] 13:17, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
:Trivia: More trivia - April 11, 2020 was 42 days after Feb 29, 2020.[[User:Tovodeverett|Tovodeverett]] ([[User talk:Tovodeverett|talk]]) 04:39, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

== Symbolism of the evolving configuration ==

Should we perhaps add an explanation as to what the evolving configuration symbolizes, for the sake of readers with different cultural backgrounds? E.g., that it evokes the religious imagery related to Ecclesiastes 12:7 (KJV: "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."), that the glider can be viewed as representing the soul departing to heaven, etc. -- [[Special:Contributions/172.68.215.224|172.68.215.224]] 20:19, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

== Haunted page ==
This page just got haunted. Could we protect or semi-protect it? --[[User:ColorfulGalaxy|ColorfulGalaxy]] ([[User talk:ColorfulGalaxy|talk]]) 20:27, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

2293: RIP John Conway

2023-04-07T03:46:25Z

172.71.158.7:

{{comic
| number = 2293
| date = April 13, 2020
| title = RIP John Conway
| image = rip_john_conway.gif
| titletext = 1937-2020
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|John Horton Conway|John Conway}}, an English mathematician, passed away of [[:Category:COVID-19|COVID-19]] on April 11, 2020. Two days later, [[Randall]] created this [[:Category:Tribute|memorial comic]]. It is the 6th memorial comic, but it is the first released in almost 5 years, since [[1560: Bubblegum]].

One of Conway's most famous creations was the {{w|cellular automaton}} known as {{w|Conway's Game of Life}}. A cellular automaton is a machine composed of cells, each of which can be in a different state. Every generation, each cell in the automaton may transition to a new state depending on a set of rules. (Conway's work in mathematics was vast and various, but he is perhaps best known in the field for discovering the {{w|surreal numbers}}, which inspired Donald Knuth to write a novel which may have been referenced back in [[505: A Bunch of Rocks]].)

Conway's Game of Life was first popularized to the general public in the form of a game, Life Genesis, bundled into some distributions of Windows 3.1, an operating system from the early-90s that Randall most likely used in his preteen years.

Conway's Game of Life is a 2-state automaton (i.e., every cell can be "alive" or "dead") that is implemented on a two-dimensional grid of cells using the {{w|Moore neighborhood}} - this means that each cell can only be influenced by the eight cells directly surrounding it, both orthogonally and diagonally. The transition rules that Conway used are as follows:

* If an "alive" cell has no live neighbors, or only one live neighbor, it becomes "dead". (This simulates death by isolation).
* If an "alive" cell has four or more live neighbors, it becomes "dead". (This simulates death by overcrowding).
* If a "dead" cell has exactly three live neighbors, it becomes "alive". (This simulates birth).

Despite the simplicity of these three rules, Conway showed that patterns of amazing complexity can nonetheless develop out of simple cell arrangements. Some patterns do not evolve at all ("still lifes"), some enter a cyclic, repeating state ("oscillators"), and some reproduce their own pattern displaced by an offset, resulting in patterns that can move across the grid under their own power ("gliders" and "spaceships"). This last category is of particular interest, as it allows the Game of Life to transmit information from one location to another, allowing for rich, dynamic behavior and even for the creation of computational machines within the automaton itself.

This comic begins with the shape of a stick figure as the starting cell configuration of the Game of Life. The black cells are "alive" and the white cells are "dead". This configuration then evolves via Conway's rules, disintegrating into nothingness except for a five-cell pattern known as a "glider", which ascends up and to the right. This visually suggests an eternal "soul" breaking away as the corporeal body disintegrates. The glider is perhaps the most iconic pattern of the Game of Life, and is often used symbolically to represent the phenomenon of emergence.

Here the topology of the grid on which the cells evolve is not known, the cellular automaton can be run on many topologies, for example you can choose to make cells reappear from the opposite side once they reach an edge (similarly to the behaviour of the well known Pacman). Here once the glider reaches the top right, we know for sure that the actual grid is bigger (since the glider leaves the frame while continuing its pattern), and we are only seeing part of the full grid.

The initial state presented in the comic does actually evolve in that manner, as can be verified by entering the pattern into a cellular automaton simulator such as [http://golly.sourceforge.net/ Golly] or web services such as [https://bitstorm.org/gameoflife/ this one] or [http://catagolue.hatsya.com/object/xkcd_48jsj8gzwe9e/b3s23 that one]. It seems that no one else have created this pattern before. At least, despite discussion in the comments, no one has found anything to show that this is not Randall's own discovery of this pattern.

The title text simply states Conway's birth and death year: 1937-2020.

Conway's Game of Life was previously mentioned in [[696: Strip Games]]. Cellular automata was also referenced in [[505: A Bunch of Rocks]].

This comic is the 18th comic in a row (not counting the [[2288: Collector's Edition|April Fools' comic]]) in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}. Although this comic is, of course, mainly a tribute to John Conway, the fact that he died of COVID-19 in the middle of this long series of coronavirus-related comics by Randall is relevant.

==Table of generations==
{| class="wikitable"
!Generation
!Notes
|-
|[[File:Generation 0.jpg|thumb]]||Starting state (or "zeroth generation").
|-
|[[File:Generation 1.jpg|thumb]]||First generation. Note that this image is not aligned with the previous one: the position of all cells has shifted downward by one cell. All further generations are aligned the same as this one.
|-
|[[File:Generation 2.jpg|thumb]]||Second generation.
|-
|[[File:Generation 3.jpg|thumb]]||Third generation.
|-
|[[File:Generation 4.jpg|thumb]]||Fourth generation.
|-
|[[File:Generation 5.jpg|thumb]]||Fifth generation.
|-
|[[File:Generation 6.jpg|thumb]]||Sixth generation. The first appearance of the {{w|Glider (Conway's Life)|glider}}, a well-known formation in Conway's Game of Life.
|-
|[[File:Generation 7.jpg|thumb]]||Seventh generation. The glider takes on its other shape.
|-
|[[File:Generation 8.jpg|thumb]]||Eighth generation. The glider returns to its first shape, pointing right instead of up.
|-
|[[File:Generation 9.jpg|thumb]]||Ninth generation. The glider's second shape again, pointing right instead of up.
|-
|[[File:Generation 10.jpg|thumb]]||Tenth generation. The glider is now in its original form, but one cell higher and one cell to the right. It will continue to progress, cycling through these four states every four generations. The remains of the chaos down below will take two more generations to disappear completely.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A pixelated image of a stick figure using 21 pixels, could be a pixel Cueball, which waves with one hand up while holding the other hand down. The head consist of 7 pixels, the top row of three having two pixels beneath the two outer pixels, thus having two empty pixels beneath the central pixel. The neck and torso is a typical cross made from six pixels. The two legs are two pixels each shifted left and right of the cross. The arm to the left that waves is two pixels one down and the next back up to the level of the cross central beam. The arm to the right has the first pixel similarly but the second pixel continues one further step down. After less than one second it turns out that the image is animated, with the pixels changing according to the rules of Conway's Game of Life. The figure splits into three groups, two of which dissipates in a similar way at the bottom of the panel. The other becomes a 'glider' and moves off to the top-right corner of the image and out of the frame. The animation then repeats.]

==Trivia==

* "XKCD RIP John Conway" has been cited on [http://conwaylife.com/wiki/Pure_glider_generator LifeWiki]
* "XKCD RIP John Conway" is now available on [http://catagolue.hatsya.com/object/xkcd_48jsj8gzwe9e/b3s23 Catagolue]

==Issues with some clients==

Some clients of the site crashed on this xkcd, most notably the Samsung Smart TV client.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Tribute]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
Don't revert my edits!!!!

Talk:2753: Air Handler

2023-03-24T19:21:12Z

172.71.158.7:

I called the device an Air Handler in the transcript, but should we change that? [[User:E'); DROP TABLE users;--|E'); DROP TABLE users;--]] ([[User talk:E'); DROP TABLE users;--|talk]]) 5:11, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

"It is not particularly usual to directly monitor the number of bees in an air-stream" - understatement of the week :o) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.41|172.68.210.41]] 05:46, 23 March 2023 (UTC)
:And statements like these are the reason why explainxkcd is so great :D [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:06, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

I think the transcript is complete, will be deleting unless someone proves otherwise in four hours. [[User:E'); DROP TABLE users;--|E'); DROP TABLE users;--]] ([[User talk:E'); DROP TABLE users;--|talk]]) 11:50, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

Some of these parameters have an ideal range (temperature, humidity, pressure), but others should be minimized (dust, smoke, odors, number of bees). Well, not into the negative range, but I think you'll understand me! ~ [[user:megan|Megan]] she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 23:44, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

:Well, if there are config files, you can just set the range to be from 0 to 0. Then again, this is Black Hat... [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.10|198.41.238.10]] 03:15, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
::I think that he made it so that "number of bees" had to be nonzero. Also, I think that the negative range could be available, and would be... weird. --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 12:38, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

This immediately got me wondering how it would deal with excess bees. It's not like you can filter them out as they pass through the device. It'd have to launch some kind of tiny flying robot to attack them or something. And then if there's too few bees, well… Let's just say I was pretty confident that the title text would use the word "drones" at least twice. -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 09:15, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

I could see a VR rig adding a (controlled) pulse of H2S when you enter a sewer. With hardware limits to prevent any dangerous concentrations of course.

2719: Hydrogen Isotopes

2023-01-03T03:11:50Z

172.71.158.7: /* Explanation */ instant hydrogen is a rip-off

{{comic
| number = 2719
| date = January 2, 2023
| title = Hydrogen Isotopes
| image = hydrogen_isotopes_2x.png
| imagesize = 442x250px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Oops, All Neutrons is also known as Neutral Quadrium, Nydnonen, and Goth Tritium.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BREAK ROOM DE BROGLIE MICROWAVE USER. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{W|Hydrogen}} is the simplest of the chemical atoms, usually consisting of a single electron orbiting a single proton. This comic imagines other humorous fictional forms of hydrogen.
The listed isotopes of hydrogen are the following:

{| class="wikitable"
! Hydrogen isotope
! Description
|-
|Hydrogen
|Hydrogen is the most common {{w|isotope}} of hydrogen, with one proton and one electron, shown with the electron orbiting the proton.
|-
|Deuterium
|Deuterium is the second most common isotope of hydrogen, with one electron, and both a neutron and proton in its nucleus. About one of every 6,760 hydrogen atoms in water is deuterium.
|-
|Tritium
|Tritium is the third most common isotope of hydrogen, with one electron, and a nucleus of one proton and two neutrons, for an atomic mass of three {{w|Dalton}}s. It is radioactive with a half-life of about twelve years, and is quite rare.
|-
|Ium
|This imaginary isotope consists of one electron orbiting around nothing. The name relates to the fact that the two heavier isotopes are named from a prefix designating the number of {{w|nucleons}} followed by "-ium".
|-
|Wheelium
|This fictional isotope consists of a proton, electron, and neutron orbiting around nothing, shaped similarly to a wheel.
|-
|Instant Hydrogen (ready in 15 minutes)
|Instant Hydrogen (ready in 15 minutes) is just a single neutron. Unbound neutrons will take about fifteen minutes to decay into a proton, an electron, and a neutrino, which ''can'' then form into a hydrogen atom, [https://van.physics.illinois.edu/ask/listing/1207 but does only four times in a million.]
|-
|Hydrogen (Maximum Strength)
|This fictional isotope consists of a proton, an electron, and at least 13 neutrons. This isotope would decay immediately.
|-
|Oops, all neutrons
|This fictional form consists of four neutrons, a {{w|tetraneutron}}, with one orbiting around a group of three. The name is likely a reference to an American breakfast cereal called {{w|Cap'n Crunch#Variations|Oops! All Berries}}. The title text states other names of this form are Neutral Quadrium, Nydnonen, and Goth Tritium.
|}

{{notice2|The Mountain View, California Public Library is hosting an online chat with [[Randall Munroe]] Tuesday, January 31 at 11am Pacific. [https://libraryc.org/mountainviewlibrary/22032 Register here to send your question(s) to the moderators.]|image=Crystal Project Agt announcements.png}} 

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

There are 8 drawings of atoms, arranges 4 across and 2 down, in the Planetary model. Each has a label underneath. Here, they are listed left-to-right top-to-bottom.

1 electron, 1 proton: Hydrogen

1 electron, 1 proton, 1 neutron: Duterium

1 electron, 1 proton, 1 neutron: Tritium

1 electron only: ium

1 electron, 1 proton, 1 neutron, all orbiting together round nothing: Wheelium

1 proton only: Instant Hydrogen (ready in 15 minutes)

1 proton, 1 electron, lots of neutrons: Hydrogen (Maximum Strength)

1 neutron orbiting 3 other neutrons: Oops, all neutrons
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Chemistry]]

2713: Data Point

2022-12-20T09:54:44Z

172.71.158.7: /* Explanation */ replace deleted portion

{{comic
| number = 2713
| date = December 19, 2022
| title = Data Point
| image = data_point_2x.png
| imagesize = 315x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In general you should only include your single best data point in the paper. The rest of the data can go in the supplementary materials.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REALLY COOL DATA POINT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

When scientific measurements are made, the conclusions are almost always based on many data points observed in relation to each other. The comic jokes that a single data point can somehow be of sufficient interest in isolation that the other data may be disregarded. In reality, a single datum can almost never represent what the information in the related data taken together indicate.

In this case the data point looks like a {{w|TIE fighter}} flying at you from the direction of the Sun. This is so cool that the entire focus of the scientific paper should be on this figure alone, as stated in the caption. [[Randall]] suggests this is a "science power move." (This is very similar to the [[:Category:Science tip|science tips]] in previous comics).

This is most likely intended as factitious satire, because the purpose of a chart or graph figure is to present multiple data which would be less clear than tabular or textual data, so there is never any reason to devote a figure to a single datum, regardless of its importance. It is could be a joke about papers which only highlight particularly interesting or significant data without including the background measurements or similar mundane information necessary to fully understand or reproduce the findings. While there are [https://www.aje.com/en/arc/data-not-shown-4-reasons-omit-figure-or-table/ accepted reasons for this practice,] it can be annoying when trying to follow an otherwise useful procedure or comparing aspects of the results the authors did not anticipate.

The title text suggests relegating all the other data to supplementary materials, presumably to avoid detracting from the single "cool" datum.

==Transcript==

:[A graph is shown. There are regularly spaced labels along both axes. The graph itself is black with a round white center from where white lines "radiate" out in all directions, like a star or sun. In the center there is a single data point with short symmetrical vertical error bars. Beneath the graph there are two lines of unreadable caption text to the left, next to a rectangular legend box on the right with one dot, indication the data point, and a label. Above the graph it is titled:]

:Figure 2.

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:Science power move: When one of your data points is really cool, devote a whole figure to it.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]

2713: Data Point

2022-12-20T09:52:19Z

172.71.158.7: /* Transcript */ typo

{{comic
| number = 2713
| date = December 19, 2022
| title = Data Point
| image = data_point_2x.png
| imagesize = 315x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In general you should only include your single best data point in the paper. The rest of the data can go in the supplementary materials.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REALLY COOL DATA POINT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

When scientific measurements are made, the conclusions are almost always based on many data points observed in relation to each other. The comic jokes that a single data point can somehow be of sufficient interest in isolation that the other data may be disregarded. In reality, a single datum can almost never represent what the information in the related data taken together indicate.

In this case the data point looks like a {{w|TIE fighter}} flying at you from the direction of the Sun. This is so cool that the entire focus of the scientific paper should be on this figure alone, as stated in the caption. [[Randall]] suggests this is a "science power move."

This is most likely intended as factitious satire, because the purpose of a chart or graph figure is to present multiple data which would be less clear than tabular or textual data, so there is never any reason to devote a figure to a single datum, regardless of its importance. It is could be a joke about papers which only highlight particularly interesting or significant data without including the background measurements or similar mundane information necessary to fully understand or reproduce the findings. While there are [https://www.aje.com/en/arc/data-not-shown-4-reasons-omit-figure-or-table/ accepted reasons for this practice,] it can be annoying when trying to follow an otherwise useful procedure or comparing aspects of the results the authors did not anticipate.

The title text suggests relegating all the other data to supplementary materials, presumably to avoid detracting from the single "cool" datum.

==Transcript==

:[A graph is shown. There are regularly spaced labels along both axes. The graph itself is black with a round white center from where white lines "radiate" out in all directions, like a star or sun. In the center there is a single data point with short symmetrical vertical error bars. Beneath the graph there are two lines of unreadable caption text to the left, next to a rectangular legend box on the right with one dot, indication the data point, and a label. Above the graph it is titled:]

:Figure 2.

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:Science power move: When one of your data points is really cool, devote a whole figure to it.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]

2711: Optimal Bowling

2022-12-17T07:27:18Z

172.71.158.7: /* Explanation */ reword

{{comic
| number = 2711
| date = December 14, 2022
| title = Optimal Bowling
| image = optimal_bowling_2x.png
| imagesize = 306x670px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you want to bowl a strike, the optimal place is almost certainly inside a bowling alley, although with a little luck any establishment uphill from one could also work.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SUPERMASSIVE BOWLING BALL - Need a full analysis of each graph (preferably with input from someone who understands bowling). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This series of line graphs purports to advise players on how to improve their odds of achieving a strike in the sport of {{w|bowling}} – presumably {{w|ten-pin bowling}}, the most popular version of the sport in the United States. Among the parameters being measured — those being angle of throw, throwing speed, spinning speed, and weight of the ball — all four graphs encompass a range far larger than would be useful for reference by a bowler. The latter three in particular are on {{w|logarithmic scale}}s, leading up to values that are impossible for a human to achieve.{{Citation needed}}

The first line graph indicates that a bowler has the greatest chance of achieving a strike by aiming the ball directly at the pins, with the chance of a strike decreasing rapidly as the ball is aimed to the left or the right. The closer you aim to the pins, the more likely it is you hit them.{{Citation needed}} While a novice bowler may have difficulty achieving a 0° angle roll, their roll would still not come close to a -90° or 90° angle (due left or due right), much less a -180° or 180° angle (which, in either case, would be the opposite direction from the pins). Unlike with the other graphs, it is physically possible for a bowler to aim the ball at any angle, albeit not permissible under bowling rules; aiming the ball at an angle which deviates significantly from 0° would most likely cause the ball to end up in the gutter, while more violent or wildly aimed actions could create a risk of the ball going into one of the other lanes or missing the lanes entirely, which could annoy, anger, or even endanger other bowlers and employees of the bowling alley.

The second graph indicates that a bowler has the greatest chance of achieving a strike by throwing the ball about 5-20 m/s (11-45 mph, 18-72 kph), with the chance of a strike decreasing as the speed is increased or decreased. Most bowlers cannot throw more than 45 m/s (100 mph or 160 kph).{{Citation needed}} According to the graph, any throw faster than 100 m/s would cause equipment damage, and then widespread destruction several orders of magnitude later. (Possibly a reference to {{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}}.) The graph ends at the {{w|speed of light}}, as it is physically impossible to throw anything faster.

The third graph concerns the rotational speed of the ball. The "ball explodes" section is a reference to one of [[Randall]]'s favorite equations, which is that an object cannot spin faster than the square root of its specific tensile strength. Spinning the ball any faster than this limit would cause the bowling ball to lose its structural integrity and explosively disintegrate. At particularly high speeds, the material of the ball would be flung outwards at a significant fraction of the speed of light, causing, as in the second graph, widespread destruction (possibly a reference to {{what if|92|One-Second Day}}.)

The fourth graph in this comic illustrates a bowler's probability of a strike with a ball whose mass ranges from 100 kg (2.2 pounds) to close to 1010 kg (over 22 billion pounds), and continues by indicating that balls even larger than that would cause "equipment damage" (up to 1020 kg) or the creation of a black hole (starting from around 1025 kg and up). The last entry on the x-axis of this graph is 1040 kg, which is about 5 billion times the mass of the {{w|Sun}}. The {{w|United States Bowling Congress}} requires all bowling balls to weigh no more than 16 pounds (that is, a mass of no more than 7.257 kg), with no minimum weight. Hence, if the x-axis of the graph ran from, say, 0 to 8 kg, the graph might actually impart some useful information.

The title text continues the trend of providing unhelpful information by stating that the optimal place to stand when trying to bowl a strike is inside the bowling alley, but mentions the possibility of "any establishment uphill from one" working, with a little luck. This suggests the possibility of rolling the bowling ball downhill, in to the bowling alley and the pins.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[The header is surrounded on either side by small drawings of two bowling pins and a bowling ball.]
:Data for Optimal Bowling

:[Four line graphs are depicted. Each has a numbered one-word general description in a box at the top, an unlabeled y-axis, and a labeled x-axis. The relevant curve and other comments on each graph are in red.]

:1. Aim
:[The graph's x-axis is labeled from -180° to 180°.]
:Release Direction
:[The red curve on the graph is just above the x-axis at all points except for a steep peak around 0°. The red curve is labeled:]
:Relative Probability of Strike

:2. Speed
:[The graph's x-axis is labeled from 10-1 to 108, with the last point on the x-axis labeled "Speed of Light".]
:Ball Speed (m/s)
:[The red curve on the graph starts at the x-axis for 10-1, reaches its peak around 10, then declines and becomes a dashed line ending around three-quarters of the peak around 102. The remainder of the curve is replaced by two labels:]
:Equipment Damage
:Widespread Destruction

:3. Spin
:[The graph's x-axis is labeled from 0 to 1012.]
:Spin (RPMs)
:[The red curve on the graph starts about halfway from its peak for 0, reaches its peak somewhere between 0 and 1,000, then declines and becomes a dashed line around 1,000, soon after which the remainder of the curve is replaced by two labels:]
:Ball Explodes
:Widespread Destruction

:4. Weight
:[The graph's x-axis is labeled from 100 to 1040.]
:Ball Mass (kg)
:[The red curve on the graph starts just above the x-axis for 100, rises steeply and drops steeply ending just above the x-axis, then becoming a dashed line, all before reaching 1010. The remainder of the curve is replaced by two labels:]
:Equipment Damage
:Black Hole Created

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Sport]]

2711: Optimal Bowling

2022-12-17T07:19:37Z

172.71.158.7: /* Explanation */ unnecessary

{{comic
| number = 2711
| date = December 14, 2022
| title = Optimal Bowling
| image = optimal_bowling_2x.png
| imagesize = 306x670px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you want to bowl a strike, the optimal place is almost certainly inside a bowling alley, although with a little luck any establishment uphill from one could also work.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SUPERMASSIVE BOWLING BALL - Need a full analysis of each graph (preferably with input from someone who understands bowling). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This series of line graphs purports to advise players on how to improve their odds of achieving a strike in the sport of {{w|bowling}} – presumably {{w|ten-pin bowling}}, the most popular version of the sport in the United States. Among the parameters being measured — those being angle of throw, throwing speed, spinning speed, and weight of the ball — all four graphs encompass a range far larger than would be useful for reference by a bowler. The latter three in particular are on {{w|logarithmic scale}}s, leading up to values that are impossible for a human to achieve.{{Citation needed}}

The first line graph indicates that a bowler has the greatest chance of achieving a strike by aiming the ball directly at the pins, with the chance of a strike decreasing rapidly as the ball is aimed to the left or the right. The closer you aim to the pins, the more likely it is you hit them.{{Citation needed}} While a novice bowler may have difficulty achieving a 0° angle roll, their roll would still not come close to a -90° or 90° angle (due left or due right), much less a -180° or 180° angle (which, in either case, would be the opposite direction from the pins). Unlike with the other graphs, it is physically possible for a bowler to aim the ball at any angle, albeit not permissible under bowling rules; aiming the ball at an angle which deviates significantly from 0° would most likely cause the ball to end up in the gutter, while more violent or wildly aimed actions could create a risk of the ball going into one of the other lanes or missing the lanes entirely, which would annoy or anger other bowlers and employees of the bowling alley (and possibly endanger them, if the absolute value of the angle is superior to 90° on either side).

The second graph indicates that a bowler has the greatest chance of achieving a strike by throwing the ball about 5-20 m/s (11-45 mph, 18-72 kph), with the chance of a strike decreasing as the speed is increased or decreased. Most bowlers cannot throw more than 45 m/s (100 mph or 160 kph).{{Citation needed}} According to the graph, any throw faster than 100 m/s would cause equipment damage, and then widespread destruction several orders of magnitude later. (Possibly a reference to {{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}}.) The graph ends at the {{w|speed of light}}, as it is physically impossible to throw anything faster.

The third graph concerns the rotational speed of the ball. The "ball explodes" section is a reference to one of Randall's favorite equations, which is that an object cannot spin faster than the square root of its specific tensile strength. Spinning the ball any faster than this limit would cause the bowling ball to lose its structural integrity and explosively disintegrate. At particularly high speeds, the material of the ball would be flung outwards at a significant fraction of the speed of light, causing, as in graph #2, widespread destruction (possibly a reference to {{what if|92|One-Second Day}}.)

The fourth graph in this comic illustrates a bowler's probability of a strike with a ball whose mass ranges from 100 kg (2.2 pounds) to close to 1010 kg (over 22 billion pounds), and continues by indicating that balls even larger than that would cause "equipment damage" (up to 1020 kg) or the creation of a black hole (starting from around 1025 kg and up). The last entry on the x-axis of this graph is 1040 kg, which is about 5 billion times the mass of the {{w|Sun}}.

By contrast, the {{w|United States Bowling Congress}} requires all bowling balls to weigh no more than 16 pounds (that is, a mass of no more than 7.257 kg), with no minimum weight. Hence, if the x-axis of the graph ran from, say, 0 to 8 kg, the graph might actually impart some useful information.

The title text continues the trend of providing unhelpful information by stating that the optimal place to stand when trying to bowl a strike is inside the bowling alley. It is quite obvious that if one is to attempt to bowl a strike, they should stand near the pins, hence inside a bowling alley. The title text also mentions the possibility of "any establishment uphill from one" working, with a little luck. This suggests the possibility of rolling the bowling ball downhill, into the bowling alley (possibly ''through'' it) and into the pins. If the ball were to be launched at very high speed, its destructive power would allow it to get a strike from any site with a bowling alley along the ball's path. If launched at sufficiently high rotational speed, it could achieve one or more strikes, even from the outside, in any bowling alley that doesn't have enough solid shielding between the pins and the fragments of the exploding ball. These last two cases are technically covered in the "widespread destruction" parts of the graphs, and it isn't clear if they count as "strikes". Since they allow the possibility of more than one simultaneous strike (albeit not necessarily in one's own lane), they might be considered to have higher probabilities of strikes than the conventional method of play does. These require a somewhat broadened definition of "strike" which doesn't assume the structural integrity of the pins after they're hit.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[The header is surrounded on either side by small drawings of two bowling pins and a bowling ball.]
:Data for Optimal Bowling

:[Four line graphs are depicted. Each has a numbered one-word general description in a box at the top, an unlabeled y-axis, and a labeled x-axis. The relevant curve and other comments on each graph are in red.]

:1. Aim
:[The graph's x-axis is labeled from -180° to 180°.]
:Release Direction
:[The red curve on the graph is just above the x-axis at all points except for a steep peak around 0°. The red curve is labeled:]
:Relative Probability of Strike

:2. Speed
:[The graph's x-axis is labeled from 10-1 to 108, with the last point on the x-axis labeled "Speed of Light".]
:Ball Speed (m/s)
:[The red curve on the graph starts at the x-axis for 10-1, reaches its peak around 10, then declines and becomes a dashed line ending around three-quarters of the peak around 102. The remainder of the curve is replaced by two labels:]
:Equipment Damage
:Widespread Destruction

:3. Spin
:[The graph's x-axis is labeled from 0 to 1012.]
:Spin (RPMs)
:[The red curve on the graph starts about halfway from its peak for 0, reaches its peak somewhere between 0 and 1,000, then declines and becomes a dashed line around 1,000, soon after which the remainder of the curve is replaced by two labels:]
:Ball Explodes
:Widespread Destruction

:4. Weight
:[The graph's x-axis is labeled from 100 to 1040.]
:Ball Mass (kg)
:[The red curve on the graph starts just above the x-axis for 100, rises steeply and drops steeply ending just above the x-axis, then becoming a dashed line, all before reaching 1010. The remainder of the curve is replaced by two labels:]
:Equipment Damage
:Black Hole Created

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Sport]]

Talk:2707: Astronomy Numbers

2022-12-06T03:56:07Z

172.71.158.7: indent

First time I've ever seen a completely blank page. [[User:IJustWantToEditStuff|IJustWantToEditStuff]] ([[User talk:IJustWantToEditStuff|talk]]) 20:27, 5 December 2022 (UTC)

It's also notable that something weighting 12 solar masses will collapse into black hole on it's own, unless it resist collapse through thermal pressure like stars. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:26, 5 December 2022 (UTC)

The Earth moves relative to the sun at 66,000 MPH. In what frame of reference is it 65 MPH? It isn't like Randall to get a number wrong. Maybe the magnitude of the distance from Earth to Sun changes at a closer rate, but even this is nearly 180 MPH if I'm calculating correctly. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 21:37, 5 December 2022 (UTC)
: You're thinking orbital speed, she's talking orbital oscillation. That is, the speed at which the distance between earth and sun changes. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.240|198.41.242.240]] 21:51, 5 December 2022 (UTC) ADDITION: Orbital oscillation has both a mean/average factor and a current factor (which is at it slowest while at the apsides, and given the context the one being calculated) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.85|198.41.242.85]] 22:46, 5 December 2022 (UTC)

I get the sense that the thing that they're planning for January 1st is a precisely-timed new year's party and nothing to do with space exploration. {{unsigned|172.71.242.156}}

; Obligatory ChatGPT explanation

:'''Me:''' The following is a transcript from the latest xkcd comic. Please write an explanation of the comic: ''[transcript copied verbatim from its current state omitted]''

:'''ChatGPT:''' In the xkcd comic, Ponytail and Cueball are discussing Earth's orbit around the sun. Ponytail notes that Earth will be approaching the sun at a rate of 65 miles per hour on January 1st. Cueball responds, "Weird?" Ponytail explains that they usually see only complex and incomprehensible numbers in astronomy, and seeing a "normal" number like 65 miles per hour feels wrong to them. This reflects the common perception that numbers in the sciences, especially astronomy, are often complex and difficult to understand. Earlier in the comic, Ponytail also expresses skepticism at a "normal" number when Megan in coat tells them that their cat weighs 12 lbs. Ponytail suggests that it must actually weigh either 10-20 or 1040 instead. Megan responds by saying that the cat's weight is actually 3x10-30 solar masses, which Ponytail finds more acceptable.

Meh. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.39|172.71.154.39]] 03:55, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2703: Paper Title

2022-11-26T05:07:22Z

172.71.158.7: Unnecessary

Finished transcript added clickbait category and started the explanation on clickbait titles and title text. For sure it needs to be revised, but hope it can be used to build upon. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:47, 25 November 2022 (UTC)

You know you've been editing too long when the captcha shows you traffic lights within walking distance. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.145|172.70.211.145]] 23:39, 25 November 2022 (UTC)

Technically the bacterium in reference [http://calamar.univ-ag.fr/mangroveSAE/articles/2022/Volland%20et%20al%202022.pdf [3]], ''Candidatus Thiomargarita magnifica'', isn't a microbe. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.91|172.71.158.91]] 05:05, 26 November 2022 (UTC)

2699: Feature Comparison

2022-11-18T18:02:55Z

172.71.158.7: /* Features */ move voluminous comments to talk

{{comic
| number = 2699
| date = November 16, 2022
| title = Feature Comparison
| image = feature_comparison_v2.png
| imagesize =
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Below the Web, and the Dark Web, a shadowy parallel world of Cybiko users trade messages on the Translucent Neon Plastic Web.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MULTIHOMED MESH NODE. Read HTML comments to expand. This page is the subject of vandalism, and the comic itself contains severe errors. Assume everything is wrong. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic compares different remote communication services, including the relatively well-known {{w|Twitter}}, {{w|Discord}}, {{w|Mastodon (software)|Mastodon}}, {{w|Facebook}} (FB), {{w|Slack (software)|Slack}}, {{w|Signal (software)|Signal}}, {{w|Internet Relay Chat}} (IRC), {{w|Tumblr}}, {{w|Reddit}}, and {{w|SMS}} mobile telephone text messages. It also includes the less well-known {{w|Cybiko}}® wireless handheld computer for teens. For each of these, it purports to indicate which of various features they support. The comic illustrates how feature comparison charts/infographics can be abused by sellers who are trying to make their products look better than they really are, compared to their main competitors.

The Cybiko was a handheld computer designed for teens and released in 2000, which featured its own two-way radio text messaging capabilities along with built-in games and a music player. Additional information about it is available at [http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/Cybiko the Dead Media Archive], as the device has not been manufactured since 2003. The chart suggests that the Cybiko has an advantage over all of the other listed communication services, as it is capable of all eight of the table's listed features listed, with none of the others being close. Purchasing a Cybiko or finding friends who own one can be its own challenge, as device was discontinued nearly 20 years ago. Additionally, the Cybiko is a ''device'' rather than a ''service''; a more fair comparison would be to a modern {{w|smartphone}}, which can provide most of these features via multiple apps, including those apps written especially for such rival services.

===Features===
;Direct Messaging
:Known by {{w|Private message|various names}}, across different platforms, but commonly abbreviated to "DM" or similar. DMs are person-to-person (or possibly person-to-group) communications that do not rely upon the privacy, membership or persistence settings of a given Group Chat 'room'.
:All the services being compared possess the ability to make such direct messages, with sometimes subtle differences in implementation that dictate whether asynchronous or even 'live' two-way conversations are dominant, and the given list is far from exhaustive with email, '{{w|talk (software)|talk}}'-type programs and others having already established the principles used in any particular service's implementation.

;{{w|Mesh networking}}
:A form of connectivity that reduces or removes the need for a centralized server or predefined gateways to a communications 'backbone'. Nodes communicate directly with any nodes that happen to be contactable, and from there may connect through to whatever nodes are in mutual contact, or to be found further afield, either in real-time or asynchronously.
:The Cybiko has this ability, as well as wireless message delivery because it communicates directly to other devices via radio, hence the ability to operate without any internet connectivity at all. There are several {{w|Comparison of software and protocols for distributed social networking|ongoing projects for distributed social networking}}, but all of these additionally require a hardware layer to provide signalling via their respective protocols; which the Cybiko purportedly provides via its decentralized radio capabilities.

The title text refers to the translucent plastic covers that were popular in the late 90's and early 00's.

This comic contains several errors. Mastodon doesn't require a central server, or support file transfer. Discord does not provide for user-run instances itself, only user-moderated and administrated instances. (There are two third party Discord server implementations, but it is unclear whether those could be counted as run by users.) Slack does not provide for user-run instances itself. Reddit does not provide for user-run instances at all, only user moderation and administration. IRC does require at least one central server,[https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1459.html] and relegates file transfer support to the domain of client extensions. Signal is heavily used in user-run instances via a diverse ecosystem of code forks; many of these don't require a central server, a couple use mesh networking. Reddit occasionally does have built-in games. Finally, Tumblr and SMS both have a form of group chats.

An earlier version of the comic suggesting that Mastodon has no user-run instances was corrected by [[Randall]] shortly after publication of the original.

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

:[A table with checkmarks to indicate which features various messaging services have. Each column is labeled with a service name and its logo beneath, except that for the last column, the device's longer name is written higher than all the other services' names, with an arrow pointing to a drawing of the device below it.]

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!
! Twitter
! Discord
! Mastodon
! FB
! Slack
! Signal
! IRC
! Tumblr
! Reddit
! SMS
! Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)
|-
! Direct messages
| ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓
|-
! Group chats
| ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓
|-
! File transfer
| || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓
|-
! Built-in games
| || ✓ || || ✓ || || || || || || || ✓
|-
! User-run instances
| || ✓ || ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓
|-
! Doesn't require central server
| || || || || || || ✓ || || || || ✓
|-
! Mesh networking
| || || || || || || || || || || ✓
|-
! Wireless message delivery works without internet
| || || || || || || || || || ✓ || ✓
|-
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

2694: Königsberg

2022-11-05T05:10:15Z

172.71.158.7: /* Explanation */ this is no longer necessary

{{comic
| number = 2694
| date = November 4, 2022
| title = Königsberg
| image = konigsberg_2x.png
| imagesize = 448x343px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = At first I thought I would need some gold or something to pay him, but then I realized that it was the 18th century and I could just bring a roll of aluminum foil.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FOX, TWO CHICKENS, AND THREE BAGS OF GRAIN. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[File:Konigsberg bridges.png|frame|right|{{w|Königsberg}} in Euler's time, showing the river Pregel and its seven bridges]]

This comic is about the {{w|Seven Bridges of Königsberg}}, a seminal {{w|graph theory}} problem addressed by the famous mathematician {{w|Leonhard Euler}}. A popular pursuit, beforehand, was to attempt to devise a path through the city that would cross each of the seven bridges exactly once, without crossing the river forks any other way. In 1736, Euler proved that there was no actual solution possible. This result is considered to be the first theorem of graph theory and the first proof in the theory of networks[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/courses/2004/cscs535/review.pdf] — a subject now generally regarded as a branch of {{w|combinatorics}} — and presaged the development of {{w|topology}}. Combinatorial problems of other types had been considered since antiquity.

[[Cueball]] attempts to cheat on the final exam in his algorithms class by traveling back in time to commission the construction of an eighth bridge before Euler could learn of the problem, granting it a trivial solution that would remove much impetus for mathematical analysis. He hopes that this would alter his present-day timeline in such a way that the test becomes easier because graph theory might never have been developed. With the addition of the eighth bridge, it becomes possible to create a path that crosses each bridge exactly once, starting at the north bank and ending on the eastern island (or vice-versa). However, there would remain no way to traverse each bridge exactly once and return to your starting point, because the altered graph would have an {{w|Euler trail}} but not an {{w|Euler cycle}}. Thus, the problem might still have been sufficiently interesting to spark Euler's curiosity. Adding a ninth bridge connecting the north bank to the east island would render the problem completely trivial. Without the seven bridges problem, Euler could have focussed on a different foundation for graph theory, possibly making an even harder examination in Cueball's time.

The title text alludes to the fact that ordinary {{w|aluminum foil}}, which was not commercially available until 1911, would have been a tremendously valuable curiosity in the 18th century, which didn't even have {{w|tin foil}}. Aluminium itself was a highly priced metal before the 1880s, when methods were developed to cheaply refine it. Famously, the {{w|Washington Monument}} was constructed with a tip made of pure aluminum due to its great value and conductive capacity. Aluminum had not even been extracted in its pure form at the time of Euler, and was only known in compounds such as {{w|alum}}, so it would have been rare and exotic indeed.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball, standing next to two men wearing wigs, pointing with a pointer at a map showing the 7 bridges problem, with an extra bridge added in dashed lines]
:Cueball: Lord mayor of Königsberg, I will reward you handsomely if you construct this bridge before my friend Leonhard arrives.

:[Caption below the panel]
:I tried to use a time machine to cheat on my algorithms final by preventing graph theory from being invented.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Programming]]

Talk:2694: Königsberg

2022-11-05T04:12:23Z

172.71.158.7: typo

; Aluminum foil
Why would aluminum foil be valuable? I can see how it would be hard to produce at the time. But how would it be used and why would people of the time see a lot of value in it? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.65|172.71.146.65]] 03:42, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
:Good question, but I'm persuaded the novelty and scarcity of metallic aluminium would have made it plenty valuable among those already wealthy enough to recognize what it was. Prussia was wealthy and Königsberg was its largest port city back then, so probably the mayor would have been able. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.205|172.70.206.205]] 03:49, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
::Aluminium was very valuable - methods for its extraction from ore didn't exist in any useful form until much later. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.146.80|172.68.146.80]] 03:55, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
::: Would scarcity be enough to make it valuable? Since nobody had this material back then, there wouldn't be any known applications for it. Compared to bringing e.g. a simple pocket calculator, a flashlight, a solar-powered e-book reader, etc. If an alien landed in my house and brought me some weird, shiny material that would be unable to build on earth, I wouldn't be too interested. But if they had some cool gadget or books full of alien information, I would immediately see its value. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.88|172.71.142.88]] 04:05, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
:::: At the time, there were few chemists who could have recognized what it was, but the Mayor of Königsberg would plausibly have been able to commission one. It likely would have taken months if not years, though. I guess if you have a time machine such details don't matter. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.173|162.158.166.173]] 04:11, 5 November 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2691: Encryption

2022-10-31T18:33:35Z

172.71.158.7:

More generally, when the explanation of the encryption algorithm needs example people, it picks names going sequentially through the alphabet. Alice and Bob are the canonical first two, names starting with C and D would be next. Eve, the eavesdropper, is next. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:01, 29 October 2022 (UTC)
:...though it depends upon {{w|Alice and Bob#Cast of characters|what other protagonists/required roles}} are to be featured in the scenario as to which initials get given to the 'normal' example correspondants. And I'm sure you could come up with other punny names for other novel roles, if you're in the position to require something special, only Alice and Bob being (normally!) inviolable as to both role and initialism. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.58|172.70.91.58]] 09:43, 29 October 2022 (UTC)

Is this comic a subtle reference to Signal announcing the discontinuing of SMS/MMS support, thus vastly lowering the number of people that Signal users can send messages to? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.205|172.70.114.205]] 09:10, 29 October 2022 (UTC)
:... Maybe add some text explaining what Signal is? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.7|172.71.158.7]] 18:33, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

I'd reckon you're also banned from the app if your name is Mallory, which might be inconvenient if you're James Bond's boss. Then again, that's Voldemort... [[User:IByte|IByte]] ([[User talk:IByte|talk]]) 10:36, 29 October 2022 (UTC)

This was hilarious. And it's the only app you should be able to install on the [[2377:_xkcd_Phone_12|XKCD Phone]], for obvious security reasons. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 16:18, 29 October 2022 (UTC)

Reminds me of a notorious movie from 1969, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, a plot point of which is knowledge shared incompletely between the four. I believe the names are coincidental but, not knowing when Alice, Bob, Charles and Diana were first used, it may not be. [[User:Dhugot|Dhugot]] ([[User talk:Dhugot|talk]]) 18:16, 29 October 2022 (UTC)
:... The naming convention appears to have started with the creators of the RSA algorithm.[[User:Dhugot|Dhugot]] ([[User talk:Dhugot|talk]])

Since we know without question the name of the female character in this comic, does she join the list of other named characters for every other time we see someone with a similar hairstyle? [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 02:58, 30 October 2022 (UTC)
:Not just yet. Unless we can definitively backdate her hairstyled appearance, but consider it upon reappearance. Three options to do it, though:
:* If there's not enough to split her from Megan (though I think there is), do as we <s>do</s> ''did''  with Rob for Cueball (incidentally mentioned here, but I think there's no category to cover that, just a mention within Megan that there's a not-Megan-but-nearly)...
:* Go for a full new character in her own right if she gets (or has previously gotten, without our realising until now) another distinct appearance or two...
:* If Randall repeats Alice/others in a further series of Alice And Bob 'tales' (plenty of scope for the actual appearance of Eve, or Mallory/Mike or whoever – ''if'' the whim takes him) group her and the 'gang under an "Alice and Bob" entry (e.g. if a clear Ivan appears even just the once, he gets tidily filed under his own subheader there)...
:..definitely some consideration to be had. Anyone could review hairstyles carefully (or dialogue?), both forward and back in time, and propose (or enact?) the solution that you think best applies. It's not up to me with no ability to create (or banish) new pages, but that's my immediate thoughts. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 09:34, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

Does this lend new information about named character Rob? The girl has a friend Robert, and this cueball has a brother, which seem to be separate people, both of whom could be called Bob. I don't see a particular connection, but I see there is investigation to who the girl is, and that may lead to something. FWIW I think she looks like Science Girl; based on age alone that could connect her to Bobby Tables. How does time pass in xkcd, do we expect child characters to grow up or remain the same age across comics? We should look across previous Rob comics and see if they're consistent with him being brother to this Cueball. [[User:Robm|Robm]] ([[User talk:Robm|talk]]) 16:36, 30 October 2022 (UTC)robm