explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3225: Satellite Pollution

2026-03-31T18:49:58Z

Kev:

I'm surprised this isn't [[Black Hat]]'s operation [[User:RDiMartino|RDiMartino]] ([[User talk:RDiMartino|talk]]) 21:34, 27 March 2026 (UTC)
:He created the company, Cueball is Marketing. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:49, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

Space mirrors have been in the news lately. [[Special:Contributions/2603:8081:9700:1224:0:0:0:3|2603:8081:9700:1224:0:0:0:3]] 03:50, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

As explained in https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ this wouldn't work anyway since the banner would be moving at 7.8 km/s, or else it would need to be hung from a space-elevator-like counterweight located beyond GSO. If cueball accomplishes THAT kind of feat, I think the astronomers would be more impressed than annoyed. [[Special:Contributions/2A02:590:121B:4001:9505:CE66:9EEB:2974|2A02:590:121B:4001:9505:CE66:9EEB:2974]] 21:42, 28 March 2026 (UTC)
:Geo-stationary orbit would work though [[User:Tanner07|Tanner07]] ([[User talk:Tanner07|talk]]) 14:14, 29 March 2026 (UTC)
::For reference, the quoted 100 miles width at GEO/GSO would roughly span the Moon"s radius (''not'' even its diameter, which is the usual rule of thumb for "how big all other things in the sky look"), so would seem to be on the lower edge of being useful for bringing 'better' views of the sky it obscures (with and without advertising) to the casual Mk-1 Eyeball observer of the universe. Thus it can only really be 'useful' to the astronomers that it's in reality inconveniencing.
::Though if set at ISS level of orbit, 100 miles would be ~45 Moon-widths, slightly narrower than a paperback book held at arm's length (if I'm cross-converting my trigonometry correctly), which would conceivably have some public primary purpose, upon which the secondary purpose of making it look like the stars it is also obscuring (give or take its rapid journey across the starfield, and mis-parallaxing issues unless it has ''very'' sophisticated {{w|lenticular lens|'observer-adaptive' optics}} to directly counter this effect) might be a mitigation/sop to astronomers like the minor rejig of Starlinks was to reduce their flare-profiles. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.239.130|82.132.239.130]] 11:43, 30 March 2026 (UTC)
:7.8 km/s isn't that fast though, when viewed from down here on the surface. I love going outside in the evening to watch the ISS go by: it doesn't zoom past in the blink of an eye, it takes a few minutes to pass overhead. That's plenty long enough for a banner to be in view and to get a good look at it. If there are a couple of hundred banners in LEO you'll have lots of opportunities to see them. The real issue is power: during most of the night the banners will be completely dark because they are in Earth's shadow. How will they be illuminated? If the goal is to show fake stars, the banner will need powerful floodlights installed as "stars", so what is powering the floodlights? [[User:Martin|Martin]] ([[User talk:Martin|talk]]) 22:23, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

I do wonder if this is in reference to results in search engines, given the "sponsored galaxies", and the tendency to provide fake results at the top for many engines {{unsigned ip|2806:2a0:b2e:8322::edc|13:34, 30 March 2026}}

I am reminded of an Arthur C. Clarke story, I think it was Watch This Space, part of a series set on the first moonbase. As scientific experiment involving a cloud of glowing atoms is sabotaged to produce an advertising slogan. Coca Cola is implied but never named.--[[Special:Contributions/2A00:23CC:D248:8901:5D76:61B5:C315:E67A|2A00:23CC:D248:8901:5D76:61B5:C315:E67A]] 08:05, 31 March 2026 (UTC)
: I'm reminded of the "Galaxy of Trash" scene from Fight club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhaVpD92w-A [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 18:49, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

3204: Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

2026-02-07T13:49:45Z

Kev:

{{comic
| number = 3204
| date = February 6, 2026
| title = Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs
| image = dinosaurs_and_non_dinosaurs_2x.png
| imagesize = 370x283px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Staplers are actually in Pseudosuchia, making them more closely related to crocodiles than to dinosaurs.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a webserver that is often described as being a dinosaur, however it is definitely not. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic explores the seeming paradox that certain extinct prehistoric species which are popularly thought of as being "dinosaurs" are, from a strict taxonomic viewpoint, not. It also takes into account the fact that all bird species are descended from dinosaurs and thus - again, from a strict taxonomic viewpoint - are themselves dinosaurs as well (see [[1211: Birds and Dinosaurs]]). To illustrate this, [[Randall]] provides silhouettes of dinosaurs, of entities that are widely thought of as dinosaurs but are not, of entities that are ''not'' widely thought of as dinosaurs but ''are'' (i.e., birds), and, lastly, of entities that are neither dinosaurs nor thought of as dinosaurs (which is funny because it's so all-encompassing as to be practically meaningless, just like it would be if you replaced the word "dinosaurs" by any other plural noun, or adjective).

In reading order from upper left in each quadrant of the image:
* Silhouettes in "seem like dinosaurs / are dinosaurs": stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus, diplodocus, velociraptor
* Silhouettes in "seem like dinosaurs / are not dinosaurs": mosasaur, quetzalcoatlus, dimetrodon, plesiosaur, pteranodon
* Silhouettes in "don't seem like dinosaurs / are dinosaurs": penguin, egret, falcon, pigeon, ostrich
* Silhouettes in "don't seem like dinosaurs / are not dinosaurs": squirrel, stapler, bicycle, [[Cueball]], pineapple

=== Creatures that seem like dinosaurs, but are not ===
Dinosaur is a paleonotology term which refers to a specific group of reptiles, based upon evolutionary lines, bone structure and living domain. However, it is also a popular science/cultural term which refers to extinct large reptiles, hence the confusion between what is scientifically included and what is culturally assumed to be included.

The creatures listed are:
* A mosasaur is an extinct aquatic reptile, looking similar to a dolphin, that existed at the same time as the dinosaurs. Whilst it appeared in {{w|Jurassic World}}, momasaurs had a different ancestor than dinosaurs
* Pleisosaurs and Pterodons are flying reptiles
* Dimetrodon
* Quetzalcoatlus

== Title Text==

The title text is a further joke about taxonomy, seemingly predicated on the assumption that staplers are biological organisms, and can thus be sorted into taxa. ''{{w|Pseudosuchia}}'' is in fact the clade that encompasses all crocodilians, and staplers bear a certain resemblance to the open mouth of a crocodilian.

The original {{w|Linnaean taxonomy}} ''did'' at first have a top-level classification for "mineral" taxonomy, in addition to those for animal and plant, which {{w|Twenty questions#Popular variants|in its broadest sense}} might allow one to assign a stapler a taxonomic relationship with dinosaurs.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[A 2x2 chart containing various animals and objects.]
* Left column: Are dinosaurs
* Right column: Are not dinosaurs
* Upper row: Seem like dinosaurs
* Lower row: Don't seem like dinosaurs

:[Top left (seem like dinosaurs, are dinosaurs):]
:[Top right (seem like dinosaurs, are not dinosaurs):]
:[Bottom left (don't seem like dinosaurs, are dinosaurs):]
:[Bottom right (don't seem like dinosaurs, are not dinosaurs):]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3204: Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

2026-02-07T13:48:22Z

Kev: /* Creatures that seem like dinosaurs, but are not */

{{comic
| number = 3204
| date = February 6, 2026
| title = Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs
| image = dinosaurs_and_non_dinosaurs_2x.png
| imagesize = 370x283px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Staplers are actually in Pseudosuchia, making them more closely related to crocodiles than to dinosaurs.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by something that doesn’t seem like a dinosaur. A proper table listing each silhouette and its classifications would be appreciated. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic explores the seeming paradox that certain extinct prehistoric species which are popularly thought of as being "dinosaurs" are, from a strict taxonomic viewpoint, not. It also takes into account the fact that all bird species are descended from dinosaurs and thus - again, from a strict taxonomic viewpoint - are themselves dinosaurs as well (see [[1211: Birds and Dinosaurs]]). To illustrate this, [[Randall]] provides silhouettes of dinosaurs, of entities that are widely thought of as dinosaurs but are not, of entities that are ''not'' widely thought of as dinosaurs but ''are'' (i.e., birds), and, lastly, of entities that are neither dinosaurs nor thought of as dinosaurs (which is funny because it's so all-encompassing as to be practically meaningless, just like it would be if you replaced the word "dinosaurs" by any other plural noun, or adjective).

In reading order from upper left in each quadrant of the image:
* Silhouettes in "seem like dinosaurs / are dinosaurs": stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus, diplodocus, velociraptor
* Silhouettes in "seem like dinosaurs / are not dinosaurs": mosasaur, quetzalcoatlus, dimetrodon, plesiosaur, pteranodon
* Silhouettes in "don't seem like dinosaurs / are dinosaurs": penguin, egret, falcon, pigeon, ostrich
* Silhouettes in "don't seem like dinosaurs / are not dinosaurs": squirrel, stapler, bicycle, [[Cueball]], pineapple

=== Creatures that seem like dinosaurs, but are not ===
Dinosaur is a paleonotology term which refers to a specific group of reptiles, based upon evolutionary lines, bone structure and living domain. However, it is also a popular science/cultural term which refers to extinct large reptiles, hence the confusion between what is scientifically included and what is culturally assumed to be included.

The creatures listed are:
* A mosasaur is an extinct aquatic reptile, looking similar to a dolphin, that existed at the same time as the dinosaurs. Whilst it appeared in {{w|Jurassic World}}, momasaurs had a different ancestor than dinosaurs
* Pleisosaurs and Pterodons are flying reptiles
* Dimetrodon
* Quetzalcoatlus

== Title Text==

The title text is a further joke about taxonomy, seemingly predicated on the assumption that staplers are biological organisms, and can thus be sorted into taxa. ''{{w|Pseudosuchia}}'' is in fact the clade that encompasses all crocodilians, and staplers bear a certain resemblance to the open mouth of a crocodilian.

The original {{w|Linnaean taxonomy}} ''did'' at first have a top-level classification for "mineral" taxonomy, in addition to those for animal and plant, which {{w|Twenty questions#Popular variants|in its broadest sense}} might allow one to assign a stapler a taxonomic relationship with dinosaurs.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[A 2x2 chart containing various animals and objects.]
* Left column: Are dinosaurs
* Right column: Are not dinosaurs
* Upper row: Seem like dinosaurs
* Lower row: Don't seem like dinosaurs

:[Top left (seem like dinosaurs, are dinosaurs):]
:[Top right (seem like dinosaurs, are not dinosaurs):]
:[Bottom left (don't seem like dinosaurs, are dinosaurs):]
:[Bottom right (don't seem like dinosaurs, are not dinosaurs):]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3204: Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

2026-02-07T13:47:09Z

Kev: Started listing why they're not dinosaurs.

{{comic
| number = 3204
| date = February 6, 2026
| title = Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs
| image = dinosaurs_and_non_dinosaurs_2x.png
| imagesize = 370x283px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Staplers are actually in Pseudosuchia, making them more closely related to crocodiles than to dinosaurs.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by something that doesn’t seem like a dinosaur. A proper table listing each silhouette and its classifications would be appreciated. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic explores the seeming paradox that certain extinct prehistoric species which are popularly thought of as being "dinosaurs" are, from a strict taxonomic viewpoint, not. It also takes into account the fact that all bird species are descended from dinosaurs and thus - again, from a strict taxonomic viewpoint - are themselves dinosaurs as well (see [[1211: Birds and Dinosaurs]]). To illustrate this, [[Randall]] provides silhouettes of dinosaurs, of entities that are widely thought of as dinosaurs but are not, of entities that are ''not'' widely thought of as dinosaurs but ''are'' (i.e., birds), and, lastly, of entities that are neither dinosaurs nor thought of as dinosaurs (which is funny because it's so all-encompassing as to be practically meaningless, just like it would be if you replaced the word "dinosaurs" by any other plural noun, or adjective).

In reading order from upper left in each quadrant of the image:
* Silhouettes in "seem like dinosaurs / are dinosaurs": stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus, diplodocus, velociraptor
* Silhouettes in "seem like dinosaurs / are not dinosaurs": mosasaur, quetzalcoatlus, dimetrodon, plesiosaur, pteranodon
* Silhouettes in "don't seem like dinosaurs / are dinosaurs": penguin, egret, falcon, pigeon, ostrich
* Silhouettes in "don't seem like dinosaurs / are not dinosaurs": squirrel, stapler, bicycle, [[Cueball]], pineapple

=== Creatures that seem like dinosaurs, but are not ===
Dinosaur is a paleonotology term which refers to a specific group of reptiles, based upon evolutionary lines, bone structure and living domain. However, it is also
* A mosasaur is an extinct aquatic reptile, looking similar to a dolphin, that existed at the same time as the dinosaurs. Whilst it appeared in {{w|Jurassic World}}, momasaurs had a different ancestor than dinosaurs
* Pleisosaurs and Pterodons are flying reptiles
* Dimetrodon
* Quetzalcoatlus

The title text is a further joke about taxonomy, seemingly predicated on the assumption that staplers are biological organisms, and can thus be sorted into taxa. ''{{w|Pseudosuchia}}'' is in fact the clade that encompasses all crocodilians, and staplers bear a certain resemblance to the open mouth of a crocodilian.

The original {{w|Linnaean taxonomy}} ''did'' at first have a top-level classification for "mineral" taxonomy, in addition to those for animal and plant, which {{w|Twenty questions#Popular variants|in its broadest sense}} might allow one to assign a stapler a taxonomic relationship with dinosaurs.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[A 2x2 chart containing various animals and objects.]
* Left column: Are dinosaurs
* Right column: Are not dinosaurs
* Upper row: Seem like dinosaurs
* Lower row: Don't seem like dinosaurs

:[Top left (seem like dinosaurs, are dinosaurs):]
:[Top right (seem like dinosaurs, are not dinosaurs):]
:[Bottom left (don't seem like dinosaurs, are dinosaurs):]
:[Bottom right (don't seem like dinosaurs, are not dinosaurs):]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:3204: Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

2026-02-07T13:36:53Z

Kev:

I don't think that's a stork. My guess would be that it's a heron.
The bird in the lower right also looks like some sort of shorebird, but I've got no clue. {{unsigned ip|99.26.146.61|19:45, 6 February 2026 (UTC)}}

I feel like this comic should be in the explanation https://xkcd.com/1211/
[[Special:Contributions/2600:4041:2E5:B900:66D3:74AD:D92D:356B|2600:4041:2E5:B900:66D3:74AD:D92D:356B]] 20:36, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

Could it have a brief layman's explanation of how/why the top right *aren't* dinosaurs? Y'know beyond just "well, technically..."
[[Special:Contributions/91.84.189.119|91.84.189.119]] 06:52, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

:They are not dinosaurs because dinosaurs are only a subgroup of prehistoric animals living on land. Others are flying or underwater reptiles (don’t know the real names of those), or just plain reptiles who have existed (as a group) for far longer. Dinos are technically named „land reptiles“, but are not reptiles. It’s a bit confusing and this is where my half knowledge ends
[[Special:Contributions/2A00:1E:82C2:D401:F4A3:23F3:8A2D:63B1|2A00:1E:82C2:D401:F4A3:23F3:8A2D:63B1]] 09:33, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

Did anyone else think that "Pseudo-such" things were a made up thing for staplers? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 13:36, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

3184: Funny Numbers

2025-12-23T13:13:35Z

Kev: Getting too old for this...

{{comic
| number = 3184
| date = December 22, 2025
| title = Funny Numbers
| image = funny_numbers_2x.png
| imagesize = 360x453px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In 1899, people were walking around shouting '23' at each other and laughing, and confused reporters were writing articles trying to figure out what it meant.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by the square root of -2. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic refers to the recent brainrot meme {{w|6-7 meme|"6 7"}}, often accompanied by moving your hands up and down.

While many people think this is a novel activity of the latest generation of kids, the comic points out that there's a long history of young people finding ways to have fun with certain numbers.

The numbers listed:
* {{w|23 skidoo|23}} originated about 1899, and was later combined with the nonsense word "skidoo" into the phrase "23 skidoo". It relates to leaving quickly.

* 42 refers to {{w|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}, in which this number is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.

* {{w|Leet|1,337}} is leet-speak for the word "elite".

* {{w|69 (sex position)|69}} -- if you have to ask, you're not old enough.

* {{w|Calculator spelling|58,008}} spells "BOOBS" if you put it into a seven-segment display, like on many calculators, and turn it upside down.

* {{w|420 (cannabis culture)|420}} is slang for smoking {{w|marijuana}}.

* {{w|67}} -- if you have to ask, you're not young enough.

The title text claims that the media reaction to "23" around the turn of the 20th century was very similar to the current reaction to "67". This highlights a perennial historical cycle of the Young being despised by the Old; with the Young growing up to become the Old despising a new generation of Young.

==Transcript==
:[A banner is hanging from the ceiling with a large line of text above a smaller one:]
:<big>Mathematical society</big>
:2025 meeting

:[Below the banner there are four people, three of them are standing close together to the left with Hairbun leftmost addressing Cueball and Megan who is looking at her. Ponytail is standing to the far right next to a whiteboard, and is using a marker to circle in the last number on the board.]
:Hairbun: Any other new developments from the year to cover before we wrap?
:Cueball: Oh, the teens picked a new funny number.
:Megan: Aww, I'm glad to hear they're still doing that.
:Ponytail: I'll add it to the list.

:[The board contains two columns of numbers, with the first having a text behind it, thus covering both columns. The last number is the new one circled in by Ponytail. From top in reading order they are:]
:23 (skidoo!)
:42    1,337
:69    58,008
:420   6 7

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category: Math]]
[[Category: Language]]

3123: Canon

2025-08-02T15:44:28Z

Kev: /* Explanation */ Decanonisation of Star Wars.

{{comic
| number = 3123
| date = August 1, 2025
| title = Canon
| image = canon_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x408px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Achilles was a mighty warrior, but his Achilles’ heel was his heel.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a potato cannon doing the Can Can on a Can. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

The term ''{{W|Biblical canon|canon}}'' was originally devised to refer to the books of the Bible which are generally accepted as being actually part of the Bible, instead of {{w|apocrypha}}, Christian works that, while edifying and perhaps ancient, aren't considered part of the Bible. It subsequently was adapted to refer to the {{w|Sherlock Holmes}} stories which were written by {{w|Arthur Conan Doyle}}, as opposed to the adaptations into other formats (stage plays, films, etc.) and non-Doyle stories. An early example of this connection was in a 1910 satirical essay by the Catholic scholar Ronald A. Knox, ''Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes''.

From there, it took on its modern, even broader meaning for fiction in general: the material widely accepted as created by the recognized author(s). For instance, ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' canon comprises the films and some TV shows made by {{w|Lucasfilm}} (and {{w|Disney}} after its buyout of Lucasfilm), but that canon is supplemented by a large amount of non-canonical {{w|Star Wars in other media|''Star Wars'' content in other media}} such as books, video games, comic books, fan fiction, etc. In addition, what is canon can be changed, as occurred when a large portion of formerly canon Star Wars content was [[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Legends decanonised]] in 2014 to make narrative space for the upcoming Star Wars trilogy sequel movies.

Determining what is canon and what is not in a narrative framework has a tendency to excite huge passions amongst fans, similar to the huge factionalisation of religions where they decide what is and what is binding to the fandom.

Here, Cueball is using the modern meaning to describe a theological dispute from the 18th century when ''canon'' had only its original, Biblical meaning. There are many examples of fierce theological disputes that were recorded in pamphlets and books throughout the 16th to 19th century, for example just regarding the correct mode of baptism: {{w|File:The Summe of a conference at Terling in Essex, Januarie 11, 1643 - held between 3 ministers ... opponents pleading for infants baptisme, and 2 catabaptists ... respondents denying .. (IA summeofconferenc00stal).pdf|1644 (683 pages)}}, {{w|File:A defence of infant-baptism in answer to two treatises, and an Appendix to them concerning it, lately published by Mr. Jo. Tombes - wherein that controversie is fully discussed ... (IA defenceofinfantb00mars).pdf|1646 (342 pages)}}, {{w|File:A discourse proving the divine institution of water-baptism - wherein the Quaker-arguments against it are collected and confuted with as much as is needful concerning the Lord's supper (IA discourseproving00lesl).pdf|1697 (150 pages)}}, {{w|File:An essay on infant baptism (microform) - in which the right of infants to the sacrament of baptism, is proved from Scripture, vindicated from the usual objections (IA cihm 89861).pdf|1768 (219 pages)}}, {{w|File:Modern immersion not Scripture baptism (IA modernimmersionn00thorrich).pdf|1831 (400 pages)}}, {{w|File:The heavenly father's teaching (microform) - a pedo-Baptist's reply to immersionists shewing that Baptism is not immersion, and that immersion is not Baptism, for they are direct opposites (IA cihm 08315).pdf|1874 (107 pages)}} - examples selected from hundreds of similar books.

Similarly the word "fandom" comes from the word "fan" (+ '-dom', as in a class of people), which is the shorter form of "fanatic". Fanatic's etymology, in turn, points to the latin word "fanaticus" meaning 'of a temple, inspired by a god'. (The latin word "fanum" means 'temple'.)

An ''Achilles’ heel'' is the weak point of something or someone who is otherwise very strong. It derives from the legend of the great Greek warrior {{w|Achilles}}, who as a baby was dipped into the river {{w|Styx}} by {{w|Thetis|his mother}} to make him invulnerable everywhere on his body that the water touched. However, during the dipping, his mother held him by the heel, which was thus vulnerable because it didn't enter the river, and in fact Achilles later died after he was shot in that heel with an arrow. The joke again is the self-reference.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball talks to White Hat while reading a book. Both are standing.]
:Cueball: It's so weird reading these 18th century scholars argue about minor biblical details. It's like they're an online fandom or something - they've developed this whole elaborate canon.
:[Caption below the panel]
:It's fun when a word's usage goes full circle and, by analogy, lands back on its original meaning.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Language]]

3116: Echo Chamber

2025-07-16T23:09:40Z

Kev:

{{comic
| number = 3116
| date = July 16, 2025
| title = Echo Chamber
| image = echo_chamber_2x.png
| imagesize = 383x296px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This is almost as bad as the time I signed up for a purely partisan fishing expedition.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by NARCISSUS IN AN ECHO CHAMBER. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

An {{W:echo chamber}} is a structure designed to maximise acoustic reverberation, thus sounds echo excessively well.

However, in social media, a metaphorical {{W:Echo_chamber_(media)}} reverberates the opinions of a group of individuals so that those individuals perceive those opinions as being the social norm. This has resulted in disastrous situations such as Pizzagate, the war over the gold dress and the election of the 44th US President.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
[Cueball is sitting on a chair with his hands covering his ears. He is in a circular room with a phone on a stand. All words coming out of the phone are repeated everywhere, getting larger and less opaque]

Here's Mittens falling into the laundry hamper for the THIRD time today!

Now that I've built one, I finally get why people complain about social media echo chambers.
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3111: Artificial Gravity

2025-07-05T20:55:35Z

Kev: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3111
| date = July 4, 2025
| title = Artificial Gravity
| image = artificial_gravity_2x.png
| imagesize = 423x365px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Low gravity can cause bone loss, so we're pleased to report that, since we initiated capsule motion, the number of bones in each crew member has been steadily increasing.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a very unhappy astronaut. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
The human body will experience slow but adverse side effects in a low gravity environment, such as a spaceship taking an interplanetary or interstellar voyage. Many prototype designs have been introduced to combat this, both in science fiction and real life, and one of the most common (for non-fictional purposes, or in {{w|hard science fiction}}) is to use [[123: Centrifugal Force|centrifugal force]] to simulate the effects of gravity on the crew.

[[Cueball]] describes a spacecraft in which the crew quarters are being continuously shaken. [[Ponytail]] immediately sees problems with this approach, and asks if the shaking pod can be replaced with a much safer and more stable spinning wheel or cylinder — a common sight in speculative (yet 'hard science') spaceship designs. Cueball concedes his agreement, but states that the crew is already stuck with the shaking-pod setup, implying the ship has already been built, launched, and is in operation.

A shaking spaceship design would in fact create an experience of gravity for the crew, just a very unpleasant one. When the capsule accelerates "up" (from the point of view of the picture), the crew will feel a gravity-like force pulling them "down" against the capsule floor. However when the capsule accelerates "down", the crew will find themselves thrown against the ceiling of the capsule, in an experience similar to falling several metres. This will result in the crew not only continuously falling against one surface or the other, but also at a variable apparent gravity as the capsule's lateral velocity changes. This might make their life onboard ship, which could be expected to last for many years, somewhat unpleasant {{citation needed}}. The direction of this artificial "gravity" will keep alternating as long as the capsule keeps shaking.

The title text discusses a real side effect of low gravity environments: a form of bone density loss known as {{w|Spaceflight osteopenia}}. The title text speaker claims that "the number of bones in each crew member has been steadily increasing" — this is because the shaking, and subsequent multiple impacts, are fragmenting the crew members' bones. The broken pieces of bone are then being counted as bones in their own right and increasing the effective count, without telling if the pod's awkward centripetal force has done anything to reduce bone loss.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball and Ponytail are standing near a blueprint of a spacecraft, with Cueball pointing at the blueprint. In place of conventional conical fairing, this spacecraft has a large mechanical arm on the nose. The arm is holding an egg-shaped capsule. Two semi-transparent drawings of the arm and the capsule are depicted on either side of it with speed streaks in between, implying shaking back and forth motion of the arm.]
:Cueball: To produce artificial gravity during the voyage, the crew capsule is kept in constant motion.
:Ponytail: Wouldn't it make more sense to spin it instead of shaking it, so the acceleration is steadier?
:Cueball: ...Listen. You, I, and the crew all wish we'd thought of that before launch.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Space]]

Talk:3105: Interoperability

2025-06-22T23:03:51Z

Kev:

Well, it is not interoperability that would be the potential problem, but potential interconnectedness. Some systems are just not meant to be connected to the rest of the network`21:48, 20 June 2025 (UTC)
: Black Hat isn't in a "just not meant to be" kind of [[1136|mood]]. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 23:03, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

There will be more interoperability concerns than the track gauge. Such as the up stop wheels. And side wheels. [[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 21:55, 20 June 2025 (UTC)

> "''two standards: US rail systems predominantly have a 143.5cm gauge''" Why cite "US"? 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in was developed in England. The US got confused and Abe Lincoln is credited with ordering first 5' (won't work) then 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (most US rails were so close to 4'8.5" that they mostly changed in a weekend). Rest of world used UK or US machines, or copied them, with the main exceptions fading away over a century. (Well, Australia was still jacking cars mid-route when I was young.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_gauge#%22Standard%22_gauge_appears
The width of two horses' asses, a Roman chariot, is often cited as if pre-industrial mechanics standardized.
--[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 05:39, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:I 'cited' the US, for simplicity. Being British, yes (like many things) it was invented/established here, but Randall typically goes by US expectations of rail-gauge (actually 143.51cm, due to being still exactly US Customary Units-based, whilst the UK is sufficiently metricised). There'll be readers in [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_RR_Gauge_Map.agr.png non-trivially large parts of the world] where the comic mismatches ''their'' local standards, and rather than go into the whole Stephenson-and-onwards thing (noting that Brunel had a point about wider being better for at least some reasons!), I'd just "americanize" it directly. It was a direct replacement for some "(in this instance)" insertions that sort of implied that track gauges ''could'' be different from those mentioned, but seemed neither to explain the worldwide variation nor account for pretty much all railway(/railroad) track in the US, especially 'subway' systems, definitely was this (give or take a tenth of a millimetre).
:Though I spent some time rephrasing things (for example, mentioning the US Customary thing, then removing it because – again — basing it on Randall's own directly cited value of exactly 1435mm (but in cm) seemed more in the spirit of things). Possibly I didn't neaten it down as much as I might, had I not tried to shoehorn those later-removed snippets in.
:Had also thought to provide links to the roller coaster gauge (also presumed to be "those RCs that Randall considers standard", but had a hard time tracking anything down. I actually found many places with a ''different'' quoted track-width. (e.g. 120cm, unless that was maybe outside-to-outside vs. 110cm inside-to-inside, with the perfectly valid possibility of the coaster-rails being each 50mm tubing, and thus actually ''is'' the same? More research needed!) Closest I could find was something about "woodie / <some germanic name I forget>" systems being 110cm, in a search-engine summary of a reddit article, with a partial URL given (as part of that SE-Summary, cut off with ellipses). But visiting that reddit, ''I couldn't find the original full text'', and I got a browser warning on trying to go to the base 'quoted' URI (long-expired and now cybersquatted by a dodgy page-redirection thing?), so eventually gave up on that and concentrated on other little changes/restructurings that I felt improved the article flow (rightly or wrongly).
:Anyway, that is a boiled down why-and-wherefore of how it ended up said the way it was said (probably been re-edited, by the time you read this). Far too much background material to add to the article, I think, or even try to shove in Trivia (except maybe the 4'8.5"==1435.1mm thing?), but might interest the true connoisseur of such thought processes and tangential information who reads this bit... ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.216.63|82.132.216.63]] 08:52, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:...I tweaked it myself (on top of the intermediate edit that I won't argue with). Not sure I'd have used the word "predominantly" for 'only' 55% of global track, if writing it fresh this morning. Definitely predominant for the US, though. Considered "mostly", etc, of course... [[Special:Contributions/82.132.216.63|82.132.216.63]] 09:17, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
::You likely know 0.1mm's tiny by standard gauge standards though right? Especially for subways I don't know if you'd notice at {{w|rocket sled|10,326kph}} like that rocket sled. How fast would you have to go on 1435.1 track in a train designed for 1435 or vice versa before you'd notice? [[Special:Contributions/2600:387:15:4B36:0:0:0:8|2600:387:15:4B36:0:0:0:8]] 01:55, 22 June 2025 (UTC)
:::I do know that it's a tiny difference, and ''probably'' largely irrelevent, being a matter of a tad below 741 parts ''per million''. But the US standard is an exact 'imperial'/US Customary measurement (before whatever 'allowable tolerances' are considered), and the non-US version of 'the same' standard is a similarly exact but subtly different metric standard. There are people who either care about these sorts of things, or could raise valid concerns if their future questions about the discrepancies aren't pre-empted. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 17:09, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

As a coaster and rail nerd, it's basically impossible to actually do this (and not just for the obvious safety problems). The engineering between a rail line and a coaster track (and the wheels that run on them) are completely different. Rails have an I-beam shaped cross section and are fixed to the ground, and trains use steel wheels that have flanges on the inner side keeping the cars from running off the track. Steel roller coaster tracks have a circular cross section and the cars have wheels that are (usually) polyurethane, with additional sets of wheels on the side and running under the track (upstop wheels) keeping them from flying off when pulling Gs. Even if you corrected for any track spacing and shape difference somehow, a roller coaster train would immediately slam its upstop wheels into the ground and stop if you tried to transfer it onto a regular grounded rail line. Likewise, since roller coasters don't have flanges, they often have support beams crossing the inner space between the rails, so a train trying to navigate a coaster track would slam its flanges into the support beams and either immediately derail or else start shearing the entire track apart, if it didn't already derail from the wheel flanges not having any grip on the circular coaster rails. [[User:Optimore|Optimore]] ([[User talk:Optimore|talk]]) 07:07, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:Resolving such issues would be part of Phase 2. --[[Special:Contributions/81.96.108.67|81.96.108.67]] 07:32, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:: I'm looking forward to Phase 3, where the passengers who got on a subway car, then travelled from a Metro station to a roller coaster to an intercity line get to go into a railgun. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 22:57, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Why does the explanation repeatedly and pointedly mention "subway systems" when the comic doesn't mention subways at all (but rather intercity train lines)? [[User:Sophon|Sophon]] ([[User talk:Sophon|talk]]) 01:15, 22 June 2025 (UTC)
: Panel 2: "For example, most subway rails are 143.5 cm apart." Are you using a different definition of "at all"? Intercity lines are only mentioned in the title text. --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 11:28, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3105: Interoperability

2025-06-22T23:03:36Z

Kev:

Well, it is not interoperability that would be the potential problem, but potential interconnectedness. Some systems are just not meant to be connected to the rest of the network`21:48, 20 June 2025 (UTC)
: Black Hat isn't in a "just not meant to be" kind of [[1136 mood]]. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 23:03, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

There will be more interoperability concerns than the track gauge. Such as the up stop wheels. And side wheels. [[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 21:55, 20 June 2025 (UTC)

> "''two standards: US rail systems predominantly have a 143.5cm gauge''" Why cite "US"? 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in was developed in England. The US got confused and Abe Lincoln is credited with ordering first 5' (won't work) then 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (most US rails were so close to 4'8.5" that they mostly changed in a weekend). Rest of world used UK or US machines, or copied them, with the main exceptions fading away over a century. (Well, Australia was still jacking cars mid-route when I was young.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_gauge#%22Standard%22_gauge_appears
The width of two horses' asses, a Roman chariot, is often cited as if pre-industrial mechanics standardized.
--[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 05:39, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:I 'cited' the US, for simplicity. Being British, yes (like many things) it was invented/established here, but Randall typically goes by US expectations of rail-gauge (actually 143.51cm, due to being still exactly US Customary Units-based, whilst the UK is sufficiently metricised). There'll be readers in [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_RR_Gauge_Map.agr.png non-trivially large parts of the world] where the comic mismatches ''their'' local standards, and rather than go into the whole Stephenson-and-onwards thing (noting that Brunel had a point about wider being better for at least some reasons!), I'd just "americanize" it directly. It was a direct replacement for some "(in this instance)" insertions that sort of implied that track gauges ''could'' be different from those mentioned, but seemed neither to explain the worldwide variation nor account for pretty much all railway(/railroad) track in the US, especially 'subway' systems, definitely was this (give or take a tenth of a millimetre).
:Though I spent some time rephrasing things (for example, mentioning the US Customary thing, then removing it because – again — basing it on Randall's own directly cited value of exactly 1435mm (but in cm) seemed more in the spirit of things). Possibly I didn't neaten it down as much as I might, had I not tried to shoehorn those later-removed snippets in.
:Had also thought to provide links to the roller coaster gauge (also presumed to be "those RCs that Randall considers standard", but had a hard time tracking anything down. I actually found many places with a ''different'' quoted track-width. (e.g. 120cm, unless that was maybe outside-to-outside vs. 110cm inside-to-inside, with the perfectly valid possibility of the coaster-rails being each 50mm tubing, and thus actually ''is'' the same? More research needed!) Closest I could find was something about "woodie / <some germanic name I forget>" systems being 110cm, in a search-engine summary of a reddit article, with a partial URL given (as part of that SE-Summary, cut off with ellipses). But visiting that reddit, ''I couldn't find the original full text'', and I got a browser warning on trying to go to the base 'quoted' URI (long-expired and now cybersquatted by a dodgy page-redirection thing?), so eventually gave up on that and concentrated on other little changes/restructurings that I felt improved the article flow (rightly or wrongly).
:Anyway, that is a boiled down why-and-wherefore of how it ended up said the way it was said (probably been re-edited, by the time you read this). Far too much background material to add to the article, I think, or even try to shove in Trivia (except maybe the 4'8.5"==1435.1mm thing?), but might interest the true connoisseur of such thought processes and tangential information who reads this bit... ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.216.63|82.132.216.63]] 08:52, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:...I tweaked it myself (on top of the intermediate edit that I won't argue with). Not sure I'd have used the word "predominantly" for 'only' 55% of global track, if writing it fresh this morning. Definitely predominant for the US, though. Considered "mostly", etc, of course... [[Special:Contributions/82.132.216.63|82.132.216.63]] 09:17, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
::You likely know 0.1mm's tiny by standard gauge standards though right? Especially for subways I don't know if you'd notice at {{w|rocket sled|10,326kph}} like that rocket sled. How fast would you have to go on 1435.1 track in a train designed for 1435 or vice versa before you'd notice? [[Special:Contributions/2600:387:15:4B36:0:0:0:8|2600:387:15:4B36:0:0:0:8]] 01:55, 22 June 2025 (UTC)
:::I do know that it's a tiny difference, and ''probably'' largely irrelevent, being a matter of a tad below 741 parts ''per million''. But the US standard is an exact 'imperial'/US Customary measurement (before whatever 'allowable tolerances' are considered), and the non-US version of 'the same' standard is a similarly exact but subtly different metric standard. There are people who either care about these sorts of things, or could raise valid concerns if their future questions about the discrepancies aren't pre-empted. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 17:09, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

As a coaster and rail nerd, it's basically impossible to actually do this (and not just for the obvious safety problems). The engineering between a rail line and a coaster track (and the wheels that run on them) are completely different. Rails have an I-beam shaped cross section and are fixed to the ground, and trains use steel wheels that have flanges on the inner side keeping the cars from running off the track. Steel roller coaster tracks have a circular cross section and the cars have wheels that are (usually) polyurethane, with additional sets of wheels on the side and running under the track (upstop wheels) keeping them from flying off when pulling Gs. Even if you corrected for any track spacing and shape difference somehow, a roller coaster train would immediately slam its upstop wheels into the ground and stop if you tried to transfer it onto a regular grounded rail line. Likewise, since roller coasters don't have flanges, they often have support beams crossing the inner space between the rails, so a train trying to navigate a coaster track would slam its flanges into the support beams and either immediately derail or else start shearing the entire track apart, if it didn't already derail from the wheel flanges not having any grip on the circular coaster rails. [[User:Optimore|Optimore]] ([[User talk:Optimore|talk]]) 07:07, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:Resolving such issues would be part of Phase 2. --[[Special:Contributions/81.96.108.67|81.96.108.67]] 07:32, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:: I'm looking forward to Phase 3, where the passengers who got on a subway car, then travelled from a Metro station to a roller coaster to an intercity line get to go into a railgun. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 22:57, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Why does the explanation repeatedly and pointedly mention "subway systems" when the comic doesn't mention subways at all (but rather intercity train lines)? [[User:Sophon|Sophon]] ([[User talk:Sophon|talk]]) 01:15, 22 June 2025 (UTC)
: Panel 2: "For example, most subway rails are 143.5 cm apart." Are you using a different definition of "at all"? Intercity lines are only mentioned in the title text. --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 11:28, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3105: Interoperability

2025-06-22T22:57:13Z

Kev:

Well, it is not interoperability that would be the potential problem, but potential interconnectedness. Some systems are just not meant to be connected to the rest of the network`21:48, 20 June 2025 (UTC)

There will be more interoperability concerns than the track gauge. Such as the up stop wheels. And side wheels. [[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 21:55, 20 June 2025 (UTC)

> "''two standards: US rail systems predominantly have a 143.5cm gauge''" Why cite "US"? 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in was developed in England. The US got confused and Abe Lincoln is credited with ordering first 5' (won't work) then 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (most US rails were so close to 4'8.5" that they mostly changed in a weekend). Rest of world used UK or US machines, or copied them, with the main exceptions fading away over a century. (Well, Australia was still jacking cars mid-route when I was young.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_gauge#%22Standard%22_gauge_appears
The width of two horses' asses, a Roman chariot, is often cited as if pre-industrial mechanics standardized.
--[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 05:39, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:I 'cited' the US, for simplicity. Being British, yes (like many things) it was invented/established here, but Randall typically goes by US expectations of rail-gauge (actually 143.51cm, due to being still exactly US Customary Units-based, whilst the UK is sufficiently metricised). There'll be readers in [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_RR_Gauge_Map.agr.png non-trivially large parts of the world] where the comic mismatches ''their'' local standards, and rather than go into the whole Stephenson-and-onwards thing (noting that Brunel had a point about wider being better for at least some reasons!), I'd just "americanize" it directly. It was a direct replacement for some "(in this instance)" insertions that sort of implied that track gauges ''could'' be different from those mentioned, but seemed neither to explain the worldwide variation nor account for pretty much all railway(/railroad) track in the US, especially 'subway' systems, definitely was this (give or take a tenth of a millimetre).
:Though I spent some time rephrasing things (for example, mentioning the US Customary thing, then removing it because – again — basing it on Randall's own directly cited value of exactly 1435mm (but in cm) seemed more in the spirit of things). Possibly I didn't neaten it down as much as I might, had I not tried to shoehorn those later-removed snippets in.
:Had also thought to provide links to the roller coaster gauge (also presumed to be "those RCs that Randall considers standard", but had a hard time tracking anything down. I actually found many places with a ''different'' quoted track-width. (e.g. 120cm, unless that was maybe outside-to-outside vs. 110cm inside-to-inside, with the perfectly valid possibility of the coaster-rails being each 50mm tubing, and thus actually ''is'' the same? More research needed!) Closest I could find was something about "woodie / <some germanic name I forget>" systems being 110cm, in a search-engine summary of a reddit article, with a partial URL given (as part of that SE-Summary, cut off with ellipses). But visiting that reddit, ''I couldn't find the original full text'', and I got a browser warning on trying to go to the base 'quoted' URI (long-expired and now cybersquatted by a dodgy page-redirection thing?), so eventually gave up on that and concentrated on other little changes/restructurings that I felt improved the article flow (rightly or wrongly).
:Anyway, that is a boiled down why-and-wherefore of how it ended up said the way it was said (probably been re-edited, by the time you read this). Far too much background material to add to the article, I think, or even try to shove in Trivia (except maybe the 4'8.5"==1435.1mm thing?), but might interest the true connoisseur of such thought processes and tangential information who reads this bit... ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.216.63|82.132.216.63]] 08:52, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:...I tweaked it myself (on top of the intermediate edit that I won't argue with). Not sure I'd have used the word "predominantly" for 'only' 55% of global track, if writing it fresh this morning. Definitely predominant for the US, though. Considered "mostly", etc, of course... [[Special:Contributions/82.132.216.63|82.132.216.63]] 09:17, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
::You likely know 0.1mm's tiny by standard gauge standards though right? Especially for subways I don't know if you'd notice at {{w|rocket sled|10,326kph}} like that rocket sled. How fast would you have to go on 1435.1 track in a train designed for 1435 or vice versa before you'd notice? [[Special:Contributions/2600:387:15:4B36:0:0:0:8|2600:387:15:4B36:0:0:0:8]] 01:55, 22 June 2025 (UTC)
:::I do know that it's a tiny difference, and ''probably'' largely irrelevent, being a matter of a tad below 741 parts ''per million''. But the US standard is an exact 'imperial'/US Customary measurement (before whatever 'allowable tolerances' are considered), and the non-US version of 'the same' standard is a similarly exact but subtly different metric standard. There are people who either care about these sorts of things, or could raise valid concerns if their future questions about the discrepancies aren't pre-empted. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 17:09, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

As a coaster and rail nerd, it's basically impossible to actually do this (and not just for the obvious safety problems). The engineering between a rail line and a coaster track (and the wheels that run on them) are completely different. Rails have an I-beam shaped cross section and are fixed to the ground, and trains use steel wheels that have flanges on the inner side keeping the cars from running off the track. Steel roller coaster tracks have a circular cross section and the cars have wheels that are (usually) polyurethane, with additional sets of wheels on the side and running under the track (upstop wheels) keeping them from flying off when pulling Gs. Even if you corrected for any track spacing and shape difference somehow, a roller coaster train would immediately slam its upstop wheels into the ground and stop if you tried to transfer it onto a regular grounded rail line. Likewise, since roller coasters don't have flanges, they often have support beams crossing the inner space between the rails, so a train trying to navigate a coaster track would slam its flanges into the support beams and either immediately derail or else start shearing the entire track apart, if it didn't already derail from the wheel flanges not having any grip on the circular coaster rails. [[User:Optimore|Optimore]] ([[User talk:Optimore|talk]]) 07:07, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:Resolving such issues would be part of Phase 2. --[[Special:Contributions/81.96.108.67|81.96.108.67]] 07:32, 21 June 2025 (UTC)
:: I'm looking forward to Phase 3, where the passengers who got on a subway car, then travelled from a Metro station to a roller coaster to an intercity line get to go into a railgun. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 22:57, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Why does the explanation repeatedly and pointedly mention "subway systems" when the comic doesn't mention subways at all (but rather intercity train lines)? [[User:Sophon|Sophon]] ([[User talk:Sophon|talk]]) 01:15, 22 June 2025 (UTC)
: Panel 2: "For example, most subway rails are 143.5 cm apart." Are you using a different definition of "at all"? Intercity lines are only mentioned in the title text. --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 11:28, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

3105: Interoperability

2025-06-22T22:51:35Z

Kev: Australia's rail gauge was on last week's No such thing as a fish https://www.nosuchthingasafish.com/

{{comic
| number = 3105
| date = June 20, 2025
| title = Interoperability
| image = interoperability_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x269px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We're getting a lot of complaints from commuters who were routed onto a coaster, but the theme park patrons who spent hours stuck on an intercity line are also not happy.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a LOST ROLLER COASTER RIDER. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

[[Black Hat]] gives a presentation regarding the existence of two standards: rail systems predominantly use the {{w|Standard-gauge railway|standard gauge}} of 143.5cm (or the virtually identical 4 ft 8½ in, in the US), and associated {{w|Rapid transit|subway systems}} and their cars are built to match this standard. Meanwhile 'many' {{w|roller coaster}} tracks, and their cars, are said to use a 110cm gauge. The two standards are not compatible, without {{w|Dual gauge|some additional engineering}}; subway cars could not travel on roller coaster tracks, and vice versa, even assuming you solved {{w|List of steepest gradients on adhesion railways|other issues}}.

However, Black Hat has professed to make changes to roller coasters such that they now conform to the subway standard (i.e. 143.5cm gauge). This seemingly is Phase One of a plan, and while no details of Phase Two are forthcoming, it may superficially allow subway cars to ride on roller coaster tracks ''and/or'' roller coaster cars to ride through subway systems, apparently in the name of {{w|interoperability}} and compatibility. This would have the advantage of letting many more people ride a roller coaster at the same time and granting subways easier access to additional {{w|rolling stock}}. However, the lack of interoperability in this case is by design, since if a railroad and a roller coaster track were ever to be accidentally connected, cars routed to the other system would simply derail.

[[Cueball]] and [[Hairbun]] are the apparently unwitting audience to Black Hat's presentation, and one of them (from off-panel) objects by stating that interoperability isn't ''necessarily'' a good thing, recognising where the plan is heading. Black Hat suggests that it would be fine as long as passengers of such interoperable systems listened to the destination announcement, indicating that he does indeed plan to connect the two which may lead to various unexpected surprises.

In some parts of the world, the lack of interoperability between different rail networks does cause issues. For example, in Australia there are currently [[https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=fcd3656b-c5c4-4513-ae29-3c0c5dc82781 three different rail gauges in usage]]. As a result, passengers or goods travelling from Melbourne to Sydney to Brisbane could theoretically have to switch twice between rolling stock on different sized rails to complete the journey.

The title text confirms that ''both'' reapplications of railcars are being used: there are commuters who find themselves traveling upon a coaster, who may not reach their intended destination or suffer unexpected {{w|g-force}}, and there are roller coaster riders who find themselves traveling down a subway line, a much longer and more boring ride. Furthermore, those expecting to experience a theme park ride were probably ''expecting'' exciting g-forces, and also to shortly return to no more than a short walk away from where they initially boarded, but find themselves outside the theme park, spending hours on an intercity line. Also, a subway line would also not usually be expected to travel between cities, but at least the interoperability of subway rail and wider rail systems ''might'' be expected, so long as the {{w|Third rail|appropriate infrastructure}} and track links can be made compatible. The roller coaster cars may also {{w|Physics of roller coasters#Energy|come to a stop}} if the cars aren't self-propelled), which may lead to the patrons being unable to leave the cars safely and will lead to the blockage of the route.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
: [A close-up shot of Black Hat from the shoulders up]
: Black Hat: Compatibility and interoperability are so important.

: [A zoom out reveals that Black Hat is standing in front of and pointing at a diagram showing a commuter subway car and a roller coaster car, and the tracks they both run on. Standing next to him are Cueball and Hairbun]
: Black Hat: For example, most subway rails are 143.5 cm apart. But many roller coasters use a narrower 110 cm gauge.

: [This panel shows only Black Hat]
: Black Hat: For the last few years, our company has been quietly retrofitting roller coasters to use 143.5 cm tracks.

: [Black Hat now has his fists raised]
: Black Hat: Soon, we can begin phase 2.
: Voice from off-panel: Maybe interoperability is actually bad.
: Black Hat: If you listen to the destination announcement while boarding, you'll be fine.
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Hairbun]]

Talk:3090: Sail Physics

2025-05-17T03:11:07Z

Kev:

After the last step, the sailors would then need to ground the boat to avoid being pushed in a circle, wouldn't they? [[User:Sophon|Sophon]] ([[User talk:Sophon|talk]]) 20:47, 16 May 2025 (UTC)

Note that for eastward wind, the boat will be propelled upwards, while the opposite is true for westward winds. This provides a basis for the functioning of airships and planes (Helicopters are more complicated, and additionally rely on their own magnetic fields) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.217.45|162.158.217.45]] 21:21, 16 May 2025 (UTC)
: Hence why you should always touch an earthing rod before approaching a helicopter, to avoid the magnetism pulling you into their rotors. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 03:11, 17 May 2025 (UTC)

Is this actually wrong? Wouldn't it still be ''a'' force on a sailboat, even if it's not the strongest? [[User:Smurfton|Smurfton]] ([[User talk:Smurfton|talk]]) 22:20, 16 May 2025 (UTC)

: I added some explaination on direction and magnitude of the lorentz force, maybe that will help - sga {{unsigned ip|172.68.234.227|22:33, 16 May 2025 (UTC)}}

The explanation states that of the four forces, only the electromagnetic force operates at the macro level. This is incorrect, as gravity is also directly observable by humans. There should also probably be a link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfoil to provide an explanation for how sails actually allow a boat to sail upwind. I recommend removing the remark about the poles potentially flipping in the future, as this is irrelevant. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.124|172.68.55.124]] 23:52, 16 May 2025 (UTC)

: What i meant was, for 2 objects at scales of humans =, maybe did not prase it well. In this case, it is the wind and the sail. Wind does not have a "mass" (the atoms most certainly do, but) we essentially have a pressure force, or momentum of wind, where instead of using the energy of atoms (and hence the mass) as given by kinetic theory is not used (that is random (as given by boltzman maxwell statistics)) and uniform (in the sense that for any direction, number of particles going against and towards is equal) and what we have is just pressure applied by a effective "group velocity" of the wind atoms. The gravity interaction between wind and boat, or the local waves and boat is negligible, and planetary gravity is not considered because that is not relavant for in plane motion. the pole fillping was added just for future proofing the article. I am sorry for the puns. I have rewwritten some parts, and reduced the part about pole flipping, and also added the average case scenario for the force, hope it is better now. - sga

This is super embarrassing to admit, but I came here to verify whether this was a serious thing or not. I had no idea how a sailboat sails against the wind. [[User:Catgofire|Catgofire]] ([[User talk:Catgofire|talk]]) 23:58, 16 May 2025 (UTC)
:You aren't alone - I think I was an adult before I understood tacking in the sailboat sense of the word. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.127|162.158.174.127]] 02:45, 17 May 2025 (UTC)
: I'm wanting to add in some wisdom about "science-y" explanations that appear to be sensible but are completely wrong, segueing into how generative language models appear to be far more reliable than they are. However this margin is too narrow [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 03:09, 17 May 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3090: Sail Physics

2025-05-17T03:09:30Z

Kev:

After the last step, the sailors would then need to ground the boat to avoid being pushed in a circle, wouldn't they? [[User:Sophon|Sophon]] ([[User talk:Sophon|talk]]) 20:47, 16 May 2025 (UTC)

Note that for eastward wind, the boat will be propelled upwards, while the opposite is true for westward winds. This provides a basis for the functioning of airships and planes (Helicopters are more complicated, and additionally rely on their own magnetic fields) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.217.45|162.158.217.45]] 21:21, 16 May 2025 (UTC)

Is this actually wrong? Wouldn't it still be ''a'' force on a sailboat, even if it's not the strongest? [[User:Smurfton|Smurfton]] ([[User talk:Smurfton|talk]]) 22:20, 16 May 2025 (UTC)

: I added some explaination on direction and magnitude of the lorentz force, maybe that will help - sga {{unsigned ip|172.68.234.227|22:33, 16 May 2025 (UTC)}}

The explanation states that of the four forces, only the electromagnetic force operates at the macro level. This is incorrect, as gravity is also directly observable by humans. There should also probably be a link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfoil to provide an explanation for how sails actually allow a boat to sail upwind. I recommend removing the remark about the poles potentially flipping in the future, as this is irrelevant. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.124|172.68.55.124]] 23:52, 16 May 2025 (UTC)

: What i meant was, for 2 objects at scales of humans =, maybe did not prase it well. In this case, it is the wind and the sail. Wind does not have a "mass" (the atoms most certainly do, but) we essentially have a pressure force, or momentum of wind, where instead of using the energy of atoms (and hence the mass) as given by kinetic theory is not used (that is random (as given by boltzman maxwell statistics)) and uniform (in the sense that for any direction, number of particles going against and towards is equal) and what we have is just pressure applied by a effective "group velocity" of the wind atoms. The gravity interaction between wind and boat, or the local waves and boat is negligible, and planetary gravity is not considered because that is not relavant for in plane motion. the pole fillping was added just for future proofing the article. I am sorry for the puns. I have rewwritten some parts, and reduced the part about pole flipping, and also added the average case scenario for the force, hope it is better now. - sga

This is super embarrassing to admit, but I came here to verify whether this was a serious thing or not. I had no idea how a sailboat sails against the wind. [[User:Catgofire|Catgofire]] ([[User talk:Catgofire|talk]]) 23:58, 16 May 2025 (UTC)
:You aren't alone - I think I was an adult before I understood tacking in the sailboat sense of the word. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.127|162.158.174.127]] 02:45, 17 May 2025 (UTC)
: I'm wanting to add in some wisdom about "science-y" explanations that appear to be sensible but are completely wrong, segueing into how generative language models appear to be far more reliable than they are. However this margin is too narrow [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 03:09, 17 May 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3081: PhD Timeline

2025-04-26T14:17:00Z

Kev:

<noinclude>{{notice|This comic is about present-day politics and the {{w|Second presidency of Donald Trump|Trump administration}}. Additionally, the comic is about a controversial immigration-related action taken by said administration. Please {{w|WP:DFTT|don’t feed the trolls}}: don’t give recognition or respond to trolls or vandals. If you find vandalism, revert and move on. If the vandal is a registered user, {{w|WP:RBI|revert, block, and ignore}}. As with these contentious topics, please don't write in a biased and slanted manner. Always be considerate of the other side, don’t {{w|WP:CIVIL|attack people}}, and always {{w|WP:AGF|assume good faith}}. (In case you need assistance in blocking a vandal, message [[User talk:Kynde|Kynde]].)}}</noinclude>

What an age we live in... --[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al | Converse]][https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:Contributions/DollarStoreBa%27al My life choices] 15:48, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
:[https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/politics/fbi-director-wisconsin-judge-arrested/index.html It only gets rougher... ] It's enough to radicalize a person. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.187|172.69.65.187]] 16:09, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
:When even Randall starts freaking out, it usually indicates the most entertaining timeline. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.245.161|162.158.245.161]] 00:58, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
:: I will only grant this only if we have a happy outcome for all the people already damaged by your current government. I look forward to Nazis getting punched and the Ark of the Covenant being opened [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 14:17, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

Events like this are scary, and they're even scarier if you have a personal or geographic connection to them like Randall does. I can understand why he would feel frustrated about his inability to do something concrete, and if this comic raises awareness for the situation then it has done a good thing. Not sure why I thought this comment was necessary; maybe it's just a way of processing the emotions that the comic made me feel. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 15:49, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
: Agree, those of us that are non-US look to the US to uphold human rights. Very sad. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 14:17, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

I dont want to start an argument, but I am glad Randall Munroe is making a specific, reasonable point. A lot of times I see people saying either "there is no antisemitism on campus, nobody should ever get deported, ACTUAL terrorists should get green cards", and others say "EVERYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH ME SHOULD GET DEPORTED, EVERYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH ME IS A TERRORIST." I think both of them are extreme points obviously, and I am glad Randall is just taking the side, for now, of "this specific person did not violate their green card visa."

:Hi, expert-on-the-Öztürk-case but not-an-immigration-expert-really here. For clarity, Öztürk held an F-1 student visa but was not a lawful permanent resident (LPR) (green card holder), unlike the similar case of Mahmoud Khalil (Columbia university) who was a green card holder. And "green card visa" is not a thing, there's a "green card," which you cannot "violate" (although you could commit crimes that might have consequences for your LPR status), and you generally don't hear "violate their visa" although it's true that a visa is related to and may restrict that work you can do in the country. Regardless, no allegations have been made that Öztürk violated anything laws or rules or did anything other than lend her name to speech in a newspaper. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 22:51, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

as always, based randall, at least for now. [[User:Tzelofachad|Tzelofachad]] ([[User talk:Tzelofachad|talk]]) 16:04, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
:Did you mean "biased"? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:31, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
::Did you mean "biased towards due process?" [[User:CharlesT|Nyrrix]] ([[User talk:CharlesT|talk]]) 16:51, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
::It's probably "based", as that's a term that can either be used in support or mockery of a philosophical position (because of Poe's Law, hard to know which in most cases, including here). It's more usually used in 4chan-like responses (and I doubt Randall would be considered "based" in those other places) than hereabouts, so perhaps it needs some clarification for those not (or not enough) in that sort of crame of mind. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.94|141.101.99.94]] 17:06, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
:Yes, Randall Munroe clearly only cares about this one incident because he does not at all care about politics. He's definitely not using this as an illustrative case on the countless other identical incidents happening under the Trump administration. /s /s /s /s /s. [[User:DrMeepster|'''Dr.'''Meepster]]
(<[[User_talk:DrMeepster|chat]]> •
<[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} reply]>) 16:53, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

I really hope this is one of those comics that does NOT stand the test of time. In other words, I hope the next generation of graduate students sees this and thinks "oh, that must've been written in 2025, we don't have to worry about those kinds of things anymore." Perhaps "hope" isn't the right word, it implies I have hope. Maybe "pray fervently" is the right phrase. Sigh. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.227.72|198.41.227.72]] 16:30, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
:Sure ... "Oh, that was before third world war, we don't have to worry about those kinds of things anymore." -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:08, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
:We can go back to considering how the Ph.D. became a participation trophy for the financial benefit of the awarding institution - and, in the sciences, a source of slave labor. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.61|172.71.146.61]] 01:51, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

How do we edit the Categories? This should have category Politics. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:31, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
:Usually, once at least one other category (not created from templates like {{template|comic}}) you can edit the page and see the other cat(s) at the bottom, beyond the comic-discussion template. Or edit the Transcript section (or any Trivia one, whatever's the last one) as that'll also have the tail-end of the page. So long as you know there's a category "Foo", you should be able to work out how to add "Category:Foo".
:But don't add Foo if it doesn't exist, hoping that someone will tire of the redlink that's created. You may be wrong about it needing to exist, or miss the ''actual'' "Category:comics featuring Foo", and unless someone is feeling generous it's possible that your edit just gets reverted as not properly researched, or checked... I ''think'' there actually is a Politics category, by that name, but I'm trying to answer the general question, not yet going out there to look it up for certain (at which point, I may have just added it myself, making it useless to have explained how you could 'easily' do it... At least in this instance).
:'''TL;DR;''', though, look at the source (wiki-edit) of another comic that is about Politics and is so categorised. Go all the way to bottom, and you'll see which 'tag' you might want to put at the bottom of this one. Should be obvious. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.94|141.101.99.94]] 17:06, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
I think I've added that category now [[Special:Contributions/104.23.190.60|104.23.190.60]] 19:33, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

I'm so tired of this administration :( [[User:CharlesT|Nyrrix]] ([[User talk:CharlesT|talk]]) 16:49, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
:Are you a citizen of the USA? If so, are you dead? In exile? In jail? Have your assets been seized? No to these? Then this is your administration and mine. Own it, or act. "Tired" doesn't cut it. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.21|172.71.147.21]] 02:02, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

The comic on mobile has the title text has a youtube video URL, and if you click on the comic on desktop version, it links to the youtube video of the arrest. This isn't reflected in the description currently. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.121|172.70.126.121]] 16:51, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

The video URL is '''https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyypeEEOklM''' and appears to be "'''CBS Boston [282K subscribers]'''" so probably legit?
I will try to add the URL. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 17:08, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
:For the sake of consistency, I copy-pasted the "note" from [[1723]] into this comic. '''I also think we should have a category and perhaps a template to make adding notes like this easier and more uniform.''' [[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.22|172.69.67.22]] 21:11, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
::''"I copy-pasted...."'' Thank you! --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 03:56, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
::Well, you can create it right now if you want! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 22:08, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

Is this the first with an out of site link? {{unsigned}}
:No this happens often. For instance this comic {{xkcd|1723}}. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:09, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

Again, let's keep the explanation as neutral as possible. Facts only. [[User:Dogman15|Dogman15]] ([[User talk:Dogman15|talk]]) 18:49, 25 April 2025 (UTC)
:Dunlap's Laws. 1. Fact is solidified opinion. 2. Facts may weaken under extreme heat and pressure. 3. Truth is elastic. (Arthur Block's "Murphy's Laws", 1977.) - "Facts are elite, facts are fungible, facts are false. And once nothing is true, anything can be true." Alan Burdick, ''Trump vs Science'', New York ''Times'' Newsletter, 25 April 2025. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.41|172.68.22.41]] 02:10, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
: the problem is facts have a heavy anti trump bias. You CAN NOT state basic facts and not be against this regime [[Special:Contributions/162.158.112.187|162.158.112.187]] 00:05, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
:: I think it's important to emphasize that neutrality is simply a bias towards the truth rather than towards anything else. On a technical level, being unbiased precludes being neutral and being neutral precludes being unbiased, even if people mostly use the word "unbiased" in the same way as "neutral". In other words, bias isn't inherently a bad thing.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.219|172.71.102.219]] 00:48, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
:::"A bias towards the truth" is a bias towards what my homies and I declare to be correct - since 'absolute truth' does not exist, all 'truth' is relative, is what 'my homies and I declare to be correct'. This bias is not trivial, as you point out. Explanations on xkcd have striven to cover the "what, when, where, who, how" of the associated comic, and have striven to omit "what do we think about all this" except as is necessary to describe "what, when, where, who, how". The goal is laudable, but [''ahem''] difficult to manage when the topic is a lit match on a powder keg. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.143|108.162.245.143]] 02:34, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
:::: This "no absolute truth" false neutrality nonsense is a bad faith argument rooted in pop philosophy and obfuscating rhetoric intended to discredit the existence of inconvenient facts. There's a famous, if apocryphal, parable about the philosopher who tried to argue this sort of hogwash to the oncoming train that hit him. Gravity exists, the Earth is not flat, and the current administration is run by a bunch of idiotic narcissists actively harming people for personal profit. [[User:Scorpion451|Scorpion451]] ([[User talk:Scorpion451|talk]]) 04:23, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
Of course, the bit I was correcting (with bad grammar, and lack of facts) got totally changed about before I tried to post it. "''For instance citizens usually {{w|Deportation of Americans from the United States|cannot be deported for any reason}} (only extradited, although the US typically refuses to comply with requests even from countries that freely extradite to it), and would instead be subject only to local legal penalties, but relatively minor allegations have resulted in visitors' extraditions.''" was what I wrote. Now, I ''think'' that was neutral enough, but it doesn't fit there now anyway. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.58.113|172.70.58.113]] 22:45, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

:Ack, I think I'm the one who changed it before you could. My bad. Anyway, seconded. Opinion on the conflict in Gaza itself is not needed in this explanation; the edit that suggested that the student could be materially linked to Hamas by providing a link to an opinion poll of how Palestinians feel about the Oct 7 attacks is, in my opinion, very disingenuous, especially considering Ozturk is not Palestinian but Turkish, making the cited data even more blatantly irrelevant than it already would have been. [[User:Psycherprince|Psycherprince]] ([[User talk:Psycherprince|talk]]) 23:05, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

This article could potentially be a reasonable place to try to establish a norm of separately including opposing sides of political topics (rather than the usual edit conflicts). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.176|172.70.110.176]] 00:35, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

Step 6: Try not to lose your visa when traveling or studying abroad by being a nuisance, since visas (in any country) can be denied or revoked for virtually any reason. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.112.168|162.158.112.168]] 01:06, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
:Pray the leopards never eat your face.
::I'll bring decoy meat and try not to insult the cheetahs while visiting. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.112.186|162.158.112.186]] 01:45, 26 April 2025 (UTC)
:Do nothing whatsoever controversial, because you don't know who will be running things within a few years? Or what liberties they may take with due process or law? Certainly one wouldn't want to run afoul of officials who are, say, flat-Earthers, Biblical literalists, or holders of unusual views regarding medical practise. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:45, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

== Reason for detention ==

As it is now, the reason given for Özturk's detention is a half-truth. She was not detained because her visa was revoked. That would only prevent her from re-entering the US, if she left it. In contrast, Özturk's visa was revoked in secret, and she did not know about this until after she had been grabbed off the street and treated like a terrorist, or like a dissident in a South American regime.
https://oiss.washu.edu/visa-status-stamps/ says: "The visa stamp is solely for entering the U.S. You will need it again only when you leave the U.S. and intend to re-enter using that visa. It’s sometimes called an “entry visa,” which is different from “status,” a concept explained below. The visa stamp can expire at any time after your entry to the U.S. without affecting your non-immigrant status. If you leave the U.S. and your visa has expired, you will need to apply for a new visa in order to re-enter the U.S." — "Non-immigrant status (also referred to as “status” or “immigration status”) is a non-physical legal condition, granted by an official of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) when you are admitted into the U.S. at a port of entry. Once you obtain non-immigrant status, you must maintain that status throughout your stay in the U.S. unless you legally change to another status."
ExplainXKCD leaves unexplained whether Özturk's immigration status changed, and on what charges she was detained, or whether she was detained without a charge. It is unclear how her visa revocation is related to her arrest, as a visa revocation would not normally lead to an arrest (or does it?). If the ExplainXkCD's failure to explain the reason for Özturk's arrest is related to the US government's failure to explain the reason, then that should be made clear.
Or simply say, "we're not explaining it because politics, go read Wikipedia and educate yourself", but then explainxkcd should not suggest that the reason is the visa revocation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.95.159|162.158.95.159]] 04:25, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

3081: PhD Timeline

2025-04-26T14:13:33Z

Kev:

{{comic
| number = 3081
| date = April 25, 2025
| title = PhD Timeline
| image = phd_timeline_2x.png
| imagesize = 382x516px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Rümeysa Öztürk was grabbed off the street in my town one month ago.
}}

Clicking on the image on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] takes you to ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyypeEEOklM Surveillance video shows Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk apprehended in Somerville, MA]'' on YouTube.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|You might want to {{w|Detention of Rümeysa Öztürk|copy text over from the Wikipedia page}}, but keep in mind this wiki's main goal is to explain the comic. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic presents a typical PhD timeline, with a twist. Typically a PhD is broken into a number of steps, from enrollment through to thesis defense. However, in this case, the timeline takes an unexpected turn when, instead of publishing the thesis, the candidate is detained by masked government agents. While this may seem like an unlikely event, it reflects the {{w|detention of Rümeysa Öztürk|lived experience of Rümeysa Öztürk}}, a Turkish Ph.D. student at Tufts University<ref>"Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans release joint statement condemning detainment of Rümeysa Öztürk" Tufts Daily 22/04/2025 https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/04/tufts-democrats-and-tufts-republicans-release-joint-statement-condemning-detainment-of-rumeysa-ozutrk accessed 26/04/2025</ref> who was abruptly detained by six masked ICE agents in Somerville, MA while walking to an {{w|iftar}} dinner. Subsequently, she was transported to Vermont and then to a detention facility in Louisiana before a court ordered that she not be removed from Massachusetts.<ref>"Louisiana federal judge denies bond to Rümeysa Öztürk" Tufts Daily 18/04/2025 https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/04/louisiana-judge-denies-bond-to-rumeysa-ozturk-while-vermont-judge-considers-jurisdiction accessed 26/04/2025</ref>

The reason given for her detention was that her {{w|F visa|F-1 student visa}} was revoked due to, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman<ref>"DHS detains grad student who advocated for Palestine and the "humanity of all people"" Salon 26/03/2025 https://www.salon.com/2025/03/26/dhs-detains-grad-student-advocated-for-palestine-and-the-humanity-of-all-people/ accessed 26/04/2025</ref>,
her alleged activities in support of the foreign terrorist organization {{w|Hamas}} on the campus of Tufts. Aside from her being co-author of an article in a student newspaper which was critical of her university's response towards protests against the ongoing {{w|Gaza war}}, no evidence of support for Hamas has been provided. The U.S. government can cancel a visa if the subject's activities are harmful to U.S. foreign policy interests, though the threat of a visa being revoked has a clear chilling effect on legal speech, and raises serious {{w|First Amendment}} issues.

The title text refers to the fact that Somerville is also where [[Randall Munroe]] lives.

For a more detailed account, see {{w|Detention of Rümeysa Öztürk}} on Wikipedia.

==Transcript==
:[A chart shows the typical events in a research program. At the top there is a dotted line. There is a title above the line and the line is labeled with text in the middle breaking the line:]
:US PH.D PROGRAM TIMELINE
:–––––––ENROLLMENT–––––––––

:[The dotted line aligns with the top of an Y-axis with 7 ticks, the top tick on level with the dotted line. There are seven labels from top towards the bottom, not written near specifik ticks, and with uneven distance. Between each of the labels there is an arrow from the one above pointing the the next. To the right of the first five labels there is a split up rectangle, that are closed at the top , but open at the bottom. Down through the middle part it is split up in two along a kind of S-shape going a bit up from left to right. There is a gab between the top and bottom part of this figure along this s-shape. Both top and bottom part has a label. All text and other parts of the comic has been in black until this. But the last two labels near the Y-axis beneath where the rectangular figure stops, which are still written in black, have been crossed out with red squiggly lines, both the two small arrows and the text. From the label above those crossed out, there goes a red arrow down and then to the right. This point to another red label next to and right of the first of the two that has been crossed out. From beneath this another red arrow point to a second red label, next to the the last of the two that was crossed out. A third red arrow goes beneath this to a final red label.]
:Meet with Advisor
:Research Proposal
:Qualifying Exams
:Purpose Dissertation
:Research and Write dissertation

:[The above is the labels near the rectangular figure to the right with the following labels:]
:Coursework
:Research

:[The final two labels that have been crossed out with red lines:]
:Submit dissertation
:Defend dissertation

:[The new labels written to the right with red:]
:Get grabbed off the sidewalk outside of your home by masked government agents
:Be whisked out of the state before a judge has time to intervene
:????

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]

3081: PhD Timeline

2025-04-26T14:13:05Z

Kev:

{{comic
| number = 3081
| date = April 25, 2025
| title = PhD Timeline
| image = phd_timeline_2x.png
| imagesize = 382x516px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Rümeysa Öztürk was grabbed off the street in my town one month ago.
}}

Clicking on the image on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] takes you to ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyypeEEOklM Surveillance video shows Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk apprehended in Somerville, MA]'' on YouTube.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|You might want to {{w|Detention of Rümeysa Öztürk|copy text over from the Wikipedia page}}, but keep in mind this wiki's main goal is to explain the comic. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic presents a typical PhD timeline, with a twist. Typically a PhD is broken into a number of steps, from enrollment through to thesis defense. However, in this case, the timeline takes an unexpected turn when, instead of publishing the thesis, the candidate is detained by masked government agents. While this may seem like an unlikely event, it reflects the {{w|detention of Rümeysa Öztürk|lived experience of Rümeysa Öztürk}}, a Turkish Ph.D. student at Tufts University<ref>"Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans release joint statement condemning detainment of Rümeysa Öztürk" Tufts Daily 22/04/2025 https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/04/tufts-democrats-and-tufts-republicans-release-joint-statement-condemning-detainment-of-rumeysa-ozutrk accessed 26/04/2025</ref> who was abruptly detained by six masked ICE agents in Somerville, MA while walking to an {{w|iftar}} dinner. Subsequently, she was transported to Vermont and then to a detention facility in Louisiana before a court ordered that she not be removed from Massachusetts.<cite>"Louisiana federal judge denies bond to Rümeysa Öztürk" Tufts Daily 18/04/2025 https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/04/louisiana-judge-denies-bond-to-rumeysa-ozturk-while-vermont-judge-considers-jurisdiction accessed 26/04/2025</ref>

The reason given for her detention was that her {{w|F visa|F-1 student visa}} was revoked due to, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman<ref>"DHS detains grad student who advocated for Palestine and the "humanity of all people"" Salon 26/03/2025 https://www.salon.com/2025/03/26/dhs-detains-grad-student-advocated-for-palestine-and-the-humanity-of-all-people/ accessed 26/04/2025</ref>,
her alleged activities in support of the foreign terrorist organization {{w|Hamas}} on the campus of Tufts. Aside from her being co-author of an article in a student newspaper which was critical of her university's response towards protests against the ongoing {{w|Gaza war}}, no evidence of support for Hamas has been provided. The U.S. government can cancel a visa if the subject's activities are harmful to U.S. foreign policy interests, though the threat of a visa being revoked has a clear chilling effect on legal speech, and raises serious {{w|First Amendment}} issues.

The title text refers to the fact that Somerville is also where [[Randall Munroe]] lives.

For a more detailed account, see {{w|Detention of Rümeysa Öztürk}} on Wikipedia.

==Transcript==
:[A chart shows the typical events in a research program. At the top there is a dotted line. There is a title above the line and the line is labeled with text in the middle breaking the line:]
:US PH.D PROGRAM TIMELINE
:–––––––ENROLLMENT–––––––––

:[The dotted line aligns with the top of an Y-axis with 7 ticks, the top tick on level with the dotted line. There are seven labels from top towards the bottom, not written near specifik ticks, and with uneven distance. Between each of the labels there is an arrow from the one above pointing the the next. To the right of the first five labels there is a split up rectangle, that are closed at the top , but open at the bottom. Down through the middle part it is split up in two along a kind of S-shape going a bit up from left to right. There is a gab between the top and bottom part of this figure along this s-shape. Both top and bottom part has a label. All text and other parts of the comic has been in black until this. But the last two labels near the Y-axis beneath where the rectangular figure stops, which are still written in black, have been crossed out with red squiggly lines, both the two small arrows and the text. From the label above those crossed out, there goes a red arrow down and then to the right. This point to another red label next to and right of the first of the two that has been crossed out. From beneath this another red arrow point to a second red label, next to the the last of the two that was crossed out. A third red arrow goes beneath this to a final red label.]
:Meet with Advisor
:Research Proposal
:Qualifying Exams
:Purpose Dissertation
:Research and Write dissertation

:[The above is the labels near the rectangular figure to the right with the following labels:]
:Coursework
:Research

:[The final two labels that have been crossed out with red lines:]
:Submit dissertation
:Defend dissertation

:[The new labels written to the right with red:]
:Get grabbed off the sidewalk outside of your home by masked government agents
:Be whisked out of the state before a judge has time to intervene
:????

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]

3081: PhD Timeline

2025-04-26T14:12:09Z

Kev: Added needed citations

{{comic
| number = 3081
| date = April 25, 2025
| title = PhD Timeline
| image = phd_timeline_2x.png
| imagesize = 382x516px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Rümeysa Öztürk was grabbed off the street in my town one month ago.
}}

Clicking on the image on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] takes you to ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyypeEEOklM Surveillance video shows Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk apprehended in Somerville, MA]'' on YouTube.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|You might want to {{w|Detention of Rümeysa Öztürk|copy text over from the Wikipedia page}}, but keep in mind this wiki's main goal is to explain the comic. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic presents a typical PhD timeline, with a twist. Typically a PhD is broken into a number of steps, from enrollment through to thesis defense. However, in this case, the timeline takes an unexpected turn when, instead of publishing the thesis, the candidate is detained by masked government agents. While this may seem like an unlikely event, it reflects the {{w|detention of Rümeysa Öztürk|lived experience of Rümeysa Öztürk}}, a Turkish Ph.D. student at Tufts University<ref>"Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans release joint statement condemning detainment of Rümeysa Öztürk" Tufts Daily 22/04/2025 https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/04/tufts-democrats-and-tufts-republicans-release-joint-statement-condemning-detainment-of-rumeysa-ozutrk accessed 26/04/2025 who was abruptly detained by six masked ICE agents in Somerville, MA while walking to an {{w|iftar}} dinner. Subsequently, she was transported to Vermont and then to a detention facility in Louisiana before a court ordered that she not be removed from Massachusetts.<cite>"Louisiana federal judge denies bond to Rümeysa Öztürk" Tufts Daily 18/04/2025 https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/04/louisiana-judge-denies-bond-to-rumeysa-ozturk-while-vermont-judge-considers-jurisdiction accessed 26/04/2025

The reason given for her detention was that her {{w|F visa|F-1 student visa}} was revoked due to, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman<ref>"DHS detains grad student who advocated for Palestine and the "humanity of all people"" Salon 26/03/2025 https://www.salon.com/2025/03/26/dhs-detains-grad-student-advocated-for-palestine-and-the-humanity-of-all-people/ accessed 26/04/2025</ref>,
her alleged activities in support of the foreign terrorist organization {{w|Hamas}} on the campus of Tufts. Aside from her being co-author of an article in a student newspaper which was critical of her university's response towards protests against the ongoing {{w|Gaza war}}, no evidence of support for Hamas has been provided. The U.S. government can cancel a visa if the subject's activities are harmful to U.S. foreign policy interests, though the threat of a visa being revoked has a clear chilling effect on legal speech, and raises serious {{w|First Amendment}} issues.

The title text refers to the fact that Somerville is also where [[Randall Munroe]] lives.

For a more detailed account, see {{w|Detention of Rümeysa Öztürk}} on Wikipedia.

==Transcript==
:[A chart shows the typical events in a research program. At the top there is a dotted line. There is a title above the line and the line is labeled with text in the middle breaking the line:]
:US PH.D PROGRAM TIMELINE
:–––––––ENROLLMENT–––––––––

:[The dotted line aligns with the top of an Y-axis with 7 ticks, the top tick on level with the dotted line. There are seven labels from top towards the bottom, not written near specifik ticks, and with uneven distance. Between each of the labels there is an arrow from the one above pointing the the next. To the right of the first five labels there is a split up rectangle, that are closed at the top , but open at the bottom. Down through the middle part it is split up in two along a kind of S-shape going a bit up from left to right. There is a gab between the top and bottom part of this figure along this s-shape. Both top and bottom part has a label. All text and other parts of the comic has been in black until this. But the last two labels near the Y-axis beneath where the rectangular figure stops, which are still written in black, have been crossed out with red squiggly lines, both the two small arrows and the text. From the label above those crossed out, there goes a red arrow down and then to the right. This point to another red label next to and right of the first of the two that has been crossed out. From beneath this another red arrow point to a second red label, next to the the last of the two that was crossed out. A third red arrow goes beneath this to a final red label.]
:Meet with Advisor
:Research Proposal
:Qualifying Exams
:Purpose Dissertation
:Research and Write dissertation

:[The above is the labels near the rectangular figure to the right with the following labels:]
:Coursework
:Research

:[The final two labels that have been crossed out with red lines:]
:Submit dissertation
:Defend dissertation

:[The new labels written to the right with red:]
:Get grabbed off the sidewalk outside of your home by masked government agents
:Be whisked out of the state before a judge has time to intervene
:????

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]

Talk:3068: Rock Identification

2025-03-27T22:27:32Z

Kev:

I made a transcript [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 21:03, 26 March 2025 (UTC)

It might also imply that the geologist doesn’t know but just wants the $5 so comes up with an answer [[Special:Contributions/198.41.236.163|198.41.236.163]] 00:01, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

I doubt they're lying about what rock it is since both mica schists and garnets are visually obvious and even more obvious if a scratch test is performed.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.186.157|172.69.186.157]] 04:36, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

The funny part is it works the other way round: you first identify minerals by sight (also Mohs scale and polarizing microscope), then conclude what the geologic context is. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.232.25|172.71.232.25]] 11:01, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

I think this random "it was wrapped in the bill, no idea where the money came from" also implies corruption and destroying the traces of the money, instead of just payment or tip. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 11:29, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

Unfortunate missed chance to call this comic a “Geologist Tip” [[Special:Contributions/172.70.176.56|172.70.176.56]] 13:04, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

Surely the joke is that it only takes $5 to bribe a Geologist.
:Hey, if you want to pay me $5 to pay attention to you for a minute, I would take the deal. That's a great hourly rate! Though I guess my perspective might be skewed, since I'm not a professional scientist but just a (somewhat broke) grad student[[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 17:38, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

wonder if the comic is referring to the (somewhat popular) whatisthisrock subreddit --172.68.210.176 19:29, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

Whoever entered "If you're good at something, never do it for free" should be congratulated for doing quality voluntary work [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 22:27, 27 March 2025 (UTC).

3068: Rock Identification

2025-03-27T00:55:45Z

Kev: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3068
| date = March 26, 2025
| title = Rock Identification
| image = rock_identification_2x.png
| imagesize = 430x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Is it worth anything?' 'I dunno, is the answer to that question worth another $5?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SPECIALLY ARRANGED ASSEMBLY OF SILICATES THAT WILL DO IT FOR $4 - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Geologists, being the specialists who study natural features of the earth, are often called to interpret rock formations, either to understand the formation of our planet, identify suitable sites to mine resources, or to explain what the pretty thing you're holding is called. It is somewhat hard to identify rocks without knowing their original location - as this gives such features as local lava flows, subduction into layers causing metamorphic rock or the presence of local sediments that can form into similar looking hard things. Randall insinuates here that this is just a lie geologists insinuate to obtain free money from curious people looking to identify rocks and assures that the best way to get rocks identified is to pay the geologist you ask.

This subverts the expected "correct" way to ask the question, which in these sorts of tips is often made by asking a slightly different question that gives a reason for the person who knows the information to become interested, rather than feel like they are being asked to do work for you. Examples of expected ways to get the information might be to ask premptively, "Can you tell me where this rock came from?". Or, to draw their attention by being intentionally wrong, i.e. "Why is this granite red?"

An alternative explanation might be that garnets in mica schists actually grow in $5 bill environments, and this was sufficient geologic context for the geologists to differentiate it from Iris Agates which grow exclusively amongst $100 bills.

==Transcript==
[Cueball is holding a small spotted rock]
Cueball: Can you identify this rock I found?

Ponytail: Not without knowing '''where''' you found it. It's difficult to identify minerals by sight without the geological context.

[Cueball is holding $5 bill under the same small spotted rock]

Cueball: Can you identify this rock I found wrapped in a $5 bill?

Ponytail: Sure! Looks like garnets in a mica schist.

{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[Caption above the comic:]
:how to ask geologists to identify a rock
:[A two-paneled comic, one panel being labeled "wrong:" and the other being labeled "right:"]
:[The panel labeled "wrong:"]
:[Cueball holds out a rock to Ponytail]
:Cueball: Can you identify this rock that I found?
:Ponytail: Not without knowing where you found it. It's difficult to identify minerals by sight without the geologic context.

:[The panel labeled "right:"]
:[Cueball holds out a rock wrapped in a $5 bill to Ponytail]
:Cueball: Can you identify this rock that I found wrapped in a $5 bill?
:Ponytail: Sure! Looks like garnets in a mica schist.

{{comic discussion}}

3044: Humidifier Review

2025-01-30T21:35:00Z

Kev:

{{comic
| number = 3044
| date = January 29, 2025
| title = Humidifier Review
| image = humidifier_review_2x.png
| imagesize = 285x287px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They should add a little sticker that certifies that the humidifier supports water conservation, but in the sense of energy conservation or momentum conservation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a 101% EFFICIENT TOASTER. This page was clearly autogenerated by an AI that does not understand the comic nor humidity engineering. I tried to improve the first paragraph. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic shows a review of a {{w|humidifier}}, which complains that it uses too much water to increase the humidity of the room to 45%. However, aside from small efficiency improvements (and [[2710: Hydropower Breakthrough|machinery made by Beret Guy]]), it is very hard to reduce the amount of water used to humidify a room without sealing the room better to prevent humid air from leaving it, which has nothing to do with the humidifier. The humour is thus at the expense of people who live in hot and dry areas, such as the deserts of South and Western USA, but who don't understand the requirements of comfortable modern living and thus complain in ignorance.

A humidifier is a device that evaporates water from a tank, causing the air around it to become more humid. The law of {{w|conservation of mass}} states that the amount of matter in the universe must stay constant. Therefore, the amount of water used by the humidifier must be at least the amount gained by the air. In order to release more water into the air than was originally placed in the tank, the humidifier would have to use a chemical reaction to create water from some other chemicals - which would still need to be supplied. This analysis also assumes the room is held at a constant temperature. Since humidity (when given as a percentage measure such as the stated 45%) is relative to the water capacity of the air at its current temperature, a humidifier could also increase relative humidity by cooling the air, even using no water at all.

Other examples of commonly-used, commonly-reviewed household devices whose operational efficiency is limited by the laws of physics themselves include {{w|space heater|space heaters}}, {{w|electric water boiler|electric kettles}}, {{w|air conditioning|air conditioners}}, and {{w|refrigerator|refrigerators}}. For instance, a space heater {{what if|35|cannot produce more heat than the electrical energy it consumes}}, as dictated by the laws of thermodynamics. Similarly, an electric kettle cannot heat water with less energy than the amount required to raise its temperature, due to the specific heat capacity of water. Air conditioners and refrigerators operate by transferring heat rather than creating "cold," and their efficiency is constrained by the {{w|Carnot cycle}}, which defines the maximum possible efficiency of a heat engine.

Reviews which indicate the ignorance or [[937:_TornadoGuard|gullibility]] of the reviewer, or which indicate the [[325:_A-Minus-Minus|vindictive nature]] of the vendor, are a common theme in XKCD.

The joke in the title text is based on different senses of the word "conservation". To most people this refers to reducing wasted use of some material, e.g. "water conservation" means avoiding waste of water. But to physicists, it means that some quantity in a system stays the same; for instance, conservation of energy means that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. For many years, most appliances have had {{w|Energy Star}} stickers that indicate their impact on the environment; by adopting the physicists' sense, they can trivially say they support water conservation.

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

:[A product review appears within a panel. At the top left is a small drawing of a humidifier within a rectangle. To the right of that rectangle, the following text appears:]
:HydroPro Humidifier
:[A line of illegible text appears below the product name, followed by a shorter line of illegible text within a rectangle.]
:Reviews
:[A horizontal line separates the above from a small close-up drawing of Hairy in a circle, with two lines of illegible text to his right.]
:[(3/5 stars)] '''Good but inefficient'''
:It keeps the humidity at 45% pretty well. I'd give it 5 stars if it didn't use so much water.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My favorite reviews are the ones that penalize products for not violating the laws of physics.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

3044: Humidifier Review

2025-01-30T21:33:01Z

Kev: /* Explanation */ If you're going to live in a desert, expect it to be dry.

{{comic
| number = 3044
| date = January 29, 2025
| title = Humidifier Review
| image = humidifier_review_2x.png
| imagesize = 285x287px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They should add a little sticker that certifies that the humidifier supports water conservation, but in the sense of energy conservation or momentum conservation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a 101% EFFICIENT TOASTER. This page was clearly autogenerated by an AI that does not understand the comic nor humidity engineering. I tried to improve the first paragraph. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic shows a review of a {{w|humidifier}}, which complains that it uses too much water to increase the humidity of the room to 45%. However, aside from small efficiency improvements (and [[2710: Hydropower Breakthrough|machinery made by Beret Guy]]), it is very hard to reduce the amount of water used to humidify a room without sealing the room better to prevent humid air from leaving it, which has nothing to do with the humidifier. The humour is thus at the expense of people who live in hot and dry areas, such as the deserts of South and Western USA, but who don't understand the requirements of comfortable modern living and thus complain in ignorance.

A humidifier is a device that evaporates water from a tank, causing the air around it to become more humid. The law of {{w|conservation of mass}} states that the amount of matter in the universe must stay constant. Therefore, the amount of water used by the humidifier must be at least the amount gained by the air. In order to release more water into the air than was originally placed in the tank, the humidifier would have to use a chemical reaction to create water from some other chemicals - which would still need to be supplied. This analysis also assumes the room is held at a constant temperature. Since humidity (when given as a percentage measure such as the stated 45%) is relative to the water capacity of the air at its current temperature, a humidifier could also increase relative humidity by cooling the air, even using no water at all.

Other examples of commonly-used, commonly-reviewed household devices whose operational efficiency is limited by the laws of physics themselves include {{w|space heater|space heaters}}, {{w|electric water boiler|electric kettles}}, {{w|air conditioning|air conditioners}}, and {{w|refrigerator|refrigerators}}. For instance, a space heater {{what if|35|cannot produce more heat than the electrical energy it consumes}}, as dictated by the laws of thermodynamics. Similarly, an electric kettle cannot heat water with less energy than the amount required to raise its temperature, due to the specific heat capacity of water. Air conditioners and refrigerators operate by transferring heat rather than creating "cold," and their efficiency is constrained by the {{w|Carnot cycle}}, which defines the maximum possible efficiency of a heat engine.

Reviews which indicate the ignorance of the reviewer, or which indicate the [[325:_A-Minus-Minus|vindictive nature]] of the vendor, are a common theme in XKCD.

The joke in the title text is based on different senses of the word "conservation". To most people this refers to reducing wasted use of some material, e.g. "water conservation" means avoiding waste of water. But to physicists, it means that some quantity in a system stays the same; for instance, conservation of energy means that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. For many years, most appliances have had {{w|Energy Star}} stickers that indicate their impact on the environment; by adopting the physicists' sense, they can trivially say they support water conservation.

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

:[A product review appears within a panel. At the top left is a small drawing of a humidifier within a rectangle. To the right of that rectangle, the following text appears:]
:HydroPro Humidifier
:[A line of illegible text appears below the product name, followed by a shorter line of illegible text within a rectangle.]
:Reviews
:[A horizontal line separates the above from a small close-up drawing of Hairy in a circle, with two lines of illegible text to his right.]
:[(3/5 stars)] '''Good but inefficient'''
:It keeps the humidity at 45% pretty well. I'd give it 5 stars if it didn't use so much water.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My favorite reviews are the ones that penalize products for not violating the laws of physics.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

Talk:3042: T. Rex Evolution

2025-01-25T09:52:11Z

Kev:

too soon bro 😭😭😭😭 [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 12:49, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

The next stage in T-Rex would be a massive lizard with incredible bite force and barely any limbs... an Alligator [[Special:Contributions/172.70.115.198|172.70.115.198]] 13:31, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
: Well, we do have large, legless animals with big mouths and teeth ... they're called 'snakes'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.44|172.70.178.44]] 15:25, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
:two enter keys to form a new line [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 13:33, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

So that explains the loch ness monster?
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.195|172.70.250.195]] 14:47, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
: Probably not. T. Rex lived in America. --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 14:50, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
::Since when has obvious contradictory facts gotten in the way of cryptids? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.104|108.162.238.104]] 15:04, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
::Not another CG account ''sigh'' '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:02, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
:::alright, calm down, it's just the person(s?) who tried to start a conscript ARG on this wiki IIRC [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 17:14, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
::::I guess you’re right. I should probably follow {{w|WP:GOODFAITH}} more when it comes to matters like this '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 17:47, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
::::: This tyrannosaurus wouldn't be the last american to come to Scotland and terrorise the locals. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 09:47, 25 January 2025 (UTC)
::: My account name is randomly generated 🤷‍♂️ --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 08:07, 25 January 2025 (UTC)
So this is where snakes come from! {{unsigned|Petercordia|17:01, 24 January 2025 (UTC)}}

Looks like this is how the {{w|tsuchinoko}} came to be... [[User:TheGoomba98|TheGoomba98]] ([[User talk:TheGoomba98|talk]]) 17:12, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Do we have any figures on just how strong the bite force would be? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.223|172.68.22.223]] 17:15, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

It seems like many here say that the T-Rex would become a snake, but it would have to simultaneously evolve to be able to move via the scales on its stomach, so I don't think it's guaranteed [[User:Sophon|Sophon]] ([[User talk:Sophon|talk]]) 18:45, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
:You're right. It'll become a huge slug. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.178|172.68.205.178]] 20:31, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Isn't this how whales evolved? Of course, they lost their hind limbs first, while T Rex was losing its forelimbs.[[User:Vfp15|Vfp15]] ([[User talk:Vfp15|talk]]) 23:21, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
: Dolphins too? I remember finding a snake once with tiny non-functional legs. Surely there are some cool pics on Commons for this explanation, anyone? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.48|162.158.91.48]] 02:24, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3042: T. Rex Evolution

2025-01-25T09:47:43Z

Kev:

too soon bro 😭😭😭😭 [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 12:49, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

The next stage in T-Rex would be a massive lizard with incredible bite force and barely any limbs... an Alligator [[Special:Contributions/172.70.115.198|172.70.115.198]] 13:31, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
: Well, we do have large, legless animals with big mouths and teeth ... they're called 'snakes'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.44|172.70.178.44]] 15:25, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
:two enter keys to form a new line [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 13:33, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

So that explains the loch ness monster?
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.195|172.70.250.195]] 14:47, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
: Probably not. T. Rex lived in America. --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 14:50, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
::Since when has obvious contradictory facts gotten in the way of cryptids? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.104|108.162.238.104]] 15:04, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
::Not another CG account ''sigh'' '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:02, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
:::alright, calm down, it's just the person(s?) who tried to start a conscript ARG on this wiki IIRC [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 17:14, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
::::I guess you’re right. I should probably follow {{w|WP:GOODFAITH}} more when it comes to matters like this '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 17:47, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
::::: This tyrannosaurus wouldn't be the first american to come to Scotland and terrorise the locals. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 09:47, 25 January 2025 (UTC)
::: My account name is randomly generated 🤷‍♂️ --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 08:07, 25 January 2025 (UTC)
So this is where snakes come from! {{unsigned|Petercordia|17:01, 24 January 2025 (UTC)}}

Looks like this is how the {{w|tsuchinoko}} came to be... [[User:TheGoomba98|TheGoomba98]] ([[User talk:TheGoomba98|talk]]) 17:12, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Do we have any figures on just how strong the bite force would be? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.223|172.68.22.223]] 17:15, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

It seems like many here say that the T-Rex would become a snake, but it would have to simultaneously evolve to be able to move via the scales on its stomach, so I don't think it's guaranteed [[User:Sophon|Sophon]] ([[User talk:Sophon|talk]]) 18:45, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
:You're right. It'll become a huge slug. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.178|172.68.205.178]] 20:31, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Isn't this how whales evolved? Of course, they lost their hind limbs first, while T Rex was losing its forelimbs.[[User:Vfp15|Vfp15]] ([[User talk:Vfp15|talk]]) 23:21, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
: Dolphins too? I remember finding a snake once with tiny non-functional legs. Surely there are some cool pics on Commons for this explanation, anyone? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.48|162.158.91.48]] 02:24, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

3042: T. Rex Evolution

2025-01-25T09:45:28Z

Kev: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3042
| date = January 24, 2025
| title = T. Rex Evolution
| image = t_rex_evolution_2x.png
| imagesize = 418x378px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Unfortunately, body size and bite force continue to increase.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WITH NEGATIVE LIMBS, CURRENTLY LIVING IN LOCH NESS - fact-check the graph's "early" claim and flesh things out a bit. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The small and seemingly useless forelimbs of ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' have often been used as a source of humour in works of fiction that feature dinosaurs. Randall claims that the ancestors of ''T. Rex'' had (relatively) longer and therefore more useful forelimbs, and hypothesizes that - had non-avian dinosaurs not suffered an extinction event - this trend of "reduced limbs" would continue until present-day descendants of ''T. Rex'' were limbless creatures not unlike a giant snake.

Evolutionary theory indicates that different selection pressures cause the development or loss of characteristics, as those characteristics which enable better survival to continuation of the species are emphasised and those which don't (such as wasting nutrients on growing unnecessary limbs) are not.

In reality, while animals have evolved to lose usage of the limbs of their predecessors - such as the hind legs of a whale - the development of these vestigial limbs would not apply to other limbs. A T. rex would continue to have substantial need for its hind legs, which it used for running and chasing prey, and would have no reason to lose legs unless environmental factors favored a limbless lifestyle. This has happened multiple times in the Order Squamata, the lizards and snakes, where limbless body plans have evolved convergently over and over such as in blind worms as compared to true snakes. However these circumstances that encourage such lifestyles are not likely to happen to the large predatorial Tyrannosaurus. With that said Tyrannosaurus would likely eventually lose its arms altogether if it never went extinct.

The title text claims that as ''T. Rex'' was also larger than its ancestors, the same trend in growth would continue such that the hypothetical limbless present-day descendant would be even larger than the [https://what-if.xkcd.com/78/ famously elephant-sized] ''T. Rex''. In reality animals do not linearly grow in size and a modern Tyrannosaurus would not necessarily be dramatically larger, and could easily have gotten somewhat smaller even with the same body plans and lifestyle.

This comic may be tangentially related to the fact that birds are dinosaurs that survived the KT extinction, which is a recurring theme on xkcd.

Extrapolation was previously mentioned in [[605: Extrapolating|comic 605: Extrapolating]].

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

:[A graph of limbs over time, with 3 animals represented]
:[The vertical axis is labelled Limbs, from 0 to 4]
:[The horizontal axis is not labelled but represents time, in ticks of 10 million years, from 180 million years ago to 0.]
:["Extinction" points to 65 million years ago, and "Now" points to 0.]

:[The first animal, a regular dinosaur, is in the top left: 4 limbs, 150 million years ago.]
:4 normal limbs

:[An arrow goes from it to the second animal, a T. Rex, in the middle, just left of "extinction".]
:Barely more than 2

:[A dashed arrow with a question mark goes from it to the last animal: a leg-less dinosaur with a big mouth.]
:???

:[Caption below the panel:]
:If T. Rex hadn't gone extinct
:(Linear extrapolation)

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Extrapolation]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]

Talk:3027: Exclusion Principle

2024-12-22T12:39:05Z

Kev:

It should be noted, that amusingly, since the quantum gravity has yet to be full explained thanks to the fact that gravity affects, and that for all we know, Exclusion Principle may be just as valid, if not more so, to be on the list as Gravity (even though Exclusion Principle should not, generally, be on this list.) {{unsigned|LilithRose|06:48, 21 December 2024}}
: I'm in agreement. "Fundamental Forces" aren't an unalterable fact about the physical universe - they are scientists' best explanation for the unalterable facts about the physical universe until we find a better one. As a result there could be an underlying reason for the exclusion principle being just as fundamental to the universe as electromagnetism - we just don't know it yet. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 12:39, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

== Polymagnetic topologies as "color" charge, strong vs weak, etc? ==

I'm increasingly under the impression that these forces & principles, are each an expression of complex electromagnetic interactions? I've never quite understood why they're viewed as separate forces, instead of distinct-but-related expressions of a single type of force across complex topologies.

Particularly, I'm unclear why quark\gluon "color" interactions are seen as anything other than topologically-asymmetric fields interlocking; it just looks like the behavior of polymagnet fields, to me. (By the way, I'm glad there's now a common term, "polymagnetic", for the patterned fields that I'm sure many of us assembled while playing with tiny neodymium magnets & wire, as kids! Arranging multiple cores for a smaller, denser field, & observing that the patterns could interlock, felt like major 'Aha!' moments for me, at the time.)

I was so frustrated by my own feeling of "this complex thing I know very little about, really seems to have a very basic underlying principle that's being widely misconstrued", that [https://www.perplexity.ai/search/i-m-increasingly-under-the-imp-Q83bSr8pRXqMf64_VxKMZQ I've petitioned a mindless bot to hear my case.] (You'd have to scroll at least about halfway down, to get to any prompts even slightly interesting.) I'm probably wasting ''everyone's'' time with this, but it has been bothering me, more & more for ''decades,'' & my reading so far hasn't lessened that.

Why is everyone so insistent that these 'other' forces aren't magnetism? Seems like quite literally ''everything'' is magnetism, to me. Besides a formal education in the matter, what the heck am I missing, here?

[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:38, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

:I don't know what you mean by "complex topologies." Which topology? The reason we know the strong and weak interactions are not the electromagnetic interaction is that they have completely different gauge symmetries, among other reasons. The electromagnetic interaction has local symmetry group U(1), and the strong interaction has SU(3). Behaviorally-speaking, they are completely different in almost every respect, affecting different sets of particles, having different strengths, having different potentials, different ranges, carried by different fields, etc. Just as an example, an electron doesn't interact via the strong force ''at all.''

:It is likely that at extremely high energies, the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions are all unified. A theory describing this hypothetical union is called a grand unified theory or GUT, and detecting this experimentally is a major objective of modern physics. The unified "electroweak" interaction has already been observed at lower energies. But that doesn't mean the weak interaction is "just magnetism" or that electromagnetism is "just weak." They are both a consequence of a broken symmetry. The fully symmetric grand unified field would not resemble any one of the interactions that we see at lower energies but would be a symmetric combination of all of them. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 16:38, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

== Actually explaining the Pauli Principle ==

:"Electrons don't like to be in the same 'spot'" is plain wrong. "Same quantum number set" is the buzzword - remember, two electrons fit in the s orbital, one spin up, one spin down. "Spin-statistics theorem" is a good place to start to ponder about the why. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.95.145|162.158.95.145]] 09:40, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
:: Way too complicated, please change the universe so that "same spot" is good enough [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 12:35, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3027: Exclusion Principle

2024-12-22T12:35:31Z

Kev: /* Actually explaining the Pauli Principle */

It should be noted, that amusingly, since the quantum gravity has yet to be full explained thanks to the fact that gravity affects, and that for all we know, Exclusion Principle may be just as valid, if not more so, to be on the list as Gravity (even though Exclusion Principle should not, generally, be on this list.) {{unsigned|LilithRose|06:48, 21 December 2024}}

== Polymagnetic topologies as "color" charge, strong vs weak, etc? ==

I'm increasingly under the impression that these forces & principles, are each an expression of complex electromagnetic interactions? I've never quite understood why they're viewed as separate forces, instead of distinct-but-related expressions of a single type of force across complex topologies.

Particularly, I'm unclear why quark\gluon "color" interactions are seen as anything other than topologically-asymmetric fields interlocking; it just looks like the behavior of polymagnet fields, to me. (By the way, I'm glad there's now a common term, "polymagnetic", for the patterned fields that I'm sure many of us assembled while playing with tiny neodymium magnets & wire, as kids! Arranging multiple cores for a smaller, denser field, & observing that the patterns could interlock, felt like major 'Aha!' moments for me, at the time.)

I was so frustrated by my own feeling of "this complex thing I know very little about, really seems to have a very basic underlying principle that's being widely misconstrued", that [https://www.perplexity.ai/search/i-m-increasingly-under-the-imp-Q83bSr8pRXqMf64_VxKMZQ I've petitioned a mindless bot to hear my case.] (You'd have to scroll at least about halfway down, to get to any prompts even slightly interesting.) I'm probably wasting ''everyone's'' time with this, but it has been bothering me, more & more for ''decades,'' & my reading so far hasn't lessened that.

Why is everyone so insistent that these 'other' forces aren't magnetism? Seems like quite literally ''everything'' is magnetism, to me. Besides a formal education in the matter, what the heck am I missing, here?

[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:38, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

:I don't know what you mean by "complex topologies." Which topology? The reason we know the strong and weak interactions are not the electromagnetic interaction is that they have completely different gauge symmetries, among other reasons. The electromagnetic interaction has local symmetry group U(1), and the strong interaction has SU(3). Behaviorally-speaking, they are completely different in almost every respect, affecting different sets of particles, having different strengths, having different potentials, different ranges, carried by different fields, etc. Just as an example, an electron doesn't interact via the strong force ''at all.''

:It is likely that at extremely high energies, the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions are all unified. A theory describing this hypothetical union is called a grand unified theory or GUT, and detecting this experimentally is a major objective of modern physics. The unified "electroweak" interaction has already been observed at lower energies. But that doesn't mean the weak interaction is "just magnetism" or that electromagnetism is "just weak." They are both a consequence of a broken symmetry. The fully symmetric grand unified field would not resemble any one of the interactions that we see at lower energies but would be a symmetric combination of all of them. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 16:38, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

== Actually explaining the Pauli Principle ==

:"Electrons don't like to be in the same 'spot'" is plain wrong. "Same quantum number set" is the buzzword - remember, two electrons fit in the s orbital, one spin up, one spin down. "Spin-statistics theorem" is a good place to start to ponder about the why. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.95.145|162.158.95.145]] 09:40, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
:: Way too complicated, please change the universe so that "same spot" is good enough [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 12:35, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3022: Making Tea

2024-12-10T18:28:09Z

Kev:

I wonder where [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party making it in Boston Harbor, at ambient temperature, at scale] would fit on this scale. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.162|172.70.206.162]] 04:38, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: A little to the left of the microwave thing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.252|162.158.186.252]] 05:14, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:: Oh, no, much further to the right. You stole our colony from us, set up some tinpot, pretended 'country' in its place, and you didn't even have the class to make a decent cup of tea first. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.93|12.68.205.93]] 06:24, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:: And, even if [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68085304 this guy] is right, ''way'' too much salt... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.130|172.70.91.130]] 07:03, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
::: Soyuz nyerushimyy respublik svobodnik... [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 14:13, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:::: Well maybe if you didnt force us to buy discounted tea from you after fighting a war for us, we wouldn't be in this situation. [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 15:43, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: I would like to as a british person to corroborate this, in the 80's my Dad visited the USA (he did go to florida) and still is complaining that the freshly boiled water wasn't poured directly onto the tea bag but was instead the tea bag and the hot water(now luke warm water) and bag was delivered separately!!! The delivery of freshly boiling water on to the bag is the major issue with microwaves, not the nucleation thing in my experience. Bear in mind I don't even actually like tea, still care enough to right this, but i'll be signing this anonymously to avoid shame being bought on my family and my family's familys. Murderous royals are a lot less popular the tea [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.227|108.162.245.227]]
:: I first visited the US in 1980. A friend who was with hate coffee and was horrified when he ordered tea that he got the water and the tea bag separately. When he suggested they add the water as soon as it was boiled, the wait staff thought he was joking. Many years later in Texas, a waiter asked me why I, a Brit, was drinking coffee, not tea. "You don't know how to make it," I replied. (In my house, the electric kettle and teapot sit next to each other on the kitchen worktop.)--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.135|172.70.160.135]] 09:22, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

When I make ramen, I put the measuring cup in the microwave. Fight me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.87|162.158.167.87]] 05:35, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:: On behalf of the British Empire: whateva. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 18:28, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

"...to the point virtually every home has an electric tea kettle as a standard appliance". If I'm reading it correctly, this and the comic suggests we (though not I, as I'm not a tea-drinker) make tea ''in the electric kettle''. Electric tea-urns, yes, or maybe a setup like a samovar. But, generally, the kettle itself (and, so far as I'm aware, always with an electric kettle) is used to heat the water, which you then pour into the tea''pot'' into which the requisite number of tealeaves/teabags are also put to steep. (Or, for the lazy way, into the mug-with-teabag.) I wouldn't be able to use my electric kettle to (for example) make my instant mashed-potato into the actual mash, if I'd have regularly used it to mash tea. Or top up the boiling saucepan that I'd realised I'd not quite enough water in to cover the pasta/vegetables/whatever. Or to easily add nust a little more heat (with less new water) to the washing-up bowl than would be possible from the hot tap, back to as hot as possible without scalding me. – Whether intentional or not, I suspect Randall has the role of kettle and teapot mixed up, and so (without the intent to parody) has the editor who wrote the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.135|172.70.160.135]] 05:49, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:: Agree, we make tea in a mug using water from a kettle. I'd be furious if an American made tea in my kettle, how will I then make up my instant Nescafe? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 18:28, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the section on 'Boiling the water in a pot' refers to a teapot - I think it means boiling the water in a pot on the hob, and then making tea with it (in a pot/mug). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.27|172.69.195.27]] 07:53, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:I agree, but I also think there's a language issue with the use of pot vs. pan that makes things more confusing. I think there are several types of cookware that Americans call pot and British call pan. So British would not say they boil water in a pot but rather in a saucepan (if there's no kettle available of course). [[User:Mtcv|Mtcv]] ([[User talk:Mtcv|talk]]) 09:03, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I (as Brit) am uncommon in using an electric filter coffee machine to make tea (two bags in what is supposed to be the coffee filter). Set up, press the button and come back to a not jug of fresh tea which is not stewed. If later, the hot plate has shut off and it is cold, you can zap it in a mug in the microwave. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:11, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: As another brit, what? I do not understand the mechanics of this, please elaborate. Additionally, my understanding is that the water would be *briefly acquainted* with the tea, thus would be a poor facsimile of "tea" and would rather be closer to something the americans would attempt. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.126|141.101.99.126]] 11:46, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
::I'm guessing the water would drip on to the teabags, then soak all the way through them and drip out into the jug, without allowing sufficient to accumulate that it would run straight out without passing fully through the bag. It's an intriguing idea. But most definitely wrong.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.239|172.70.85.239]] 17:15, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c Technology Connections]! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.167|141.101.109.167]] 09:51, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

You Westerners have literally no idea how to make proper, good tea! SMH [[User:TPS|TPS]] ([[User talk:TPS|talk]]) 13:00, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

As a Brit who grew up in sight of the Yorkshire Tea factory – and worked there on occasion – and having travelled very widely around the world – including in the US – I feel I'm supposed to have an opinion. However, I have ''never'' encountered the microwaving of water as mentioned here, and I would not object to it as supposedly problematic for tea-quality reasons. I'd object for reasons of common sense. What mystifies me is the idea that kettles are tea-specific. They are for heating water, not making tea. Coffee uses hot water. Pasta, rice and potatoes use hot water. Peas, carrots, cabbage, sweetcorn...

Baking bread often involves a pan of steaming water in the oven.

"But I can boil water in a pan for cooking pasta or vegetables."

Yes, but you'll be waiting a l-o-o-o-ng time. I'll heat my water in the kettle, pour it into the now-hot pan, cook my pasta, and I'll be eating before your water is boiling.

A kettle is not a tea-making item any more than a frying pan is an omelette-making item; tea is simply one of the things you can make with water from a kettle. Hot water is a basic civilised human commodity, predating recorded history. That we should live in a mechanised world, and the Consumer Nation doesn't have water-boiling appliances as standard (saying instead "I don't have a kettle because I don't drink tea") is ludicrous.

Using a microwave rather than buying a kettle is a bit like not buying a hammer for driving in nails because you've got a big pair of pliers that will do. Sure, they're heavy lumps of metal than live in your toolbag, but they're not the right thing.

The Brits, incidentally, are not tea lovers. They are prolific consumers of awful tea that actual tea lovers wouldn't use for cleaning their drains. The most enthusiastic tea enthusiasts I've ever met were from Maryland.

It's all just social ceremony in the UK. Milk first, tea first, must use a saucer, must use a pot...tea is a British religion, not a British drink.[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 14:23, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I wonder what the Brits would feel about repurposing a single-cup coffee maker. These days, I usually put a tea bag in a mug and place it in a Keurig machine and run it (without a K-cup, of course) to deliver the hot water. Probably the wrong temperature, but fast and easy and the result is good enough. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 14:52, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Would any British person care to evaluate my tea making practices? Boil water in electric kettle. Pour water over teabag, allow to steep, remove teabag. Add sugar and ice cubes. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 15:54, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:...well, seems a fairly standard "making one mug of tea for oneself" process. It lacks a milk-adding stage (thus no arguments about whether before or after the water). Removing the teabag at that point probably means it's not going to become a Builders' Brew, which is your choicd. Sugar is ok. And... Waitwhat... ''Ice Cubes?!?'' ...can I get back to you on that? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.163|172.70.162.163]] 17:50, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I can confirm (by inadvertent experiments conducted on flatmates) that they indeed do not like tea being make in the kettle. What really makes them angry though is making coffee in the teapot. It ruins the taste of the teapot forever apparently. There is also a faction that insists that a teapot should never be washed, and washing it invokes a lesser anger.[[User:Gopher|Gopher]] ([[User talk:Gopher|talk]]) 15:56, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

On rare occasions where I don't have a kettle available, I use a microwave oven to boil water for tea. But it doesn't look and taste quite the same, and often leaves an ugly foam at the surface when the tea bag is added. This phenomenon is investigated here: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/22264. So the British might be right... Disclaimer: I'm neither from the UK nor from the US. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.126|172.69.68.126]] 16:16, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

There is a [https://www.tumblr.com/elodieunderglass/669449994039853056/wizardlyghost-silverjirachi-pidoop tumblr thread] about the topic of teamaking in microwaves, kettles, etc. Funnily enough it showed up in my Instagram reels feed just a few hours before this comic was posted. I was thinking perhaps Randall saw it too and was inspired by it? Both of them have to deal with the different ways of making tea and how "absurd" or "unconventional" (etc.) they are. Even if Randall didn't have it in mind, it's certainly a funny little coincidence. [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 16:36, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I'm guessing my occasional summertime practice of filling a gallon jar with water and lots of tea bags, setting it on the back porch in the sun for a few hours until the water turns dark brown, then putting the whole thing in the refrigerator and later drinking it over ice would be toward the more angry end of the spectrum.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.204|172.70.126.204]] 16:39, 10 December 2024 (UTC)Pat
:I think the "in the sun for a few hours" part might just be too incomprehensible to most of us, here in Britain. If we ''have'' a few hours of sun (and we're not abroad and deliberately sunburning ourselves on the beach/beside the pool in our week at the Costa Lotta budget-all-inclusivs holiday) then we're either fuming at our workdesks complaining about the louts stripping down to their shirtsleeves and splashing in the town-centre fountains or we're on our lunch-break and we ''are'' the louts stripping down to our shirtsleeves and splashing in the town-centre fountains. In neither case would sun-stewed tea be a priority. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.163|172.70.162.163]] 17:50, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps it's worth to mention how dangerous it is to boil water in a microwave. https://tastecooking.com/dangerous-microwave-water/
[[User:Mestafais|Mestafais]] ([[User talk:Mestafais|talk]]) 15:22, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

There are several comics with unmarked scales. It would be interesting if the descriptions started using pixels to point where each mark is along the line. As a rough estimate, the four points mentioned here are at X-values: 90px, 115px, 345px, and 645px, indicating that the pot method is 10% as infuriating as the chalice method - or that making tea in a pot ten times would be equally as infuriating as making it once in a chalice (at least, assuming the kettle method causes zero furons. I know of {{w|hedons and dolors}}. I guess 'furons' are a unit of fury, right? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.236|172.70.46.236]] 16:11, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2971: Celestial Event

2024-08-15T02:36:08Z

Kev:

Unfortunately, this calculation doesn't account for the eventual end of total solar eclipses due to the tidal recession of the moon. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.142|172.69.246.142]] 05:31, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

:This is a great comment! Very much like something Randall would have written for title text. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.49|172.71.146.49]] 05:58, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
:: Agreed! Also, it seems like the article should have a footnote or separate section going full Randall, "Based only on the data given in this cartoon, what is the possible range of Randall Munroe's home location?" --[[User:AnnapolisKen|AnnapolisKen]] ([[User talk:AnnapolisKen|talk]]) 18:21, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
::: Speculating about people's addresses online is generally frowned upon, in court if nowhere else. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.14.183|172.68.14.183]] 00:50, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

Are all of these events really statistically independent or are e.g. active northern lights and cicada mergence more or less likely to happen at the same time of the year? {{unsigned ip|172.68.194.201|06:15, 13 August 2024}}

: Ooh, great question. It turns out cicadas only emerge in warm weather, particularly in summer, and <s>you can only see the northern lights in winter</s>. That's bad news for us, our superevent might never happen. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.3|172.69.90.3]] 01:03, 14 August 2024 (UTC) — edit: oops, I got it wrong. It turns out you can see them all year round. They're actually happening right now in some parts of the US.

This comic was published the same night that saw both the Perseids meteor shower and an unusually strong northern lights. Strangely, the omission of meteor showers in Randall's account of Celestial Events suggests that this is a coincidence. [[User:Mumiemonstret|Mumiemonstret]] ([[User talk:Mumiemonstret|talk]]) 11:43, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

One eclipse every 350 years is not "1/350" - that would imply the eclipse lasted the whole year. The numerator unit should be a minute or so, vastly changing the result. {{unsigned ip|172.70.39.114|13:16, 13 August 2024}}
: Actually, thanks to unit cancelation, Randall's math checks out. I really really feel that it shouldn't, but it does. It's 1/350 years because what you're calculating is "once every X years". It doesn't actually matter how long an eclipse lasts, so long as it's a sufficiently small amount of time so as to be treated as a single point in time. "When that point in time happens, how frequently will those other things be happening?". You can give that answer in days, years, or whatever other unit of time you prefer. Since we're giving it in years, the number we need is "how often (am eclipse occurs) each year" - [[Special:Contributions/172.68.14.185|172.68.14.185]] 23:32, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
:: Yes, I came back to correct myself on this after more reflection. The implied unit is Event and this is the only such non-dimentionless factor. {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.186|23:40, 13 August 2024}}
: Tru dat, as are the comments regarding changes over time in eclipse parameters and the effects of time approximations. However, if we let "4 minutes" be the mean time of totality for an eclipse, and insert that term (for the record, 7.6E-06) for "1" in "1/350", the equation's solution becomes 4E+14, orders of magnitude greater than the age of the universe and, IIRC, well into its projected "heat death". The joke appears to reside in the proximity of Randall's solution to the commonly-accepted age of the Earth, making the solution "just possible". More "accurate" solutions would not be funny, and we would not have seen this comic.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.227|162.158.41.227]] 17:11, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
::In the "1/350years", I took it to mean that the unitless "1" represented a day (within which an eclipse occurs, and across this period would also extend the various other conditions). By treating all other unit-laden values as correctly converted to the number in the term of days (and back-converted to the 'more convenient' billions of years for the result), it probably ...not that I did the mathematics to check this... comes out as Randall suggests.
::If, indeed, the length of an (average, as of Earth's current configuration) eclipse, and all other values were understood as proxies for the "number of eclipse-lengths" (except for the uncloudy sky fraction, which is always a unitless half through cancelling out) then you might end up with a result that's different. But the way to check this is to accept the answer (in billions of years) and all the others with time-lengths (respectively) and work out the rough united-length of the "1" by to identify what unit would best fit that. But I leave that to whoever ''really'' wants to dive that deep into it, as the next logical step beyond mere attempted pedantry. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.164|172.68.205.164]] 20:22, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
: Every other 2 billion years, on days when it's cloudy or raining, the neighborhood ''doesn't'' get to see the spectacular show. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.98|162.158.154.98]] 19:19, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

There are competing factors with regard to the eclipse. Obviously total eclipses don't last for an entire year {{cn}}, but in the distant past when the Moon was significantly closer, they occurred much more frequently than once every 350 years. Far enough back, the moon was significantly larger in the sky and orbited much more rapidly making total solar eclipses a much more common event (even if nobody with eyes was around to see). Using constants for probabilities when things have significant variation is tricky. [[User:Galeindfal|Galeindfal]] ([[User talk:Galeindfal|talk]]) 14:26, 13 August 2024 (UTC)
:I just added (without having seen the above comment) something that deals with that. Actually, that and the way that the 'beat frequency' may ''just'' fail to create an all-effect maximum due to it not being a strictly repeating frequency (if you have an eclipse on one date, with a "1 event in 350 years" calculation for your location/latitude, it doesn't preclude more than one per 350 years or two separated by vastly more than 350 years - though still likely to get "N+1" eclipses over any given 350xN year period for higher Ns).
:If it's a combinatorial experience of fully periodic frquencies (such as with [[1331: Frequency]] then you can be precise over the beat-frequency, but any statistical perturbation can make a 'full hit' into a 'not-fully hit' event quite easily. At its simplest, though the chances of any given day (or useful fraction of a day) of being clear-skied may be 50%, it's not as simple to say "yesterday was cloudy, tomorrow will be clear", or vice-versa. Perhaps slightly more useful to say that than "the year just gone had no clouds, so this year will be full of them" or imagining that every second you could glance up and see "clouds...", "no clouds...", "clouds...", "no clouds...". The meteorological 'calculations' would never be anywhere near as simple as even the (future-trends modified) far-future predictability of the astronomical effects. The biologist might be able to be reasonably sure that the season-locked emergence of a given cicada brood will actually continue to satisfy ''their'' contribution to the calculation for much longer than the weatherman might (though they'd have to admit to the high probability that an ecological upset would flat out end any chances before any of the other forecasts become too hazy to rely upon).
:So the changing of frequencies over the time of the 9calculated) meta-beat's recurrance will make for an compoundedly-chaotic 'actual' meta-beat (assuming it ever completes). This includes the possibility that it actually re-meshes its individual occurances into an actually far more frequent coincidence (two consecutive cicada emergences could end up ''both'' being accompanied by all the other requirements). Depends how much you take at face-value, rather than as a rough and ready 'approximation' for fun-and-non-profit... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.164|172.68.205.164]] 20:22, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

The adjustment due to leap years is far dwarfed by the approximate nature of "20 days" and "2 months" in some of the events. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:06, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

Don't know how it could be calculated in, but there's a fundamental conflict between the solar eclipse and aurora borealis. Solar eclipses are only visible during the day {{cn}}, but the aurorae aren't symmetrical around the poles and drag further equator-ward on the night side of the planet. So the occurrences of Northern lights that would reach to Boston latitudes on the *day side* of the planet so as to be visible during a solar eclipse would be much, much rarer (closer to Carrington-event rarity, currently pitched at once every 100 to 1000 years instead of the 11 Randall used, but even then it'd have to be a particularly strong event). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.142|172.70.230.142]] 13:34, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

==Big Bang theory==
If he had included all these events happening on a Tuesday or a Thursday then we're getting close to 1 every 14 billion years. A time which everyone's neighbourhoods had a really big show. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 02:36, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2940: Modes of Transportation

2024-05-31T23:11:20Z

Kev:

I'd say a bicycle is way less dangerous than a car
:Considering only the two vehicles themselves, I would probably agree with you but this comic is about convenience and danger of various means of transport. Wouldn't you agree that using a bicycle for transport in crowded city traffic is rather more dangerous to the cyclist than using a car is to the driver?
:It depends on whether you're comparing worst case injuries versus injury rate. Since airliners are considered one of the safest, I think it's injury rate. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:07, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

Most deaths are either due to involved cars or people doing races or stunts.

I would not count "died because plane crashed onto road" into car dangers, as I would not count F1 driver death into the same bucket as car commuters.

So I would do the same for bikes. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.192.196|172.68.192.196]] 21:36, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

So which modes of transports belong in the white band between the "Zone of specialty and recreational vehicles" and the Hot air balloons? I would suggest the Autogyro (see [[1972:_Autogyros|#1972]]) between the skis and the hot air balloon. Any other suggestions? [[User:Frog23|Frog23]] ([[User talk:Frog23|talk]]) 22:44, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

== Sign error ==

I came here to find out what a sign-error is, but the description assumes I already know.

Are American hot air balloonists commonly fond of taking sniper rifles up with them? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 23:11, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

2913: Periodic Table Regions

2024-03-29T20:30:17Z

Kev: /* Table Sections */

{{comic
| number = 2913
| date = March 29, 2024
| title = Periodic Table Regions
| image = periodic_table_regions_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x501px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Cesium-133, let it be. Cesium-134, let it be even more.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LAWFUL NEUTRAL MURDER WEAPON COMMONLY USED TO MAKE PEOPLE'S VOICES SQUEAKY- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

=== Table Sections ===

{| class=wikitable
! scope="col" | Section
! scope="col" | Real table
! scope="col" | Elements contained
! scope="col" | Explanation
|-
| Slightly fancy protons || Hydrogen || Hydrogen || Hydrogen atoms are a proton and an electron. Since the electron can be removed and you can call that a Hydrogen+ ion, hydrogen is a slightly fancy proton.
|-
| Weird dirt || Group 1 and 2 metals || Lithium, Beryllium ||
|-
| Regular dirt || Group 1 and 2 metals || Sodium, Magnesium, Potassium, Calcium
|-
| Ends in a number, let it slumber. Ends in a letter, not much better. || Group 1 and 2 metals || Rubidium, Strontium, C(a)esium , Barium, Francium, Radium || Highly reactive metals, some of which are commonly used as radioactive isotopes (which are known by a number).
|-
| $$$ || The platinum group || Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium, Rhenium, Osmium, Iridium ||
|-
| Lawful Neutral || Noble Gases || Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton || Elements that passively look on the rest of the universe
|-
| You are here || Mixed | Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen || Elements involved in biological processes
|-
| Safety Goggles required || Halogens || Fluorine, Chlorine || These elements are highly reactive
|}

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

:[A periodic table with regions labeled.]

:[Hydrogen:]
:Slightly fancy protons
:[Lithium and beryllium:]
:Weird dirt
:[4 elements below:]
:Regular dirt
:[6 elements further below:]
:Ends in a number, let it slumber
:ends in a letter, not much better
:[Left side of the d-block:]
:Boring alloy metals
:Probably critical to the spark plug industry or something
:(but one of them is radioactive so stay on your toes)
:[Most of the top row of the d-block + aluminium:]
:Regular metals
:[Between "boring" and "weird metals":]
:$$$$
:[Boron:]
:Boron (fool's carbon)
:[Top-center of p-block:]
:You are here
:[Top-right of p-block, excluding the rightmost column:]
:Safety goggles required
:[5 uppermost elements of the rightmost column:]
:Lawful neutral
:[Iodine and radon:]
:Very specific health problems
:[Below and to the right of "weird metals":]
:Murder weapons
:[Bottom row of d- and p-blocks:]
:Don't bother learning their names - they're not staying long
:[f-block below the rest of the table, arrow pointing to a gap in the third column:]
:Whoever figures out a better way to fit these up there gets the next Nobel Prize

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]

2913: Periodic Table Regions

2024-03-29T20:29:23Z

Kev: /* Table Sections */

{{comic
| number = 2913
| date = March 29, 2024
| title = Periodic Table Regions
| image = periodic_table_regions_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x501px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Cesium-133, let it be. Cesium-134, let it be even more.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LAWFUL NEUTRAL MURDER WEAPON COMMONLY USED TO MAKE PEOPLE'S VOICES SQUEAKY- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

=== Table Sections ===

{| class=wikitable
! scope="col" | Section
! scope="col" | Real table
! scope="col" | Elements contained
! scope="col" | Explanation
|-
| Slightly fancy protons || Hydrogen || Hydrogen || Hydrogen atoms are a proton and an electron. Since the electron can be removed and you can call that a Hydrogen+ ion, hydrogen is a slightly fancy proton.
|-
| Weird dirt || Group 1 and 2 metals || Lithium, Beryllium ||
|-
| Regular dirt || Group 1 and 2 metals || Sodium, Magnesium, Potassium, Calcium
|-
| Ends in a number, let it slumber. Ends in a letter, not much better. || Group 1 and 2 metals || Rubidium, Strontium, C(a)esium , Barium, Francium, Radium ||
|-
| Lawful Neutral || Noble Gases || Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton || Elements that passively look on the rest of the universe
|-
| You are here || Mixed | Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen || Elements involved in biological processes
|-
| Safety Goggles required || Halogens || Fluorine, Chlorine || These elements are highly reactive
|-
| $$$ || The platinum group || Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium, Rhenium, Osmium, Iridium ||
|}

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

:[A periodic table with regions labeled.]

:[Hydrogen:]
:Slightly fancy protons
:[Lithium and beryllium:]
:Weird dirt
:[4 elements below:]
:Regular dirt
:[6 elements further below:]
:Ends in a number, let it slumber
:ends in a letter, not much better
:[Left side of the d-block:]
:Boring alloy metals
:Probably critical to the spark plug industry or something
:(but one of them is radioactive so stay on your toes)
:[Most of the top row of the d-block + aluminium:]
:Regular metals
:[Between "boring" and "weird metals":]
:$$$$
:[Boron:]
:Boron (fool's carbon)
:[Top-center of p-block:]
:You are here
:[Top-right of p-block, excluding the rightmost column:]
:Safety goggles required
:[5 uppermost elements of the rightmost column:]
:Lawful neutral
:[Iodine and radon:]
:Very specific health problems
:[Below and to the right of "weird metals":]
:Murder weapons
:[Bottom row of d- and p-blocks:]
:Don't bother learning their names - they're not staying long
:[f-block below the rest of the table, arrow pointing to a gap in the third column:]
:Whoever figures out a better way to fit these up there gets the next Nobel Prize

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]

2913: Periodic Table Regions

2024-03-29T20:28:55Z

Kev: /* Table Sections */

{{comic
| number = 2913
| date = March 29, 2024
| title = Periodic Table Regions
| image = periodic_table_regions_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x501px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Cesium-133, let it be. Cesium-134, let it be even more.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LAWFUL NEUTRAL MURDER WEAPON COMMONLY USED TO MAKE PEOPLE'S VOICES SQUEAKY- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

=== Table Sections ===

{| class=wikitable
! scope="col" | Section
! scope="col" | Real table
! scope="col" | Elements contained
! scope="col" | Explanation
|-
| Slightly fancy protons || Hydrogen || Hydrogen || Hydrogen atoms are a proton and an electron. Since the electron can be removed and you can call that a Hydrogen+ ion, hydrogen is a slightly fancy proton.
|-
| Weird dirt || Group 1 and 2 metals || Lithium, Beryllium ||
|-
| Regular dirt || Group 1 and 2 metals || Sodium, Magnesium, Potassium, Calcium
|-
| Ends in a number, let it slumber. Ends in a letter, not much better. || Group 1 and 2 metals || Rubidium, Strontium, C(a)esium , Barium, Francium, Radium ||
|-
| Lawful Neutral || Noble Gases || Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton || Elements that passively look on the rest of the universe
|-
| You are here || Elements of life | Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen || Elements involved in biological processes
|-
| Safety Goggles required || Halogens || Fluorine, Chlorine || These elements are highly reactive
|-
| $$$ || || Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum ||
|}

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

:[A periodic table with regions labeled.]

:[Hydrogen:]
:Slightly fancy protons
:[Lithium and beryllium:]
:Weird dirt
:[4 elements below:]
:Regular dirt
:[6 elements further below:]
:Ends in a number, let it slumber
:ends in a letter, not much better
:[Left side of the d-block:]
:Boring alloy metals
:Probably critical to the spark plug industry or something
:(but one of them is radioactive so stay on your toes)
:[Most of the top row of the d-block + aluminium:]
:Regular metals
:[Between "boring" and "weird metals":]
:$$$$
:[Boron:]
:Boron (fool's carbon)
:[Top-center of p-block:]
:You are here
:[Top-right of p-block, excluding the rightmost column:]
:Safety goggles required
:[5 uppermost elements of the rightmost column:]
:Lawful neutral
:[Iodine and radon:]
:Very specific health problems
:[Below and to the right of "weird metals":]
:Murder weapons
:[Bottom row of d- and p-blocks:]
:Don't bother learning their names - they're not staying long
:[f-block below the rest of the table, arrow pointing to a gap in the third column:]
:Whoever figures out a better way to fit these up there gets the next Nobel Prize

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]

2913: Periodic Table Regions

2024-03-29T20:28:14Z

Kev: /* Table Sections */

{{comic
| number = 2913
| date = March 29, 2024
| title = Periodic Table Regions
| image = periodic_table_regions_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x501px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Cesium-133, let it be. Cesium-134, let it be even more.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LAWFUL NEUTRAL MURDER WEAPON COMMONLY USED TO MAKE PEOPLE'S VOICES SQUEAKY- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

=== Table Sections ===

{| class=wikitable
! scope="col" | Section
! scope="col" | Real table
! scope="col" | Elements contained
! scope="col" | Explanation
|-
| Slightly fancy protons || Hydrogen || Hydrogen || Hydrogen atoms are a proton and an electron. Since the electron can be removed and you can call that a Hydrogen+ ion, hydrogen is a slightly fancy proton.
|-
| Weird dirt || Group 1 and 2 metals || Lithium, Beryllium ||
|-
| Regular dirt || Group 1 and 2 metals || Sodium, Magnesium, Potassium, Calcium
|-
| Ends in a number, let it slumber. Ends in a letter, not much better. || Group 1 and 2 metals || Rubidium, Strontium, C(a)esium , Barium, Francium, Radium ||
|-
| Lawful Neutral || Noble Gases || Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton ||
|-
| You are here || Elements of life
|-
| Safety Goggles required || Halogens || Fluorine, Chlorine || These elements are highly reactive
|-
| $$$ || || Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum ||
|}

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

:[A periodic table with regions labeled.]

:[Hydrogen:]
:Slightly fancy protons
:[Lithium and beryllium:]
:Weird dirt
:[4 elements below:]
:Regular dirt
:[6 elements further below:]
:Ends in a number, let it slumber
:ends in a letter, not much better
:[Left side of the d-block:]
:Boring alloy metals
:Probably critical to the spark plug industry or something
:(but one of them is radioactive so stay on your toes)
:[Most of the top row of the d-block + aluminium:]
:Regular metals
:[Between "boring" and "weird metals":]
:$$$$
:[Boron:]
:Boron (fool's carbon)
:[Top-center of p-block:]
:You are here
:[Top-right of p-block, excluding the rightmost column:]
:Safety goggles required
:[5 uppermost elements of the rightmost column:]
:Lawful neutral
:[Iodine and radon:]
:Very specific health problems
:[Below and to the right of "weird metals":]
:Murder weapons
:[Bottom row of d- and p-blocks:]
:Don't bother learning their names - they're not staying long
:[f-block below the rest of the table, arrow pointing to a gap in the third column:]
:Whoever figures out a better way to fit these up there gets the next Nobel Prize

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]

2913: Periodic Table Regions

2024-03-29T20:27:24Z

Kev: /* Table Sections */

{{comic
| number = 2913
| date = March 29, 2024
| title = Periodic Table Regions
| image = periodic_table_regions_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x501px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Cesium-133, let it be. Cesium-134, let it be even more.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LAWFUL NEUTRAL MURDER WEAPON COMMONLY USED TO MAKE PEOPLE'S VOICES SQUEAKY- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

=== Table Sections ===

{| class=wikitable
! scope="col" | Section
! scope="col" | Real table
! scope="col" | Elements contained
! scope="col" | Explanation
|-
| Slightly fancy protons || Hydrogen || Hydrogen || Hydrogen atoms are a proton and an electron. Since the electron can be removed and you can call that a Hydrogen+ ion, hydrogen is a slightly fancy proton.
|-
| Weird Dirt || Group 1 and 2 metals || Lithium, Beryllium ||
|-
| Regular dirt || Group 1 and 2 metals || Sodium, Magnesium, Potassium, Calcium
|-
| Lawful Neutral || Noble Gases || Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton ||
|-

| Safety Goggles required || Halogens || Fluorine, Chlorine || These elements are highly reactive
|-
| $$$ || || Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum ||
|}

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

:[A periodic table with regions labeled.]

:[Hydrogen:]
:Slightly fancy protons
:[Lithium and beryllium:]
:Weird dirt
:[4 elements below:]
:Regular dirt
:[6 elements further below:]
:Ends in a number, let it slumber
:ends in a letter, not much better
:[Left side of the d-block:]
:Boring alloy metals
:Probably critical to the spark plug industry or something
:(but one of them is radioactive so stay on your toes)
:[Most of the top row of the d-block + aluminium:]
:Regular metals
:[Between "boring" and "weird metals":]
:$$$$
:[Boron:]
:Boron (fool's carbon)
:[Top-center of p-block:]
:You are here
:[Top-right of p-block, excluding the rightmost column:]
:Safety goggles required
:[5 uppermost elements of the rightmost column:]
:Lawful neutral
:[Iodine and radon:]
:Very specific health problems
:[Below and to the right of "weird metals":]
:Murder weapons
:[Bottom row of d- and p-blocks:]
:Don't bother learning their names - they're not staying long
:[f-block below the rest of the table, arrow pointing to a gap in the third column:]
:Whoever figures out a better way to fit these up there gets the next Nobel Prize

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]

2913: Periodic Table Regions

2024-03-29T20:23:06Z

Kev: /* Table Sections */

2913: Periodic Table Regions

2024-03-29T20:21:37Z

Kev:

Talk:2907: Schwa

2024-03-16T16:52:32Z

Kev:

In what crazy dialect do these all use the same 1 vowel? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.73|172.68.210.73]] 22:10, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:I can think of several. I was immediately reminded of Lucy Porter's Hull accent ([https://www.google.com/search?q=hull+accent+oh+no some examples, including videos/audio, here]), but I can also think of New Zealand (more 'i'ish vowels, at least stereotypically), South African (down a couple of tones from that), and a number of state-side accents that ''conceivably'' are what Randall's drawing upon. [...as ninjaed, below, by 172.71.166.190 at 22:30]
:My own accent (when given its full reign) actually tends to be consonant-light ("o'er" for "over", such that my vowels tend to be ''two or three'' separate tones in a row), so it doesn't work so well. But if I shift my focus to try to impersonate people from ten miles to the north (or a dozen or so miles east) from where I grew up then I can actually get quite close to 'perfect monovowelism' (still suppressing the consonants!). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.139|172.69.79.139]] 22:32, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:All of them? I had to read the explanation to get what constitutes a schwa, but then I read the comic again, and yeah, they're all roughly the same sound, in the average North American accent anyway. Only exception is the word "A", which people might often pronounce like the letter "A", which of course isn't a schwa, :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:57, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

Personally I pronounce those pretty much all the same (I live in Boston like Randall but don't have an actual Boston accent)
--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.190|172.71.166.190]] 22:30, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

I didn't think it was considered schwa when stressed as in "up" and "love". But my dictionary has a schwa in its pronunciation guide for both, so I guess I was wrong. But this basically means the usual "short U" pronunciation is schwa. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:59, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:Some dialects split the vowel at the end of "comma" from the vowel in "strut," but most North American dialects don't. So in pronouncing dictionaries, you will sometimes see the strut vowel written ʌ and the comma vowel written ə even though they might be exactly the same in your accent. In vowels that split comma and strut, schwa is rarely stressed, but that's not a rule. This is sometimes confused by American teachers, who try to explain why they see two different symbols for the same sound. But they really are different sounds, and Americans just don't use /ʌ/ at all. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 02:50, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

This all works in a generically american accent, except for the i vowel in onion, which cannot be schwa-ified in any english accent I've ever heard. [[Special:Contributions/
172.69.34.171|172.69.34.171]] 23:27, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:Depends. {{wiktionary|onion|Wiktionary says}} /ˈʌn.jən/ (any particular places?) or /ˈʌŋ.jɪn/ (Canada) (and an obsolete version that I'd imagine the Kiwis to use).
:If the /j/ ''isn't'' considered a vowel then you could definitely justify something like "un-yun" or "ern-yern" or even "in-yin" (amongst various ''other'' like-vowel versions)...
:If you do the /j*n/ more as in {{wiktionary|eon|/ˈi.ɑn/, /ˈeɪ.ɑn/, /ˈiː.ən/, /ˈiː.ɒn/ or /ˈeɪ.ɒn/}} then clearly you can't switch to "uhn-uh-uhn" quite so easily. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.69|162.158.74.69]] 23:52, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:It says every vowel SOUND, which is different than "how each vowel sounds". The sound of that I is a Y. The O following it indeed uses the schwa. :) That's my guess, anyway, I don't know these pronunciation things that deeply. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:57, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
:This dipthong has a consonant in it. What is going on? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.182|172.69.65.182]] 12:15, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
I can't read the words "love cult" without thinking of DHMIS 3. [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|Trogdor147]] ([[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|talk]]) 00:10, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
::The /j/ sound commonly found in "onion" is not generally considered a vowel. As a test, try to put it between two consonants to make a complete syllable: first try to say /np/, and notice you have to add a schwa (neutral vowel), /nəp/; then try to say /nyp/, and you'll add that same extra vowel, /nyəp/. It's sometimes called a "semivowel", because it has some properties of a vowel and some of a consonant; or sometimes a "glide", because of the way it sets at the edge a syllable. - [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 16:01, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

If someone actually read this conversation to me using only schwa, I don't think I'd understand it. I usually consider myself a fluent English speaker, but my native language - Polish - doesm't have this vovel at all. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.231|162.158.103.231]] 07:16, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah, I think for us non-native speakers this is quite hard to replicate. I had to read the sentences out loud several times before I heard it. The standard British English I learned at school 35 years ago tends to have less Schwas in it, I guess. In German we do have some Schwas, mainly towards the end of words, but I don't think it is possible to construct whole sentence without any other vowels. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.157|162.158.155.157]] 07:56, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
I’m american (boston area) but some of these vowels do sound different from others to me, although it still seems it would be clear and ok if they’re all said the same. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.182|172.69.65.182]] 12:15, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

Randall seems to have terminally confused the schwa [ǝ] with [ʌ] as in "cup". I've never seen such an incorrect xkcd. In the UK, the Manchester accent almost universally consists of [ǝ] and even they wouldn't be able to use [ǝ] for "onion" [[Special:Contributions/172.69.223.163|172.69.223.163]] 13:04, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

Maybe a better symbol could be used than an apostrophe in the explanation? It's difficult to read/spot, and the quote is surrounded in quotation marks, which makes it a little confusing. I'm not sure what though. --[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 15:24, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

:Maybe an underscore? “D_gs c_s(_)n, th_ _n fr_m L_nd_n, r_ns _ B_mbl l_v c_lt.” - 16:01, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

It's a shame Schwa isn't pronounced with a schwa. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:47, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

For an example of where people mispronounce vowels for comic effect, here's a 40 year old and occasionally very impolite/politically incorrect BBC comedy which used people speaking in different accents as their conceit for different languages. So an englishman speaking very bad french comes across very like these XKCD characters https://youtu.be/ycqc0L4a2wQ?si=KO_qvZqMJH-3Gy1N&t=90 [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:52, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2907: Schwa

2024-03-16T16:47:00Z

Kev:

2863: Space Typography

2023-12-05T12:32:42Z

Kev: Yes, I really did work out what the width of an e was in comparison to the rest of the text.

{{comic
| number = 2863
| date = December 4, 2023
| title = Space Typography
| image = space_typography_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x239px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = And over heeee[...]eeeere (i)s Saturn.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OPTIMISTIC ALIEN OVER THEEEE[...]EEEERE (i)N... NEPTÜNE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Randall has created a sentence with the property that, when printed in {{w|Times New Roman}} font, the distances of the "i" letters from the first letter are proportional to the radii of the orbits of the innermost 5 planets in the {{w|Solar System}}. These are the only letters in the sentence that have a dot over the letter (there are no "j"s in the sentence). He suggests that if you get lost traveling among these planets, you can use the dots as a map.

This won't actually be a very useful map. When traveling between planets, it's not enough to know where the planet's orbit is, you also need to know where it is along the orbit. Additionally, if you are truly lost then you likely do not know where ''you'' actually are, and which 'way' you are heading.

The sentence is self-referential, since it talks about using typography to measure distances in space, and this makes it a useful mnemonic. The "optimistic" in the sentence could indicate that the aliens in question are highly optimistic that this kind of "map" would be useful for navigating a star system where planets orbit in ellipses, rather than being in static positions along a line (as is so often depicted in line-ups of the Solar System's planets).

The title text appends the sentence with a section for identifying Saturn. It contains an ellipsis in brackets, which normally signifies that an indeterminate number of 'e's has been omitted from the sentence, seemingly to represent Saturn's large orbital radius as the next "i" in "is". The trick is that actually appending the sentence literally, brackets and all, after the original sentence (so that we get "Optimistic aliens measure space typographically. And over heeee[...]eeeere (i)s Saturn.") actually puts the dot on the last "i" at Saturn's orbit. The parentheses are likely there to draw attention to the "i" so that it, and its dot, is not missed by the reader. However, they may also be there to push the "i" into the correct spot, or represent {{w|Saturn's rings}}.

Similar sentences with varying numbers of "e"s could be used to continue out to any planet or other body which does not contain the letter "i" – which is all of the remaining planets and minor planets, with the exception of Eris. However, the strings of "e"s would get longer and longer, to the point that it might be necessary to write down how many of them are to be used – about 59 "e"s for Saturn, starting from the Sun – which might as well just be replaced with a table of orbital ephemerides.

==Accuracy==
[[File:2863OrbitComparison.png|thumb|Comparison between orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter to the dots in the comic]]
Measuring the distances based on the provided image results in these approximate distances:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Planet !! Pixel offset !! Relative Distance in Comic !! Actual Distance in AU<ref>https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/pdfs/scaless_reference.pdf</ref>
|-
| Mercury || 93 || 0.3907 || 0.39
|-
| Venus || 169 || 0.7101 || 0.72
|-
| Earth || 238 || 1 || 1
|-
| Mars || 362 || 1.5210 || 1.52
|-
| Jupiter || 1229 || 5.1639 || 5.2
|}

Saturn is 9.54 astronomical units from the sun, from which an extra 85 'e's would be required to make the title text work.

The picture also contains a standard-representation of Times New Roman, with no changes to kerning or tracking.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A grayed-out sentence in the Times New Roman font reads "Optimistic aliens measure space typographically". The "O" in "Optimistic" is dark black and indicated as representing the Sun (not to scale). The dots of the letters "i" in the sentence are similarly dark black. The dot in the first "i" in "Optimistic" is indicated as representing Mercury; the dot in the second "i" represents Venus; the dot in the third "i" represents Earth. The dot in the "i" in "aliens" is indicated as representing Mars. The dot in the "i" in "typographically" is indicated as representing Jupiter. A measurement bar indicates that the distance between the "O" and the third "i" in "Optimistic" is equivalent to 1 AU (astronomical unit).]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Space tip: if you're ever lost in the inner Solar System, you can just type out the phrase "Optimistic aliens measure space typographically" in Times New Roman and use the dots as a map.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Tips]]

Talk:2821: Path Minimization

2023-08-30T22:11:09Z

Kev:

Judging from the angle of the arms, I do not believe that the swimmer is in distress. In fact I think the swimmer is just a future projection of Cueball, not a separate person.

:I agree that the swimmer does not appear to be in distress, although the title text suggests that it is probably a separate person.
:
:My personal interpretation is that the situation is "meeting a friend at the beach to get ice cream". Options are either a) meet the friend first and then swim back to get ice cream or b) get ice cream first and take it out to eat together in the water. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.54|172.70.86.54]] 04:02, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:: Or the more sensible walk to the water's edge and wait for your friend to swim in to meet you... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.29|172.70.85.29]] 08:43, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:I agree as well, I changed it to "possibly in distress". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:43, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
::I changed it further. Still admits the possibility, but less possibly than "possibly" hints at. (It is, nonetheless, a (mostly!) typical "you ''need'' to get here, minimising <some form of time/distance/energy/endurance resource>, what is the optimal strategy" tbing that lifesaving courses might include to train you in such considerations. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.82|172.71.242.82]] 09:01, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Technically, the path that minimizes swimming passed a nearby boat rental stand. (by the way, I didn't write the unsigned paragraph above this one) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.40|172.69.247.40]] 03:05, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

When I first saw the comic, I thought cueball was suspended on a tether in the air above the water, and the ice cream stand was floating. I didn't realize it was a beach until I read this explanation. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:41, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:Me too! Instead of a tether I thought cueball was free falling into the water with a desire to get to the end state (the swimmer), and the ice cream stand was free falling as well.[[User:V-squared|V-squared]] ([[User talk:V-squared|talk]]) 01:44, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

The ice cream path reminds me of the [[2407|bread-first search]] (similar punchline). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.158|172.71.182.158]] 06:55, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Noting, in passing, that an almost "flosbury flop"-like path could have been shown, too. A gentle curve, bending to hit the shore somewhere between shortest-time and shortest-swim, that would allow maximum run-up to dive ''into'' the water at the right angle to then power straight towards the target with the original running impetus turned straight into initial swimming speed, with no sharp turns involved. (Also, an 'Aquaman' line, perhaps exactly complimentary to the land-favouring 'bent-leg' routes, minimising/reducing land in favour of water.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.82|172.71.242.82]]
:Note that for Aquaman, the line minimizing land would be the fastest. He swims very fast. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:45, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

This was one of my first edits in this wiki, so I hope I didn't do anything wrong. I think this comic clearly references Feynman's Lifeguard problem (there is an almost identical diagram in his QED book) and the Ice-cream vendor problem. I wrote a couple of paragraphs explaining this, but they were promptly deleted by the next editor. Did I do something wrong? I think the explanation is incomplete without those references. [[User:Prallax|Prallax]] ([[User talk:Prallax|talk]]) 10:08, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
: Seeing the history, this is probably just an edit conflict, you should insert your contribution again. [[User:Cochonou|Cochonou]] ([[User talk:Cochonou|talk]]) 11:54, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:: It looks like it was my edit that 'overwrit' Prallax's. Though I got no "edit conflict" notification (or I'd have at least tried to reintegrate my failed changes into the revised 'current prior' version, or at least revisit the diffs to reinstate the best of what I'd caused to vanish/undo). Thinking back, it ''might'' have been due to a server time-out which meant I resubmitted, fooling the back end about what version I was (thinking I was) actually adding to/revising... I'm pretty sure it occasionally does that, and probably more than I ever know about, if I don't have reason to check the page histories in detail...
:: Anyway, recovered the paragraphs and re-added them to the end (maybe should have been inserted before the traditionally final title-text-paragraph?) on the original editor's behalf, as they looked fairly good and I didn't see anything in them that I might want to change (not even markup).
:: So both apologies and congratulations to their author! They might later get tweaked/redone, b6 others, but as far as ('one-of-my-')first-time edits go I'd have personally been proud to have done as well, whatever my first (probably disasterous) edits might actually have been, oh so many years ago and lost in the mists of anonymous-IPdom... Keep it up, and welcome to the rabble! ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.8|172.70.91.8]] 12:45, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
::: Thank you for reverting and fixing this! I'm moving it before the paragraph about the title text as suggested. [[User:Prallax|Prallax]] ([[User talk:Prallax|talk]]) 21:14, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Reminds me of https://xkcd.com/85/ [[User:Betamaj|Betamaj]] ([[User talk:Betamaj|talk]]) 12:06, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:One of the first comments there mentions trying to reach a drowning swimmer. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:14, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:I was going to complain about reruns, but the addition of ice-cream has sweetened the deal. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:51, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

I don't know if I agree with the Beach Vendor paragraph. There's only one vendor, and there's no reason for an ice cream stand on a beach to be a reference to the problem. (Ice cream stands on beaches are pretty common, at least near I live.) [[User:DownGoer|DownGoer]] ([[User talk:DownGoer|talk]]) 12:50, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

I question the first-paragraph comment about how the paths are "indicative of the path light takes between materials with different refractive indices". That applies to only 2 of the 5 paths. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:48, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:Arguably just the one (extremely exotic materials aside) if you don't count the straight-there path (zero difference). But it is relevent to quote how the "optimal speed route" is equivalent to a refractive-path (for similar underlying mathematics) as an analogue, which is further down. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.232|172.70.90.232]] 18:20, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Noone is going to comment how hard would be to swim with one, not speaking about two, ice creams? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:45, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:Instead of the ice-cream cone, one should perhaps go for a {{w|Ice cream float|float}}! ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.214|172.70.85.214]] 21:52, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
::These talk sections are worth scrolling though just to find the perfect dad joke. You, my friend, did not disappoint. [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|Trogdor147]] ([[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|talk]]) 01:31, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

Actually, there is no real path that maximizes time; you can always increase time by taking another detour. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.119|172.70.246.119]] 06:36, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

In my case, every path I take is chosen to minimize the time until I get ice cream. I've got ice cream right now, so I feel like I could go anywhere! [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:58, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

I hope the swimmer beats Cueball to the Ice Cream vendor to get the last ice cream. If only there was a mathematical process to work out who would get there first? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 22:11, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

2798: Room Temperature

2023-07-05T21:26:27Z

Kev:

{{comic
| number = 2798
| date = July 5, 2023
| title = Room Temperature
| image = room_temperature_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x352px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They're also refusing to fund my device that demonstrates uncontrolled hot fusion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LUKEWARM FUSION REACTOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Semiconductors are a common electronic component of many modern day devices including computers. Most computers have heat sinks, because semiconductors generate heat when operating and don’t work when they are too hot. However, [[Cueball]] has “discovered” a semiconductor that works in normal temperatures, which already exists, so this “discovery” is not useful to anyone.

In the title text, he is talking about a device that produces “uncontrollable hot fusion”. This is also known as a thermonuclear weapon{{cn}}. In reality, “cold fusion” is theoretically a way to produce lots of cheap energy, which many people would be interested in and has received significant research funding as a way to provide environmentally-safe energy for humanity. Again, in proposing something that sounds new he has “invented” something that already exists.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2798: Room Temperature

2023-07-05T21:25:09Z

Kev: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2798
| date = July 5, 2023
| title = Room Temperature
| image = room_temperature_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x352px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They're also refusing to fund my device that demonstrates uncontrolled hot fusion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LUKEWARM FUSION REACTOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Most computers have heat sinks, because semiconductors don’t work when they are too hot. However, [[Cueball]] has “discovered” a semiconductor that works in normal temperatures, which already exists, so this “discovery” is not useful to anyone.

In the title text, he is talking about a device that produces “uncontrollable hot fusion”. This is also known as a thermonuclear weapon{{cn}}. In reality, “cold fusion” is theoretically a way to produce lots of cheap energy, which many people would be interested in and has received significant research funding as a way to provide environmentally-safe energy for humanity. Again, in proposing something that sounds new he has “invented” something that already exists.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2776: Crystal Ball

2023-05-16T14:50:20Z

Kev:

{{comic
| number = 2776
| date = May 15, 2023
| title = Crystal Ball
| image = crystal_ball_2x.png
| imagesize = 257x336px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They often use ball lenses to collect light at the ends of optical fibers, so when you look stuff up on the internet you're actually scrying through a crystal ball.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN INSUFFICIENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHYSICS PRINCIPLES BEHIND REFRACTION AND WHY LIGHT MIGHT ONLY HAVE A ONE-WAY SPEED- Elaborate on the title-text. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In optics, {{w|spherical aberration }} is an image imperfection that occurs due to the increased refraction of light rays that occurs when rays strike a lens or a reflection of light rays that occurs when rays strike a mirror near its edge, in comparison with those that strike nearer the center. This causes the parts of an image reflected near the edges of a sphere (from the perspective of a viewer) to be distorted. As the viewer moves, the parts of the image which are distorted move as well.

This is the principle behind a {{w|Fisheye lens}}, which corrects for the distortion to provide an image that is circular in shape and tends to be convex (i.e, bulges outwards) towards the center of the image.

The comic makes the joke that, since a crystal ball is a sphere, anyone trying to use one for {{w|scrying}} or seeing the future would have to deal with this issue as well; the wizard is telling Cueball that he can only make out the parts of his future which are near the center, as the rest are distorted. Spherical aberration is specifically a property of refracted light, and since the crystal ball is presumably not showing an image originating from the other side of the ball (unless it is a {{w|3-sphere|hypersphere}} additionally extending itself though a time-like dimension), the image should not be distorted by both entering and leaving the sphere, perhaps only in the manner of a hemispherical lens (for which the internally formed holographic image-source perhaps could be properly anamorphically adjusted to exit in all directions a coherent manner).

The title text observes a real-world action that could [[1475: Technically|technically]] be described as "scrying through a crystal ball", that being the usage of the internet. Information over the internet is often transmitted via light sent through {{w|fiber-optic cables}}, which, according to the title text, is sometimes collected using ball lenses. Due to the similarity between ball lenses and crystal balls, Randall argues that this is technically scrying through a crystal ball because you're receiving information from elsewhere (Googling something) and receiving it by way of a crystal ball (through the ball lenses). This is flawed as any lenses at the end of a fibre optic cable are to assist a detector in decoding potentially billions of light flashes per second into computer signals as opposed to actually allowing a human to see the contents of the internet.

==Transcript==
:[A wizard with with a pointed hat, long hair and a large beard is sitting on a chair at the left side of a table. He is holding a crystal ball with both hands while he is looking into it. The ball has a reflection on the side towards Cueball who is sitting on a chair at the opposite side of the table with his hands in his lap.]
:Wizard: Your future is hard to see.
:Wizard: I can make out some hazy details in the center, but the off-axis components are particularly unclear.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Wizards never did figure out how to fix spherical aberration.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Wizards]]

Talk:2755: Effect Size

2023-03-28T18:39:06Z

Kev:

Wow, it looks like I'm first![[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.40|162.158.146.40]] 16:40, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

;Wasn't something like this actually done?
Robert Sapolsky mentions an obscure paper that actually did something like this. They did a meta-analysis of the average reported error throughout various disciplines in order of the physical size of the objects being studied (e.g., from cells to organs to etc.), and found no correlation between them. The conclusion was that this was evidence that philosophical reductionism was flawed. [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 22:45, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
: Did you manage to find it? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.57.203|172.70.57.203]] 08:49, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

But does the meta-analysis include itself? Technically, it too is part of Science...
Artinum [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 13:06, 28 March 2023 (UTC)
: It's SCIENCE all the way Down! [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 18:39, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

scroll box location is ~25.5% down track: scroll box is 10px high, scrollbar is 290px high, 54px above box, 226px below = center of scrollbox is 59/231 = 25.541..% = ~209,815 pages of total studies. Adjusted to 210,000 to account for rounding errors. (Plus the scroll box might not even move a pixel for a number of pages).[[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.41|162.158.146.41]]

Did anyone notice the asterisk next to one of the graph elements? There's got to be a lot of those... Not all scientific studies (I would say very few) can be boiled down to a single numerical output.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.41|162.158.146.41]]

Unless I misunderstand this, there's also an aspect of this that's due to sign - because some studies of some outcomes expect negative results, and some expect positive, mixing even results that are overall statistically significant may cause the effects to cancel out.
[[User:Mattwigway|Mattwigway]] ([[User talk:Mattwigway|talk]]) 15:32, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

meta-analyses are also referenced in [[1477: Meta-Analysis]] [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.104|172.71.26.104]] 16:18, 28 March 2023 (UTC)Bumpf
: 1477 Is [[1477|Star Wars]]? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 18:39, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2755: Effect Size

2023-03-28T18:38:05Z

Kev:

Wow, it looks like I'm first![[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.40|162.158.146.40]] 16:40, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

;Wasn't something like this actually done?
Robert Sapolsky mentions an obscure paper that actually did something like this. They did a meta-analysis of the average reported error throughout various disciplines in order of the physical size of the objects being studied (e.g., from cells to organs to etc.), and found no correlation between them. The conclusion was that this was evidence that philosophical reductionism was flawed. [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 22:45, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
: Did you manage to find it? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.57.203|172.70.57.203]] 08:49, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

But does the meta-analysis include itself? Technically, it too is part of Science...
Artinum [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 13:06, 28 March 2023 (UTC)
: It's SCIENCE all the way Down! [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 18:38, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

scroll box location is ~25.5% down track: scroll box is 10px high, scrollbar is 290px high, 54px above box, 226px below = center of scrollbox is 59/231 = 25.541..% = ~209,815 pages of total studies. Adjusted to 210,000 to account for rounding errors. (Plus the scroll box might not even move a pixel for a number of pages).[[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.41|162.158.146.41]]

Did anyone notice the asterisk next to one of the graph elements? There's got to be a lot of those... Not all scientific studies (I would say very few) can be boiled down to a single numerical output.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.41|162.158.146.41]]

Unless I misunderstand this, there's also an aspect of this that's due to sign - because some studies of some outcomes expect negative results, and some expect positive, mixing even results that are overall statistically significant may cause the effects to cancel out.
[[User:Mattwigway|Mattwigway]] ([[User talk:Mattwigway|talk]]) 15:32, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

meta-analyses are also referenced in [[1477: Meta-Analysis]] [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.104|172.71.26.104]] 16:18, 28 March 2023 (UTC)Bumpf

2755: Effect Size

2023-03-28T18:36:59Z

Kev: Added links to Hofstadter and Significant

{{comic
| number = 2755
| date = March 27, 2023
| title = Effect Size
| image = effect_size_2x.png
| imagesize = 278x366px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Subgroup analysis is ongoing.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Meta-Meta-Meta Analysis THAT'S JUST TOO [[917|META]] - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic outlines a {{w|meta-analysis}}, or more aptly THE meta-analysis, as its inclusion criteria are simply all studies.

A meta-analysis, true to its name, is a statistical analysis of statistical analyses, usually those attempting to answer a single question. Meta-analyses are intended to account for possible individual error within each study, summarizing the general results of all of its studies in order to potentially draw a useful conclusion.

Here, the meta-analysis consists of a graph of {{w|effect sizes}} for what is allegedly every single study ever conducted. Accordingly, even page 53,589 of the meta-analysis is only about a quarter of the total graph (approx. 210,000 pages) Below is an estimate of the average effect (the effect normally being the relationship being analyzed by the studies within a meta-analysis, though here it seems again to just be a conglomerate of all known effects), along with a (likely) 95% {{w|confidence interval}} for the findings of the meta-analysis.

Statistical studies are produced by generating hypotheses then testing those hypotheses. A meta-analysis of all studies would therefore include both studies where the original hypothesis turns out to be false, as well as studies where the original hypothesis is confirmed. Hypotheses that fail to be confirmed by studies are often discarded, however these studies would still be included in THE meta-analysis. The meta-analysis, therefore, could be considered to be confirming our intuition that a lot of hypotheses that scientists come up with are false.

In the caption, Randall delivers to us the bad news: that the meta-analysis of "all of science" has finally been performed, and as it turns out, the results are not significant. {{w|Statistical significance}} is the degree to which the results of a sample or study are likely due to a correlation, as opposed to chance or {{w|sampling variation}} alone. Apparently, across the entirety of human science in the study of our universe, the study has found a lack of significance, or a relationship between any two variables ever.

The joke lies in the absurdity of the claim, that "all of science" can be analyzed at all. Science is not a singular term that can be subcategorized in such a manner, but hundreds of different fields of study, many of which have little or no overlap. Doing a meta-analysis of geology and philosophy, for example, would be patently ridiculous, so the 53,589 (or 210,000) page study is comical in its very existence, much less conclusion.

In the title text, Randall reports that {{w|subgroup analysis}} is ongoing. The joke here is that since all scientific studies are subsets of the overall meta-analysis, every scientific endeavor can be separately assessed by correctly constraining the subgroup to include only relevant studies. Hence the subgroup analysis could be considered to include analyses of every individual area or question that scientists have made subject to statistical studies.

XKCD has previously considered the topic of subgroup analyses around the important issue of [[882|Jelly Beans]]. Subgroup analyses may be used as {{w|Data_dredging}} or [[1478|p-hacking]] in order to identify anything that is "significant" and thus publishable.

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

:Meta-analysis
:Inclusion criteria: All studies

:[A forest plot is shown. In the tab on the top right, there is a label "Page 53,589". On the right side of the plot, there is a vertical scrollbar where the bar is less than one quarter from the top. A horizontal axis centered on 0 is shown at the bottom and -1 and +1 on either side are labeled. In the middle of the plot, there is a dashed vertical line. On both sides of the vertical line in separate rows, there are black boxes of different sizes with horizontal bars of varying lengths on the sides of the boxes. Below the plot, slightly to the right of the vertical line, there is a black diamond wider than it is tall, labeled "0.17 (-0.14, 0.52)".]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Bad news: They finally did a meta-analysis of all science, and it turns out it's not significant.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Statistics]]

Talk:2740: Square Packing

2023-02-21T22:54:54Z

Kev:

I suspect Randall saw the same social media post that I did (or maybe a repost of the same social media post, who knows or cares). I don't really want to make an explanation, but anyone who does, here's a link to a bunch of square packing findings... of course, no hydraulic press allowed for these packings. https://erich-friedman.github.io/packing/squinsqu/ [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 22:07, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

:Yeah, this was on r/mathmemes the other day. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.48|172.64.238.48]] 00:03, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

Welcome to the Hydraulic Press Channel. Today we have a set of squares that are usually used in packing problems. You are supposed to fit them into other squares by arranging them. But I think we can get them to fit easier if we put them on the press, and just try to make them smaller. We are going to start with one square, and see how much smaller we can make this. And here we go.

:Needs to include a mention of the "Square Packer Five Meeellion"... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.141|172.68.51.141]] 16:48, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

The post where I saw this said: “God is dead, and what killed him was learning [the similarly inelegant-appearing n=17 solution].” [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.216|172.70.254.216]] 13:08, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/172.70.54.77|172.70.54.77]] 19:26, 21 February 2023 (UTC)
Welcome to the Hydraulic Press channel

What does "s<" mean? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 22:54, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

2736: Only Serifs

2023-02-11T19:27:03Z

Kev: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2736
| date = February 10, 2023
| title = Only Serifs
| image = only_serifs_2x.png
| imagesize = 246x112px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you ever want to get beaten up by a bunch of graphic designers, try removing the serifs from Times New Roman and adding them to Comic Sans.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SHERIFF CHASING A RAMPAGING MOB OF OUTRAGED GRAPHIC DESIGNERS- what is the text? Do NOT delete this tag until Friday, May 9th, 2023..}}

This is a play upon the main difference between {{w|serif}} and {{w|sans-serif}} fonts. Serifs are ticks, or end-bars, at the ends of lines that make up letters, commonly seen in {{w|Calligraphy|calligraphic}} lettering (written with a flat-nibbed pen) or {{w|Signwriter|signwriting}} (often painted and detailed with fine brushes). Rather than mere lines, there are (for example) "feet" put at the bottom of a letter such as A, and possibly also at angles such as its peak. (In the comic, the first three elements appear to be of such an "A", with the text as a whole appearing to be "Aa Bb Cc Dd"). Fonts that use this visual decoration are called "Serif" fonts, while others do not and are thus "Sans Serif" fonts ("sans" being French for "without"). Randall is suggesting a font using ''only'' these accent pieces and skipping the "body" of the letters entirely. Of course, this renders the text basically unreadable.{{Citation needed}}

As for the title text, {{w|Times New Roman}} is a widely available and recognized typeface with serifs, being one of the most commonly used fonts of its type. {{w|Comic Sans}} is a ''mostly'' sans-serif typeface (hence the “Sans” in the name) designed to look like (non-{{w|cursive}}, or {{w|Block letters|block}}-style) handwriting, more akin to a basic and unadorned lettering written freehand by thick-nibbed pen, paintbrush, spraycan or chalk/marker upon a blackboard/whiteboard. Many graphic designers {{w|Comic_Sans#Opposition|dislike Comic Sans}} due to a history of amateurs using it in contexts where its informal style is inappropriate, simply in order to vary the font away from the standards of Times or Arial styles (two major serifed and non-serifed families of font, respectively). Defenders claim that it is easier for dyslexics to read, and that it works well in less formal, typically children's contexts. Randall is suggesting here that if you want to severely anger a bunch of graphic designers (i.e. enough to beat you up), then you should try removing the characteristic and aesthetic serifs on Times New Roman and add them instead to the hated Comic Sans – which would probably make it look even worse to a graphic designer.

Randall has had numerous careers and hobbies where he has delighted in exploring novel methods of resolving disputes, all of which has satisfied nobody and led to him being disinvited to numerous [[514|events]].

The font is probably one of the many variants of {{w|Caslon}}, with its variety of A-serifs; some variants (3, 540) having the double-seriffed C.

==Transcript==
:[The capital and lowercase forms of the first four letters of the alphabet are written on handwriting paper in a font only consisting of serifs between three gray horizontal lines. Underneath the panel there are two lines of text (in a sans-serif font)]
:Aa Bb Cc Dd

:Instead of serif or sans-serif,
:my new font is '''''only''''' serifs.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Language]]