3151: Window Screen

2025-11-07T13:22:36Z

2600:100F:B1A1:93CA:7C65:9945:C314:75CE: His hair isn't as messy in the last panel.

{{comic
| number = 3151
| date = October 6, 2025
| title = Window Screen
| image = window_screen.png
| titletext = The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine or Home Improvement or DIY
}}

==Explanation==

[[Cueball]] believes he should receive a {{w|Nobel Prize}} for creating a custom screen for a particularly troublesome window, due to what he considers to be the immense amount of work and consideration that went into it and the high quality of the result. He is writing to the {{w|Nobel Foundation}} to nominate himself. The Foundation administers the five Nobel Prizes that Cueball lists, which were established by {{w|Alfred Nobel}} and first awarded in 1901, as well as a sixth, in {{w|Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|economics}}, which was established by the {{w|Sveriges Riksbank|central bank of Sweden}} and first awarded in 1969. The Foundation does not currently accept self-nominations, or nominations from anyone not [https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/#h-qualified-nominators appropriately qualified].

A {{w|window screen}} is most often used to block insects, other small animals, and debris from passing through an open window, while allowing it to provide both ventilation and light. One can also make a light, half-printed mesh that attaches to the outside of the glass to display an outward-facing image, without overly spoiling the view from the inside, or a more dense one to neutrally shade the incoming light, still without significantly obscuring it. Most windows are flat and rectangular, and pre-made meshes for these can be measured and cut with basic tools. Some windows have complex shapes. It can be very difficult to design a screen that neatly matches a complex glass surface.

An {{w|Angle#Types_of_angles|oblique angle}} is any angle that is not a multiple of 90° (not a right or straight angle). While right angles allow for intuitive mapping of sides to an X-Y coordinate plane, acute or obtuse angles indicate that at least one side will have endpoints that differ in both coordinates. This requires extra calculations.

Curved edges require extra care to measure and cut. Circular or semi-circular windows follow a constant curve that can be traced with limited effort, but the window in the comic is irregular.

{{w|Coplanarity|Noncoplanarity}} is a state where all elements of a system cannot be represented on the same plane. This implies that the window is not flat, suggesting that the glass is curved, and/or that the wall that surrounds the screen is not flat. The shape in the comic could possibly occur if the room featured in the first and third panels was at least partly conical, with the window narrowing to match the wall sloping inward to a central point above (this would also fit the earlier mention of multiple curved edges). The glass could also be shaped into an outward bubble. Either way, the mesh must be carefully shaped.

The second panel of the comic shows a montage of diagrams and/or stages of construction that include a (possibly exagerated) {{w|skew polygon}} surface, presumably intended to be relevant to the mesh-screen's final shape. That said, the view given of the actual window (both without and with the fitted mesh) gives absolutely no indication of either a single or double curvature in the actually intended scenario; with the apparently straight interface between wall and (presumed) flat and level floor, it is not apparent that the wall is not entirely vertical (albeit with a symmetrical but non-rectangular shape of window). A planar inclined wall, or even one with a changing angle away from verticality, would pose no (or little) additional effort to gap-fill. The mesh even seems to be drawn in an entirely undistorted manner, which further reduces the possible distortions of its surface into a form that happens to project ''exactly'' towards the viewer in an undistorted fashion (calculating ''that'' effect, precisely, might be Cueball's claimed achievement, but it could not be simultaneously applied to all viewers from all possible viewpoints). Additionally, while the interwoven but twistable warp and weft of the mesh fabric is almost trivially distorted to drape across uneven surfaces, with a modicum of skill, any glazier who must have first hypothetically installed the non-planar window-glass would in turn have had to shape and bend the glass sheets using far more intensive and exacting production methods.

Perfectly fitting a custom screen to such a window may be a significant technical accomplishment that the builder may wish to share with acquaintances. However, it is generally not considered near the level of one of the world's most prestigious awards,{{Citation needed}} which often recognize years of effort, rather than something that Cueball did between the "this weekend" and the present (at most one week).

Since no Nobel Prize currently exists that would cover recognition of Cueball's achievement, the title text suggests extending the existing prize in "physiology or medicine", which could cover advances in window screen technology if an improved window screen used to protect sleeping occupants from mosquitoes led to a significant reduction in malaria, to also potentially cover "home improvement or DIY". {{w|Do it yourself}} (DIY) refers to work done by a non-specialist that alternatively could be done by a paid professional, and is often used for household repair or construction such as Cueball's screen project. [[Randall]] likely chose this original prize category because it is already anomalous in containing 'or' in its title, while the other prizes have only a single-word description of endeavor. The necessity to distinguish {{w|home improvement}} from DIY by specifying both options seems somewhat more redundant than that between {{w|physiology}} (understanding how organisms normally operate) and {{w|medicine}} (understanding how to treat unhealthy ones). Though judging by second panel, this could be considered a mathematical achievement, and famously [https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/math-faq/mathtext/node21.html there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics].

The comic's release coincided with the [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2025/press-release/ announcement] of the {{w|2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine}}.

==Transcript==

:[The text for the first panel appears above the panel itself.]
:This weekend,
:I had to make an oversized screen for a porch window.
:[Cueball is looking out through a window with a straight bottom, slanting sides and a curved upper edge.]

:[In each of the remaining panels, the text appears within the panel but above the illustration.]
:[Cueball is shown pondering various problems involving geometry, engineering, and angles. There is occasionally text around them, which is illegible.]

:It involved countless tiny problems, each somehow way harder than it should be.
:Oblique angles. Curved edges. Noncoplanarity.

:[Cueball with rumpled hair, looking at the same window covered by a bordered mesh.]

:... I solved them all.
:I measured precisely. I did trigonometry. I made custom parts.
:And it fit '''''perfectly.'''''
:No gaps, no ripples.

:[Cueball is revealed to be sitting at a computer, typing a message. His hair is
a little less rumpled.]
:I know that your foundation normally limits its purview to physics, medicine, peace, chemistry and literature.
:However, if you review the attached photo showing how well the screen fits into the...

==Trivia==
At the time this comic was released, there was a technical error making it too large to fit into the page on normal desktop/laptop screens. Since [[1084: Server Problem#Trivia|1084: Server Problem]], two versions of each comic are usually available: normal (1x) and high-resolution (2x). This makes the comic look sharp even on high-DPI screens, such as phones, tablets, and some more expensive computer displays. In this case, however, the 2x version was accidentally uploaded as ''both'' versions, making the 1x comic twice as large as it should be. It is possible that Randall did this intentionally as an added punchline.

Users with this issue can zoom in with their browsers (Ctrl+mouse scroll up) to see the comic better. If the screen is large enough, you might consider always reading xkcd on 200% zoom to see the higher resolution comics. This issue was fixed at some point between 14:57 and 15:54, 7 October 2025 (UTC).

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3151: Window Screen