explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3102: Reading a Big Number

2025-06-14T11:12:07Z

Jamcdonald: /* Table of thoughts */ er, who cares?

{{comic
| number = 3102
| date = June 13, 2025
| title = Reading a Big Number
| image = reading_a_big_number_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x438px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = [desperately] Maybe this is from some country where they use commas as decimal points, and also as digit separators after the decimal, and also use random other characters for decoration???
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by An Accidentally Escaped Quotation Mark. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic expresses [[Randall]]'s reactions to reading {{w|large number}}s. It starts with normal digits and commas you would find in a large number, but gradually becomes more and more chaotic. It turns out that this is not a number at all, but some sort of printing error in whatever Randall is reading.

The very start of the comic is a bit absurd. In most cases, you can tell that a number like this is very large because of how long it is when written out; you wouldn't have to completely reinterpret it at the end of ''every'' group of digits. However, to tell exactly which "-illion" the number falls into, you would have to count the groups, and the scale of such a large number would grow less familiar as you try to keep track of how large it even is. Certain sizes of numbers tend to show up in specific contexts, like {{w|astronomy}}. So, rather than literally showing Randall's developing thoughts on the evidently massive size of this number, the comic also shows how he tends to interpret numbers at each possible "-illion" scale. See detailed explanation of Randall's thoughts in the [[#Table of thoughts|table]] below, where also the title text is explained.

There are a few possible explanations for seeing a number like this appear in a software application. It may have appeared due to an out-of-bounds read operation where the computer tries to interpret unrelated data as text. Another possible explanation is misuse of the {{w|printf}} function in the {{w|C programming language}}. If strings passed to printf do not contain a {{w|null byte}} to terminate the string, it will go further into memory, again into unrelated data. Or the programmer might have several printf statements back to back, forgetting that printf doesn't add newlines (like the println function in other programming languages), so all their debug information gets printed on the same line.

==Table of thoughts==
{| class="wikitable"
! Number fragment !! Thought !! Explanation
|-
| 54 || 54! Great! I know that number. Solid start. || 54 is a number with some real-world familiarity for most people. It is small enough to appear on digital clocks, and has enough factors to be listed on standard multiplication tables as 6 × 9.

Randall pretending to reckon with the start of such a large number is probably meant to draw attention to the meaninglessness of doing so. Unless the exact value is somehow important, most readers wouldn't find much of a meaningful difference between "54 zillion" or "over 50 zillion", or even "zillions and zillions". In practice, the brain {{w|Approximate number system|can only approximate}} numbers this large; the {{w|Just-noticeable difference|threshold needed to tell the difference}} between the amounts that they represent is too high. Randall expresses a similar sentiment once he gets to the trillions and quadrillions.
|-
| ,000 (thousand) || Oh, a comma and some zeros. Cool. Must be at least 54 thousand. || Underselling how long the number is with the "at least a thousand", but is a fair thought from the POV of not being able to know how long the number is.
|-
| ,000 (million) || A second comma! I wonder if we're talking population or money. || Excitement from how large the number must be. {{w|Population}}s (like the number of people in a region) and large sums of money are both often measured in millions.
|-
| ,000 (billion) || Yikes! If this is money, it's a lot of money. || Three commas means a number in the billions. That's a lot of money for one person to have. Big decisions by large corporations, such as {{w|megamerger}}s, are often measured in billions of dollars in costs.
|-
| ,000,000 (quadrillion) || Why am I reading this? Whatever this number is, I'm not going to be able to visualize it. || Five commas is a number in the quadrillions. At this point the number is too big for human minds to comprehend.
|-
| ,000 (quintillion) || All right, either someone made a unit conversion error or this is one of those incomprehensible astronomy numbers. || Astronomy often deals with extremely large numbers due to the incredible scale of the universe. For example, the distance to the Andromeda galaxy in kilometers could be numbered in quintillions. Alternatively, the person calculating the number made a mistake. Regarding the unit conversion there has recently been a comic about such a thing in [[3065: Square Units]] and similar mistakes has been used in [[2585: Rounding]].
|-
| ,0000 (!?) || Oh no. Is this a misplaced comma or an extra zero? I guess we'll see if the next group has two zeros or three. If it's two, we can at least hope the digits are right. || Commas are placed every three digits in {{w|Decimal separator#Digit grouping|typical western usage}} (although not necessarily in various other {{w|Indian numbering system#Decimal formatting|cultures}}), so something is wrong. However, it might simply be that someone misplaced the comma to the right, meaning that this group has four digits and the next one would likely have two (the next comma in the 'correct' place). If the next group is three, then either the commas are now ''all'' misplaced or possibly someone/something just doubled up a zero by accident. A mistake of any kind makes one think that the number may not actually be accurate but, if the former, at least it might just be a relatively unimportant transposition.
|-
| ,0000 || Oh no. || A second group of four zeroes means it's not a typo. Something is seriously wrong. Note that some countries like [https://www.aceninja.sg/insights/2025/01/01/understanding-chinese-cultural-nuances-numerals China] or [https://www.kanpai-japan.com/learn-japanese/how-to-count-in-japanese Japan] (where 4-digit groupings are common) or [https://www.cuemath.com/numbers/indian-place-value-chart/ India] (which uses a unique 2- and 3-digit mixed system) may use non 3-digit groupings, but have their own rules for number groupings.
|-
| ,054 || What is happening. || Big numbers are normally rounded, so it's very strange to see a non-zero value this far down in the place values. Also, "54" matches the digits at the start of the number so it could indicate the number was copied incorrectly. The non-zero digits here imply that all of the digits so far, including the zeroes, are {{w|significant figures}}; the number is not only extremely large, but implausibly precise with at least 30 sig figs. By way of comparison, the diameter of the observable universe is about 4.4 × 10<sup>26</sup> m, and if that measurement had 30 sigfigs, it would be precise to about half a millimeter.
|-
| ,000"000 || Someone messed up real bad. || The arcsecond mark " indicates that this number is an angle or a distance in inches. For an angle, even accounting for how small an arcsecond is (1/3600th of a degree), this angle would be a huge number rotations. As for inches, it would represent a distance much larger than the observable universe, it is also uncommon to use customary units like inches in conjunction with large numbers. Alternatively, this could be "to-the-11th-power", which would make the already extremely large number extremely ridiculously big. This could also be a sign of bad copy-pasting, where the quotation mark " was accidentally copied along with the large number but not with a matching one. Or if this number was being printed from a computer program, the mark may be a sign that the closing quote around a computer string was accidentally escaped, causing it to become present in the string rather than indicating the end of the string.
|-
| ,00c2ef46 || Someone messed up real bad and I hope it wasn't me. || Numbers normally only use the digits 0-9. The use of letters suggest that this is a hexadecimal number. Hexadecimal is mostly used by computers, so Randall, as a programmer, might be worried that the hexadecimal appearing is his fault. Seeing a long string of unexpected characters may indicate a memory bug, such as a ''{{w|buffer overflow}}''. These bugs can lead to crashes, data corruption and security vulnerabilities, and Randall would rather not be responsible for it. If it had just been 000e46 it could have meant that the entire number should have been lifted up to 10^46, as this would look like exponential numbers on a calculator. This is, however, not the case with c and f included.
|-
| (title text) || [desperately] Maybe this is from some country where they use commas as decimal points, and also as digit separators after the decimal, and also use random other characters for decoration??? || In the United States, UK, India, China, Korea, Japan, and other countries, the dot is used to separate the integer part of a number from its fractional part. However, most of mainland Europe and South America uses the comma for this purpose. In some places, one may also see the period used to group digits. Since the final number is unreadable and potentially infinite, this implies that Randall has, naturally, made up an explanation instead of trying to figure out what was really happening.
|-
|}

==Transcript==
:[A large number is written along the middle of the panel. Above and below the number there are 10 labels, (5 above and 5 below), and from each label a small curved line points to a part of the number. There is a heading above the top labels:]
:<big>Thought process while reading a big number:</big>

:[The number is continuing off the edge of the comic to the right, the last digit is missing about a third:]
:'''<big>54,000,000,000,000,000,000,0000,0000,054,000"000,00c2ef46</big>'''

:[The labels are listed below in the reading order as from where the small lines are pointing on to the number, so both those above and below the number, not first all those above. Text in the brackets indicate where on the number the line is pointing:]

:[To the first two numbers before the first comma, label above the number:]
:54! Great! I know that number. Solid start.

:[To the first zero after the first comma, label below the number:]
:Oh, a comma and some zeros. Cool. Must be at least 54 thousand.

:[To the second comma, label above the number:]
:A second comma! I wonder if we're talking population or money.

:[To the third comma, label below the number:]
:Yikes! If this is money, it's a '''''lot''''' of money.

:[To the fifth comma, label above the number:]
:Why am I reading this? Whatever this number is, I'm not going to be able to visualize it.

:[To the sixth comma, label below the number:]
:All right, either someone made a unit conversion error or this is one of those incomprehensible astronomy numbers.

:[To the middle of a group of four zeros after the seventh comma, label above the number:]
:Oh no. Is this a misplaced comma or an extra zero? I guess we'll see if the next group has two zeros or three. If it's two, we can at least hope the digits are right.

:[To the middle of a group of four zeros after the eighth comma, label below the number:]
:Oh '''''no'''''.

:[To the last two numbers of the three digits after the ninth comma, label below the number:]
:What is happening.

:[To a quotation mark, where the eleventh comma should have been, label above the number:]
:Someone messed up real bad.

:[To the first number in a group with mixed alphanumeric numbers, where the thirteenth comma should have been, label below the number:]
:Someone messed up real bad and I hope it wasn't me.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

3066: Cosmic Distance Calibration

2025-03-22T02:38:41Z

Jamcdonald: /* Explanation */ Not Relevant

{{comic
| number = 3066
| date = March 21, 2025
| title = Cosmic Distance Calibration
| image = cosmic_distance_calibration_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This is the biggest breakthrough since astronomers noticed that the little crosshairs around red giant stars starting to burn helium are all the same size.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN ASTRONOMER BOT - MILKY WAY GALAXY - 0 LIGHT YEARS AWAY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic interprets the UI labels next to the stars as actual objects in space, which is absurd.{{cn}} If these labels were to become astrophysical objects in reality, it would quickly result in major changes to the universe. As each of these labels would need to be clearly visible from an observatory, they would require monstrous size, maybe even big enough to collapse into black holes when pointing to stars farther away. They would also create a sudden lack of need for themselves, as the stars would be gravitationally attracted to their respective labels and promptly destroyed.

The label on the billboard appears to be pointing to a star in the spiral Galaxy M106, located between 22 and 25 million light-years away from earth.

The title text refers to {{w|Reticle|crosshairs}}, a pair of perpendicularly intersecting lines most commonly associated with telescopic sights for aiming firearms. This seems to be referring to the diffraction pattern caused by the arms holding the secondary mirror in most telescopes, causing a star to appear to have several "spikes" radially outward.

Of course these aren't physical objects next around the star, they are (as mentioned) created in the telescope.

The size of the diffraction spikes is correlated with the luminosity of the star being viewed. Red giant stars starting to burn helium have the same size diffraction spikes* because they are the same absolute brightness. They are "Tip of the Red Giant Branch" standard candles, the fact that they have the same absolute brightness makes them essential for cosmic distance measuring, since the observed luminosity is a simple inverse-distance-squared falloff from a known original value.

<nowiki>*:</nowiki> Randall is taking a little bit of license here, the spikes depend on luminosity, whereas the stars in question have the same brightness, which is not the same thing.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Ponytail is at a lectern, pointing at an image of intergalactic space. There is an image that shows a zoomed-in label beneath a star with 4 points. The zoomed-in label shows three lines of text, some of it partially cut off:]
:M106 0-06 [cut-off]
:Distance:
:23.6163 MLY

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Cosmology News: New telescopes are finally powerful enough to read the little labels next to stars showing how far away they are.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]

Talk:3062: Off By One

2025-03-14T05:31:51Z

Jamcdonald:

But what about floats? [[User:GreyFox|GreyFox]] ([[User talk:GreyFox|talk]]) 20:01, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

Is this dithering? [[User:Hcs|Hcs]] ([[User talk:Hcs|talk]]) 21:19, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

: Could be. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 22:19, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

This language has a huge off by one error: the docs don't explicitly say if the random range is inclusive. EDIT: the comic description above now includes this, thx --[[User:Snaxmcgee|Snaxmcgee]] ([[User talk:Snaxmcgee|talk]]) 22:22, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

But if it's adjusted both on store and on read, then there is a chance (of about 1 in 22) that the value after read will be exactly the same as the value before store. This does not eliminate pre-existing off-by-one errors, and in fact, introduces new ones if the adjustment on read is off by one from the adjustment on store, when there was no off-by-one error in the original code. And what's worse - with a single store-read cycle, the value can never be off by 40 to 50. It can be off by up to 10, or by between 80 to 100, in either direction. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 22:42, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
:I was ''just'' adjusting the explanation to imply this sort of thing (without having read your comment, just yet). Given the assumption that n=n±(40+rand(11)) at every stage (I'm assuming 'inclusive', Snaxmcgee!), two steps of 'intentional adjustment' might result in: -100 (x1), -99 (x2), -98 (x3), -97 (x4), -96 (x5), -95 (x6), -94 (x7), -93 (x8), -92 (x9), -91 (x10), -90 (x11), -89..-80 (x10..x1), -10 (x2), -9 (x4), -8 (x6), -7 (x8), -6 (x10), -5 (x12), -4 (x14), -3 (x16), -2 (x18), -1 (x20), ±0 (x22), +1..+10 (x20..x2), +80..+90..+100 (x1..x11..x1).
:This gives a chance of being entirely correct as 22/484 (4.5454...%) and ''each'' off-by-one as ''very'' slightly less (though ±1, in total is almost twice as likely!).
:Adding further steps (skipping odd step-cummulations, at least at first, until you get to nine of them and everything entirely stops being discontinuous) just spreads out an increased number of highs right next to zero deflection... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.129|172.70.86.129]] 23:38, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

::Obligatory quote:
There are two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.
::See here for a full story of this quote: https://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/506010907021828096
::--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.129.64|162.158.129.64]] 08:28, 13 March 2025 (UTC)
:::And 3 hard things in distributed computing: 3. Delivering messages exactly one time, 2. Making sure things happen in the correct order, and 3. Delivering messages exactly one time [[User:Jamcdonald|Jamcdonald]] ([[User talk:Jamcdonald|talk]])
::::Presumably 1 is not losing data? --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 10:19, 13 March 2025 (UTC)
::::: We may never know, Message 1 was never delivered [[User:Jamcdonald|Jamcdonald]] ([[User talk:Jamcdonald|talk]])
In the comic, Cueball clearly says the adjustment amounts is ‘’between’’ 40 and 50, yet this explanation says the adjustment is from 40 to 50, ironically making an off-by-1 error on both ends of the range. Neither integers 40 nor 50 are “between 40 and 50”. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.39|172.71.154.39]] 10:43, 13 March 2025 (UTC)
:English language is imprecise with its use of "between", but it's usually taken as inclusive. Most people, when asked, "Pick a number between 1 and 10," will assume that 1 and 10 are both valid choices. Even in computing, you have things like Excel's RANDBETWEEN function to generate random integers between two bounds, which is inclusive. {{unsigned ip|104.23.187.72|13:28, 13 March 2025}}
::Interestingly, in German such ranges are defined as including the borders, in Dutch they're defined as excluding the borders. (hence the Dutch t/m ("tot en met" - "up to, and including") [[Special:Contributions/104.23.170.81|104.23.170.81]] 15:28, 13 March 2025 (UTC)
::Yes, see {{wiktionary|between#Usage notes}} as one overview. Between as in "within the bounds defined by" is different from "amongst those things of which these items are the defining outer examples". Especially, but not exclusively, when that's just two distinct items which have ''no'' valid intermediate states betwixt the two to choose from ("you have to choose between me and my sister" isn't usually satisfactoraily answerable by choosing a different sibling, or perhaps parent, of the two). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.54|172.69.195.54]] 15:24, 13 March 2025 (UTC)

It's easy to make an off-by-one error without using a computer at all. Ask a friend how many fenceposts are needed for a 100-foot fence if the rails are ten feet long. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.199|172.71.30.199]] 12:58, 13 March 2025 (UTC)
:And how wide are the posts..? ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.6|141.101.98.6]] 15:27, 13 March 2025 (UTC)
::If I ever answer this question 100, it's obviously because in my mind each post (or more accurately, the distance between the grooves cut into the post) is a foot wide, which is slightly larger than usual but not totally unreasonable size, and not because I fell for the trick.--[[User:Snaxmcgee|Snaxmcgee]] ([[User talk:Snaxmcgee|talk]]) 16:47, 13 March 2025 (UTC)

I don't understand - what's all this got to do with water balloons? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.129|172.70.86.129]] 15:37, 13 March 2025 (UTC)
:(ISWYDT...) [[Special:Contributions/173.70.195.206|171.68.193.204]] 16:47, 14 February 2026 (UTC)
::What did they do. Waterballoons were the previous comic? What did they do? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.159|172.70.230.159]] 22:41, 13 March 2025 (UTC)

Let's make programming languages do this! There should be an implementations section! :D :D [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.159|172.70.230.159]] 22:41, 13 March 2025 (UTC)

Nearly added the following information to the Explanation, but it's probably too specific an example:
:The language {{w|Perl}} can be asked (with an array <code>@array</code>) for either the number of elements (with something like <code>int(@array)</code>) ''or'' the index of the final element (typically by <code>$#array</code>) of lists that ''usually'' start at the index of zero. The method of looping through the array should then be carefully matched to the limit given (shift/pop it as many times as there are elements, as one of the various "do-while" or "while-do" types of loop available, or else run from index zero to the topmost index value that ''normallybought to be'' 'elements minus one', with one of the more "for(;;)"-style counting-loops).
And, of course, there are subtle differences between Perl versions, not nust limited to whetger it's <code>$array[$index]</code> or <code>@array[$index]</code>, and if <code>$[</code> or 'arybase' can be used to mix things up a bit. (Though I might just <code>map {...} @array</code> it, or do something potentially awful but valid like <code>{@array||last;print$".splice@array,rand@array,1;redo}</code> if it seemed like I should.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.167|172.70.163.167]] 00:33, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3062: Off By One

2025-03-13T08:51:08Z

Jamcdonald:

Talk:3062: Off By One

2025-03-13T08:50:44Z

Jamcdonald:

2839: Language Acquisition

2023-10-10T01:17:26Z

Jamcdonald: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2839
| date = October 9, 2023
| title = Language Acquisition
| image = language_acquisition_2x.png
| imagesize = 193x239px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My first words were 'These were my first words; what were yours?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THESE WERE MY FIRST WORDS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Language acquisition}} is the process by which humans, generally infants, learn a language.

There are many theories as to how this process works, but Randall takes this phrase literally, saying that infants learn languages one new word at a time. This may be true when learning a second language, but is typically not true for infants learning their native language (mother tongue). It is a common milestone to celebrate a child's "[https://www.parents.com/baby/development/talking/baby-talk-a-month-by-month-timeline1/ first word]", but typically these would be simple words, such as "mama" or "dada".

The child's sentence is twelve words, all unique. This implies these are the only words known so far.

Interestingly if this sentence is true, the child has learned the word for 12 before learning the words for any other numbers.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A child, drawn as a smaller Hairy, stands next to some blocks. Megan and Cueball stand to the right of him.]
:Child: Vocabulary update: I learned another word today, bringing my total to twelve.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with babies]]

===A related game: What sentences could have been formed on the preceding eleven days?===
'''Rules'''
:1. Each sentence must contain the same number of words as the number of the day
:2. Words can only be added - each previously learned word must occur in subsequent days
:3. The sentence must make sense - this is clearly a highly articulate child
:4. On Day 12 the words must be "Vocabulary update: I learned another word today, bringing my total to twelve"

:Day 1: "Another" (possibly in reference to something that child wants to happen again)
:Day 2: "I learned", "Another word", or "Vocabulary Word"

A possible solution, if it is allowed for the child to not use all words previously learned:
:1: '''Word'''?
:2: '''Another''' word.
:3: '''Learned''' another word!
:4: '''I''' learned another word.
:5: I learned another word '''today'''.
:6: I learned another '''vocabulary''' word today.
:7: Vocabulary '''update''': I learned another word today.
:8: '''Bringing''' another vocabulary update: I learned another word today.
:9: Bringing '''my''' vocabulary update: I learned another word today.
:10: Update '''to''' my vocabulary: I learned another word today.
:11: Update to my '''total''' vocabulary: I learned another word today.
:12: Vocabulary update: I learned another word today, bringing my total to '''twelve'''.

2839: Language Acquisition

2023-10-10T01:14:53Z

Jamcdonald: /* = */

{{comic
| number = 2839
| date = October 9, 2023
| title = Language Acquisition
| image = language_acquisition_2x.png
| imagesize = 193x239px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My first words were 'These were my first words; what were yours?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THESE WERE MY FIRST WORDS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Language acquisition}} is the process by which humans, generally infants, learn a language.

There are many theories as to how this process works, but Randall takes this phrase literally, saying that infants learn languages one new word at a time. This may be true when learning a second language, but is typically not true for infants learning their native language (mother tongue). It is a common milestone to celebrate a child's "[https://www.parents.com/baby/development/talking/baby-talk-a-month-by-month-timeline1/ first word]", but typically these would be simple words, such as "mama" or "dada".

The child's sentence is twelve words, all unique. This implies these are the only words known so far.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A child, drawn as a smaller Hairy, stands next to some blocks. Megan and Cueball stand to the right of him.]
:Child: Vocabulary update: I learned another word today, bringing my total to twelve.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with babies]]

===A related game: What sentences could have been formed on the preceding eleven days?===
'''Rules'''
:1. Each sentence must contain the same number of words as the number of the day
:2. Words can only be added - each previously learned word must occur in subsequent days
:3. The sentence must make sense - this is clearly a highly articulate child
:4. On Day 12 the words must be "Vocabulary update: I learned another word today, bringing my total to twelve"

:Day 1: "Another" (possibly in reference to something that child wants to happen again)
:Day 2: "I learned", "Another word", or "Vocabulary Word"

A possible solution, if it is allowed for the child to not use all words previously learned:
:1: '''Word'''?
:2: '''Another''' word.
:3: '''Learned''' another word!
:4: '''I''' learned another word.
:5: I learned another word '''today'''.
:6: I learned another '''vocabulary''' word today.
:7: Vocabulary '''update''': I learned another word today.
:8: '''Bringing''' another vocabulary update: I learned another word today.
:9: Bringing '''my''' vocabulary update: I learned another word today.
:10: Update '''to''' my vocabulary: I learned another word today.
:11: Update to my '''total''' vocabulary: I learned another word today.
:12: Vocabulary update: I learned another word today, bringing my total to '''twelve'''.

2839: Language Acquisition

2023-10-10T01:14:37Z

Jamcdonald: this is NOT part of the summary, not even a little bit

{{comic
| number = 2839
| date = October 9, 2023
| title = Language Acquisition
| image = language_acquisition_2x.png
| imagesize = 193x239px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My first words were 'These were my first words; what were yours?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THESE WERE MY FIRST WORDS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Language acquisition}} is the process by which humans, generally infants, learn a language.

There are many theories as to how this process works, but Randall takes this phrase literally, saying that infants learn languages one new word at a time. This may be true when learning a second language, but is typically not true for infants learning their native language (mother tongue). It is a common milestone to celebrate a child's "[https://www.parents.com/baby/development/talking/baby-talk-a-month-by-month-timeline1/ first word]", but typically these would be simple words, such as "mama" or "dada".

The child's sentence is twelve words, all unique. This implies these are the only words known so far.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A child, drawn as a smaller Hairy, stands next to some blocks. Megan and Cueball stand to the right of him.]
:Child: Vocabulary update: I learned another word today, bringing my total to twelve.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with babies]]

===
A related game: What sentences could have been formed on the preceding eleven days?===
'''Rules'''
:1. Each sentence must contain the same number of words as the number of the day
:2. Words can only be added - each previously learned word must occur in subsequent days
:3. The sentence must make sense - this is clearly a highly articulate child
:4. On Day 12 the words must be "Vocabulary update: I learned another word today, bringing my total to twelve"

:Day 1: "Another" (possibly in reference to something that child wants to happen again)
:Day 2: "I learned", "Another word", or "Vocabulary Word"

A possible solution, if it is allowed for the child to not use all words previously learned:
:1: '''Word'''?
:2: '''Another''' word.
:3: '''Learned''' another word!
:4: '''I''' learned another word.
:5: I learned another word '''today'''.
:6: I learned another '''vocabulary''' word today.
:7: Vocabulary '''update''': I learned another word today.
:8: '''Bringing''' another vocabulary update: I learned another word today.
:9: Bringing '''my''' vocabulary update: I learned another word today.
:10: Update '''to''' my vocabulary: I learned another word today.
:11: Update to my '''total''' vocabulary: I learned another word today.
:12: Vocabulary update: I learned another word today, bringing my total to '''twelve'''.

Talk:2798: Room Temperature

2023-07-07T06:15:07Z

Jamcdonald: also, just let me clean up that bad sig

Isn't there actually quite a lot of funding available for uncontrolled hot fusion? https://www.icanw.org/squandered_2021_global_nuclear_weapons_spending_report ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.32|162.158.38.32]] 23:29, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Note that '''controlled''' hot fusion (e. g. a functioning Tokamak) would also be really valuable. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:17, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

Someone explain why superconductors are a big deal

Arguably the temperature has to change for a semiconductor to work. For it to work at room temperature alone would be pure magic.

:While I agree that a semiconductor that does not heat up in operation (IE stays at room temp) would be revolutionary, the way Cueball describes that they work "while sitting right here on the table" suggests they are "Room Temperature Semiconductors" in the sense that they can operate while immersed in a room temperature environment not necessarily that they themselves stay room temperature. Akin to the contrast between current superconductors that need to be blisteringly cold before they super-conduct and the hypothetical "room temperature superconductors" that could simply be strung through the air like present day power lines.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.223|172.70.174.223]] 14:04, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

A note about the fusion connection. In recent years, there have been breakthroughs in high temperature superconductors, which theoretically would allow to build controlled hot fusion reactors at a much smaller scale (because they can create much higher magnetic fields). There are seveal private companies that attempt to do that, most notably CFS with their [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARC_(tokamak) SPARC Tokamak]. I think this is what is being referenced here. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.54|172.71.160.54]] 08:16, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:Maybe you could add that yourself? I wrote the current explanation but actually have no expertise in that area, and also I'm not sure how to incorporate that into the current flow of the explanation. [[User:Rebekka|Rebekka]] ([[User talk:Rebekka|talk]]) 09:01, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

:I assumed the title text (which says "demonstrates" and not "produces" uncontrolled fusion) - could be as simple as a device proving the sun is a fusion reaction --[[User:Nico|Nico]] ([[User talk:Nico|talk]]) 11:49, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

::It could also be that he does have a device that produces uncontrolled hot fusion, and they won't fund it because the government does not negotiate with terrorists. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.40|172.69.247.40]] 11:56, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

As I understand it, "cold fusion" doesn't necessarily mean room temperature. That would actually be quite useless. Cold fusion could mean anything from "doesn't need millions of degrees" to "cool enough to directly hook up to boilers to power steam turbines" (and potentially a lower pressure requirement). The "room temperature" thing is mostly due to bad "science" and frauds (though it is still questionable if higher temperature cold fusion can be a thing, too). It's easier to cheaply make an alleged "cold fusion device" if you don't have to heat it up to or contain it at up to several thousand degrees. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:23, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:I took that phrasing directly from wikipedia, but you appear to be right. I did some further reading and apparently there are working methods of cold fusion (most notably {{w|Muon-catalyzed fusion}}) which are very different from the badly-performed experiments that gave cold fusion a bad name. But the difference is, reputable cold fusion still requires vast amounts of energy, just not as heat, while disreputable cold fusion is claimed to perform nuclear fusion basically for free (commonly by doing an electrolysis of palladium in heavy water). I'll try to incorporate that, but it would be great if someone with actual expertise would chime in and do their own edits.[[User:Rebekka|Rebekka]] ([[User talk:Rebekka|talk]]) 12:33, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
::I don't claim any great expertise, but I was already (when I wasn't being edit-conflicted) adding little bits such as the "meeting at 'room temperature' speculation" whereby a nigh-on perpetual room-temperature process (albeit with 'hot products') ''could'' be the Holy Grail (or {{w|DeLorean time machine#Mr. Fusion|"Mr Fusion"}}) of future cheap and manageable (and somehow not weaponisable/fail-deadly) table-top-scale fusion devices. Of course, this is is at least twenty-minutes-into-the-future stuff (deLoreans aside!) and may or may not ever become realistic. Perhaps less likely than the "flying cars and jetpacks" (or hover-boards!), of common imagination. But ''perhaps'' we might sometime get something the size (and surface heat, beyond the layers of necessary insulation and shielding for temperatures, fusion products and magnetic flux) of a household gas boiler. Probably not even that, in which case it could be justneighbourhood "{{w|Cogeneration|CHP}}"s to add managed resilience across the power-grids. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.230|172.70.90.230]] 13:43, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
Do we really need "citation needed" that uncontrolled hot fusion is dangerous? Really? Because anyone who doesn't understand this is not going to understand "room temperature superconductors", probably not uses of any superconductors. Like ever. Oh wait! I'm sure this discussion statement has a [[citation needed]]{{cn}}!!! {{unsigned|Cuvtixo|01:56, 7 July 2023}}
:It's a ''joke''... albeit one that I think is somewhat overused. Currently 817 out of 2798 articles include it, just under 30%. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:36, 7 July 2023 (UTC)
::Oh good. I tend to think that it should be maybe, as a ball-park figure, no more than one in four articles that has the {{template|Citation needed}} (in order to keep it special, not shoehorned in ''everywhere''...), and it's almost down that. (It must also be on the absolute blinding obvious and perhaps even tautoligicous to the point of being a tautological tautology, of course. ''And'' funny. If it aint funny, it has no purpose.)
::Though bear in mind that some articles have multiple occurances, so the use-count is probably higher as a proportion. And I'd have to check to see if the count counts the common redirects (thus aliases) of "citation needed", "Citation Needed", "cn" and "fact", at the very least, which might get used accidentally or because they're easier to type.
::But, remember, if anybody wants an ''actual'' {{template|Citation needed}}, there's always {{template|Actual citation needed}}. And, naturally, if you see one of ''those'' then you ''are'' truly invited to confirm/deny or just more accurately word the 'fact' so labeled - if you are in a position to do so.
::Here endeth the lesson. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled program... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.213|172.70.91.213]] 05:02, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

Now here I thought the device to demonstrate uncontrolled hot fusion was a pair of binoculars to observe the sun and stars. [[User:Jamcdonald|Jamcdonald]] ([[User talk:Jamcdonald|talk]]) 06:10, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2798: Room Temperature

2023-07-07T06:14:20Z

Jamcdonald:

Isn't there actually quite a lot of funding available for uncontrolled hot fusion? https://www.icanw.org/squandered_2021_global_nuclear_weapons_spending_report ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.32|162.158.38.32]] 23:29, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Note that '''controlled''' hot fusion (e. g. a functioning Tokamak) would also be really valuable. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:17, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

Someone explain why superconductors are a big deal

Arguably the temperature has to change for a semiconductor to work. For it to work at room temperature alone would be pure magic.

:While I agree that a semiconductor that does not heat up in operation (IE stays at room temp) would be revolutionary, the way Cueball describes that they work "while sitting right here on the table" suggests they are "Room Temperature Semiconductors" in the sense that they can operate while immersed in a room temperature environment not necessarily that they themselves stay room temperature. Akin to the contrast between current superconductors that need to be blisteringly cold before they super-conduct and the hypothetical "room temperature superconductors" that could simply be strung through the air like present day power lines.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.223|172.70.174.223]] 14:04, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

A note about the fusion connection. In recent years, there have been breakthroughs in high temperature superconductors, which theoretically would allow to build controlled hot fusion reactors at a much smaller scale (because they can create much higher magnetic fields). There are seveal private companies that attempt to do that, most notably CFS with their [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARC_(tokamak) SPARC Tokamak]. I think this is what is being referenced here. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.54|172.71.160.54]] 08:16, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:Maybe you could add that yourself? I wrote the current explanation but actually have no expertise in that area, and also I'm not sure how to incorporate that into the current flow of the explanation. [[User:Rebekka|Rebekka]] ([[User talk:Rebekka|talk]]) 09:01, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

:I assumed the title text (which says "demonstrates" and not "produces" uncontrolled fusion) - could be as simple as a device proving the sun is a fusion reaction --[[User:Nico|Nico]] ([[User talk:Nico|talk]]) 11:49, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

::It could also be that he does have a device that produces uncontrolled hot fusion, and they won't fund it because the government does not negotiate with terrorists. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.40|172.69.247.40]] 11:56, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

As I understand it, "cold fusion" doesn't necessarily mean room temperature. That would actually be quite useless. Cold fusion could mean anything from "doesn't need millions of degrees" to "cool enough to directly hook up to boilers to power steam turbines" (and potentially a lower pressure requirement). The "room temperature" thing is mostly due to bad "science" and frauds (though it is still questionable if higher temperature cold fusion can be a thing, too). It's easier to cheaply make an alleged "cold fusion device" if you don't have to heat it up to or contain it at up to several thousand degrees. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:23, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:I took that phrasing directly from wikipedia, but you appear to be right. I did some further reading and apparently there are working methods of cold fusion (most notably {{w|Muon-catalyzed fusion}}) which are very different from the badly-performed experiments that gave cold fusion a bad name. But the difference is, reputable cold fusion still requires vast amounts of energy, just not as heat, while disreputable cold fusion is claimed to perform nuclear fusion basically for free (commonly by doing an electrolysis of palladium in heavy water). I'll try to incorporate that, but it would be great if someone with actual expertise would chime in and do their own edits.[[User:Rebekka|Rebekka]] ([[User talk:Rebekka|talk]]) 12:33, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
::I don't claim any great expertise, but I was already (when I wasn't being edit-conflicted) adding little bits such as the "meeting at 'room temperature' speculation" whereby a nigh-on perpetual room-temperature process (albeit with 'hot products') ''could'' be the Holy Grail (or {{w|DeLorean time machine#Mr. Fusion|"Mr Fusion"}}) of future cheap and manageable (and somehow not weaponisable/fail-deadly) table-top-scale fusion devices. Of course, this is is at least twenty-minutes-into-the-future stuff (deLoreans aside!) and may or may not ever become realistic. Perhaps less likely than the "flying cars and jetpacks" (or hover-boards!), of common imagination. But ''perhaps'' we might sometime get something the size (and surface heat, beyond the layers of necessary insulation and shielding for temperatures, fusion products and magnetic flux) of a household gas boiler. Probably not even that, in which case it could be justneighbourhood "{{w|Cogeneration|CHP}}"s to add managed resilience across the power-grids. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.230|172.70.90.230]] 13:43, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
Do we really need "citation needed" that uncontrolled hot fusion is dangerous? Really? Because anyone who doesn't understand this is not going to understand "room temperature superconductors", probably not uses of any superconductors. Like ever. Oh wait! I'm sure this discussion statement has a [[citation needed]]{{cn}}!!! {{unsigned|Cuvtixo|01:56, 7 July 2023}} (edit) (undo)
(talk | contribs)
:It's a ''joke''... albeit one that I think is somewhat overused. Currently 817 out of 2798 articles include it, just under 30%. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:36, 7 July 2023 (UTC)
::Oh good. I tend to think that it should be maybe, as a ball-park figure, no more than one in four articles that has the {{template|Citation needed}} (in order to keep it special, not shoehorned in ''everywhere''...), and it's almost down that. (It must also be on the absolute blinding obvious and perhaps even tautoligicous to the point of being a tautological tautology, of course. ''And'' funny. If it aint funny, it has no purpose.)
::Though bear in mind that some articles have multiple occurances, so the use-count is probably higher as a proportion. And I'd have to check to see if the count counts the common redirects (thus aliases) of "citation needed", "Citation Needed", "cn" and "fact", at the very least, which might get used accidentally or because they're easier to type.
::But, remember, if anybody wants an ''actual'' {{template|Citation needed}}, there's always {{template|Actual citation needed}}. And, naturally, if you see one of ''those'' then you ''are'' truly invited to confirm/deny or just more accurately word the 'fact' so labeled - if you are in a position to do so.
::Here endeth the lesson. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled program... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.213|172.70.91.213]] 05:02, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

Now here I thought the device to demonstrate uncontrolled hot fusion was a pair of binoculars to observe the sun and stars. [[User:Jamcdonald|Jamcdonald]] ([[User talk:Jamcdonald|talk]]) 06:10, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2798: Room Temperature

2023-07-07T06:13:43Z

Jamcdonald: meh, might as well

Isn't there actually quite a lot of funding available for uncontrolled hot fusion? https://www.icanw.org/squandered_2021_global_nuclear_weapons_spending_report ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.32|162.158.38.32]] 23:29, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Note that '''controlled''' hot fusion (e. g. a functioning Tokamak) would also be really valuable. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:17, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

Someone explain why superconductors are a big deal

Arguably the temperature has to change for a semiconductor to work. For it to work at room temperature alone would be pure magic.

:While I agree that a semiconductor that does not heat up in operation (IE stays at room temp) would be revolutionary, the way Cueball describes that they work "while sitting right here on the table" suggests they are "Room Temperature Semiconductors" in the sense that they can operate while immersed in a room temperature environment not necessarily that they themselves stay room temperature. Akin to the contrast between current superconductors that need to be blisteringly cold before they super-conduct and the hypothetical "room temperature superconductors" that could simply be strung through the air like present day power lines.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.223|172.70.174.223]] 14:04, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

A note about the fusion connection. In recent years, there have been breakthroughs in high temperature superconductors, which theoretically would allow to build controlled hot fusion reactors at a much smaller scale (because they can create much higher magnetic fields). There are seveal private companies that attempt to do that, most notably CFS with their [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARC_(tokamak) SPARC Tokamak]. I think this is what is being referenced here. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.54|172.71.160.54]] 08:16, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:Maybe you could add that yourself? I wrote the current explanation but actually have no expertise in that area, and also I'm not sure how to incorporate that into the current flow of the explanation. [[User:Rebekka|Rebekka]] ([[User talk:Rebekka|talk]]) 09:01, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

:I assumed the title text (which says "demonstrates" and not "produces" uncontrolled fusion) - could be as simple as a device proving the sun is a fusion reaction --[[User:Nico|Nico]] ([[User talk:Nico|talk]]) 11:49, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

::It could also be that he does have a device that produces uncontrolled hot fusion, and they won't fund it because the government does not negotiate with terrorists. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.40|172.69.247.40]] 11:56, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

As I understand it, "cold fusion" doesn't necessarily mean room temperature. That would actually be quite useless. Cold fusion could mean anything from "doesn't need millions of degrees" to "cool enough to directly hook up to boilers to power steam turbines" (and potentially a lower pressure requirement). The "room temperature" thing is mostly due to bad "science" and frauds (though it is still questionable if higher temperature cold fusion can be a thing, too). It's easier to cheaply make an alleged "cold fusion device" if you don't have to heat it up to or contain it at up to several thousand degrees. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:23, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:I took that phrasing directly from wikipedia, but you appear to be right. I did some further reading and apparently there are working methods of cold fusion (most notably {{w|Muon-catalyzed fusion}}) which are very different from the badly-performed experiments that gave cold fusion a bad name. But the difference is, reputable cold fusion still requires vast amounts of energy, just not as heat, while disreputable cold fusion is claimed to perform nuclear fusion basically for free (commonly by doing an electrolysis of palladium in heavy water). I'll try to incorporate that, but it would be great if someone with actual expertise would chime in and do their own edits.[[User:Rebekka|Rebekka]] ([[User talk:Rebekka|talk]]) 12:33, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
::I don't claim any great expertise, but I was already (when I wasn't being edit-conflicted) adding little bits such as the "meeting at 'room temperature' speculation" whereby a nigh-on perpetual room-temperature process (albeit with 'hot products') ''could'' be the Holy Grail (or {{w|DeLorean time machine#Mr. Fusion|"Mr Fusion"}}) of future cheap and manageable (and somehow not weaponisable/fail-deadly) table-top-scale fusion devices. Of course, this is is at least twenty-minutes-into-the-future stuff (deLoreans aside!) and may or may not ever become realistic. Perhaps less likely than the "flying cars and jetpacks" (or hover-boards!), of common imagination. But ''perhaps'' we might sometime get something the size (and surface heat, beyond the layers of necessary insulation and shielding for temperatures, fusion products and magnetic flux) of a household gas boiler. Probably not even that, in which case it could be justneighbourhood "{{w|Cogeneration|CHP}}"s to add managed resilience across the power-grids. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.230|172.70.90.230]] 13:43, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
Do we really need "citation needed" that uncontrolled hot fusion is dangerous? Really? Because anyone who doesn't understand this is not going to understand "room temperature superconductors", probably not uses of any superconductors. Like ever. Oh wait! I'm sure this discussion statement has a [[citation needed]]{cn}!!! {{unsigned|Cuvtixo|01:56, 7 July 2023}} (edit) (undo)
(talk | contribs)
:It's a ''joke''... albeit one that I think is somewhat overused. Currently 817 out of 2798 articles include it, just under 30%. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:36, 7 July 2023 (UTC)
::Oh good. I tend to think that it should be maybe, as a ball-park figure, no more than one in four articles that has the {{template|Citation needed}} (in order to keep it special, not shoehorned in ''everywhere''...), and it's almost down that. (It must also be on the absolute blinding obvious and perhaps even tautoligicous to the point of being a tautological tautology, of course. ''And'' funny. If it aint funny, it has no purpose.)
::Though bear in mind that some articles have multiple occurances, so the use-count is probably higher as a proportion. And I'd have to check to see if the count counts the common redirects (thus aliases) of "citation needed", "Citation Needed", "cn" and "fact", at the very least, which might get used accidentally or because they're easier to type.
::But, remember, if anybody wants an ''actual'' {{template|Citation needed}}, there's always {{template|Actual citation needed}}. And, naturally, if you see one of ''those'' then you ''are'' truly invited to confirm/deny or just more accurately word the 'fact' so labeled - if you are in a position to do so.
::Here endeth the lesson. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled program... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.213|172.70.91.213]] 05:02, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

Now here I thought the device to demonstrate uncontrolled hot fusion was a pair of binoculars to observe the sun and stars. [[User:Jamcdonald|Jamcdonald]] ([[User talk:Jamcdonald|talk]]) 06:10, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2798: Room Temperature

2023-07-07T06:10:45Z

Jamcdonald:

Isn't there actually quite a lot of funding available for uncontrolled hot fusion? https://www.icanw.org/squandered_2021_global_nuclear_weapons_spending_report ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.32|162.158.38.32]] 23:29, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Note that '''controlled''' hot fusion (e. g. a functioning Tokamak) would also be really valuable. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:17, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

Someone explain why superconductors are a big deal

Arguably the temperature has to change for a semiconductor to work. For it to work at room temperature alone would be pure magic.

:While I agree that a semiconductor that does not heat up in operation (IE stays at room temp) would be revolutionary, the way Cueball describes that they work "while sitting right here on the table" suggests they are "Room Temperature Semiconductors" in the sense that they can operate while immersed in a room temperature environment not necessarily that they themselves stay room temperature. Akin to the contrast between current superconductors that need to be blisteringly cold before they super-conduct and the hypothetical "room temperature superconductors" that could simply be strung through the air like present day power lines.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.223|172.70.174.223]] 14:04, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

A note about the fusion connection. In recent years, there have been breakthroughs in high temperature superconductors, which theoretically would allow to build controlled hot fusion reactors at a much smaller scale (because they can create much higher magnetic fields). There are seveal private companies that attempt to do that, most notably CFS with their [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARC_(tokamak) SPARC Tokamak]. I think this is what is being referenced here. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.54|172.71.160.54]] 08:16, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:Maybe you could add that yourself? I wrote the current explanation but actually have no expertise in that area, and also I'm not sure how to incorporate that into the current flow of the explanation. [[User:Rebekka|Rebekka]] ([[User talk:Rebekka|talk]]) 09:01, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

:I assumed the title text (which says "demonstrates" and not "produces" uncontrolled fusion) - could be as simple as a device proving the sun is a fusion reaction --[[User:Nico|Nico]] ([[User talk:Nico|talk]]) 11:49, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

::It could also be that he does have a device that produces uncontrolled hot fusion, and they won't fund it because the government does not negotiate with terrorists. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.40|172.69.247.40]] 11:56, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

As I understand it, "cold fusion" doesn't necessarily mean room temperature. That would actually be quite useless. Cold fusion could mean anything from "doesn't need millions of degrees" to "cool enough to directly hook up to boilers to power steam turbines" (and potentially a lower pressure requirement). The "room temperature" thing is mostly due to bad "science" and frauds (though it is still questionable if higher temperature cold fusion can be a thing, too). It's easier to cheaply make an alleged "cold fusion device" if you don't have to heat it up to or contain it at up to several thousand degrees. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 11:23, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:I took that phrasing directly from wikipedia, but you appear to be right. I did some further reading and apparently there are working methods of cold fusion (most notably {{w|Muon-catalyzed fusion}}) which are very different from the badly-performed experiments that gave cold fusion a bad name. But the difference is, reputable cold fusion still requires vast amounts of energy, just not as heat, while disreputable cold fusion is claimed to perform nuclear fusion basically for free (commonly by doing an electrolysis of palladium in heavy water). I'll try to incorporate that, but it would be great if someone with actual expertise would chime in and do their own edits.[[User:Rebekka|Rebekka]] ([[User talk:Rebekka|talk]]) 12:33, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
::I don't claim any great expertise, but I was already (when I wasn't being edit-conflicted) adding little bits such as the "meeting at 'room temperature' speculation" whereby a nigh-on perpetual room-temperature process (albeit with 'hot products') ''could'' be the Holy Grail (or {{w|DeLorean time machine#Mr. Fusion|"Mr Fusion"}}) of future cheap and manageable (and somehow not weaponisable/fail-deadly) table-top-scale fusion devices. Of course, this is is at least twenty-minutes-into-the-future stuff (deLoreans aside!) and may or may not ever become realistic. Perhaps less likely than the "flying cars and jetpacks" (or hover-boards!), of common imagination. But ''perhaps'' we might sometime get something the size (and surface heat, beyond the layers of necessary insulation and shielding for temperatures, fusion products and magnetic flux) of a household gas boiler. Probably not even that, in which case it could be justneighbourhood "{{w|Cogeneration|CHP}}"s to add managed resilience across the power-grids. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.230|172.70.90.230]] 13:43, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
Do we really need "citation needed" that uncontrolled hot fusion is dangerous? Really? Because anyone who doesn't understand this is not going to understand "room temperature superconductors", probably not uses of any superconductors. Like ever. Oh wait! I'm sure this discussion statement has a [[citation needed]]!!! {{unsigned|Cuvtixo|01:56, 7 July 2023}} (edit) (undo)
(talk | contribs)
:It's a ''joke''... albeit one that I think is somewhat overused. Currently 817 out of 2798 articles include it, just under 30%. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:36, 7 July 2023 (UTC)
::Oh good. I tend to think that it should be maybe, as a ball-park figure, no more than one in four articles that has the {{template|Citation needed}} (in order to keep it special, not shoehorned in ''everywhere''...), and it's almost down that. (It must also be on the absolute blinding obvious and perhaps even tautoligicous to the point of being a tautological tautology, of course. ''And'' funny. If it aint funny, it has no purpose.)
::Though bear in mind that some articles have multiple occurances, so the use-count is probably higher as a proportion. And I'd have to check to see if the count counts the common redirects (thus aliases) of "citation needed", "Citation Needed", "cn" and "fact", at the very least, which might get used accidentally or because they're easier to type.
::But, remember, if anybody wants an ''actual'' {{template|Citation needed}}, there's always {{template|Actual citation needed}}. And, naturally, if you see one of ''those'' then you ''are'' truly invited to confirm/deny or just more accurately word the 'fact' so labeled - if you are in a position to do so.
::Here endeth the lesson. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled program... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.213|172.70.91.213]] 05:02, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

Now here I thought the device to demonstrate uncontrolled hot fusion was a pair of binoculars to observe the sun and stars. [[User:Jamcdonald|Jamcdonald]] ([[User talk:Jamcdonald|talk]]) 06:10, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2795: Glass-Topped Table

2023-06-29T09:44:06Z

Jamcdonald: Undo revision 316533 by Jamcdonald (talk) Apparently that errased newer messages for some reason

First! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.52|172.71.167.52]] 19:01, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

How is "glass-topped" not a term found often online, yet I'm so used to calling it that in verbal conversation (Western Canadian, for reference). Searching for "glass-topped" (with quotes) shows this comic first in results (past ads) :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.105|162.158.146.105]] 19:09, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
:Its probiably just your search personalization. My first search result https://www.designtoscano.com/categories/glass-top-accent-tables followed by xkcdexplained, xkcd, walmart, etsi, and commercial-interiorsuk.com (boy talk about a sus URL). [[User:Jamcdonald|Jamcdonald]] ([[User talk:Jamcdonald|talk]]) 09:21, 29 June 2023 (UTC)
It's not "instead of" -- the table has both a glass surface and a drinking glass. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:32, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

…You could always hand-wash the cup. [[User:PxP|PxP]] ([[User talk:PxP|talk]]) 19:45, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
:Not sure about you, but when I hand-wash something, I'm doing it over sink. Getting the table to sink would be quite hard, although probably easier than fitting it into dishwasher. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:18, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
::It would also be difficult to pour out either the drink or the washwater.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.51|172.69.247.51]] 23:46, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
:::Pressurised water... If you have anything hose-like (or it's within range of one of those extensible tap-attachments) then gush water into it and anything not actually stuck to the glass (any really gloopy liquid - like a partly dried old smoothie left there too long that may need a bit of mechanical wiping too) gets diluted and pressured out. (...Onto the floor, unless you are prepared for that.)
:::A quick rub with a dishcloth can wick up most of what doesn't jump straight back out (you need a quick shut-off to the water supply, ideally, so it doesn't dribble-fill so much, anyway) and if it was hot enough then the last bits of dampness 'self dry'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.159|172.70.162.159]] 01:18, 29 June 2023 (UTC)

Some of the unpopularity probably comes from it being halfway off of the table, giving you the ever-present feeling that it might fall. [[User:TheLittlePeace|TheLittlePeace]] ([[User talk:TheLittlePeace|talk]]) 19:50, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

Some seemed to have missed the real point; this is a cat torture device. I can just see my moggy lying there kicking at it for hours. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.131|172.69.34.131]] 04:34, 29 June 2023 (UTC)

Are there really dishwashers large enough to fit an average dining table? The link in the explanation refers to an advertising installation that specifically does not work as a dishwasher. It was designed to keep objects inside it dry. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 07:01, 29 June 2023 (UTC)
:There are, this one should do the trick https://www.webstaurantstore.com/champion-pp-20-split-door-pot-and-pan-washer-208v-3-phase/253PP20SDC.html [[User:Jamcdonald|Jamcdonald]] ([[User talk:Jamcdonald|talk]]) 09:25, 29 June 2023 (UTC)
This has to be a cat's worst nightmare... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.94.137|172.71.94.137]] 08:46, 29 June 2023‎ (UTC)

Talk:2795: Glass-Topped Table

2023-06-29T09:28:36Z

Jamcdonald: fixed signature

First! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.52|172.71.167.52]] 19:01, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

How is "glass-topped" not a term found often online, yet I'm so used to calling it that in verbal conversation (Western Canadian, for reference). Searching for "glass-topped" (with quotes) shows this comic first in results (past ads) :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.105|162.158.146.105]] 19:09, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

It's not "instead of" -- the table has both a glass surface and a drinking glass. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:32, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

…You could always hand-wash the cup. [[User:PxP|PxP]] ([[User talk:PxP|talk]]) 19:45, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
:Not sure about you, but when I hand-wash something, I'm doing it over sink. Getting the table to sink would be quite hard, although probably easier than fitting it into dishwasher. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:18, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
::It would also be difficult to pour out either the drink or the washwater.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.51|172.69.247.51]] 23:46, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
:::Pressurised water... If you have anything hose-like (or it's within range of one of those extensible tap-attachments) then gush water into it and anything not actually stuck to the glass (any really gloopy liquid - like a partly dried old smoothie left there too long that may need a bit of mechanical wiping too) gets diluted and pressured out. (...Onto the floor, unless you are prepared for that.)
:::A quick rub with a dishcloth can wick up most of what doesn't jump straight back out (you need a quick shut-off to the water supply, ideally, so it doesn't dribble-fill so much, anyway) and if it was hot enough then the last bits of dampness 'self dry'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.159|172.70.162.159]] 01:18, 29 June 2023 (UTC)

Some of the unpopularity probably comes from it being halfway off of the table, giving you the ever-present feeling that it might fall. [[User:TheLittlePeace|TheLittlePeace]] ([[User talk:TheLittlePeace|talk]]) 19:50, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

Some seemed to have missed the real point; this is a cat torture device. I can just see my moggy lying there kicking at it for hours. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.131|172.69.34.131]] 04:34, 29 June 2023 (UTC)

Are there really dishwashers large enough to fit an average dining table? The link in the explanation refers to an advertising installation that specifically does not work as a dishwasher. It was designed to keep objects inside it dry. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 07:01, 29 June 2023 (UTC)

This has to be a cat's worst nightmare... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.94.137|172.71.94.137]] 08:46, 29 June 2023‎ (UTC)

Talk:2795: Glass-Topped Table

2023-06-29T09:25:18Z

Jamcdonald:

Talk:2795: Glass-Topped Table

2023-06-29T09:21:09Z

Jamcdonald:

2795: Glass-Topped Table

2023-06-29T09:18:14Z

Jamcdonald: /* Explanation */ it would help if I could remember {{

{{comic
| number = 2795
| date = June 28, 2023
| title = Glass-Topped Table
| image = glass_topped_table.png
| titletext = You can pour a drink into it while hosting a party, although it's a real pain to fit in the dishwasher afterward.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a pair of GLASSES.}}
A play on the common term for a table, such as a dining or coffee table, that has a glass surface. "Glass-topped table" usually means the table top is made of glass, but in this comic the phrase represents, instead, a table with a glass surface where surface has been "topped" with a drinking glass. Notably, the glass is part of the table top, merged with the regular glass surface so that the glass can not be lifted off of the table. This would thus requite the use of a straw to drink from it.

Furthermore, the otherwise normal-looking drinking glass, looks like it has been places over the edge of the table and is about to fall off. This could make anyone unfamiliar with the table likely to snatch out after the glass to prevent a disaster. This could potentially have unfortunate consequences, since the glass cannot be moved without moving the entire table.

Presumably the advertisement for this item doesn't make this configuration clear, because buyers come in expecting to get an ordinary glass-topped table, but they're not interested in buying one when they discover the extra glass attached. The caption says this is the least popular item in their furniture store. That would especially be the case if people order it online. In a picture of it on a web-page, the glass would just look like part of the representation of the table, albeit a weird one. But it is not unusual that a table in a commercial will have glasses or other items on top of it, to make it look useful.

The title text adds to this by saying it would be difficult to put the glass in a dishwasher, since you would need to bring the table with it. There are dishwashers [https://www.thekbzine.com/pages/13317/worlds_largest_dishwasher_unveiled/#:~:text=Bosch%20unveiled%20the%20world's%20largest,water%20and%20stay%20perfectly%20dry big enough] to fit tables, but they are not for regular households.{{cn}} And that won't make moving the table any easier. Cleaning the glass after a drink would thus have to be done by hand, and the water in the glass has to be sucked out or mopped up.

==Transcript==
:[The comic shows a square table with a glass surface. The glass surface is not clear enough to see through. A drinking glass stands nearly half-way over the right edge of the table, so it looks like it is in 'danger' of falling. Apparently, however, is seems that this glass is merged with the glass surface of table, thus it cannot fall off. There is a caption below the panel:]
:The least popular item at my furniture store is probably the table with a decorative drinking glass built into the edge of the glass top.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Puns]]

2795: Glass-Topped Table

2023-06-29T09:17:37Z

Jamcdonald: /* Explanation */ because I think its hillarious there

{{comic
| number = 2795
| date = June 28, 2023
| title = Glass-Topped Table
| image = glass_topped_table.png
| titletext = You can pour a drink into it while hosting a party, although it's a real pain to fit in the dishwasher afterward.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a pair of GLASSES.}}
A play on the common term for a table, such as a dining or coffee table, that has a glass surface. "Glass-topped table" usually means the table top is made of glass, but in this comic the phrase represents, instead, a table with a glass surface where surface has been "topped" with a drinking glass. Notably, the glass is part of the table top, merged with the regular glass surface so that the glass can not be lifted off of the table. This would thus requite the use of a straw to drink from it.

Furthermore, the otherwise normal-looking drinking glass, looks like it has been places over the edge of the table and is about to fall off. This could make anyone unfamiliar with the table likely to snatch out after the glass to prevent a disaster. This could potentially have unfortunate consequences, since the glass cannot be moved without moving the entire table.

Presumably the advertisement for this item doesn't make this configuration clear, because buyers come in expecting to get an ordinary glass-topped table, but they're not interested in buying one when they discover the extra glass attached. The caption says this is the least popular item in their furniture store. That would especially be the case if people order it online. In a picture of it on a web-page, the glass would just look like part of the representation of the table, albeit a weird one. But it is not unusual that a table in a commercial will have glasses or other items on top of it, to make it look useful.

The title text adds to this by saying it would be difficult to put the glass in a dishwasher, since you would need to bring the table with it. There are dishwashers [https://www.thekbzine.com/pages/13317/worlds_largest_dishwasher_unveiled/#:~:text=Bosch%20unveiled%20the%20world's%20largest,water%20and%20stay%20perfectly%20dry big enough] to fit tables, but they are not for regular households.{cn} And that won't make moving the table any easier. Cleaning the glass after a drink would thus have to be done by hand, and the water in the glass has to be sucked out or mopped up.

==Transcript==
:[The comic shows a square table with a glass surface. The glass surface is not clear enough to see through. A drinking glass stands nearly half-way over the right edge of the table, so it looks like it is in 'danger' of falling. Apparently, however, is seems that this glass is merged with the glass surface of table, thus it cannot fall off. There is a caption below the panel:]
:The least popular item at my furniture store is probably the table with a decorative drinking glass built into the edge of the glass top.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Puns]]

2792: Summer Solstice

2023-06-22T22:55:05Z

Jamcdonald: /* Explanation */ That is not an explaination, that is the transcript

{{comic
| number = 2792
| date = June 21, 2023
| title = Summer Solstice
| image = summer_solstice_2x.png
| imagesize = 238x373px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Then I'll start work on my lunar engines to line the Moon up with the ecliptic so we can have a solar eclipse every month (with a little wobble so they're not always on the equator.)
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE ENJOYER. Do NOT look directly at the Sun, unless at the short ''period of totality'' of a total solar eclipse (1 or 2 minutes). See [https://www.nasa.gov/content/eye-safety-during-a-total-solar-eclipse NASA's page] for details.}}

This comic was released on the day of the {{w|summer solstice}}.

The summer solstice occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. Although the summer solstice is the longest day of the year for that hemisphere, the dates of earliest sunrise and latest sunset differ by a few days. This is because of two different effects. First, Earth's axial tilt means that at some points in the year, the Earth is slightly ahead in its total rotation, whereas at other parts it is behind. Second, Earth orbits the Sun in an ellipse, and its orbital speed varies slightly during the year. These two effects combine to give the {{w|Equation of time}}, which relates variable solar time to steady clock time. Near the summer solstice, the two have competing effects, with the axial tilt making the days later and the orbit making days earlier. The axial tilt is the faster changing of the two at the summer solstice, so it wins out, meaning that sunsets are still getting later for a few days after the solstice, despite the days getting shorter. White Hat, a layman not aware of this correction, assumed that the latest sunset would occur on the summer solstice.

Similarly the earliest sunrise already happened before the solstice. This is given since the day (time the Sun is over the horizon) was longest on the solstice, but the Sun will set later for the next six days, meaning the Sun will rise even later than previous days during those six days to make the days get shorter after the solstice.

The caption says that [[Randall]] is working on a giant machine capable of adjusting the Earth's orbit. And once finished the first thing he will use it for is to fix this discrepancy so the longest day will also have the latest sunset (and thus earliest sunrise). This could be accomplished by either making Earth's orbit circular and removing the axial tilt (which would eliminate the solstices), or trying to balance the {{w|orbital eccentricity}} with the axial tilt, making the solstices match the days of closest or furthest distance from the Sun (perihelion or aphelion). This "fix" would avoid confusing people like White Hat.

The title text discusses his next plans for increasing the number of {{w|solar eclipses}} from 0-1 each year to one each month. Solar eclipses occur when the {{w|Moon}} is directly between the Sun and Earth. Because of the tilt of the Moon's orbit to the {{w|ecliptic}} (the plane of the Earth's orbit, as ''sort of'' depicted in [[1878: Earth Orbital Diagram]]), most of the times when the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth they're not in direct alignment, so the Moon's shadow misses the Earth and we don't get an eclipse. Randall's engine will shift the Moon's orbit so it's not tilted so far and we get eclipses every month. But if it were exactly aligned with the ecliptic, eclipses would always be near the equator, so he'll leave a little wobbling so other areas will get eclipses too. Randall thinks solar eclipses are extremely cool, as noted in [[1880: Eclipse Review]], and would prefer that some of the eclipses will be visible from where he lives. He just had one six years ago ([[:Category:Total Solar Eclipse 2017|2017]]), and will soon get another ([[1928: Seven Years|2024]]), but after that there will not be any eclipses over mainland USA for many years.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Megan and White Hat are standing. Cueball and Megan have their arms raised.]
:Cueball: Happy summer solstice!
:Megan: Only six days until the latest sunset of the year!
:White Hat: ...Wait, what?

:[Caption below the panel:]
:When I finally finish building my giant engine capable of shifting the Earth's orbit, this is the first thing I'm fixing.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Time]]

2791: Bookshelf Sorting

2023-06-20T00:15:01Z

Jamcdonald: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2791
| date = June 19, 2023
| title = Bookshelf Sorting
| image = bookshelf_sorting_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x255px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Of course, I sort all my bookshelves the normal way, alphabetically (by first sentence).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOOKSHELF SORTED THE NORMAL WAY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Some people sort their bookshelves by color, which is pleasing to the eyes but unhelpful when [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxmPHLU9oA trying to find a specific book]. Randall proposes a much more infuriating way to sort books - to separate each book into its pages and organize them into groups by page number. All the front covers are on the left side, being effectively "page 0", then all the page 1s, the page 2s, et cetera, with the back covers mixed in depending on the length of the (now-dismembered) book. This method, like sorting by color, has no practical use in most situations. It damages the books and makes it much harder to find information.

There are a lot of different-sized front covers on the left side of the shelf (meaning they start with low numbers on the left).
Afterward, there is a repeating pattern of taller and shorter pages, with each a page of the same number from a differently sized book.
After a while, the first back covers are sorted in, and at the end, there are only the last pages of the longest book left, now all uniformly in size.

The caption claims that this is a way of sorting that "book people" hate, even more so than sorting by color of the cover/spine.
It is not clear if the spine part is thrown away or just not visible, maybe being sorted towards the wall. This would make it a sort of antithesis to color sorting, not only is it not sorted by color, but the spines that usually define the color sorting are either to the back or fully removed.

Also, these are either books without any frontmatter or the sorting goes by absolute page count, not by numbers printed on pages.

It might be the intent to have "the absolute opposite" of color sorting and follow this idea ad absurdum.

Sorting by page number has the following drawbacks:
* It is impossible to pick up one specific book quickly in one go.
* It is easy conceptually, but tedious in practice to find a specific page. Going back to the frontmatter question, if they are not sorted separately, it might be actually very hard to find a page with a specific page number printed as they would not necessarily be in one "wave".
* Sorting might vary wildly for the same book in different editions (as it would in color-sorting, too, maybe one of the reasons they are unpopular with the mentioned "book people")
* Without a secondary sorting rule, it is unclear in what order the pages of the same number are sorted. Since the height pattern seems repetitive, it seems as if at least the order of books is kept the same, but this is not a necessary feature of the basic premise.

Possible advantages:
* For someone using physical books to look up citations, it might be a quicker search. (Only if the frontmatter is counted separately)
* The block of front covers is a quick, nearly reference card system view of what books are on a particular shelf (Only if the frontmatter count is ignored)
* Just like the color sorting, possibly this is meant to be an aesthetic, instead of a practical choice of sorting. With the right kind of height distribution of different books, it can be a nice art piece, maybe of a seascape.

In the title text Randall begins by saying that he sorts his bookshelf alphabetically, but then states that he sorts books by first '''sentence''' instead of the book author and book title. This is somewhat practical, but a very unusual and uncommon{{citation needed}} way of sorting books.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[A bookshelf is shown. From left to right, there are 11 pairs of covers in different sizes and shades of gray. To the left, one of each pair of covers is arranged side-by-side with all the others. Going rightwards, many leaves of paper (with a similar set of differing heights) lead up to the partner cover to the last of these initial covers. More paper, for varying amounts, another cover, and repeat with more leaves and a cover until the outermost paired-cover at the end of the shelf.]

Book people hate seeing books sorted by colors, but it turns out they get ''way'' more angry if you sort the pages by number.

{{comic discussion}}

2791: Bookshelf Sorting

2023-06-20T00:14:22Z

Jamcdonald: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2791
| date = June 19, 2023
| title = Bookshelf Sorting
| image = bookshelf_sorting_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x255px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Of course, I sort all my bookshelves the normal way, alphabetically (by first sentence).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOOKSHELF SORTED THE NORMAL WAY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Some people sort their bookshelves by color, which is pleasing to the eyes but unhelpful when [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxmPHLU9oA trying to find a specific book]. Randall proposes a much more infuriating way to sort books - to separate each book into its pages and organize them into groups by page number. All the front covers are on the left side, being effectively "page 0", then all the page 1s, the page 2s, et cetera, with the back covers mixed in depending on the length of the (now-dismembered) book. This method, like sorting by color, has no practical use in most situations. It damages the books and makes it much harder to find information.

There are a lot of different-sized front covers on the left side of the shelf (meaning they start with low numbers on the left).
Afterward, there is a repeating pattern of taller and shorter pages, with each a page of the same number from a differently sized book.
After a while, the first back covers are sorted in, and at the end, there are only the last pages of the longest book left, now all uniformly in size.

The caption claims that this is a way of sorting that "book people" hate, even more so than sorting by colour of the cover/spine.
It is not clear if the spine part is thrown away or just not visible, maybe being sorted towards the wall. This would make it a sort of antithesis to colour sorting, not only is it not sorted by colour, but the spines that usually define the colour sorting are either to the back or fully removed.

Also, these are either books without any frontmatter or the sorting goes by absolute page count, not by numbers printed on pages.

It might be the intent to have "the absolute opposite" of colour sorting and follow this idea ad absurdum.

Sorting by page number has the following drawbacks:
* It is impossible to pick up one specific book quickly in one go.
* It is easy conceptually, but tedious in practice to find a specific page. Going back to the frontmatter question, if they are not sorted separately, it might be actually very hard to find a page with a specific page number printed as they would not necessarily be in one "wave".
* Sorting might vary wildly for the same book in different editions (as it would in colour-sorting, too, maybe one of the reasons they are unpopular with the mentioned "book people")
* Without a secondary sorting rule, it is unclear in what order the pages of the same number are sorted. Since the height pattern seems repetitive, it seems as if at least the order of books is kept the same, but this is not a necessary feature of the basic premise.

Possible advantages:
* For someone using physical books to look up citations, it might be a quicker search. (Only if the frontmatter is counted separately)
* The block of front covers is a quick, nearly reference card system view of what books are on a particular shelf (Only if the frontmatter count is ignored)
* Just like the colour sorting, possibly this is meant to be an aesthetic, instead of a practical choice of sorting. With the right kind of height distribution of different books, it can be a nice art piece, maybe of a seascape.

In the title text Randall begins by saying that he sorts his bookshelf alphabetically, but then states that he sorts books by first '''sentence''' instead of the book author and book title. This is somewhat practical, but a very unusual and uncommon{{citation needed}} way of sorting books.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[A bookshelf is shown. From left to right, there are 11 pairs of covers in different sizes and shades of gray. To the left, one of each pair of covers is arranged side-by-side with all the others. Going rightwards, many leaves of paper (with a similar set of differing heights) lead up to the partner cover to the last of these initial covers. More paper, for varying amounts, another cover, and repeat with more leaves and a cover until the outermost paired-cover at the end of the shelf.]

Book people hate seeing books sorted by colors, but it turns out they get ''way'' more angry if you sort the pages by number.

{{comic discussion}}

2791: Bookshelf Sorting

2023-06-20T00:11:28Z

Jamcdonald: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2791
| date = June 19, 2023
| title = Bookshelf Sorting
| image = bookshelf_sorting_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x255px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Of course, I sort all my bookshelves the normal way, alphabetically (by first sentence).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOOKSHELF SORTED THE NORMAL WAY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Some people sort their bookshelves by color, which is pleasing to the eyes but unhelpful when [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxmPHLU9oA trying to find a specific book]. Randall proposes a much more infuriating way to sort books - to separate each book into its pages and organize them into groups by page number. All the front covers are on the left side, being effectively "page 0", then all the page 1s, the page 2s, et cetera, with the back covers mixed in depending on the length of the (now-dismembered) book. This method, like sorting by color, has no practical use in most situations. It damages the books and makes it much harder to find information.

There are a lot of different-sized front covers on the left side of the shelf (meaning they start with low numbers on the left).
Afterward, there is a repeating pattern of taller and shorter pages, with each a page of the same number from a differently sized book.
After a while, the first back covers are sorted in, and at the end, there are only the last pages of the longest book left, now all uniformly in size.

The caption claims that this is a way of sorting that "book people" hate, even more so than sorting by colour of the cover/spine.
It is not clear if the spine part is thrown away or just not visible, maybe being sorted towards the wall. This would make it a sort of antithesis to colour sorting, not only is it not sorted by colour, but the spines that usually define the colour sorting are either to the back or fully removed.

Also, these are either books without any frontmatter or the sorting goes by absolute page count, not by numbers printed on pages.

It might be the intent to have "the absolute opposite" of colour sorting and follow this idea ad absurdum.

Sorting by page number has the following drawbacks:
* It is impossible to pick up one specific book quickly in one go.
* It is easy conceptually, but tedious in practice to find a specific page. Going back to the frontmatter question, if they are not sorted separately, it might be actually very hard to find a page with a specific page number printed as they would not necessarily be in one "wave".
* Sorting might vary wildly for the same book in different editions (as it would in colour-sorting, too, maybe one of the reasons they are unpopular with the mentioned "book people")
* Without a secondary sorting rule, it is unclear in what order the pages of the same number are sorted. Since the height pattern seems repetitive, it seems as if at least the order of books is kept the same, but this is not a necessary feature of the basic premise.

Possible advantages:
* For someone using physical books to look up citations, it might be a quicker search. (Only if the frontmatter is counted separately)
* The block of front covers is a quick, nearly reference card system view of what books are on a particular shelf (Only if the frontmatter count is ignored)
* Just like the colour sorting, possibly this is meant to be an aesthetic, instead of a practical choice of sorting. With the right kind of height distribution of different books, it can be a nice art piece, maybe of a seascape.

In the title text Randall begins by saying that he sorts his bookshelf alphabetically, but then states that he sorts books by first '''sentence''' instead of the book title. This is somewhat practical, but a very unusual and uncommon{{citation needed}} way of sorting books.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[A bookshelf is shown. From left to right, there are 11 pairs of covers in different sizes and shades of gray. To the left, one of each pair of covers is arranged side-by-side with all the others. Going rightwards, many leaves of paper (with a similar set of differing heights) lead up to the partner cover to the last of these initial covers. More paper, for varying amounts, another cover, and repeat with more leaves and a cover until the outermost paired-cover at the end of the shelf.]

Book people hate seeing books sorted by colors, but it turns out they get ''way'' more angry if you sort the pages by number.

{{comic discussion}}

2791: Bookshelf Sorting

2023-06-20T00:11:08Z

Jamcdonald: /* Explanation */ redundant

{{comic
| number = 2791
| date = June 19, 2023
| title = Bookshelf Sorting
| image = bookshelf_sorting_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x255px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Of course, I sort all my bookshelves the normal way, alphabetically (by first sentence).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOOKSHELF SORTED THE NORMAL WAY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Some people sort their bookshelves by color, which is pleasing to the eyes but unhelpful when [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxmPHLU9oA trying to find a specific book]. Randall proposes a much more infuriating way to sort books - to separate each book into its pages and organize them into groups by page number. All the front covers are on the left side, being effectively "page 0", then all the page 1s, the page 2s, et cetera, with the back covers mixed in depending on the length of the (now-dismembered) book. This method, like sorting by color, has no practical use in most situations. It damages the books and makes it much harder to find information.

There are a lot of different-sized front covers on the left side of the shelf (meaning they start with low numbers on the left).
Afterward, there is a repeating pattern of taller and shorter pages, with each a page of the same number from a differently sized book.
After a while, the first back covers are sorted in, and at the end, there are only the last pages of the longest book left, now all uniformly in size.

The caption claims that this is a way of sorting that "book people" hate, even more so than sorting by colour of the cover/spine.
It is not clear if the spine part is thrown away or just not visible, maybe being sorted towards the wall. This would make it a sort of antithesis to colour sorting, not only is it not sorted by colour, but the spines that usually define the colour sorting are either to the back or fully removed.

Also, these are either books without any frontmatter or the sorting goes by absolute page count, not by numbers printed on pages.

It might be the intent to have "the absolute opposite" of colour sorting and follow this idea ad absurdum.

Sorting by page number has the following drawbacks:
* It is impossible to pick up one specific book quickly in one go.
* It is easy conceptually, but tedious in practice to find a specific page. Going back to the frontmatter question, if they are not sorted separately, it might be actually very hard to find a page with a specific page number printed as they would not necessarily be in one "wave".
* Sorting might vary wildly for the same book in different editions (as it would in colour-sorting, too, maybe one of the reasons they are unpopular with the mentioned "book people")
* Without a secondary sorting rule, it is unclear in what order the pages of the same number are sorted. Since the height pattern seems repetitive, it seems as if at least the order of books is kept the same, but this is not a necessary feature of the basic premise.

Possible advantages:
* For someone using physical books to look up citations, it might be a quicker search. (Only if the frontmatter is counted separately)
* The block of front covers is a quick, nearly reference card system view of what books are on a particular shelf (Only if the frontmatter count is ignored)
* Just like the colour sorting, possibly this is meant to be an aesthetic, instead of a practical choice of sorting. With the right kind of height distribution of different books, it can be a nice art piece, maybe of a seascape.

In the title text Randall begins by saying that he sorts his bookshelf alphabetically, but then states that he sorts books by first '''sentence''' instead of the book title. This is somewhat practical, but a very unusual and uncommon{{citation needed}} way of sorting books.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[A bookshelf is shown. From left to right, there are 11 pairs of covers in different sizes and shades of gray. To the left, one of each pair of covers is arranged side-by-side with all the others. Going rightwards, many leaves of paper (with a similar set of differing heights) lead up to the partner cover to the last of these initial covers. More paper, for varying amounts, another cover, and repeat with more leaves and a cover until the outermost paired-cover at the end of the shelf.]

Book people hate seeing books sorted by colors, but it turns out they get ''way'' more angry if you sort the pages by number.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2789: Making Plans

2023-06-19T04:08:31Z

Jamcdonald:

Help, I can't move my comment down! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.54|AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA]] 01:28, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Here I was expecting something about cryptography and how Charlie just invited himself along.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.146|172.71.146.146]] 04:08, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

The alphabetical citation bias occurred in psychology but not biology or geoscience. (Biologist married to psychologist, gloating.) ---- {{unsigned ip|162.158.186.213}}
:I think the Wikipedia quote and reference link may be obsolete. It was a big deal when it was published half a decade ago, but editors took note, and now almost every peer reviewed paper gets references listed by the order they occur in the text, don't they? Surely there must be some post-2018 sources on this from journals saying they've changed their style guides we can include? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.155.42|172.71.155.42]] 22:06, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
:: I've been a sounding board for a friend's journey to getting her Masters in English, giving her feedback on all of her papers for the last 2 years, and the rules she's required to follow are still to list her references alphabetically. And there have been 3 styles: mostly the MLA style, she could often choose APA instead, and one paper she had to figure out Chicago (Purdue maintains a current list of rules to follow for each, OWL, we keep checking it for syntax, and all 3 specify alphabetical, as have her professors. And EVERY peer-reviewed/published work she has cited - and at this level peer-reviewed is the minimum - THEIR references have been listed alphabetically, too). So you can check OWL, AFAIK the authority on writing styles: https://owl.purdue.edu/ (I think MLA was even changed/updated in the last 2 years while we've been doing this) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:32, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
:: One of my CS advisors told us to always use text order. When we asked about what to do when a journal says to use Alphabetic ordering, and he told us that he has been submitting to those journals with his ordering for 20 years and no one has ever mentioned it, so official or not, that is the de facto standard (in CS at least). [[User:Jamcdonald|Jamcdonald]] ([[User talk:Jamcdonald|talk]]) 04:08, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

I disagree with the explanation about the alphabetical sorting of Cueball on Yvonne's phone. AFAIK, Cueball is only the fan nickname given on this wiki, and not an in-universe name, right?
Names starting with R would be pretty far down an alphabetical list, like in Rob... or Randall
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.69|162.158.233.69]] 06:49, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
:I agree and have already deleted this. Made a comment on my changes along the idea you wrote here. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:04, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
:Yeah, Cueball (and White Hat, Black Hat, Curly, etc) are only names here. In-universe, I think the only names are Megan and Mrs. What's-her-face the science teacher (starts "Lehn-" I'm sure) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:32, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

I feel like a better reference point for this than academic citations or ballot paper ordering would be old paper phone directories, where you'd find companies calling themselves things like 'AAA Assistance' in order to appear at the top of their sector listings. Can anyone find a non-anecdotal reference for this?[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 09:06, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
: I know I've heard of such instances, and seen such in person (if I still had any phone books, got tossed in the last move a few years ago). I KNOW I've seen a few jokes about this. Wasn't there even an XKCD something like "I think business will pick up now that I've renamed my company AAAAA Movers"? [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:32, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
:: Indeed, my father started his used furniture business in 1945 and named it "Ace Bargain Center" in order to be first in the yellow pages in the furniture store category. He was very upset when a competitor named his business "ABC Furniture", and then someone else came along and used the name "AAA furniture". Of course, search engines take advantage of the "top of the list bias" by charging more for results that appear on the top 5 or 10 search results. {{unsigned|Rtanenbaum|22:15, 17 June 2023 (edit) (undo)}}

If only people were like books... (I have (re)read far more Asimov and Clarke than Wells and Zelazny, but none of them complain!) ...but clearly ''no'' absolute ordering is perfect. "Most recently contacted" suffers from the problem of some new contacts shuffling someone out of the current head-of-list spot and then they plummet to the 'old' end. "''Least'' recently contacted" would be better, but would 'auto-ghost' everyone the moment contact is re-established (or attempted, if it was based upon your reaching out, not their deigning to reach back again).
<br />Perhaps a "rolling road-block" method of (say) today starting at A, tomorrow starting at B(/wherever you left off today), and so on until it wraps around Z->A again. Or half your "social management" spent at the top-end, a quarter of it jumps half way down, an eighth of it half of the rest of the way, a sixteenth by jumping a further half of the remainder, with discretion to look up and down from the proposed landing-point to choose a neighbouring contact with more hopefulbcontactability... That latter would work even better on a "by most recent contact" sort, as well, as it churns and refreshes the current social circles to regain valuable 'lost' contacts without overly penalising the current circle of recent acquaintences in such a paradoxical manner.
<br />Of course... the fewer friends you have, the simpler the problem! I have never been so happy to be a sub-Dunbar individual, and so not have all the anxieties that those with exceedingly active social lives must have! Even if it means I might just have to phone my water-company up, every now and then, to bitch about how my telephone company forgot my birthday and is now refusing to return my calls... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.69|172.70.91.69]] 09:29, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
:Wouldn't it be easier just to have randomised ordering each time you load? Of course, all of this overlooks the primary reason for having them alphabetical in the first place - to be able to locate a specific contact when you have a specific reason for contacting them, which any of these other systems would make a pain in the arse.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.170|172.70.91.170]] 09:34, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
::But ''which'' (pseudo-)random reordering? Can you guarantee thst your LCG/LFSR/Mersenne implementation, and how it is consulted to shuffle and reprioritises your contacts, has sufficiently long cycle-periodicity to avoid you still entirely neglecting someone because they still usually end up below any cut-off point?!? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.136|172.70.85.136]] 09:47, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
:::Depends, obviously, on how long the list is, but I think that would be VERY unlucky. That said, more deterministic order could be more reliable. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:58, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

:Clearly, the correct is an AI social helper who will remind you to reach out to friends you haven't contacted recently, along with keeping track of birthdays, anniversaries, and other special reasons to contact everyone in your social circle. All the while, it would be learning your language patterns and voice, so that you can eventually just let it take over your social life entirely. You can hang out with your three real friends while your AI hangs out with the AIs of the fifty people in your contact list that you don't actually remember. (Is it obvious I'm an introvert?) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.44|172.69.247.44]] 10:11, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
::("... three real friends"? You socialite. If only I were such a shameless party animal!) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.7|172.70.86.7]] 10:27, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

::Speaking about birthdays ... if you always contact person on birthday, you have practical guarantee you won't have anyone not contacted more than year! -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:58, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

As a person with an A name, I find I often get pocket-dialed by various people. Discussing this with people whose names start at the other end of the alphabet, they observed that they never got pocket-dialed. Is this another example of the same phenomenon, or do I have a case of innaccurate anecdotal evidence? [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 22:48, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

:I remember 15 years ago in Belgian hospitals the "A Blind Call" campaign which was an overtaxed phone number whose profits were given back to medical research (maybe about sight issues for the extra pun?). Their main argument was that your accidental pocket-dials would accidently help people instead of waking up your friend Alexia. So while I can't confirm alphabetical bias was common, it was at least a well-known enough half-joke in the pre-smartphone era to justify printing words about it, at which point you can apply XKCD#808 to the concepts from XKCD#870!2. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.34|162.158.233.34]] 07:39, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
: Funny, I have an A name and haven't experienced this. My received pocket dials are always people I recently spoken to, so probably redials. (Funny, MOST often these days is a friend named Alexia, LOL!) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:32, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Genuine question; do we actually need an explanation of the various reasons why someone might not have heard back yet about an event? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.20|172.71.167.20]] 05:44, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

: I agree. I came to the discussion primarily because I thought the enumeration of why some non-responses might happen was completely beside the point. [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 06:42, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

::Yeah, some speculation is usually funny (I still remember the stealing an airplane explanation that added that a police car = one donut). But in this case it is simply... meaningless and making the text harder to read for no reason? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.100|162.158.233.100]] 08:32, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

:: I get the feeling that Randall alluded to an error of that kind to indicate how Cueball's over-thought 'engineering' process was actually under-/mis-thought as a 'social' one. But perhaps he didn't realise how non-obvious the comic motive was. Because, without the 'failures', it might seem that Cueball is actually being both practical and efficient (until the punchline). And I might suggest it was because he had outdated contact info (fits with the lack-of-recency idea), someone else might imagine it was because they were in another city/country (because he's so indiscriminate in who he contacts), etc. Better to speculate than to edit-war as those who are (differently) confident try to impose their idea on those who don't know what is going on.
:: Alternately, he (Randall) ''knows'' there's multiple problems he (Cueball) is falling for. In which case those in need of explanation also need to know the range of issues.
:: In fact, I can think of additional explanations that nobody put there already, and highly tempted to add them (whilst streamlining some wording of the current valid set). But, given your complaints, I'll hold back a bit. No point adding to something that gets completely removed due to a prevailing (or singular, but very definite) counter-opinion. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.29|172.70.85.29]] 08:41, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
: The editors of this site, as a group, seem addicted to long explanations. :) Like there's a rumour that Longer = Clearer (my experience screams the opposite, the longer I get the more misunderstandings people find). Or just an eagerness to contribute. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:32, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

When changing your strategy from contacting people in alphabetically order to contacting people by most recent you'd end up contacting people in alphabetical order because the lists are identical. You'd need to delete your contact-history first. [[User:Kimmerin|Kimmerin]] ([[User talk:Kimmerin|talk]]) 07:10, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

:Except you now grant priority to people who *just answered*, or even contact you firsthand [[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.100|162.158.233.100]] 08:32, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

With the Discord username change coming, I might as well completely overhaul my profile, so I'm thinking of names that start with "not". Why? Because `!` is the operator for logical NOT. So I have an excuse to haul my username with an exclamation mark. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.58|172.71.146.58]] 15:51, 16 June 2023 (UTC)
:Okay there Bobby Tables. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:32, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

2790: Heat Pump

2023-06-19T03:53:44Z

Jamcdonald: I suppose its possible, but I find it highly unlikely.

{{comic
| number = 2790
| date = June 16, 2023
| title = Heat Pump
| image = heat_pump_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x400px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If I'm not going to upgrade to a powered one, I should at LEAST stop leaving the door open so often.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BIG CHUNGUS HEAT PUMPER. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A {{w|heat pump}} is a system which applies the {{w|ideal gas law}} to transfer heat from a relatively cold area to a relatively hot area, i.e. to heat an insufficiently warm room/building or to cool an insufficiently chilled room/building, even if the outside air is at the opposite heat-gradient for the purpose. The extra energy used to achieve this prevents the {{w|second law of thermodynamics}} from being violated, and is usually assumed to be added to the warmer side of the system. This is why the back of a refrigerator will feel hot, as it maintains the cooler internal temperature (and why leaving its door open does not cool down the room that it is in, it heats it up as it fruitlessly attempts to both heat and cool the same air-mass).

In this comic, [[Cueball]] has a ''manual'' heat pump, and he is manually heating an area by walking from the warm area (colored in ''red'') to a colder area (colored in ''blue''), and "drawing" residual heat into the "bellows" (accordion-shaped device) by expanding them to cool them below the outside air temperature (more intense blue). He then returns back to the warm area and compresses the bellows to concentrate heat above the sustained room-temperature (more intense red), then letting it radiate away and increasing room temperature before going back outside to repeat the process of drawing heat out of the cooler air. As expected, this is a laborious process, as captioned in the text below the panel. Manual heat pumps of this kind do not exist in real life{{cn}}, but are partly emulated by devices such as {{w|fire piston}}s. The {{w|air source heat pump}} effectively does the same thing as this comic, but by using components installed across a wall (letting fluids/vapors flow between the two sides) rather than moving containers of gases through doors.

One could obtain a similar effect (with ''very'' limited efficiency) by using a bicycle pump with a long hose. The pump would be on the side to be warmed, with the hose leading to the side to be cooled, with restricted air flow. Compressing air with the pump causes it to warm up, and that heat would radiate through the walls of the pump and tube before the air all escapes, most of that radiation being on the 'warm side'. When the air is eventually released from the outdoors end of the tube, it expands and is cooler than it used to be, having already donated heat energy to the inner side. Part of what makes the process inefficient is that air leaks back from the cooled side to the warmed side, to relieve the pressure differential created by the forced air flow. This also involves moving air between the two sides, whereas the contents of Cuball's 'heat pump bellows' retain their contents (like a closed-loop gas-exchange system) and it is just heat energy that is 'supposed' to be transfered.

The title text refers to the problem of having to open the door to carry the device in and out. This would let the warmed air flow out, and cool air flow in, to undo some of the effort used to attempt to increase the difference. In lieu of some device that does not require the door to be opened at all, he should at least promptly close it between each passage through it, as unintended airflow (''around'' the device itself, and Cueball) is {{w|Heat transfer#Mechanisms|one of the ways}} that houses can lose (or gain) heat in unwanted and counterproductive ways.

==Trivia==
This comic appearing on 16 June 2023, only a few days after a conversation in German media and politics about a [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/14/germany-coalition-staves-off-implosion-with-11th-hour-heating-law-amendment controversially drafted law] to regulate heating systems in homes and buildings. It is possible this was an inspiration for this comic.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball indoors (light red background) holding a (matchingly light red) accordion-shaped device in his hands and walking towards an open door.]

:[Cueball outdoors (light blue background) with the door closed, the device is still light red.]

:[Cueball extends the device and it turns blue.]
:''Release''

:[Cueball looks behind while the device has turned light blue to match the area it is in.]

:[Cueball walking back inside through an open door, the device is still light blue.]

:[Cueball indoors with the door closed. He squeezes the device and it turns red.]
:''Squeeze''

:[Cueball looks at the door while the device is glowing in bright red.]
:''Radiate''

:[Cueball is leaving the indoors area (now having a slightly more intense red background, to closely match the now less bright red of the device) through an open door.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Manual heat pumps are such a pain.

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

2790: Heat Pump

2023-06-16T23:41:46Z

Jamcdonald: /* Explanation */ propper CN tag