explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2761: 1-to-1 Scale

2023-04-11T18:47:46Z

Iustinus: yes, obviously a citation is not seriously needed here, butI feel this is 100% consistent with the flippant use of the {{citation needed}} tag on this wiki — to say nothing of Randall Monroe's usage of it on What If.

{{comic
| number = 2761
| date = April 10, 2023
| title = 1-to-1 Scale
| image = 1_to_1_scale_2x.png
| imagesize = 444x281px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = There's a version that shows the planets with no cropping, but it's hard to find a display that supports it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DISPLAY THAT SUPPORTS THE PLANETS WITH NO CROPPING - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic supposedly shows what each planet would look like at 1:1 scale, which would mean at real size. However, because a minuscule portion of each planet is visible on the page at that scale, it becomes comically useless at distinguishing the size or relative size of each planet, and each planet is just a differently textured straight line. To understand the diagram, imagine you are sitting a tremendous distance away from the solar system, and you have a camera with an extremely supremely highly zooming telephoto lens. Then all eight planets happen to line up. You manage to snap this incredible image of a teeny tiny spot of the sky, which simultaneously manages to include the very edges of all the planets as well as some of the space behind them all. Space is the black polygon in the center. The reason why each planet is so smooth is because it's such a small area: you're only seeing a couple of square inches of the surface of each of the planets.

The title text remarks that it is hard to find a display that supports a version of the image without cropping. This is because a true 1:1 scale image showing each of the planets would be ridiculously large[https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1164/how-big-is-the-solar-system/], larger than any monitor or display currently available on Earth{{citation needed}} (since it would be much larger than Earth).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|The main panel itself is missing explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A frame with a central area of black 'space', bounded at various intersecting angles by eight 'straight lines' representing planetary surfaces, originating from various out-of-frame angles of 'down' and the white of some bodies obscuring some part of the others.]
:[There are labels indicating which line represents each planet.]
:[The four gas-giants' lines are simply drawn, near straight and featureless.]
:[The lines for the rocky inner-planets have variations to them, stereotypical of some part of their surface.]
:[The "Earth" line ('down' being out the top of the frame) has a profile indicating various small-scale vegetation and also features the white sillouette of an ant that may be of a realistic size for your display.]
:[Caption below the panel:]
:The solar system's planets at 1:1 scale

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Space]]
[[Category:Comics_with_inverted_brightness]]

2761: 1-to-1 Scale

2023-04-11T07:14:08Z

Iustinus:

2072: Evaluating Tech Things

2018-11-14T20:11:43Z

Iustinus: i.e. "that is" → e.g. "for example"

{{comic
| number = 2072
| date = November 14, 2018
| title = Evaluating Tech Things
| image = evaluating_tech_things.png
| titletext = Also known as the Black Mirror-Mythbusters scale.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DRONE FLYING INTO A TORNADO. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many things are possible today thanks to technology, and while often the "wow factor"—how cool it is that we can do that—kicks in right away, there can also be deep potential longer term consequences for humanity. Things like {{w|atomic fission}}, the {{w|Internet}}, {{w|CRISPR}} technology, are amazing things we have learned how to do, but they also have the potential, in some cases already realized, of massively affecting human life (e.g. nuclear annihilation, instant wide-scale communication, elective genetic engineering), both for the better and for the worse.

Here Cueball, upon hearing of a cool idea he hadn't thought of before, mentally measures it on a scale to decide if he can be excited about it, or should be worried about how it might affect humanity. After weighing it out, he decides it's just plain cool and it will not adversely affect humanity at all. In the comic, it appears this mental decision took awhile, judging by the multiple panels showing him thinking, even absentmindedly rubbing his chin, before he gives his response.

The title text refers to this mental weighing also being known as the ''Black Mirror''–''Mythbusters'' scale. ''{{w|Black Mirror}}'' and ''{{w|Mythbusters}}'' are both TV shows that explore science and technology. ''Black Mirror'', on the one end of the scale, explores the unintended and often dire consequences of many of our more influential technologies—the horrible stuff that can happen—whereas ''Mythbusters'', on the other end of the scale, explores the fun side of technology and see what kinds of cool things can or cannot be done.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan and Cueball face each other]
:Megan: Sooner or later, someone is going to fly a drone into a tornado and post the footage to YouTube.

:[Zoom in on Cueball imagining a semicircular dial with a moving pointer currently fixed vertically in the mid value. The left-most value indicating his opinion to be "This raises big questions about technology and society" and the right-most being "Haha, cool!"]

:[Panel with just Cueball and the imaginary dial above his head, the pointer having shifted a small amout to the right]

:[Same panel with Cueball, his right hand pensively on his chin, the pointer having shifted an equally small amount to the left of the mid value]

:[Panel with Cuball, Megan and the imaginary dial above, the pointer now all the way to the right]
:Cueball: Haha, cool!

{{comic discussion}}