3136: Pull

2025-09-02T06:59:10Z

2A02:AB88:7815:7E80:FDF2:3AD7:9CFC:46E1: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3136
| date = September 1, 2025
| title = Pull
| image = pull_2x.png
| imagesize = 650x220px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Be careful fighting gravity. If you win, it's a long way down.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by g. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
Megan and Cueball are lying in the grass on an orb, presumably Earth. However, instead of the conventional frame orientation where gravity points towards the bottom of the image, the viewpoint is stationary outside the Earth while we see it slowly rotating. Shown this way, we feel an intuition that the protagonists should fall off and it makes it clear how weird it is that gravity keeps us stuck to an orb.

In the first panel, Cueball expresses that he doesn't like being stuck there, possibly because he wants to explore other worlds or because he finds Earth limiting. The alternative would be "falling off", as in succumbing to the [[123|centrifugal force]] that results from the Earth's rotation – this would appear in the comic's perspective as both characters slowly "falling" away towards the right side of the panel. As this centrifugal effect is quite slight compared to the gravitational acceleration we're used to (0.34% of it at the equator, to be exact), Megan and Cueball would have roughly three more minutes until they "fell" off-panel, assuming their position is of a mid-northern latitude typical to the US – unless they're able to fly under their own power now that they're no longer constrained by gravity, or unless the rest of Planet Earth also has its gravity turned off and violently explodes as a result.

In the second panel, Megan uses a more metaphorical sense of the word pull, she is attracted to lying on the grass doing nothing and blames her inability to get up and do things on gravity.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:Cueball: I don't like being stuck to this orb,
:Cueball: but I guess falling off would be worse.

:Megan: I wouldn't mind if it pulled a little less hard, though.
:Megan: I have places to be.
:Megan: I shouldn't just lie around in the grass.

:Cueball: Maybe the pull will weaken if you wait around a little longer.
:Megan: Good idea. I'll give it another five minutes.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3136: Pull