explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1695: Code Quality 2

2016-08-18T01:13:16Z

173.245.54.54: /* Explanation */ Replaced link to naval weather forecast example per comment by SaxTeacher.

{{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==
The comic is a continuation of [[1513: Code Quality]], in which we see [[Ponytail]] being introduced to the {{w|source code}} [[Cueball]] has written, and where he is warning her that he is self-taught so his code probably won't be written the way she is used to. In the first comic she continues to describe poetically the total mess of a code she encounters, using references to a child building houses, recipes created by corporate lawyers or the transcript of a couple arguing at IKEA, as well as using emojis in the code (title text).

In this comic she continues this trend in four more abusive comments, after starting this sequel with a short remark on how she hates reading Cueball’s code. Cueball is not even shown in this comic, only replying twice off-panel, but as the title makes it clear this is a sequel there can be no doubt that it is Cueball. With the four remarks here as well as a fifth in the title text, she has now managed to make no less than nine derogatory remarks on Cueball's programming skills.

In the second panel Ponytail makes a reference to "OCR" ({{w|Optical Character Recognition}}), a technique for recognizing text in a picture using software. In this case she is referring to a picture of a {{w|Scrabble}} game, which is a popular word-making game in which players have a pseudo-randomized set of letters and must arrange them on a grid to form interlocking words. OCR software is notoriously imperfect at the time of writing, and the criss-crossing semi-random words on a Scrabble board fed through an OCR program would likely produce dubious results, certainly not fit for current code standards.

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. Reserved words such as ‘function’, ‘if’ and ‘return’ are fundamental building blocks of code, and most code uses them often. (They are called “reserved” because those words are reserved for their actual meanings such as defining a function – programmers may not create variables with those names.) As for why “triple points” translates to a prevalence of those words, Scrabble's point system is based on the value of individual letters, combined with certain modifier squares on the game board which can boost points. "Triple points" is the highest class of modifier available in the game (though it can be for triple points on a specific letter, or the entire word) and is highly-sought-after by players.

The third panel continues Ponytail's rant, this time referencing 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://www.aviationweather.gov/static/help/taf-decode.php Naval weather forecasts] use an extremely condensed code to send their information, rendering them unintelligible to an untrained reader. Transcribing it would be further complicated by a {{w|woodpecker}} (a bird noted for its rapid successive pecking motions) "hammering" (pecking) the Shift key on the keyboard, which would result in many letters being randomly capitalized. Indentation is the practice of shifting a section of text further from the starting margin, which in coding is typically used to organize functions and statements, but if done "randomly" would only serve to scramble the code hierarchy.

The fourth panel references famous poet {{w|E. E. Cummings}} and user name suggestions. Edward Estlin Cummings was a poet who used capitalization, punctuation, and line breaks in unconventional ways. Websites that offer membership often also require that users create a pseudonym (known as a "username") for use in tracking/authenticating their actions on the site, as well as identifying them to the site's community. Many of these sites also require usernames be unique. On popular sites, many common words, phrases and names have already been reserved by users, so when signing up for them many people run into situations where the name they want has already been taken. On many sites where this happens, the site may suggest alternate usernames, usually based on the one that was entered to begin with. For example, if the username "Hedgeclipper" is already reserved, the site may recommend "Hedgeclipper1234" or "H3dg3clipp3r" instead, depending on the algorithm behind the suggestions. In other cases, websites requiring users to enter personal information such as their name may suggest a username based on their name with a string of digits after it, such as "Joshua1128". 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.

The last panel's simile involves {{w|Markov chain|Markov chaining}}, {{w|Chatterbot|chat-bots}} (presumably), bus schedules and potential gross vehicular negligence. Applied Markov chaining is a process used in many computer algorithms that try to simulate real-world concepts such as speech simulation and decisions-making. Its inherent randomness also makes it a candidate for unpredictable things such as stock market analysis and speech recognition. 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. Chat-bots using applied Markov chains to recognize and respond to speech/text rely on the input being clear and well-organized in plain language. "Feeding" bus schedules to such a bot would likely result in the returns being complete gibberish and unreadable. 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. Even more horrifying would be the further unpredictability of the output of the chat-bot from such unpredictable input.

Cueball finally comments that "… it runs fine for now" which indicates he knows the code has problems but it reluctant to fix them because it's more-or-less serving its function. Ponytail quips back that "So does a burning bus", which is technically true, but the "for now" part implies that disaster and injury could result at any moment, as would likely happen on a burning bus.

In the title text Ponytail makes a final remark. A formal grammar is a way of describing the structure of text such that computers can recognize or generate such text. A raw {{w|database dump}} is an export of the data from a database for the purposes of transferring it to another database or importing it into a program, viewed “raw” without processing to make it easy for humans to read. {{w|QuickBooks}} is an accounting software package. The company collapsing in an accounting scandal implies their accounting database would be a mess even in a 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:Comics sharing name|Code Quality 02]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] 
[[Category:Language]] 
[[Category:Animals]] 
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Computers]]

Talk:397: Unscientific

2016-08-01T15:32:31Z

173.245.54.54: Added comment about Zombie Feynman and String Theory

Just appeneded a paragraph about the title-text. Also tried to word something about it starting off as refering to something from last week, then phased into next week, which is almost certainly a joke on the reversibility of time's arrow within the context of the first item mentioned, but could not get it pithy enough. Over to you to have a go (unless it's a genuine mistake in the first place). [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 13:16, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

As a slight inner joke, I just noticed that it seems quite natural that a zombie Feymann worries about a lack of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigor_mortis rigor] less than when he was alive... --[[Special:Contributions/146.48.82.79|146.48.82.79]] 18:10, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

Should it perhaps be noted that Feynman was a known philanderer, and would therefore be interested in Megan's other body parts as well, not just her brains? {{unsigned ip|81.17.27.234}}

Unmentioned, branes are generalized to a number of dimmensions P, and known as P-Branes... pun on pea-brains [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.97|108.162.216.97]] 20:59, 7 November 2014 (UTC)

The obvious joke, to me, is the existence of a zombie; exactly the kind of unscientific myth that needs busting. [[User:Danshoham|Mountain Hikes]] ([[User talk:Danshoham|talk]]) 04:06, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Brains vs Branes. String theory joke? [[User:Flewk|Flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 00:55, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

I thought Zombie Feynman's quip was less about string theorists being insufficiently intelligent but more about the [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/physics/2015/02/falsifiability/ lack] of empirical evidence for string theory (i.e. ideas not being tested by experimentation). Randall has made similar remarks about the untestable nature of string theory in [https://xkcd.com/171/ 171].[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.54|173.245.54.54]]

893: 65 Years

2016-02-06T04:43:29Z

173.245.54.54: Added age changes + death of Edgar Mitchell

{{comic
| number = 893
| date = May 2, 2011
| title = 65 Years
| image = 65 years.png
| titletext = The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.
}}
==Explanation==
[[Randall]] is showing the number of still living humans who have walked on another world for the 65 year period that begins in 1969 (when a human first walked on the moon). Up to 2011 (when the comic was drawn), he has drawn a single line for the actual figures.

For the subsequent years, he has drawn three lines using {{w|actuarial table}}s or life tables (such tables show, for each age, the probability that a certain person will die within the next year).

The line marked "5TH PERCENTILE" indicates that there is a 95% probability that the number alive in a given year will be above that line and a 5% probability that the number alive will be below that line. For example, this line indicates a 5% chance that all Apollo moon walkers will be dead by 2023, and a 95% chance that at least one will still be alive by that year.

The line marked "95TH PERCENTILE" indicates that there is a 5% probability that the number alive in a given year will be above that line and a 95% probability that the number alive will be below that line. For example, this line indicates a 95% chance that all Apollo moon walkers will be dead by 2035, and a 5% chance that at least one will still be alive by that year.

The middle line is not identified, but is probably the "50TH PERCENTILE" (see [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/ these tables]). If so, it indicates that there is a 50% probability that the number alive in a given year will be above that line and a 50% probability that the number alive will be below that line. For example, this line indicates a 50% chance that all Apollo moon walkers will be dead by 2028 (see previous link), and a 50% chance that at least one will still be alive by that year.

Although the term ''other world'' would include all other worlds on which humans have walked, there is currently only one other world on which humans have walked, which is the moon. The humans that have walked there are the 12 {{w|List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon|Apollo astronauts}} who landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972.

In particular, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in July 1969. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed in November. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell: February 1971. David Scott and James Irwin: July 1971. John W. Young and Charles Duke: April 1972. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt: December 1972.

Irwin died in 1991. Shepard and Conrad died in 1998 and 1999 respectively, making the total 9 as of the date this comic was published. Armstrong died in 2012 and Mitchell in 2016, so the current number is 7. The oldest living person to have landed on the moon is Aldrin, 86. There is one 86-year-old, one 85, two 83s, one 81 and two 80s.

The chart assumes that no other humans will go to walk on another world within the time-frame plotted and the title text implies that this is primarily an economically determined decision. While noting that not exploring space is a justifiable and sensible decision which may also be made by many hypothetical cultures on other worlds, the text implies a grandness to a civilization that would be given the opportunity to discover, study and memorialize the 'one-world graves' of other civilizations by choosing to explore space despite the economic difficulty. High five for exoplanet archaeology.

==Transcript==
:[A graph titled 'Number of Living Humans Who Have Walked on Another World' - its y-axis is numbered 5, 10, 15, its x-axis increments every ten years from 1960-2040. The line of the graph has a bracket above it that says '65 Years', starting at 1969, ending in 2034.
:The line starts at 1969 and increases steeply to 12 by 1972. It then plateaus until the early nineties declines gradually to 9 between 1991-1999, and then plateaus again.
:From 2011-2035, which is labeled 'Projected Actuarial Tables', the line branches into three and begins to decline more steeply to zero. The area between the first and second branch is shaded and labeled '5th percentile' and the area between the second and third branch is shaded and labeled '95th percentile.']

==Trivia==
*The theme of actuarial projections was explored earlier in [[493: Actuarial]]; Randall's morbid python script for both was given in [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/ the blag].
{| class="wikitable"
|+Table of men who walked the moon
|- style="background:#ccc;"
| style="width:20px;"|
| '''Name'''
| '''Born'''
| '''Died'''
| '''Age at first step'''
| '''Mission'''
| '''Lunar dates'''
| '''Service'''
| '''Alma Mater'''
|- style="background:#def;"
| 1. || {{w|Neil Armstrong}}|| 1930-08-05 || 2012-08-25 || 38y 11m 15d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 11}} ||rowspan="2"| July 21, 1969 || {{w|NASA}} || {{w|Purdue University}}, {{w|University of Southern California}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 2. || {{w|Buzz Aldrin}}|| 1930-01-20 || || 39y 6m 0d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Military Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 3. || {{w|Pete Conrad}} || 1930-06-02 || 1999-07-08 || 39y 5m 17d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 12}} ||rowspan="2"| November 19–20, 1969 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Princeton University}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 4. || {{w|Alan Bean}}|| 1932-03-15 || || 37y 8m 4d || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|University of Texas, Austin}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 5. || {{w|Alan Shepard}} || 1923-11-18 || 1998-07-21 || 47y 2m 18d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 14}} ||rowspan="2"| February 5–6, 1971 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 6. || {{w|Edgar Mitchell}}|| 1930-09-07 || 2016-02-04 || 40y 4m 19d || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Carnegie Mellon University}}, {{w|Naval Postgraduate School}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 7. || {{w|David Scott}} || 1932-06-06 || || 39y 1m 25d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 15}} ||rowspan="2"| July 31 - August 2, 1971 || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|University of Michigan}} (freshman year, and later, an honorary doctorate), {{w|United States Military Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 8. || {{w|James Irwin}} || 1930-03-17 || 1991-08-08 || 41y 4m 14d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}, {{w|University of Michigan}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 9. || {{w|John Young (astronaut)|John W. Young}}|| 1930-09-24 || || 41y 6m 28d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 16}} ||rowspan="2"| April 21–23, 1972 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Georgia Institute of Technology}}
|- style="background:#def;"
| 10. || {{w|Charles Duke}} || 1935-10-03 || || 36y 6m 18d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 11. || {{w|Eugene Cernan}} || 1934-03-14 || || 38y 9m 7d
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 17}} ||rowspan="2"| December 11–14, 1972 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Purdue University}}, {{w|Naval Postgraduate School}}
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"
| 12. || {{w|Harrison Schmitt}} || 1935-07-03 || || 37y 5m 8d || {{w|NASA}} || {{w|Caltech}}, {{w|University of Oslo}} (exchange), {{w|Harvard University}}
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

Five-Minute Comics: Part 4

2016-01-24T18:24:27Z

173.245.54.54: /* Comic #1 */

{{comic
| date = August 19, 2011
| title = Five-Minute Comics: Part 4
| image = five minute comics part 4.png
| before = Accidentally posted on [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/five_minute_comics_part_4.png/ imgs.xkcd.com] by website management in place of [[940: Oversight]].
| ldomain = imgs
| lappend = comics/five_minute_comics_part_4.png
| extra = yes
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Rough draft. An explanation of EmTron 3000 and most of the transcript still missing completely.}}

This is an accidentally published "five-minute comic" by Randall that was released as an ''oversight'' by the Management of the xkcd website, then was permanently cached by one of the unofficial [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.floern.xkcd xkcd browsers] for {{w|Android}}, instead of the correct comic [[940: Oversight]]. Interestingly, it contains an early version of [[942: Juggling]], which was published less than a week after this comic, thus indicating that this indeed a true unpublished [[Randall]] comic.

* The first comic shows what appears to be a dramatic stand-off between two baseball players. One of them appears to be holding a tennis racquet instead of a glove, which would explain the fact that no on has scored any points yet.

* "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" is a television game show where the contestant has to answer questions a 5th grader should be able to answer, but an adult has generally long since forgotten because of the subject's little use in everyday life. The comic shows a similar show, with "smarter" replaced by "sluttier". The contestant hopes the answer is "yes", as sluttiness is generally viewed as a very negative trait, especially for children, due to its "mature" nature.

* The comic below puts together two phrases "Muslim call to prayer" and "call for papers". The former, known as adhan, is called out by a muezzin from the mosque five times a day, traditionally from the minaret (a tall spire typical for mosques, depicted in the comic), summoning Muslims for mandatory worship. The latter refers to the announcement of an academic conference, when prospective presenters are instructed how to submit their abstracts and papers. The result is a muezzin announcing a submission deadline instead of the usual religious verses.
* The comic on the right refers to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy (the little girl) is captured in a cyclone that transports her, along with her farmhouse, into the Land of Oz.

* "Evolution has not prepared humans/me/us/men/women to..." is a common excuse by some people to justify their behaviour by blaming it on basic instincts over which they have no control. Not pooping in other people's floor lamps is something most people are sufficiently evolved to be capable of {{Citation needed}}.

* The comic to the right shows two characters preparing for a duel. One of them activates their {{w|lightsaber}}, a weapon from the {{w|Star Wars}} franchise. The other one follows by turning on a flash-light, which superficially resembles a lightsaber in their deactivated state, but serves quite different purpose.

* "Jack and Jill went up the hill / To fetch a pail of water. / Jack fell down and broke his crown, / And Jill came tumbling after." is a traditional English nursery rhyme. San Juan Hill is the site of {{w|Battle of San Juan Hill|a decisive battle of the Spanish-American War}}.

* The comic at the bottom is an early version of [[942: Juggling]].

Here is a complete list of the comics in the entire [[:Category:Five-minute comics|Five-minute comics]] series:
*[[819: Five-Minute Comics: Part 1]]
*[[820: Five-Minute Comics: Part 2]]
*[[821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3]]
*[[Five-Minute Comics: Part 4]]

==Transcript==

===Comic #1===
[A man facing left is at home plate ready to bat for 3 panels] 
[A man facing right is holding a tennis racket and a tennis ball.] 
[The two men stand facing each other] 
[A scoreboard is shown] 
HOME:00 VISITOR:00

===Comic #2===

===Comic #3===

===Comic #4===

===Comic #5===

===Comic #6===

===Comic #7===

===Comic #8===
:[The panel shows a close up of Cueball reading a book. The book is called "How To Juggle" and has a picture of a person juggling on the cover.]

:[The view now shows the entirety of Cueball. A book is on the floor behind them, and he is holding some juggling balls.]

:[Cueball throws the juggling balls in the air.]

:[He lowers his arms to prepare to catch the balls. The balls are still hovering in mid-air.]

:[Cueball now stands with his arms by his sides. The balls have not moved and are still suspended in mid-air.]

:[Cueball jumps, trying to grab the lowest ball. He can't reach.]

:[Cueball scratches his head and stares at the still floating juggling balls.]

:[Cueball throws the book into a trash can.]

{{comic discussion}}

==Trivia==
*The original image link now shows the following message:
[[File:five_minute_comics_part_4_message.png]]
::Sorry!
::Minor glitch in the universe.
::Nothing to see here. Move along!
::--Management

[[Category:Five-minute comics| 04]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:No title text]]

Five-Minute Comics: Part 4

2016-01-24T18:23:45Z

173.245.54.54: /* Comic #1 */ Adds transcript for comic number 1

{{comic
| date = August 19, 2011
| title = Five-Minute Comics: Part 4
| image = five minute comics part 4.png
| before = Accidentally posted on [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/five_minute_comics_part_4.png/ imgs.xkcd.com] by website management in place of [[940: Oversight]].
| ldomain = imgs
| lappend = comics/five_minute_comics_part_4.png
| extra = yes
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Rough draft. An explanation of EmTron 3000 and most of the transcript still missing completely.}}

This is an accidentally published "five-minute comic" by Randall that was released as an ''oversight'' by the Management of the xkcd website, then was permanently cached by one of the unofficial [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.floern.xkcd xkcd browsers] for {{w|Android}}, instead of the correct comic [[940: Oversight]]. Interestingly, it contains an early version of [[942: Juggling]], which was published less than a week after this comic, thus indicating that this indeed a true unpublished [[Randall]] comic.

* The first comic shows what appears to be a dramatic stand-off between two baseball players. One of them appears to be holding a tennis racquet instead of a glove, which would explain the fact that no on has scored any points yet.

* "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" is a television game show where the contestant has to answer questions a 5th grader should be able to answer, but an adult has generally long since forgotten because of the subject's little use in everyday life. The comic shows a similar show, with "smarter" replaced by "sluttier". The contestant hopes the answer is "yes", as sluttiness is generally viewed as a very negative trait, especially for children, due to its "mature" nature.

* The comic below puts together two phrases "Muslim call to prayer" and "call for papers". The former, known as adhan, is called out by a muezzin from the mosque five times a day, traditionally from the minaret (a tall spire typical for mosques, depicted in the comic), summoning Muslims for mandatory worship. The latter refers to the announcement of an academic conference, when prospective presenters are instructed how to submit their abstracts and papers. The result is a muezzin announcing a submission deadline instead of the usual religious verses.
* The comic on the right refers to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy (the little girl) is captured in a cyclone that transports her, along with her farmhouse, into the Land of Oz.

* "Evolution has not prepared humans/me/us/men/women to..." is a common excuse by some people to justify their behaviour by blaming it on basic instincts over which they have no control. Not pooping in other people's floor lamps is something most people are sufficiently evolved to be capable of {{Citation needed}}.

* The comic to the right shows two characters preparing for a duel. One of them activates their {{w|lightsaber}}, a weapon from the {{w|Star Wars}} franchise. The other one follows by turning on a flash-light, which superficially resembles a lightsaber in their deactivated state, but serves quite different purpose.

* "Jack and Jill went up the hill / To fetch a pail of water. / Jack fell down and broke his crown, / And Jill came tumbling after." is a traditional English nursery rhyme. San Juan Hill is the site of {{w|Battle of San Juan Hill|a decisive battle of the Spanish-American War}}.

* The comic at the bottom is an early version of [[942: Juggling]].

Here is a complete list of the comics in the entire [[:Category:Five-minute comics|Five-minute comics]] series:
*[[819: Five-Minute Comics: Part 1]]
*[[820: Five-Minute Comics: Part 2]]
*[[821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3]]
*[[Five-Minute Comics: Part 4]]

==Transcript==

===Comic #1===
[A man facing left is at home plate ready to bat for 3 panels]
[A man facing right is holding a tennis racket and a tennis ball.]
[The two men stand facing each other]
[A scoreboard is shown] HOME:00 VISITOR:00

===Comic #2===

===Comic #3===

===Comic #4===

===Comic #5===

===Comic #6===

===Comic #7===

===Comic #8===
:[The panel shows a close up of Cueball reading a book. The book is called "How To Juggle" and has a picture of a person juggling on the cover.]

:[The view now shows the entirety of Cueball. A book is on the floor behind them, and he is holding some juggling balls.]

:[Cueball throws the juggling balls in the air.]

:[He lowers his arms to prepare to catch the balls. The balls are still hovering in mid-air.]

:[Cueball now stands with his arms by his sides. The balls have not moved and are still suspended in mid-air.]

:[Cueball jumps, trying to grab the lowest ball. He can't reach.]

:[Cueball scratches his head and stares at the still floating juggling balls.]

:[Cueball throws the book into a trash can.]

{{comic discussion}}

==Trivia==
*The original image link now shows the following message:
[[File:five_minute_comics_part_4_message.png]]
::Sorry!
::Minor glitch in the universe.
::Nothing to see here. Move along!
::--Management

[[Category:Five-minute comics| 04]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:No title text]]

1633: Possible Undiscovered Planets

2016-01-24T03:46:17Z

173.245.54.54: Further explains "Planets ruled out because they would not fit through my door"

{{comic
| number = 1633
| date = January 22, 2016
| title = Possible Undiscovered Planets
| image = possible_undiscovered_planets.png
| titletext = Superman lies near the bird/plane boundary over a range of distances, which explains the confusion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|It there a peer reviewed paper? Or other place the data has been published? Links to this is needed. Wiki link in the table.}}
This comic is about {{w|Planet Nine}}, a possible Neptune-sized planet far beyond the farthest planet {{w|Neptune}}. Astronomers {{w|Michael E. Brown|Mike Brown}} and {{w|Konstantin Batygin}} recently published a paper{{Citation needed}} showing indirect evidence that such a planet may exist, inferred from an otherwise unlikely correlation between the unusual orbits of several {{w|dwarf planets}}.

This news was published only two days before the release of this comic, see for instance here: ''[http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-say-neptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solar-system Astronomers say a Neptune-sized planet lurks beyond Pluto]''. As this news story came out on the day of the previous comics release ([[1632: Palindrome]] 2016-01-20), this was the first release day after the news came out. This explains why this comic was released in the late afternoon rather than just past midnight as is often the case with normal releases. Once [[Randall]] heard this news, he had to decide to do this comic instead of the scheduled comic, and then invent and draw a completely new and actually very complicated comic about "{{w|Planet X}}", (now Planet IX, with {{w|Pluto}} degraded to a dwarf planet), before he could release this comic. Note that Mike is the astronomer that {{w|How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming|killed Pluto}}, or at least reduced Pluto to a dwarf planet, something that has been a subject in {{xkcd}} before, (see [[473: Still Raw]].)

Stating the obvious, this {{w|log–log plot}} shows that for an object to be an unknown planet it has to be very far away, since planets are big{{Citation needed}}, to explain why we haven't seen it yet. With the log scale it is possible to go from less than 1 mm to an {{w|astronomical unit}} (AU) on the Y-axis and from 1 cm to thousands of AU on the X-axis.

Randall's chart is very {{w|egocentric}} as it categorizes objects based on size but also on their distance from himself (''from me''). Since this distance starts at 1 cm, it is obviously from his outside (skin/eyes), and not from his center of mass. As all the discovered planets are much farther away than their diameters, then their real size would hardly take up any space due to the {{w|Logarithmic scale|log-scale}}. The dots marking these 7 planets are thus not drawn to scale that should represent they actual size compared with the other planets. However, for {{w|Earth}}, which is marked with the largest of the dots, it seems he has used the opposite side of the Earth, as his distance from Earth is equal to it's diameter. This is clear as the Earth dot is situated on the line that has the planets he would be inside to the left. It is just left of the 10,000 km line on both axis, and Earth has a diameter of 12,000 km, which will fit fine with the center of the dot.

The chart uses a generous {{w|definition of planet}} (from the Greek word for "wanderer"), and allows any distinct solid object as a possible planet, whereas the {{w|IAU definition of planet}} requires a solar orbit, gravitational rounding, and "clearing the neighborhood", a controversial (at the time of its introduction) calculation of relative size that excludes {{w|Kuiper Belt Objects}} such as Pluto. The calculation regarding Planet Nine would make it large enough to meet the IAU definition.

That said, the actual planets are prominently marked on the chart: they are the solid black dots. Besides Earth and ''Planet Nine?'', the bottom row of three is {{w|Mercury (planet)|Mercury}}, {{w|Venus}} (the largest of those three, but the three dots are of equal size) and {{w|Mars}}. It is unclear how Randall is calculating the distance to these three since neither of these options work: closest approach, average, mean, current or max. It is thus also unclear which of the three represents which planet. In the comic [[482: Height]] Randall shows (among other) the distance from the Earths surface to all the planets. For especially Venus and Mars he shows that their distance changes a lot based on theirs and Earth's orbital positions. He has also not used these loops to base the dot size or position, as these loops clearly go closer than 1 AU and only one of the planets are drawn closer than that. In the [[#Table of items in the chart|table below]] there is made some reasoning that the planets are listed in the order of their distance to the sun, as this will give least deviations from the position of the dots and the data for the planets.

The top row of four is (from left to right) {{w|Jupiter}} and {{w|Saturn}} (visible to the naked eye) and {{w|Uranus}} and Neptune (visible through a telescope). Pluto, no longer considered a planet, is not marked on the chart, but it would be below Neptune in the corner of the pink region. (There is one dwarf planet that doesn't appear in the pink region, because it is visible with a telescope: {{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}}, which would appear roughly below Mars and Jupiter.)

The {{w|Moon}} is marked on the chart, parenthetically and in gray since it's not a planet (because Earth is clogging up its neighborhood), but it was considered one of the classical planets by the ancient Greeks who invented the word. (Randall has messed up the positioning and the diameter of the Moon (see the [[#Table of items in the chart|table below]]). The {{w|Sun}}, however, is not marked at all (not even in grey), even though it is extremely prominent and was also one of the classical planets. It should be right above Mercury, inside the region of things that we can see during the day (note that objects this big will always be shining, Jupiter is [https://www.worldcat.org/title/jupiter-and-saturn/oclc/60393951&referer=brief_results already brighter] than if it would reflect 100% of Sun's light. In general, "planets ruled out because we would see them during the day" refers to objects big enough to be stars, but {{w|List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs|the only star system}}, other than Sun, that would fit on the chart is {{w|Alpha Centauri}}, which at 4.37 {{w|light-years}} (ly) is well withing the right boundary that falls at 5,68 ly, just before the distance to the next nearest star {{w|Barnard's Star}} at 5,96 ly from the Sun. (A light year is 63,241 AU, and with the 10,000 AU mark far from the right edge of this log-log plot, it is clear that also 100,000 AU and thus a light year is within the chart. And this also goes for 5 ly).

Randall correctly states that if there was a planet that was at a distance from him smaller than its radius, he would be inside it (although at the bottom of that region, it's more like the planet that would be inside him, as this line goes down to a diameter of 1 cm).

"Planets ruled out by the WISE survey" refers to the {{w|Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer}} (WISE), a space telescope designed to look for warm objects such as {{w|brown dwarf}}s, which generate heat at their centers. It was capable of detecting Saturn-sized or larger planets in the outer reaches of our solar system, but did not find any. WISE would not have detected "Planet Nine" (even if it exists) because it is too small and thus too cold to be detected. There is a chance that it can be seen in some more temperature sensitive measurements. But these have not been checked for such a planet yet, (see the news story).

The comic seems to imply a flat (or mostly bird-less) Earth, as birds are not shown to exist further than about 1000 km away from the "me", while Earth's diameter is in the ballpark of 10000 km.

The region of "satellites" should be extended down an order of magnitude or so to account for 10 cm {{w|cubesat}}s.

The title text explains why some people {{w|It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman|confuse Superman for a bird or a plane}}, since {{w|Superman}} often flies at the limit between the two categories in the diagram. This is though not really true as can be seen in the bottom of the table below and in this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ef/Modified_possible_undiscovered_planets.png image]

===Table of items in the chart===
*This table lists the limits of all regions and dots in the image.
**Some of the more stretched out regions has also been split into two or three smaller parts.
**The planet dots has the limits from the edges of the circle the dots makes used for maximum and minimum limits.
*The table is sort-able, but at the moment the distances are with units, and these change, so it is not sort-able in a very meaningful way. (Maybe someone could improve on that?)
*The data has been read out using the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ef/Modified_possible_undiscovered_planets.png image] inserted [[#Image used to create data for the table|below the table]].
**Note that superman is also drawn in
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Regions and objects
! Min. distance
! Max. distance
! Min. diameter
! Max. diameter
! Explanation
|-
|Planets ruled out because I would be inside them||1 cm||109 km||1 cm||109 km||Planets that would either have Randall inside, or if smaller than Randall would be inside Randall. Earth comes close since Randall is on its surface (most of the time). The line dividing this region from the'' Planets we see at night'' has the dot representing Earth on it at around 12,000 km = Earths diameter. It hits the Y-axis at 1 cm and then goes to the top at almost 10 AU
|-
|Planets ruled out because they wouldn’t fit through my door||1 m||60 m||1 m||60 m||As these "planets" are more than 1 m in diameter it is likely they would not fit through his door. It is assumed that if a planet were within 60 m from Randall that they would be within his house, but because they can't fit through his door, they wouldn't be in his house. The real planets would of course also not fit through any door.
|-
|Birds that got into my house||20 cm||60 m||20 cm||1 m||Small birds that get into Randall's house. They are not planets… He has a fairly big house as they can be 60 m away from Randall (when he is inside) and still be inside his house.
|-
|Region with ''bugs'' and ''skin''||1 cm||25 km||0.15 mm||20 cm||The ''giant bugs'' region is not inside this one, thus takes a cut out of the top right of this region. The bottom of the chart is at 0.15 mm. Only at the very bottom for very small items does the region stretch out beyond 10 km…
|-
|Bugs (Not planets)||10 m||1 km||1 mm||1 cm||This is only the approximate region where the words ''Bugs (not planets)'' are written. As the skin part probably is at the origin, the whole region is probably related to bugs. See above for the size of this item.
|-
|Skin flora||1 cm||1 cm||0.15 mm||0.15 mm||There is an arrow pointing to the corner of the diagram. The values are thus the same for min. and max. as it is a point value. Of course it may also mean that they are outside the chart, but this is not clear.
|-
|Giant bugs||100 m||10 km||3 cm||20 cm||Giant bugs are for Randall from about 5 cm. It seems like he tries to keep them at least 100 m away.
|-
|Planets which are actually birds||60 m||45 km||20 cm||8 m||Birds bigger than the birds that can get into Randall’s house, and up to the biggest possible birds (and even bigger). These are so big that they actually look so much like planets that you have to be told that they are actually just birds.
|-
|Airplanes (Fool’s planets’)||200 m||60 km||8 m||100 m||Planes in the sky can often be mistaken for a planet, especially at night and at a distance. This may be a comment on {{w|fool's Gold}}, i.e. the metal Pyrite, that looks so much like gold that it is easy for people finding Pyrite to believe they have found gold. The same goes for airplanes and planets according to Randall
|-
|Region with with ''junk'', ''asteroids'' and ''Oort''||10 km||5.7 ly||0.15 mm||500 km||Space junk can get as close as 10 km from Randall and be of a sub millimeter size. And then the objects in the asteroid belt and Oort cloud that are not to be considered dwarf planets can be up to 500 km and can reach out to the next star as the edge of the graph is almost at 6 light-years (ly)
|-
|Space junk||10 km||105 km||0.15 mm||10 m||This is only the approximate region around where the words ''Space junk'' are written in this large region. From the left to halfway to the next label for ''comets and asteroids'' and the max diameter taken at this point
|-
|Comets and asteroids||105 km||100 AU||0.15 mm||225 km||This is only the approximate region around where the words '''comets and asteroids''' is written in this large region. It goes from halfway to the previous label for ''Space junk'' and halfway to the next label for ''Oort cloud''. The max diameter is taken at this last point. A small part of this section just reaches into the Dwarf planet territory, making sense as Ceres is a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt.
|-
|Oort cloud||100 AU||5.7 ly||0.15 mm||500 km||This is only the approximate region around where the words ''Oort cloud'' are written in this large region. From halfway to the previous label for ''comets and asteroids'' and to the end of the chart at the right near the nearest stars at almost 6 light-years (ly)
|-
|Satellites||100 km||105 km||1 m||10 m||This is only the approximate region where the word ''Satellites'' is written. The words cross the border between the ''Space junk etc.'' region below and the ''Stuff we can see through telescopes'' region above. In principle it could thus go down into the space junk region and reach the 10 cm diameter of a cube sat, and up to the size of the {{w|International space station}}.
|-
|Stuff we can see through telescopes||60 km||800 AU||1 m||430,000 km||The max and min. values are not very representative as the region follows a shifted diagonal. Close items can be seen with telescope even if they are small, and large object might not be visible if they are far enough away. Hence this section has been split in three, see below. At the top left of the region there are two dots representing Uranus and Neptune, the planets not visible to the naked eye.
|-
|Stuff we can see through telescopes (over ''satellites'')||60 km||105 km||1 m||1 km||This section has been split in three, see the entire region above. This is objects in the satellite range
|-
|Stuff we can see through telescopes (over ''asteroids'')||106 km||10 AU||30 m||20,000 km||This section has been split in three, see the entire region above. This is objects in the asteroids range
|-
|Stuff we can see through telescopes (Past ''asteroids'')||10 AU||800 AU||100 km||430,000 km||This section has been split in three, see the entire region above. This is objects in the outer planet range. Here are also the two dots representing Uranus and Neptune, the planets not visible to the naked eye. The reason the upper cut of it at (almost) the same level through all this region it that if the "planets" got any bigger, then they would turn into a brown dwarf that could be seen during the day, or if they got bigger they could even turn into a small star (or big star see below), and thus would be visible by day
|-
|Region with both ''planets above house'' and ''visible at night''||60 m||43 AU||3.5 m||300,000 km||The max and min. values are not very representative as the region follows a shifted diagonal. Close items can be seen with the naked eye at night even if they are small, and large object might not be visible if they are far enough away. Hence this section has been split in two sections as there are two labels, see below. At the top left of the region there are five dots representing the five planets visible to the naked eye. Also the moon is shown with a gray dot (i.e. not a planet), this is more in the middle of the region, and finally the Earth is on the border to the region to the left, with planets that Randall would be inside if they did exist.
|-
|Planets ruled out because I would have noticed them above my house||1 km||105 km||100 m||10 km||This is only the approximate region around where the words of this part of the region are written in this large region. Just to show how much smaller the limits are in the small scale of the region. However, this entire region is about things that are visible at night, including the five planets and the moon. Those can be seen as labels for the dots, not another label for the region. Also Saturn is above Randall’s house when he sees it! Of course so is another bright object only 1 km above his house. But anyway planet or not he would be able to rule it out as a new planet, as if there were any that close and this big they would have been spotted long ago.
|-
|Planets we can see at night||108 km||10 AU||10,000 km||300,000 km||This is only the edges of the region of the five dots representing the five planets visible to the naked eye. They do belong to the region of planets Randall can spot from above his house, and as such this may be a label for the planets not for the region. But the limits here are interesting to compare with the entire region or with that of the part with smaller dimensions as shown above. The reason the upper cut of it at the same level through all this region it that if the "planets" got any bigger, then they would turn into a brown dwarf that could be seen during the day, or if they got bigger they could even turn into a small star (or big star see below), and thus would be visible by day
|-
|Dwarf planets||13 AU||5.7 ly||170 km||16,000 km||Dwarf planets can in principle be anywhere in the solar system. But this region only covers undiscovered dwarf planets, and thus they should be at least a given distance away, before it is realistic they would not already have been discovered. Also they need to be a certain size to be able to round themselves under their own gravity. And if they are too big, it is not realistic that they are only dwarf planets. The region reaches out to the next star as the edge of the graph is almost at 6 light-years (ly)
|-
|'''Planet Nine?'''||100 AU||5.7 ly||3,600 km||300,000 km||This is the region the whole comic is about. Here be planets yet undiscovered. They have to have a certain size to be a planet if they are this far away, and also have to be this far away before it is realistic they would not already have been discovered. If they were any bigger, it would be like with the other planet regions to the left, that they would turn into a brown dwarf, (or at least Saturn sized planet) and although maybe not visible with telescopes just above this size, they would have been spotted by the WISE survey (see below). The region reaches out to the next star as the edge of the graph is almost at 6 light-years (ly)
|-
|Planets ruled out by the WISE survey||450 AU||5.7 ly||70,000 km||106 km||This region refers to the {{w|Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer}} (WISE), a space telescope designed to look for warm objects such as {{w|brown dwarf}}s, which generate heat at their centers. It was capable of detecting Saturn-sized or larger planets in the outer reaches of our solar system, but did not find any. WISE would not have detected "Planet Nine" (even if it exists) because it is too small and thus too cold to be detected. It the objects got any bigger than the upper limit they would turn into small stars, which would be visible during the night probably even with the naked eye. This is the last section below this. The region reaches out to the next star as the edge of the graph is almost at 6 light-years (ly)
|-
|Planets ruled out because we would see them during the day||360,000 km||5.7 ly||360,000 km||109 km||This region covers object that are either brown dwarfs close enough to us that we could see them (even by day) or if even bigger real stars, that would be closer to us than almost any other star system. The upper limit is at the top of the chart which almost reaches 10 AU. When the sun turns into a {{w|red giant}} after its main sequence when it has {{w|Sun#After_core_hydrogen_exhaustion|exausted it's hydrogen}} it will swell up to a size of 2 AU and not only swallow Earth but also Mars. But there are also start swelling to more than 10 AU. The max. distance actually reaches the nearest star system of Alpha Centauri. And the biggest of those stars would be inside this last region, as it is 1.2 times bigger than the sun, and thus have a diameter of approximately 1.7 106 km, and they are "only" about 4,37 light-years (ly) away and the graph goes to 5.7 ly. But these stars are definitely not visible during the day. If the graph had stopped at 10,000 AU, at the last tick, this may have been true, but now it is an error, as starts in this entire region will not be visible during day time. But they would at night, if not by eye then by telescope. So no planets in this region, and also no undiscovered objects of that size!
|-
|Dot 1 Earth||10,000 km||32,000 km||10,000 km||23,000 km||This dot represents Earth. The Earth has a diameter of 12,000 km and Randall is on top of it, thus distance is zero. Thus the dot makes no sense. The max and min given here is at the limit of the circle the dot makes.
|-
|Gray Dot (Moon)||1.3x106 km||3x106 km||5,000 km||12,000 km||This dot represents the Moon. It is gray and moon is written in brackets to indicate that it is not a planet. Randall seems to have misplaced the dot completely. The Moon has a diameter of 3,400 km and the min limit is 5,000 km. It is even worse with the distance which is a factor 10 too large, at least at the max. The moon is on average 380,000 km from earth, and at the max distance is 406,700 km, to which Randall can add 6000 km when on the other side of the Earth to get him about 413,000 km from the Moon (but then he cannot see it). However, the minimum distance given is more than one million km, and thus more than a factor two of, and the max distance is almost a factor 10 off. The max and min given here is at the limit of the circle the dot makes.
|-
|Dot 2 (Mercury?)||0.8 AU||1.2 AU||15,000 km||30,000 km||This dot either represents Mercury or Venus, as they are the one closest to 1 AU from Earth. Mercury comes closest to this limit as it never gets far from the sun and thus also never strays far from being 1 AU from the Earth. The range of distances from Earth is from 0.5 to 1.5 AU. The max and min given here is at the limit of the circle the dot makes. And for the distance this is within the limits for Mercuries orbit. However, the diameter is 5,000 km and this does not fit well, so from that principle it fits better with Venus. But Venus can be much longer from the Earth when on the other side of the sun...
|-
|Dot 3 (Venus?)||1.2 AU||2.3 AU||12,000 km||25,000 km||This dot either represents Mercury or Venus, as they are the one closest to Earth. Venus can get close to the Earth when they are on the same side of the sun. The range of distances from Earth is from 0.25 to 1.7 AU. The max and min given here is at the limit of the circle the dot makes. The distance for this dot fits equally bad with both planets. The diameter is smaller than before, but it is still way too big for Mercury’s 5,000 km and it is not too small but just at the limit of the 12,000 km of Venus. This does thus fit well with Venus on both parameters. Then Mercury will be off as the Dot 2 with diameter, but fit better with distance.
|-
|Dot 4 Mars||2.5 AU||4.7 AU||12,000 km||23,000 km||This dot represents Mars. Mars has a diameter of 6,700 km and, so here it is set to at least double its diameter. The max and min given here is at the limit of the circle the dot makes. The range of distances from Earth is from 0.4 to 2.7 AU. The min distance at least is lower than 2.7 AU thus making this the dot that fits best with Mars.
|-
|Dot 5 Jupiter||2.6 AU||6.7 AU||100,000 km||240,000 km||This dot represents Jupiter. Jupiter has a diameter of 140,000 km so it falls within the range. The distances from the sun is about 5 AU and thus from the Earth it ranges from about 4 to 6 AU. This dot thus fit nicely on both parameters with the largest planet. The max and min given here is at the limit of the circle the dot makes.
|-
|Dot 6 Saturn||6.7 AU||13 AU||53,000 km||126,000 km||This dot represents Saturn. Saturn has a diameter of 120,000 km so it falls within the range. The distances from the sun is about 9-10 AU and thus from the Earth it ranges from about 8 to 11 AU. This dot thus fit nicely on both parameters with the 2nd largest planet. The max and min given here is at the limit of the circle the dot makes.
|-
|Dot 7 Uranus||21 AU||43 AU||38,000 km||83,000 km||This dot represents Uranus. Uranus has a diameter of 50,000 km so it falls within the range. The distances from the sun is about 18-20 AU and thus from the Earth it ranges from about 17 to 21 AU. This dot thus just reaches down to this distance, but it is within the limits on both parameters. The max and min given here is at the limit of the circle the dot makes.
|-
|Dot 8 Neptune||45 AU||100 AU||37,000 km||83,000 km||This dot represents Neptune. Neptune has a diameter of 49,000 km so it falls within the range. The distances from the sun is about 30 AU and thus from the Earth it ranges from about 29 to 31 AU. This dot is thus too far out on this parameter. The max and min given here is at the limit of the circle the dot makes.
|-
|'''Dot 9 Planet Nine?'''||700 AU||1550 AU||21,000 km||50,000 km||This is the dot representing the possible undiscovered planet that is the reason for this entire comic. As it is only speculations made on well documented features of dwarf plants orbits, nothing much is known. But the guess is that is has a diameter between 26,000 to 52,000 km (fine with the dots min and max) and although it could get into 200 AU this may take thousands of year, and it is expected that it will be further out than 700 AU most of the time going all the way out to 1200 AU, so this dot fits perfectly with the newest estimates.
|-
|Superman (title text)||1 m||1 km|| 0.5 m||2 m||Arms length away, and cannot be seen much more than 1 km away. He is about 2 m high and 0.5 m over the shoulder. This does not fit very well with the title text, as he is not even near the plane limit, but still at a distance it can be hard to tell if the flying object is a plane far away (on Earth scale) or a man closer or a small bird really close...
|}

====Image used to create data for the table====
*This image was used for obtaining the data in the table.
*The image was created in a power-point slide show and moving lines along and reading out the position gave the values, with the help of Excel...
**The lines going all through the image goes through existing ticks on the axes
**Lines not going all the way out to the axes are not over existing ticks
**Values for the lines have been added both for those without ticks but also for ticks without values in the comic
**Lines have been color coded, so red for metric, green for AU and purple for units that is not used in the comic.
*Superman has been drawn in as best as possible in blue.
[[File:Modified_possible_undiscovered_planets.png]]

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the chart]
:<big>'''Possible Undiscovered Planets'''</big>
:in our Solar System
:By <big>'''size'''</big> and <big>'''distance'''</big> (from me)

:[A chart of possible undiscovered planets with a log-log plot, with the objects diameter on the y-axis and the distance from “me” (Randall) on the X-axis. Both axes are labeled and have several ticks most of which also have labels. A region to the right, with possible new planets including Planet 9 with a “?”, is shaded light red, and a small rectangle at the top left with the same color tells what this color means. The region, of undiscovered dwarf planets, is shaded pink, also to indicate that here may be more of these, but the lighter color indicate that these will not be new “planets”. The eight known planets are marked with a black dot, and also this is explained with a dot under the colored rectangle. The Moon is indicated with a similar dot, but in gray, and the name is in brackets. The chart itself is divided into several labeled regions, the smallest with the label outside and an arrow pointing in. In one case a label breaks a border, and in two regions there are more labels, although these clearly belong to different regions within these regions, with different sizes and/or distances.]

:[Y-axis, with a label written to the left, from bottom and up, with an arrow pointing up, and 15 ticks with a label each:]
:Diameter
:1 mm
:1 cm
:10 cm
:1 m
:10 m
:100 m
:1 km
:10 km
:100 km
:1,000 km
:10,000 km
:100,000 km
:106 km
:107 km
:1 AU

:[X-axis, with a label written below, with an arrow pointing right, and 17 ticks but only 11 labels as the ticks at 100 km, between 1000 and 106 km, 107 km as well as 10 and 1000 AU is not labeled:]
:Distance from me
:10 cm
:1 m
:10 m
:100 m
:1 km
:10 km
:1000 km
:106 km
:1 AU
:100 AU
:10,000 AU

:[At the top left of the chart is the light-red rectangle and the black dot labeled:]
:Possible undiscovered planets
:Known planets

:[Going down and anti-clockwise from these two labels, the rest of the chart is transcribed:]
:Planets ruled out because I would be inside them
::Earth
:Planets ruled out because I would have noticed them above my house
:Planets ruled out because they wouldn’t fit through my door
:Birds that got into my house
:Skin flora
:<big>Bugs</big>
::(Not planets)
:Giant bugs
:Planets which are actually birds
:Airplanes
:(Fool’s planets’)
:<big>Space junk</big>
:<big>Comets and asteroids</big>
:<big>Oort cloud</big>
:<big>Satellites</big>
:Stuff we can see through telescopes
:Planets we can see at night
::(Moon)
:Dwarf planets
:Planet Nine?
::?
:Planets ruled out by the WISE survey
:Planets ruled out because we would see them during the day

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Space]]

Talk:1630: Quadcopter

2016-01-15T13:38:06Z

173.245.54.54:

Despite the obvious nature documentary joke, could this maybe also be making fun of people's fear that robots will take over the world someday soon? And in the same tone of voice try to convince them that technological development is natural and is nothing to be afraid of?[[User:Bon|Bon]] ([[User talk:Bon|talk]]) 06:27, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

This seems to be at least a partial reference to a scene in Harry Potter where they learn to ride broomsticks for the first time. [[User:Mlake|Mlake]] ([[User talk:Mlake|talk]]) 07:11, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Would it not make more sense if birds carried him away? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.147|141.101.104.147]] 10:53, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Is it really about the robots becoming sentient, or is it the idea that the government doesn't want him teaching this class and sent the drones to take him away? [[User:Schiffy|Schiffy]] ([[User_talk:Schiffy|Speak to me]]|[[Special:Contributions/Schiffy|What I've done]]) 13:26, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Are quadcopters used as camera mounts in filming nature documentaries? This is the angle I first took on readong this comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.179|162.158.152.179]] 13:30, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

It seems to me that this is a pun on the term Predator drone. Predator drones are not quadcopters but both are commonly referred to simply as "drone". In this case it seems that cue ball has fallen prey to a predator and the group is looking at it similarly to watching a cat kill a squirrel. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.54|173.245.54.54]] 13:38, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

1617: Time Capsule

2015-12-17T00:32:57Z

173.245.54.54: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1617
| date = December 16, 2015
| title = Time Capsule
| image = time_capsule.png
| titletext = Oh no, I changed the future and now I'm disappearing! Wait, never mind, it was just my hat slipping down over my eyes.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is watching [[Ponytail]] who has unearthed a {{w|time capsule}}, that must have been buried in the ground many years ago.

A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists or historians.

However, when she manages to open the capsule [[Beret Guy]] turns out to have been hiding inside while the capsule has been buried. It turns out that he has mixed up the purpose of a {{w|Time travel|time machine}} and a time capsule; when Ponytail asks him where he came from he tells her: ''The past! I traveled here in this time machine.''

He cannot explain how he got there, but he claims that he could not have prevented this. This is a reference to the fact that you cannot avoid being pushed forward through time, see [[1524: Dimensions]]. Beret Guy has also previously traveled to the future in a similar manner, see [[209: Kayak]].

Beret Guy claims he has been eating newspapers to survive; newspaper clippings are a stereotype content of time capsules. He also managed to live underground in the time capsule, which would typically be an airtight sealed box, for what must be assumed to be at least several years. Although some time capsules are meant to be opened after just a few years (10 or 25 years for instance) the plan should be that is is not opened for at least several years after it is created. So this comic is one more example of the [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers of Beret Guy]] - i.e. living by eating paper and without breathing oxygen. But he has before displayed patience enough to sit still for five years in [[1088: Five Years]].

Beret Guy mentions he got inside his "time machine" to attempt an assassination of {{w|Adolf Hitler}} (possibly using the hammer he's holding?). Traveling to the past in a time machine to assassinate Hitler is a common trope in speculative fiction, as a way to try to prevent the {{w|second world war}} -- however the scheme only works via travel into the past, to some time before Hitler were to rise in power and start the war, rather than "into the future" as Beret Guy did.

Since he actually did not travel into the past, but just let time pass, he did not get back to a time before Hitler died, and thus Ponytail can tell him that Hitler has been dead for a long time; at the time of this comic's release for 70 years. So in the comic it is presumably at least this long ago, if the capsule was opened on the day of the release, maybe longer if this comic is set in the future. This fact does not bother Beret Guy, as he just realizes his job has already been done. What he thus fails to realize, is that he was supposed to kill Hitler before he got the second world war started. This was the same type of failure made by [[Black Hat]] in [[1063: Kill Hitler]]. Black Hat did actually travel 67 years back in time and killed Hitler, sadly it was in the last days of the war in 1945 just before Hitler would have died anyway, so it had no effect on history either (and the time machine was a one shot thing...)

When he finds out that his job is done he asks Ponytail if they should get some sandwiches. It is a known feature of Beret Guys that he likes bakers and bread, though not specifically sandwiches. Realizing he is in the future he suddenly becomes aware that this concept may have been forgotten, and he asks if they still exist in this future. This is a reference to another comic where Megan has traveled through time in the same way as Beret Guy (by traveling a second ahead for every second passing...) See [[630: Time Travel]]. It is also a possible reference to the new version of [http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Montgomery_Scott_%28alternate_reality%29 Star Trek], in which Scotty's response to learning someone is from the future is "Do they still have sandwiches there?"

In the title text Beret Guy becomes afraid that he will now disappear because he has changed the future in a way so he would no longer exist. This fear comes into him because he losses his sight, but it turns out it was just his beret that fell into his eyes. The fear is of course baseless since he traveled forward not backwards in time, and you can only change the future (or the present) by going back in time, and then experience the difference by going back to your starting point later in time.

A typical example would be to go back and kill your parents before you were born (or just prevent them from falling in love as in the movie ''{{w|Back to the Future}})''. This creates a {{w|Grandfather paradox|paradox}}, where you will never be born, and thus cease to exist. Of course the paradox is that you could thus not have prevented your birth in the first place, if you did not already exist.

Time machines have been referenced in many xkcd comics, see the [[:Category:Time travel|Time travel category]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is watching and Ponytail is about to open a time capsule that has just been dug out. A shovel is stuck in the ground next to a heap of dirt on the right side of a hole in the ground. Cueball is standing on the other side and Ponytail is in the hole, proceeding to lift up the lid of the box that makes up the time capsule.]
:Ponytail: All right, let's open the time capsule.

:[Slight zoom in on Ponytail and the box, without Cueball but still the shovel and dirt, when Beret Guy comes out of the capsule looking up at Ponytail who takes a step back up.]
:Beret Guy: Hi!
:Ponytail: Where did you come from?!
:Beret Guy: The past! I traveled here in this time machine.

:[Frame widens to include Cueball, in the same position as in the first frame. Ponytail relaxes a little and Beret Guy turns in the capsule to face Cueball.]
:Cueball: How did you ... '''''get''''' here from the past?
:Beret Guy: I dunno. I couldn't '''''not'''''.
:Cueball: But ... what did you ''eat?''
:Beret Guy: Newspapers, mostly.

:[Zoom in again in a bigger frame with Ponytail and the capsule, shovel and dirt. Beret Guy faces her again, but now he is holding a hammer.]
:Beret Guy: Anyway, I'm here to kill Hitler.
:Ponytail: But he died long ago!
:Beret Guy: Oh, good! That was easy.
:Beret Guy: Want to get sandwiches?
:Beret Guy: Do you still have sandwiches?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Time travel]]

1137: RTL

2015-07-30T03:02:10Z

173.245.54.54: ‮

{{comic
| number = 1137
| date = November 21, 2012
| title = ‮LTR‬
| image = rtl.png
| titletext = Collaborative editing can quickly become a textual rap battle fought with increasingly convoluted invocations of U+202a to U+202e
}}

==Explanation==

U+202e is a {{w|unicode control characters|unicode control character}} that changes all subsequent text to right-to-left (RTL, as the title references). In the comic, [[Black Hat]] tires of [[Cueball]]'s complaining and inserts a U+202e character in the middle of Cueball's speech, turning his complaints into gibberish - sentences that must be read from right-to-left.

The title of the comic builds on this theme, with the title of the webpage it is hosted on being LTR in some browsers (see [[#Trivia|trivia]]), the reverse of the comic name.

What Cueball actually tries to say after Black Hats change is:
:— They didn't even...
:...What the hell?
:How did you...
:...Asshole.

When multiple writers work on the same text, arguments can often arise with some writers resorting to vandalizing the works of other writers. The title text takes this up a level, suggesting the use of U+202e and other direction control characters in editor wars to disrupt other people's work. For reference for future wars U+202c returns text back to its normal direction.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing behind Black Hat who is sitting down with a laptop on his lap.]
:Cueball: And that's not even the worst part! The ''worst'' part is that—
:Black Hat types a comand on the PC: U+202e
:Cueball: ‮—They didn't even...
:Cueball: ‮...What the hell?
:Cueball: ‮How did you...
:Cueball: ‮...Asshole.

==Trivia==
*In the version originally published there was a typo in the reverse text ("ETH" instead of "EHT" for "THE"). This mistake was corrected within a couple of hours.
*The title given in the web browser, (for instance seen on the icon for the browser bar at the bottom of the screen), for the comic on the xkcd website actually has a U+202e character preceding it;
**The page title is "xkcd: [U+202e]LTR", which for instance causes {{w|Firefox}} to write the page title as "xkcd: xoferiF allizoM - RTL" as the window title. So xkcd and the comics title is correct (The LTR turns to RTL). But the browsers name is reversed.
**This may only affect some browsers but it also occurs in {{w|Internet Explorer}},{{w|Google Chrome}}, {{w|Chromium (web browser)|Chromium}} and {{w|Opera (web browser)|Opera}}.
*In some browsers (for instance Internet Explorer), this page's title damages the appearance of all older entries in the [http://xkcd.com/archive/ archive page] on xkcd.
**Here is a picture example for people without access to explorer: [[Media:Reverse archive.jpg|Reverse archive]].
*This is the second comic in a row with Cueball and Black Hat discussing. Both with Black Hat with his back turned to Cueball.
**In the previous comic Black Hat broke a mirror, and in this comic he then reverses Cueballs speak
**Not exactly a mirroring of his speak, but still related.
**In the broken archive mentioned above, [[1136: Broken Mirror]] is the first (or last) entry to be broken!

==Unicode Control Characters==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Unicode number !! Name !! Meaning
|-
| U+202a || LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING || The following text will be left-to-right. This will not change directionality of characters, so for example Arabic letters will stay right-to-left. This character alone does nothing in an English text, since the text direction is left-to-right by default.
|-
| U+202b || RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING || The following text will be right-to-left. This will not change directionality of characters, so Latin letters will stay left-to-right. Full stops, which don't have a directionality on their own, will be left of the sentence. Use this character for some little misplacings that cause big confusion.
|-
| U+202c || POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING || The following text is formatted like the text before the last U+202a, U+202b, U+202d or U+202e character.
|-
| U+202d || LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE || The following text will be left-to-right. Additionally, the directionality of characters is changed to left-to-right. Used alone in an English text, this will only affect characters that are right-to-left by default, like Arabic letters.
|-
| U+202e || RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE || The following text will be right-to-left. Additionally, the directionality of characters is changed to right-to-left. Use this character to completely screw up an English text.
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Computers]]

Talk:1363: xkcd Phone

2014-05-03T17:14:04Z

173.245.54.54: Signed comment. Oops.

I really dislike the tone of the explanation. I mean it's so negative about the features! Not that they are all useful, but isn't this a wiki and should be neutral? It takes also the fun out of it. I would like a screaming while falling phone and the relativity thing would be great for teaching relativity! [[User:RecentlyChanged|RecentlyChanged]] ([[User talk:RecentlyChanged|talk]])

Where can i get one of these? :D [[User:UniTrader|UniTrader]] ([[User talk:UniTrader|talk]]) 04:11, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the "scream when falling" thing and the "flightaware" stuff can be done somehow with Tasker. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.103.206|141.101.103.206]] 04:23, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

;Designer?

I suspect it was either Black Hat or Beret Guy, but I'm not sure which. A collaboration? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 04:47, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

This sounds like something straight out of aperture. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.55}}

;Simulates alternate speeds of light

Yes, useless as a feature on all the time; but it would be a cool app. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 05:57, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
:Absolutely. Where can I get an app like that?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.157|108.162.225.157]] 06:22, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Travelling at above the simulated speed of light should give an imaginary time dilation, not a negative time dilation.
gamma = 1/sqrt{1-v^2/c^2}
Thus, after such travel, the value of the clock would be a complex number. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.35|108.162.219.35]] 15:42, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Changed the speed of light to 2.99x10^8'''
:You guys should probably clarify that the relativisic affects actually depend on how long your trip is or how long you wait to sync your phone. For relativity to be observable on a 12 hour trip, Minimum speed for a phone would have to be 300 m/s or 3000 m/s for the clock to measure even a microsecond/millisecond difference in time. This is well known thanks to the certain [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation#Velocity_and_gravitational_time_dilation_combined-effect_tests time dilation experiments with planes]. Your GPS chip helps account for an error of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_analysis_for_the_Global_Positioning_System#Relativity 7 to 47 microseconds per day]. My point is in terms of time dilation, relativity mattering depends on how long a trip or waiting for synchronization is. By synching, I literally mean with the atomic time clock or with a GPS satellite. The synchronization of your phone with satellites is actually a couple of hundred microseconds, so normally even a light changing clock might not have as noticable changes as you might think. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.225|108.162.238.225]] 13:49, 2 May 2014 (UTC) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.225|108.162.238.225]] 13:49, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
Yeah sorry forgot to login. does anyone know how to do the indices formatting other than eg 2.99x10(littlex) rather then 2.99x10^x? [[User:Jonv4n|Jonv4n]] ([[User talk:Jonv4n|talk]]) 06:29, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
: Whassup? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.220|141.101.89.220]] 07:43, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

; relativistic effect
Forgive me if I'm wrong, I'm not a physicist but the above explanation says that relativistic time dilation affects only occur at a significant fraction of the speed of light. It is my understanding that time dilation occurs at any speed, but is only perceptible/noticeable/measurable at very large fraction of the speed of light. Unless I'm mistaken the above it should reflect this. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.91|173.245.56.91]] 22:24, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Phone may attract/trap insects; this is normal.'''
Funnier if you take it as a reference to the [http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/04/07/mazda_issues_recall_because_spiders_invade_fuel_tank_causing_fire_risk.html spider problems] Mazda keeps on having... {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.64}}

About the attracting insects ... I would expect this to be normal feature in night. Trapping, however ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:08, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
: There are other indications that the phone is at least partly biological, this being the strongest evidence of that. Insects could be the power source for the biological part(s). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 14:07, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Siri'''

Could the Siri bit be a reference to Portal? When I first read it, I remembered this GLaDOS quote: "Your Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you, and in fact cannot speak. If your Weighted Companion Cube does speak, please disregard its advice." Could be completely wrong; just a thought. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.51|173.245.54.51]] 10:09, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
:Perhaps Siri is beling likened to the "ATMOS" device in the Doctor Who episode "The Sontaran Stratagem" [[User:Esp666|Esp666]] ([[User talk:Esp666|talk]]) 11:20, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Lamest. Comic. Ever. And I'm not just saying that because he doesn't mention the Ubuntu Touch OS. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 12:22, 2 May 2014 (UTC)''

'''Realistic case'''

Car telephones and the first cellphones were rather expensive, at least in Germany fake "realistic cases" were sold without any working electronics in it. Usage was to impress silly friends. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.204}}

I thought this was aimed at the iPhone. Apparently these have an elegant case, but I have never actually seen one. Everyone I know covers their iPhone with some hideous plastic monstrosity, since the design is not practical.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.59|108.162.218.59]] 14:10, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Could possibly be a reference to the "Realistic" brand, which was used on various products sold by Radio Shack (U.S. electronics retail chain) from 1954 to some time in the '90s.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.76|108.162.219.76]] 16:14, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Screaming when in free fall: my first Android app!'''

I love the bit about screaming when in free fall: that was the first Android app I hacked together back in 2009 (based on the tricorder app). [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 13:49, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Title Text'''

Hover-over title text was truncated; love it.
14:43, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[[User:Pocono Chuck|Pocono Chuck]] ([[User talk:Pocono Chuck|talk]])
: you must have an really old firefox browser -- you should update !!! [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.210|199.27.130.210]] 16:23, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
:: Happened to me. Using whatever the latest IE is at the moment. It cut off at nause-. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.54|173.245.54.54]] 17:13, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Price includes 2-year Knicks contract.''' ... but a contract with the Knicks would only appeal to pro basketball players.

Nonsense. Lots of "regular" folks would buy this phone it it meant they got to play in the NBA. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.84|199.27.128.84]] 16:26, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

: I agree with this. A whole lot of people who think they have "skillz" would buy the phone if they got into the NBA. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.54|173.245.54.54]] 17:14, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

This may also be an indirect way of stating that it is incredibly expensive, seeing as those sort of contracts usually involve ''you'' getting compensated. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.33|108.162.216.33]] 13:41, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

"Your mobile world just went digital" is an inversion of the marketing-speak that was common when what we'd now regard as smartphones first began to be adopted by the mainstream (iPhone/G1 era, since Symbians, Blackberries, and early WinMo tended to be business or enthusiast devices). People already ubiquitously e-mailed, browsed the Web, etc...what was presented as 'new' was that you could now do it from your phone. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.58|173.245.54.58]] 19:09, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

I think the "Under certain circumstances, wireless transmitter may control God" statement might be a reference to how transmitting devices have to comply with FCC regulation and not interfere with aircraft or government communications. Perhaps this phone is intended to be noncompliant so as to control high-level electronics, even at supernatural levels. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.66|173.245.56.66]] 21:11, 2 May 2014 (UTC)Dbrak

'''Frictionless'''

You could hold a frictionless phone just by hooking your little finger under the bottom edge, regardless of friction gravity will hold it into your hand. Just like you could leave it in a bowl without it jumping out. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.72|108.162.229.72]] 19:12, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Unless you held your pinky perfectly balanced, horizontal and motionless, a frictionless object would slide right off it, as it would off any flat surface that is not perfectly horizontal.
14:13, 3 May 2014 (UTC) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.4|108.162.242.4]] 13:15, 3 May 2014 (UTC)DCollins

Wouldn't you be able to hold it somewhat like a normal phone, if you hold a finger under the bottom of it? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.54|173.245.54.54]] 17:08, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

;Why the hell this funny phone isn't available at the xkcd store?
I would buy if the price would be in the range of other articles there. Just for fun...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:30, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Root needed'''

I think that needing root for ajust the volume may be a allusion people needing to root Android to change fonts or to take screenshots (untill version 4.x). [[User:FlavianusEP|FlavianusEP]] ([[User talk:FlavianusEP|talk]]) 23:04, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1363: xkcd Phone

2014-05-03T17:13:09Z

173.245.54.54: Commented twice.

I really dislike the tone of the explanation. I mean it's so negative about the features! Not that they are all useful, but isn't this a wiki and should be neutral? It takes also the fun out of it. I would like a screaming while falling phone and the relativity thing would be great for teaching relativity! [[User:RecentlyChanged|RecentlyChanged]] ([[User talk:RecentlyChanged|talk]])

Where can i get one of these? :D [[User:UniTrader|UniTrader]] ([[User talk:UniTrader|talk]]) 04:11, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the "scream when falling" thing and the "flightaware" stuff can be done somehow with Tasker. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.103.206|141.101.103.206]] 04:23, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

;Designer?

I suspect it was either Black Hat or Beret Guy, but I'm not sure which. A collaboration? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 04:47, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

This sounds like something straight out of aperture. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.55}}

;Simulates alternate speeds of light

Yes, useless as a feature on all the time; but it would be a cool app. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 05:57, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
:Absolutely. Where can I get an app like that?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.157|108.162.225.157]] 06:22, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Travelling at above the simulated speed of light should give an imaginary time dilation, not a negative time dilation.
gamma = 1/sqrt{1-v^2/c^2}
Thus, after such travel, the value of the clock would be a complex number. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.35|108.162.219.35]] 15:42, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Changed the speed of light to 2.99x10^8'''
:You guys should probably clarify that the relativisic affects actually depend on how long your trip is or how long you wait to sync your phone. For relativity to be observable on a 12 hour trip, Minimum speed for a phone would have to be 300 m/s or 3000 m/s for the clock to measure even a microsecond/millisecond difference in time. This is well known thanks to the certain [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation#Velocity_and_gravitational_time_dilation_combined-effect_tests time dilation experiments with planes]. Your GPS chip helps account for an error of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_analysis_for_the_Global_Positioning_System#Relativity 7 to 47 microseconds per day]. My point is in terms of time dilation, relativity mattering depends on how long a trip or waiting for synchronization is. By synching, I literally mean with the atomic time clock or with a GPS satellite. The synchronization of your phone with satellites is actually a couple of hundred microseconds, so normally even a light changing clock might not have as noticable changes as you might think. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.225|108.162.238.225]] 13:49, 2 May 2014 (UTC) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.225|108.162.238.225]] 13:49, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
Yeah sorry forgot to login. does anyone know how to do the indices formatting other than eg 2.99x10(littlex) rather then 2.99x10^x? [[User:Jonv4n|Jonv4n]] ([[User talk:Jonv4n|talk]]) 06:29, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
: Whassup? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.220|141.101.89.220]] 07:43, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

; relativistic effect
Forgive me if I'm wrong, I'm not a physicist but the above explanation says that relativistic time dilation affects only occur at a significant fraction of the speed of light. It is my understanding that time dilation occurs at any speed, but is only perceptible/noticeable/measurable at very large fraction of the speed of light. Unless I'm mistaken the above it should reflect this. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.91|173.245.56.91]] 22:24, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Phone may attract/trap insects; this is normal.'''
Funnier if you take it as a reference to the [http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/04/07/mazda_issues_recall_because_spiders_invade_fuel_tank_causing_fire_risk.html spider problems] Mazda keeps on having... {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.64}}

About the attracting insects ... I would expect this to be normal feature in night. Trapping, however ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:08, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
: There are other indications that the phone is at least partly biological, this being the strongest evidence of that. Insects could be the power source for the biological part(s). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 14:07, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Siri'''

Could the Siri bit be a reference to Portal? When I first read it, I remembered this GLaDOS quote: "Your Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you, and in fact cannot speak. If your Weighted Companion Cube does speak, please disregard its advice." Could be completely wrong; just a thought. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.51|173.245.54.51]] 10:09, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
:Perhaps Siri is beling likened to the "ATMOS" device in the Doctor Who episode "The Sontaran Stratagem" [[User:Esp666|Esp666]] ([[User talk:Esp666|talk]]) 11:20, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Lamest. Comic. Ever. And I'm not just saying that because he doesn't mention the Ubuntu Touch OS. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 12:22, 2 May 2014 (UTC)''

'''Realistic case'''

Car telephones and the first cellphones were rather expensive, at least in Germany fake "realistic cases" were sold without any working electronics in it. Usage was to impress silly friends. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.204}}

I thought this was aimed at the iPhone. Apparently these have an elegant case, but I have never actually seen one. Everyone I know covers their iPhone with some hideous plastic monstrosity, since the design is not practical.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.59|108.162.218.59]] 14:10, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Could possibly be a reference to the "Realistic" brand, which was used on various products sold by Radio Shack (U.S. electronics retail chain) from 1954 to some time in the '90s.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.76|108.162.219.76]] 16:14, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Screaming when in free fall: my first Android app!'''

I love the bit about screaming when in free fall: that was the first Android app I hacked together back in 2009 (based on the tricorder app). [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 13:49, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Title Text'''

Hover-over title text was truncated; love it.
14:43, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[[User:Pocono Chuck|Pocono Chuck]] ([[User talk:Pocono Chuck|talk]])
: you must have an really old firefox browser -- you should update !!! [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.210|199.27.130.210]] 16:23, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
:: Happened to me. Using whatever the latest IE is at the moment. It cut off at nause-. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.54|173.245.54.54]] 17:13, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Price includes 2-year Knicks contract.''' ... but a contract with the Knicks would only appeal to pro basketball players.

Nonsense. Lots of "regular" folks would buy this phone it it meant they got to play in the NBA. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.84|199.27.128.84]] 16:26, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

: I agree with this. A whole lot of people who think they have "skillz" would buy the phone if they got into the NBA.

This may also be an indirect way of stating that it is incredibly expensive, seeing as those sort of contracts usually involve ''you'' getting compensated. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.33|108.162.216.33]] 13:41, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

"Your mobile world just went digital" is an inversion of the marketing-speak that was common when what we'd now regard as smartphones first began to be adopted by the mainstream (iPhone/G1 era, since Symbians, Blackberries, and early WinMo tended to be business or enthusiast devices). People already ubiquitously e-mailed, browsed the Web, etc...what was presented as 'new' was that you could now do it from your phone. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.58|173.245.54.58]] 19:09, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

I think the "Under certain circumstances, wireless transmitter may control God" statement might be a reference to how transmitting devices have to comply with FCC regulation and not interfere with aircraft or government communications. Perhaps this phone is intended to be noncompliant so as to control high-level electronics, even at supernatural levels. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.66|173.245.56.66]] 21:11, 2 May 2014 (UTC)Dbrak

'''Frictionless'''

You could hold a frictionless phone just by hooking your little finger under the bottom edge, regardless of friction gravity will hold it into your hand. Just like you could leave it in a bowl without it jumping out. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.72|108.162.229.72]] 19:12, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Unless you held your pinky perfectly balanced, horizontal and motionless, a frictionless object would slide right off it, as it would off any flat surface that is not perfectly horizontal.
14:13, 3 May 2014 (UTC) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.4|108.162.242.4]] 13:15, 3 May 2014 (UTC)DCollins

Wouldn't you be able to hold it somewhat like a normal phone, if you hold a finger under the bottom of it? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.54|173.245.54.54]] 17:08, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

;Why the hell this funny phone isn't available at the xkcd store?
I would buy if the price would be in the range of other articles there. Just for fun...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:30, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Root needed'''

I think that needing root for ajust the volume may be a allusion people needing to root Android to change fonts or to take screenshots (untill version 4.x). [[User:FlavianusEP|FlavianusEP]] ([[User talk:FlavianusEP|talk]]) 23:04, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1363: xkcd Phone

2014-05-03T17:08:59Z

173.245.54.54: Commented.

I really dislike the tone of the explanation. I mean it's so negative about the features! Not that they are all useful, but isn't this a wiki and should be neutral? It takes also the fun out of it. I would like a screaming while falling phone and the relativity thing would be great for teaching relativity! [[User:RecentlyChanged|RecentlyChanged]] ([[User talk:RecentlyChanged|talk]])

Where can i get one of these? :D [[User:UniTrader|UniTrader]] ([[User talk:UniTrader|talk]]) 04:11, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the "scream when falling" thing and the "flightaware" stuff can be done somehow with Tasker. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.103.206|141.101.103.206]] 04:23, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

;Designer?

I suspect it was either Black Hat or Beret Guy, but I'm not sure which. A collaboration? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 04:47, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

This sounds like something straight out of aperture. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.55}}

;Simulates alternate speeds of light

Yes, useless as a feature on all the time; but it would be a cool app. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 05:57, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
:Absolutely. Where can I get an app like that?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.157|108.162.225.157]] 06:22, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Travelling at above the simulated speed of light should give an imaginary time dilation, not a negative time dilation.
gamma = 1/sqrt{1-v^2/c^2}
Thus, after such travel, the value of the clock would be a complex number. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.35|108.162.219.35]] 15:42, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Changed the speed of light to 2.99x10^8'''
:You guys should probably clarify that the relativisic affects actually depend on how long your trip is or how long you wait to sync your phone. For relativity to be observable on a 12 hour trip, Minimum speed for a phone would have to be 300 m/s or 3000 m/s for the clock to measure even a microsecond/millisecond difference in time. This is well known thanks to the certain [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation#Velocity_and_gravitational_time_dilation_combined-effect_tests time dilation experiments with planes]. Your GPS chip helps account for an error of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_analysis_for_the_Global_Positioning_System#Relativity 7 to 47 microseconds per day]. My point is in terms of time dilation, relativity mattering depends on how long a trip or waiting for synchronization is. By synching, I literally mean with the atomic time clock or with a GPS satellite. The synchronization of your phone with satellites is actually a couple of hundred microseconds, so normally even a light changing clock might not have as noticable changes as you might think. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.225|108.162.238.225]] 13:49, 2 May 2014 (UTC) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.225|108.162.238.225]] 13:49, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
Yeah sorry forgot to login. does anyone know how to do the indices formatting other than eg 2.99x10(littlex) rather then 2.99x10^x? [[User:Jonv4n|Jonv4n]] ([[User talk:Jonv4n|talk]]) 06:29, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
: Whassup? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.220|141.101.89.220]] 07:43, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

; relativistic effect
Forgive me if I'm wrong, I'm not a physicist but the above explanation says that relativistic time dilation affects only occur at a significant fraction of the speed of light. It is my understanding that time dilation occurs at any speed, but is only perceptible/noticeable/measurable at very large fraction of the speed of light. Unless I'm mistaken the above it should reflect this. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.91|173.245.56.91]] 22:24, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Phone may attract/trap insects; this is normal.'''
Funnier if you take it as a reference to the [http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/04/07/mazda_issues_recall_because_spiders_invade_fuel_tank_causing_fire_risk.html spider problems] Mazda keeps on having... {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.64}}

About the attracting insects ... I would expect this to be normal feature in night. Trapping, however ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:08, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
: There are other indications that the phone is at least partly biological, this being the strongest evidence of that. Insects could be the power source for the biological part(s). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 14:07, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Siri'''

Could the Siri bit be a reference to Portal? When I first read it, I remembered this GLaDOS quote: "Your Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you, and in fact cannot speak. If your Weighted Companion Cube does speak, please disregard its advice." Could be completely wrong; just a thought. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.51|173.245.54.51]] 10:09, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
:Perhaps Siri is beling likened to the "ATMOS" device in the Doctor Who episode "The Sontaran Stratagem" [[User:Esp666|Esp666]] ([[User talk:Esp666|talk]]) 11:20, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Lamest. Comic. Ever. And I'm not just saying that because he doesn't mention the Ubuntu Touch OS. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 12:22, 2 May 2014 (UTC)''

'''Realistic case'''

Car telephones and the first cellphones were rather expensive, at least in Germany fake "realistic cases" were sold without any working electronics in it. Usage was to impress silly friends. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.204}}

I thought this was aimed at the iPhone. Apparently these have an elegant case, but I have never actually seen one. Everyone I know covers their iPhone with some hideous plastic monstrosity, since the design is not practical.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.59|108.162.218.59]] 14:10, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Could possibly be a reference to the "Realistic" brand, which was used on various products sold by Radio Shack (U.S. electronics retail chain) from 1954 to some time in the '90s.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.76|108.162.219.76]] 16:14, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Screaming when in free fall: my first Android app!'''

I love the bit about screaming when in free fall: that was the first Android app I hacked together back in 2009 (based on the tricorder app). [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 13:49, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Title Text'''

Hover-over title text was truncated; love it.
14:43, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[[User:Pocono Chuck|Pocono Chuck]] ([[User talk:Pocono Chuck|talk]])
: you must have an really old firefox browser -- you should update !!! [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.210|199.27.130.210]] 16:23, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Price includes 2-year Knicks contract.''' ... but a contract with the Knicks would only appeal to pro basketball players.

Nonsense. Lots of "regular" folks would buy this phone it it meant they got to play in the NBA. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.84|199.27.128.84]] 16:26, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

This may also be an indirect way of stating that it is incredibly expensive, seeing as those sort of contracts usually involve ''you'' getting compensated. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.33|108.162.216.33]] 13:41, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

"Your mobile world just went digital" is an inversion of the marketing-speak that was common when what we'd now regard as smartphones first began to be adopted by the mainstream (iPhone/G1 era, since Symbians, Blackberries, and early WinMo tended to be business or enthusiast devices). People already ubiquitously e-mailed, browsed the Web, etc...what was presented as 'new' was that you could now do it from your phone. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.58|173.245.54.58]] 19:09, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

I think the "Under certain circumstances, wireless transmitter may control God" statement might be a reference to how transmitting devices have to comply with FCC regulation and not interfere with aircraft or government communications. Perhaps this phone is intended to be noncompliant so as to control high-level electronics, even at supernatural levels. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.66|173.245.56.66]] 21:11, 2 May 2014 (UTC)Dbrak

'''Frictionless'''

You could hold a frictionless phone just by hooking your little finger under the bottom edge, regardless of friction gravity will hold it into your hand. Just like you could leave it in a bowl without it jumping out. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.72|108.162.229.72]] 19:12, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Unless you held your pinky perfectly balanced, horizontal and motionless, a frictionless object would slide right off it, as it would off any flat surface that is not perfectly horizontal.
14:13, 3 May 2014 (UTC) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.4|108.162.242.4]] 13:15, 3 May 2014 (UTC)DCollins

Wouldn't you be able to hold it somewhat like a normal phone, if you hold a finger under the bottom of it? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.54|173.245.54.54]] 17:08, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

;Why the hell this funny phone isn't available at the xkcd store?
I would buy if the price would be in the range of other articles there. Just for fun...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:30, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

'''Root needed'''

I think that needing root for ajust the volume may be a allusion people needing to root Android to change fonts or to take screenshots (untill version 4.x). [[User:FlavianusEP|FlavianusEP]] ([[User talk:FlavianusEP|talk]]) 23:04, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1312: Haskell

2014-01-05T09:11:39Z

173.245.54.54:

"Thus, it is possible to have a variable representing the entire infinite list of Fibonacci numbers."
Except that Haskell has no variables- nothing is mutable, as they say. You could certainly write a function that generates an infinite list of Fibonacci numbers when called (and lazily evaluated later), but it won't be bound to a variable. If it was, then the list would take up an infinite amount of memory, and lazy evaluation would be pointless.

I will, however, leave the above word "variable" in the explanation, because I can't come up with a concise way of explaining the above.
--[[User:Someone Else 37|Someone Else 37]] ([[User talk:Someone Else 37|talk]]) 09:07, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

:"Expression?" I don't know Haskel, but that's what I would call it in another functional language. --[[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 16:31, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
::That's a little imprecise, as it doesn't capture the idea of binding a value to a single symbol. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.13|108.162.231.13]] 17:03, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

:The sentence you quote is entirely correct... but might itself require further explanation!
:*Haskell variables aren't mutable, but they are nonetheless referred to as "variables". It's an appeal to the (earlier, after all) use of the word in maths, rather than in imperative programming languages. (No shortage of variables in algebra, geometry, calculus, topology... And no mutation involved.) One might equally say "symbol", "constant", or indeed "symbolic constant".
:*One can bind the fibonaccis to a variable (... constant, 0-place definition, etc) quite happily. In fact, that's the idiomatic way to do it, as it avoids the degenerate complexity of a naive recursive function. It's still evaluated lazily, all the same. (Meaning that it will take an infinite amount of memory... if you run it for an infinite amount of time, and never "consume" the result in any way.)
:*Equally, one can regard such top-level symbol definitions as functions with no arguments, if that's more helpful. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.13|108.162.231.13]] 16:42, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

:::Shows what I know about Haskell jargon, even if I do know something about the language. I see what you're saying, though.
:::In any case, here's some Haskell code that does indeed generate an infinite list of Fibonacci numbers. It's not fast, and there's almost certainly more efficient ways to do it, but it's simple enough that people unacquainted with the language should be able to figure it out.
<nowiki>fibonaccis :: [Integer] --Indicates that the function returns a list of arbitrary-length integers
fibonaccis = map fib [0..] --Converts the infinite list [0,1,2,3,4...] into a list of Fibonaccis
where fib n --Defines a helper function that returns the nth Fibonacci number
|n == 0 = 1 --The zeroth and first Fibonaccis are 1
|n == 1 = 1
|otherwise = (fib (n - 1)) + (fib (n - 2)) --And the rest are the sum of the previous two.</nowiki>
:::--[[User:Someone Else 37|Someone Else 37]] ([[User talk:Someone Else 37|talk]]) 19:52, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Does anyone have a clue what the Incomplete flag refers to? This seems like a pretty good explanation to me. --[[User:Mynotoar|Mynotoar]] ([[User talk:Mynotoar|talk]]) 11:22, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Example programs written in Haskell are: pandoc, universal markup converter; git-annex, tool to manage large files in git DVCS. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 11:37, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
: I think the person [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] who updated the incomplete tag to say "'' Add examples of popular Haskell programs''" is boarderline trolling if not full on trolling -- Explanation looks pretty complete to me and I vote to remove the ''incomplete'' tag. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 01:59, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

"thus Haskell may have value but no one has either invoked it to get that value or requested such a language." The point of the title text is (a joke that) programmers of Haskell are lazy, but no one tells them so. The point is not that no one uses Haskell. That is the point of the comic itself. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.202}}

... I am confused by the description. Is it possible that someone can put this into "plain language" that a non-programmer and a non-mathematician can understand? (Go ahead and add "slow" to that description, too, if you so choose...) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.54|173.245.54.54]] 09:11, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

1265: Juicer

2013-12-27T08:21:24Z

173.245.54.54: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1265
| date = September 16, 2013
| title = Juicer
| image = juicer.png
| titletext = But the rind is where all the vitamins are!
}}

==Explanation==
;Juicing Gushers
Juicers are typically used to crush fruits and/or vegetables, thereby extracting the liquid juice and eliminating the task of chewing the solids. However, in this case, instead of actual fruits or vegetables, someone is making juice from {{w|Fruit_Gushers|fruit gushers}}, a chewy fruit-flavored candy, thereby extracting a nearly nutritionless artificial "juice" out of a candy casing which was formulated specifically for human consumption.

This may or may not be a parody of recent "fruit gushers" television commercials, in which fruit gushers are shown to squirt out nearly limitless amounts of "juice".

The title text asserts that the rind is where all the {{w|Vitamin|vitamins}} in the fruit reside. This is a common belief of actual fruits, although it is an untrue {{w|Urban legend|urban legend}} for many fruits; even fruits like apples do not contain most of the {{w|fiber}} and many {{w|Antioxidant|antioxidants}} in the skin itself, but rather directly below; although when you peel an apple you remove more than just the skin, losing also some high fiber and antioxidant content anyway. There is a simple rule: If your thumbnail can reach the flesh of a fruit don't remove the skin. It is absolutely absurd as in this case, though, as the "rind" of a Fruit Gusher consists mainly of sugar. This text mocks the usual sentiment that the less desirable part of a food is the part that is "better" for you.

The comic is thus also a parody of the notion that buying a juicer (or other things like exercise equipment) will automatically make people healthier. Here it is shown that what you do with the juicer is the relevant factor (for example, if one juiced solely apples every day, they would not get nearly the same nutritional benefits as someone who juiced other fruits and vegetables with more and varied nutrients).

The comic can also be interpreted as parodying the idea of fruit juices being healthy. Though this is widely believed, [http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/making-the-case-for-eating-fruit/ recent studies ][http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/some-fruits-are-better-than-others/ demonstrate otherwise.]

An alternative reading that expands on that theme is that the comic shows a juicer with three full bottles of real juice, indicating that the owner of the juice machine is making regular juice with the intention of drinking it, but not consuming juice at the rate it is produced. The comic also shows a Fruit Gusher snack, indicating the unhealthy option that the juicer owner just can't stop eating. But the color of the juices makes the first explanation more likely.

;Linguistic note on hard '''g''' vs soft '''g''' and ways of pronouncing '''c'''
Some people may think that someone could think that "Gushers" /ˈgʌʃərz/ should be pronounced as "juicers" /ˈdʒusərz/. I.e., if you know enough to be dangerous about English spelling you could think that both words are pronounced /ˈdʒuʃərz/, but that's non-sense. Never the less...
;;Pros
*A 'g' can signify a soft-g sound (/dʒ/ as in 'gin').
*A 'u' can signify a {{w|Close_back_rounded_vowel|close back rounded vowel}}, /u/ as in 'flute.'
*The letters 'ce' can be pronounced /ʃ/ as in 'ocean' /ˈoʊʃən/.
;;Cons
*The plain-English word "gush" (meaning to flow rapidly) is pronounced /gʌʃ/ with a hard 'g' /g/ and a 'u' as in 'flush' or 'gut' /ʌ/.
*The American television commercials for this product make it absolutely clear that "Gushers" is also pronounced with a hard 'g' and the 'u' as above: /gʌ/.
*'u' as /u/ in 'flute' is exceedingly rare when the 'u' follows a 'g' (gumi, gulag, gul).
*'gu' with a long 'u' /u/ as in 'gumi', gulag' or 'gul' always sounds /gu/ and not /dʒu/.
*The pronunciation of 'cer' as /ʃər/ is not common, except in dialectical words like "[http://dialect.redlog.net/staticmaps/q_36.html grocery"].

==Transcript==
:[We see a shelf. On it, from left to right, are: a bag of fruit gushers; a juicer; a bottle of bright red liquid; a bottle of bright blue liquid; and another bottle of bright red liquid.]
:"Oh yeah, juicers are great! I use mine all the time."

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]