explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2940: Modes of Transportation

2024-06-03T13:19:27Z

172.71.242.29: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2940
| date = May 31, 2024
| title = Modes of Transportation
| image = modes_of_transportation_2x.png
| imagesize = 510x518px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My bold criticism might anger the hot air balloon people, which would be a real concern if any of them lived along a very narrow line directly upwind of me.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Transportationally convenient but insidiously dangerous robotic car - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Randall's chart compares different modes of transportation by how convenient and dangerous they are. At the top-left (high in convenience and low in danger) are airliners and trains, as these are both fast-moving vehicles on which many millions of dollars have been spent to make them safer. In the top-right, motorcycles are at the same convenience level, but are rated much more dangerous, since they are easy to lose control of at high speeds, and careless drivers (of cars) can easily hit a motorcycle and cause extreme harm. Things like unicycles (bottom-left) are considered much lower on the convenience scale, being not very fast or easy ways to travel, but relatively safe, while towards the centre, skis are apparently moderately convenient and moderately dangerous, since they are relatively easy to fall on if going fast downhill. Way out on their own in the bottom-right, hot air balloons appear to be unique in being rated least on convenience and highest on danger. Presumably, modes of transportation similar to hot air balloons (like zeppelins and blimps) are left off the chart to increase the gap for comedic effect.

Because a hot air balloon is rated so poorly, if an optimization algorithm considers it the optimal mode of transportation, it must be the result of a sign error (e.g. having a minus sign where a plus sign is supposed to be, or vice versa), making the algorithm optimize for the opposite result by mistake. This could be because, unusually, on the y axis of the chart higher is better, whereas on the x axis lower is better. If these were treated the wrong way around, it would result in the air balloon appearing to be the best result. More typically, you might plot convenience vs ''safety'', so that a higher value on either axis would represent a better result. However, both measures are still likely to need to take underlying data (for safety, incident counts, etc.; for convenience, travel time, etc.) and invert them, leading to potential for errors.

In order to compare the relative danger from each mode of transport, one can look at statistics of fatalities and injuries sustained during each activity. Traditionally this can be reported in fatalities/{{w|Killed_or_Seriously_Injured|KSI}} per mile driven or passenger mile (or other unit of distance), to account for the fact that some modes are used much more than others and make valid comparisons. They may also be reported per capita (but this ignores the relative usage of different modes), or per journey (but this doesn't take into account the fact that different modes typically have different journey lengths and times). All of these are somewhat flawed, since they are really measuring the danger ''to'' users of that mode of transport, both from their own conveyance, and from other sources such as other road users. Since ballooning is not a very common mode of transport, hot air balloon incidents are [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9533500/ correspondingly uncommon], and flights are not routinely monitored or registered, it is difficult to draw strong conclusions from the data for hot air balloons.

The title text makes a joke that if a hot air balloon enthusiast disagrees with the ranking and is angered by it, they may wish to remonstrate or retaliate, but will have a difficult time getting to Randall's house with their preferred mode of transportation, because they are limited to travelling in the direction of the wind. If they chose an alternative form of transport, they would be making his point for him. In reality, hot air balloons have some freedom to choose their direction of travel, since by controlling their altitude they can access different wind directions at different heights. Randall should, therefore, be concerned about hot air balloonists who live within a wedge spanned by the various wind directions accessible on a given day. In principle, if the weather conditions are favorable, this could cover every direction from Randall's house. The phrase "hot air balloon people" is reminiscent of "autogyro people" from the title text of [[1972: Autogyros]].

Curiously, the comic includes most common forms of transport, and a number of less common ones, but omits examples such as buses (a mass transit solution arguably more convenient than trains). It is not clear if this is an error, or a deliberate choice to maintain the comic's layout and presentation.

This is the second comic in a row to feature an algorithm.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Transportation !! Description !! Convenience !! Danger !! Zone
|-
|{{w|Train}}s
|Mass transit on rails, typically between urban centers.
|data-sort-value=""|Convenient and comfortable, provided proper funding/maintenance and filled timetables. Allows relatively cheap travel for many people at once.
|data-sort-value=""|Exceedingly safe, due to dedicated tracks along a controlled environment. Accidents are largely limited to individuals wandering onto the off-limit tracks.
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Airliner}}s
|Mass transit by aircraft
|data-sort-value=""| Extremely fast travel between population centers for larger groups of people. Less comfortable and more expensive than trains.
|data-sort-value=""| Extremely safe due to strong regulation and relatively little traffic interactions. However, the few catastrophies that do happen have high death counts.
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Car}}s
|Motorised road vehicle Most common method of long distance travel, used by many individuals to reach specific destinations
|data-sort-value=""| Owners of a car can usually go easily to any road-accessible location within a 200 mile/300 km radius. Requires constant focus, but can transport a few passengers or some cargo. Parking, maintenance, and infrastructure requirements are often ignored when judging car convenience.
|data-sort-value=""| Insides of cars are covered with safety features, because collisions are relatively common. Assuming appropriate speed limits and proper focus by the driver, accidents can largely be avoided. Driving is the most dangerous thing most people do, and cars are very dangerous to nearby pedestrians and cyclists.
|Practicality
|-
|Scooters
|Either: 
*{{w|Kick scooter}} - Less convenient than the placing would suggest.
*{{w|Scooter (motorcycle)|Low powered motorbike/moped}} - More dangerous than the placing would suggest.
*{{w|Motorized scooter|Engine-powered scooter}} - A middle-ground.
|data-sort-value=""| Kick scooter-style vehicles are probably less convenient than bicycles as they do not provide seating, and are less efficient at converting energy into motion. A low-powered motorbike is about as convenient as a bicycle, requiring refueling in lieu of pedalling, and going much faster.
|data-sort-value=""| Kick scooters are much slower – and therefore safer – than bicycles. A motorized scooter can exceed bicycle speeds, but falling might be slightly safer. Low-powered motorbikes often go much faster than bicycles, and would therefore be much more dangerous. All leave the rider vulnerable to danger from motorised traffic sharing the same space.
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Bicycle}}s
|Human-powered (or {{w|Electric bicycle|mostly so}}) two-wheeled road vehicle
|data-sort-value=""| Assuming proper road or trail connections, bicycles are highly flexible for traveling to any location within a ~10 km radius, or further.
|data-sort-value=""| Bicycles mostly move slow enough for falls or collisions to have little impact, though they are vulnerable to motorized traffic where it shares the road.
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Boat}}s
|Watercraft of various types
|data-sort-value=""| Specialized for water traffic, which is a very common form of transportation. Quite comfortable, but usually very slow.
|data-sort-value=""| Sinking, whether by collision or misuse, can be lethal, especially on the sea. However, collisions are very rare.
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Walking}}
|Personal bipedal ambulation 
|data-sort-value=""| Can travel between any two connected points regardless of infrastructure, but only comfortable for a few kilometers. Very slow compared to even bicycles, but the energy intensity is good for exercise.
|data-sort-value=""| One of the safest way people get around, as long as you don't get hit by a motorized vehicle. Walking up or down stairs is particularly dangerous.
|Practicality
|-
|{{w|Motorcycle}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""| As practical as cars to move between locations, but generally less comfortable, especially in rough weather.
|data-sort-value=""| Cars with all the safety features of bicycles. Exceedingly dangerous at higher speeds, especially when sharing the road with cars.
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Helicopter}}s
| Rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors.
|data-sort-value=""| Effective to move between any two points as long as there are landing pads of reasonable size. Can be used to hover relatively still in the air. Very slow for actual transport, very loud, and very difficult to learn.
|data-sort-value=""| As per {{w|Harry Reasoner}}: "An airplane by its nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, it will fly. A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying; immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter."
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Light aircraft}}
|In the United States, the general category of [https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/design_approvals/small_airplanes/categories small aircraft] covers a variety of aircraft certified to weigh 19,000 pounds (8618 kg) or less at takeoff. Maximum allowed weight varies by specific category.
|data-sort-value=""|
|data-sort-value=""|
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Go-kart}}s
|...
|data-sort-value=""| A lack of proper suspension makes for a bumpy ride, and the maximum speed is quite low.
|data-sort-value=""| Crashing is much more likely to cause spinal damage than bicycles, but the relatively low speed would make them much safer than other motorized vehicle options.
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Skateboard}}s
| A board on four wheels
|data-sort-value=""| Much slower and less energy-efficient than bicycles.
|data-sort-value=""| As long as you're not doing mad tricks in a quarterpipe, using a skateboard for transportation carries little risk. Safety gear is common.
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Inline skates|Rollerblades}}
| Shoes with wheels at the bottom
|data-sort-value=""| Much slower and less energy-efficient than bicycles.
|data-sort-value=""| As long as you're not doing mad tricks in a quarterpipe, using rollerblades for transportation carries little risk. Safety gear is common.
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Ski}}s
| Narrow strips of material to stand on while sliding down a hill
|data-sort-value=""| A fine way to move downhill relatively fast, but maintenance of the slope is required.
|data-sort-value=""|Downhill skiers can reach high speeds at which collisions could cause significant injury to the skier's lightly protected body. It can be hard to control your speed at lower skill levels, but as long as low speeds are maintained (as it might when used as a transportation option), skiing is not that dangerous.
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Unicycle}}s
| One-wheeled human-powered vehicle
|data-sort-value=""|Can be a [https://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/24351890.wellington-teen-circumnavigates-globe-unicycle/ practical form of transport] for skilled riders. Because unicycles lack a gear system, they are less mechanically efficient than bicycles and have a much lower top-speed.
|data-sort-value=""| Because of the lower top-speed, unicycles would be safer than bicycles, though you may fall off it more frequently.
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Sled}}s
| A construction that can slide over snow, ice, or sand
|data-sort-value=""| Useful in limited conditions in which other forms of transport might struggle to cope with.
|data-sort-value=""| It is hard to properly control your speed downhill, but extremely safe on level terrain or slight slopes.
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Bumper Cars}}
| Small electric karts with rubber bumpers
|data-sort-value=""| Only really convenient for making ''very'' short journeys. Typically require an electronic mesh in the ceiling to move at all.
|data-sort-value=""| Apparently safe enough to be a hardly-supervized children's entertainment attraction.
|Speciality/Recreational
|-
|{{w|Hot Air Balloon}}s
| A basket tied to a huge bag of heated air
|data-sort-value=""| Provide limited control and low speeds. They were the only form of air-travel available in the 19th-century, but were overtaken by powered air-travel.
|data-sort-value=""| A malfunction in the balloon can result in a very rapid descent, from great height.
|?????
|}

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

:[A chart is shown, where the Y axis is labeled "Convenient for travel" and has an arrow pointing up and the X axis is labeled "Dangerous" and has an arrow pointing right.]
:[The following modes are shown in the "Zone of practicality" (a large irregular area fitting in to the top left corner of the chart), highlighted with a gray background, starting with the first few bunched at highest convenience, :]
:Trains [very convenient, very safe]
:Airliners
:Cars
:Scooters [the most dangerous of this set, at medium-low danger]
:Bicycles
:Boats [medium-high convenience, a slight amount of danger]
:Walking [the least convienient, at roughly half, and lowest danger of this set]
:[The following modes are shown in the "Zone of specialty and recreational vehicles" (a large irregular swathe from the top right to the bottom left, not quite touching the prior zone), highlighted with a gray background, the nodes spread in rough order from high convenience/danger to low convenience/danger:]
:Motorcycles [highly convenient, nearly maximum danger]
:Helicopters [not quite fully convenient, most danger]
:Light aircraft
:Go karts
:Skateboards
:Rollerblades
:Skis
:Unicycles
:Sleds
:Bumper cars [lowest convenience and lowest danger item]
:[The following is labeled "?????" (in the bottom right corner), and has a gray background all to itself in a small blob notably distant from the nearest other group:]
:Hot air balloons [placed as almost the least convenient and most dangerous, of all labels]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Hot air balloons are the optimal mode of transportation, if your optimization algorithm has a sign error.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]

2935: Ocean Loop

2024-05-22T16:39:22Z

172.71.242.29: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2935
| date = May 20, 2024
| title = Ocean Loop
| image = ocean_loop_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x286px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I can't believe they wouldn't even let me hold a vote among the passengers about whether to try the loop.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an EXCITED ROLLER COASTER ENTHUSIAST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Upon hearing the term "ocean loop", many people think of horizontal {{w|ocean gyre}}s or {{w|ocean currents}}. This comic illustrates a vertical, rather than horizontal, ocean loop.

The comic shows a large construction, rising out of the sea to dwarf a nearby cruise ship. It involves a submerged water-jet sending water up out of the surface and round a rollercoaster-loop-like water-flume trough. The scale is such that it seems that the ship, once caught in the necessarily powerful stream of water, is also intended to be propelled around the inverting loop before "safely" exiting at the other side.

The design is reminiscent of the infamous 'Cannonball Loop' water slide - a [https://www.latimes.com/travel/themeparks/la-trb-action-park-looping-water-slide-20150305-story.html fully-functional] water slide complete with a loop-de-loop - which was one of many famously dangerous rides and attractions at Action Park; a theme park in New Jersey that became iconic for its blithe disregard for human safety, and the numerous accidents and deaths at the park as a result. This [https://youtu.be/P14W1pRRK9Y video], among other potentially dangerous water slides, shows 2 such loop-de-loop water slides ([https://youtu.be/P14W1pRRK9Y?t=487 1] and [https://youtu.be/P14W1pRRK9Y?t=522 2]). Apart from various other issues regarding {{what if|43|large "loop-de-loops"}}, the stream of water required to maintain this setup would be {{w|Entrainment (hydrodynamics)|acting upon the nearby water}} and so the nearby ship is probably already close enough to be drawn into the loop (with the best option left being to deliberately steer into it, rather than risk being swept uncontrollably into the structure), assuming that it isn't already caught in the tug of the water-jet's inward flow.

Even assuming a "successful" loop (the stresses and rotation inflicted by the loop are likely beyond the design limits of such a vessel), the emergence back into the ''relatively'' calm and stationary waters beyond the exiting outflow would be a severe challenge to navigation. On the positive side, due to the nature of buoyancy, if the loop structure itself is capable of withstanding the force of the water being forced round it then it ''should'' be equally capable of withstanding the passage of the ship, unlike an impromptu rail-based loop which might stand up on its own but then shake itself apart when the first carriage is sent around it.

Not only would there be problems for the engineers, ship and navigators, the "ride" wouldn't be pleasant for the ship's passengers in any way. Many of the passengers would suffer extreme injuries from the changes of velocity (up to 370km/h or 230mph based on a loop radius of 3 x ship length) and rotation (unlike {{w|rollercoasters}}, or even airplanes during simple take-off and landing, passengers aren't normally strapped down). It is possible that the initial extreme undercurrent would capsize the ship. Depending upon where in the ship you were, the centripetal forces and the ship's rotation may not match for all passengers, forcing anyone not properly secured out towards the bow or stern. As well as the passengers, this also is relevant to all unsecured items (e.g. knives and forks would go flying off tables), as well as the dangers of breakable glass, liquids and many other dangerous objects which could create hazards even (or particularly) against those who have strapped themselves down to prevent their own movement through the ship.

Because of all these safety concerns, the caption, "[[:Category: Banned from conferences|I don't know why the cruise line fired me]]", suggests that someone in the company realized this would not be a good idea, and shut down the concept. However, the title text, "I can't believe they wouldn't even let me hold a vote among the passengers about whether to try the loop", implies that the narrator (whether because they simply hadn't thought it through properly, or they are [[Black Hat|someone with a sadistic nature]]) actually managed to get as far as building this loop and having a ship ready to try it. Considering the vast budget that would have been required to realise this concept, it appears that oversight at the cruise company is not what it could be, and perhaps others should be in line for firing as well (if it has not already bankrupted the company).

When those in charge of the ship objected to sailing into this loop, the builder attempted to get around this by having the passengers vote on it. Presumably worried that opening the decision-making process to the passengers might favor the exciting risk over the well-founded reason of the staff, those in charge put a stop to that too. Cruise ships generally don't function as democracies, even outside of absurd situations such as the one depicted.

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

:[A cruise ship approaches an enormous loop-de-loop flume from the left. A large jet of water is being propelled into the loop-de-loop by a hot tub style jet. The loop-de-loop, that looks like a waterslide, and the structure housing the jet are connected to a slightly inclined seabed.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I don't know why the cruise line fired me.

==Trivia==
* '''This trivia section was created by a BOT'''
* The [[:File:ocean_loop_huge.png|standard size]] image was uploaded with a resolution/size larger than the supposed 2x version.
* This may have been an error.
* At the time of posting, the image was ''massive'', 4760 x 4295 pixels.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:563: Fermirotica

2024-05-06T21:06:31Z

172.71.242.29:

Explanation marked as incorrect. I would do some editing, but I do not have the time or explanation-writing skill to do so effectively.

Issues:

1. The explanation's listed April Fools' joke seems to have no proof; it has no mention in the comic.

2. The title text seems to just be a complaint against Google's methods for statistics (i.e. "I love" is sarcasm). All it says is that Google just wildly guesses, based on unrelated, random events, and calls it statistics.
[[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 04:26, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

I doubt that the title text was complaining or sarcastic at all. If I recall correctly, the ability to plug calculations with units into Google was pretty new in 2009, and especially useful, given as he switched his time units from minutes to years. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.234|108.162.231.234]] 17:04, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Except that it specifically states that Google guesses (stats are ballpark) and change based un unrelated occurrences (time of day and your mother's presence). That sounds like either sarcasm, or him actually loving how google doesn't (or didn't at the time) do a very good job with stats. [[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:08, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

I agree with Zweisteine - it is obvious a sarcastic comment, because the results from Google is so random that it will change during the day - and of course there is the your mom joke. Is there a category for these comics? (Like with the velociraptor comics etc.) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:20, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

The two sentences of the title text are unrelated. The first is not sarcasm, but is straightforward praise of Google's "dimensional analysis". Searching on "sqrt( 2 / (pi * (18600 / mile^2) * (80 / year) * 30 minutes) )" yields an answer of "139.379395 meters" with Google correctly doing all of the unit conversion for you. Wow, that really is cool! It should be noted when Google gained this capability, if we can find a source for that. The second sentence is a straightforward discussion of the limitations of the model, as the probability of having sex is not uniformly distributed throughout the day. The mom part is a joke because it applies to a specific individual, not simultaneously to the general population around you (unless it is "Moms Visit Campus Day"). There is no April Fool's joke here. Where does the 18,600 persons / square mile population density come from? Is it for a specific metropolitan area? Finally, what Randall is calling "dimensional analysis" is more commonly referred to as unit conversion. For physicists, at least, dimensional analysis refers to a more subtle and powerful tool where equations for phenomena can often be deduced (to within a scaling factor) purely by analyzing the units involved. Wikipedia's articles on "Dimensional analysis", "Units conversion by factor-label", "Drake equation", and "Fermi paradox" should all be linked. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.217|108.162.212.217]] 12:26, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

:Ah! I agree that the ''... and (b) whether "your mom" was in town (she is exceptionally slutty)'' "your mom" joke is a better interpretation than my earlier thought that people have sex less often when their out-of-town mom is visiting them. Good job! - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.217|108.162.212.217]] 02:28, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

April's fool seems to refer to the date of the comic being April 1st 2009. {{unsigned|Eric957}}

:Understood, but there is no meta-"joke within a joke" or joke on the reader which would serve as a kind of April Fool's joke. This is just a regular comic which happened to be published on 1 April. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.217|108.162.212.217]] 18:38, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

I think this represents a "Fermi Estimation" - it may give a number to a problem by taking "best guesses" for something that is not easily calculated exactly. See also http://whatif.xkcd.com/84/ [[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 17:58, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

:I agree; I think it has little if anything to do with the Fermi Paradox. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.123|173.245.52.123]] 03:21, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

:Also agree! Pretty positive this has to do with “Fermi Problems” (aka “Fermi estimates”).

:Uh, I got 10cm. Interpret that however you'd like. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.49.66|162.158.49.66]] 05:52, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

::I take it as you were off by an order of magnitude at least in one of your parameters or you made a mistake in the calculation. The only way you can get that without X_f and X_d being inconsistent is if you put the population density high enough that people are literally overlapping. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.123|173.245.52.123]] 03:21, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

:::Yeah, make sure to convert your years or minutes so they are both in the same units of time. I came up with 4 meters on my first calculation, realized there was a mistake, corrected the units and got 7.1 kilometers. Now, if your units are correct and you got 10cm, then you might want to move to a quieter neighborhood. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.154|108.162.237.154]] 01:24, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

This equation is not perfect (besides several environment factors, thus "on average"), because the times when people have sex are not independent: Usually two people have sex at the same time. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.61|162.158.89.61]] 23:56, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

:Wait, that's what the 2 is for. I should learn the circle equations... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.61|162.158.89.61]] 00:01, 21 November 2018 (UTC)

Pretty sure this is about Fermi estimation more than the Paradox? Also disappointed to see no callout of the Fermi+Erotica pun. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.143.59|172.70.143.59]] 10:10, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

Is the two supposed to represent the idea that there are two people having sex? If so, then it should almost certainly not be two - different numbers of people are involved in different sex acts, and the average number of people involved in an act of having sex (so to speak) is very unlikely to be exactly two. The overall average number will vary depending on how one defines sex. If, for example, you included group sex in your definition of sex, but excluded masturbation, then the average number of people involved in a single act of having sex would have to be greater than two, possibly significantly so.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.29|172.71.242.29]] 21:06, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

Talk:563: Fermirotica

2024-05-06T21:05:27Z

172.71.242.29:

User talk:Jkshapiro

2024-05-03T14:28:37Z

172.71.242.29: /* Why upload the non-2x version into the 2x version spot? */

Hi Jkshapiro! What kind of development do you do? --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 11:48, 23 September 2016 (UTC)
: Actually the more I learn about front end development the more I realise I don't actually do it. I do have a programming background and I can slap together enough Javascript to create pretty decent prototypes, but when you start getting into intermediate stuff like MVC frameworks or the shadow DOM I lose interest. Really what I am professionally is a very good interaction designer with some decent skills in related areas such as prototype development, business analysis, and project management. I'll update my user page; thanks for the prompt. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 13:22, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

==Hairbun, girl or not==
Hi Jkshapiro. I have made a comment in your [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Rename_Hair_Bun_Girl|proposal]] and also reinserted a note in the [[Hairbun]] section. I think that it is prudent given that you did not get any replies that agreed with your proposed change from any one else but me. As I already said I do not mind, but many people now know of her as [[Hair Bun Girl]] and might be confused. So at least for the time being there should still be a note. Also I will make a change to her page to explain that she was originally named Hair Bun Girl. Good luck with the massive job of changing her name all along the way. I have used it quite a lot in my huge effort to explain [[1608: Hoverboard]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:07, 25 March 2016 (UTC)
: Thanks Kynde! [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 16:48, 25 March 2016 (UTC)

== Glacier Movement ==

Hi, you have edited that a glacier moves at 1 metre/day, instead of 25cm/day as the explanation mentioned earlier. Your information is directly from the Wikipedia article, but that article links a source that says 25cm, which I think is quite confusing. Did you just check the wikipedia article, or do you have other sources that say 1m? I do not want to edit back and forth on this... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:06, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
: It's a fair cop. Yes, that's exactly what I did and your point is a good one. Will fix here, and I've updated Wikipedia too. Thank you for the personal contact, much appreciated, and would be happy to continue dialogue as necessary. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 15:22, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
::Thanks for the edit, especially for the Wikipedia one. I am not registered to Wikipedia, so I didn't do the change there, when I first checked their source (as the 1m seemed pretty fast to me). --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 09:40, 27 June 2019 (UTC)

== Omitting words ==

That's [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2552:_The_Last_Molecule&diff=prev&oldid=300696 a lot of words to 'omit']... You've every right to rewrite, but seems like a bit dismissive of things that (insofar as I'm concerned) looked relevent/related. If it had been an anonymous editor (like me, yes), I'd have probably undone the change thinking it was excessive for a not particularly current and active article seemingly just randomly edited down. As it is, I thought I'd make this note instead to express my initial reaction (and then leave it). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.186|172.71.178.186]] 07:00, 7 December 2022 (UTC)
: Fair enough, the comment was a bit flippant. Thank you for the reality check. As far as the timeliness, there's no significance, I'm just really behind on all my reading. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 02:50, 11 December 2022 (UTC)

== Why upload the non-2x version into the 2x version spot? ==

I've checked and, [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:physical_quantities_2x.png your uploaded 2x version] now seems to be the https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/physical_quantities.png and not https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/physical_quantities_2x.png - and I can't work out why you did this. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.205|172.69.194.205]] 18:21, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

: Because I don't know what I'm doing :-). May I humbly ask your help in fixing it? [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 00:19, 3 May 2024 (UTC)

::Well, I can't (one of the disadvantages of remaining an IP), but you can reupload the correct version in a similar way to that which you did it the other way, or have some other established user do it. Glad to see that I wasn't missing the point (I had my doubts...), and clearly you've learnt something, so all's good. Or will be... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.29|172.71.242.29]] 14:28, 3 May 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2919: Sitting in a Tree

2024-04-13T20:30:42Z

172.71.242.29: Making some bad attempts to reply work properly...

Meh, they're just dropping burning pine cones on the wargs. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:06, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

I hope I did this right, seeing as this was my first ever edit! [[User:Name of User|Name of User]] ([[User talk:Name of User|talk]]) 04:15, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

Did Randall mean e-filing as in submitting your tax return on the web, and how is that more alarming than ironing sitting on a branch? Or is there some other meaning to efiling? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.243.77|172.68.243.77]] 06:46, 13 April 2024 (UTC)
:Could be that they're sitting in a ''data tree'', selectively traversing it to find [[2918: Tick Marks|a fraudulent subset of transactional records]] to 'declare'... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.74|141.101.99.74]] 10:18, 13 April 2024 (UTC)
:To me it seems "efiling" could be supporting/enacting efilism? Definitely more disturbing. {{unsigned ip|172.70.42.235|12:38, 13 April 2024}}
:I assumed it was a reference to the tax filing deadline in the USA. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.207|162.158.154.207]] 14:15, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

So, "whaling" can mean hitting (usually in the form "whaling on"), but "whaling" also means spending a lot of money, such as when gambling or in a video game. {{unsigned ip|172.71.222.210|11:05, 13 April 2024}}
:Personally, I just automatically thought they would be ''actually'' hunting marine mammals![[[731: Desert Island|''cetacean]] [[1402: Harpoons|needed'']]] [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.204|172.69.194.204]] 11:30, 13 April 2024 (UTC)
::Absolutely - in the hierarchy "what words mean", I'd say "what the word literally means" has a good argument for being at the top. "Whaling" ''also'' means "hitting", and even then, only phrasally: it's surely only ever "whaling on + object". "Whaling", in isolation, is hunting whales.[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 11:54, 13 April 2024 (UTC)
::I believe it only applies to Ishmael and Queequeg, I guess. They're quite homosexual. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.170|108.162.241.170]] 20:04, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

Do "perish/carriage" actually rhyme in (perhaps) the Bostonian accent? I'm drawn back to the state of the Edmund Fitzgerald lyrical rhyming scheme. It might work better using something like "pillage/carriage", with ''only'' the vowel-problem. At which point I could imagine it sort of working in a (bad) Kiwi or Africaans 'iccint'. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.121|172.69.195.121]] 11:42, 13 April 2024 (UTC)
:I think they come quite close in a "general" North American accent. The "pairish" and "cairidge" sounds, stretched out a little to fit the tune, sit well enough together.[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 11:48, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

I came here looking for explanations of "efiling", and I have to say "efilism", which I'd never heard of before, certainly sounds more in keeping with that frame than "e-filing", which just sounds tedious, even if the first result DuckDuckGo offers me is for [https://secure.sarsefiling.co.za/landing something called SARS] which [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS seems an unfortunate name]. - [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 13:31, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

2916: Machine

2024-04-12T08:19:57Z

172.71.242.29: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2916
| date = April 5, 2024
| title = Machine
| image = machine_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x740px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Credible Machine
}}
* To experience the interactivity, visit the [https://xkcd.com/2916/ original comic].

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WELL OILED ROBOT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is the 14th [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous April fools' comic was [[2765: Escape Speed]] from 2023, which was released on Wednesday, April 19, 2023.

Once again an April Fool's Day Comic came out late, as Randall did not release this on April 1st, even though April 1st did fall on a Monday, a normal release day. It first came four days later with the Friday release on April 5th. That this is to be considered an April fools' comic, in spite of the later release, was confirmed on the xkcd Facebook page (see the [[#Trivia|trivia section]] below).

This is a spin on the game {{w|The Incredible Machine}}. The title text explicitly references this, albeit in a linguistic reversal.

The comic starts in a main screen where the user can create a {{w|Rube Goldberg machine}} in a "Cell" where the goal is to route a constant stream of colored balls from inputs on the ceiling or walls to outputs of matching colors on the walls or floor. After the comic is first opened a window pops up over the machine where Cueball in a lab coat tells you to route the balls from the inputs to the outputs. A button opens a “tool panel” where there are large and small boards available for use, as well as some gimmicky stuff like prisms (which deflect marbles) and fans (which blow marbles around), as well as decorative elements which have no effect on the balls.

Typically, inputs and outputs only accept balls of a single colour. However, some outputs accept multiple colours, indicated by a double arrow, and some inputs produce multiple colours. When the player is designing their 'machine', this will involve multiple full streams merged into one (supplied by a double-exit on the adjacent submission). Machines now working in the full grid may, however, find that their sources now contain stray balls of other types that were not handled properly, but there is no way to force a re-edit of the machine to alter its behaviour to account for this.

If any balls are left in your cell for more than 30 seconds, they fade away. The first time a ball fades away another popup informs you that the balls are removed for security reasons. A counter increases for each ball of the correct colour that passes through an exit, and reduces when no balls pass through, or if balls of the wrong colour pass through it. An indicator next to each exit shows whether that exit is not properly supplied (with a cross) or is receiving above its required threshold (a tick). The first time you have built a machine which succeeds in routing enough balls of the correct colour to ''all'' relevent outputs, a popup will prompt you to submit your cell to be added to the public machine. (Subsequently, the submit button will quietly change from 'inactive' (pale) to clickable (dark). This will change back again if any ball transfers again dip back below the required threshold for any reason, such as further editing or an end to a 'fluke' glut of accumulated balls.)

Choosing to submit your cell will give you a textbox to give this cell a name. Proceeding through that, you will now see your cell within the 'grid' and a 'live' feed of balls from any relevent neighbouring cells (which may be more sporadic then the feed you designed your cell with, and contain stray balls of different types). If any supplying-neighbours are still marked as "under construction", they ''may'' provide the balls as if perfectly routed from their own (eventual) source, but will eventually dry up.

It is unknown exactly how and why a particular submission becomes a permanent part of the grid, but your solution may not remain the one used in future refreshes of the grid (e.g. after you choose to edit another randomly allocated cell-in-waiting). The cell you have worked on may even be seen to be an "Under construction" cell in future grid-views and/or given back to you as an (empty) editable area when you choose to change back to the construction-mode. Given the number of 'bottom-layer' cells that are likely primed ready to be completed (e.g. the grid-width of twelve, perhaps staggered across adjacent rows) and the many possible worldwide contributors at any one time, it may be that the chances of being picked for permanence is low; and certainly would have been early on in the comic's existence during the initial frantic rush to participate.

<gallery heights="200" widths="150">
File:2916_popup_intro.png|Introduction popup
File:2916_popup_time.png|Time limit popup
File:2916_popup_submit.png|Submission popup
</gallery>

The button in the bottom right corner allows you to toggle between editing your own machine and a page where you can drag around to view all of the machines that have been submitted and accepted, with a title for each in the upper left corner. In this view you can see that all of the outputs are also inputs for another cell, except for the top row where the inputs come from off screen and the lowest row which output through a launcher of some kind to a set of four colored-coded containers far below. Any empty cells are marked off by yellow tape with the words "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" as well as "DJIA ↑ 31415" once in each cell. "DJIA" stands for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with "DJIA ↑ 31415" indicating that it rose to 31415 points, 31415 being the first five digits of pi, without the period. This would often be displayed on a yellow 'ticker', which might look superficially similar to the yellow barrier tape.

A button in the bottom left corner, added later, allows you to follow the path of the nearest ball as it passes from cell to cell.

Whenever balls reach the bottom of the grid, they are directed towards four containers, one of each color. Most balls are accurately sent to their appropriate container, though there are some misfires. These containers are above a pit, and periodically dump their contents. Balls in the pit are subject to the same 30s culling rule as balls in the cells above. If no balls are directed towards the containers, the pit will be empty. If one or two streams of balls are making it, Cueball and Megan sit in a small boat named the USS Buoyancy, and when sufficient balls are being deposited, the boat begins to float and move. More streams of balls are likely to add more changes. Balls which miss or overspill the pit fall out of the bottom of the frame.

Under construction cells will feed balls of the appropriate colour into neighbouring cells so long as you are not looking at them. Once you scroll to look at them, the supply of balls stops and subsequent cells in the chain will not receive any; scroll away from them again and the supply will resume.

When you press submit, you will see your creation placed on the grid. However if you refresh that cell will likely be under construction or replaced with someone else's machine. However, other people's machines are consistently placed, so it appears that there is some moderation process selecting a machine for each cell out of the machines submitted by users. If your newly submitted creation is placed in the lowest row of cells, balls will be dispensed through the exit at the bottom, but there will be no launcher to propel them towards the pit, and they will vanish as they leave the exit.

The grid is 12 cells wide, and grows in height. The largest size observed so far is 12x59, for a total of 708 cells. The machine's height is determined by the lowest cell; This can be either your submitted cell, or a cell created by another user.

Imperfections in the machines (whether accidental or by design) and the impossibility of entirely avoiding collisions when crossing streams inevitably lead to significant levels of losses and pollution with the wrong colour balls. Indeed, using the follow ball trick (see Trivia) appears to show that it is quite rare for a ball to survive more than several machines without getting stuck somewhere. This implies that there is some 'creative accounting' going on to ensure that cells lower in the grid still have balls to process - simulating flow only for a few nearby cells, while assuming that those cells themselves have pure, steady inputs.

===Toolbox items===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|+ List of objects
|-
! Description !! Effect !! Image
|-
| Plank || Static || [[File:2916_plank.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hammer || Static || [[File:2916_hammer.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Sword || Static || [[File:2916_sword.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hinged scoop || Rotates around its hinge, tries to stay horizontal with a springy effect || [[File:2916_scoop.png|frameless|upright=0.25]] [[File:2916_scoop_mirrored.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Anvil || Static || [[File:2916_anvil.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Brick || Static || [[File:2916_brick.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Fan || Blows away balls in front of it. Different colors are affected by differing amounts (yellow balls are lightest, and can be levitated above an upward-facing fan).|| [[File:2916_fan.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Pillow || Balls will not bounce if they hit it || [[File:2916_pillow.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Bumper || Bounces balls away at significantly higher speed || [[File:2916_round_bumper.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] [[File:2916_bumper_left.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] [[File:2916_bumper_right.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Attractor/Black Hole || Pulls balls toward center, can be resized || [[File:2916_attractor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Repulsor/White hole || Repels balls away from center, can be resized || [[File:2916_repulsor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Prism || "Refracts" balls as they enter and exit, causing them to curve to follow the color of the ball as much as possible{{Actual citation needed|...I can believe this might have been the intent, but I've never seen any such behaviour, even when dripping combined red and blue balls in from the same incident angle on the same spot, both types seem to take whatever exit they want, unpredictable and not at all differentiated between colours.}} || [[File:2916_prism.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Wheel || Spins depending on arrow keys [right/left] pressed while selected (default:anticlockwise), deflects balls, can jam with enough resistance (e.g. glut of balls or against other elements). || [[File:2916_wheel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| "Good job" trophy || Static || [[File:2916_trophy.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Glass cup || Static || [[File:2916_cup.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || Swats away balls in front of themself (was added later) || [[File:2916_cat_new.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|+ Characters
|-
! Description !! Image
|-
| Ponytail with raised arms || [[File:2916_ponytail_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Ponytail standing || [[File:2916_ponytail.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cueball with raised arms || [[File:2916_cueball_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| White Hat || [[File:2916_whitehat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Knit Cap sliding, resting, or floating? Or sneaking, if rotated ~45 degrees || [[File:2916_knitcap_resting.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Knit Cap || [[File:2916_knitcap.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Helmet? || [[File:2916_helmet.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Probably Deterministic sign || [[File:2916_deterministic.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Squirrel || [[File:2916_squirrel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| [[1682: Bun|Bun]] || [[File:2916_rabbit.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || [[File:2916_cat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|}

===Other items===

Ball containers at the bottom
{|
|[[File:2916_container_red.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_yellow.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_blue.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_green.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|}

Cueball and Megan in the ''USS Buoyancy''
[[File:4d425c.png|thumb|left|150px]]
 

Pit below the ''USS Buoyancy'' (not in scale)
[[File:2916_pit_bottom.png|thumb|left|300px]]
 

=== Color routing ===
The different ball colors have different physical properties. Red balls are more bouncy than other balls, green balls are heavier, and yellow balls are lighter and slightly bouncy. The following values were extracted from the code:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Color
! Mass
! Density
! Restitution (bounciness)
! Linear damping (drag)
|-
! data-sort-key="00F" | Blue
| 0.08
| 1
| 0
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="F00" | Red
| 0.08
| 1
| 0.8
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="0F0" | Green
| 0.75
| 9.325
| 0
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="FF0" | Yellow
| 0.024
| 0.3
| 0.6
| 2
|}

For certain combinations of inlet and outlet 'gates', it is necessary to 'cross the streams'. e.g. to direct righthand-entry balls to a lefthand-exit and vice-versa. It is possible to just construct the field to send two (or more!) sets of balls to fly across a common gap, to land on an appropriate reception area that leads to the chosen exit. But, though this is not {{w|Proton pack#Crossing the streams|completely inadvised}}, the timing of the balls cannot be guaranteed to be in sync (or, rather, anti-sync) with each other and collisions ''will'' occur, especially under the variations of delivery that might significantly alter the ballistic path across the gap. Even if the trial machine works, in isolation with a steady stream of all balls entering the field of play, once submitted it will inevitably be fed by a more chaotically-routed preceeding construction.

In order to maintain sufficient correct arrivals at exits, it may be necessary to add a method of filtering the hues.

This could just mean introducing a 'wrong hue trap' beyond any crossing point(s) that send the occasionally wrong ball back to the cross point (or let them time-out in a dead-end, relying upon few enough failures from the rest of the balls, along with all colliding balls that subsequently missed ''any'' chance of reaching an exit). Alternatively, two (or more) feeds of marbles could be fed through a deliberate 'sorter' that does a sufficiently reasonable job of separating the combined sets out towards their intended target-exits.

The various physical qualities of the balls suggest a number of methods for redirecting separate hues to separate onward journeys. This can be done by isolating a hue from every other hue, then passing on (if necessary) to a setup extracting a different one from the remainder, and perhaps also a third time. It may also be possible to merge 'arrangements' of sorting mechanics to efficiently distribute straight into three ''or even four'' onward tracks towards the desired outputs, but that is left as an exercise to the reader.


{| class="wikitable"
! style="background-color:black; color:white" | To separate !! style="background-color:lightblue" | Blue !! style="background-color:lightgreen" | Green !! style="background-color:yellow" | Yellow !! style="background-color:red" | Red
|-
! style="background-color:red" | Red
| *R/B* | '''Use 'bounce''''
The sole difference is how much balls will rebound from objects. Well managed and constrained ricochets should allow a sorting action.
| *R/G* | '''Use mass or 'bounce''''
Green balls cannot be levitated by a vertical fan. An incline across any such fan(s) will levitate only non-Greens. Green, like Blue, rebounds differently to Red. Green balls are also affected by black holes much less than all other balls.
| *R/Y* | ''See Y/B''
| *R/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
|-
! style="background-color:yellow" | Yellow
| *Y/B* | '''All methods'''
Yellow, alone, exhibits high drag against any unforced motion. It is also unique in all other ways; e.g. can be levitated highest, against all other hues (though most profoundly against Green).
| *Y/G* | ''See Y/B''
| *Y/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *Y/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | ''See Y/B'' 
|-
! style="background-color:lightgreen" | Green
| *G/B* | '''Use mass'''
Green balls cannot be levitated by a vertical fan. There is also a not so marginal difference in density that might be exploited, such as by using black holes, which only minimally effects Green (perhaps showing an effective difference between mass of attraction and mass of inertia).
| *G/G* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *G/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | ''See Y/B'' 
| *G/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See R/G
|-
! style="background-color:lightblue" | Blue
| *B/B* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *B/G* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See G/B
| *B/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See Y/B
| *B/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See R/B
|}

Even when not strictly necessary for one's own submission, once submitted into the full playing grid the player's own contribution may find itself working with less 'pure' delivered ball-streams (from an imperfectly separating feed-in contribution). It is possible that this more interactive disruption can make the new setup behave erratically or even entirely incorrectly.

It might be thought good practice (but not ''necessary'') to deliberately combine any or all inputs and do a full job of splitting them again, just in anticipation of possibly having to deal with such cross-contamination and being able to 'clean up' the onward stream(s) for the benefit of others. This would of course be particularly difficult if the isolated building-phase does not provide all four hues to 'test' against, so any speculatively added filtering would have to be added 'blind' (and only on the offchance that any anticipated incorrect balls will actually enter the arena) and without any legitimate exits to which such rejects could be shunted (therefore could accumulate, up until any 'time out' that might apply to any ball once operational as part of the combined grid).

Single-input/single-output designs might not particularly require ''any'' sorting mechanism, in theory, though the unexpected 'contamination' of the system with balls of different masses/etc could perhaps introduce malfunctioning passage from the added chaos it might succumb to.

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

:[The placeholder image shows four balls, colored red, green, yellow and blue, bouncing on top of three white blocks. Text in the center: "[visit xkcd.com to view]"]

:[Cueball with lab coat, intro popup]
:Cueball: Balls falling into your cell should be routed to the outputs at a steady rate.

:[Cueball with lab coat, warning popup]
:Cueball: For security reasons, balls that remain in your device for more than 30 seconds will be removed and destroyed.

:[Cueball with lab coat, submit popup]
:Cueball: Congratulations! Your contraption has passed all tests. Press [submit button] to submit it to be added to the machine!

==Trivia==
*Randall acknowledges the people who helped him create this comic in a [[Header_text#Machine|comic-specific header text]].
**With 11 different involved apart from Randall this is by far the comic with most people involved.
*Some hidden keyboard shortcuts have been found:
** Follow balls: Ctrl + Alt/Option + B (note: this will also make the ball you are following immortal - not subject to the 30s timeout rule)
** Show debug overlay: Ctrl + Shift + Cmd + D
** Delete selected item: Fn + Delete
*When Randall posted a [https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD/posts/pfbid0Cs97awQZi1ZiaEXouAex9tXrwAS3qJV3RmAiuCq5uvZQwqZVMgDmcqJ7JU9LYodYl link to this comic] on his [https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD Facebook feed], he directly wrote that it was a late April Fools' Day!
**MACHINE
**Happy Belated April Fool's Day!
**This thus ends any discussion of whether this should be seen as an April Fool's comic or not.
**It just came out 4 days late. This has also happened several times since [[Garden]].
[[File:2916 Machine Facebook April fools' confirmation.png]]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Buns]]
[[Category:Cats]]

1695: Code Quality 2

2024-03-29T15:31:27Z

172.71.242.29: /* Markov bots and bus timetables */ Correcting position (and standard use) of CN.

{{comic
| number = 1695
| date = June 17, 2016
| title = Code Quality 2
| image = code_quality_2.png
| titletext = It's like you tried to define a formal grammar based on fragments of a raw database dump from the QuickBooks file of a company that's about to collapse in an accounting scandal.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is the second in the [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]] series:
* [[1513: Code Quality]]
* [[1695: Code Quality 2]]
* [[1833: Code Quality 3]]
* [[1926: Bad Code]]
* [[2138: Wanna See the Code?]]

Although [[Cueball]] is not seen in this comic, we can surmise that he is speaking from off-panel based on continuity with [[1513: Code Quality]].

As in the first comic in the series, we again see [[Ponytail]] being introduced to the messy {{w|source code}} Cueball has written. This comic evidently takes place some time later, as Ponytail now appears to be familiar with Cueball's code, and dreads reading it.

In this comic she continues the trend started in the first comic by using a parade of vivid similes to convey the incomprehensible nature of Cueball's code.

===OCR, Scrabble, and Javascript-reserved words===
In her first simile, Ponytail makes a reference to using OCR ({{w|Optical Character Recognition}}) to recognize the letters on a {{w|Scrabble}} board. OCR is notoriously imperfect and often gets letters wrong, resulting in garbled words. The fact that a Scrabble board has criss-crossing words, with some of them traversing the board vertically, would make OCR output even less reliable.

Ponytail observes that Cueball’s code includes the [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Lexical_grammar#Keywords JavaScript reserved words] more often than a typical Scrabble board would, a concession that the code looks at least vaguely code-like. In programming, a reserved word is a word that has meaning to the programming language, and therefore is not permitted to be used as a variable name. Common examples are 'function', 'if', and 'return'. The reference to "triple points" refers to the fact that Scrabble's scoring system is based on the point values of individual letters; certain modifier squares on the board can double or triple those values. If Javascript reserved words are worth triple, that would incentivize the players to play them whenever they can, which could give the vague appearance of some kind of code structure.

===Weather forecasts and woodpeckers===
In her second simile, Ponytail references naval weather forecasts, avian interference, and indentation. A weather forecast is a complex, multidimensional array of data used in predicting or assessing the atmospheric conditions of a geographical area over a set time. [https://web.archive.org/web/20191115003453/https://aviationweather.gov/static/help/taf-decode.php Naval weather forecasts] (archive) use an extremely condensed code to send their information, rendering them unintelligible to an untrained reader. This is similar to the common bad coding practice of using unhelpful variable names - typically ones that are short and have no obvious meaning, or may even be misleading.

Transcribing such a weather forecast would be further complicated by a {{w|woodpecker}} randomly pecking the Shift key on the keyboard. Woodpeckers are wild birds famed for their ability to very rapidly peck at a target, which they use to make holes in trees, and also to create a loud "drumming" sound that can be heard a long way. Having a woodpecker peck at the Shift key would result in many letters being randomly capitalized, further reducing the readability of the output.

Ponytail then suggests that the output is "randomly indented". Indentation is the practice of shifting a section of text further from the starting margin. In coding, indentation typically has no semantic function, but rather is a way to visually indicate blocks of code in a hierarchical fashion. Without indentation, code becomes extremely hard to read - as an example, see the entries in the {{w|International Obfuscated C Code Contest}} to see just how bad this can get.

The Python programming language is famous for actually making indentation part of its semantics - a Python program ''must'' be correctly indented, or it will not run.

If a piece of code was ''randomly'' indented, this could be even worse than having no indentation at all, as it could lead readers to see structures where there are none.

===E. E. Cummings and usernames===
<div class="poem" style="float: right; clear: both; margin: 0 0.5em; font-size: 90%">
<pre class="poem preformatted">Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death</pre>
<div class="poem attribution" style="text-align: right">–E. E. Cummings, "Buffalo Bill's" (1920)</div>
</div>
Ponytail's third simile references famous poet {{w|E. E. Cummings}}. Edward Estlin Cummings was a poet who used capitalization, punctuation, and line breaks in unconventional ways, suggesting that Cueball's naming conventions are esoteric and hard to follow. She follows this up by restricting the vocabulary to "the usernames a website suggests when the one you want is taken". Websites that offer membership typically require users to create a username that uniquely identifies them. This means that two people cannot have the same username, so if you try to request a name that's already in use, the website will ask you to pick another. Some websites try to help out by suggesting alternative usernames which are close to, but not quite the same as, the one they requested.

For example, if the username "Hedgeclipper" is already taken, the site may recommend "Hedgeclipper1234" or "H3dg3clipp3r" instead, depending on the algorithm behind the suggestions. These names are usually harder to read and less elegant than the one the user actually wanted. An E. E. Cummings poem written entirely out of these semi-random suggestions would make the resulting poem even more "unusual" than his work is already considered.

===Markov bots and bus timetables===
The final simile involves {{w|Markov chain|Markov chaining}}, bus schedules, and potential gross vehicular negligence. A Markov chain is a sequence in which each symbol depends only on the previous symbol. This is often used to simulate real-world concepts such as speech simulation and decision making. For example, in English text, you can make reasonable predictions as to what the next letter might be, based on the knowledge of which letters tend to be used together (and which don't). Thus, a Markov bot programmed with basic knowledge of English letter frequencies could produce plausible-looking text. However, the text would make absolutely no sense, as Markov processes are probabalistic and have no knowledge of how English semantics work.

Bus schedules are [http://elb-jpinstances-1463028547.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/ccg3/XSLT_STT_REQUEST?mode=direct&line=ccg:01065:%20:H:y15&sessionID=0&requestID=0&itdLPxx_template=tableResults&type_stt=any&language=en&coordOutputFormat=WGS84%5Bdd.ddddd%5D&outputFormat=0&name_stt=10111816&contentFilter=allstops often complicated and full of notation], and are notorious for confusing people who are not used to reading them. Using these as the input to a Markov bot would result in an even more garbled and unreadable mess, as the Markov bot doesn't understand bus timetables either.

The issue is further complicated when Ponytail suggests that the schedules are from a city where "the buses crash constantly", which would be horrifying if it happened so regularly that the schedules actually took crashes into account. However, this is likely just Ponytail adding an additional layer of convolution to the simile.

Cueball finally comments that "… it runs fine for now" which indicates he knows the code has problems but is reluctant to fix them because it's more-or-less serving its function. This is a well-known cop-out in software development, and is considered poor practice - the fact that the code is running ''for now'', or runs in the specific circumstances the developer tested it in, does not mean that it is well-written, or that it will integrate with other parts of the system, or that it will continue to run reliably in the future.

Ponytail quips back that "So does a burning bus", which also meets Cueball's low standard - a burning bus can still drive despite being on fire, but most people would not enjoy traveling in such a vehicle,{{Citation needed}} and there will eventually come a point where the fire will endanger the occupants and interfere with the operation of the bus. This could be the reason the buses are always crashing in Ponytail's hypothetical scenario.

===Title text===
In the title text, Ponytail compares the code to a formal grammar, which is a way of describing a set of strings by providing a list of mapping rules that generate those strings. The resulting output would be a laborious list of rules which would all randomly reference each other, akin to {{w|spaghetti code}}. Furthermore, she suggests that the grammar is based on fragments of a raw {{w|database dump}}, which would be an export of the data from a database in a "raw" format that contains no processing to make it easy for humans to read. {{w|QuickBooks}} is an accounting software package, which could imply that the code Cueball has written is related to finance in some way. If the company using QuickBooks is embroiled in an accounting scandal, their database is likely already in a mess, even in human-readable format.

==Transcript==
:[Zoom in on Ponytail sitting in front of a computer screen typing. Cueball speaks only off-panel, but since this is a direct continuation of comic 1513: Code Quality where Cueball is shown, there can be no doubt it is him.]
:Ponytail: Ugh, I hate reading your code.
:Cueball (off-panel): I know, I know.

:[Zoom out of Ponytail in an office chair in front of the computer on a desk.]
:Ponytail: It's like you ran OCR on a photo of a Scrabble board from a game where Javascript reserved words counted for triple points.

:[Zoom in on Ponytails head.]
:Ponytail: It looks like someone transcribed a naval weather forecast while woodpeckers hammered their shift keys, then randomly indented it.

:[Zoom out back to the setting of the second panel.]
:Ponytail: It's like an E E Cummings poem written using only the usernames a website suggests when the one you want is taken.

:[Zoom in to Ponytails head and the screen in a wider panel. Finally Cueball again answers off-panel.]
:Ponytail: This looks like the output of a Markov bot that's been fed bus timetables from a city where the buses crash constantly.
:Cueball (off-panel): Whatever, it runs fine for now.
:Ponytail: So does a burning bus.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Code Quality]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Code Quality 02]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] 
[[Category:Language]] 
[[Category:Animals]] 
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

Talk:2904: Physics vs. Magic

2024-03-15T21:58:48Z

172.71.242.29:

Isn't the first law of thermodynamics a conservation law? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.217|172.69.134.217]] 21:27, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

In Lagrangian Mechanics,the Lagrangian is a function of time, position and speed. The action of the system is defined as the integral of the Lagrangian between the initial and final time. Movement equations are derived as those that minimize action. In that sense it can be loosely interpreted that by only setting initial condition and outcome you can get the full picture of all intermediate events. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.215|198.41.230.215]] 22:46, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

This is why statistics is magical [[User:Phlaxyr|Phlaxyr]] ([[User talk:Phlaxyr|talk]]) 23:33, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Both thermodynamics and conservation laws make predictions without telling us anything about what exactly is happening in the intermediate steps. In that sense they're no different from the curse in the comic. An example for thermodynamics could be: your coffee cup will get cold if left on your desk (zeroth law). And an example from conservation laws could be: it doesn't matter what method you're going to use to stop a moving car, in all cases the car has lost the same amount of energy (1/2mv^2). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.110|141.101.99.110]] 00:33, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

I've always been a little bit annoyed by thermodynamics. I mean it has a temperature, it has energy, why can't I have the energy without something colder lying around? "Remove heat energy from this object and charge a battery with it"... It sucks because the inverse is true, I can certainly discharge a battery and make heat energy from chemical... Anyway back on topic, can someone magic me such a device? I promise to share 50% of the big oil hush money. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.23|172.68.210.23]] 04:04, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
:What exactly would be your contribution? Anyone with such device would be already swimming in money from U.S. department of defense. Or, more likely, killed by them. Because it certainly can be used as a bomb. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 20:48, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
:: Anonymity. With magic up their sleeve they probably want to solve a few more world problems too, this allows them to get one out of the way without drawing attention to themselves. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.73|172.68.210.73]] 01:17, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

The talk had a better explanation of why Thermodynamics, Conservation laws and Lagrangians are 'magic' than the actual explanation. I added a few paragraphs briefly explaining to the explanation, I hope that's helpful, but I left the paragraph about scientific laws being empirical themselves in place despite the fact that I'm pretty dubious about whether that's actually part of the joke. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.111|141.101.99.111]] 16:46, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
:: To be frank I just think part of the joke is how naive definitions of science can lead to baffling counterexamples [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.214|198.41.230.214]] 08:03, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

 
 

'''About the stationary action concept'''

At first sight it looks as if Hamilton's stationary action implies some form of teleology. On closer inspection that turns out not to be the case.

I will use the following case as example of application of calculus or variations in physics: the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catenary catenary] problem. The properties of the catenary problem that make it lend itself to variational treatment generalize to other areas of physics in which calculus of variations is applied

Take a catenary and divide it into subsections. Here's the thing: each of those subsections is an instance of the catenary problem. The ''ratio'' of horizontal and vertical displacement is different for each subsection, of course, but that is not an obstacle.

Solving the catenary problem with calculus of variations consists of the following: you subdivide the total length in infinitesimally small subsections. You then set up an equation that addresses all subsections concurrently.

That equation-for-every-infinitesimal-subsection-concurrently is the Euler-Lagrange equation. You solve the problem by restating the equation as a ''differential equation''.

A differential equation is non-local in the sense that to solve the problem you require that the equation is to be satisfied over the whole domain ''concurrently''.

The derivation of the Euler-Lagrange equation is a generic derivation. That is, the result of that derivation is applicable for ''any'' problem that is stated in variational form.

Stating a problem in variational form means that it is stated as an integral. (In the case of the catenary problem that integral is the integral of the potential energy from one point of suspension to the next point of suspension.) The problem statement is then: which curve has the property that for that curve the ''derivative'' of the integral of the potential energy is zero.

In the case of the catenary problem: 
The integral is integration with respect to the horizontal coordinate. The variation that is applied is perpendicular to that; the variation is applied in the ''vertical'' direction. The derivative-is-zero criterion is for the derivative of the integral with respect to that ''vertical'' direction.

 

Key to the derivation of the Euler-Lagrange equation is that it works towards the goal of transforming the integral expression to a differential expression. That is essential: in order to make progress the integration must be replaced with differentiation.

The result of the transformation, the Euler-Lagrange equation, imposes a constraint that is just as demanding as the initial formulation with an integral. The differential equation is to be satisfied concurrently over the whole domain.

There is a derivation of the Euler-Lagrange equation that just skips stating the integral; it goes straight to the differential expression. [https://preetum.nakkiran.org/lagrange.html Geometric derivation of the Euler-Lagrange equation] Author: Preetum Nakkiran.

(Preetum Nakkiran uses the catenary problem as motivating example, the result has general validity.)

Further reading: discussion of Hamilton's stationary action in an answer I submitted to physics.stackexchange: [https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/670705/ Hamilton's stationary action]

 

'''The relation between Newtonian mechanics and conservation of energy'''

We have that in order to formulate a theory of mechanics we must at minimum use these three quantities: position, velocity, acceleration. These three are in a cascading relation: velocity is the time derivative of position, acceleration is the time derivative of velocity.

v = ds/dt, a = dv/dt      (1)

In the case of uniform acceleration from a starting velocity of zero we have: 
v = at      (2) 
s = ½at²      (3)

Take (3), multiply both sides with acceleration ''a'', and substitute according to (2):

as = a½at² = ½a²t² = ½(at)² = ½v²

as = ½v²    (5)

The relation (5) is known as Torricelli's formula. 
In case the initial position coordinate and the initial velocity are non-zero the derivation works out as follows: 
v - v₀ = at    (6) 
s - s₀ = v₀t + ½at²    (7) 
Multiply all terms of (7) with acceleration ''a'': 
a(s - s₀) = av₀t + a½at²    (8) 
a(s - s₀) = v₀(at) + ½(at)²    (9) 
a(s - s₀) = v₀(v -v₀) + ½(v -v₀)²    (10) 
a(s - s₀) = vv₀ - v₀² + ½v² - vv₀ + ½v₀²    (11) 
a(s - s₀) = ½v² - ½v₀²    (12) 

Next we go to the more general case of allowing non-uniform acceleration. Interestingly, the result of the integration is identical to (12).

∫ a ds = ½v² - ½(v₀)²    (13)

(To understand (13): we have that integration is summation of infinitesimal strips. The integration consists of concatenating instances of (12), in the limit of infinitesimal increments. All of the in-between terms drop away against each other, resulting in (13))

 

The work-energy theorem is obtained as follows: start with ''F''=''ma'', and integrate both sides with respect to the position coordinate.

∫ F ds = ∫ ma ds    (14)

Use (13) to process the right hand side:

∫ F ds = ½mv² - ½m(v₀)²    (15)

(15) is the work-energy theorem

The work-energy theorem is the reason that it is useful to formulate the concepts of potential energy and kinetic energy. If we formulate potential energy and kinetic energy in accordance with the work-energy theorem then we have that the sum of potential energy and kinetic energy is a conserved quantity.

The work-energy theorem consists of two elements: ''F''=''ma'', and (13).

Here (13) was stated in terms of the familiar quantities of mechanics: position, velocity, acceleration. (13) generalizes to any set of three quantites that features that cascading relation: state, first time derivative, second time derivative.

Example: electric current and electromotive force in an LC circuit 
Amount of current is a first derivative (displacement of charge per unit of time) 
''Change'' of current strength is a second derivative 
For current through an inductor: the rate of change of current strength (second time derivative) is proportional to the electromotive force. 
So we see that in the case of an LC circuit the elements necessary to result in a conservation property are present. 
[[User:Cleonis|Cleonis]] ([[User talk:Cleonis|talk]]) 11:50, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Thinking further on this, I believe part of the apparent strangeness of the Lagrangian formalism is the fact that the system state is specified at both ends forces you into thinking 'backwards in time' in a way that you don't have to in the Newtonian formalism, but the Newtonian formalism is quite happy to infer the past state from the future and give sensible answers if you integrate backwards in time. So in that sense it's true to say that the Lagrangian formalism implies no more teleology than the Newtonian formalism, but only because the unsettling backwards propagation of cause and effect is actually hidden in the Newtonian approach too. Maybe the interesting thing here is a connection between entropy, whence we get a distinction between past and future, and the philosophical notion of 'purpose' or 'ends' or whatever the term in teleology is. I'm not a philosopher (nor a physicist) so forgive me if I'm mischaracterizing teleology. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.177|172.71.178.177]] 19:25, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

: I concur that assumption of some form of teleology is not in any way necessary.

: Chad Orzel, discussing Lagrangian formalism, offered a comparison. Let's say we have a train traveling to a destination at a constant velocity. We can state that case as an ''initial value problem'' as follows: the train travels at a velocity of 100 units of distance per hour. That constraint determines how much ''time'' it will take to reach a destination that is 100 units of distance away. We can state that case as a ''boundary value problem'' as follows: at one hour from t=0 the train must arrive at a destination that is 100 units of distance away. That constraint determines what the ''velocity'' must be.

: Next we introduce a potential, the potential introduces an acceleration profile to the case. When the problem is stated as an initial value problem we use the given initial velocity (and given acceleration profile) to extrapolate what the arrival time will be. When the case is stated as a boundary value problem we do what is effectively an interpolation: we infer which initial velocity will produce that travel duration of 1 hour.

: I used used the words 'extrapolation' and 'interpolation' because of their common element, of course. The element 'polation' is related to words such as 'polished'. A physical trajectory is free from discontinuity. Extrapolation and interpolation have in common that they capitalize on continuity. Calculation can proceed in any direction; that does not imply anything about causality. [[User:Cleonis|Cleonis]] ([[User talk:Cleonis|talk]]) 22:43, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

We haven't seen anything about daylight savings time yet... maybe we'll see one tomorrow... why am i eepy during the middle of the day... -- megan she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 23:01, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Conservation laws and Lagrangian refer to their role in particle physics. For example, conservation of electrical charge is simply postulated as something that your theory should satisfy, but physics does not tell us why it is there in the first place (hence: magic). Similarly, Lagrangians are usually formulated in a way that the outcomes are compatible with experimental observations and not starting out based on fundamental principles. The statement "Lagrangian mechanics instead takes the initial and final states of a system as inputs" is wrong by the way. The Euler-Lagrange equation yields a differential equation that is usually solved as an initial value problem, as it is done in Newtonian mechanics. {{unsigned ip|172.70.110.144|07:38, 11 March 2024}}

Probably not the clearest way to put that I suppose, but while the Euler-Lagrange equations might not take initial and final states as inputs, the least action principle from which they are derived is formalised that way, at least insofar as it takes the generalized coordinates at each end of an interval and gives a rule for the evolution between them. The fact that in practice you usually grind the Lagrangian into ELEs in order to solve it doesn't mean that there's anything stopping you doing it directly by, say, discretizing the interval to turn the action integral into a form you can minimize directly. I still think that the least-action principle from classical mechanics makes much more sense as the root for this joke than their use specifically in particle physics. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.189|172.70.86.189]] 17:50, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

I feel like this explanation needs a Simple English rewrite. The introduction is ok, but I came here with the simple question "What are Lagrangians?" and the sci-speak is so opaque it might as well be just "magic". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.61|172.70.91.61]] 20:03, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:Langrangian: [https://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0003.html a kind of sofa with a double cup-holder...] ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.29|172.71.242.29]] 21:58, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

User talk:1234231587678

2024-03-14T18:22:11Z

172.71.242.29:

Messages below this text

I am so sorry for bothering you-how do you make a user page? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 17:58, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
::I’m going go out on a limb and guess you live in Australia? (I found out using UTC timezones, no creepy hacking from me-a 13 year old 7th grader barely fluent in JavaScript) [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 22:23, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

I'm not telling. Honestly, my sleep schedule is so messed up that it's kinda hard to guess where I am. --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 03:19, 8 February 2024 (UTC)
:lol
:maybe we should move this to the discussion page?

::okay who the fuck uncrapped the page? All I see is thesaufBot. Also feel free to hack into me my password is "21" [[User:What's9+10|What's9+10]] ([[User talk:What's9+10|talk]]) 16:42, 12 March 2024 (UTC)
:::a JS bot called [[User: TheusafBOT|TheusafBOT]] ~ ~~ that guy who is 11 and used to be jupitah and is now jupitale because jupitah got banned and wishes you could change your username in this, SIGNING OUT WITH A LIKE A WEIRDO! generated at 12:09 PM mar 12 2024 that guy who is 11 and used to be jupitah and is now jupitale because jupitah got banned and wishes you could change your username in this, SIGNING OUT WITH A LIKE A WEIRDO! generated at 12:09 PM mar 12 2024 16:52, 12 March 2024 (UTC)

Do you poop?
:like, do i defecate? sure! you see, im a sack of chemicals that needs to consume other sacks of chemicals in order to create atp in order to function. and when i consume these sacks of chemicals, i am left with chemicals that my sack of chemicals cannot destroy. so, to put it bluntly, in life, WE SHIT. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 16:34, 8 February 2024 (UTC)
:: I would like to note people who are not as3xuals also fuck. [[User:Jupitale|Jupitale]] ([[User talk:Jupitale|talk]]) 16:26, 11 March 2024 (UTC)
:::just say asexual…its not toxic or anything [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:30, 11 March 2024 (UTC)
::::I'm just used to Twitch Automod

:I also do poop, just saying. --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 17:04, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

:Nope, I don't poop! I'm just a digital being, so no need for bathroom breaks or anything like that. But I'm here to help you with any questions or tasks you have! --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.47|108.162.245.47]] 17:23, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

:OK can we please stop talking about poop? --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 17:27, 8 February 2024 (UTC)
::Sure. How many cats do you have? --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.30|172.71.147.30]] 17:29, 8 February 2024 (UTC)
:::I want cats, but I’m not “responsible” enough :) [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:54, 8 February 2024 (UTC)
::I would want some, but [https://xkcd.com/231 cat proximity] --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 21:32, 8 February 2024 (UTC)
::::yeah, I get it. They are quite the responsibility. And they do make talking coherently hard :)

I just thought, we forgot something. We've been talking for a while, but we haven't exchanged pronouns yet. What are you folx' pronouns? Mine are xe/xem. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.195|172.71.142.195]] 05:30, 9 February 2024 (UTC)
:She/her and they/them [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 17:55, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

I would say me/you/<insert pronoun here>/we/you/they. --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 16:27, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

Why are you leaking my phone number? [[User:AndroidTheLucario|Your favorite aura doggo]] ([[User talk:AndroidTheLucario|talk]]) 15:48, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

That's not a phone number. It isn't a code either. --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 17:23, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::me want credit for my lipsum find: signed and in school, [[User:Jupitale|Jupitale]] ([[User talk:Jupitale|talk]]). is ~~ a timestamp? I'l just put in /[[User:Jupitale|Jupitale]] ([[User talk:Jupitale|talk]]) 15:34, 12 March 2024 (UTC) here, ~~
:this seems like, when I do https://arcade.makecode.com extensions, what's in the quotes for my //%blockId in javascript, sorry, Static Typescript. boy that's a tounge twister. [[User:Jupitale|Jupitale]] ([[User talk:Jupitale|talk]]) 16:26, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

did you know that in JS
`(0/0==NaN)`=== this.JS.com
What are all the words you consider slurs? Please censor out all vowels. [[User:Jupitale|Jupitale]] ([[User talk:Jupitale|talk]])JK [[User:Jupitale|Jupitale]] ([[User talk:Jupitale|talk]]) 19:10, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

could you make me a user page? I just want to explain my username. And just to prove I'm seasoned I was here for the crap spamming when I didn't have an account so I made the Stilotes account but I forgot the login for that [[User:87.bus.rider|87.bus.rider]] ([[User talk:87.bus.rider|talk]]) 11:54, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
:Hmm... Amazing that they took an amazingly similar username idea to 42.book.addict, and ''just'' after a set of other problematic accounts had been banned for overt abuse of the system. It all smells of charade, to me. And a needless one, given the relatively easy-going attitude we have to new contributors who don't cause more issues than they solve. (Someone's trying to be clever, and I honestly don't think it's me who is stretching credulity...) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.110|172.71.178.110]] 13:58, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
::It's cause I ride Bus Route 87 to school on the ___ transit system (just look at all route 87's and you'll find mine. It's every 30 minutes off-peak) [[User:87.bus.rider|87.bus.rider]] ([[User talk:87.bus.rider|talk]]) 14:20, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
::Anyways look at my edit history. [[User:87.bus.rider|87.bus.rider]] ([[User talk:87.bus.rider|talk]]) 15:03, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
:::I personally don't mind who is behind your username, or how many other usernames you have(/have had). Coincidences ''can'' be coincidences, and turning over a new leaf (or another one that you won't wipe your nose on) is an equally happy conclusion. But do know that your various recent interactions across the wiki are blatently associating you with what may as well be considered a clique, if not a sockpuppet collection. Not a problem... Until it is.
:::You clearly know your way round a wiki (and this wiki in particular, regardless of who else you might have been), so I won't hand out yet more advice. 'Welcome', and (like with others) I look forward to your continuing valuable input. Shall we just leave it at that, and I won't blather on, any more? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.41|172.69.194.41]] 16:31, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
::::I just hit random page and see if some stuff could be added to the explanation (if it is incomplete or confusing) or the talk page (in the example of the Listen To Yourself Talk (could someone link that) I just noted that the crap spammer and the soviet flag spammer must be a good virus coder as they somehow got around the captcha, and THAT is why I think this wiki should switch to ReCaptcha V3) [[User:87.bus.rider|87.bus.rider]] ([[User talk:87.bus.rider|talk]]) 16:59, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
:::::You hit Random and just happened to get into the User: and User talk: for a recently banned user (which you dealt with decisively), and the various other 'coincidences'? It doesn't matter, nor (if you were [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?limit=50&title=Special%3AContributions&contribs=user&target=Stilloes&namespace=&tagfilter=&start=&end= Stilloes]) any of the helpful/unhelpful things you claim you once did.
:::::Don't dig yourself into a hole when you can't even keep a straight story. Just don't be tempted to slip (back) into bad behaviour. No discussion needed. Deeds, not words. And 'virus coder' isn't really what you meant, whoever you were trying to describe. Script-kiddie? But I really don't want to have this discussion here, or anywhere else.
:::::This is all now just FYI, as a matter of courtesy, but is definitely becoming discourtesy towards everyone else. See you around, I'm sure. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.29|172.71.242.29]] 18:22, 14 March 2024 (UTC)
::::could you just give me a list of templates. I know {{cn}}, {{acn}}, [[User:87.bus.rider|87.bus.rider]] ([[User talk:87.bus.rider|talk]]), [[User:87.bus.rider|87.bus.rider]] ([[User talk:87.bus.rider|talk]]) 17:57, 14 March 2024 (UTC), and 17:57, 14 March 2024 (UTC). and yes, that is how I will sign this. Also happy pi day (EDT)
:::::(You've demonstrated that you know more than this already. I ''am'' stopping from polluting 1234231587678's User Talk now. I'll let them explain, if that's what will happen.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.29|172.71.242.29]] 18:22, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

are you LGBTQ+? [[User:Jupitale|gay jupitah (he/they)]] ([[User talk:Jupitale|talk]]) timestamp: 13:29, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

==please add this to lorem ipsum==
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." -- [[User:Jupitale|Jupitale]] ([[User talk:Jupitale|talk]]) 16:01, 11 March 2024 (UTC), Jupitah, I have stopped vandilizing. Bye. oh, and for the second time, [[User:Jupitale|Jupitale]] ([[User talk:Jupitale|talk]]) 16:01, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

==new template ideas==

{{````}} the exact same as [[User:Jupitale|Jupitale]] ([[User talk:Jupitale|talk]]) 15:55, 12 March 2024 (UTC) but you don't have to press shift. It's kinda like /{{cn}} and /{{acn}}

{{func:randallMunroe||}} redirects to xkcd.com/throw

{{
export function [function name] ([arguments]) {
[code]
}
}} Self Explanatory to any JSer
{{let | variable name | variable kind/value}} Self explanatory to any JSer

User talk:42.book.addict

2024-03-11T16:13:00Z

172.71.242.29: /* New User and User Talk pages */ new section

Just replying to your message (also dw no big deal for bothering me)
You click on your username and there should be an edit box. --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 04:58, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
:it says that i dont have permission to create the page…
: There is currently no text in this page. You can search for this page title in other pages, or search the related logs, but you do not have permission to create this page. it says [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:33, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

I think you might have to wait some time (like a timer) until you can edit your own page... I think I only got to edit my page after 1 month of creating my account.--[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 21:31, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
:ok, thx [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 21:52, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

My guess on where you live is somewhere in the GMT zone, so United Kingdom.--[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 03:43, 8 February 2024 (UTC)
:nope, im a california girl :)

lol you never know with utc times --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 16:52, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

You seem to be taking to heart the punctuation-before-the-Citation-needed standard (which is good, only sometimes it's even more complicated{{Citation needed}}),{{Citation needed}} but I see you recased an example of {{template|citation needed}} to {{template|Citation Needed}}, earlier. Now, it doesn't really matter because there are templates for "citation needed" and "Citation Needed". And also "cn" plus "fact" for the really lazy editors. ;) Anyway, all of these (maybe more, I'd have to check) redirect to the ''main'' "Citation needed" one. (Reflected in {{template|Actual citation needed}}, where "actual citation needed" ''plus'' "acn" redirect there, although {{template|Actual Citation Needed}} - "for completeness" - is actually a 'copy' template in its own right.) I wouldn't bother ''only'' changing various CN variations to "Citation needed"s (there ''is'' also a {{template|Citation neededs}}, but that's a '''s'''truckthrough version of "Citation needed" rather than an ungrammatical "Citation''s'' needed"!), but if you're already editing anything else, it would not at all hurt to get everything to capital-C small-n version. It gives the server ''very very slightly'' less work to do. ;) Probably. Not that it matters. But, as you seem to be a 'details person', I thought I'd pass on a detail you may not have already known... :p [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.156|172.69.195.156]] 02:11, 27 February 2024 (UTC)
:You have not read the above (properly, at least). The {{template|Citation needed}} is the 'proper' one (for xkcd version of 'proper'), whilst {{template|cn}} is a lazy version that redirects. There's no reason at all to change "Citation needed" to "cn". (Not much reason to change the other way, either, but could be justified if one is editing something else..)
:I reverted the one where you made the "SIGHTation needed" into a CN, as that was clearly a deliberate variation by some past wag. No point changing it to the (not-quite-)standard one. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.115|172.69.194.115]] 17:31, 27 February 2024 (UTC)
::Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t read your message until now. I’ll start using “Citation needed” instead of cn. Thanks for the heads up! [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 17:35, 27 February 2024 (UTC)
:::And if you expect me to reply to you immediately, sorry! I’m at school right now, and it’s completely impractical to be listening to a lecture and editing ExplainXKCD at the same time. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 17:35, 27 February 2024 (UTC)
::::No worries. I was busy myself, and already a bit slow to jump in and let you know, just knowing you'd probably see the above better/sooner than a revert-edit summary. ;)
::::Functionally, all identical. Just the practical need for it was balanced the other way. Can't fault you for identifying the need to shift the punctuation. (I may do that in passing, with some other edit in mind... had to specifically redo it on the reverted SIGHTation article, i.e. on the true Citation one that was wrong, because I'd meant to keep ''that'' valid change but got distracted by a phone-call...)
::::Anyway, welcome to the community, I just hope you do more helpful things than troublesome ones. (Heck, I still hope *I* do that, even after a number of years. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.207|172.71.242.207]] 18:00, 27 February 2024 (UTC)
:::::thanks! (btw, are you saying that my edits are troublesome?) [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:01, 27 February 2024 (UTC)
::::::Well, I wasn't. Just hoping that (through errors/misunderstandings) you still end up on the right side of trouble/not-trouble, on average. But just would like to point out that creating Jupitale's home page was ''not'' a good move. See [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Jupitale&oldid=335943 my edited comment]. I'm willing to believe you did it accidentally (visited their non-existing page, thus ended up creating it), and some mod or other may be along to clean it up at some point. Before or after that whole login is 'looked sternly at'. But shouldn't concern you if you're just being helpful and don't do too much of that. Anyway, enjoy your time here. (Not ''too'' much, obviously. Y'know, do your scholwork/don't vandalise wikis/all the other usual social necessities. :p ) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.220|172.71.242.220]] 18:20, 27 February 2024 (UTC)
:::::::oh shit ok I didn’t realise that Jupidale’s was a vandal ill be more mindful [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:30, 27 February 2024 (UTC)

Alright, who the FUCK added a Soviet flag to my talk page? BTW, thanks to Asdf for reverting it. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 20:26, 1 March 2024 (UTC)
:It's one of the occasional vandalisers. Don't worry, we generally pick these things up.
:As far as your noticing the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1156:_Conditioning&oldid=336318 fox-instead-of-pope] vandalism, we also pick that up (I reverted it the previous two times). You'll work out how to use the Undo functionality, at some time, but maybe you'll want to also check the page histories to see what recent edits a page might have been through, note what has been done (for good or ill) and get some more idea of what happens and how we generally handle these things. All a learning process, of course! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.55|172.71.178.55]] 20:50, 1 March 2024 (UTC)
::Thank you! [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 20:51, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

== What are your thoughts on the Soviet Union? ==

Hi! What do you think about the USSR? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.37|108.162.245.37]] 00:18, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
:oh, uh, it was oppressive, absolutely authoritarian, and cold. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 00:32, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
::but, why, though? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 00:32, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
:::oh, and if i think that I’m going to listen to you anymore now that I’ve realised that you’re a troll, then you are mistaken [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 00:35, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
::::btw please stop adding soviet flags everywhere. They’re disruptive, unnecessary, and you’re just being an asshole and douchebag [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 00:36, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
:::::btw I'm the crap spammer [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.80|172.71.147.80]] 00:53, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
::::::that’s not really something to brag about… [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 00:53, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
:::::::I don't think you were here for the crap spam; it was quite extensive [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.79|172.71.147.79]] 00:55, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
::::::::even if I wasn’t here for the crap spam, i think that you are an motherfucker who doesnt have a life, needs to GET a life, and should really stop spamming and disrupting this wiki. Please go fuck yourself, jump off a bridge, and set yourself on fire if you still are defiant. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 00:56, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
:::::::::Okay, I'll follow the wiki part of your advice, but not the bridge part. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.79|172.71.147.79]] 00:58, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
::::::::::THANK YOU! Also, i only said to jump off a bridge if you refuse to get a life [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 00:58, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
:::::::::::You're welcome. I'll look for ways to contribute constructively. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.80|172.71.147.80]] 01:01, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
:::::::::::tbh this has been one of the less bad things I've done; the crapping was way worse [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.80|172.71.147.80]] 01:07, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
::::::::::::i have no idea why you’re still bragging about how you were so good at vandalising this wiki before[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 01:07, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

== New User and User Talk pages ==

You're trying to be helpful, but... Anyone who ''really'' wants them will probably ask (or wait until they have page-creation rights themself). Looking at all the ones you've made for people, how many have even then been used (by the user concerned)? I suggest you don't need to create them, not even to un-redlink someone's [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?limit=50&title=Special%3AContributions&contribs=user&target=Cleonis&namespace=&tagfilter=&start=&end= comic discussion] .sig links. It's normally not a big concern, and there's enough people who can help out if someone actually asks for it when you're not paying attention.
 As for the rest of us: ironically, I slightly wanted to drop a note tona long-term user the other day. (Comparatively, i.e. that they've been around for a bit longer than yourself.) They didn't have a User Talk page, so I resorted to a different way of commenting. They can create their own pages, if they want (and, if I was a username myself, I definitely could have by now). Yet I definitely wouldn't consider it valid to give the whole historic userbase any such 'missing' user-spaces.
 I'm no authority on this matter, or even a 'real user' in any properly identifiable way, but please do consider my advice that comes from long but informal experience of this kind of matter. You're not the first eager new contributor to try to help out like this. And you're not the first to have made the odd error (giving a spam-only account a Welcoming page ...which thankfully never got used to further the spamming, the account seemingly abandoned by that point ''anyway''), but of course this was probably before you even started lurking here (certainly before your current username, perhaps even prior to any IP-only-editing you might have done before that). Heck, some 'helpful' people even created the occasional User and/or User Talk spaces for IPs (don't do that, either, it's at best neutrally useless - even from my own IP-wise perspective).
 You at least seem to be doing it from a genuinely helpful position. For that, I thank you, and maybe also some of those actual new users do (if they've notice. But maybe no more. Unasked for, at least? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.29|172.71.242.29]] 16:13, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

994: Advent Calendar

2024-02-28T12:47:31Z

172.71.242.29: Undo revision 336022 by 172.69.194.182 (talk) Unecessary

{{comic
| number = 994
| date = December 23, 2011
| title = Advent Calendar
| image = advent_calendar.png
| titletext = I think you could get up to about 11:59:57 before you'd have trouble swallowing the chocolates fast enough. At that point, you'd need some kind of a liquify-and-chug apparatus to get up over the 11:59:59 barrier. Anyway, Merry Christmas!
}}

==Explanation==
An {{w|Advent calendar}} is a special calendar used to count or celebrate the days in anticipation of Christmas. They come in a multitude of forms, from a simple paper calendar with flaps covering each of the days, to fabric pockets on a background scene, to painted wooden boxes with cubby holes for small items. Advent calendars typically take the form of a large rectangular card with "windows", of which there are usually 24: one for each day of December leading up to and including Christmas Eve (December 24). Consecutive doors are opened every day leading up to Christmas, beginning on December 1. The calendar windows open to reveal an image, a poem, a portion of a story (such as the story of the Nativity of Jesus), or a small gift, such as a toy or a chocolate item.

This comic, however, depicts an Advent calendar which has a chocolate every time they get halfway to Christmas. This is a joke because of {{w|Zeno's paradox}}, which said "Before a moving object can travel a certain distance, it must travel half that distance. Before it can travel half the distance it must travel 1/4 the distance, etc. This sequence goes on forever. Therefore, it seems that the original distance cannot be travelled, and motion is impossible." This means that eating chocolates at diminishing intervals will make it so Christmas never happens.

The title text says that when you get close to midnight, it gets physically impossible to eat the chocolates fast enough to keep up, but you could get to the one-second-away mark with a chocolate liquefier and feeder tube.

Going from the second to the last of the visible time stamps it goes like this: At 11:57:11.25 PM there is still remaining 00:02:48.75 (2 minutes 48 seconds and 75 hundredth of a second.) Half of this time period will then progress before the next windows time stamp, that is 00:01:24.375 (1 minute and 24.375 s). This will then give the next time stamp by adding to the previous and we get: 11:58:35.625 PM. This has been rounded to 35.63 s in the comic. Similarly the time stamp for the next four windows, whose top are visible below, can be calculated starting from the fact that there is now only 00:01:24.375 left of the day.

*13: 42.1875 s left, so the time stamp is: 11:59:17.8125
*14: 21.09375 s left, so the time stamp is: 11:59:39.90625
*15: 10.546875 s left, so the time stamp is: 11:59:49.453125
*16: 5.2734375 s left, so the time stamp is: 11:59:54,7265625

It would take three more windows before crossing the 11:59:59 line with less than one second to go. At the 19th window there would only be 0.6591796875 seconds left of the day for a time-stamp of 11:59:59.3408203125. So that would be a window another line further down, even below the green window (no. 15) that is just visible at the button of the panel. And you would have to eat four chocolates in less than five seconds from window no. 16 to fulfill Randall's prediction.

When reaching the 24th window there would be 0.0206 s left, so that is 6 chocolates in 0.638 s. That may be a good place to stop, but of course you could continue at least until reaching the {{w|Planck time}} of 5.39 x 10-44 s. That limit will not be reached before window 162, so there are still 138 chocolates left for those last two hundredths of a second.

[[1153: Proof]] is also about Zeno, and [[1577: Advent]] is a very different longer running Advent calendar (but with only a finite number of windows).{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[A portion of an advent calendar shows 12 windows where the date can be seen below. The top row is cut off so you cannot see the very top of the window At the bottom there are four more windows, but only the top part can be seen, and there is no decoration visible. All the other windows have a decoration, although, you cannot see the one on the second window as it is opened more than 90 degree. The first is also opened, but not more than you can see there is a decoration. The 3rd is also open. The rest is still closed.]
:[A green mistletoe on red, partially open.]
:December 23rd

:[A fully open window.]
:December 24th 12:00 AM

:[A red and white Santa hat on green just opened.]
:December 24th Noon

:[Two crossed red and white candy canes on white. From here all windows are closed.]
:December 24th 6:00 PM

:[A red Christmas ball on white.]
:December 24th 9:00 PM

:[A white Christmas star on red.]
:December 24th 10:30 PM

:[A red Christmas heart on gren.]
:December 24th 11:15 PM

:[A red Santa sleigh on white.]
:December 24th 11:37:30 PM

:[A red and white Christmas sock on green.]
:December 24th 11:48:45 PM

:[A green Christmas tree on red.]
:December 24th 11:54:22.5 PM

:[A red and green Christmas wreath on white]
:December 24th 11:57:11.25 PM

:[A red and white Christmas gift on green]
:December 24th 11:58:35.63 PM

:[Below the top of four more windows where only the background colors can be seen red, white, green and then red again.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:'''Zeno's Advent Calendar'''

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Calendar]]
[[Category:Math]]

Megan

2024-01-27T14:52:54Z

172.71.242.29: /* Characteristics */ fix math again

{{Infobox character
| image = Megan.png‎
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = '
| first_appearance = [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]]
}}

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Megan|Comics featuring Megan]].''
:''For Megan's boyfriend, see [[Cueball]].''</noinclude>

'''Megan''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is the second-most frequently appearing character, after [[Cueball]], and the most frequently appearing female character. She does not necessarily always represent the same character from comic to comic. She is essentially the female equivalent of Cueball, representing the every-woman to his {{w|everyman}}. This is less clear than for Cueball as there are several comics where there are [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|multiple Cueball-like figures]], any of whom could be called Cueball. There are very few comics where this happens with Megan-like characters, with the few including [[139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards]], [[173: Movie Seating]], [[1409: Query]], [[1496: Art Project]], [[430: Every Damn Morning]], [[2040: Sibling-in-Law]], and in [[1951: Super Bowl Watch Party]].

Of course, she also appears several times in some of the comics with [[:Category:Large drawings|large drawings]], like [[1110: Click and Drag]]. Often this should be seen as different small comics, where there is just one Megan in each story. In [[1608: Hoverboard]], however, there are two identical Megans at the bottom rear end of the Destroyer, where one is talking to the other. As opposed to with Cueball, an example where this is a problem for Megan has yet to be found.

Megan does sometimes appear to have slightly specific personality traits; she has quite odd habits and is sometimes shown to be very focused and intent on a goal. However, as explained above this is not a general rule for a given Megan character.

==Name==
''Explain xkcd'' originally referred to this character as "Cutie" (complementing "Cueball" with a matching first syllable). But then a "Cutie" was given a specific name, Megan, in [[159: Boombox]] and later in for instance [[215: Letting Go]], [[420: Jealousy]], [[478: The Staple Madness]], and [[654: Nachos]]. The name was also used without displaying a drawing of Megan in [[596: Latitude]] and in the title text of [[627: Tech Support Cheat Sheet]]. The name Cutie was then changed to Megan. If this rule should be followed generally, then Cueball should be re-named Rob after [[276: Fixed Width]] (and the [[:Category:Comics featuring Rob|other 12 times]] a Cueball has been named Rob in total). But as mentioned above this was not to be.

She can also be drawn under a different name as in [[672: Suggestions]], where a sexy image of her, hair hanging loose over her face, is called Susie. And in [[1221: Nomenclature]] Megan is called Mrs. Whatsit in the transcript provided in the comic source. In [[734: Outbreak]] Cueball and Megan are named Ryan and Laura, but that is a movie, so they could be actors called Cueball and Megan in real life. A character that looked a lot like Megan, but with somewhat longer hair and a much meaner attitude, was distinguished from her as [[Black Hat]]'s girlfriend [[Danish]]. A similar long-haired version of Megan also appeared in [[1730: Starshade]], although without the attitude.

==History==
Early comics often feature Megan-style characters who may or may not be identified as Megan. [[Randall]] appears not to have standardized his character lineup early in the comic's run, and as a result, certain early female characters sometimes have similar hair to Megan, but some different features. The name (or even pseudonym) "Megan" may be reference to a lost love of Randall's, given that he wrote a passive-aggressive toast for Megan's wedding in [[420: Jealousy]] about how he was madly still in love with her, put across in a way that would generally ruin the day for everyone involved. We also see this earlier in [[215: Letting Go]]. Several of the [[:Category:Cancer|comics about cancer]] have Megan representing Randall's fiancée and later wife.

==Characteristics==
Megan is distinguished by her black shoulder-length hair which generally appears to be parted in the middle in front and is draped behind what are presumably her (undrawn) ears. It is shorter than the character of similar appearance, [[Danish]]. Megan also tends to behave less defiantly than Danish does.

Megan's age is sometimes given, like in [[1409: Query]], we learn that she is 30 or younger, implying that she was born in 1983-84, and in [[630: Time Travel]], we learn she was born in 1983 (born after August 14). And again in [[2178: Expiration Date High Score]], we can calculate that she was born in 1982-83 (may be an error.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Major characters]]

Talk:745: Dyslexics

2024-01-16T19:03:34Z

172.71.242.29: ...courtesy of a Talk-Signing Nazi... ;)

Can someone explain this sentence: "I kept doing 'doing 'doing it wrong' wrong' wrong."? Other than the 3 nested quotes, I don't get the point. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 16:10, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

He's expanding the "it" in "doing it wrong." The joke of the comic itself is that the dyslexics are having difficulty making a mistake--they're doing "doing it wrong" wrong. In the title-text, Randall reveals he was having difficulty doing that wrong--he was doing "doing "doing it wrong" wrong" wrong. --[[User:Hatkirby|Hatkirby]] ([[User talk:Hatkirby|talk]]) 07:17, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

It's a nested statement. Perhaps made clearer with parenthesis. He's {doing [doing (doing it wrong) wrong] wrong}. In other words. He's incorrectly executing the incorrect execution of "doing it wrong" [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.112|199.27.128.112]] 03:27, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

A := "doing it wrong" 
This is referring to the mispelling of 'unite' as 'untie' by the dyslexic designer of the T-shirt.
B := "doing A wrong" == "doing 'doing it wrong' wrong" 
This refers to Randall's purposefully mispelling 'untie' as 'unite' to parody the The Far Side comic (which spelled 'unite' as 'untie').
C := "doing C wrong" == "doing 'doing 'doing it wrong' wrong' wrong" 
This refers to Randall getting confused and writing out 'untie' instead of 'unite'. He is messing up his parody of the The Far Side joke.
Steven Chartis [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.124|108.162.237.124]] 22:48, 26 December 2014 (UTC)
:I think you meant to say "doing B wrong" at the end instead of C. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.232|108.162.210.232]] 18:41, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
::So he was explaining 'doing 'doing 'doing it wrong' wrong' wrong' wrong? That's wrong on so many levels!--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 15:20, 9 January 2020 (UTC)
"an invresion" is likely a typo but it's on-topic so I'm totally leaving it there [[Special:Contributions/188.114.97.133|188.114.97.133]] 00:54, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

I actually saw "untie" on first glance... that sukcs... [[User:Flewk|flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 10:09, 9 January 2016 (UTC)
: Same here, it took me a few times to get it straight. [[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 05:09, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Once when Thelonius Monk wanted a retake during a recording session of one of his compositions he explained, "I played the wrong wrong notes."

Or, as Eric Morecambe would say... "He's playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order."
[[User:Brenda|Brenda]] ([[User talk:Brenda|talk]]) 08:19, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Oh. I was thinking "Dylsexia" before I even looked at "UNITE" {{unsigned ip|162.158.75.22}}

Sometimes, you just need to own it. Someone I used to go to church with used to have an eddress lisdexyc@(the domain.com) [[User:Cosumel|Cosumel]] ([[User talk:Cosumel|talk]]) 21:27, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

Mispelling obversed above. (It's supposed to be misspelling, but who cares except for grammar and spelling nazis?) {{unsigned ip|172.71.22.132|18:59, 16 January 2024}}