explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3257: Beam Pipe

2026-06-11T14:00:49Z

209.6.140.237: Fix grammar of "pressured/pressurized"

{{comic
| number = 3257
| date = June 10, 2026
| title = Beam Pipe
| image = beam_pipe_2x.png
| imagesize = 309x397px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'If you keep trying to spray your collaborators with the beam when they're not looking, I'm turning off the ion source and NO one will get to play with the beam!' --Physics's mom
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was found with a Physics Nobel Prize. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
With various water pipes you can make the water come out stronger by covering up part with your finger (or anything, for that matter). This forces the water to come out of a smaller space, increasing the pressure. However, as the LHC can be considered a 'pipe' - a beam pipe, as pointed out in the comic title — this comic takes the ridiculous assumption that the same logic applies there, and its beam can be made stronger by partially covering the hole — something which obviously wouldn't work in real life{{citation needed}}. In reality, the relativistic particles would annihilate the thumb, and create a broad spray instead of narrowing the beam. {{citation needed}}

The title text expands the joke, treating the LHC yet again like a normal hosepipe. As making the pipe pressure higher is a common thing for children to do — often to spray family and friends with the pressurized water. it does the same logic for the LHC, imagining a physicist's mother telling off their child for 'spraying their collegues with the beam' — something very incomprehensible in real life{{citation needed}}.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[A picture shows a (partly obscured by the panel) particle accelerator (namely this one being the Large Hadron Collider at CERN). Megan is shown on a stepladder, covering the beam pipe with her thumb. Cueball is shown standing behind the ladder, watching.]
:[Caption below the panel:]
:This year's physics Nobel will go to the scientists who figured out that you could make the Large Hadron Collider more powerful by covering part of the beam pipe with your thumb.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3257: Beam Pipe

2026-06-11T13:58:29Z

209.6.140.237: fixing missing citation

{{comic
| number = 3257
| date = June 10, 2026
| title = Beam Pipe
| image = beam_pipe_2x.png
| imagesize = 309x397px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'If you keep trying to spray your collaborators with the beam when they're not looking, I'm turning off the ion source and NO one will get to play with the beam!' --Physics's mom
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was found with a Physics Nobel Prize. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
With various water pipes you can make the water come out stronger by covering up part with your finger (or anything, for that matter). This forces the water to come out of a smaller space, increasing the pressure. However, as the LHC can be considered a 'pipe' - a beam pipe, as pointed out in the comic title — this comic takes the ridiculous assumption that the same logic applies there, and its beam can be made stronger by partially covering the hole — something which obviously wouldn't work in real life{{citation needed}}. In reality, the relativistic particles would annihilate the thumb, and create a broad spray instead of narrowing the beam. {{citation needed}}

The title text expands the joke, treating the LHC yet again like a normal hosepipe. As making the pipe pressure higher is a common thing for children to do — often to spray family and friends with the pressured water. it does the same logic for the LHC, imagining a physicist's mother telling off their child for 'spraying their collegues with the beam' — something very incomprehensible in real life{{citation needed}}.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[A picture shows a (partly obscured by the panel) particle accelerator (namely this one being the Large Hadron Collider at CERN). Megan is shown on a stepladder, covering the beam pipe with her thumb. Cueball is shown standing behind the ladder, watching.]
:[Caption below the panel:]
:This year's physics Nobel will go to the scientists who figured out that you could make the Large Hadron Collider more powerful by covering part of the beam pipe with your thumb.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3257: Beam Pipe

2026-06-11T13:57:22Z

209.6.140.237: Adding summary of actual physics

{{comic
| number = 3257
| date = June 10, 2026
| title = Beam Pipe
| image = beam_pipe_2x.png
| imagesize = 309x397px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'If you keep trying to spray your collaborators with the beam when they're not looking, I'm turning off the ion source and NO one will get to play with the beam!' --Physics's mom
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was found with a Physics Nobel Prize. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
With various water pipes you can make the water come out stronger by covering up part with your finger (or anything, for that matter). This forces the water to come out of a smaller space, increasing the pressure. However, as the LHC can be considered a 'pipe' - a beam pipe, as pointed out in the comic title — this comic takes the ridiculous assumption that the same logic applies there, and its beam can be made stronger by partially covering the hole — something which obviously wouldn't work in real life{{citation needed}}. In reality, the relativistic particles would annihilate the thumb, and create a broad spray instead of narrowing the beam. {{original research}}

The title text expands the joke, treating the LHC yet again like a normal hosepipe. As making the pipe pressure higher is a common thing for children to do — often to spray family and friends with the pressured water. it does the same logic for the LHC, imagining a physicist's mother telling off their child for 'spraying their collegues with the beam' — something very incomprehensible in real life{{citation needed}}.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[A picture shows a (partly obscured by the panel) particle accelerator (namely this one being the Large Hadron Collider at CERN). Megan is shown on a stepladder, covering the beam pipe with her thumb. Cueball is shown standing behind the ladder, watching.]
:[Caption below the panel:]
:This year's physics Nobel will go to the scientists who figured out that you could make the Large Hadron Collider more powerful by covering part of the beam pipe with your thumb.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]