explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

687: Dimensional Analysis

2014-09-11T18:57:40Z

Adamaustin: Added the color category

{{comic
| number = 687
| date = January 11, 2010
| title = Dimensional Analysis
| image = dimensional_analysis.png
| titletext = Or the pressure at the Earth's core will rise slightly.
}}

==Explanation==
Cueball has a [[My Hobby|hobby]] — showing correct calculations according to the {{w|dimensional analysis}} — but with ridiculous correlations of uncorrelated events and measurements. Here Cueball is teaching a class and uses this trick to ''convince'' his students that the {{w|Toyota Prius}} combined {{w|United States Environmental Protection Agency|EPA}} gas mileage is somehow connected to the constant {{W|Pi}} via the {{w|Planck energy}}, the pressure at the {{w|Inner_core|earth's core}} and the width of the {{w|English Channel}}.

This comic makes fun of how scientists — often physicists — use dimensional analysis to quickly check if a given formula can possibly relate to a physical system or if there were some obvious mathematical errors in its derivation. Dimensional analysis here refers to the check if both sides of the equation arrive at the same physical unit if the units of all variables get plugged into the equation. This usually requires knowledge of the system of units and the relation between different physical units.

The comic uses the following equation to make fun of it:

(Planck energy) / (Pressure at the core of the earth) * (Prius combined EPA gas mileage) / (minimum width of the English Channel) = π

===Dimensional analysis===
The right hand side is dimensionless, it's the constant π = 3.14... which is defined by the relation of two lengths, the circumference and the diameter of a circle. The left hand side requires to plug in the dimensions of the named physical quantities:

*Planck energy: given in Joules [J]
*Pressure at the core of the earth: Given in Pascals [Pa]
*Prius combined EPA gas mileage: miles/gallon, SI units: meters/litres [m/l]
*minimum width of the English channel: meters [m]

When plugged into the left hand side this amounts to:

[J / Pa * (m/l) / m] = [Nm / (N/m²) * (m/m³) / m] = 1

Using the following unit relations (this does not reduce units to the seven SI units, but does use some derived units):

*1 Joule = 1 Newton-meter [J] = [Nm]
*1 Pascal = 1 Newton per square-meter [Pa] = [N/m²]
*1 cubic-metre = 1000 litres [m³] = 1000 [l]

Note that for dimensional analysis constant factors are not taken into account. Here square brackets are used to denote dimensional analysis. In the above equation the unit of force (newton) as well as all the units of length (meter) cancel out each other.

Another aspect of the comic is, that sometimes dimension analysis of equations that were not derived but rather "made up" can provide insight. However, in reality such an equations would have to be somehow "motivated", which is more of an art than science and requires great experience in the field the equation should relate to. The presented equation combines values that have no immediate causal relation with each other, so it does not make sense. Furthermore, since the values have absolutely no causal relation to each other, the ratios presented are simple coincidence; despite Cueball's claim, building a better Prius would not cause any changes to the English Channel.

In addition, if a better Prius were built, with a higher gas mileage, the equation would only be accurate if one of the other quantities changed. A higher gas mileage could be balanced if the English Channel became wider thus explaining why Cueball states that England will drift to sea away from France.

The title text also refers to this, as a higher pressure at Earth's core could also balance the equation, keeping the result constant equal to Pi. The Planck energy is an absolute, however, so it is not mentioned as a way to balance the next version of Prius.

===Some numbers for this calculation===
The {{w|Planck energy}} is the only nearly exact value we do have. Compared to other Planck values it is very large (macroscopic).
E_planck = 1.956 x 109 J = 1.956 x 109 Nm

Pressure at the {{w|Inner_core#Temperature_and_pressure|core}} of the earth ranges from 330 to 360 gigapascals.
Using a simple value like this:
P_core = 350 GPa = 3.5 x 1011 N/m²

Prius combined {{w|Toyota_Prius#Fuel_economy_and_emissions|EPA gas mileage}}:
For the third generation (from 2010) the City mileage is 51 mpg and the Highway mileage is 48 mpg. But it is the [http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=26425 combined EPA gas mileage] which is used in the equation and that is 50 mpg.
50 mpg => 13.2 miles per litre => 21,000,000 meter per m³

Minimum width of the {{w|English Channel}} is about
33.1 km or 33,100 meters.

Calculating from these values you will get π=3.54... that is pretty close to π=3.14... while using a Planck value. According to Cueball this will be within the experimental error (the combined error for all four numbers - none are exact numbers). For instance if you tried the ePrius you would probably get closer to that target — as the mileage in real life usually is somewhat lower than the value given — and that would reduce the result.

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Abusing dimensional analysis

:[On a blackboard.]
:(Planck energy/Pressure at the Earth's core) x (Prius combined EPA gas mileage/Minimum width of the English Channel) = π

:[Cueball indicates this equation with a pointer in front of a class.]
:Cueball: It's correct to within experimental error, and the units check out. It must be a fundamental law.
:Student: But what if they build a better Prius?
:Cueball: ''Then England will drift out to sea.''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]

675: Revolutionary

2014-09-04T16:48:51Z

Adamaustin: /* Explanation */ misspelling

{{comic
| number = 675
| date = December 14, 2009
| title = Revolutionary
| image = revolutionary.png
| titletext = I mean, what's more likely -- that I have uncovered fundamental flaws in this field that no one in it has ever thought about, or that I need to read a little more? Hint: it's the one that involves less work.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Reading, learning, and understanding is much harder than presenting a simple theory.}}
The comic contrasts brilliant revolutionary scientific thought with the simplistic arrogance of assuming one understands the current scientific theory enough to correct it. The character with the goatee has a degree in {{w|philosophy}}, and perhaps has certain ideas of his own about how the world should fundamentally be described by physics. He has studied Einstein's {{w|theory of special relativity}} for less than an hour and thinks it is wrong, and that he has a better theory. When confronted about this, he considers the objection as based in {{w|dogma}}, and remains so confident that he wants to email the "president of physics". His ignorance of the field is emphasized by thinking that the entire field of physics has a president - although certain important organizations such as the {{w|American Physical Society}} do have presidents.

[[Cueball]] concedes that it is possible for such a revolutionary idea to come from a relative outsider. One example is {{w|Albert Einstein}}'s own formulation of {{w|special relativity}}, which came while he was working at a patent office in Switzerland, although he did already have a Ph.D in physics. A {{w|thought experiment}} considers some hypothesis, theory, or principle for the purpose of thinking through its consequences.

The "racecar on a train" idea alludes to thought experiments involving {{w|Frame_of_reference#Simple_example|frames of reference}}, which are important in relativity.

The title text seems to suggest that the philosopher is willing to believe whatever is most convenient. On the other hand, overthrowing a fundamental theory in physics means of course more work than just reading.

More likely the title text expresses that learning and understanding physics is much harder then just presenting a new theory. The philosopher could not have learned the theory of relativity in just one hour. But some people act like this and present obscure theories on the internet without any deeper knowledge of the matter. The best example is the criticism about the climate change, but also still today many people try to prove that the theory of relativity is wrong.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Yes, science is an open process in which a good idea can come from anybody.

:Cueball: Yes, widely-believed theories are on occasion overturned by simple thought experiments.

:Cueball: And yes, your philosophy degree equips you to ask interesting questions sometimes.

:[Cueball is talking to a philosopher with a goatee, who is sitting at a computer.]
:Cueball: But you did not just overturn special relativity, a subject you learned about an hour ago, with your "racecar on a train" idea.
:Philosopher: You just don't like that I'm turning a rational eye to your dogma. Hey, what's the email for the president of physics?

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Physics]]

672: Suggestions

2014-09-03T17:19:36Z

Adamaustin:

{{comic
| number =672
| date =December 7, 2009
| title =Suggestions
| image =suggestions.png
| titletext =An hour later: SUGGESTION: LICK HER NIPPLE MORE.
}}

==Explanation==
Social networking site {{w|Facebook}} routinely suggests reconnecting with Facebook friends whom you haven't interacted with on the website for awhile. This is taken to its logical extreme in this comic when that Facebook feature repeatedly, in an increasingly voyeuristic fashion, tries to get Cueball to hook up with his occasional friend-with-benefits Susie, despite the fact that Cueball knows she's falling for him and doesn't want to lead her on.

According to the title text, [[Cueball]] and Susie ''do'' end up hooking up, even against Cueball's better judgement, as so often happens between people who're physically attracted to one another. And he apparently left the webcam on as well, because the Facebook feature is now giving suggestions on what Cueball should do to her, mid-coitus.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at his computer. Facebook sidebar messages appear on the top of each panel, with a user photo and a few lines of text.]
:Facebook: Susie
:Reconnect with her
:[Phone icon] Send her a text
:Cueball: Come on, Facebook. I know I shouldn't.

:Facebook: Susie
:She'd come over
:[Bed icon] You don't have to fall asleep alone.
:Cueball: It's been so hard to stop. But she's falling for me, and I can't keep getting her hopes up like this.

:Facebook: Susie
:Life is complicated
:[Icon of stick figures embracing] She's so warm against you. You both want it.
:Cueball: (pulling out phone) Maybe if I just make it clear it's not going to be a thing...
:Cueball: Yeah, we'll just have a talk.

:Facebook: Susie
:Oh yeah. Mmm...
:[Webcam icon] Leave your webcam on so I can watch.
:Cueball: Okay, this feature is getting creepier and creepier.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

672: Suggestions

2014-09-03T17:18:37Z

Adamaustin: Added the color category

Talk:636: Brontosaurus

2014-08-29T14:00:11Z

Adamaustin:

Title text might also be a retort from Megan for what he said. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.223|108.162.250.223]] 06:18, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

Agreed, I think the title text is a retort from Megan (based on the "Well," start to it). {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.158}}

I updated the title text explanation as per this discussion. [[User:Adamaustin|-adamaustin]] ([[User talk:Adamaustin|talk]]) 14:00, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

636: Brontosaurus

2014-08-29T13:59:02Z

Adamaustin: Title text was explained wrong as per the discussion.

{{comic
| number = 636
| date = September 14, 2009
| title = Brontosaurus
| image = brontosaurus.png
| titletext = Well, sex is like a velociraptor: despite your movie-fueled lifelong neurotic obsession, unlikely to be found in your house.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] describes her relationship to [[Cueball]] with the simile "our love is like a turtle," a comparison often made when referring to a shy and slowly developing yet steady sort of romance. However, Cueball thinks the {{w|Brontosaurus}} the better impersonation. His explanation refers to the fact that remains of {{w|Apatosaurus}} were by mistake believed to be a different species which the paleontologist {{w|Othniel Charles Marsh|O.C. Marsh}} named ''Brontosaurus''. It was later discovered that the two species should be classified as one, with the older name prevailing according to convention. The term Brontosaurus is therefore a scientific redundancy.

Applied to the scenario in the comic, Cueball apparently considers the relationship without any emotional foundation and only continues it out of nostalgic motives. This conclusion counteracts the initial romantic tone adopted by the turtle simile, as comparing a romance with a falsely classified fossil is one of the least charming statements imaginable.

The title text aims at [[Randall|Randall's]] well-known enthusiasm for {{w|Velociraptors}}. Megan retorts by comparing any future sex between the two of them to be as likely as finding a velociraptor in his house.

Randall has previously mentioned the Brontosaurus name change in [[460: Paleontology]]. The Apatosaurus also appears in [[15: Just Alerting You]] and [[650: Nowhere]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are sitting at a bench. Megan is holding a turtle.]
:Megan: Our love is like a turtle.

:[Megan sets down the turtle and turns to Cueball. They hold hands.]
:Megan: Humble and simple, enduring by virtue of perfect design.

:Cueball: Our love is like a brontosaurus.

:Cueball: Recognized as a mistaken combination long ago, lingering only out of misplaced affection for an imagined past.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Apatosaurus]]

608: Form

2014-08-13T16:29:48Z

Adamaustin: /* Explanation */ grammar and spelling correction

{{comic
| number = 608
| date = July 10, 2009
| title = Form
| image = form.png
| titletext = 'This space intentionally left blank' is less immediately provocative but more Hofstadterially confusing.
}}

==Explanation==
Application forms, examination papers, etc. sometimes instruct applicants to avoid writing in blocked out areas of the page, as those areas are intended for administrative, office, or internal usage or processing.

Nonetheless, a person might write in the blocked out section out of an urge to defy authority, as does [[Cueball]] in the comic. Consequences for flouting these instructions are typically trivial (e.g. perhaps the form may not be processed correctly). However, Cueball's disregard for the rules prompts the preparations for an armed response by some sort of law enforcement or private security organization, presenting a serious consequence for Cueball.

The title text refers to {{w|Douglas Hofstadter}}, an author associated with the philosophical concept of self-reference. "This space intentionally left blank" is "Hofstadterially confusing" because if a space on a form contains the words "This space intentionally left blank", then the space is not, in fact, left blank.

Douglas Hofstadter is also the subject of the comic [[917: Hofstadter]].

==Transcript==
:[There is a sheet of paper, with a series of check boxes. A white rectangle is the focus.]
:Do not write in this space.

:[Cueball is standing with a pencil, looking at the page.]

:[Cueball writes something on the page.]

:[A group of people with helmets, black goggles, and rifles look at display screens. There is a radar system on a table between them.]
:[The screens show sheets of paper. On one screen, it shows Cueball writing on one.]
:[One of the men arms his weapon.]
:''Cha-click''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

591: Troll Slayer

2014-08-07T22:47:38Z

Adamaustin: /* Explanation */ difficult to read sentence edited

{{comic
| number = 591
| date = June 1, 2009
| title = Troll Slayer
| image = troll slayer.png
| titletext = We have met the enemy and he is us.
}}

== Explanation ==
{{w|Stephenie Meyer}} is the author of the {{w|Twilight series}}, a series of novels popular with young teens. It is a love it or hate it type of novel, with a large following and a large portion of haters as well.

In the comic, {{w|4chan}}, an {{w|imageboard}}, is featured. Imageboards such as 4chan have the feature to post anonymously. The users of 4chan launch an attack on a Twilight board and Stephenie Meyer asks them to stop. When they refuse, Meyer writes 4chan into her next novel, thereby drawing in a large number of fans of her novel as a counter-attack to what 4chan ran on the Twilight forum. This results in what the original 4chan users consider a ruined imageboard.

The title of the topic is drawn from the internet slang term {{w|troll (internet)|troll}}, which refers to actively attempting to get a rise out of a forum. In this instance, 4chan attempted to troll a Twilight board and Meyer acted against the troll, making her a "slayer" of them. (Granted, releasing ''Twilight'' fans into 4chan is akin to releasing freshwater fish into a saltwater shark feeding frenzy, but that's beside the point).

The title text refers to {{w|Walt Kelly}}'s famous saying. Kelly used it to refer to all of mankind, whereas here it refers to the users of 4chan, by bringing on the enemy of their forum themselves.

==Transcript==
:[A website where people can post comments alongside pictures.]
:[Next to a picture of a website.] Hey, let's troll the fuck out of the Twilight boards.
:[Next to a picture of some people.] I'm in. Should be fun.
:[Next to a picture of a man with sword and trumpet.] Me too. Signing on now.
:[Next to a picture of "LOL".] Lol angsty teens.

:Hours Later:
:[Stephenie Meyer, at a computer.]
:Stephenie Meyer: Hi, it's Stephenie Meyer. Fine, you don't like my books. But please leave us alone.
:[[Hairy]]: Show us your tits.
:Stephenie Meyer: I asked politely. Don't make me get tough.

:[Hairy at computer.]
:Hairy: And what, call the internet police? You don't get it, do you? We've been trolling for years. We're all anonymous. There's nothing you can do to hurt us. We're the net's hate machine.
:Stephenie Meyer: Okay. Just remember, I gave you a chance. *Disconnected*

:Six Months Later:
:[A page from a book.]
:Vampires! Book VI
:Edward ran a pale hand through his perfect golden-bronze hair, then signed on to 4chan.org, the darkest place on the internet, where all his vampire compatriots spent their time.
:Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the door [...] swept in [...] ing
:[The rest of the page is cut off.]

:Shortly Thereafter:
:[On the same website as the first panel.]
:[Next to a picture of two people hugging.] OMG I love this place it's so edgy being anonymous.
:[Next to a picture of "DAWNE".] Whos your favorite vampire
:[Next to a picture of someone with black hair and shirt.] Check out my pic Im so dark just like this site
:[Next to a picture of a chess piece.] Any Twilight fans in Dallas want to meet a lonely

:[Hairy at his computer.]
:Hairy: Oh... Oh God.

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Internet]]

541: TED Talk

2014-07-21T19:26:23Z

Adamaustin: added with color category

{{comic
| number = 541
| date = February 9, 2009
| title = TED Talk
| image = ted_talk.png
| titletext = The IAU ban came after the "redefinition of the 'planet' to include the IAU president's mom" incident.
}}

==Explanation==
The comics shows Randall as a presenter at the highly prestigious {{w|TED conference}}, a symposium about technology, entertainment and design. The illustrious {{w|list of TED speakers|list of former presenters}} includes amongst others Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Larry Page, Richard Dawkins and Gordon Brown. The conference is regarded as a forum for {{w|digerati}}. Every talk has a length of at most 18 minutes and is supposed to be as captivating as possible.

Randall's presentation, however, reduces the purpose of the conference to absurdity: The topic he wishes to point out to his listeners, is that of how to put an emoticon at the end of a parenthetical statement. This question is of little practical consequence, although it received a lot of attention after publication of the comic. In the last panel, the TED conference is another item to add to his list of conferences from which he has been banned. On the list are other conferences from all sorts of fields, including every American furry convention.

The title text about Randall's ban from the {{w|IAU}} conference is a reference to the popular maternal insults called {{w|"yo mama" jokes}}. A common representative of the genre runs "Yo mama so fat, scientists have declared her the 10th planet."

Getting banned from attending a conference occurs [[:Category:Banned from conferences|more than once in xkcd]].

In response to this comic, {{w|PyCon}} organizers jokingly [http://pycon.blogspot.com/2009/02/randall-munroe.html announced] that Randall Munroe was banned from PyCon 2009 due to "last year's disgraceful keynote, 'Web Spiders vs. Red Spiders'." They also said they instructed their volunteers to refuse admission to him and "any stick figures who may attempt to register, particularly if they are wearing hats."

Messages on the PyCon-Organizers mailing list show that this joke was intended to get Randall to come to PyCon: (The links will only work if you're subscribed to the mailing list.)
:PyCon mentioned briefly in today's xkcd:
:http://xkcd.com/541/
:We've still never gotten Randall Munroe to actually attend, have we? Anybody want to take charge of twisting his arm this time? I think we can still offer him a "press pass" (free registration). [...] [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011224.html]
::An invite would seem most appropriate given the cartoon. :-)
::We could also have an official PyCon blog post confirming his ban... [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011225.html]
:::How about a public blog post LIFTING the ban and inviting him? [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011226.html]
::::Confirming the ban is far funnier... He's definitely a disturbing influence on programmers. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011227.html]
:::::Agreed, especially if we invite him concurrently with confirming the ban. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011239.html]
:::::(a few posts later)
:::::I'm happy to participate in actually throwing some thin guy out of the conference, and then get some graphics savvy person to animate a stick figure over that. :) [...][http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011274.html]
::::::here's a rough idea of what would show up if you invited him to actually do any speaking...
::::::http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24
::::::it's fairly long. he shows up in the beginning around 3:25. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011275.html]
:::::::For the record, I did try to convince him to come when got the art for the tshirt last year. He didn't seem super psyched, but then again emotions are hard to read via IRC.
:::::::I love the idea of "officially" banning him, however. ;-) [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011241.html]
::::::::(a few posts later)
::::::::OK - posted to the PyCon blog, by the power vested in me as publicity chair. With Michael Foord's excellent sentence added.
::::::::Now let him know that since he's banned, he HAS to come. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011251.html]

Randall has given a TED talk in March 2014. [https://www.ted.com/talks/randall_munroe_comics_that_ask_what_if]

==Transcript==
:[Randall Munroe on stage.]
:Randall: Hi. I'm Randall. Welcome to my TED talk.
:Randall: It's an honor to speak to you, some of the brightest innovators from so many fields, about a problem in desperate need of your attention:
:Randall: How DO you end parenthetical statements with emoticons? I can't figure out a good way.
:[Screen next to him shows two statements, both crossed out in red.]
:"Linux (or BSD :)" would... "looks mismatched"
:"Linux (or BSD :))" would... "looks mismatched and weird"

:[Randall writing on a desk.]
:Randall's List - Conferences I'm banned from:
:Siggraph
:Eurocrypt
:Defcon
:Pycon
:International Astronomical Union
:Canadian Paleontology Conference
:Every American Furry Convention
:American Baking Society
:Asian Dolphin-Training Conference
:TED

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Furries]]
[[Category:Banned from conferences]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]

531: Contingency Plan

2014-07-18T21:05:49Z

Adamaustin: Added the color category

{{comic
| number = 531
| date = January 16, 2009
| title = Contingency Plan
| image = contingency_plan.png
| titletext = Kids are genetic experiments. We're just experimenting responsibly!
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Jurassic_Park_(franchise)|Jurassic Park}} is a series of books and films centering on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. In particular, the park scientists give the dinosaurs {{w|lysine}} deficiency as a failsafe measure so that if some dinosaur were to escape, it wouldn't be able to survive in the wild. In practice, lysine can easily be obtained by eating protein-rich foods like red meat, lamb or pork.

Megan comments that Cueball is force-feeding their child so many sugary drinks that the child runs the risk of contracting {{w|diabetes}}. Cueball responds that that is the plan, since if anything were to go wrong, they'll just have to stop giving her {{w|insulin}}, which will kill her. The narrator comments that this is precisely the approach used in Jurassic Park.

The title text continues the theme, noting that having children is basically one big genetic experiment, and that Cueball is experimenting responsibly, thinking ahead as to the possible consequences of his experiment.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball holding a green bottle are standing beside a crib. Another green bottle is lying on the floor.]
:Megan: More sugary drinks? Are you trying to give her diabetes?
:Cueball: Yeah - then we keep her supplied with insulin unless things go wrong.
:I take the Jurassic Park approach to parenting.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Jurassic Park]]

Talk:485: Depth

2014-03-13T21:28:20Z

Adamaustin:

[[Special:Contributions/123.211.217.96|123.211.217.96]] 01:39, 3 September 2013 (UTC) Is the bed actually shaking or are the people/person under the sheet just moving on their own? The squiggle lines doesn't show. PS Oh, yeeeaaah! That's what being the first poster feels like, especially on an old comic that hasn't been touched for five years. Until now: at 4:38 am and 50 seconds, 2013/03/09. (GMT).

Three bugs:
:1. In the explanation, someone forgot to mention how many stories high the apartment building is. I'd say it's at least two stories tall; possibly more, but if so, the upper stories are all obscured by foreshortening.
:2. Still in the explanation, I disagree that the person at the computer on the second floor (between the Guitar Hero players & the bed) is our protagonist Cueball; he's on the first floor, under the Guitar Hero folks, sitting at his computer.
:3. In the transcript, that person at the computer on the second floor is omitted.
:[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.40|108.162.219.40]] 06:34, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

It looks like the comment on Brian Greene may also refer to Noam Chomsky's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously"] [[User:Adamaustin|-adamaustin]] ([[User talk:Adamaustin|talk]]) 21:28, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

482: Height

2014-03-13T20:47:49Z

Adamaustin: /* Fictional Objects */ Spelling

{{comic
| number = 482
| date = September 29, 2008
| title = Height
| image = height.png
| titletext = Interestingly, on a true vertical log plot, I think the Eiffel Tower's sides would really be straight lines.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|Lots of the little references aren't even mentioned, e.g. Human Altitude record, the space elevator, and I just added an explanation for "All Hail Discordia!" This is nearly there, but not yet.}}
The comic is a companion piece to [[485: Depth]], which explores a {{w|logarithmic scale}} from Earth's atmosphere down to the interior of a single proton. ''Height'' begins this process by viewing logarithmically smaller scales showing several objects in the universe, both real and fictional, from farthest (top) to closest (bottom). The comic starts with [[Black Hat]] throwing a cat off the edge of the universe, probably a reference to {{w|Schrodinger's cat}} (as since it is outside the {{w|observable universe}} (for us), it exists in a super-position of both living and dead until we actually 'observe' it and force it to be in one of the states). It may also refer to the common myth that a cat will always land on its feet, a myth Black Hat appears to be testing to the extreme. The top of the universe is shown as the distance from which the oldest rays of light reach Earth.

Displaying height logarithmically while displaying width linearly noticeably distorts the shapes of the terrestrial objects. The title text notes that this distortion would approximately cancel out the curve of the Eiffel Tower's profile, and speculates that the cancellation might in fact be exact enough to convert its silhouette to a straight-edged triangle.

The {{w|age of the universe}} is currently stated as 13.8 billion years. But the {{w|Observable universe}} is about 14.0 billion {{w|parsecs}} or 46 billion {{w|light years}}, as shown on the top of the image.

===Fictional Objects===

*[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cat-on-a-keyboard-in-space Cat on a keyboard in space].
*{{w|Ford_Prefect (character)|Ford Prefect}}, character from {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}, shown near his home star; Betelgeuse.
*The [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Romulan_Neutral_Zone Romulan Neutral Zone], marking the edge of the {{w|Star Trek}} Federation.
*{{w|Federation Sector 0-0-1}}, the sector of space assigned to Earth in {{w|Star Trek}}.
*"missing WMDs", a reference to the controversy about {{w|Iraq and weapons of mass destruction}}.
*{{w|Bupkis}} is Yiddish for "nothing". Only a handful of objects are known to orbit between the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt and the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, hence "Bupkis".
*A comet scheduled to hit earth in 2063, to coincide with the latest date for a supposed [http://www.askelm.com/prophecy/p971105.htm Biblically prophesized end of the world].
*Life on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which may or may not exist.
**The arrows most likely points to the following moons:
**Jupiter’s moon {{W|Europa (moon)|Europa}} which may be covered by a deep ocean of water - which is again covered by layer of ice many kilometers thick. In such an ocean life could have formed.
**Saturn’s moon {{W|Titan (moon)|Titan}} is the only known moon to have an atmosphere - although nothing like the one on earth. There may be oceans on the moon, but not filled with water but with liquid methane and ethane. It is way too cold for liquid water. Still in such oceans life could also have formed.
**For either moon the oceans cannot be viewed from earth either due to thick ice or opaque atmosphere.
*The little spaceship from {{w|Asteroids (video game)}}.
*The {{w|Discovery One}} from {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, referring to the quote "open the pod bay door, HAL."
*The spaceplane is most likely the Planet Express from {{w|Futurama}}, where Fry once discussed "a big heaping bowl of salt." However, it could conceivably refer to these instead:
**The Quasi-elemental plane of Salt from the {{w|Inner Plane}} in {{w|Dungeons and Dragons}}.
**The Great Salt Vampire from [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/M-113_creature Star Trek TOS].
**A relative of {{w|Russell's teapot}}.
*A lunar lander with someone inside proclaiming "In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land". The goal of {{w|Lunar Lander (arcade game)}} is to land the vehicle without crashing it. The quote is a reference to {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} where the main character Ellie Arroway after witnessing a celestial light show up close says "Poetry! They should've sent a poet.". The actual vehicle in the movie was round and not shaped like a lunar lander.
*{{w|Cory Doctorow}}'s balloon. (first referenced in [[239]].)
*[[Cueball]], who is apparently still using Python as shown in comic [[353]].
*A {{w|Space elevator}} is a proposed method of transporting cargo or people into orbit, consisting of a station in a geosynchronous orbit, a cable connecting it to the Earth, and a climber that can scale the cable. No space elevator has been built to date, but according to the comic, one will be deployed "one of these days, promise!"
*Black Hat throwing a cat off the top of the comic, presumably to determine whether it will land on its feet.

===Real Objects===

*{{w|Hubble Deep Field}}, a long-exposure photograph of extremely distant galaxies.
*{{w|Great Attractor}}, an unusual concentration of intergalactic mass.
*{{w|Antennae Galaxies}}, a pair of colliding galaxies.
*{{w|Andromeda Galaxy}}, a sibling to our Milky Way.
*{{w|Magellanic Clouds}}, a pair of nearby dwarf galaxies.
*{{w|Crab Nebula}}, {{w|Orion Nebula}}, and {{w|Horsehead Nebula}}, supernova remnants.
*{{w|Pleiades}}, {{w|Rigel}}, and {{w|Betelgeuse}}, stars. The Pleiades also have a derogatory remark, as per [[66: Abusive Astronomy]]
*The distance that human radio transmissions have traveled so far. See {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} for a depiction of this. This is also referenced in [[1212]].
*{{w|Pollux}}, {{w|Arcturus}}, {{w|Sirius}}, {{w|Alpha Centauri}}, and {{w|Barnard's Star}}, nearby stars.
*{{w|Oort cloud}}, a halo of ice balls surrounding our solar system.
*{{w|Pioneer 10}} and {{w|Voyager 1}}, two early probes headed out of the solar system.
*{{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}} and {{w|Pluto}}, a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object|TNOs}} now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s. The "All hail Discordia!" after Eris is a reference to {{w|Discordianism}}, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek religion based around the goddess Eris.
*{{w|Neptune}}, {{w|Uranus}}, {{w|Saturn}}, and {{w|Jupiter}}, giant gas planets at our {{w|Solar System|solar system}}.
*The {{w|Asteroid|Asteroid belt}} between Mars and Jupiter.
*{{w|Mars}}, {{w|Venus}}, and {{w|Mercury}}, our neighboring inner planets. Note that Venus and Mars are shown with looping paths, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits (this is true for all planets, but more noticeable for these two because the ratio of smallest to greatest distance is particularly large).
*The {{w|Sun}} and the {{w|Moon}}.

==Transcript==
:[Map of the universe from observable universe to Earth. Each area of item is labelled.]
:[Labels left to right, up to down:]
:[Black Hat is standing on top, throwing a black kitty down.]
:Black Cat: mrowl!
::Top of Observable Universe
::46 Billion Light Years Up
::Hubble Deep Field Objects
:-One Billion Light Years-
::Great Attractor
:Antennae Galaxies (Colliding)
:Andromeda
:::Holy Crap Lots of Space
::-One Million Light Years-
::Magellanic Clouds
::Edge of Galaxy
::Galactic Center
::Crab Nebula
::Orion Nebula
::Horsehead Nebula
::Romulan Neutral Zone
:::The PLEIADES, Duh.
::Rigel
::Betelgeuse
::Ford Prefect
::-Expanding Shell of Radio Transmissions [Arrows are pointing up.]-
::Edge of Federation Sector 0-0-1
::Pollux
::Arcturus
::Missing WMDs
::Alpha Centauri
::Sirius
::Barnard's Star
:-One Parsec-
::-One Light Year-
::Oort Cloud (?)
::Bupkis
::Comet which will destroy Earth in late 2063
::Pioneer 10
::Eris (All hail Discordia!)
::Voyager I
::Pluto (Not a planet. Neener neener.)
::Neptune
::Uranus
:Saturn
::Asteroids
:::<~life~>
::Jupiter
::Venus
::Mars
::Sun
::Mercury
::Aircraft: Hey a heaping bowl of salt!
::"Open the fridge door, Hal."
::Moon
::Human Altitude Record (Apollo 13)
::2nd Place: Snoop Dogg
::Space Elevator - One of these days, promise!
::-Geosynchronous Orbit-
::GPS Satellites
::Lunar lander: In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land
::International Space Station
::Space Junk
::-Official Edge of Space (100 km)-
::Meteors
::-1/10 ATM-
::High Altitude Balloons
::Airliners
::-1/2 ATM-
::Cory Doctrow
::Shuttle Columbia Lost
::Everest
::Helicoptors
::Cueball: Woo Python!
::[vertical scale along right side of image, starting at 1 km and getting progressivly smaller and smaller.]
::-800 m-
::Burj Dubai (~800 m)
::Eiffel Tower (325 m)
::Kites
::Great Pyramid (140 m)
::Redwood (115 m)
::Pop Fly
::Oak (20 m)
::"Hey Squirrels!"
::Tallest Stilts
::Brachiosaur (13 m)
::Giraffe (8 m)
::[Megan and Cueball.] Folks
:The Observable Universe, from Top to Bottom ~On a log scale~
:Sizes are not to scale, but heights above the Earth's surface are accurate on a log scale (that is, each step up is double the height.)

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]

482: Height

2014-03-13T20:38:12Z

Adamaustin: Something stupid about space. Plus I fixed the "cat-on-a-lepoards" (huh?)

{{comic
| number = 482
| date = September 29, 2008
| title = Height
| image = height.png
| titletext = Interestingly, on a true vertical log plot, I think the Eiffel Tower's sides would really be straight lines.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|Lots of the little references aren't even mentioned, e.g. Human Altitude record, the space elevator, and I just added an explanation for "All Hail Discordia!" This is nearly there, but not yet.}}
The comic is a companion piece to [[485: Depth]], which explores a {{w|logarithmic scale}} from Earth's atmosphere down to the interior of a single proton. ''Height'' begins this process by viewing logarithmically smaller scales showing several objects in the universe, both real and fictional, from farthest (top) to closest (bottom). The comic starts with [[Black Hat]] throwing a cat off the edge of the universe, probably a reference to {{w|Schrodinger's cat}} (as since it is outside the {{w|observable universe}} (for us), it exists in a super-position of both living and dead until we actually 'observe' it and force it to be in one of the states). It may also refer to the common myth that a cat will always land on its feet, a myth Black Hat appears to be testing to the extreme. The top of the universe is shown as the distance from which the oldest rays of light reach Earth.

Displaying height logarithmically while displaying width linearly noticeably distorts the shapes of the terrestrial objects. The title text notes that this distortion would approximately cancel out the curve of the Eiffel Tower's profile, and speculates that the cancellation might in fact be exact enough to convert its silhouette to a straight-edged triangle.

The {{w|age of the universe}} is currently stated as 13.8 billion years. But the {{w|Observable universe}} is about 14.0 billion {{w|parsecs}} or 46 billion {{w|light years}}, as shown on the top of the image.

===Fictional Objects===

*[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cat-on-a-keyboard-in-space Cat on a keyboard in space].
*{{w|Ford_Prefect (character)|Ford Prefect}}, character from {{w|The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (franchise)}}, shown near his home star; Betelgeuse.
*The [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Romulan_Neutral_Zone Romulan Neutral Zone], marking the edge of the {{w|Star Trek}} Federation.
*{{w|Federation Sector 0-0-1}}, the sector of space assigned to Earth in {{w|Star Trek}}.
*"missing WMDs", a reference to the controversy about {{w|Iraq and weapons of mass destruction}}.
*{{w|Bupkis}} is Yiddish for "nothing". Only a handful of objects are known to orbit between the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt and the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, hence "Bupkis".
*A comet scheduled to hit earth in 2063, to coincide with the latest date for a supposed [http://www.askelm.com/prophecy/p971105.htm Biblically prophesized end of the world].
*Life on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which may or may not exist.
**The arrows most likely points to the following moons:
**Jupiter’s moon {{W|Europa (moon)|Europa}} which may be covered by a deep ocean of water - which is again covered by layer of ice many kilometers thick. In such an ocean life could have formed.
**Saturn’s moon {{W|Titan (moon)|Titan}} is the only known moon to have an atmosphere - although nothing like the one on earth. There may be oceans on the moon, but not filled with water but with liquid methane and ethane. It is way too cold for liquid water. Still in such oceans life could also have formed.
**For either moon the oceans cannot be viewed from earth either due to thick ice or opaque atmosphere.
*The little spaceship from {{w|Asteroids (video game)}}.
*The {{w|Discovery One}} from {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, referring to the quote "open the pod bay door, HAL."
*The spaceplane is most likely the Planet Express from {{w|Futurama}}, where Fry once discussed "a big heaping bowl of salt." However, it could conceivably refer to these instead:
**The Quasi-elemental plane of Salt from the {{w|Inner Plane}} in {{w|Dungeons and Dragons}}.
**The Great Salt Vampire from [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/M-113_creature Star Trek TOS].
**A relative of {{w|Russell's teapot}}.
*A lunar lander with someone inside proclaming "In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land". The goal of {{w|Lunar Lander (arcade game)}} is to land the vehicle without crashing it. The quote is a reference to {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} where the main character Ellie Arroway after witnessing a celestial light show up close says "Poetry! They should've sent a poet.". The actual vehicle in the movie was round and not shaped like a lunar lander.
*{{w|Cory Doctorow}}'s balloon. (first referenced in [[239]].)
*[[Cueball]], who is apparently still using Python as shown in comic [[353]].
*A {{w|Space elevator}} is a proposed method of transporting cargo or people into orbit, consisting of a station in a geosynchronous orbit, a cable connecting it to the Earth, and a climber that can scale the cable. No space elevator has been built to date, but according to the comic, one will be deployed "one of these days, promise!"
*Black Hat throwing a cat off the top of the comic, presumably to determine whether it will land on its feet.

===Real Objects===

*{{w|Hubble Deep Field}}, a long-exposure photograph of extremely distant galaxies.
*{{w|Great Attractor}}, an unusual concentration of intergalactic mass.
*{{w|Antennae Galaxies}}, a pair of colliding galaxies.
*{{w|Andromeda Galaxy}}, a sibling to our Milky Way.
*{{w|Magellanic Clouds}}, a pair of nearby dwarf galaxies.
*{{w|Crab Nebula}}, {{w|Orion Nebula}}, and {{w|Horsehead Nebula}}, supernova remnants.
*{{w|Pleiades}}, {{w|Rigel}}, and {{w|Betelgeuse}}, stars. The Pleiades also have a derogatory remark, as per [[66: Abusive Astronomy]]
*The distance that human radio transmissions have traveled so far. See {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} for a depiction of this. This is also referenced in [[1212]].
*{{w|Pollux}}, {{w|Arcturus}}, {{w|Sirius}}, {{w|Alpha Centauri}}, and {{w|Barnard's Star}}, nearby stars.
*{{w|Oort cloud}}, a halo of ice balls surrounding our solar system.
*{{w|Pioneer 10}} and {{w|Voyager 1}}, two early probes headed out of the solar system.
*{{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}} and {{w|Pluto}}, a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object|TNOs}} now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s. The "All hail Discordia!" after Eris is a reference to {{w|Discordianism}}, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek religion based around the goddess Eris.
*{{w|Neptune}}, {{w|Uranus}}, {{w|Saturn}}, and {{w|Jupiter}}, giant gas planets at our {{w|Solar System|solar system}}.
*The {{w|Asteroid|Asteroid belt}} between Mars and Jupiter.
*{{w|Mars}}, {{w|Venus}}, and {{w|Mercury}}, our neighboring inner planets. Note that Venus and Mars are shown with looping paths, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits (this is true for all planets, but more noticeable for these two because the ratio of smallest to greatest distance is particularly large).
*The {{w|Sun}} and the {{w|Moon}}.

==Transcript==
:[Map of the universe from observable universe to Earth. Each area of item is labelled.]
:[Labels left to right, up to down:]
:[Black Hat is standing on top, throwing a black kitty down.]
:Black Cat: mrowl!
::Top of Observable Universe
::46 Billion Light Years Up
::Hubble Deep Field Objects
:-One Billion Light Years-
::Great Attractor
:Antennae Galaxies (Colliding)
:Andromeda
:::Holy Crap Lots of Space
::-One Million Light Years-
::Magellanic Clouds
::Edge of Galaxy
::Galactic Center
::Crab Nebula
::Orion Nebula
::Horsehead Nebula
::Romulan Neutral Zone
:::The PLEIADES, Duh.
::Rigel
::Betelgeuse
::Ford Prefect
::-Expanding Shell of Radio Transmissions [Arrows are pointing up.]-
::Edge of Federation Sector 0-0-1
::Pollux
::Arcturus
::Missing WMDs
::Alpha Centauri
::Sirius
::Barnard's Star
:-One Parsec-
::-One Light Year-
::Oort Cloud (?)
::Bupkis
::Comet which will destroy Earth in late 2063
::Pioneer 10
::Eris (All hail Discordia!)
::Voyager I
::Pluto (Not a planet. Neener neener.)
::Neptune
::Uranus
:Saturn
::Asteroids
:::<~life~>
::Jupiter
::Venus
::Mars
::Sun
::Mercury
::Aircraft: Hey a heaping bowl of salt!
::"Open the fridge door, Hal."
::Moon
::Human Altitude Record (Apollo 13)
::2nd Place: Snoop Dogg
::Space Elevator - One of these days, promise!
::-Geosynchronous Orbit-
::GPS Satellites
::Lunar lander: In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land
::International Space Station
::Space Junk
::-Official Edge of Space (100 km)-
::Meteors
::-1/10 ATM-
::High Altitude Balloons
::Airliners
::-1/2 ATM-
::Cory Doctrow
::Shuttle Columbia Lost
::Everest
::Helicoptors
::Cueball: Woo Python!
::[vertical scale along right side of image, starting at 1 km and getting progressivly smaller and smaller.]
::-800 m-
::Burj Dubai (~800 m)
::Eiffel Tower (325 m)
::Kites
::Great Pyramid (140 m)
::Redwood (115 m)
::Pop Fly
::Oak (20 m)
::"Hey Squirrels!"
::Tallest Stilts
::Brachiosaur (13 m)
::Giraffe (8 m)
::[Megan and Cueball.] Folks
:The Observable Universe, from Top to Bottom ~On a log scale~
:Sizes are not to scale, but heights above the Earth's surface are accurate on a log scale (that is, each step up is double the height.)

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]

426: Geohashing

2014-01-10T23:05:01Z

Adamaustin: /* Explanation */ Just fixed the incomplete section to show the MD5 instead of MP5

{{comic
| number = 426
| date = May 21, 2008
| title = Geohashing
| image = geohashing.png
| titletext = Saturday is game night
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|explain terminology used in determining location (ie md5)}}
{{w|Geocaching}} is a sport where you have to find things hidden by other people based on geographical coordinates. Randall has had a similar idea before in [[201: Christmas GPS]].

[http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/ Geohashing] is a sport created by Randall based on reaching a random location determined by an [http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/Algorithm algorithm] that uses a {{w|hash function}} that involves the current date, location and {{w|Dow Jones Industrial Average|Dow}} opening price.

The algorithm is built in a way that:
*Makes it impossible to plan a meeting in advance - because of the Dow.
*Changes every day.
*Gathers people that are nearby - everyone within the same 1°×1° grid square gets the same position.

The algorithm works as follows:
# Take the current date in the format yyyy-mm-dd- and append the most recent opening value for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
# Pass this sting through the MD5 algorithm.
# Divide the hash value into two 16 character halves, and convert each half to a decimal.
# Take the integer portions of your current current coordinates and append the decimal hash values.

MD5 is a cryptographic hashing algorithm, and converts plaintext data into a seemingly random 128-bit (32 character) string. A good hashing algorithm should have three main properties: it is non-reversible (you cannot generate any plaintext data from the hash), a given sample of data will always produce the same hash value, and even a tiny change to the original plaintext should produce an entirely different hash.

Originally intended as a joke, there are people which do geohashing regularly. Please see the link to the xkcd wiki above.

==Transcript==
:Date (example): 2005-05-26
:That date's (or most recent) DOW opening: 10458.68
:[Concatenate, with a hyphen: 2005-05-26-10458.68]
:md5: db9318c2259923d08b672cb305440f97
:[Split it up into two pieces:]
:0.db9318c2259923d0, 0.8b672cb305440f97
:To decimal: 0.857713..., 0.544544...
:Your location (example): 37.421542, -122.085589
:[Combine integer part of location with fractional part of hash:]
:Destination Coordinates: 37.857713, -122.544544
:Sample Implementation: [http://xkcd.com/geohashing/ http://xkcd.com/geohashing/]

==Trivia==
*In response to comic [[353: Python]], the Python developers implemented the module <code>antigravity</code> in version 2.7+. This module contains a reference geohashing function.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]

395: Morning

2013-12-19T20:28:43Z

Adamaustin: Adding "Comics with color" category

{{comic
| number = 395
| date = March 12, 2008
| title = Morning
| image = morning.png
| titletext = I'd press on them to try to unstick them, but I can't reach. Can we try cycling day and night really fast?
}}

==Explanation==
This comic makes reference to the idea, as presented in the movie {{w|The Matrix}}, that reality is a computer simulation. In {{w|Liquid-crystal display|LCD screens}}, specially {{w|TFT LCD}}, a {{w|Defective pixel|dead pixel}} is a pixel that does not work properly, usually set as black or as some other color. Megan realizes that the reality is a computer simulation when she sees dead pixels in the sky, indicating that what she sees is an LCD screen. Usual techniques for fixing a dead pixel are applying pressure and releasing it, which isn't possible for Megan due to the distance of the sky, and making that area of the screen change colors really quickly, which could happen if the day-and-night cycle was fast enough.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is standing to one side.]
:We've all seen The Matrix
:We've all joked about "What resolution is life"
:But it doesn't blunt the shock
:Of waking up one morning
:[Megan looks up from field and sees several colored pixels in the sky.]
:And seeing dead pixels in the sky.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

356: Nerd Sniping

2013-12-13T19:09:15Z

Adamaustin: Just noting the color here

{{comic
| number = 356
| date = December 12, 2007
| title = Nerd Sniping
| image = nerd sniping.png
| titletext = I first saw this problem on the Google Labs Aptitude Test. A professor and I filled a blackboard without getting anywhere. Have fun.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Nerd}}s have a way of getting distracted easily and focusing on one thing and ignoring the rest, when they feel their specific skills are challenged by an interesting problem. [[Black Hat]] has decided to make this into a disturbing game of getting nerds, in this case a physicist, to stop in the middle of a street and get crushed by a truck by showing them an interesting problem to solve.

The problem Black Hat shows is an electronics engineering thought experiment to find the resistance between two points. In normal wiring, a one ohm resistor would result in one ohm of resistance. Two resistors connected in a series, where electricity has to go through each, has two ohms of resistance. Two resistors in parallel give the circuit only half an ohm since you average the resistance of the path (1 ohm of resistance over 2 paths). With an infinite grid of resistors, you have an infinite number of paths to take, and for each path an infinite number of both series and parallel paths to consider, so much more advanced methods are needed. The exact answer to the question is 4/π − 1/2 ohms, or about 0.773 ohms. See [http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath668/kmath668.htm].

The [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2004/09/pencils-down-people.html Google Labs Aptitude Test] is a collection of puzzles published by Google as a parody of tests such as the {{w|SAT}}. Google is known for using logic & math puzzles in their job interviews. [[Randall]] explained in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24 a speech at Google] five days before this comic, that he was nerd-sniped, in a way, by that problem in this test, and got quite irritated when he ultimately found that it was actually a modern physics research problem, requiring very advanced math, far more complicated than the other puzzles it figured among.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is sitting on a chair, Cueball is standing next to him. Across the street another man is coming from a building.]
:Black Hat: There's a certain type of brain that's easily disabled. If you show it an interesting problem, it involuntarily drops everything else to work on it.

:[The man across the street is about to enter a crosswalk.]
:Black Hat: This has led me to invent a new sport: nerd sniping. See that physicist crossing the road?

:[Black Hat holds up a sign.]
:Black Hat: HEY!

:[There is an image of a grid with resistors on every connection, two nodes a knight's move apart are marked with red circles.]
:Sign: On this infinite grid of ideal one-ohm resistors, what's the equivalent resistance between the two marked nodes?

:Physicist on the street: It's... Hmm. Interesting. Maybe if you start with... No. Wait. Hmm... You could-

:[A truck is zooming past, apparently where the physicist just stood.]
:''FOOOOM''

:Cueball: I will have no part in this.
:Black Hat: C'mon, make a sign. It's fun! Physicists are two points, mathematicians three.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

238: Pet Peeve 114

2013-11-25T17:33:59Z

Adamaustin: /* Explanation */ More grammatical errors

{{comic
| number =238
| date =March 21, 2007
| title =Pet Peeve 114
| image =pet_peeve_114.png
| titletext =I'm reading a goddamn book, thank you very much.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|pet peeve}} is a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to them, to a greater degree than others may find it. [[Cueball]] counts his pet peeves, this is number 114.

Cueball's friend calls him and finds out that he is reading a book on a "Saturday Night". Saturday night, or the weekend in general, is supposed to be a time for enjoying or partying with friends after five weekdays of work. But Cueball is annoyed by the fact that people are stuck with the stereotype of partying out on weekends. In his view, reading a good book is also great way of enjoying the weekend. His annoyance is expressed in the title text.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball reading a book in a chair.]
:Pet Peeve #114:
:Voice on the phone: Really? What are you doing reading? It's ''Saturday night!''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

238: Pet Peeve 114

2013-11-25T17:31:35Z

Adamaustin: /* Explanation */ Grammatical error

{{comic
| number =238
| date =March 21, 2007
| title =Pet Peeve 114
| image =pet_peeve_114.png
| titletext =I'm reading a goddamn book, thank you very much.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|pet peeve}} is a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to them, to a greater degree than others may find it. [[Cueball]] counts his pet peeves, this is number 114.

Cueball's friend calls him and finds out that he is reading a book on a "Saturday Night". Saturday night or on weekends in general people are supposed to be time for enjoying or partying with friends after five weekdays of work. But Cueball is annoyed by the fact that people are stuck with the stereotype of partying out on weekends. In his view, reading a good book is also great way of enjoying the weekend. His annoyance is expressed in the title text.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball reading a book in a chair.]
:Pet Peeve #114:
:Voice on the phone: Really? What are you doing reading? It's ''Saturday night!''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

233: A New CAPTCHA Approach

2013-11-20T21:13:59Z

Adamaustin: /* Explanation */ Minor grammatical errors resolved

{{comic
| number = 233
| date = March 9, 2007
| title = A New CAPTCHA Approach
| image = a new captcha approach.png
| titletext = They'd use that Futurama episode with Fry's dog, but even spambots cry at that.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|CAPTCHA}} is a verification system to stop automatic submissions to web forms by asking the user to do something which a computer program could not do, such as type a distorted word into a box.

But here, the author has a new CAPTCHA, in which it references a sad event in a children's movie ({{w|The Land Before Time}}), asks the subject if it cried. If the subject is human, then they most likely will have cried, so the answer will be ''yes''. If it's a computer program, however, it is supposed to answer ''no'', because computer programs cannot cry.

The title text references to the {{w|Futurama}} episode {{w|Jurassic Bark}}. It claims that this episode is so sad that even {{w|spambot}}s cry after seeing it.

==Transcript==
:To complete your web registration, please prove that you're human:
:When Littlefoot's mother died in the original 'Land Before Time', did you feel sad?
:[radio button.] Yes
:[radio button.] No
:(Bots: no lying)

{{comic discussion}}

198: Perspective

2013-11-18T21:53:38Z

Adamaustin: /* Explanation */ Correcting some grammar here

{{comic
| number = 198
| date = December 18, 2006
| title = Perspective
| image = perspective.png
| titletext = I wonder what I was dreaming to prompt that. I hope it wasn't the Richard Stallman Cirque de Soleil thing again.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The browser war did start in the 90's}}
{{w|Firefox}} is a popular browser and in 2006 it was the second most commonly used browser. Its more fervent supporters sometimes wrote as if there was a moral imperative to use Firefox rather than Internet Explorer.

[[Cueball]], presumably representing [[Randall]], begins each day with a reasonable perspective on the relative unimportance of an internet browser within the world at large, but quickly loses that perspective as his enthusiasm for Firefox gets the better of him. The humor stems from the irony that Cueball is relieved to trade the a richer perspective for a simpler, browser-oriented world view.

At the title text we have {{w|Richard Matthew Stallman|Richard Stallman}}, an American software freedom activist and computer programmer connected to {{w|Cirque du Soleil}}. Supporting free software is more serious like being an artist at a circus.

==Transcript==
:Sometimes, when I first wake up, I am caught in the horrible grip of perspective.
:[Cueball sitting up in bed.]
:Cueball: It may be a jewel of open source, but Firefox is JUST A BROWSER. It shows WEBPAGES. What the hell is WRONG with us?
:Fortunately, this subsides quickly.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:121: Balloon

2013-11-13T16:40:32Z

Adamaustin:

From the wording of the comic, I think this is a reference to a film or a TV show.{{unsigned ip|120.148.234.14}}

[[Special:Contributions/72.193.171.120|72.193.171.120]] 00:40, 23 September 2013 (UTC) I thought it was a reference to a scene from the French Film, The Red Balloon, but I couldn't find a full movie where I could watch it for free without signing up for something. If there's a restaurant scene in that movie, that might be my guess.[[Special:Contributions/72.193.171.120|72.193.171.120]] 00:40, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

The title text could be a reference to the pilot episode of Firefly where Mal says, "I am a bad man" after tormented Simon for fun. --[[Special:Contributions/160.5.148.8|160.5.148.8]] 07:25, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

The balloon never goes inside in the movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Balloon The Red Balloon].[[User:Adamaustin|-adamaustin]] ([[User talk:Adamaustin|talk]]) 16:39, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Talk:121: Balloon

2013-11-13T16:39:58Z

Adamaustin:

From the wording of the comic, I think this is a reference to a film or a TV show.{{unsigned ip|120.148.234.14}}

[[Special:Contributions/72.193.171.120|72.193.171.120]] 00:40, 23 September 2013 (UTC) I thought it was a reference to a scene from the French Film, The Red Balloon, but I couldn't find a full movie where I could watch it for free without signing up for something. If there's a restaurant scene in that movie, that might be my guess.[[Special:Contributions/72.193.171.120|72.193.171.120]] 00:40, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

The title text could be a reference to the pilot episode of Firefly where Mal says, "I am a bad man" after tormented Simon for fun. --[[Special:Contributions/160.5.148.8|160.5.148.8]] 07:25, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

The balloon never goes inside in the movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Balloon The Red Balloon].
[[User:Adamaustin|-adamaustin]] ([[User talk:Adamaustin|talk]]) 16:39, 13 November 2013 (UTC)