Talk:1389: Surface Area

2014-07-02T08:24:10Z

BelgianAtheist:

FYI to whoever writes this: the Seattle reference is the Space Needle. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.65|108.162.221.65]] 05:03, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Uranus is larger than all of these combined. Of course, it isn't on this map because it is full of gas. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 05:50, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
: Just wondering... Does that mean, a spaceship could just fly trough Uranus? (No pun intended.) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.20|141.101.75.20]] 07:16, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

And of course the earth is not correctly displayed: we have water which - in most cases - is not solid. -- jesterchen
: Water still has surface area. Edit: oh, I see what you mean now, from the title in the comic. I guess you have a point, but it's mainly there for comparison so it's not necessarily a mistake. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 06:14, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
:: Under the water there is solid bottom --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:01, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

There is also small section named "''All human skin''" (between Earth and Titan)... if you think about thread and needle... ugh... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:01, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

This seems to be an island floating on something, maybe it's floating on the sun's plasma? --[[User:BelgianAtheist|BelgianAtheist]] ([[User talk:BelgianAtheist|talk]]) 08:24, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

1389: Surface Area

2014-07-02T08:21:52Z

BelgianAtheist: added the sun

{{comic
| number = 1389
| date = July 2, 2014
| title = Surface Area
| image = surface_area.png
| titletext = This isn't an informational illustration; this is a thing I think we should do. First, we'll need a gigantic spool of thread. Next, we'll need some kind of ... hmm, time to head to Seattle.
}}

A larger version of this image can be found [http://xkcd.com/1389/large/ here].

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Very early draft.}}
This image shows the total surface areas of all {{w|Terrestrial_planet|terrestrial planets}}, {{w|Natural_satellite|moons}}, {{w|Asteroid|asteroids}} {{w|Minor_Planet|etc.}} in the {{w|Solar_System|solar system}}, represented as regions of a single massive landmass (in a similar style to the various [[256: Online Communities|maps]] of the [[802: Online Communities 2|internet]] Randall has created in the past), with a [[977|Waterman Butterfly]] based map of Earth in the center for scale. Relatively small objects like asteroids, comets and so on are grouped into two regions at the northeast and southwest corners, while tiny objects like space dust are excluded altogether (probably because their total surface area is impossible to accurately estimate, and also because any estimate would likely be too large to easily fit into the map).

The {{w|Gas_giant|gas giants}} Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are not included, because they don't have a solid surface. If they were included, this part of the map would be a tiny speck compared to the surface area of the gas giants.

Similarly the {{w|Sun|sun}} also is not considered a solid but hot {{w|Plasma_(physics)|plasma}}, if it was included it would reduce both the original map and the gas giants to a tiny speck.

The title text implies that Randall is actually proposing that someone should take all of the matter in the Solar system and stitch it together, by means of a gigantic spool of thread and a {{w|Space Needle|very large needle}} (the Space Needle).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1389: Surface Area

1389: Surface Area