explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2916: Machine

2024-05-01T00:56:02Z

Keybounce: Updated timing at the bottom (11.5 sec drop cycle; about 97+ sec lifespan); adjusting follow/immortality at the bottom

{{comic
| number = 2916
| date = April 5, 2024
| title = Machine
| image = machine_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x740px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Credible Machine
}}
* To experience the interactivity, visit the [https://xkcd.com/2916/ original comic].

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WELL OILED ROBOT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This interactive game is the 14th [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous April fools' comic was [[2765: Escape Speed]] from 2023, which was released on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. "Machine" has been updated multiple times in the weeks following its release, adding the following features:
* the trophy and shot glass props
* the cat, which swats balls in front of it
* the inanimate cat and bunny decorations
* a system of links, which encodes the XY coordinates of the currently viewed cell, and the time (i.e. the entire machine's state after a certain moderation action)
* a button to follow a nearby ball as it traverses through the machine, also preventing it from despawning

As referenced in the title text, this game is a spiritual successor to the 1990s and early 2000s PC puzzle game series {{w|The Incredible Machine}}, a game Randall played as a kid. Both games have several objects in common:
* fan
* cat
* ramps
* balls of varying densities

The comic starts in a main screen where the user can create a {{w|Rube Goldberg machine}} in a "Cell" where the goal is to route a constant stream of colored balls from inputs on the ceiling or walls to outputs of matching colors on the walls or floor. After the comic is first opened a window pops up over the machine where Cueball in a lab coat tells you to route the balls from the inputs to the outputs. A button opens a “tool panel” where there are large and small boards available for use, as well as some gimmicky stuff like prisms (which deflect marbles) and fans (which blow marbles around), plus decorative elements which have no effect on the balls.

Typically, inputs and outputs only accept balls of a single color. However, some outputs accept multiple colors, indicated by a double arrow, and some inputs produce multiple colors. When the player is designing their 'machine', this will involve multiple full streams merged into one (supplied by a double-exit on the adjacent submission). Machines now working in the full grid may, however, find that their sources now contain stray balls of other types that were not handled properly, but there is no way to force a re-edit of the machine to alter its behavior to account for this.

If any balls are left in your cell for more than 30 seconds, they fade away. The first time a ball fades away another popup informs you that the balls are removed for security reasons. An indicator next to each exit increases for each ball of the correct color that passes through an exit, and reduces when no balls pass through, or if balls of the wrong color pass through it. While that exit is not properly supplied it displays a red cross, which changes to a green tick when a sufficient, and sufficiently clean, stream of balls is supplied. The first time you have built a machine which succeeds in routing enough balls of the correct color to ''all'' relevant outputs, a popup will prompt you to submit your cell to be added to the public machine. (Subsequently, the submit button will quietly change from 'inactive' (pale) to clickable (dark). This will change back again if any ball transfers dip back below the required threshold for any reason, such as further editing or an end to a 'fluke' glut of accumulated balls.)

Choosing to submit your cell will give you a textbox to give this cell a name. Proceeding through that, you will now see your cell within the 'grid' and a 'live' feed of balls from any relevant neighboring cells (which may be more sporadic then the feed you designed your cell with, and contain stray balls of different types). If any supplying-neighbors are still marked as "under construction", they ''may'' provide the balls as if perfectly routed from their own (eventual) source, but will eventually dry up. If your newly submitted creation is placed in the lowest row of cells, balls will be dispensed through the exit at the bottom, but there will be no launcher to propel them towards the pit, and they will vanish as they leave the exit.

Upon reopening the link to this comic without coordinate and time parameters, your recently created machine will most likely not be visible in the space you built it in. [https://www.reddit.com/user/xzaphenia/comments/ Reddit user xzaphenia] has claimed on r/xkcd that this is because there is a moderation team (of which they are a member) and that [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c1ixmb/comment/kzc3rmg/ the main page only shows public, approved machines]. This team of people, including those credited as co-creators of this comic, select machines according to their preferences (and little to no formal criteria besides [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0sp60/comment/kz6hbgl/ coolness, innovativeness, effectiveness], and [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0bsk2/comment/kyvfean/ privacy concerns]). Given the number of 'bottom-layer' cells that are likely primed ready to be completed (e.g. the grid-width of twelve, perhaps staggered across adjacent rows) and the many possible worldwide contributors at any one time, it may be that the chances of being picked for permanence is low; and certainly would have been lower early on in the comic's existence during the initial frantic rush to participate. [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0sp60/comment/kz6hbgl/ It is also claimed that at some point, moderation will be cut off and the machine will be considered "complete"].

<gallery heights="200" widths="150">
File:2916_popup_intro.png|Introduction popup
File:2916_popup_time.png|Time limit popup
File:2916_popup_submit.png|Submission popup
</gallery>

The button in the bottom right corner allows you to toggle between editing your own machine and a page where you can drag around to view all of the machines that have been submitted and accepted, with a title for each in the upper left corner. In this view you can see that all of the outputs are also inputs for another cell, except for the top row where the inputs come from off screen and the lowest row which output through a launcher of some kind to a set of four colored-coded containers far below. Any empty cells are marked off by yellow tape with the words "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" as well as "DJIA ↑ 31415" once in each cell. "DJIA" stands for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with "DJIA ↑ 31415" indicating that it rose to 31415 points, 31415 being the first five digits of pi, without the period. This would often be displayed on a yellow 'ticker', which might look superficially similar to the yellow barrier tape.

When viewing the whole machine, a button in the bottom left corner, added later, allows you to follow the path of the nearest ball as it passes from cell to cell. This will also make the ball you are following immortal - not subject to the 30s timeout rule. However, it will stop following at the bottom of the base machine -- it will not follow into the bottom holding containers, nor keep it immortal once down there. Another later addition was a button in the top left corner which copies a URL that will take you directly to the current cell that you are viewing. However, the link that is created will always show you the version of the machine at the time that you were viewing it, without any subsequent additions.

Whenever balls reach the bottom of the grid, they are directed towards four containers, one of each color. Most balls are accurately sent to their appropriate container, though there are some misfires. These containers are above a pit, and dump their contents every 11.5 seconds. Balls in the pit are subject to a 97 (approx) second culling rule (including time spent in the holding containers), unlike the balls in the cells above. If no balls are directed towards the containers, the pit will be empty. If at least one stream of balls are making it, Cueball and Megan sit in a small boat named the USS Buoyancy, and when sufficient balls are being deposited, the boat begins to float and move. More streams of balls are likely to add more changes. Balls which miss or overspill the pit fall out of the bottom of the frame.

Under construction cells will feed balls of the appropriate color into neighboring cells so long as you are not looking at them. Once you scroll to look at them, the supply of balls stops and subsequent cells in the chain will not receive any; scroll away from them again and the supply will resume.

The grid is 12 cells wide, and grows in height. The largest size observed so far is 12x100, for a total of 1200 cells. The machine's height is determined by the lowest cell; this can be either your submitted cell, or a cell created by another user.

Imperfections in the machines (whether accidental or by design) and the impossibility of entirely avoiding collisions when crossing streams inevitably lead to significant levels of losses and pollution with the wrong color balls. Indeed, using the follow ball function appears to demonstrate that it is quite rare for a ball to survive more than several machines without getting stuck somewhere. This should mean that effectively no balls would reach the lower layers. This implies that there is some 'creative accounting' going on to ensure that cells lower in the grid still have balls to process - simulating flow only for a few nearby cells, while assuming that those cells themselves have pure, steady inputs.

There is a hard limit of 100 items (both physically interactive and purely decorative) that can be placed in any given arena. If you have placed 75 items, a count will appear in the component bar of your piece-count ("''##''/100"), which will go away again if you delete items to bring it below this count. The count text turns red at "100/100", at which point no more items can be added, only existing ones moved (or removed, to lower the count again).

===Toolbox items===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|+ List of objects
|-
! Description !! Effect !! Image
|-
| Plank || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_plank.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hammer || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_hammer.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Sword || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_sword.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hinged scoop&dagger; || Rotates around its hinge, tries to stay horizontal with a springy effect || [[File:2916_scoop.png|frameless|upright=0.25]] [[File:2916_scoop_mirrored.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Anvil || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_anvil.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Brick || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_brick.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Fan || Blows away balls in front of it. Different colors are affected by differing amounts (yellow balls are lightest, and can be levitated above an upward-facing fan).|| [[File:2916_fan.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Pillow || Balls will not bounce if they hit it || [[File:2916_pillow.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Bumper || Bounces balls away at significantly higher speed || [[File:2916_round_bumper.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] [[File:2916_bumper_left.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] [[File:2916_bumper_right.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Attractor/Black Hole* || Pulls balls toward center || [[File:2916_attractor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Repulsor/White hole* || Repels balls away from center || [[File:2916_repulsor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Prism || "Refracts" and internally-reflects balls as they otherwise pass through the object, the color of the ball ''may'' cause them to react (as much as possible) according to the respective color across the element. || [[File:2916_prism.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Wheel&Dagger; || Spins, deflects balls, can jam with enough resistance (e.g. glut of balls or against other elements). || [[File:2916_wheel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| "Good job" trophy || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_trophy.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Glass cup || Static obstacle. Container, with a nominal capacity of up to four balls (in whole or in part) within it. || [[File:2916_cup.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || Swats away balls in front of itself (was added later) || [[File:2916_cat_new.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
! colspan="3" style="text-align:center" | Non-physical items
|-
| Right-facing Ponytail, with raised arms || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_ponytail_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Right-facing Ponytail, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_ponytail.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Left-facing Cueball, with raised arms || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_cueball_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Left-facing White Hat, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_whitehat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Rightwards-facing Knit Cap, in an 'action' pose || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_knitcap_resting.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Right-facing Knit Cap, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_knitcap.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Helmet-wearing figure, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_helmet.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Squirrel || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_squirrel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| "Probably Deterministic" sign || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_deterministic.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| [[1682: Bun|Bun]] || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_rabbit.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_cat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|}

:<nowiki/>* — The Attractor and Repulsor are omnidirectional, but the area of effect can be resized to extend or restrict its influence. You do this by way of its bounding box with corner and mid-edged 'drag nodes' and a circular area that shows the current extent, which are only visible when the element is actively selected. This resize can be no larger than will make the box/circle touch the edges, no smaller than the fixed graphic and will always be identically proportioned in both axes.

:&dagger; — The hinged scoops are strictly horizontal, on building. They will rotate away from and (spring back to) horizontal according to interactions with balls or other non-decorative items that may be placed to disturb their balance, sometimes with further interesting interactions (that may or may not be intentional or useful). There are two selectable versions of this item. (The only ''other'' object class with a clear (and practical) asymmetry, for which a mirrored chirality can be chosen from the sidebar, are the two versions of triangular "Bonk"-bumpers.)

:&Dagger; — The wheel is an actively rotating element that starts off, by default, spinning anticlockwise. Pressing or tapping left/right arrow keys, when a placed wheel is selected, will adjust that wheel's rotation rate to be more/less anticlockwise. Adjusting it beyond zero rotation allows you to make it spin in the opposite direction.
:Rotation can be increased well beyond the point at which the {{w|wagon-wheel effect}} occurs, which may make it difficult to work out the spin direction of an overspeed wheel element (and thus which arrow keys will slow or speed up its rotation, if you have forgotten), though observing its impact upon any balls that strike it ''should'' make its current spin-direction obvious.
:The 'bounding editing box' will usually appear rotated, possibly according to the spinning graphic's current orientation upon selection, but remains at that (often non-orthagonal) angle even as the wheel spins (if it can) during this period of selection for editing.

All other items can be manually re-angled by a 'loop node' arm extending from the bounding box. If you cannot see the 'angle node' for such a selected item, which is normally at the top of any freshly placed item but follows any re-angling that may have already applied, it could be that you have placed the item too close to the edge in which direction the node extends. To rotate it, move the object away from the edge to access the construction node (after which, you can drag the object back if required – but see below).

Rotation may be limited by the {{w|minimum bounding box}} that is the 'selection box', this is not necessarily the more flush {{w|convex hull}} of the collision-map built into the graphic. Should a corner of the bounding box need to move across the edge of the build-area, it will do nothing more than touch the edge until there is sufficient angle-drag to snap it to the angle from which that corner now comes back away from the edge; or, when it has a long straight edge currently flush with the edge boundary, it may snap to exactly 180°, in rotation, whereupon the opposite long straight edge is flush to the construction area edge. All objects that are drag-moved, similarly, cannot be moved any further than their current bounding box touching the construction-area edging. The bounding box for the rotating wheel is a notable exception to this, being not under any direct angle-control by the player. Instead, it seems to use the bounding inscribed circle that defines the wheel edge iteslf.

Apart from some interactions between the hinged scoops and any element (including other hinged scoops), there is no preventative 'collision detection' between objects during user-placement, which may overlap/cover each other (the most recently spawned item graphically overlays any earlier one). The wheel object will only spin if not constrained by other physical elements (including the spokes of an adjacent wheel, not in counter-rotation) but can still be dragged and placed anywhere within the boundary of the construction area.

The continuous stream(s) of balls respect all ''tangible'' objects, which includes any currently being dragged/rotated, though may prematurely vanish if forced between two items moved to touch/overlap each other. It is possible to to indirectly nudge balls by carefully moving a tangible object's surface into them (or holding them within it, e.g. the "cup"). This may be useful for rescuing temporarily stray balls (before they time-out anyway), unjamming an area with a construction-induced glut ''or'' for testing a ball-path that is not currently being fed 'naturally'. Doing so ''can'' then conceivably fulfil all the exit-gate requirements (temporarily), as it might also transiently spoil some required routing, but the manual intervention will not be possible once a 'machine' has been submit.

===Non-player items===

Ball containers at the bottom of the machine
{|
|[[File:2916_container_red.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_yellow.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_blue.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_green.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|}

Cueball and Megan in the ''USS Buoyancy''
[[File:4d425c.png|thumb|left|150px]]
 

Pit below the ''USS Buoyancy'' (not to scale)
[[File:2916_pit_bottom.png|thumb|left|300px]]
 

=== Color routing ===
The different ball colors have different physical properties. Red balls are more bouncy than other balls, green balls are heavier, and yellow balls are lighter and slightly bouncy. The following values were extracted from the code:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Color
! Mass
! Density
! Restitution (bounciness)
! Linear damping (drag)
|-
! data-sort-key="00F" | Blue
| 0.08
| 1
| 0
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="F00" | Red
| 0.08
| 1
| 0.8
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="0F0" | Green
| 0.75
| 9.325
| 0
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="FF0" | Yellow
| 0.024
| 0.3
| 0.6
| 2
|}

For certain combinations of inlet and outlet 'gates', it is necessary to 'cross the streams'. e.g. to direct righthand-entry balls to a lefthand-exit and vice-versa. It is possible to just construct the field to send two (or more!) sets of balls to fly across a common gap, to land on an appropriate reception area that leads to the chosen exit. But, though this is not {{w|Proton pack#Crossing the streams|completely inadvised}}, the timing of the balls cannot be guaranteed to be in sync (or, rather, anti-sync) with each other and collisions ''will'' occur, especially under the variations of delivery that might significantly alter the ballistic path across the gap. Even if the trial machine works, in isolation with a steady stream of all balls entering the field of play, once submitted it will inevitably be fed by a more chaotically-routed preceeding construction.

In order to maintain sufficient correct arrivals at exits, it may be necessary to add a method of filtering the hues.

This could just mean introducing a 'wrong hue trap' beyond any crossing point(s) that send the occasionally wrong ball back to the cross point (or let them time-out in a dead-end, relying upon few enough failures from the rest of the balls, along with all colliding balls that subsequently missed ''any'' chance of reaching an exit). Alternatively, two (or more) feeds of marbles could be fed through a deliberate 'sorter' that does a sufficiently reasonable job of separating the combined sets out towards their intended target-exits.

The various physical qualities of the balls suggest a number of methods for redirecting separate hues to separate onward journeys. This can be done by isolating a hue from every other hue, then passing on (if necessary) to a setup extracting a different one from the remainder, and perhaps also a third time. It may also be possible to merge 'arrangements' of sorting mechanics to efficiently distribute straight into three ''or even four'' onward tracks towards the desired outputs, but that is left as an exercise to the reader.


{| class="wikitable"
! style="background-color:black; color:white" | To separate !! style="background-color:lightblue" | Blue !! style="background-color:lightgreen" | Green !! style="background-color:yellow" | Yellow !! style="background-color:red" | Red
|-
! style="background-color:red" | Red
| *R/B* | '''Use 'bounce''''
The sole difference is how much balls will rebound from objects. Well managed and constrained ricochets should allow a sorting action.
| *R/G* | '''Use mass or 'bounce''''
Green balls cannot be levitated by a vertical fan. An incline across any such fan(s) will levitate only non-Greens. Green, like Blue, rebounds differently to Red. Green balls are also affected by black holes much less than all other balls.
| *R/Y* | ''See Y/B''
| *R/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
|-
! style="background-color:yellow" | Yellow
| *Y/B* | '''All methods'''
Yellow, alone, exhibits high drag against any unforced motion. It is also unique in all other ways; e.g. can be levitated highest, against all other hues (though most profoundly against Green).
| *Y/G* | ''See Y/B''
| *Y/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *Y/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | ''See Y/B'' 
|-
! style="background-color:lightgreen" | Green
| *G/B* | '''Use mass'''
Green balls cannot be levitated by a vertical fan. There is also a not so marginal difference in density that might be exploited, such as by using black holes, which only minimally effects Green (perhaps showing an effective difference between mass of attraction and mass of inertia).
| *G/G* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *G/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | ''See Y/B'' 
| *G/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See R/G
|-
! style="background-color:lightblue" | Blue
| *B/B* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *B/G* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See G/B
| *B/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See Y/B
| *B/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See R/B
|}

Even when not strictly necessary for one's own submission, once submitted into the full playing grid the player's own contribution may find itself working with less 'pure' delivered ball-streams (from an imperfectly separating feed-in contribution). It is possible that this more interactive disruption can make the new setup behave erratically or even entirely incorrectly.

It might be thought good practice (but not ''necessary'') to deliberately combine any or all inputs and do a full job of splitting them again, just in anticipation of possibly having to deal with such cross-contamination and being able to 'clean up' the onward stream(s) for the benefit of others. This would of course be particularly difficult if the isolated building-phase does not provide all four hues to 'test' against, so any speculatively added filtering would have to be added 'blind' (and only on the offchance that any anticipated incorrect balls will actually enter the arena) and without any legitimate exits to which such rejects could be shunted (therefore could accumulate, up until any 'time out' that might apply to any ball once operational as part of the combined grid).

Single-input/single-output designs might not particularly require ''any'' sorting mechanism, in theory, though the unexpected 'contamination' of the system with balls of different masses/etc could perhaps introduce malfunctioning passage from the added chaos it might succumb to.

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

:[The placeholder image shows four balls, colored red, green, yellow and blue, bouncing on top of three white blocks. Text in the center: "[visit xkcd.com to view]"]

:[Cueball with lab coat, intro popup]
:Cueball: Balls falling into your cell should be routed to the outputs at a steady rate.

:[Cueball with lab coat, warning popup]
:Cueball: For security reasons, balls that remain in your device for more than 30 seconds will be removed and destroyed.

:[Cueball with lab coat, submit popup]
:Cueball: Congratulations! Your contraption has passed all tests. Press [submit button] to submit it to be added to the machine!

==Trivia==
Once again an April Fool's Day Comic came out late, as Randall did not release this on April 1st, even though April 1st did fall on a Monday, a normal release day. It first came four days later with the Friday release on April 5th. That this is to be considered an April fools' comic, in spite of the later release, was confirmed on the xkcd Facebook page.

*Randall acknowledges the people who helped him create this comic in a [[Header_text#Machine|comic-specific header text]].
**With 11 different involved apart from Randall this is by far the comic with most people involved.
*Some hidden keyboard shortcuts have been found:
** Follow balls: Ctrl + Alt/Option + B (now also accessible by using the button provided)
** Show debug overlay: Ctrl + Shift + Win/Cmd + D
*** This may particularly clash with browser functionality, e.g. Firefox's "New Bookmarks" dialogue which will need closing, though still activating the overlay graphics.
** Delete selected item: Delete (Fn + Delete on Mac)
*When Randall posted a [https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD/posts/pfbid0Cs97awQZi1ZiaEXouAex9tXrwAS3qJV3RmAiuCq5uvZQwqZVMgDmcqJ7JU9LYodYl link to this comic] on his [https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD Facebook feed], he directly wrote that it was a late April Fools' Day!
**MACHINE
**Happy Belated April Fool's Day!
**This thus ends any discussion of whether this should be seen as an April Fool's comic or not.
**It just came out 4 days late. This has also happened several times since [[Garden]].
[[File:2916 Machine Facebook April fools' confirmation.png]]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Buns]]
[[Category:Cats]]

2916: Machine

2024-04-17T01:32:37Z

Keybounce: Timing shows bottom boat bin balls have a 90 second survival

{{comic
| number = 2916
| date = April 5, 2024
| title = Machine
| image = machine_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x740px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Credible Machine
}}
* To experience the interactivity, visit the [https://xkcd.com/2916/ original comic].

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WELL OILED ROBOT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This interactive game is the 14th [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous April fools' comic was [[2765: Escape Speed]] from 2023, which was released on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. "Machine" has been updated multiple times in the weeks following its release, adding the following features:
* the trophy and shot glass props
* the cat, which swats balls in front of it
* the inanimate cat and bunny decorations
* a system of links, which encodes the XY coordinates of the currently viewed cell, and the time (i.e. the entire machine's state after a certain moderation action)
* a button to follow a nearby ball as it traverses through the machine, also preventing it from despawning

As referenced in the title text, this game is a spiritual successor to the 1990s and early 2000s PC puzzle game series {{w|The Incredible Machine}}, a game Randall played as a kid. Both games have several objects in common:
* fan
* cat
* ramps
* balls of varying densities

The comic starts in a main screen where the user can create a {{w|Rube Goldberg machine}} in a "Cell" where the goal is to route a constant stream of colored balls from inputs on the ceiling or walls to outputs of matching colors on the walls or floor. After the comic is first opened a window pops up over the machine where Cueball in a lab coat tells you to route the balls from the inputs to the outputs. A button opens a “tool panel” where there are large and small boards available for use, as well as some gimmicky stuff like prisms (which deflect marbles) and fans (which blow marbles around), plus decorative elements which have no effect on the balls.

Typically, inputs and outputs only accept balls of a single color. However, some outputs accept multiple colors, indicated by a double arrow, and some inputs produce multiple colors. When the player is designing their 'machine', this will involve multiple full streams merged into one (supplied by a double-exit on the adjacent submission). Machines now working in the full grid may, however, find that their sources now contain stray balls of other types that were not handled properly, but there is no way to force a re-edit of the machine to alter its behavior to account for this.

If any balls are left in your cell for more than 30 seconds, they fade away. The first time a ball fades away another popup informs you that the balls are removed for security reasons. An indicator next to each exit increases for each ball of the correct color that passes through an exit, and reduces when no balls pass through, or if balls of the wrong color pass through it. While that exit is not properly supplied it displays a red cross, which changes to a green tick when a sufficient, and sufficiently clean, stream of balls is supplied. The first time you have built a machine which succeeds in routing enough balls of the correct color to ''all'' relevant outputs, a popup will prompt you to submit your cell to be added to the public machine. (Subsequently, the submit button will quietly change from 'inactive' (pale) to clickable (dark). This will change back again if any ball transfers dip back below the required threshold for any reason, such as further editing or an end to a 'fluke' glut of accumulated balls.)

Choosing to submit your cell will give you a textbox to give this cell a name. Proceeding through that, you will now see your cell within the 'grid' and a 'live' feed of balls from any relevant neighboring cells (which may be more sporadic then the feed you designed your cell with, and contain stray balls of different types). If any supplying-neighbors are still marked as "under construction", they ''may'' provide the balls as if perfectly routed from their own (eventual) source, but will eventually dry up. If your newly submitted creation is placed in the lowest row of cells, balls will be dispensed through the exit at the bottom, but there will be no launcher to propel them towards the pit, and they will vanish as they leave the exit.

Upon reopening the link to this comic without coordinate and time parameters, your recently created machine will most likely not be visible in the space you built it in. [https://www.reddit.com/user/xzaphenia/comments/ Reddit user xzaphenia] has claimed on r/xkcd that this is because there is a moderation team (of which they are a member) and that [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c1ixmb/comment/kzc3rmg/ the main page only shows public, approved machines]. This team of people, including those credited as co-creators of this comic, select machines according to their preferences (and little to no formal criteria besides [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0sp60/comment/kz6hbgl/ coolness, innovativeness, effectiveness], and [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0bsk2/comment/kyvfean/ privacy concerns]). Given the number of 'bottom-layer' cells that are likely primed ready to be completed (e.g. the grid-width of twelve, perhaps staggered across adjacent rows) and the many possible worldwide contributors at any one time, it may be that the chances of being picked for permanence is low; and certainly would have been lower early on in the comic's existence during the initial frantic rush to participate. [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0sp60/comment/kz6hbgl/ It is also claimed that at some point, moderation will be cut off and the machine will be considered "complete"].

<gallery heights="200" widths="150">
File:2916_popup_intro.png|Introduction popup
File:2916_popup_time.png|Time limit popup
File:2916_popup_submit.png|Submission popup
</gallery>

The button in the bottom right corner allows you to toggle between editing your own machine and a page where you can drag around to view all of the machines that have been submitted and accepted, with a title for each in the upper left corner. In this view you can see that all of the outputs are also inputs for another cell, except for the top row where the inputs come from off screen and the lowest row which output through a launcher of some kind to a set of four colored-coded containers far below. Any empty cells are marked off by yellow tape with the words "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" as well as "DJIA ↑ 31415" once in each cell. "DJIA" stands for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with "DJIA ↑ 31415" indicating that it rose to 31415 points, 31415 being the first five digits of pi, without the period. This would often be displayed on a yellow 'ticker', which might look superficially similar to the yellow barrier tape.

When viewing the whole machine, a button in the bottom left corner, added later, allows you to follow the path of the nearest ball as it passes from cell to cell. This will also make the ball you are following immortal - not subject to the 30s timeout rule. Another later addition was a button in the top left corner which copies a URL that will take you directly to the current cell that you are viewing. However, the link that is created will always show you the version of the machine at the time that you were viewing it, without any subsequent additions.

Whenever balls reach the bottom of the grid, they are directed towards four containers, one of each color. Most balls are accurately sent to their appropriate container, though there are some misfires. These containers are above a pit, and periodically dump their contents. Balls in the pit are subject to a 90 second culling rule, unlike the balls in the cells above. If no balls are directed towards the containers, the pit will be empty. If one or two streams of balls are making it, Cueball and Megan sit in a small boat named the USS Buoyancy, and when sufficient balls are being deposited, the boat begins to float and move. More streams of balls are likely to add more changes. Balls which miss or overspill the pit fall out of the bottom of the frame.

Under construction cells will feed balls of the appropriate color into neighboring cells so long as you are not looking at them. Once you scroll to look at them, the supply of balls stops and subsequent cells in the chain will not receive any; scroll away from them again and the supply will resume.

The grid is 12 cells wide, and grows in height. The largest size observed so far is 12x74, for a total of 888 cells. The machine's height is determined by the lowest cell; This can be either your submitted cell, or a cell created by another user.

Imperfections in the machines (whether accidental or by design) and the impossibility of entirely avoiding collisions when crossing streams inevitably lead to significant levels of losses and pollution with the wrong color balls. Indeed, using the follow ball function appears to demonstrate that it is quite rare for a ball to survive more than several machines without getting stuck somewhere. This should mean that effectively no balls would reach the lower layers. This implies that there is some 'creative accounting' going on to ensure that cells lower in the grid still have balls to process - simulating flow only for a few nearby cells, while assuming that those cells themselves have pure, steady inputs.

There is a hard limit of 100 items (both physically interactive and purely decorative) that can be placed in any given arena. If you have placed 75 items, a count will appear in the component bar of your piece-count ("''##''/100"), which will go away again if you delete items to bring it below this count. The count text turns red at "100/100", at which point no more items can be added, only existing ones moved (or removed, to lower the count again).

===Toolbox items===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|+ List of objects
|-
! Description !! Effect !! Image
|-
| Plank || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_plank.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hammer || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_hammer.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Sword || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_sword.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hinged scoop&dagger; || Rotates around its hinge, tries to stay horizontal with a springy effect || [[File:2916_scoop.png|frameless|upright=0.25]] [[File:2916_scoop_mirrored.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Anvil || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_anvil.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Brick || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_brick.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Fan || Blows away balls in front of it. Different colors are affected by differing amounts (yellow balls are lightest, and can be levitated above an upward-facing fan).|| [[File:2916_fan.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Pillow || Balls will not bounce if they hit it || [[File:2916_pillow.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Bumper || Bounces balls away at significantly higher speed || [[File:2916_round_bumper.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] [[File:2916_bumper_left.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] [[File:2916_bumper_right.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Attractor/Black Hole* || Pulls balls toward center || [[File:2916_attractor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Repulsor/White hole* || Repels balls away from center || [[File:2916_repulsor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Prism || "Refracts" and internally-reflects balls as they otherwise pass through the object, the color of the ball ''may'' cause them to react (as much as possible) according to the respective color across the element. || [[File:2916_prism.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Wheel&Dagger; || Spins, deflects balls, can jam with enough resistance (e.g. glut of balls or against other elements). || [[File:2916_wheel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| "Good job" trophy || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_trophy.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Glass cup || Static obstacle. Container, with a nominal capacity of up to four balls (in whole or in part) within it. || [[File:2916_cup.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || Swats away balls in front of itself (was added later) || [[File:2916_cat_new.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
! colspan="3" style="text-align:center" | Non-physical items
|-
| Right-facing Ponytail, with raised arms || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_ponytail_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Right-facing Ponytail, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_ponytail.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Left-facing Cueball, with raised arms || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_cueball_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Left-facing White Hat, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_whitehat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Rightwards-facing Knit Cap, in an 'action' pose || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_knitcap_resting.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Right-facing Knit Cap, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_knitcap.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Helmet-wearing figure, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_helmet.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Squirrel || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_squirrel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| "Probably Deterministic" sign || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_deterministic.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| [[1682: Bun|Bun]] || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_rabbit.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_cat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|}

:<nowiki/>* — The Attractor and Repulsor are omnidirectional, but the area of effect can be resized to extend or restrict its influence. You do this by way of its bounding box with corner and mid-edged 'drag nodes' and a circular area that shows the current extent, which are only visible when the element is actively selected. This resize can be no larger than will make the box/circle touch the edges, no smaller than the fixed graphic and will always be identically proportioned in both axes.

:&dagger; — The hinged scoops are strictly horizontal, on building. They will rotate away from and (spring back to) horizontal according to interactions with balls or other non-decorative items that may be placed to disturb their balance, sometimes with further interesting interactions (that may or may not be intentional or useful). There are two selectable versions of this item. (The only ''other'' object class with a clear (and practical) asymmetry, for which a mirrored chirality can be chosen from the sidebar, are the two versions of triangular "Bonk"-bumpers.)

:&Dagger; — The wheel is an actively rotating element that starts off, by default, spinning anticlockwise. Pressing or tapping left/right arrow keys, when a placed wheel is selected, will adjust that wheel's rotation rate to be more/less anticlockwise. Adjusting it beyond zero rotation allows you to make it spin in the opposite direction.
:Rotation can be increased well beyond the point at which the {{w|wagon-wheel effect}} occurs, which may make it difficult to work out the spin direction of an overspeed wheel element (and thus which arrow keys will slow or speed up its rotation, if you have forgotten), though observing its impact upon any balls that strike it ''should'' make its current spin-direction obvious.
:The 'bounding editing box' will usually appear rotated, possibly according to the spinning graphic's current orientation upon selection, but remains at that (often non-orthagonal) angle even as the wheel spins (if it can) during this period of selection for editing.

All other items can be manually re-angled by a 'loop node' arm extending from the bounding box. If you cannot see the 'angle node' for such a selected item, which is normally at the top of any freshly placed item but follows any re-angling that may have already applied, it could be that you have placed the item too close to the edge in which direction the node extends. To rotate it, move the object away from the edge to access the construction node (after which, you can drag the object back if required – but see below).

Rotation may be limited by the {{w|minimum bounding box}} that is the 'selection box', this is not necessarily the more flush {{w|convex hull}} of the collision-map built into the graphic. Should a corner of the bounding box need to move across the edge of the build-area, it will do nothing more than touch the edge until there is sufficient angle-drag to snap it to the angle from which that corner now comes back away from the edge; or, when it has a long straight edge currently flush with the edge boundary, it may snap to exactly 180°, in rotation, whereupon the opposite long straight edge is flush to the construction area edge. All objects that are drag-moved, similarly, cannot be moved any further than their current bounding box touching the construction-area edging. The bounding box for the rotating wheel is a notable exception to this, being not under any direct angle-control by the player. Instead, it seems to use the bounding inscribed circle that defines the wheel edge iteslf.

Apart from some interactions between the hinged scoops and any element (including other hinged scoops), there is no preventative 'collision detection' between objects during user-placement, which may overlap/cover each other (the most recently spawned item graphically overlays any earlier one). The wheel object will only spin if not constrained by other physical elements (including the spokes of an adjacent wheel, not in counter-rotation) but can still be dragged and placed anywhere within the boundary of the construction area.

The continuous stream(s) of balls respect all ''tangible'' objects, which includes any currently being dragged/rotated, though may prematurely vanish if forced between two items moved to touch/overlap each other. It is possible to to indirectly nudge balls by carefully moving a tangible object's surface into them (or holding them within it, e.g. the "cup"). This may be useful for rescuing temporarily stray balls (before they time-out anyway), unjamming an area with a construction-induced glut ''or'' for testing a ball-path that is not currently being fed 'naturally'. Doing so ''can'' then conceivably fulfil all the exit-gate requirements (temporarily), as it might also transiently spoil some required routing, but the manual intervention will not be possible once a 'machine' has been submit.

===Non-player items===

Ball containers at the bottom of the machine
{|
|[[File:2916_container_red.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_yellow.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_blue.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_green.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|}

Cueball and Megan in the ''USS Buoyancy''
[[File:4d425c.png|thumb|left|150px]]
 

Pit below the ''USS Buoyancy'' (not to scale)
[[File:2916_pit_bottom.png|thumb|left|300px]]
 

=== Color routing ===
The different ball colors have different physical properties. Red balls are more bouncy than other balls, green balls are heavier, and yellow balls are lighter and slightly bouncy. The following values were extracted from the code:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Color
! Mass
! Density
! Restitution (bounciness)
! Linear damping (drag)
|-
! data-sort-key="00F" | Blue
| 0.08
| 1
| 0
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="F00" | Red
| 0.08
| 1
| 0.8
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="0F0" | Green
| 0.75
| 9.325
| 0
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="FF0" | Yellow
| 0.024
| 0.3
| 0.6
| 2
|}

For certain combinations of inlet and outlet 'gates', it is necessary to 'cross the streams'. e.g. to direct righthand-entry balls to a lefthand-exit and vice-versa. It is possible to just construct the field to send two (or more!) sets of balls to fly across a common gap, to land on an appropriate reception area that leads to the chosen exit. But, though this is not {{w|Proton pack#Crossing the streams|completely inadvised}}, the timing of the balls cannot be guaranteed to be in sync (or, rather, anti-sync) with each other and collisions ''will'' occur, especially under the variations of delivery that might significantly alter the ballistic path across the gap. Even if the trial machine works, in isolation with a steady stream of all balls entering the field of play, once submitted it will inevitably be fed by a more chaotically-routed preceeding construction.

In order to maintain sufficient correct arrivals at exits, it may be necessary to add a method of filtering the hues.

This could just mean introducing a 'wrong hue trap' beyond any crossing point(s) that send the occasionally wrong ball back to the cross point (or let them time-out in a dead-end, relying upon few enough failures from the rest of the balls, along with all colliding balls that subsequently missed ''any'' chance of reaching an exit). Alternatively, two (or more) feeds of marbles could be fed through a deliberate 'sorter' that does a sufficiently reasonable job of separating the combined sets out towards their intended target-exits.

The various physical qualities of the balls suggest a number of methods for redirecting separate hues to separate onward journeys. This can be done by isolating a hue from every other hue, then passing on (if necessary) to a setup extracting a different one from the remainder, and perhaps also a third time. It may also be possible to merge 'arrangements' of sorting mechanics to efficiently distribute straight into three ''or even four'' onward tracks towards the desired outputs, but that is left as an exercise to the reader.


{| class="wikitable"
! style="background-color:black; color:white" | To separate !! style="background-color:lightblue" | Blue !! style="background-color:lightgreen" | Green !! style="background-color:yellow" | Yellow !! style="background-color:red" | Red
|-
! style="background-color:red" | Red
| *R/B* | '''Use 'bounce''''
The sole difference is how much balls will rebound from objects. Well managed and constrained ricochets should allow a sorting action.
| *R/G* | '''Use mass or 'bounce''''
Green balls cannot be levitated by a vertical fan. An incline across any such fan(s) will levitate only non-Greens. Green, like Blue, rebounds differently to Red. Green balls are also affected by black holes much less than all other balls.
| *R/Y* | ''See Y/B''
| *R/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
|-
! style="background-color:yellow" | Yellow
| *Y/B* | '''All methods'''
Yellow, alone, exhibits high drag against any unforced motion. It is also unique in all other ways; e.g. can be levitated highest, against all other hues (though most profoundly against Green).
| *Y/G* | ''See Y/B''
| *Y/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *Y/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | ''See Y/B'' 
|-
! style="background-color:lightgreen" | Green
| *G/B* | '''Use mass'''
Green balls cannot be levitated by a vertical fan. There is also a not so marginal difference in density that might be exploited, such as by using black holes, which only minimally effects Green (perhaps showing an effective difference between mass of attraction and mass of inertia).
| *G/G* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *G/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | ''See Y/B'' 
| *G/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See R/G
|-
! style="background-color:lightblue" | Blue
| *B/B* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *B/G* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See G/B
| *B/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See Y/B
| *B/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See R/B
|}

Even when not strictly necessary for one's own submission, once submitted into the full playing grid the player's own contribution may find itself working with less 'pure' delivered ball-streams (from an imperfectly separating feed-in contribution). It is possible that this more interactive disruption can make the new setup behave erratically or even entirely incorrectly.

It might be thought good practice (but not ''necessary'') to deliberately combine any or all inputs and do a full job of splitting them again, just in anticipation of possibly having to deal with such cross-contamination and being able to 'clean up' the onward stream(s) for the benefit of others. This would of course be particularly difficult if the isolated building-phase does not provide all four hues to 'test' against, so any speculatively added filtering would have to be added 'blind' (and only on the offchance that any anticipated incorrect balls will actually enter the arena) and without any legitimate exits to which such rejects could be shunted (therefore could accumulate, up until any 'time out' that might apply to any ball once operational as part of the combined grid).

Single-input/single-output designs might not particularly require ''any'' sorting mechanism, in theory, though the unexpected 'contamination' of the system with balls of different masses/etc could perhaps introduce malfunctioning passage from the added chaos it might succumb to.

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

:[The placeholder image shows four balls, colored red, green, yellow and blue, bouncing on top of three white blocks. Text in the center: "[visit xkcd.com to view]"]

:[Cueball with lab coat, intro popup]
:Cueball: Balls falling into your cell should be routed to the outputs at a steady rate.

:[Cueball with lab coat, warning popup]
:Cueball: For security reasons, balls that remain in your device for more than 30 seconds will be removed and destroyed.

:[Cueball with lab coat, submit popup]
:Cueball: Congratulations! Your contraption has passed all tests. Press [submit button] to submit it to be added to the machine!

==Trivia==
Once again an April Fool's Day Comic came out late, as Randall did not release this on April 1st, even though April 1st did fall on a Monday, a normal release day. It first came four days later with the Friday release on April 5th. That this is to be considered an April fools' comic, in spite of the later release, was confirmed on the xkcd Facebook page.

*Randall acknowledges the people who helped him create this comic in a [[Header_text#Machine|comic-specific header text]].
**With 11 different involved apart from Randall this is by far the comic with most people involved.
*Some hidden keyboard shortcuts have been found:
** Follow balls: Ctrl + Alt/Option + B (now also accessible by using the button provided)
** Show debug overlay: Ctrl + Shift + Win/Cmd + D
*** This may particularly clash with browser functionality, e.g. Firefox's "New Bookmarks" dialogue which will need closing, though still activating the overlay graphics.
** Delete selected item: Delete (Fn + Delete on Mac)
*When Randall posted a [https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD/posts/pfbid0Cs97awQZi1ZiaEXouAex9tXrwAS3qJV3RmAiuCq5uvZQwqZVMgDmcqJ7JU9LYodYl link to this comic] on his [https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD Facebook feed], he directly wrote that it was a late April Fools' Day!
**MACHINE
**Happy Belated April Fool's Day!
**This thus ends any discussion of whether this should be seen as an April Fool's comic or not.
**It just came out 4 days late. This has also happened several times since [[Garden]].
[[File:2916 Machine Facebook April fools' confirmation.png]]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Buns]]
[[Category:Cats]]

2916: Machine

2024-04-17T01:29:54Z

Keybounce: Updating size of the whole machine

{{comic
| number = 2916
| date = April 5, 2024
| title = Machine
| image = machine_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x740px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Credible Machine
}}
* To experience the interactivity, visit the [https://xkcd.com/2916/ original comic].

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WELL OILED ROBOT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This interactive game is the 14th [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous April fools' comic was [[2765: Escape Speed]] from 2023, which was released on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. "Machine" has been updated multiple times in the weeks following its release, adding the following features:
* the trophy and shot glass props
* the cat, which swats balls in front of it
* the inanimate cat and bunny decorations
* a system of links, which encodes the XY coordinates of the currently viewed cell, and the time (i.e. the entire machine's state after a certain moderation action)
* a button to follow a nearby ball as it traverses through the machine, also preventing it from despawning

As referenced in the title text, this game is a spiritual successor to the 1990s and early 2000s PC puzzle game series {{w|The Incredible Machine}}, a game Randall played as a kid. Both games have several objects in common:
* fan
* cat
* ramps
* balls of varying densities

The comic starts in a main screen where the user can create a {{w|Rube Goldberg machine}} in a "Cell" where the goal is to route a constant stream of colored balls from inputs on the ceiling or walls to outputs of matching colors on the walls or floor. After the comic is first opened a window pops up over the machine where Cueball in a lab coat tells you to route the balls from the inputs to the outputs. A button opens a “tool panel” where there are large and small boards available for use, as well as some gimmicky stuff like prisms (which deflect marbles) and fans (which blow marbles around), plus decorative elements which have no effect on the balls.

Typically, inputs and outputs only accept balls of a single color. However, some outputs accept multiple colors, indicated by a double arrow, and some inputs produce multiple colors. When the player is designing their 'machine', this will involve multiple full streams merged into one (supplied by a double-exit on the adjacent submission). Machines now working in the full grid may, however, find that their sources now contain stray balls of other types that were not handled properly, but there is no way to force a re-edit of the machine to alter its behavior to account for this.

If any balls are left in your cell for more than 30 seconds, they fade away. The first time a ball fades away another popup informs you that the balls are removed for security reasons. An indicator next to each exit increases for each ball of the correct color that passes through an exit, and reduces when no balls pass through, or if balls of the wrong color pass through it. While that exit is not properly supplied it displays a red cross, which changes to a green tick when a sufficient, and sufficiently clean, stream of balls is supplied. The first time you have built a machine which succeeds in routing enough balls of the correct color to ''all'' relevant outputs, a popup will prompt you to submit your cell to be added to the public machine. (Subsequently, the submit button will quietly change from 'inactive' (pale) to clickable (dark). This will change back again if any ball transfers dip back below the required threshold for any reason, such as further editing or an end to a 'fluke' glut of accumulated balls.)

Choosing to submit your cell will give you a textbox to give this cell a name. Proceeding through that, you will now see your cell within the 'grid' and a 'live' feed of balls from any relevant neighboring cells (which may be more sporadic then the feed you designed your cell with, and contain stray balls of different types). If any supplying-neighbors are still marked as "under construction", they ''may'' provide the balls as if perfectly routed from their own (eventual) source, but will eventually dry up. If your newly submitted creation is placed in the lowest row of cells, balls will be dispensed through the exit at the bottom, but there will be no launcher to propel them towards the pit, and they will vanish as they leave the exit.

Upon reopening the link to this comic without coordinate and time parameters, your recently created machine will most likely not be visible in the space you built it in. [https://www.reddit.com/user/xzaphenia/comments/ Reddit user xzaphenia] has claimed on r/xkcd that this is because there is a moderation team (of which they are a member) and that [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c1ixmb/comment/kzc3rmg/ the main page only shows public, approved machines]. This team of people, including those credited as co-creators of this comic, select machines according to their preferences (and little to no formal criteria besides [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0sp60/comment/kz6hbgl/ coolness, innovativeness, effectiveness], and [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0bsk2/comment/kyvfean/ privacy concerns]). Given the number of 'bottom-layer' cells that are likely primed ready to be completed (e.g. the grid-width of twelve, perhaps staggered across adjacent rows) and the many possible worldwide contributors at any one time, it may be that the chances of being picked for permanence is low; and certainly would have been lower early on in the comic's existence during the initial frantic rush to participate. [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0sp60/comment/kz6hbgl/ It is also claimed that at some point, moderation will be cut off and the machine will be considered "complete"].

<gallery heights="200" widths="150">
File:2916_popup_intro.png|Introduction popup
File:2916_popup_time.png|Time limit popup
File:2916_popup_submit.png|Submission popup
</gallery>

The button in the bottom right corner allows you to toggle between editing your own machine and a page where you can drag around to view all of the machines that have been submitted and accepted, with a title for each in the upper left corner. In this view you can see that all of the outputs are also inputs for another cell, except for the top row where the inputs come from off screen and the lowest row which output through a launcher of some kind to a set of four colored-coded containers far below. Any empty cells are marked off by yellow tape with the words "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" as well as "DJIA ↑ 31415" once in each cell. "DJIA" stands for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with "DJIA ↑ 31415" indicating that it rose to 31415 points, 31415 being the first five digits of pi, without the period. This would often be displayed on a yellow 'ticker', which might look superficially similar to the yellow barrier tape.

When viewing the whole machine, a button in the bottom left corner, added later, allows you to follow the path of the nearest ball as it passes from cell to cell. This will also make the ball you are following immortal - not subject to the 30s timeout rule. Another later addition was a button in the top left corner which copies a URL that will take you directly to the current cell that you are viewing. However, the link that is created will always show you the version of the machine at the time that you were viewing it, without any subsequent additions.

Whenever balls reach the bottom of the grid, they are directed towards four containers, one of each color. Most balls are accurately sent to their appropriate container, though there are some misfires. These containers are above a pit, and periodically dump their contents. Balls in the pit are subject to the same 30s culling rule as balls in the cells above. If no balls are directed towards the containers, the pit will be empty. If one or two streams of balls are making it, Cueball and Megan sit in a small boat named the USS Buoyancy, and when sufficient balls are being deposited, the boat begins to float and move. More streams of balls are likely to add more changes. Balls which miss or overspill the pit fall out of the bottom of the frame.

Under construction cells will feed balls of the appropriate color into neighboring cells so long as you are not looking at them. Once you scroll to look at them, the supply of balls stops and subsequent cells in the chain will not receive any; scroll away from them again and the supply will resume.

The grid is 12 cells wide, and grows in height. The largest size observed so far is 12x74, for a total of 888 cells. The machine's height is determined by the lowest cell; This can be either your submitted cell, or a cell created by another user.

Imperfections in the machines (whether accidental or by design) and the impossibility of entirely avoiding collisions when crossing streams inevitably lead to significant levels of losses and pollution with the wrong color balls. Indeed, using the follow ball function appears to demonstrate that it is quite rare for a ball to survive more than several machines without getting stuck somewhere. This should mean that effectively no balls would reach the lower layers. This implies that there is some 'creative accounting' going on to ensure that cells lower in the grid still have balls to process - simulating flow only for a few nearby cells, while assuming that those cells themselves have pure, steady inputs.

There is a hard limit of 100 items (both physically interactive and purely decorative) that can be placed in any given arena. If you have placed 75 items, a count will appear in the component bar of your piece-count ("''##''/100"), which will go away again if you delete items to bring it below this count. The count text turns red at "100/100", at which point no more items can be added, only existing ones moved (or removed, to lower the count again).

===Toolbox items===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|+ List of objects
|-
! Description !! Effect !! Image
|-
| Plank || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_plank.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hammer || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_hammer.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Sword || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_sword.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hinged scoop&dagger; || Rotates around its hinge, tries to stay horizontal with a springy effect || [[File:2916_scoop.png|frameless|upright=0.25]] [[File:2916_scoop_mirrored.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Anvil || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_anvil.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Brick || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_brick.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Fan || Blows away balls in front of it. Different colors are affected by differing amounts (yellow balls are lightest, and can be levitated above an upward-facing fan).|| [[File:2916_fan.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Pillow || Balls will not bounce if they hit it || [[File:2916_pillow.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Bumper || Bounces balls away at significantly higher speed || [[File:2916_round_bumper.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] [[File:2916_bumper_left.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] [[File:2916_bumper_right.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Attractor/Black Hole* || Pulls balls toward center || [[File:2916_attractor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Repulsor/White hole* || Repels balls away from center || [[File:2916_repulsor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Prism || "Refracts" and internally-reflects balls as they otherwise pass through the object, the color of the ball ''may'' cause them to react (as much as possible) according to the respective color across the element. || [[File:2916_prism.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Wheel&Dagger; || Spins, deflects balls, can jam with enough resistance (e.g. glut of balls or against other elements). || [[File:2916_wheel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| "Good job" trophy || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_trophy.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Glass cup || Static obstacle. Container, with a nominal capacity of up to four balls (in whole or in part) within it. || [[File:2916_cup.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || Swats away balls in front of itself (was added later) || [[File:2916_cat_new.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
! colspan="3" style="text-align:center" | Non-physical items
|-
| Right-facing Ponytail, with raised arms || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_ponytail_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Right-facing Ponytail, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_ponytail.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Left-facing Cueball, with raised arms || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_cueball_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Left-facing White Hat, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_whitehat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Rightwards-facing Knit Cap, in an 'action' pose || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_knitcap_resting.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Right-facing Knit Cap, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_knitcap.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Helmet-wearing figure, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_helmet.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Squirrel || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_squirrel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| "Probably Deterministic" sign || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_deterministic.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| [[1682: Bun|Bun]] || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_rabbit.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_cat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|}

:<nowiki/>* — The Attractor and Repulsor are omnidirectional, but the area of effect can be resized to extend or restrict its influence. You do this by way of its bounding box with corner and mid-edged 'drag nodes' and a circular area that shows the current extent, which are only visible when the element is actively selected. This resize can be no larger than will make the box/circle touch the edges, no smaller than the fixed graphic and will always be identically proportioned in both axes.

:&dagger; — The hinged scoops are strictly horizontal, on building. They will rotate away from and (spring back to) horizontal according to interactions with balls or other non-decorative items that may be placed to disturb their balance, sometimes with further interesting interactions (that may or may not be intentional or useful). There are two selectable versions of this item. (The only ''other'' object class with a clear (and practical) asymmetry, for which a mirrored chirality can be chosen from the sidebar, are the two versions of triangular "Bonk"-bumpers.)

:&Dagger; — The wheel is an actively rotating element that starts off, by default, spinning anticlockwise. Pressing or tapping left/right arrow keys, when a placed wheel is selected, will adjust that wheel's rotation rate to be more/less anticlockwise. Adjusting it beyond zero rotation allows you to make it spin in the opposite direction.
:Rotation can be increased well beyond the point at which the {{w|wagon-wheel effect}} occurs, which may make it difficult to work out the spin direction of an overspeed wheel element (and thus which arrow keys will slow or speed up its rotation, if you have forgotten), though observing its impact upon any balls that strike it ''should'' make its current spin-direction obvious.
:The 'bounding editing box' will usually appear rotated, possibly according to the spinning graphic's current orientation upon selection, but remains at that (often non-orthagonal) angle even as the wheel spins (if it can) during this period of selection for editing.

All other items can be manually re-angled by a 'loop node' arm extending from the bounding box. If you cannot see the 'angle node' for such a selected item, which is normally at the top of any freshly placed item but follows any re-angling that may have already applied, it could be that you have placed the item too close to the edge in which direction the node extends. To rotate it, move the object away from the edge to access the construction node (after which, you can drag the object back if required – but see below).

Rotation may be limited by the {{w|minimum bounding box}} that is the 'selection box', this is not necessarily the more flush {{w|convex hull}} of the collision-map built into the graphic. Should a corner of the bounding box need to move across the edge of the build-area, it will do nothing more than touch the edge until there is sufficient angle-drag to snap it to the angle from which that corner now comes back away from the edge; or, when it has a long straight edge currently flush with the edge boundary, it may snap to exactly 180°, in rotation, whereupon the opposite long straight edge is flush to the construction area edge. All objects that are drag-moved, similarly, cannot be moved any further than their current bounding box touching the construction-area edging. The bounding box for the rotating wheel is a notable exception to this, being not under any direct angle-control by the player. Instead, it seems to use the bounding inscribed circle that defines the wheel edge iteslf.

Apart from some interactions between the hinged scoops and any element (including other hinged scoops), there is no preventative 'collision detection' between objects during user-placement, which may overlap/cover each other (the most recently spawned item graphically overlays any earlier one). The wheel object will only spin if not constrained by other physical elements (including the spokes of an adjacent wheel, not in counter-rotation) but can still be dragged and placed anywhere within the boundary of the construction area.

The continuous stream(s) of balls respect all ''tangible'' objects, which includes any currently being dragged/rotated, though may prematurely vanish if forced between two items moved to touch/overlap each other. It is possible to to indirectly nudge balls by carefully moving a tangible object's surface into them (or holding them within it, e.g. the "cup"). This may be useful for rescuing temporarily stray balls (before they time-out anyway), unjamming an area with a construction-induced glut ''or'' for testing a ball-path that is not currently being fed 'naturally'. Doing so ''can'' then conceivably fulfil all the exit-gate requirements (temporarily), as it might also transiently spoil some required routing, but the manual intervention will not be possible once a 'machine' has been submit.

===Non-player items===

Ball containers at the bottom of the machine
{|
|[[File:2916_container_red.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_yellow.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_blue.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_green.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|}

Cueball and Megan in the ''USS Buoyancy''
[[File:4d425c.png|thumb|left|150px]]
 

Pit below the ''USS Buoyancy'' (not to scale)
[[File:2916_pit_bottom.png|thumb|left|300px]]
 

=== Color routing ===
The different ball colors have different physical properties. Red balls are more bouncy than other balls, green balls are heavier, and yellow balls are lighter and slightly bouncy. The following values were extracted from the code:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Color
! Mass
! Density
! Restitution (bounciness)
! Linear damping (drag)
|-
! data-sort-key="00F" | Blue
| 0.08
| 1
| 0
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="F00" | Red
| 0.08
| 1
| 0.8
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="0F0" | Green
| 0.75
| 9.325
| 0
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="FF0" | Yellow
| 0.024
| 0.3
| 0.6
| 2
|}

For certain combinations of inlet and outlet 'gates', it is necessary to 'cross the streams'. e.g. to direct righthand-entry balls to a lefthand-exit and vice-versa. It is possible to just construct the field to send two (or more!) sets of balls to fly across a common gap, to land on an appropriate reception area that leads to the chosen exit. But, though this is not {{w|Proton pack#Crossing the streams|completely inadvised}}, the timing of the balls cannot be guaranteed to be in sync (or, rather, anti-sync) with each other and collisions ''will'' occur, especially under the variations of delivery that might significantly alter the ballistic path across the gap. Even if the trial machine works, in isolation with a steady stream of all balls entering the field of play, once submitted it will inevitably be fed by a more chaotically-routed preceeding construction.

In order to maintain sufficient correct arrivals at exits, it may be necessary to add a method of filtering the hues.

This could just mean introducing a 'wrong hue trap' beyond any crossing point(s) that send the occasionally wrong ball back to the cross point (or let them time-out in a dead-end, relying upon few enough failures from the rest of the balls, along with all colliding balls that subsequently missed ''any'' chance of reaching an exit). Alternatively, two (or more) feeds of marbles could be fed through a deliberate 'sorter' that does a sufficiently reasonable job of separating the combined sets out towards their intended target-exits.

The various physical qualities of the balls suggest a number of methods for redirecting separate hues to separate onward journeys. This can be done by isolating a hue from every other hue, then passing on (if necessary) to a setup extracting a different one from the remainder, and perhaps also a third time. It may also be possible to merge 'arrangements' of sorting mechanics to efficiently distribute straight into three ''or even four'' onward tracks towards the desired outputs, but that is left as an exercise to the reader.


{| class="wikitable"
! style="background-color:black; color:white" | To separate !! style="background-color:lightblue" | Blue !! style="background-color:lightgreen" | Green !! style="background-color:yellow" | Yellow !! style="background-color:red" | Red
|-
! style="background-color:red" | Red
| *R/B* | '''Use 'bounce''''
The sole difference is how much balls will rebound from objects. Well managed and constrained ricochets should allow a sorting action.
| *R/G* | '''Use mass or 'bounce''''
Green balls cannot be levitated by a vertical fan. An incline across any such fan(s) will levitate only non-Greens. Green, like Blue, rebounds differently to Red. Green balls are also affected by black holes much less than all other balls.
| *R/Y* | ''See Y/B''
| *R/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
|-
! style="background-color:yellow" | Yellow
| *Y/B* | '''All methods'''
Yellow, alone, exhibits high drag against any unforced motion. It is also unique in all other ways; e.g. can be levitated highest, against all other hues (though most profoundly against Green).
| *Y/G* | ''See Y/B''
| *Y/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *Y/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | ''See Y/B'' 
|-
! style="background-color:lightgreen" | Green
| *G/B* | '''Use mass'''
Green balls cannot be levitated by a vertical fan. There is also a not so marginal difference in density that might be exploited, such as by using black holes, which only minimally effects Green (perhaps showing an effective difference between mass of attraction and mass of inertia).
| *G/G* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *G/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | ''See Y/B'' 
| *G/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See R/G
|-
! style="background-color:lightblue" | Blue
| *B/B* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *B/G* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See G/B
| *B/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See Y/B
| *B/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See R/B
|}

Even when not strictly necessary for one's own submission, once submitted into the full playing grid the player's own contribution may find itself working with less 'pure' delivered ball-streams (from an imperfectly separating feed-in contribution). It is possible that this more interactive disruption can make the new setup behave erratically or even entirely incorrectly.

It might be thought good practice (but not ''necessary'') to deliberately combine any or all inputs and do a full job of splitting them again, just in anticipation of possibly having to deal with such cross-contamination and being able to 'clean up' the onward stream(s) for the benefit of others. This would of course be particularly difficult if the isolated building-phase does not provide all four hues to 'test' against, so any speculatively added filtering would have to be added 'blind' (and only on the offchance that any anticipated incorrect balls will actually enter the arena) and without any legitimate exits to which such rejects could be shunted (therefore could accumulate, up until any 'time out' that might apply to any ball once operational as part of the combined grid).

Single-input/single-output designs might not particularly require ''any'' sorting mechanism, in theory, though the unexpected 'contamination' of the system with balls of different masses/etc could perhaps introduce malfunctioning passage from the added chaos it might succumb to.

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

:[The placeholder image shows four balls, colored red, green, yellow and blue, bouncing on top of three white blocks. Text in the center: "[visit xkcd.com to view]"]

:[Cueball with lab coat, intro popup]
:Cueball: Balls falling into your cell should be routed to the outputs at a steady rate.

:[Cueball with lab coat, warning popup]
:Cueball: For security reasons, balls that remain in your device for more than 30 seconds will be removed and destroyed.

:[Cueball with lab coat, submit popup]
:Cueball: Congratulations! Your contraption has passed all tests. Press [submit button] to submit it to be added to the machine!

==Trivia==
Once again an April Fool's Day Comic came out late, as Randall did not release this on April 1st, even though April 1st did fall on a Monday, a normal release day. It first came four days later with the Friday release on April 5th. That this is to be considered an April fools' comic, in spite of the later release, was confirmed on the xkcd Facebook page.

*Randall acknowledges the people who helped him create this comic in a [[Header_text#Machine|comic-specific header text]].
**With 11 different involved apart from Randall this is by far the comic with most people involved.
*Some hidden keyboard shortcuts have been found:
** Follow balls: Ctrl + Alt/Option + B (now also accessible by using the button provided)
** Show debug overlay: Ctrl + Shift + Win/Cmd + D
*** This may particularly clash with browser functionality, e.g. Firefox's "New Bookmarks" dialogue which will need closing, though still activating the overlay graphics.
** Delete selected item: Delete (Fn + Delete on Mac)
*When Randall posted a [https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD/posts/pfbid0Cs97awQZi1ZiaEXouAex9tXrwAS3qJV3RmAiuCq5uvZQwqZVMgDmcqJ7JU9LYodYl link to this comic] on his [https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD Facebook feed], he directly wrote that it was a late April Fools' Day!
**MACHINE
**Happy Belated April Fool's Day!
**This thus ends any discussion of whether this should be seen as an April Fool's comic or not.
**It just came out 4 days late. This has also happened several times since [[Garden]].
[[File:2916 Machine Facebook April fools' confirmation.png]]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Buns]]
[[Category:Cats]]

Talk:2916: Machine

2024-04-11T19:20:07Z

Keybounce: /* The USS Buoyancy */

rather late for an april fools comic innit? also there doesn't seem to be anything exciting in this one lol, none of the usual cool exploration easter eggs, as far as i could tell at least [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.76|172.71.178.76]] 16:41, 6 April 2024 (UTC)Erfaniom
:Randall posted an eclipse comic on Apr. 1. All April Fools comics are interactive. [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|Z1mp0st0rz]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 15:27, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

: We're exploring crowdsourced human creativity here, in a way, so it can be a lot more interesting then Randall's exploration comics, at least for me, because i did take two years of GCSE psychology and enjoyed it. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.130|172.64.238.130]]

: looks like the egg's on my face lmao, i think i was among the first people to make anything, so everywhere was under construction for me, i didn't even understand that it was like a crowd thing [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.52|172.70.210.52]] 14:19, 9 April 2024 (UTC)Erfaniom

Just popped over using Chrome on Android and all I see is four "missing picture" logos spinning around, plus another down the bottom right... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.193|141.101.68.193]] 18:13, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Okay, followup: it behaves quite differently on the non mobile site. You get two entry points with red balls and yellow balls and you need to place the various gizmos to direct the balls to the correct exit point. Once enough have correctly passed to turn the red X into a green tick, you have the option to submit. If you do, once you have named your design it will be added to the grid with other submissions all of which exist to push red and yellow balls around. (if you come across "Memories of Ragnarok", that's mine) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.207|172.71.134.207]] 18:27, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
::The number of inputs appears to vary between 1 and 4, each of a different color, with one color-coded output for each. [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

On the "machine" section, you see lots of "under construction cells". Perhaps this will develop as more are submitted. I notice the "under construction tape" has "DJIA" and "31415", perhaps a reference to "dow jones industrial average" and the first five digits of pi. [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 18:37, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Whenever someone submits a cell, it fills in one of the under construction cells. [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
[Robert'); DROP TABLE Student!:;--] i just got a machine with 3 outputs one yellow another red and a third blue AND green and 3 inputs one green one blue and one red blue and yellow https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=7&yt=50 hope its still there {{unsigned ip|172.70.115.173|18:01, 9 April 2024}}
:I think I just 'did' one with a Red+Yellow source (also separate singular Blue and Green) and a combined Blue+Green sink (and separate Yellow and Red). Got it working well, actually using fan-levitation to separate the R+Y enough to route them to their destinations, the Y then having to cross the occasional flying Green (which I was forced to "Bonk" and bounce up, entry being nearly at the bottom on right, exit being nearly at top on left) for its exit, everything else fairly simple. No idea if it got integrated, of course. Never seen any of my machines be accepted (when I later look around at what's there), so I'm still unsure if there's anything I can do to increase my chance of a successful square being made permanent on the grid.... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.49|172.70.163.49]] 20:58, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
:...still had it sitting there [https://imgur.com/kZdp3kH on my browser], though note that the Red+Yellow supply (mid-left) and the Green supply (right) aren't working here, through the "move the screen around, lose the feeds from 'Under Construction' squares" issue, or similar. But still I managed to submit it. The occasional Yellow and Red are falling from the Blue entrance in the top (I've not done anything special to filter those out/send them to a more proper exit, and it's too late to do so now anyway, it was just a Blue entry during the development process, of course).
:It's a pity you can't see it working, but I quite like my Yellow/Red separation. This might be the only time you see it in place, though, so a shame I didn't take a screenshot immedediately after submitting it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.49|172.70.163.49]] 21:30, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

I wanted to add an image for each object, but do not have the necessary access, can someone who has access add the images that I linked in the table so they can be included? [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

I found a discussion with some guy talking about the API at https://euphoria.leet.nu/room/xkcd/ ; this could be useful for the wiki.

<code>
[c+1] now time to try fucking with the api
[c+1] https://incredible.xkcd.com/
[userwithnoaccount] 404
[c+1] it seems there are numbered machines under incredible.xkcd.com/machine/x
[c+1] returns a grid of individual machinlets
[c+1] which are uids like 3a7af27c-5389-5dcb-b660-3feab6be2ceb
[c+1] they're stored at urls like incredible.xkcd.com/folio/3a7af27c-5389-5dcb-b660-3feab6be2ceb
[c+1] there appear to be 33 machines total
[c+1] the json it returns seems to refer to these as "versions"
[c+1] $ curl -s https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/21 | jq ".version"
21
[c+1] there is a machine/0, but it's all null
[c+1] going to https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/current redirects to the current machine
[c+1] $ curl -sL https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/current | jq ".version"
35
[c+1] wait, is that the *total* number of mahcines?
[c+1] i would've thought there'd be more
[c+1] this whole think is rather esoteric
[c+1] Written in rust, too: https://rapier.rs/
[c+1] Uh oh.
https://i.hypercone.us/?v=8e283d
[c+1] HMMM
https://i.hypercone.us/?v=079f8f
[c+1] it seems there is no limit
[c+1] i've uploaded a ~50M title
</code>

[[Special:Contributions/172.70.57.146|172.70.57.146]]

Had quite a lot of fun, added a few 'successful' machines to the grid. Noted that whenever I try to use the Prism that (after a short delay) the comic-pane blanks and I need to refresh the page/get a completely new 'challenge' to start from scratch, so I'm just not using the prism at all (used most of the other items, in combination or 'just the one across the whole board', whichever seems most fun). But it doesn't seem to do what I'd like it to do, which is sort multiple colours from the same inflow into different outflow directions. Which would be ''very'' useful in a 'crossroads' situation, the general solution of directing them cross-path being too prone to random collisions. Also might be useful in the 'submitted machine grid', as I note that errors propagate, whereas adding a filter on all inputs would clean out (dispose of/send off to a valid gate?) the rogue balls. Anyway, gonna have to come back to this later when there's more time... Maybe then I'll even have something useful to add to the Explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 19:03, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

The balls appear to be different weights. I just saw a machine that used fans to separate yellows from greens and blues in a sort of 'wheat from the chaff' manner to direct them to their correct outputs. I wonder what other hidden tricks are included. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.1.159|172.68.1.159]] 19:40, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

They're not all accepted, though it makes you think they are. Or something else more complex is going on we haven't realized yet. I made a machine that was working reliably, submitted it, and saw it on the overall grid. Reloading from a different browser I found the same location of the machine, with the same surroundings, but my machine had been replaced. It's nowhere else on the grid either. The first browser still shows it (but not after a reload with a cache clear). I'm not sure if there's some kind of "save" event that needs to happen beyond seeing your machine in the broader one, or if all user collaboration is an illusion, or if the system changes its mind about us somehow.

: Yeah, i've been seeing this too. Please tell me if you find any of my machines, images at https://i.hypercone.us/?v=22d562 , https://i.hypercone.us/?v=ad8e3a , and https://i.hypercone.us/?v=8d4d6a . I want to be one of the few to have added Catalan and Spanish to the grid. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.164|172.71.134.164]] 20:56, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

I've added some more observations to the page. Also, a guess which is too uncertain to put on the main page: The ball launcher for the yellows on the far left side misses a lot, and the yellow container isn't the one on the left. So I think the whole machine with crossing streams will result in the colors being sorted in their container order, and possibly have the streams combined and deposited at the bottom just above the containers. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.100|172.71.147.100]] 21:07, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

has anyone seen the boat at the very bottom? [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 21:21, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

trying to see it on Firefox for Ubuntu and it just tells me to "visit xkcd.com to view" - THAT'S WHERE I AM?! Tried clearing website data (but not my entire cache) and that didn't help. Is there something I'm missing?

Oooh, just had one with four ball-entries (four colours) and ''three'' exits (one caters for two arrows). Pity it's rather complicated to get entries to exits (even if I can merge two of the streams). Might have to give up on it, but I'd like to have seen how it fits in with the 'submited grid'. i.e. someone else gets a two-colour introduction spot. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.119|162.158.74.119]] 22:37, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Me again. I'm just refreshing the page, looking at the pattern of entries/exits (just a dozen or so screens in, getting some repeats of pattern, indicating that it's going back to tiles it was suggesting before, probably depends on how many others are contributing and extending...)
:Found another 'double-colour' example. Two yellows ''from the same side'', which probably means that there's a two-yellows been asked to exit from the neighbour (will check shortly).
:Quickly adapting from my spreadsheet notation, "R, Y, G, B" in order, each "(Entry, Exit)", I've been using <dir> of L/R/T/B and a number (nominally percentage, though seems to include only values of 20, 30, 50, 70 and 80, so it ''might'' be more 1/6..5/6?) relating to the distance along from L to R (for T/B) or T to B (for L/R).
:This line is therefore (0,0)(L20+L70,R30+B70)(R80,L80)(T70,L50) ... no reds, two yellow pairings, a red pairing, a blue pairing. Would require at least two path-crossings (but I was going to calculate those things later, and double-colours might confuse my intended simple line-intersection calculation).
:...anyway, spent some time on this message, which might mean I'll get into a 'new batch' of available patterns as people have succeeded some of the challenges that I've been 'swiping left'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 19:28, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:...very next click: (0,0)(T30+L20,R20+R70)(R80,L80)(R50,B50), which is clearly the actual left-neighbour of the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.19|172.70.162.19]] 19:32, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:Ok, stopped my refreshing to [https://imgur.com/a/OMFOmzy 'solve' a screen]. First of all I routed both yellows entries (right-upper and upper-right) to one yellow exit (middle-left) and gradually teased the greens across (lower-left to middle-right), as that way I was avoiding a criss-cross of balls, but the the other yellow exit (left-lower) was, of course, invalid.
:Changed it to drop one stream of yellows down towards the lower exit, across the rapidly firing greens (added a fan to filter away the occasional yellow that gets bounced over there, not much of an opportunity to filter falling-greens out of the yellow exit, so apologies to whoever gets the sceen below). Submited as "Two Yellows, One Green!", whether or not that'll save (apparently, I should continue to contribute and not refresh/close, or else the server will not keep the solution?).
:Interestingly, all four adjacent tiles are "Under construction", and if I scroll up... *DARN* the comic has blanked out (nothing there between the upper PREV/RANDOM/NEXT buttons and the lower ones, just whitespace). This may mean that it did not save. This is the kind of 'page crash' I get when I try using a Prism or get too many balls rattling around on top of a Black Hole. Perhaps it doesn't like that I'm scrolling into an Under Construction that shouldn't be there? (But then, why ''is'' it there?)
:Anyway, all extra information for everyone.
:I'll just refresh the page and go back and do some more entry/exit mapping, maybe? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 20:17, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

If you combine a bunch of these silly claw things in the middle by just spamming it, it begins to lag and do some chaotic collisions, even without balls colliding on it. It's curious how it does that seemingly randomly though. I wonder how calculations are added and if there's a tiny sprinkle of RNG. (Also, errors occur and say something about damaging recursion in the Rust programming language, so I guess we know how it was made. It's also pretty weird how there's not a lot of opening combinations? It's possible that the machine loops over in chunks of gears or something (that's what I'll call them). ([[User talk:Leo|talk]]) 13:15, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

If you place a black hole in the centre of a wheel, it makes the wheel behave unpredictably between resets. Sometimes it's almost normal, sometimes it's a lot faster than usual, and sometimes it's stopped but launches balls that touch it with extreme force. I was able to use this to submit a machine which didn't actually let a single ball through after being submitted. https://i.hypercone.us/?v=928bcd [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.149|162.158.33.149]] 01:19, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

The page says that (and I have taken note of) the ball hue is ''coded'' to certain values, but is there a logic to those values that might be derived from the colour (either as RGB triplet or HSV/other colourspace definition). For example, the two ball-types with zero green component in their makeup are 'unit density' (green is far heavier "green+red" is far lighter, so it's not a simple relationship, unless it converts from °hue, in some way) and the only secondary colour exhibits non-zero drag. There's the possibility that it just derived from "we need different properties, we need different colours, we have no reason to connect either with other deliberately" or even some non-mathematical symbology (fire=red, water=blue(?), earth=green, air(/sunlight?)=yellow). But it makes me wonder what combination of properties cyan/magenta balls might have, if added. (Or is the choice of those four colours constrained, anyway? Though R/G colorblindness is already something of an accessibility failure, if anyone suffers that.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.205|172.69.194.205]] 17:02, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

[https://pastebin.com/7PAiLnyF Python script to get the URL and title of each Cell in the current machine]

[https://pastebin.com/xBhywGde Result of running that script at the moment] (encoded with ROT13 because pastebin wouldn't let me save it otherwise)
:has anybody at all whatsoever been able to find their creation using this API? [[User:Bellydrum|Bellydrum]] ([[User talk:Bellydrum|talk]]) 21:58, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

[https://pastebin.com/jN5MP2za Result of running that script on the first 42 machines], at least on these it looks like the only difference is that one cell is added each time? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.195|172.71.99.195]] 17:22, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

I've submitted four now, none of which was accepted. I tend to spend a lot of time getting them just right. Any hints as to what the acceptance criteria might be? Or do I just stink at this?
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.204|172.69.59.204]] 19:47, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

There appears to be a new object: a cat that bats things that touch it.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.39|172.69.214.39]] 20:17, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

Is anyone else experiencing the bug where prisms cause the comic to disappear (leaving only the white background where it was) after a while? It makes viewing the whole machine basically impossible. (On further testing it appears to be firefox-exclusive.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.38|172.70.162.38]] 20:31, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:I've had the "Prisms break things" from the beginning (before any practical content). As in, trying to use them in a design breaks things. But I ''did'' glance upon their occasional use in the 'view submissions grid'. Right now I'm suffering from "white only" issue (see my "multi-yellow" accounts, above). I ''am'' using Firefox, if that's indeed relevant to this issue, but right now I'm not near any other up-to-date browser I care to use. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:37, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:I'm getting the same issue with black holes (which probably makes more sense - put a black hole there and you'd expect everything else to disappear :o) - except that on one occasion I was able to put about 6 black holes in before the 7th one vanished everything.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.121|172.69.194.121]] 09:15, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Has anyone seen their own cell in the machine at all yet? A manual approval system is probably necessary for obvious reasons, but if so it does seem to be moving quite slowly.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.24|172.69.65.24]] 02:58, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

How on earth is everyone seeing different parts of the grid? If I request "view machine" I can only see my own square, and the edges of everyone elses. Nothing else, definitely not all of the machine. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.149|172.68.64.149]] 21:11, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
::You should be able to click and drag the view around. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.54|172.71.242.54]] 21:41, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Whoever designed the room entirely full of fans is evil - every time I scroll near it my entire browser freezes up and becomes unresponsive. And then the comic usually blanks.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.81|172.69.194.81]] 08:23, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

== Level scrolling bug ==

When one views the whole machine, and scrolls down far enough, everything just disappears, and the comic is completely unresponsive. Has anyone else seen this? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.236.152|198.41.236.152]] 20:38, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

:I'm now seeing the same issue, I wasn't before. (I'm using Chrome) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 21:06, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

::A hard refresh appears to have fixed this for me (same person as above). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.101|141.101.99.101]] 10:28, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

:I've been having this issue as well (I'm using firefox). Opening the site in Edge instead seemed to work around it for me, so it might only affect Firefox (and derivatives). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:27, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
::See also the 'firefox bug' comments currently immediately above this section. (Please don't ask me to start Edge up, I hate it, won't use it any more than the system requires me to...) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:37, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

:Update - I did a hard refresh so I could play around with the new additions and I'm no longer encountering the bug, even on firefox. I think the "white screen" bug is fixed now and you just need to hard-refresh to download the fixed JS instead of using the cached one. (same person as 172.70.163.31 and 172.70.162.38) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.16|172.70.86.16]] 11:16, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

==New Category: Ball Pit?==

What do you think about a new category for comics with [[ball pits]]? [[150]], [[219]], [[485]], [[498]], [[2916]]? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.229|162.158.134.229]] 21:50, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

[[Category:Playpen balls]] already exists.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.133|172.70.174.133]] 17:35, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

== Prism Use? ==

Can the prism be used to sort balls by color? (or in any other way that is useful and different?) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.61|172.68.34.61]] 12:11, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:From what I've seen, no. Though may be ''extremely'' susceptible to incident angle. As far as my own use has been, they seem to randomise the trajectory (possibly also do a total-internal-reflection, I've had balls bounce around and exit at ''really'' weird angles), but it's hard to collimate a feed of balls into a single exact track, even straight down from a ceiling-feed (if you have a ceiling feed directly over the floor exit, lucky you, it'll still occasionally perturb balls off to the sides just enough to be bounced out as a gate-miss, unless you add 'funnel' architecture of one kind or another). Oh, and when balls do a lot of 'internal bouncing' it often forced me to reload the comic (overloaded the physics engine?), so could not continue to tweak the same design.
:On the other hand, perhaps this was the ''intent'', and just code/browser failings made it work erratically. Maybe would be an idea to go back and retest for this (anybody who can), do a little !!science!! to be recorded and explained on the page. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 12:51, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:So, ive did some testing and found..nothing. i ''did'' find some uses for the prism though. Like outting them diagonally makes the balls follow a "path", speeding up more and more (not really that great but it works with yellows), and that any ball hitting the left edge will try to go the the right edge. Not sure what else it can do, though. [[User:Begocc|Begocc]] ([[User talk:Begocc|talk]]) 09:35, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
::I did some thorough testing on a combined Red/Blue set of balls (carefully managed so that they were dropping into the target area as similarly as possible) and both rotated and moved the prism in various ways to check for any effects - like needing to enter parallel/perpendicular to the colour-bands, either to land on the 'target band' or start to pass across it, with the band then either facilitating or angling its 'fall through'. (Just visually checked, at first, then later adding 'buckets' below and to the sides, to try to catch balls departing on various trajectories in various 'clumps' making note of any that hit the 'bucket'-boundaries and bounced off elsewhere.)
::I found no significant sorting, and some balls would jitter around so much (within the prism) that they even launched almost straight back up where they came from (less poerfully than a Bonk-buffered ball, but not far off - also not reliable enough to use as a ball-elevator).
::In my experience, Yellow-sorting is easy (even against Blue and/or Red) by other means. Green is the easiest to have everything else sorted ''from'' (because it resists the fan method). The hardest to unmix are Reds from Blues, which one might think ''should'' be the most prism-differentiated but I'm afraid I just can't invoke that. Easier to have them fall a long way then bounce off a suitable bit of 'furniture', I can then get them to distribute ''fairly'' distinctly in two handy recepticles/onward-feed-hoppers, though it does need some careful placement of items to do it justice. It appears that none of my designs have made it to the 'public wall', but I have made a submitable machine or two that does such sorting sufficiently successfully to send it out (theoretically) to be seen. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.30|172.70.163.30]] 11:38, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

== Bugs and Exploits ==

You can use a sword to break the physics on the hinge thingy and create your very own "magnetic hill": https://imgur.com/a/IRZ0AlL [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.108|162.158.134.108]] 13:02, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:Hard to tell from that what other fans (perhaps) you've got completely off-clip.
:Those hinge-thingies can definitely be shifted by horizontal (outwith ball-weight pressures), but I've not found them to be reliable components as the "Stop" button (ball reset) seems to let those 'hinges' slring back to level, which might need a re-reset by moving them back past the thing that's holding them off-level.
:I have tried a few things with them:
:*'Ticker' mechanism, almost like a clock escapement, nudged by the rotating 'waterwheel', perhaps to try to release balls through a stream of other balls whilst keeping the path clear of collisions for each set, in turn.
:*'Batch dumper', accumulating a number of balls (above the 'hinge', behind a vertical bulkhead) until there's weight enough to 'open the hatch' and roll them out. (Again, an attempt to reduce collisions, by clumping batches together).
:*Finely configured inclines, by shoving something up into a free end of hinge with better angular resolution (but, as mentioned, this doesn't seem to want to 'hold', so probably would fail upon submission).
:...I had wondered if there was supposed to be a "falling anvil creates a catapult/ballista" idea behind the piece, but we don't ''have'' falling anvils (and definitely not in a repeating manner), and ball-powered catapult (esssentially "clown/acrobat jumps on one end of seesaw, clown/acrobat on other end flies up into the air") also doesn't seem practical.
:I'll try to recreate ''your'' design, work out if there's anything new about it, but right now looks like it's a fan-powered incline-raiser. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.38|172.70.162.38]] 14:23, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:: No fans! Here's a wider view: https://imgur.com/a/xPJcsor
:: It survives the reset, because the balls falling on the lever push it down to the sword and it gets stuck there every time. But you need to place the sword just right to make the gravity bug happen. And even then it depends on the number of balls in some ways. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.243.27|172.68.243.27]] 14:46, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
::: I've replicated the "tip of sword grabs the 'hinge'" thing, which is very interesting, but not the anti-gravity effect. The movement still seems ''to me'' more like a fan's 'area of effect' thing, than a wonky sense of gravity, the way that the balls are rolling/resisting/interacting with each other. No, I can't see where you've 'hidden' the fan (and I'm sure that fans can't act across submission-grid-boundaries, which was my next guess), so it's a bit of a funny thing that you've got there. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.49|172.70.163.49]] 21:35, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

On occasion, two balls will fall from the containers as a pair, as if glued together. When this happens, they float down as if under much lower gravity, and then suddenly explode violently away from each other.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.182|172.69.43.182]] 10:56, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

== The USS Buoyancy ==

Guys. The Buoyancy. She ''floats''. When all four sets of balls reach the ball pit there aren't further additions. The boat starts floating on them. I've been watching it for a while. It seems she moves left and will probably end up escaping the ball pit. [[User:DL Draco Rex|DL Draco Rex]] ([[User talk:DL Draco Rex|talk]]) 20:44, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:Update: A new row spawned in and it reset just before the Buoyancy could escape. Here's a screenshot I grabbed a while before the reset, she'd moved further left by the time the reset occurred. https://imgur.com/gallery/8UCASCu [[User:DL Draco Rex|DL Draco Rex]] ([[User talk:DL Draco Rex|talk]]) 20:51, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Alright, I'm almost 100% of the time seeing Buoyancy sink. Yes, she *floats* at first. But as she drifts to the sides, instead of yellows going underneath, reds and greens pile on top. Then, as the balls under expire (90 second timeout), she will start to sink. Very consistent behavior over time.
[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 19:20, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

== Added key combinations, found in source ==

ctrl+alt+b
ctrl+shift+option+d
wheel: arrow keys

: Can you clarify what "option" is? I have tried alt, function, and "operating system", and none are doing it.

== Fixed Number of Possible Machinelets? ==

I was resetting my browser to try and find new machinelet configurations, but there seem to be fewer and fewer as the game progresses. Hypothesis: the 'under construction' machinelets are set, and once one of them gets approved and added to the grid, that specific configuration of entrances/exits can't show up again.

== Advanced components? ==

How does one get access to the full set of components to build from? I'm only given planks, mallets, swords, scoops, anvils, bricks and fans. I never get any pillows, bumpers, cats, stick figures et cetera. Do they need to be "unlocked" through some achievement, or what? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.102|162.158.222.102]] 11:04, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

This caught me for a while as well. I have since discovered that the tool box has a scroll bar and can be scrolled down; that's where the others are hiding.
::Invisible scrollbars – every GUI obfuscator's favorite tool for making users' lives harder. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.142|162.158.222.142]] 18:17, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

== Limit of 100 components? ==

Has anyone else seen this? At some point I started getting a count "95 / 100" towards the bottom of the toolbar. When it hits "100 / 100" the rest of the toolbar greys out, and I can't add anything more. (I suppose the physics engine has to keep a ceiling on the number of possible interactions between components.) —[[User:Scs|Scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 11:53, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
:Yes, quite early on I was dealing with a quite simple 'drop from ceiling straight down to floor' setup. After adding just enough 'funnel' to deal with 'splatter', I then built a castle wall in the open space just to make it fun (with some figures on/below it, that I've also tried to decorate in later submissions), of the 'grey blocks'.
:I actually hit the 100/100 ''exactly'' as I placed my final intended block. (No doubt that it's easy to hit the limit by just overlapping things so you can't see most of them, and other 'useless' placement, too...) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.48|172.70.85.48]] 19:57, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

== uss boyancy ==

Why have i not been seeing any uss boyancy [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.122|172.70.110.122]] 14:04, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Haha I dare you to go to https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=7&yt=57 and stare at the two black holes next to eachother >:) [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|Z1mp0st0rz]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 15:27, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

== Build a "working" machine from parts? ==

Has anyone started working on this idea:

Since any given machine segment seems to be saved, even if not in the final result, *and* since these segments are failing when combined in the whole, how about a "really working" machine that starts replacing failing segments when they jam or otherwise fail to work in the real machine?

The idea being something like, start the machine. Watch the top row, and see where the parts are failing to pass balls properly after two minutes. Replace the segments that are failing/jaming/etc, and let the new part process balls.

As you work your way down, over about 2 hours at the current size, you will eventually get a machine that properly sends balls down to the bottom, without jamming, without having to "pretend" that off-screen parts are working.

I mean, it's not like a gigantic, 600 segment machine will overflow memory on modern 32gb systems, nor consume so much power that these big huge CPU's will fail, right?

[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 17:41, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
ps.: Why do white holes, black holes, prisms, etc, cause problems on some machines like mine and not others?

Talk:2916: Machine

2024-04-10T17:41:38Z

Keybounce: /* Build a "working" machine from parts? */ new section

rather late for an april fools comic innit? also there doesn't seem to be anything exciting in this one lol, none of the usual cool exploration easter eggs, as far as i could tell at least [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.76|172.71.178.76]] 16:41, 6 April 2024 (UTC)Erfaniom
:Randall posted an eclipse comic on Apr. 1. All April Fools comics are interactive. [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|Z1mp0st0rz]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 15:27, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

: We're exploring crowdsourced human creativity here, in a way, so it can be a lot more interesting then Randall's exploration comics, at least for me, because i did take two years of GCSE psychology and enjoyed it. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.130|172.64.238.130]]

: looks like the egg's on my face lmao, i think i was among the first people to make anything, so everywhere was under construction for me, i didn't even understand that it was like a crowd thing [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.52|172.70.210.52]] 14:19, 9 April 2024 (UTC)Erfaniom

Just popped over using Chrome on Android and all I see is four "missing picture" logos spinning around, plus another down the bottom right... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.193|141.101.68.193]] 18:13, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Okay, followup: it behaves quite differently on the non mobile site. You get two entry points with red balls and yellow balls and you need to place the various gizmos to direct the balls to the correct exit point. Once enough have correctly passed to turn the red X into a green tick, you have the option to submit. If you do, once you have named your design it will be added to the grid with other submissions all of which exist to push red and yellow balls around. (if you come across "Memories of Ragnarok", that's mine) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.207|172.71.134.207]] 18:27, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
::The number of inputs appears to vary between 1 and 4, each of a different color, with one color-coded output for each. [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

On the "machine" section, you see lots of "under construction cells". Perhaps this will develop as more are submitted. I notice the "under construction tape" has "DJIA" and "31415", perhaps a reference to "dow jones industrial average" and the first five digits of pi. [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 18:37, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Whenever someone submits a cell, it fills in one of the under construction cells. [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
[Robert'); DROP TABLE Student!:;--] i just got a machine with 3 outputs one yellow another red and a third blue AND green and 3 inputs one green one blue and one red blue and yellow https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=7&yt=50 hope its still there {{unsigned ip|172.70.115.173|18:01, 9 April 2024}}
:I think I just 'did' one with a Red+Yellow source (also separate singular Blue and Green) and a combined Blue+Green sink (and separate Yellow and Red). Got it working well, actually using fan-levitation to separate the R+Y enough to route them to their destinations, the Y then having to cross the occasional flying Green (which I was forced to "Bonk" and bounce up, entry being nearly at the bottom on right, exit being nearly at top on left) for its exit, everything else fairly simple. No idea if it got integrated, of course. Never seen any of my machines be accepted (when I later look around at what's there), so I'm still unsure if there's anything I can do to increase my chance of a successful square being made permanent on the grid.... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.49|172.70.163.49]] 20:58, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
:...still had it sitting there [https://imgur.com/kZdp3kH on my browser], though note that the Red+Yellow supply (mid-left) and the Green supply (right) aren't working here, through the "move the screen around, lose the feeds from 'Under Construction' squares" issue, or similar. But still I managed to submit it. The occasional Yellow and Red are falling from the Blue entrance in the top (I've not done anything special to filter those out/send them to a more proper exit, and it's too late to do so now anyway, it was just a Blue entry during the development process, of course).
:It's a pity you can't see it working, but I quite like my Yellow/Red separation. This might be the only time you see it in place, though, so a shame I didn't take a screenshot immedediately after submitting it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.49|172.70.163.49]] 21:30, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

I wanted to add an image for each object, but do not have the necessary access, can someone who has access add the images that I linked in the table so they can be included? [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

I found a discussion with some guy talking about the API at https://euphoria.leet.nu/room/xkcd/ ; this could be useful for the wiki.

<code>
[c+1] now time to try fucking with the api
[c+1] https://incredible.xkcd.com/
[userwithnoaccount] 404
[c+1] it seems there are numbered machines under incredible.xkcd.com/machine/x
[c+1] returns a grid of individual machinlets
[c+1] which are uids like 3a7af27c-5389-5dcb-b660-3feab6be2ceb
[c+1] they're stored at urls like incredible.xkcd.com/folio/3a7af27c-5389-5dcb-b660-3feab6be2ceb
[c+1] there appear to be 33 machines total
[c+1] the json it returns seems to refer to these as "versions"
[c+1] $ curl -s https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/21 | jq ".version"
21
[c+1] there is a machine/0, but it's all null
[c+1] going to https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/current redirects to the current machine
[c+1] $ curl -sL https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/current | jq ".version"
35
[c+1] wait, is that the *total* number of mahcines?
[c+1] i would've thought there'd be more
[c+1] this whole think is rather esoteric
[c+1] Written in rust, too: https://rapier.rs/
[c+1] Uh oh.
https://i.hypercone.us/?v=8e283d
[c+1] HMMM
https://i.hypercone.us/?v=079f8f
[c+1] it seems there is no limit
[c+1] i've uploaded a ~50M title
</code>

[[Special:Contributions/172.70.57.146|172.70.57.146]]

Had quite a lot of fun, added a few 'successful' machines to the grid. Noted that whenever I try to use the Prism that (after a short delay) the comic-pane blanks and I need to refresh the page/get a completely new 'challenge' to start from scratch, so I'm just not using the prism at all (used most of the other items, in combination or 'just the one across the whole board', whichever seems most fun). But it doesn't seem to do what I'd like it to do, which is sort multiple colours from the same inflow into different outflow directions. Which would be ''very'' useful in a 'crossroads' situation, the general solution of directing them cross-path being too prone to random collisions. Also might be useful in the 'submitted machine grid', as I note that errors propagate, whereas adding a filter on all inputs would clean out (dispose of/send off to a valid gate?) the rogue balls. Anyway, gonna have to come back to this later when there's more time... Maybe then I'll even have something useful to add to the Explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 19:03, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

The balls appear to be different weights. I just saw a machine that used fans to separate yellows from greens and blues in a sort of 'wheat from the chaff' manner to direct them to their correct outputs. I wonder what other hidden tricks are included. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.1.159|172.68.1.159]] 19:40, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

They're not all accepted, though it makes you think they are. Or something else more complex is going on we haven't realized yet. I made a machine that was working reliably, submitted it, and saw it on the overall grid. Reloading from a different browser I found the same location of the machine, with the same surroundings, but my machine had been replaced. It's nowhere else on the grid either. The first browser still shows it (but not after a reload with a cache clear). I'm not sure if there's some kind of "save" event that needs to happen beyond seeing your machine in the broader one, or if all user collaboration is an illusion, or if the system changes its mind about us somehow.

: Yeah, i've been seeing this too. Please tell me if you find any of my machines, images at https://i.hypercone.us/?v=22d562 , https://i.hypercone.us/?v=ad8e3a , and https://i.hypercone.us/?v=8d4d6a . I want to be one of the few to have added Catalan and Spanish to the grid. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.164|172.71.134.164]] 20:56, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

I've added some more observations to the page. Also, a guess which is too uncertain to put on the main page: The ball launcher for the yellows on the far left side misses a lot, and the yellow container isn't the one on the left. So I think the whole machine with crossing streams will result in the colors being sorted in their container order, and possibly have the streams combined and deposited at the bottom just above the containers. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.100|172.71.147.100]] 21:07, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

has anyone seen the boat at the very bottom? [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 21:21, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

trying to see it on Firefox for Ubuntu and it just tells me to "visit xkcd.com to view" - THAT'S WHERE I AM?! Tried clearing website data (but not my entire cache) and that didn't help. Is there something I'm missing?

Oooh, just had one with four ball-entries (four colours) and ''three'' exits (one caters for two arrows). Pity it's rather complicated to get entries to exits (even if I can merge two of the streams). Might have to give up on it, but I'd like to have seen how it fits in with the 'submited grid'. i.e. someone else gets a two-colour introduction spot. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.119|162.158.74.119]] 22:37, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Me again. I'm just refreshing the page, looking at the pattern of entries/exits (just a dozen or so screens in, getting some repeats of pattern, indicating that it's going back to tiles it was suggesting before, probably depends on how many others are contributing and extending...)
:Found another 'double-colour' example. Two yellows ''from the same side'', which probably means that there's a two-yellows been asked to exit from the neighbour (will check shortly).
:Quickly adapting from my spreadsheet notation, "R, Y, G, B" in order, each "(Entry, Exit)", I've been using <dir> of L/R/T/B and a number (nominally percentage, though seems to include only values of 20, 30, 50, 70 and 80, so it ''might'' be more 1/6..5/6?) relating to the distance along from L to R (for T/B) or T to B (for L/R).
:This line is therefore (0,0)(L20+L70,R30+B70)(R80,L80)(T70,L50) ... no reds, two yellow pairings, a red pairing, a blue pairing. Would require at least two path-crossings (but I was going to calculate those things later, and double-colours might confuse my intended simple line-intersection calculation).
:...anyway, spent some time on this message, which might mean I'll get into a 'new batch' of available patterns as people have succeeded some of the challenges that I've been 'swiping left'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 19:28, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:...very next click: (0,0)(T30+L20,R20+R70)(R80,L80)(R50,B50), which is clearly the actual left-neighbour of the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.19|172.70.162.19]] 19:32, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:Ok, stopped my refreshing to [https://imgur.com/a/OMFOmzy 'solve' a screen]. First of all I routed both yellows entries (right-upper and upper-right) to one yellow exit (middle-left) and gradually teased the greens across (lower-left to middle-right), as that way I was avoiding a criss-cross of balls, but the the other yellow exit (left-lower) was, of course, invalid.
:Changed it to drop one stream of yellows down towards the lower exit, across the rapidly firing greens (added a fan to filter away the occasional yellow that gets bounced over there, not much of an opportunity to filter falling-greens out of the yellow exit, so apologies to whoever gets the sceen below). Submited as "Two Yellows, One Green!", whether or not that'll save (apparently, I should continue to contribute and not refresh/close, or else the server will not keep the solution?).
:Interestingly, all four adjacent tiles are "Under construction", and if I scroll up... *DARN* the comic has blanked out (nothing there between the upper PREV/RANDOM/NEXT buttons and the lower ones, just whitespace). This may mean that it did not save. This is the kind of 'page crash' I get when I try using a Prism or get too many balls rattling around on top of a Black Hole. Perhaps it doesn't like that I'm scrolling into an Under Construction that shouldn't be there? (But then, why ''is'' it there?)
:Anyway, all extra information for everyone.
:I'll just refresh the page and go back and do some more entry/exit mapping, maybe? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 20:17, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

If you combine a bunch of these silly claw things in the middle by just spamming it, it begins to lag and do some chaotic collisions, even without balls colliding on it. It's curious how it does that seemingly randomly though. I wonder how calculations are added and if there's a tiny sprinkle of RNG. (Also, errors occur and say something about damaging recursion in the Rust programming language, so I guess we know how it was made. It's also pretty weird how there's not a lot of opening combinations? It's possible that the machine loops over in chunks of gears or something (that's what I'll call them). ([[User talk:Leo|talk]]) 13:15, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

If you place a black hole in the centre of a wheel, it makes the wheel behave unpredictably between resets. Sometimes it's almost normal, sometimes it's a lot faster than usual, and sometimes it's stopped but launches balls that touch it with extreme force. I was able to use this to submit a machine which didn't actually let a single ball through after being submitted. https://i.hypercone.us/?v=928bcd [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.149|162.158.33.149]] 01:19, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

The page says that (and I have taken note of) the ball hue is ''coded'' to certain values, but is there a logic to those values that might be derived from the colour (either as RGB triplet or HSV/other colourspace definition). For example, the two ball-types with zero green component in their makeup are 'unit density' (green is far heavier "green+red" is far lighter, so it's not a simple relationship, unless it converts from °hue, in some way) and the only secondary colour exhibits non-zero drag. There's the possibility that it just derived from "we need different properties, we need different colours, we have no reason to connect either with other deliberately" or even some non-mathematical symbology (fire=red, water=blue(?), earth=green, air(/sunlight?)=yellow). But it makes me wonder what combination of properties cyan/magenta balls might have, if added. (Or is the choice of those four colours constrained, anyway? Though R/G colorblindness is already something of an accessibility failure, if anyone suffers that.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.205|172.69.194.205]] 17:02, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

[https://pastebin.com/7PAiLnyF Python script to get the URL and title of each Cell in the current machine]

[https://pastebin.com/xBhywGde Result of running that script at the moment] (encoded with ROT13 because pastebin wouldn't let me save it otherwise)
:has anybody at all whatsoever been able to find their creation using this API? [[User:Bellydrum|Bellydrum]] ([[User talk:Bellydrum|talk]]) 21:58, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

[https://pastebin.com/jN5MP2za Result of running that script on the first 42 machines], at least on these it looks like the only difference is that one cell is added each time? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.195|172.71.99.195]] 17:22, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

I've submitted four now, none of which was accepted. I tend to spend a lot of time getting them just right. Any hints as to what the acceptance criteria might be? Or do I just stink at this?
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.204|172.69.59.204]] 19:47, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

There appears to be a new object: a cat that bats things that touch it.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.39|172.69.214.39]] 20:17, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

Is anyone else experiencing the bug where prisms cause the comic to disappear (leaving only the white background where it was) after a while? It makes viewing the whole machine basically impossible. (On further testing it appears to be firefox-exclusive.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.38|172.70.162.38]] 20:31, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:I've had the "Prisms break things" from the beginning (before any practical content). As in, trying to use them in a design breaks things. But I ''did'' glance upon their occasional use in the 'view submissions grid'. Right now I'm suffering from "white only" issue (see my "multi-yellow" accounts, above). I ''am'' using Firefox, if that's indeed relevant to this issue, but right now I'm not near any other up-to-date browser I care to use. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:37, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:I'm getting the same issue with black holes (which probably makes more sense - put a black hole there and you'd expect everything else to disappear :o) - except that on one occasion I was able to put about 6 black holes in before the 7th one vanished everything.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.121|172.69.194.121]] 09:15, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Has anyone seen their own cell in the machine at all yet? A manual approval system is probably necessary for obvious reasons, but if so it does seem to be moving quite slowly.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.24|172.69.65.24]] 02:58, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

How on earth is everyone seeing different parts of the grid? If I request "view machine" I can only see my own square, and the edges of everyone elses. Nothing else, definitely not all of the machine. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.149|172.68.64.149]] 21:11, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
::You should be able to click and drag the view around. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.54|172.71.242.54]] 21:41, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Whoever designed the room entirely full of fans is evil - every time I scroll near it my entire browser freezes up and becomes unresponsive. And then the comic usually blanks.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.81|172.69.194.81]] 08:23, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

== Level scrolling bug ==

When one views the whole machine, and scrolls down far enough, everything just disappears, and the comic is completely unresponsive. Has anyone else seen this? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.236.152|198.41.236.152]] 20:38, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

:I'm now seeing the same issue, I wasn't before. (I'm using Chrome) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 21:06, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

::A hard refresh appears to have fixed this for me (same person as above). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.101|141.101.99.101]] 10:28, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

:I've been having this issue as well (I'm using firefox). Opening the site in Edge instead seemed to work around it for me, so it might only affect Firefox (and derivatives). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:27, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
::See also the 'firefox bug' comments currently immediately above this section. (Please don't ask me to start Edge up, I hate it, won't use it any more than the system requires me to...) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:37, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

:Update - I did a hard refresh so I could play around with the new additions and I'm no longer encountering the bug, even on firefox. I think the "white screen" bug is fixed now and you just need to hard-refresh to download the fixed JS instead of using the cached one. (same person as 172.70.163.31 and 172.70.162.38) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.16|172.70.86.16]] 11:16, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

==New Category: Ball Pit?==

What do you think about a new category for comics with [[ball pits]]? [[150]], [[219]], [[485]], [[498]], [[2916]]? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.229|162.158.134.229]] 21:50, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

[[Category:Playpen balls]] already exists.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.133|172.70.174.133]] 17:35, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

== Prism Use? ==

Can the prism be used to sort balls by color? (or in any other way that is useful and different?) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.61|172.68.34.61]] 12:11, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:From what I've seen, no. Though may be ''extremely'' susceptible to incident angle. As far as my own use has been, they seem to randomise the trajectory (possibly also do a total-internal-reflection, I've had balls bounce around and exit at ''really'' weird angles), but it's hard to collimate a feed of balls into a single exact track, even straight down from a ceiling-feed (if you have a ceiling feed directly over the floor exit, lucky you, it'll still occasionally perturb balls off to the sides just enough to be bounced out as a gate-miss, unless you add 'funnel' architecture of one kind or another). Oh, and when balls do a lot of 'internal bouncing' it often forced me to reload the comic (overloaded the physics engine?), so could not continue to tweak the same design.
:On the other hand, perhaps this was the ''intent'', and just code/browser failings made it work erratically. Maybe would be an idea to go back and retest for this (anybody who can), do a little !!science!! to be recorded and explained on the page. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 12:51, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:So, ive did some testing and found..nothing. i ''did'' find some uses for the prism though. Like outting them diagonally makes the balls follow a "path", speeding up more and more (not really that great but it works with yellows), and that any ball hitting the left edge will try to go the the right edge. Not sure what else it can do, though. [[User:Begocc|Begocc]] ([[User talk:Begocc|talk]]) 09:35, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
::I did some thorough testing on a combined Red/Blue set of balls (carefully managed so that they were dropping into the target area as similarly as possible) and both rotated and moved the prism in various ways to check for any effects - like needing to enter parallel/perpendicular to the colour-bands, either to land on the 'target band' or start to pass across it, with the band then either facilitating or angling its 'fall through'. (Just visually checked, at first, then later adding 'buckets' below and to the sides, to try to catch balls departing on various trajectories in various 'clumps' making note of any that hit the 'bucket'-boundaries and bounced off elsewhere.)
::I found no significant sorting, and some balls would jitter around so much (within the prism) that they even launched almost straight back up where they came from (less poerfully than a Bonk-buffered ball, but not far off - also not reliable enough to use as a ball-elevator).
::In my experience, Yellow-sorting is easy (even against Blue and/or Red) by other means. Green is the easiest to have everything else sorted ''from'' (because it resists the fan method). The hardest to unmix are Reds from Blues, which one might think ''should'' be the most prism-differentiated but I'm afraid I just can't invoke that. Easier to have them fall a long way then bounce off a suitable bit of 'furniture', I can then get them to distribute ''fairly'' distinctly in two handy recepticles/onward-feed-hoppers, though it does need some careful placement of items to do it justice. It appears that none of my designs have made it to the 'public wall', but I have made a submitable machine or two that does such sorting sufficiently successfully to send it out (theoretically) to be seen. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.30|172.70.163.30]] 11:38, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

== Bugs and Exploits ==

You can use a sword to break the physics on the hinge thingy and create your very own "magnetic hill": https://imgur.com/a/IRZ0AlL [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.108|162.158.134.108]] 13:02, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:Hard to tell from that what other fans (perhaps) you've got completely off-clip.
:Those hinge-thingies can definitely be shifted by horizontal (outwith ball-weight pressures), but I've not found them to be reliable components as the "Stop" button (ball reset) seems to let those 'hinges' slring back to level, which might need a re-reset by moving them back past the thing that's holding them off-level.
:I have tried a few things with them:
:*'Ticker' mechanism, almost like a clock escapement, nudged by the rotating 'waterwheel', perhaps to try to release balls through a stream of other balls whilst keeping the path clear of collisions for each set, in turn.
:*'Batch dumper', accumulating a number of balls (above the 'hinge', behind a vertical bulkhead) until there's weight enough to 'open the hatch' and roll them out. (Again, an attempt to reduce collisions, by clumping batches together).
:*Finely configured inclines, by shoving something up into a free end of hinge with better angular resolution (but, as mentioned, this doesn't seem to want to 'hold', so probably would fail upon submission).
:...I had wondered if there was supposed to be a "falling anvil creates a catapult/ballista" idea behind the piece, but we don't ''have'' falling anvils (and definitely not in a repeating manner), and ball-powered catapult (esssentially "clown/acrobat jumps on one end of seesaw, clown/acrobat on other end flies up into the air") also doesn't seem practical.
:I'll try to recreate ''your'' design, work out if there's anything new about it, but right now looks like it's a fan-powered incline-raiser. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.38|172.70.162.38]] 14:23, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:: No fans! Here's a wider view: https://imgur.com/a/xPJcsor
:: It survives the reset, because the balls falling on the lever push it down to the sword and it gets stuck there every time. But you need to place the sword just right to make the gravity bug happen. And even then it depends on the number of balls in some ways. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.243.27|172.68.243.27]] 14:46, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
::: I've replicated the "tip of sword grabs the 'hinge'" thing, which is very interesting, but not the anti-gravity effect. The movement still seems ''to me'' more like a fan's 'area of effect' thing, than a wonky sense of gravity, the way that the balls are rolling/resisting/interacting with each other. No, I can't see where you've 'hidden' the fan (and I'm sure that fans can't act across submission-grid-boundaries, which was my next guess), so it's a bit of a funny thing that you've got there. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.49|172.70.163.49]] 21:35, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

On occasion, two balls will fall from the containers as a pair, as if glued together. When this happens, they float down as if under much lower gravity, and then suddenly explode violently away from each other.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.182|172.69.43.182]] 10:56, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

== The USS Buoyancy ==

Guys. The Buoyancy. She ''floats''. When all four sets of balls reach the ball pit there aren't further additions. The boat starts floating on them. I've been watching it for a while. It seems she moves left and will probably end up escaping the ball pit. [[User:DL Draco Rex|DL Draco Rex]] ([[User talk:DL Draco Rex|talk]]) 20:44, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:Update: A new row spawned in and it reset just before the Buoyancy could escape. Here's a screenshot I grabbed a while before the reset, she'd moved further left by the time the reset occurred. https://imgur.com/gallery/8UCASCu [[User:DL Draco Rex|DL Draco Rex]] ([[User talk:DL Draco Rex|talk]]) 20:51, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

== Added key combinations, found in source ==

ctrl+alt+b
ctrl+shift+option+d
wheel: arrow keys

: Can you clarify what "option" is? I have tried alt, function, and "operating system", and none are doing it.

== Fixed Number of Possible Machinelets? ==

I was resetting my browser to try and find new machinelet configurations, but there seem to be fewer and fewer as the game progresses. Hypothesis: the 'under construction' machinelets are set, and once one of them gets approved and added to the grid, that specific configuration of entrances/exits can't show up again.

== Advanced components? ==

How does one get access to the full set of components to build from? I'm only given planks, mallets, swords, scoops, anvils, bricks and fans. I never get any pillows, bumpers, cats, stick figures et cetera. Do they need to be "unlocked" through some achievement, or what? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.102|162.158.222.102]] 11:04, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

This caught me for a while as well. I have since discovered that the tool box has a scroll bar and can be scrolled down; that's where the others are hiding.
::Invisible scrollbars – every GUI obfuscator's favorite tool for making users' lives harder. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.142|162.158.222.142]] 18:17, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

== Limit of 100 components? ==

Has anyone else seen this? At some point I started getting a count "95 / 100" towards the bottom of the toolbar. When it hits "100 / 100" the rest of the toolbar greys out, and I can't add anything more. (I suppose the physics engine has to keep a ceiling on the number of possible interactions between components.) —[[User:Scs|Scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 11:53, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
Why have i not been seeing any uss boyancy [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.122|172.70.110.122]] 14:04, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Haha I dare you to go to https://xkcd.com/2916/#xt=7&yt=57 and stare at the two black holes next to eachother >:) [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|Z1mp0st0rz]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 15:27, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

== Build a "working" machine from parts? ==

Has anyone started working on this idea:

Since any given machine segment seems to be saved, even if not in the final result, *and* since these segments are failing when combined in the whole, how about a "really working" machine that starts replacing failing segments when they jam or otherwise fail to work in the real machine?

The idea being something like, start the machine. Watch the top row, and see where the parts are failing to pass balls properly after two minutes. Replace the segments that are failing/jaming/etc, and let the new part process balls.

As you work your way down, over about 2 hours at the current size, you will eventually get a machine that properly sends balls down to the bottom, without jamming, without having to "pretend" that off-screen parts are working.

I mean, it's not like a gigantic, 600 segment machine will overflow memory on modern 32gb systems, nor consume so much power that these big huge CPU's will fail, right?

[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 17:41, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
ps.: Why do white holes, black holes, prisms, etc, cause problems on some machines like mine and not others?

2712: Gravity

2024-04-09T05:41:52Z

Keybounce: /* Celestial Bodies */

{{comic
| number = 2712
| date = December 16, 2022
| title = Gravity
| image = gravity_2x.png
| titletext = It's a long way down.
}}
{{TOC}}
*To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|2712|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
This interactive comic promotes Randall's new book [[What If? 2]], which was released in September and is available for purchase. You pilot a small spaceship throughout a vast area in space exploring various bodies and planets within the play area, many containing easter eggs alluding to the book What If? 2 and previous xkcd comics. The flight mechanics are Newtonian so the spaceship can use the gravity of planets to alter its trajectory or enter orbit. The spaceship has indicator circles around it which appear when a gravitational body comes into range, showing the direction towards their center of gravity and the size of the body. A circle also appears around the spaceship whenever it collides with a gravitational body, acting as a shield. The shield remains until the player orients the spaceship upright so its landing gear can deploy.

This comic was the ground work for the next [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' Day comic]] of 2023: [[2765: Escape Speed]].

You can easily fly between planets if you pay attention to orbital mechanics: don't just floor the accelerator. The background stars show your velocity and orientation relative to the nearest gravity well. If you are having difficulties navigating space, point towards a gravity orb and accelerate for only a few seconds. Wait until the background stars spin wildly, and then reduce your velocity to 0 before gently accelerating towards the object.

With a keyboard the arrow keys rotate the spaceship and accelerate it forward and backward. You can also use the standard first-person shooter keys 'w', 'a', 's' and 'd', and the standard vi text editor navigation keys 'h', 'j', 'k', and 'l' to control the spaceship. Despite some spaceships having no unique backward texture, they can all reverse. On mobile the comic will full screen, pressing either side of the center rotates the spaceship, and pressing in the center accelerates it forward. Various additional glitches may occur if you're playing on mobile. Having a starting position slightly below the take-off pad means you're already 'glitched' inside the planet from the off. Escaping the planet may need inverted 'accelerating' (turning perpendicular to the local vertical and thrusting backwards until you can glitch back out into more open space. You may also be trapped within the cannonball 'orbit', with seemingly inconsistent collision-detection, such that you can be sat ''with landing gear extended'' upon features (projectile tracks, etc) that seem not to count as solid for most other purposes.

There is no "universal" point of view — the bottom of the window, "down", is oriented towards the object exerting the most gravity upon the player. Multiple things found in this comic draw attention to this, such as how on Earth Ponytail says to White Hat, "I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me", and he replies "Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone." Throughout the play area are coins that change the spaceship into different rockets and non-space-based vehicles.

===Celestial Bodies===

This is a table of all celestial bodies:

{|class="wikitable sortable"
!
!
!
! colspan="4"|References
!
|-
! Name
! Transcript
! Tiles (X, Y)
! What If?
! xkcd
! Movies
! Other
! Explanation
|-
|'''Starting Planet'''

<code>origin</code>
|
Cueball: "To celebrate the world of ''What If? 2'', here is your very own tiny planet to explore!

Megan: "Welcome!"

*Ground caption: "Give someone the science question-and-answer book ''What If? 2'' for the Holidays: xkcd.com/whatif2"

*Cueball feeding T-Rex: "Burger?"

Isaac Newton: "Robert Hooke must be down there ''somewhere!''"

Megan to Cueball: "If you ever get lost in space, just fly down. That's where the ground is."

Beret Guy to squirrel: "Hi!"
|(0, 0)
|Y
|
|
|Y
|The player begins on the launch pad in a landed position. Collecting the orbiting cannonball will transform you into a different rocket, although it does not improve your abilities.

Cueball feeding the T-Rex is possibly a reference to What If #78: {{what if|78|T-rex Calories}}.

{{w|Isaac Newton}} is referencing the {{w|Newton's cannonball}} thought experiment, where a cannon is fired at greater and greater speeds until the cannonball goes into orbit. Newton's comment suggests that instead of demonstrating orbits, he is firing repeatedly to hit his rival, {{w|Robert Hooke}}.
|-
|'''Earth'''

<code>earth</code>
|
"How am I supposed to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs if they keep moving out from under my comet?"

"Unusually high-speed squirrels."

"Jump in! The water's fine!"

"Ugh, the frame rate is really bad out today."

"I don't know why people complain about going down rabbit holes. These lil guys are adorable!"

"Ahh, the mysterious natural wonders of sailing stones"

"I'm Bananas Georg.
Every year our company publishes global per capita banana consumption numbers, so to make the printing easier, I eat enough bananas on December 31st to make sure it's a round number."

"Weird, I feel ''heavier''."

"Hey"

"I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me"
"Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone"
|(27867, -35648)
|Y
|Y
|
|Y
|A planet with among other things:
* A {{what if|162|crane dropping a comet}} onto a dinosaur
* Unusually high-speed squirrels (creating a sonic boom). Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 56: Walking Backward in Time, where these squirrels are surprisingly present in the past
* Megan inviting Cueball into a pool
* A region where the frame rate is intentionally limited. Reference to Chapter 56 again, where the weather and sun cycle fast enough to cause similar strange visual effects
* A flagpole
* A literal {{w|burrow|rabbithole}} referencing the figuratively speaking [[wikt:rabbit hole|rabbit hole]]
* Someone playing [[1920|consequence archery]]
* A lake with an eel
* The {{what if|157|earth-moon firepole}}
* A "doot cone," a reference to [[Volcano Types]]
* Two figures being attacked by a third with a sword
* Two kids playing soccer (Catching the ball will turn the spaceship into a soccer ball)
* A farmer on a tractor being stuck in gooey candy. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 64: Lemon Drops and Gumdrops, where it rains candy
** A nearby hummingbird excited by all the sugar
** Cueball attempting to eat the falling candy, but having it hit his teeth painfully
* A banana pile being consumed by "Bananas Georg" to make the per capita annual banana count round, referencing the "[https://reallyreallyreallytrying.tumblr.com/post/40033025233/average-person-eats-3-spiders-a-year-factoid Spiders Georg]" meme as well as ''What If? 2'' Chapter 11: Banana Church, where he also makes an appearance
* Megan and Cueball digging a hole (in the center of this planet is the "Earth's core", referenced below)
* The {{what if|147|Niagara Falls water being redirected into the LHC}} (Large Hadron Collider)
* Japan leaving earth. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 50: Japan Runs an Errand
* A tube to the bottom of the ocean. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 30: Mariana Trench Tube
* Ponytail and White Hat making a reference to [https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com downforeveryoneorjustme.com]
* Two mini asteroid moons: A tiny version of B612 with Little Prince and the rose, plus one with just Cueball standing on it. They can be found by flying straight up from the Super Mario flagpole.
|-
|Earth's Core
|
|(28850, -28570)
|
|
|
|
|[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] floating in a small space in the center of the planet in inverted rotations. Can be legally accessed using a high velocity collision onto the surface of the planet, although requires tapping the up arrow afterwards many, many times.
|-
|'''Europa'''

<code>europa</code>
|
|(13180, -2540)
|Y
|
|
|Y
|Europa, one of Jupiter's many moons (in real life). A broken, icy crust has a single path into its core.
|-
|Europa's Crust
|
"It's so unfair we don't get to compete in EuroVision."

"The region of the solar system where liquid water can exist on the surface is the habitable zone, and the region where it can exist beneath the surface of moons is the Eurozone."

"WHIRRRR"
|
|Y
|
|
|
|Europa's crust, with a single entrance into the core demarcated by an octopus leaving a hole.
EuroVision is a European song competition that includes many European countries, and it's not too much of a leap to claim that "Euro" includes Europa

Cueball states that Europa, with liquid underneath its surface, is in the Eurozone, a pun on the ''other'' Eurozone.

A Roomba whirs across the icy crust.

Cueball has a hairdryer and is melting the surface of the crust. A direct reference to {{what if|35|What If's Hairdryer}}.
|-
|Europa's Core
|"We've always used neutrinos for astronomy, but if we place my 'optical telescope' in orbit above the kryosphere, we could potentially observe the universe using electromagnetic waves. Who knows what else there is out there besides stars! There could be other worlds!"

"Hi, I'm Annie. Welcome to the depths of Europa. There's some weird stuff down here."

"We were caught in a powerful November gale on the Great Lakes outside Whitefish Bay. Our ship foundered and sank here." "This is Jupiter's moon Europa." "It was a REALLY powerful gale."

"Does our book club really need this much secrecy?" "That sounds like a question a SPY would ask."
|
|
|
|Y
|
|A watery ocean with octopi looking out into the great unknown using telescopes. This is a reference to octopus's intelligence here on earth! It may also be a reference to (Spoilers!) a certain 2013 science-fiction film featuring Europa, if not a 1987 book. There's also a secret path leading to a book club, through the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The woman presenting herself as Annie is a reference to Annie Rauwerda, the creator of the popular social media accounts {{w|Depths of Wikipedia}}.

The November gale discussion is a reference to the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and the actual events described in the song.
|-
|'''B-612'''

<code>b612</code>
|
Probe: "Asteroid deflection mission to earth. The package is delivered. Commencing planetary threat neutralization."

Sign: "Welcome to B-612"
|(2610, 3700)
|Y
|Y
|
|Y
|A reference to [[618: Asteroid|Asteroid]]. In a tragic turn of events, the Earth-bound asteroid being blown up is the home of {{w|The Little Prince|the little prince}}.
|-
|'''Dog Park Planet'''

<code>dogplanet</code>
|
[Dog Park]

"I want more dogs!"

"Ball! Again!"

"I hope it lands soon."

"English adjective order means that you're "Clifford the Big Red Dog" but not "Clifford the Red Big Dog""

"You can't have too many dogs!"

|(1240, 11230)
|Y
|Y
|
|
|A planet covered in dogs, along with dog walkers, some fences, and a sign that reads "Dog Park". Two dogs watch a ball which is traveling in what appears to be a circular orbit around the planet. One dog is much larger than anything else on the planet. A hole is being dug by two dogs. Visible at the bottom, there is an empty space in the center of the planet in the shape of a dog bone.

Planets named "Giant Dog Planet" and "Tiny Dog Planet" appear in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]].

Ponytail's explanation of adjective order was originally miswritten, saying "Clifford the Red Big Dog" twice.

The two Cueballs excited by all the dogs reference ''What If? 2'' Chapter 60: Dog Overload.
|-
|'''What If? 2 Planet'''

<code>goodhart</code>
|
Cueball to White Hat: "The tower over there is the Vehicle Assembly Building, and then behind it is the Vehicle Disassembly Building."

Ponytail to Cueball: "You know how tires pollute the environment with rubber particles? Well, I've developed a solution."

"MMM SPIDERS HOMF HOMF"

Shooting star caption: "THE MORE YOU KNOW"
Sauropod: "Oh no!"

Person on uncontrolled helicopter: "AAAAAA"

Geyser: "Fwoosh!"
Cueball and Megan: "Oooh!"

Giant phone crushing city: "ALERT" "Giant phone crushing city" "Dismiss" "More"

Cueball with jetpack: "Wheeeee!"

Cueball to Megan: "Do you ever look up at the night sky and think, "Wow, I bet those little white dots taste ''delicious!''"

Neighbor: "Why is my house on fire ''again?!''"
Cueball: "Dunno"
Laser captioned: "Laser"

Person with Washington Monument: "Okay, let it drop!"
|(-13300, -3260)
|Y
|Y
|
| Y
| In aerospace, a Vehicle Assembly Building is where spacecraft are constructed. Randall Munroe whimsically refers to the launchpad as the Vehicle Disassembly Building.

Contains a figure in a cave saying "MMM SPIDERS HOMF NOMF", which refers to [[1268: Alternate Universe|Alternate Universe]] and may also be a reference to the [https://reallyreallyreallytrying.tumblr.com/post/40033025233/average-person-eats-3-spiders-a-year-factoid Spiders Georg] meme.

Collecting the small dot above the mountain peak will turn the spaceship into a flying person figure.

''What If? 2'' references include:
* A car preventing rubber pollution by being in a rubber ball, referencing Chapter 25: Tire Rubber
* People catching helicopters, one by the skid and another by the blade, referencing Chapter 2: Helicopter Ride (by the blade is reportedly more effective for downing the helicopter)
* Old Faithful, which appears in Chapter 8: Geyser
* A giant phone, presumably running on archaic {{w|vacuum tube}}s, from Chapter 36: Vacuum Tube Smartphone
* A jetpack takeoff appearing in Short Answer Section #1
* A T-Rex being weighed against an elephant, referencing Chapter 7: T. Rex Calories
* Igniting a house with a laser, referencing Chapter 37: Laser Umbrella
* Dropping the Washington Monument to propel a plane, referencing Chapter 18: Airliner Catapult
|-
|'''The Sun'''

<code>sun</code>
| "The sun is governed by magnetohydrodynamics, or 'Magic' for short"

"My countertop!"

"This will make a good soup base"

"Can I touch it yet?" "No, be patient. It's still too hot. Give it another 20 or 30 billion years."

"It's okay. I'm wearing five layers of sunscreen."

TV Anchor: "The forecast for today is lots of sun"

"This should be enough sunscreen"
|(-14950, 12080)
|Y
|Y
|
|
|Difficult to escape from if you hit the core. The description of magnetohydrodynamics is a reference to [[1851: Magnetohydrodynamics]]. Throwing a countertop into the Sun is a reference to {{what if|89|What If? Tungsten Countertop}}. Both the five layers of sunscreen (effective against ultraviolet) and the ten-meter blob (still ineffective against heat) are references to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 62: Sunscreen. Waiting for it to cool down before touching it may reference Chapter 64: Walking on the Sun.
|-
|Sun's Core
|Cueball: "The core of the sun may seem hot, but it only produces about as much energy per volume as a lizard" Megan: "Wow. So how many lizards are there?" Cueball: "No-one knows."
|
|Y
|
|
|
|Difficult to escape from. Can be escaped by rotating around the Sun until reaching an escape-like velocity. Comparing the Sun's heat per volume to lizards is a reference to {{what if|148|What If? Eat the Sun}}.
|-
|'''Soupiter'''

<code>soupiter</code>
|"I think it's chicken noodle? Hard to tell."
|(-800, -9040)
|Y
|
|
|
|A model of the solar system filled with soup out to the orbit of Jupiter. As commented by Cueball, noodle soup. Soupiter was the title of ''What If? 2'' Chapter 1, but it filled the Solar System ''out to'' Jupiter and became a black hole, rather than another fun planet.
|-
|'''Earth without Japan'''

<code>nojapan</code>
|"Something is missing."
|(-7680, -5850)
|Y
|
|
|
|Earth, except it's missing Japan. Reference to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 50: Japan Runs an Errand.
|-
|'''Just Japan'''

<code>japanmoon</code>
|
|(-5930, -5800)
|Y
|
|
|
|A moon with water surrounding... just Japan. In ''What If? 2'', this is a possibility for where Japan might go without intending to return.
|-
|'''A blob labeled "Pigeons"'''

<code>pigeons</code>
|
|(-9020, -2490)
|Y
|
|
|
|A reference to Chapter 6 of ''What If? 2'', where it would take 1.6 x 10^25 pigeons to lift you and a chair up to the halfway point of Australia's Q1 skyscraper.
|-
|'''Starship Enterprise'''

<code>enterprise</code>
|
|(2389, -60879)
|Y
|
|
|
|Star Trek reference: The Enterprise-C, 2344, commanded by Captain Garrett's. While defending a Klingon outpost, the weapons discharges resulted in the creation of a temporal rift, through which the badly damaged Enterprise drifted. In the comic, there is a large, invisible gravity distortion near the Enterprise-C.
|-
|'''Dinosaur Planet'''

<code>qwantz</code>
|"Welcome... to Jurassic Park."
|(20403, -49559)
|
|
|Y
|
|An homage to [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaur Comics], a webcomic Randall has mentioned several times before. All the dinosaurs on the planet are black-and-white versions of the clip art dinosaurs in that comic. Also references the Jurassic Park movies, with CEO John Hammond welcoming paleontologists Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant to the planet. The long grass depicted is a plot point in later films.
|-
|'''Cat blocking traffic flowing through portals'''

<code>roads</code>
|
|
|Y
|
|
|
|Roads in space may reference ''What If? 2'' Chapter 5: Cosmic Road Trip.
|-
|'''Edge of the Universe'''

<code>outside</code>
|"Welcome, traveler!" (found inside the edge of the bubble universe)
|(6081, 26138)
|
|Y
|
|
|It looks like a planet labeled "edge of the universe". Outside the universe, so inside the "edge of the universe" planet, is another universe, the bubble universe, whose outside is labeled "edge of the bubble universe". Hidden entrance is between 10 and 11 'o clock. It is a reference to [[Bubble Universes]].
|-
|'''A tree larger than the planet it's growing on'''

<code>roads</code>
|
|
|
|Y
|
|
|May be a reference to [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)|Petit Trees]]. More probably, a reference to ''The Little Prince'', a French children's novel about a traveler from a distant asteroid. In the novel, baobab trees are a serious threat to the Prince's home asteroid, as they are so large that their roots would engulf the asteroid entirely. Randall has alluded to The Little Prince numerous times before, especially in what-if articles.
|-
|'''Milliways'''

<code>outside</code>
|
|''in code:'' (0, -14500)'', in game:''(0, 29000)
|
|
|Y
|Y
|A reference to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe from ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. On one side of the planet, Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, and other characters gather on the patio of the Milliways restaurant; on the other side, the Sojourner rover examines a rock.
|-
|'''The Great Attractor'''

<code>greatattractor</code>
|
|(-596048, 247952)
|
|Y
|
|
|Beret Guy stands on the surface of a large ball labeled "The Great Attractor". The gravity is extremely strong (over 200 times that of the black holes), leading to various bugs and collision issues. It's a reference to [[Great Attractor]], in which Beret Guy is gravitationally attracted to the Great Attractor more strongly than usual.
|-
|'''Present'''

<code>present</code>
|
"I didn't do any of my Christmas shopping yet because I was too busy drawing tiny planets."

"I'm done with my shopping! I got everyone What if? 2"

"...You got me my own book?"

"Yeah! I figured that since you wrote it, it must be right up your alley."

"It does make a good gift, though. You can get it at xkcd.com/whatif2"

"I got you this present!"

"Is it an angry bobcat?"

"It might not be."
|in code: <code>[22820,-18920]</code> in game: <code>[45640,37840]</code>
|
|Y
|
|
|The xkcd cast react to giving each other What if 2? as a present. Black Hat gives Cueball a "gift" which he claims, "might not be a bobcat", a reference to [[A-Minus-Minus]] A quarter of the planet was missing on the release day, but it's fixed now.
|-
|'''Black hole cluster'''

''from'' <code>maw1</code> ''to'' <code>maw14</code>
|
|
|
|
|Y
|
|A cluster of black holes with extremely high gravitational strength, set to the maximum of 2048. Not particularly easy to land on with multiple conflicting gravitational fields, but once landed on, rather difficult to escape. Likely a reference to the [[wikia:w:c:starwars:Maw Cluster|Maw Cluster]] in Star Wars.
|-
|'''Remnant'''

<code>remnant</code>
|"All right, that's close enough"
"Oh no"

{{w|Walkin' on the Sun|"So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out"}}

"In 5 billion years, the Sun will run out of fuel and suffer gigennial burnout."

"The immense gravity of the sun's remnant means that this is the tallest possible skyscraper."
|(19620, 3800)
|Y
|
|
|Y
|A white dwarf stellar remnant, with high gravity (making it difficult to escape, although it's possible to achieve escape velocity by flying sideways). Has various small landmarks, including a "skyscraper" and suspension bridge, using a penny for scale. There is a set of images of a rocket descending towards the planet, falling, and then trying to escape by sledding. The band is performing Smash Mouth's "Walkin' on the Sun". Most of these are references to ''What If? 2'' Chapter 63: Walking on the Sun.
|-
|'''Steerswoman Planet'''

<code>steerswoman</code>
|"As a Steerswoman, I have to answer any question anyone asks me, or I'm expelled from the order."
"What's one question that you would be unwilling to answer?"
"Oh no."

"Handle this artifact with great care. It contains a magical wizard's potion which the ancients called 'trinitrotoluene'"
|(-35070, -2500)
|
|
|
|Y
|A reference to the Steerswoman series of books by Rosemary Kirstein. Includes a number of references to the series, including a group of people observing a small object orbiting the planet.

Trinitrotoluene is better known as {{w|TNT}}, a powerful explosive.
|-
|'''Peeler'''

<code>peeler</code>
|
|(-9270, 620)
|Y
|
|
|
|A reference to the question posed by ''What If? 2'' Chapter 13: Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way. A large potato peeler is seen removing the earth's crust.
|

|-
|'''Unknown Planet'''

<code>unknown</code>
|
|(-63587, 9395)
|
|
|
|
|This location was not in the list. There is a non-escapable gravity object here.
<pre>Comic.voyager.pos
Object { x: -63587, y: 9395, a: 3.625954916940618, vx: 0, vy: 0, ax: 0, ay: 0, va: 0, aa: 0, isColliding: true, … }
</pre>
|

}

===Spaceships===

This is a table of all spaceships:

{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Filename
! Name
! Description
! Location
|-
| <code>ship2</code>
| '''Default'''
| The starting spaceship.
| It is possible to change back to this spaceship by collecting a dot located within the Black Hole cluster
|-
| <code>ship-tintin</code>
| '''Tintin'''
| Spaceship in the shape of the {{w|Destination Moon (comics)|moon rocket from Tintin}}
| On the starting planet; can be obtained by collecting the cannonball in orbit
|-
| <code>ship-figure</code>
| '''Figure'''
| Stick figure
| On Goodhart, atop the mountain up which Sisyphus is pushing his boulder.
|-
| <code>ship-soccer</code>
| '''Soccer Ball'''
| Soccer-ball-shaped spaceship
| On Earth, between two figures playing ball
|-
| <code>ship1</code>
| '''Alternative Spaceship'''
| Default spaceship with KSP-style parachutes on both sides of the spaceship. The parachutes seem to disappear on landing.
| Only available by using console to change Comic.ship = ship1
|}

==Data and Maps==

View the data embedded in the comic on [[2712: Gravity/Data|this page]].

Maps created by the community:
*https://bacontime.github.io/xkcd2712 | A zoomable map of the universe with markers for all planets, coins and with the option to highlight secret passages
*https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/zpe7bz/i_rendered_the_entire_what_if_2_universe_as_a/ | The whole universe rendered as one big image

==Hacks==
Various modes and hacks have been found or developed by the community and can be activated by opening the browser console (F12, Ctr+Shift+I or Cmd+Option+I to open your browser's developer tools, then choose the Console tab) and typing a command. <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
 
*'''Speedhack:''' <code>ship.engines = "warp"</code> - Speed hacking, sets speed to 1.4x. set to "standard" to reset to normal speed
*'''Teleport to planet:''' <code>[Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y] = Comic.planetRects.'''''origin'''''.slice(0,2)</code> - teleport near a planet, in this example near earth. You'll still have to fly a bit towards the nearest planet to reach it. Replace '''''origin''''' with the ID of the planet you want to go to, from the table above.
*'''Teleport to coordinate:''' <code>[Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y] = '''''[0, -2000]'''''</code> - teleport to an exact coordinate. <code>[0, -2000]</code> happens to take you to the starting area.
*'''Improved radar:''' <code>Comic.wayfinderFarDistance = Infinity</code> - make the direction of all objects visible. This can be hard to understand though. reset with <code>Comic.wayfinderFarDistance = 10000</code>.
*'''Chaos Mode:''' <code>ship.engines="infinite improbability drive"</code> - Seems to randomly teleports the ship. A reference to its namesake in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
*'''Insta Death:''' <code>ship.shields = false</code> - Kill the player if they land on a planet, the code never sets it to false, so it seems to be always true.
*'''No Clip:''' <code>noclip = true</code> - Enables noclip.
*'''Select ship:''' <code>Comic.ship = "ship-tintin"</code> - Select ship (use filename from list of ships)
*'''Autorotate:''' <code>Comic.cameraRotation = false</code> - View does not rotate with ship
*'''Goggles:''' <code>ze.goggles()</code> - returns a warning: "they do nothing!". This is a reference to Hoverboard, where ''ze.goggles()'' would give you the ability to see false walls. Both of which are a reference to the Simpsons episode "Radioactive Man" (season 7, episode 2), where Rainier Wolfcastle, playing Radioactive Man, complains that his safety goggles do nothing against a deluge of acid, sounding like "Ze goggles, zey do nothing!" with his accent.
*'''Python:''' <code>python("import antigravity")</code> - reverses gravity, so the ship falls away from planets. A reference to [[353: Python]]. Reset with <code>Comic.gravityConstant = 100</code>.
*'''Light Mode''' <code>Comic.lightMode = true</code> - inverts the color of the comic. reset with <code>Comic.lightMode = false</code>
</div>
 

==Trivia==
* The objects in the mini universe of this browser game are all at fixed positions and do not interact through gravity, however, the ship controlled by the player is affected by gravity. While this makes it technically a relatively easy integration problem (of the position of the player ship forward in time), the integrator used seems to be a relatively simple one, but certainly not a simplistic one, because it does not conserve angular momentum. This can be seen when one manages to get into orbit around some object, e.g., the core of the sun. The orbit slowly decays over time.

* The logic for extending the landing legs and landing is rather simple. A ship can (normally) land if it is facing away from the surface it collides with, and if its momentum is more-or-less directed towards the surface. Once landing is triggered, the ship will rotate to face directly away from the object exerting the most gravity on the player, regardless of how sloped the surface is. The only way to get into space again is to accelerate forwards, as neither turning nor accelerating backwards cancels the landed state. All of this can be abused to land on almost everything. To land on the underside of an object, simply point your ship away from the object and slowly accelerate backwards to counteract the force of gravity. Landing on the side of an object is more difficult, as ships cannot accelerate sideways. The first method is to accelerate backwards to launch yourself upwards and towards the object so that at the top of your arc you will collide with the object. Then, rotate your ship accordingly to land. Method two is to just repeatedly slam your back of your ship into the object until you land. Note that with any of these weird landing methods, your ship will turn to face away from the source of gravity and can clip into objects.

* Executing <code>window.python("import antigravity")</code> or <code>python("import antigravity")</code> as Javascript on the page will reverse gravity, multiplying the gravity constant by -1.

* Executing <code>window.ze.goggles()</code> or <code>ze.goggles()</code> as Javascript on the page will show a warning in the console: "<code>they do nothing!</code>"

* Ponytail's comment on earth that she "checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it said just me" may be referencing the actual website at that domain, which checks if other websites are down.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
===Origin:===
Megan: Welcome!

Cueball: To celebrate the world of what if? 2, here is your very own planet to explore!

Ground text: Give someone the science question-and-answer book what if? 2 for Christmas:
xkcd.com/whatif2

Beret Guy: Hi!

Megan to cueball: If you ever get lost in space, just fly down. That's where the ground is.

Sir Isaac Newton: Robert hooke must be own there somewhere!

Cueball to dinosaur: Burger?

===B612:===

Robot: Asteroid Deflection mission to earth. The package is delivered. Commencing planetary threat neutralisation.

===Europa:===

====Surface:====

Roomba: Whirrr

Cueball to Megan: The region of the solar system where liquid water can exist on the surface is the habitable zone, and the region where it can exist beneath the surface of moons is the Eurozone.

Cueball's hairdryer: Whirrr

Megan to Cueball: It's so unfair that we don't get to compete in Eurovision

====Underwater:====

Blondie: Hi, I'm Annie! Welcome to depths of Europa! There's some weird stuff down here!

Unnamed sailor guy to Cueball: We were caught in a powerful November gale on the great lakes outside Whitefish bay. Our ship foundered and sank here.

Cueball to Unnamed sailor guy: This is Jupiter's moon Europa.

Unnamed sailor guy to Cueball: It was a really strong gale.

Octopus: We've always used neutrinos for astronomy, but if we place my new "optical telescope" in orbit above the kryosphere, we could potentially observe the universe using electromagnetic waves.

Octopus: Who knows what else there is besides stars! There could be other worlds!

=====Secret book club=====

Cueball: Does our book club really need this much secrecy?

Danish: Sounds exactly like the sort of question a spy would ask!

===nojapan & japanmoon:===

Megan: something is missing

===Goodhart:===

Guiser: Fwoosh!

Cueball & Megan: Oooh!

Alert on the giant phone: Alert! Giant phone crushing city! Dismiss. More.

Cueball in jetpack: Wheeeee!

Cueball to Megan: Do you ever look up at the night sky and think "Wow, I bet those little white dots taste Delicious!"

Cueball 1: Why is my house on fire again?!

Cueball 2: Dunno

Cueball: Okay, let it drop!

Cueball to White hat: Over there is the vehicle assembly building, and then behind it is the vehicle disassembly building.

Ponytail to Cueball: You know how tires pollute the environment with rubber particles? Well, I've developed a solution.

Cueball: Mmm spiders Homf Nomf

Brontosaurus: Oh no!

Text above star falling on Spinosaurus: The more you know

Cueball & pilot of Helecopter 1: Aaaaaa

===Soupiter:===

Cueball or Ponytail (impossible to tell): I think it's Chicken Noodle? Hard to tell.

===Earth:===

Beret Guy: I don't know why people complain about going down rabbit holes. These lil guys are adorable!

Ponytail to Megan: Ah, the mysterious natural wonder of sailing stones

(as cueball is climbing the firepole down to earth): Climb Climb Fling Fling Boom

Volcano: Doot!

Hummingbird: Yesssssss!

Candies as they fall on cueball's teeth: Plink

Cueball: Ow!

Candies as they fall on cueball's teeth: Plink

Cueball: Ow!

Bananas Georg: I'm bananas Georg. Every year, our company publishes global per capita banana consumption numbers, so to make the printing easier, I eat enough bananas on December 31st to make sure it's a round number.

Cueball to Megan, both in deep pit: Weird, I feel heavier.

Ponytail: I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it said just me.

White hat: Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone.

Person in crane: How am I supposed to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs if they keep moving out from under my comet?

Knit cap while looking at supersonic squirrel: Unusually high speed squirrels

Megan to cueball: Jump in! The water's fine!

Knit cap: Ugh, the frame rate's really bad out today. (if you go in the rectangle containing the words, the whole game begins to stutter.)

===Sun:===

====Outside:====

Jill: This would make a good soup base.

Hairy to Cueball: Can I touch it yet?

Cueball to Hairy: No, Be Patient. It's still to hot. Give it another 20 or 30 billion years.

Unnamed guy with baseball cap: My countertop!

Megan to Cueball: The sun is governed by Magnetohydodynamics, or "Magic" for short.

====Inside:====

Hairy: This should be enough sunscreen.

Ponytail on the news: The forecast for today is lots of sun

Cueball 1 to Cueball 2: It's okay, I'm wearing five layers of sunscreen

=====Core:=====

Ponytail but with black hair to Cueball: The core of the sun may seem hot, but it only produces about as much energy per volume as a lizard.

Cueball to Ponytail but with black hair: Wow. so how many lizards are in there?

Ponytail but with black hair to Cueball: Nobody knows.

===Remnant:===

Band consisting of 2 Hairies & a Beret guy: So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out

Spaceship captain: All right, that's close enough.

Spaceship captain: Oh no.

Ponytail 1 to Cueball 1: The immense gravity of the sun's remnant means that this is the tallest possible skyscraper.

Ponytail 2 to Cueball 2: In 5 billion years, the sun will run out of fuel & suffer gigential burnout.

===Dogplanet:===

Cueball: I want more dogs!

dog 1: Ball! Again!

dog 2: I hope it lands soon.

Ponytail: English adjective order means that you're "Clifford the big red dog" but not "Clifford the red big dog"

Cueball to Ponytail: You can't have too many dogs!

===Quantz:===

Gardener: Welcome ... to Jurassic park.

===Enterprise:===

Ground text: U.S.S. Enterprise

Ground text: NCC-1701-C

===Greatattractor:===

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

Ground text: The Great Attractor

= Page Discussion =
Due to the length of this article, the [[Talk:2712: Gravity|Comic Discussion]] is not fully transcluded here.

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Bobcats]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:What If?]]
[[Category:Popular Comics]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2024-04-09T04:38:11Z

Keybounce: /* Comet 67P */ It is possible to get trapped in a nook here. If you do not know about the "home" button (not visible on all monitor sizes) you may think you are dead.

{{TOC}}Below, you will find the full transcript of the comic [[2765: Escape Speed]].

===Overview===

:[An interactive comic featuring a large world with many planets and objects, navigable by a small round spaceship with a big round window and two landing legs which extend automatically when it touches any surface with its bottom part. The spaceship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) thrusters. Left and right arrows activate thrusters which rotate the spaceship. The spaceship features a "radar" - grey dots around it. The placement of the dots around indicate directions to nearby planets; the size and shade of gray indicate distance. The playing field is a viewport into space, the spaceship is always in the center and the viewport scrolls as the spaceship moves through space - the player sees only a very small part of the overall game world. Orientation is a bit difficult, exacerbated by the fact that the view automatically rotates according to the local gradient of gravity, such that the "down" direction (gradient vector) is always towards the bottom of screen. The world features collectable items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey hollow stars). Sometimes these are collocated, i.e. a gray circle appears in the hollow center of a gray star; however this is not fully consistent, some hollow stars also indicate an item to be collected. When the spaceship flies close to a circle or a star, the mark disappears, and a message is shown in the lower part of the viewport. After picking up most items, their names are added to the "You've found" list below the playing field; unless you are viewing a mobile-device version, where the playing area is optimized to full-screen. Some collectable items display a message only and do not add an item to the list. The player can return to the starting position (keeping all powerups and items) by clicking the "Home" button in the bottom right of the playing field.]

===Starting Planet===

:[A tiny grassy planet with a few trees and bushes and four items. A planet is so tiny that it can be seen whole in the game's viewport. This is where the player starts or returns after clicking the "Home" button. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement. There's an item right up from the starting position (shows a message only and is not reflected in the "You've found" list)]
:Wheeee!

:[Other features of the planet, as they are encountered by carefully moving just above the planet's surface in the clockwise direction are:]

:[A tree, about twice as high as the spaceship]

:[An item low in the grass]
:You found a cool bug!

:[A small tree and a larger tree to the right, with an item up its branches]
:You found a pretty leaf!

:[A tree sapling]

:[Beret Guy pointing his arm up. From that position the surface of the Origin planet can be seen above.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!

:[A large tree]

:[Cueball and Megan standing together.]

:[A small tree]

:[Another item just off the surface]
:You found a rock with neat stripes!

:[A small tree]

===Origin===

:[The planet has vegetation and features many people, landscape objects and items, and it has a shaft through the center. To get there, just launch off the starting planet and let the gravity pull the spaceship towards Origin. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise from the point closest to the starting planet):]

:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! ''You can never leave™''

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the shaft. There's an item above.]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting! ''(message only)''

:[A billboard to the right of the rollercoaster]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Giant Spider planet]

:[A radio telescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and the satellite from xkcd comic 1992: Safety sat on top. There's an item next to it.]
:You found a 5G seagull

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground. Launching from where the T-Rex stands, you can reach the Jurassic Park planet.]

:[A miniature of the Andal planet, marking the direction to it.]

:[A pyramid with a soccer ball on top; leads to the Space Soccer Game planet]

:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; leads to the Saturn]

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:White Hat: Is that... safe?
:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]

:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Launching from there you can reach Projection of Earth. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. Going up from there you can reach Shuttle Skeleton planet.]

:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it; launching from the tunnel you can reach the Hollow planet. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. When the spaceship passes near the sign, a message appears:]
:The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[To the right of the Arch Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking the direction to it]

:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top. launching from the top of the tower you can reach the Round Planet. There are two items next to it, one close to the tower top, another one hidden at the base on the right side.]
:You found an orb wren!
:You found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person; launching from there you can reach the What if? planet]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two items]
:You found a tumbleweed!
:You found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling

:[An item high off the surface right to the band]
:You found a tiny meteorite! ''(message only)''

:[Another item higher off (reachable only after you visit another planet and find engine powerup)]
:You found a single grain of salt!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Uzumaki aka the Spiral planet]

:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[An item clockwise from Megan]
:You found a holographic Charizard business card

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[An item between two lower trees next to the talking bush; launching from there you can reach the Subway planet.]
:You found a secret glade

:[Another item hidden up a large tree next to the secret glade]
:You found a normal-looking leaf!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with an item in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space ''(message only)''

:[Next to the hollow there's a cave with another item]
:You found a DVD of The Core (2003)!

:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint from Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup (subtracts 1.5 from thrust recovery time)]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

===Hollow Planet===

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in microgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[Next to White Hat and Ponytail there's a powerup (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a sixth Lagrange point! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planets which lay in the direction. These are (clockwise):]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (compromise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You found a glass of heavy water! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

===Round Planet===

:[A perfectly round planet, somewhat smaller than the Origin, without any vegetation but with some architecture and people on it. You can reach it by following a sign on the Hollow planet or by launching from the Origin planet from the tower with an orb on top. Its features are (clockwise):]

:[The Great Wall of China]

:[Two small figures of Megan and Cueball on the Great Wall]
:Cueball: The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.

:[A few stones with an item and powerup above them (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a sensible cheese platter. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[The Stonehenge with an item between megaliths and Cueball standing next to it]
:You found a swatch pop-out wristwatch!

:[Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts]

:[Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:]
:Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!

:[A powerup just above the middle ship]
:Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.]

:[An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it]
:Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?

:[Beret Guy climbing a 5G tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.]

:[A small volcano cone]

:[Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.]

===Uzumaki===

:[A large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity. To get there launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet or from spiral monument on Origin. Features (clockwise):]

:[The outside of the spiral]

:[An item and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a single caffeine molecule! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[A single tree]

:[A pack of three birds flying]

:[A group of stones in an area free of vegetation]

:[The "entrance" to the spiral with an item, displaying a message only]
:EXIT ONLY

:[The inside of the spiral]

:[Cueball running]

:[An item]
:You found a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito!

:[A bush]

:[An item]
:You found a podcast episode!

:[Another item]
:You found a friendly bee!

:[A dead bush]

:[An item]
:You found an ink cartridge!

:[A free-roaming Roomba]
:Roomba: WHIRRR

:[An item just above Roomba]
:'You're going the wrong way!' ''(message only)''

:[Another item]
:You found a spiral-cut diamond!

:[Still another item]
:You found a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz!

:[Beret Guy standing]
:Beret Guy: I like spirals!

:[An item]
:You found a burrito!

:[Another item]
:You found a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side!

:[Still another item]
:You found a scroll lock key!

:[A small tree]

:[An item]
:You found a primordial black hole!

:[An item and a powerup right at the center of the spiral (+2.5 to thrust duration)]
:You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.

:[The center of the spiral is a dead end - one needs to fly all the way back out or just hit the Home button]

===Guitar Ship===

:[A planet shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. The planet lies close to Uzumaki, one can reach it by observing the spaceship's radar. Within the dome, there's the Boston skyline. Just over the dome there's an item.]
:You found a guitar pick!

:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, orange line subway token appears near the guitar's neck]
:Orange line deactivated!

===Spacetime Soccer Field===

:[A tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. You can get there by launching from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top, located on the Origin. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines, together with two halves of the center circle. The field utilizes the concept from xkcd comic 2705: Spacetime soccer, but inversed: the gravity well is located at both goals, not in the center. Hairy, Megan, Cueball and Ponytail are playing, flying in space around the planet. Ponytail has just kicked a ball.]

:[The goal has a powerup inside (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[The other goal also has a powerup]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[Another powerup lies at a pole of the planet (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You've found a sunspot. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Still another power up lies at the center spot on one of the copies of the half-way line (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found the 3 million point line. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

===Saturn===

:[A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area. You can reach it by launching from a Saturn-topped pyramid on Origin. There's an item at the equator, below the rings.]
:You found a really cool data point!

:[A powerup is located at the south pole]
:You found a block of scandium! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Another powerup at middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere]
:You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

===Andal===

:[A small rocky and grassy planet. To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a round shape with a small "T" on top. Features (clockwise):]

:[A T-shaped tower with a powerup on top (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur. Both have sickle-shaped blades at the ends of their tails. There's a powerup above them. (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found two Andalites, one canonical! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a small recess in the ground]
:You found baby shoes (and baby)! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Cueball and Megan facing each other]
:Megan: The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.

:[A powerup next to Megan (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a friend. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

===Projection of Earth===

:[A huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth, freely floating in space like asteroids. You can get there by following the sign on the hollow planet or the Earth map monument on Origin. You can navigate the spaceship within the spaces where oceans and seas would be. There are several items and powerups.]

:[An item and a powerup at the North Sea]
:You found the Principality of Sealand! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[An item in the northern Atlantic Ocean]
:You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.

:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, red line subway token appears next to Boston, Massachusetts]
:Red line deactivated!

:[An item off the West African coastline]
:You found a whale shark!

:[An item and a powerup next to Rhode Island]
:You found a Rhode Island the size of an ant! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A power up off the southern Australian coast]
:You found an icosahedral d10. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[An item by the Alexander Island of Antarctica]
:You found some microbial life!

:[An item on the Western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca]
:You found some tin from the Pantai Remis mine!

:[An item next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia]
:You found a sparkling gem!

:[An item near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia]
:You found a piece of pumice floating in space!

===Voyager 1===

:[The Voyager 1 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spiral monument on Origin. There's an item and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 1! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

===Voyager 2===

:[The Voyager 2 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spider monument on Origin. There's an item and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 2! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

===SafetySat===

:[The cube satellite from xkcd comic 1992: SafetySat. There's an item in front of its laser pointers.]
:You found a first of its kind

:[A powerup next to software-defined radio (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup next to crude oil tank (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.

===Shuttle Skeleton===

:[A small planet shaped like a spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. You can get there by launching from like-shaped monument on Origin or in northwestern direction from Alaska on Compromise Projection of Earth.]

:[A powerup next to the left-hand engine (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[An item at the tip of the ship's bow]
:You found a piece of space shuttle food!

:[By launching straight from the engines of the Skeleton Shuttle you can find a lone item in the void of space, where the hidden Boston planet is. You can try finding it by observing the radar, because the hidden planet still has gravity. Once you've visited Shuttle skeleton, it is a good chance to get it, or it will be inside the Boston planet once it is de-cloaked].
:You found a strangely heavy subway token!

===Giant Spider===

:[A giant spider floating in space. You can get there by launching from the spider figure on Origin. Eight people are standing on the tips of the spider's legs: Hairbun of fourth left leg, Hairy on third left one, White Hat on second left, Cueball on front left, Megan on front right leg, another Cueball on second right one, Beret Guy on third right and Black Hat on the fourth right leg.]

:[There's an item next to the tip of the spider's abdomen.]
:You found a spider-silk scarf!

:[The spider holds a powerup in its pincers]
:You found a friendly jumping spider. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

===Diffraction Spikes Star===

:[A very spiky star shaped like the one from xkcd comic 2762: Diffraction Spikes]

:[An item at the tip of a long spike]
:You found a hydrogen ion!

:[An item at the tip of a short spike]
:You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.

===Roche Lobe Earth===

:[This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces are pulling northern Atlantic Ocean really hard. The planet can be reached by launching from the like-shaped statue on Origin.]

:[Cueball is standing on the surface roughly about the place of the southern U.S.A. There's an item off the California coastline.]
:You found a curious Humboldt squid!

:[Another item lies off the Japan coast]
:You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!

:[When the Boston planet has been uncloaked, the green line subway token appears on the East Coast of U.S.A., where the city of Boston is located]
:Green line deactivated!

:[There's an item on the far side of the Moon]
:You found a wayward Roomba full of moondust!

===Dark Matter Planet===

:[A small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an inscription "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times. On its surface there are two squirrels and Hairbun.]
:Hairbun: I found it!

:[There's a powerup anti-clockwise from Hairbun]
:You found a delicate music box. Your engine is a little more powerful now.

===Jurassic Park Planet===

:[A big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times. You can get there by launching form a dinosaur statue on Origin. At one place on the surface Hairy and Megan are being greeted by dr John Hammond.]
:Welcome... to Jurassic Park

:[There are several powerups and items, going clockwise from the visitors:]

:[A powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Another powerup]
:Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[An item]
:You found a tiny pteranodon!

:[Another item]
:You found a baby hedgehog!

===Comet 67P===

:[A small, potato-shaped body. You can get there by launching form the rollercoaster on Origin. Features (clockwise):]

:[Remains of a crashed spacecraft, presumably Rosetta, with an item and a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.

:[Hairbun standing]

:[A small three-legged spacecraft, presumably Philae]
:Philae: BEEP BOOP

:[Cueball standing next to a smoke machine. There's a powerup to the left.]
:You found a broken smoke machine. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Another Cueball and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[A powerup next to a signpost]
:Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.

: Warning: There is a small, lander-sized depression at the base of the left side of the point where the two parts meet. If you make the mistake of landing there, you cannot get out. If you do not land, your shield will keep you from hitting the ground, and you can thrust yourself out.

===What If? Planet===

:[A huge, round planet with many bodies of water. You can get there by launching from the left part of Stonehenge on the Round Planet. Some scenes from the book "what if? 2" and the xkcd comic 2712: Gravity appear here. Features (clockwise):]

:[A flagpole with a powerup on the flag]
:You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A cave in the ground. Inside it there's Beret Guy, two rabbits, and a powerup.]
:You found a DNA base pair! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Two stones with sails attached, sliding on the ground towards Ponytail and Megan]

:[Black Hat with a bow, shooting an arrow upwards towards a spy satellite. There's a powerup just above it.]
:You found an eye in the sky

:[A lake with an eel swimming in it]

:[An item in the grass]
:You found a smooth green snake! It curls up in your hand and naps.

:[A small erupting volcano]

:[White Hat and Cueball standing, another person charging them with a sword held above head. Cueball is holding a small object in his left hand, the arm stretched towards the attacker.]

:[Baby Hairbun running towards baby Megan. Megan is making a kicking move like in a soccer game, but there's no ball drawn.]

:[A person with a wide-rimmed hat driving a tractor. The ground strangely sticks to its wheels.]

:[Megan and Cueball on a shore of a shallow body of water, Cueball is poking a stick into the water which strangely sticks to it. Some creature is flying over the water. There's a powerup at the bottom (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a sunken treasure. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[Cueball standing on the other side of the water, taking hits from some objects falling from above.]
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!

:[A person (Hairy?) sitting on a large heap of bananas, Cueball standing aside.]

:[Megan standing on a brim of a small valley, Ryan standing in the valley with a small animal by his feet.]
:Megan: Hi Ryan!

:[There's an item over Ryan]
:You found an asterisk. It doesn’t seem to refer to anything.

:[A dugout. Cueball and Megan are standing there. Cueball holds a spade. There's a powerup above (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:The Yellowstone Super What? Your launch speed has increased.

:[A river, a waterfall and a lake below the falls. On the top of the waterfall Cueball faces two persons with police hats on. There's a fat hose labelled "Niagara water" leading from the waterfall into a building labelled "LHC". Someone in the building shouts:]
:Someone: ''HEY''

:[There's an item next to the LHC building]
:You found a large hadron!

:[A body of rippled strangely-behaving water, like it was a solid. Two people in a sailboat. To the right there's a gap in the water from which a huge UFO-shaped rock has been ejected, with two people on it. Further right Megan is standing at the bottom of a shaft in the water, next to some water plant.]

:[A few clouds and Cueball standing. The largest cloud, a cumulonimbus, features a powerup.]
:Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Megan sitting on a rectangular block, another block standing upright, a few stones.]

:[White Hat walking along Hairbun, holding a rectangular object in her hand.]

:[A patch of trees with two items]
:You found a secret leaf!
:You found a stick!

:[A small Cueball figure]

:[A tower crane lowering a comet, on a place with two dinosaurs. An item below the crane's beam.]
:You found a sterile neutrino!

:[Knit Cap observing an object moving at supersonic speed next to him.]
:BOOM

:[There's an item to the left of Knit Cap]
:You found a pair of squirrel goggles!

:[Danish standing in a swimming pool, Cueball on the brim. There's a powerup in the pool.]
:You found a steam calliope! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A large figure of Cueball]

===Subway Planet===

:[A huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from the xkcd comic 1196: Subways. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. You can get there by taking off from the secret glade on Origin planet. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washingon, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.]

:[On the surface of the planet, clockwise from the Boston hole, there are:]

:[Megan and Cueball standing on the edge of the Boston hole. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.]
:Cueball: Where's Boston?
:Megan: I think M.I.T. kids took it.

:[Three consecutive entrances to tunnels leading to New Yourk City area, a tunnel leading a little below surface and back up, another three entrances; Cueball standing next to the middle one. There's a power up just a bit into the third entrance (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:You found a hot dog. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Cueball and Danish walking]
:Cueball: Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:Danish: They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:Cueball: But Morgantown is tiny. It can't possibly have a subway, can it?
:Danish: Not exactly...

:[Hairy and White Hat standing]
:Hairy: A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.

:[A sequence of seven tunnel entrances leading to Monterrey area. There's a warning message just below the surface:]
:Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead!
:Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!
:[The above message repeats many times within the maze of subway tunnels]

:[A powerup next to the second entrance (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:["Mexico City" label just below the surface, an entrance to a tunnel leading to Atlanta and a warning message about the black hole, Ponytail]
:Ponytail: Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!

:[Ponytail and Cueball. Cueball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.]
:Ponytail: Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.

:[Ponytail and Megan walking]
:Ponytail: My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!

:[Two tunnel entrances leading to Los Angeles. A "San Francisco" label next to them. Cueball and Megan standing on opposite sides of the first entrance.]
:Cueball: If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:Megan: But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:Cueball: Yeah, it's down there somewhere.

:[Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance]
:Ponytail: Vancouver!

:[A "Vancouver" label and another tunnel entrance. Cueball and Ponytail are looking up.]
:Cueball: Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.

:[An entrance to a tunnel leading to Toronto]

:[A "Montreal" label and two tunnel entrances.]

:[The left edge of the Boston hole. Next to the right edge, there's a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Features inside the metro system, in no particular order:]

:[Knit Cap in Montreal]
:Knit Cap: Bienvenue à Montréal!

:[Blondie and Megan at the bottom of the Boston hole]
:Blondie: I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.

:[An item in a short dead-end line near the right side of the Boston hole:]
:You found a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)!

:[A power up down the tunnels of New York City (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a brightly-lit billboard. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[An item in a dead-end tunnel in NYC]
:You found a handful of quantum foam!

:[An item somewhere in NYC]
:You found a normal-sized apple!

:[Down in NYC: another copy of the black hole warning message and a powerup next to it]
:You found a friendly cat! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Mexico, Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below]
:Megan: You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.

:[In Monterrey, Megan is using her smartphone to look up the subway scheme in xkcd.com/1196]

:[An item and a powerup in a short dead-end tunnel near Miami]
:You found a beige electron! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[An item in a dead-end tunnel in Toronto]
:You found a relativistic bowling ball!

:[An item and a power-up further down from Toronto]
:You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A powerup down in San Francisco]
:The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Los Angeles there's a rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside]
:Megan: Welcome to CalTech!
:Hairbun: The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:Cueball: Figures.

:[A small distance left and down from the chamber Jills is standing in the tunnel]
:Jill: Stop! This line goes to D.C.! Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.

:[A powerup in a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia]
:You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Philadelphia, Cueball sitting on a slope]
:Cueball: Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.

:[Further down from Philadelphia, close to Washington, D.C., Cueball is barely balancing himself on a slope of a tunnel leading to the black hole.]

:[An item in a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole]
:Transfer here for Mornington Crescent ''(message only)''

:[At the center of Washington there's the black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button].

:[A sign in the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown]
:WV

:[Further along the tunnel Cueball is sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface, affected by black hole gravity]
:Cueball: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[A gray circle with a letter "T"]
:MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.
:[Grey line appears, leading out of the tunnels exiting the Subway Planet interior near Mexico City. The line end with an arrow and a label "To Boston". A similar line appears on the Origin Planet, leading from the bush sayin SHHH, then through the shaft, and up the St. Louis arch. It ends with a similar arrow and label.]

:[Megan standing at a strange angle at the next station]
:Megan: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[Further along the tunnel Megan is sitting]
:Megan: I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!

:[Cueball sitting further along the Morgantown tunnel, where it joins another tunnel]
:Cueball: Where does that line go?

===Boston Planet===

:[A big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch near Morgantown on the Subway Planet. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names. There are two trees and several people on the surface of the planet, described below (clockwise):]

:[Two large trees growing at both sides of a tunnel entrance of the orange line, labelled "Oak Grove"]

:[Cueball standing next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"]
:Cueball: There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.

:[The blue line token is located just above the entrance]
:Blue line deactivated!

:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the other side of the blue line entrance]
:White Hat: Welcome to Wonderland!

:[Red line tunnel entrance labelled "Braintree". Cueball and Megan are standing next to it]
:Cueball: Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.

:[Entrance to the second red line branch labelled "Mattapan"]

:[Cueball standing next to green line branch entrance labelled "Riverside"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.

:[Entrances to another two branches of the green line labelled "Cleveland Circle" and "Boston College". Some way from the Boston College Megan and Ponytail are talking."
:Megan: Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:Ponytail: And on some playlists.
:Megan: And of course it's right here!

:[Cueball at the entrance of another green line branch labelled "Medford/Tufts"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.

:[There are several people down the Boston Subway tunnels. Down the blue line tunnel, Cueball is walking.]
:Cueball: The red line token? It's in Boston.

:[Another Cueball further down]
:Cueball: The green line token is in Boston, too.

:[Still another Cueball, climbing]
:Cueball: The orange line token is also in Boston.

:[Cueball again, close to intersection with the orange line]
:Cueball: There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.

:[In the redline tunnel, down from Braintree, Cueball and Megan are walking]
:Cueball: You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"

:[Following the red line past the center, the tunnel arrives at the M.I.T. Megan is standing there.]
:Megan: The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.

:[There's a powerup in front of Megan]
:Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[Somwhere between the Boston planet and the Round Planet, in empty space, there's a powerup. You can reach it by launching off Boston a bit to the right from Wonderland.]
:You found a handful of the quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

===Crystal Sphere===

:[All the "planets" described above lie within a huge ring called the Crystal Sphere. You can get there by flying in any direction, provided that you don't hit any planet. The interior edge of the Sphere is almost perfectly smooth, but has a few dents and cracks. At a point closest to the Subway Planet, there's a large crack leading all the way to the outside. At the entrance to the crack, on both sides, there are two items.]
:Left lane must turn left ''(message only)''
:Right lane must turn right ''(message only)''

:[Along the interior edge there are a few objects (clockwise from the large crack):]

:[An item and a powerup]
:You found the gold crown Archimedes stole! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[An item]
:You found a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')!

:[An item and a powerup]
:A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[The walls off the large crack in the Crystal Sphere are rugged, looking like a rumble of broken wooden planks. Some distance from the entrance there's a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:There is a way out. Your launch speed has increased.

:[From around the location of the "way out" powerup, gravity is increasing significantly. It is difficult to get out of the sphere unless one has collected almost all powerups from the locations inside the sphere. Even though, moving on the outer surface is difficult. There's an arch around the outer exit of the crack consisting of repeating words "THE END". There's an item on the outer surface, quite far anticlockwise from the crack.]
:You found the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram!

===Star Destroyer===

:[A gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship.]

:[On the outside of the starship, going anti-clockwise starting from the top of the starship's bridge, featuring a large spherical dome, there are:]

:[A large crocodile resting on top of the bridge, aft of the dome]

:[On a ledge just below the dome, Cueball and Megan are standing next to a dish antenna, Megan is manipulating it]
:Megan: Such a pain adjusting this thing every time we move.

:[There's an item just over the antenna's support pole]
:You found an unread email. Better leave it unread.

:[Below a forward-protruding section of the starship's bridge, Ponytail has launched a paper plane from a small balcony. The balcony is an entrance (#1) into the Star Destroyer's huge network of corridors.]

:[Below, on the flat upper surface of the starship, some distance fore from the bridge's base, a figure with a wide-rimmed hat crouches, holding reins in both hands]
:Cowboy: Giddyayup!

:[A rectangular block protruding from the surface. An entrance (#2) with stairs, protected be a handrail.]

:[A ledge over a small drop on the surface of the starship. A basketball hoop on a pole, Cueball, Ponytail and Megan standing next to it watching a smaller Cueball chasing a basketball bouncing down the sloped surface. A powerup not far fore of the basketball (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You found a perpetual motion fidget spinner! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[An entrance shaft (#3). A ledge over a small diagonal drop, a cannon turret at the base of the drop.]

:[A thick ledge over a large drop on the surface. An entrance (#4) to a tunnel. Another two big drops without ledges. A shallow entry shaft (#5).]

:[A large drop with a short rounded ledge. A shaft (#6) some way fore, a small drop. Another shaft (#7) some distance away. Still fore, a small drop with a ledge, an entrance (#8) to a shaft below the ledge.]

:[Another shaft (#9), a slightly protruding, long block just next to the #9 shaft, still another shaft (#10), another block. Some distance from there there's the flat bow of the starship.]

:[At the bow, there are two entrances (#11 and #12) leading into the starship. Cueball stands next to entrance #12.]

:[Along the Star Destroyer's underbelly, fore to aft, there is a long protruding block, an entrance to a shaft (#13), a short recess in the surface, a long recess with a shaft (#14), another quite long recess with ledges on both sides. Both ledges have entrances to shafts: #15 (fore) and #16 (aft). Hairy and Cueball are standing on the ledge leading to the #16 shaft, with parachutes strapped to their backs. Cueball is preparing to jump.]

:[Aft from the two paratroopers there's a turret firing a lot of torpedoes. Going down along the torpedoes path one can reach the Corellian Corvette.]

:[Still aft, there's a large uneven recess in the starship's underbelly, with ledges leading to tunnel entrances on both sides (#17 and #18). On the aft ledge, there is a car. On the edge, Megan and Ponytail stand, looking down at the Corellian Corvette.]
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
:Ponytail: Whatever. Who cares. It's probably fine.

:[Aft of the ledge with a car, there are several rugged dents and cracks in the starship's lower surface and some debris hanging off one of the dents. Further aft, there's still another rectangular protruding block and a shaft (#19). Still further, a spherical dome protrudes partly from the underbelly. There's a hidden entrance (#20) slightly off the bottom of the dome.]

:[Not far from there, there's a small gun turret and another protruding block. Some distance aft from the block, Megan is hanging off the surface.]
:Megan: Hmm.

:[Still aft, there's the last shaft entrance (#21) leading into the network of shafts, tunnels and chambers inside the starship. Some distance from there the wide stern of the starship begins.]

:[Near the bottom of the stern, on a ledge, there are two Megan-like figures, one leaning against the stern wall, another standing at the edge.]
:Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.

:[Some distance up the stern, Cueball sitting on a sloped ledge has dropped a sandwich. It bounces down the slope.]
:Cueball: My sandwich!

:[At the middle of the starship's stern, there's a short dead-end corridor leading to a small chamber; this is the only chamber not connected to the chambers and tunnels inside. There's an item inside.]
:You found two goats and a new car!

:[The interior of the Star Destroyer contains a vast maze of tunnels, shafts, and chambers. Starting for the bow and going roughly fore-to-aft, there are:]

:[The tunnel starting at the starship's bow next to entrance #11 is joined by a shaft with the tunnel leading from #12. The #11 tunnel ends in a chamber with a ball pit. Cueball and Megan are playing in it. A fish jumps over the surface.]

:[A little up the shaft joining tunnels #11 and #12 there's an aft-going tunnel, with two branches, first a shaft going up, then another shaft going down to the entrance #13. The tunnel ends with a large chamber containing a swimming pool. Cueball and Megan are swimming in it. Ponytail has just jumped from the edge of it.]

:[The shaft going up from the swimming pool tunnel leads to another tunnel. A short way along it towards the bow there's a chamber with a donkey-shaped piñata hanging on a rope attached to the ceiling. To the right Cueball, Megan and Hairy are standing together, Hairy holding a stick in his hand. To the left there's another Cueball with a lightsabre.]
:Cueball: No, I got this.

:[Along the tunnel leading aft from the piñata chamber, there are another three shafts leading up to entrances #10 and #9 and down to #14. At the edge of the latter shaft Hairy stands, looking down. Some way down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading towards the bow of the starship, ending with a rumble of stones.]

:[Going further away from the piñata there's another shaft leading down and a chamber with an item to the right of the shaft.]
:You found a lymphocyte!

:[Down the shaft next to the lymphocyte chamber there's an aft-leading tunnel, connecting to shafts leading down to entrance #15 and up to #8; the tunnel leads to an empty chamber. Cueball is standing at the gateway to the chamber with his arm outstretched.]
:Cueball: You shall not not pass!

:[A little up the #8 shaft there's another tunnel leading aft. A short way along, there's a shaft leading up to an empty chamber. A little farther, a down shaft leads to entrance #16. Still farther, the tunnel slopes up then joins a circular tunnel around a chamber in which Barrel Boy stands next to a potted plant.]

:[There's an item and a powerup next to the plant (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a vintage Juicero juicer! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[There are four exits leading away from the circular tunnel. The one up and left off the center leads to an upwards-sloping tunnel, Cueball stands on the sloped bottom.]
:Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.

:[Just past Cueball, the tunnel levels up and leads in the direction of the bow of the starship. Some way along, there's an upwards shaft leading to the entrance #7, and another shaft leading up to an empty chamber and down to a short tunnel. To the right there's a chamber with a group of strange people standing on a podium: a curly-haired kid, a woman in a short skirt wearing a strange cap or haircut, looking up, a person sporting flat-top Afro hairstyle holding up the left arm, and a girl with very long hair. To the left there's a chamber with an ice cream freezer next to the back wall. Cueball and Megan are walking towards it.]
:Megan: Prediction: seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Down from the circular tunnel there's a shaft with a falling Tetris T-block in it. The shaft turns into an aft-leading tunnel. Just a little off the turn, there's a down shaft leading into the control room of the torpedo launcher. Cueball and Megan are in the room.]
:Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones.

:[Up the shaft from the control room and aft along the tunnel there are two small Roomba-like devices, one riding on the top of another. The tunnel ends with a shaft leading up and down. A little down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading aft through a small empty chamber to the entrance #17. The upwards part of the shaft joins the fourth tunnel leading off the circular tunnel.]

:[The start of the fourth pathway leading away from the circular tunnel is located aft and a little up off the center. The tunnel slopes up shortly, then levels up. Cueball is riding a bicycle towards the stern of the starship. The tunnel joins a shaft leading down towards entrance #17 and leads some way farther aft to a large chamber. Megan is riding a skateboard inside a rolling hamster ball.]
:Megan: AAAaAAaaa

:[There's an item right in the middle of the hamster ball]
:You found an out-of-control trolley!

:[Next to Megan in a hamster ball, Cueball is walking on really high stilts.]
:Cueball: I can't leave.

:[Halfway up the shaft leading to entrance #17 there's another tunnel leading aft through a domed chamber with a huge cephalopod. Further along there's a shaft leading up to entrance #6. The tunnel ends in a chamber featuring a rectangular shape with two horns on top.]

:[Halfway down the #6 shaft an empty tunnel leads aft till a dead end. Just short of the dead-end there's a short upwards shaft leading to another tunnel. To the left from here a car is parked in a chamber. Cueball is sitting on the car's bonnet, leaning against the windshield.]

:[To the right, the tunnel reaches a long downward shaft leading in the general direction of the entrance #18, going almost all the way down to the bottom of the ship near the place where the outer surface has some dents, cracks and hanging debris. About halfway down that shaft there are two tunnels, one leading aft, and, a little lower, another one going towards the bow of the starship; it passes through a chamber in which Cueball and Megan are flying on hoverboards, then follows to another short shaft going down to an empty chamber and up to a short tunnel ending with small empty chambers on both ends. The tunnel leading aft from from halfway the long downwards shaft ends, its bottom sloping down, with a funnel-shaped chamber.]

:[Right at the beginning of the slope going into the funnel chamber Ponytail stands]
:Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[The funnel-shaped chamber is partly hidden (or filled with "cotton"); the player's ship can fly to the bottom of the chamber through what appears to be solid inside of the starship. The funnel has round bottom and two exits, one near the bottom leading left and another leading right from a place halfway up from the bottom.]

:[The exit in the aft wall of the funnel chamber leads to a tunnel with four sets of dual mechanized toothed blades extending from the floor and the ceiling, the first one half open, another just closed, the third one fully open, and the fourth almost closed.]
:Blades: CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

:[A little further aft the tunnel there's a slightly wider section with a pit at the middle; at the bottom of the pit there's a grill and a fire burning on it. Still further aft the tunnel opens into the Imperial Park Chamber, described later.]

:[Near the bottom of the long downwards shaft, Ponytail is flying up the shaft. From there a tunnel leads left to the entrance #18. A small distance right from there, there's a spiked pit in the floor of the tunnel, covered with sticks. Cueball and Barrel Boy are standing next to it, Cueball pouring something over the sticks.]
:Cueball: ...and we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[The tunnel leads farther aft to a large chamber with a seemingly dead-end shaft leading up from the ceiling and then a little right through a hidden passage to the bottom part of the funnel-shaped chamber. In the large chamber there's a strange device with two fat, pointy electrodes labelled "JS" generating an electrical arc between them. Cueball is standing nearby, observing. Another Cueball is climbing the smooth surface of the wall opposite the machine.]
:Cueball: Shh.

:[Going a little to the right along the tunnel from the upper end of the long shaft from entrance #18, there's short upwards shaft leading into a short tunnel with two small empty chambers on both ends and another short shaft to the entrance #5. Right next, the tunnel develops inexplicable waves on its floor and ceiling. Cueball and Jill are observing the phenomenon.]
:Jill: Ah, yes, corridor peristalsis.

:[Aft from the peristaltic tunnel, there's a twisty passage leading up. Ponytail and Cueball slide down it like a waterpark tube.]
:Cueball: Wheee!

:[At the top of the twisty passage, another Cueball stands, slouching and looking down. From there, a short tunnel leads right to a small empty chamber and left, through another two small empty chambers, to the entrance #4.]

:[From the bottom of the twisty passage, the tunnel leads further aft. There's a very short shaft going up to a chamber with what seems like two buttons on the aft wall. Going further aft, the tunnel branches up and goes further right, down, right again, up and right until it reaches a shaft, a bit wider than all others, going up to a chamber with two ledges, and down, through its ceiling, into the Imperial Park Chamber.]

:[The up branch leads to another horizontal tunnel going aft, and the second up branch. This one leads to a short tunnel in the aft part of which two Cueballs are busy excavating: one hitting the rugged tunnel face with a pick, another pushing away a trolley full of material. The right part leads to an upwards shaft and the entrance #3.]

:[From the second up branch, the tunnel leads aft to a big chamber in which Hairy is playing a piano and Cueball is dancing with Megan; Megan is spinning. At the upper right part of the chamber there's a cantilevered ledge and an item right beneath it.]
:You found a glass slipper with a glass foot in it!

:[Next to the ledge, a tunnel leads aft to a long vertical shaft. Up that shaft, there's a tunnel leading aft to a chamber in which some people throw a party standing on the ceiling. Cueball with a conical drink glass stands next to Megan with a tumbler in her hand. Ponytail and Danish stand together. Another Cueball is walking away.]

:[Upwards from the tunnel leading to the party room, the shaft turns into a tunnel towards the bow of the starship and ends with a flight of stairs going up to entrance #2. Down the stairs a spring is "walking" down.]
:SLINK SLINK SLINK

:[Down the shaft, starting from the dancing room level, a tunnel leads aft to a maze of passages and ledges recreating the first level of the original ''Prince of Persia'' game. There are two places with spikes, but not all spiked locations are recreated. Cueball stands in the place where the original gameplay starts. Two Cueball-like figures with swords stand in the places where guards are present in the game. Another two Cueballs are there, one standing, another jumping off a ledge. Two items are located within the maze:]
:You found a premium subscription to food.net!
:You found a cluster of data points!

:[Still down the shaft, a fore-leading tunnel ends in a chamber with a chandelier hanging on a chain from the ceiling, sporting six bare lightbulbs.]

:[The lower end of the shaft ends with a tunnel leading left and right. To the left, Hairy is walking towards the entrance to the Imperial Park Chamber. To the right the tunnel goes some distance aft and up a short slope. Just right of the slope, there's a pit covered with a cantilevered ledge. Cueball is standing in the pit, looking up.]

:[A bit further down the tunnel a small dome opens up, with a alarm device in the center.]
:...BEEP... ...BEEP... ...BEEP...

:[A little aft, there's a short shaft leading up to a tunnel leading left to a dead end with three large boxes stacked and right to three domed chambers, two small ones, and a bigger middle one. In the bigger chamber a huge ant lies on a three-layered platform, Cueball standing in front of it on the second layer.]
:Cueball: What's up?
:Ant: The usual. Poopin' out ants.
:Cueball: Eww.

:[The Imperial Park Chamber is the largest one within the Star Destroyer. It is dome-shaped, but with irregular, rough ceiling and floor. It lies approximately in the middle of the thickest, aft section of the starship. It can be reached from three directions by the entrances described above: on the top of its dome, on the left side going from the funnel-shaped chamber and on the right going from the giant ant chamber. The floor is covered with grass and small plants. Going from the left entry you can see:]

:[A tree growing on a bank of a shallow pool, partly overgrown with plants. A flock of three birds flying high above the pool. A large boulder, on top of it there lies a jaguar, Cueball reclining next to it. To the right of the boulder there's a small garden rotunda on four pillars with an item inside.]
:You found a helium-238 nucleus!

:[Next to the rotunda Ponytail and Cueball are talking:]
:Cueball: I know it seems weird, but every star destroyer has one of these rooms. Say what you will about Palpatine's politics, but he's a staunch supporter of the Imperial Parks and the Coruscant Audubon Society.

:[Going further aft along the Imperial Park Chamber, you can see a small tree with tiny leaves, Cueball walking with a bow and a quiver full of arrows, a male deer, and a small bush around which three bees are flying.]

:[In a recess in the right wall of the dome above a figure with a wide-brimmed hat sleeps, sitting with its back to the wall.]
:ZZZ

:[A little higher there's a bees nest hanging off the ceiling:]
:Bzzzzz

:[From the rightmost chamber of the ''Price of Persia'' maze, a shaft leads up towards the bridge of the ship. About halfway up a short tunnel opens in the direction of the bow, leading through a tiny chamber to another shaft going up and fore to balcony at the entrance #1 and down and fore to a chamber with a machine with eight cylinders connected to it by hoses. Hairbun points at it, explaining its purpose to Ponytail:]
:Hairbun: In the event of a fire on one of the decks, this system will seal it off and pump in pure oxygen.
:Ponytail: Wait, ''oxygen''? Not a fire suppressant like --
:Hairbun: Ugh, ''boring''.

:[The shaft leading up to the bridge ends in the Emperor's chamber, featuring a throne on a pedestal and an rectangular machine in front of it. Cueball is talking with the Emperor.]
:Cueball: My Emperor... We all share in your newfound enthusiasm for birdwatching. But normally one watches them in the wild, rather then drugging and imprisoning them in a house of stairs.
:Emperor: ''Silence''.
:Bird in the machine: Chirp chirp.

:[A little down the shaft from the Emperor's chamber a tunnel goes left through a chamber with a stack of five boxes and three sacks, all marked with dollar signs. Megan and Cueball stand next to the stack, Cueball exclaims:]
:Cueball: Aha! Darth Vaders' secret gold bullion reserves! We'll be rich!
:Megan: I'm not sure this is canon.

:[Still a little left the tunnel connects to a shaft leading up and down. Down and left, a chamber opens in the front part of the starship's bridge with a window looking over the ship's upper surface. Cueball and Tarkin are walking towards the window. Cueball looks back at Tarkin following him.]
:Cueball: The fault, dear Tarkin, is not in our star destroyers, but in ourselves.

:[Up the shaft going from the treasure room, another tunnel leads left to the starship's control room with a large window. Cueball is touching some controls at the console. Behind him, Darth Vader and Hairy are talking:]
:Darth Vader: (breathe) But all murderbot really wants is watch ''Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon'', (breathe) which is a soap -- are you getting all this?
:Hairy: Yes, my lord!

:[Still up that shaft a short tunnel leads right to a chamber with three boxes, Ponytail is sitting on one of the boxes, Cueball is sitting on the floor next to her.]

:[Further up the shaft ends in a perfectly round chamber on the very top of the starship's bridge. On the top left inner wall of the chamber, nearly upside down, Megan is riding a bicycle. Near the bottom of the chamber, Megan and Ponytail are jousting, Megan riding a bicycle, Ponytail - an ostrich.]

:[Down the shaft leading down from the Emperor's chamber, close to the entry to the ''Prince of Persia'' maze, there a short tunnel leading aft to another long downwards shaft. About halfway down, Cueball and Mega are holding one another by their arms, clinging to opposite sides of the shaft.]
:Cueball: Okay. We can figure this out.

:[The shaft ends in a big chamber with a gigantic lightbulb and a powerup.]
:You found a Bursa of Fabricius!

:[From the lightbulb chamber a short tunnel leads aft to a shaft. Up that shaft there's a chamber in which Cueball and Jill are standing face to face.]
:Jill: Use a proposition instead of a preposition if you need something to end a sentence with, baby.

:[The shaft goes down to the entrance #21. Close to the entrance, some small objects hits the wall of the shaft.]
:BOUNCE

:[The shaft leading down to the chamber with the lightbulb, branches to the right close to that chamber; the tunnel goes quite a way towards the bow of the ship and ends with a small empty chamber. Right before that, a short shaft goes on to another empty chamber. Halfway down that shaft, a short tunnel goes left and enters a huge half-round chamber, the round bottom of it protruding partly below the starship's lower surface. Near the lowest point, Cueball stands next to two small warning sings looking like the ones often used in public to warn against slippery floor, and a larger triangular sign on a pole.]
:CAUTION: Glitchfloor

:[The small segment of the round chamber wall between the two small signs looks opaque, but in fact an be traversed by the player's ship, forming a hidden entrance (#20) into the Star Destroyer's interior.]

:[To the upper left of the half-round chamber there's a tunnel leading to a shaft going down to the entrance #19, and a short way up to a tunnel leading aft to an empty chamber and fore to a dead-end spiral-shaped tunnel.]

===Stream of torpedoes===

:[From the gun turret located at the bottom of the Star Destroyer in its middle-fore part, a lot of torpedoes are being fired. Following them down and left you can see:]

:[Two torpedoes colliding and causing an explosion]
:BOOM

:[Beret Guy riding one of the torpedoes]
:Beret Guy: Horsey!

:[The stream of torpedoes reaches the Corellian Corvette]

===Corellian Corvette===

:[A spaceship borrowed from the Star Wars universe. It is quite big, its length is larger than the diameter of the Origin planet, but smaller than Boston planet. It is found most easily by following a stream of torpedoes fired from the Star Destroyer. There are several people both inside and outside of it, standing on the upper surface. Gravity in the area is quite strong, coming from the huge Crystal Sphere. Starting clockwise from the stern you can find:]

:[Cueball standing on a ledge next to engine nozzle. Megan is pulling him by his arm as if trying to prevent him falling off. Cueball, leaning over the ledge, is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow the size of his head on it, right over the center of the nozzle.]

:[On a ledge next to the ventral laser cannon turret Cueball is standing with a fishing rod, fishing line lowered into the space below, a square-shaped bait on the hook. Two birds are flying next to the bait.]

:[On the top of the round bow section of the starship, Cueaball is standing next to some device]

:[There's a rugged hole in upper side of the middle section of the starship, two Cueball figures stand next to it]
:Cueball 1: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
:Cueball 2: Yup.
:Cueball 1: Wow, rude.

:[An item in the focal point of the dorsal comms dish]
:You found a serif!

:[Two Cueballs to the right of the dish, looking up]
:Cueball 1: That thing is ''huge''. ''Imperial''-class?
:Cueball 2: Yeah. Maybe a Mk-I. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Ponytail and Cueball shooting bows towards a stream of torpedoes]
:''TWANG''

:[An explosion causing a shallow crater on thestarship's surface]
:BOOM

:[A bunch of torpedoes coming in diagonally from above. One torpedo half-buried itself in a dome-shaped side of the starship. Two Cueballs next to it.]
:Cueball 1: Why are they still firing?
:Cueball 2: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing. It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[A large rectangular chamber in the middle section of the starship, close to comms dishes. Hairy, and two Cueballs talking.]
:Cueball 1: The Death Start plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
:Cueball 2: Darn. See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them. But since we didn't find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy. That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[An item in a short dead-end section of a corridor leading fore from the big chamber]
:You found the Death Star plans!

:[In a parallel corridor just above, Ponytail is walking, singing]

:[In a small chamber just below the dorsal turret there's a container labelled "Bullets". Cueball is pouring small bullets into it from a bucket.]

:[Further down the corridor a small device is moving towards the bow of the starship.]

:[Danish standing next to a console on the upper deck of the bow section, Hairbun right behind, her fists clenched.]
:Danish: Captain's log, stardate April 3rd, 2023...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[Right in the entrance to the upper deck chamber there's an item]
:You found a forged resume!

:[On the lower deck, Ponytail is holding a lightsabre. A small round object is floating next to her. To the right, Megan stands next to a open container labelled "Shirts", holding a strange device.]
:Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.

===Click and Drag Planet===

:[The planet is huge, larger than any other in the game world, but smaller than the Star Destroyer. It is located outside the Crystal Sphere roughly opposite the Star Destroyer. It is mostly round, with many landscape features and scenes partly copied from the xkcd comic 1110: Click and Drag, but arrayed in a circular, instead of linear shape. What's missing in comparison to the Click and Drag comic, is a few of the scenes, some textual content like dialogues (leaving persons intact), the underground parts, upper parts of the very high objects, and objects high above the surface in the 1110 comic -- please see its transcript for details. The planet features a few items and powerups.]

:[A powerup over a hotdog-shaped car in the parking lot right of Burj Khalifa (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The vehicle below gives you a boost. Your launch speed has increased.

:[A powerup above Cueball saying ''We should turn back']
:'We should turn back'. Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[An item below a giant jellyfish]
:You found an ant the size of Rhode Island!

:[An item and a powerup between huge wind turbines (+2 to launch speed)]
:You found a trisected angle! Your launch speed has greatly increased.

:[An item and a powerup next to a humpback whale (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found an expert at underwater ropes. Your thrusters are more efficient now.]

:[An item on a flat-top structure left of a water tower]
:You found a pin with 17 angels dancing on it!

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

Talk:2140: Reinvent the Wheel

2019-04-24T05:08:01Z

Keybounce: How do you manipulate the search results?

I took a screenshot of google image search at 2:24 PM ET on 4/22/2019, and a bicycle wheel is indeed the first result. I'm trying to figure out how to get my image into the wiki ;p [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.82|162.158.78.82]] 18:25, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
: (same user) Man! I found an old account I made and logged in with it to upload a file, but it says I need special permission to do so! [[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 18:33, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
: If somebody with permission could upload this, it would be great: https://ipfs.io/ipfs/Qmf1a9NFFAcgWRUe45Ueg4FggXTUAd9BHMgEqWp23izchU [[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 18:43, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
:: I get this (in the UK, using Google UK, and same result in a fresh Incognito session): https://www.makerlab-electronics.com/product/65mm-rubber-wheel-blue/ It looks like a decent wheel, albeit probably a bit small for most uses [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.11|141.101.99.11]] 22:41, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
: Here it is on imgur: https://imgur.com/a/8nHemgW [[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 19:38, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

I looked for a cheese wheel by searching wheel but couldn't find any. there was, however, a roulette wheel [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.72|172.68.47.72]] 20:41, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

Looks like beret guy is working for an automotive startup, possibly one of the many software companies that are developing AI for self-driving cars? It is true that tires are made by outside suppliers (not by the auto companies) so in terms of software development tires could be called "external dependencies". However, tires are far from a semi-random selection as intimated here. A large amount of time and effort is spent developing special tires for each vehicle model to give the best possible compromise between many conflicting requirements such as: dry/wet/snow traction, noise, ride, wear, high speed durability (for high performance cars) and so on, the complete list has many more items.

If Randall is looking for new tires for his vehicle, I offer my standard recommendation: If you were fairly happy with the tires that came with the car, try and replace them with the closest possible equivalent to take advantage of the original development effort. This is not always possible, and of course if you are using the vehicle for a special purpose (mostly drive on dirt roads, use your car in weekend autocross competition, etc.), you may do better with something different.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.58|162.158.75.58]] 18:36, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

This comic could also be talking about coding, where reinventing the wheel is writing your own code from scratch, as there is other code which works perfectly well. This makes particular sense as the "external dependencies" could be in terms of code as well
[[User:Gollum|Gollum]] ([[User talk:Gollum|talk]]) 18:45, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

I think the point is that their company is having to reinvent their cars to fit each dependency wheel, rather than develop a wheel that will fit their preexisting car. For cars, wheels are for the most part interchangeable, but external dependencies in software are very much not so. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.100|108.162.229.100]]

I suspect this is a comment on JavaScript (JS) coding for the web, specifically the NPM node.js package manager. I'm not a front-end Web developer, but apparently lots of web pages use NPM to pull down dependencies, bits of code to accomplish some task, rather than write it new (thus, avoid 'reinventing the wheel'). The problem is there's poor control over what those dependencies do and how they might get modified on you unexpectedly. See the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npm_(software)#Notable_breakages Wikipedia article] on NPM for some history of bad breakages that have occurred.
: I second this comment as being the key to the explanation. Especially when your external dependencies are also hosted on sites that you don't control; any functionality that you depend on can be replaced at any time, analogous to swapping out a sedan's tire for a bicycle tire. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.202|108.162.215.202]] 20:03, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
: thirded. googling a solution to your coding problem and then implementing it (as a third-party library or as code directly) is very much as described in this comic. yay, randall! --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.241|162.158.154.241]] 09:39, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

The point of the comic is likely that the term "Reinvent the Wheel" is not typically used in a literal sense to refer to actual wheels, as it is in this comic. Instead, it usually refers to exerting effort on something that adds no value over re-using something that already exists, whether it's a product's design or something intangible like an idea or study. We could probably provide a link to the Wikipedia article on the topic to help readers who are unfamiliar with the phrase. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 19:38, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

I don't have a problem with the explanation mentioning that the comic might be making some statement about software developers carelessly using code off the Internet, but I'm not sure we can say with such certainty that this IS the point of the comic, as it currently states. I certainly don't get any indication that it's specifically about JavaScript. I think Randall just thought the phrase "Reinvent the Wheel" would be funny if he had a character using it literally, and anything deeper than that might just be our own personal issues. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 22:32, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

There is nothing in the comic that's specifically about JavaScript, although the issues with NPM are a good example of what can happen more generally in other environments. But the terms "external dependencies" and "reduced overhead", plus looking for wheels on Google and the title text mentioning reinventing the vehicle to fit the wheel, to me are a clear sign that this is an analogy for software development. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.226.195|172.69.226.195]] 02:28, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

"That one time a wheel of cheese got dangerously close to the front page" - Is this a reference to that time SpaceX launched a wheel of cheese into space as a demo payload? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.255.104|172.68.255.104]] 08:01, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

This seems like it could be a reference to some independent game development communities, where users tend to enjoy making things "from scratch", but are often encouraged (sometimes quite aggressively) to avoid reinventing the wheel (often those exact words). I don't know if Randall is aware or involved in these communities, but it seems to fit perfectly. [[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 13:35, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

This might be a python joke. Python packages on pypi are usually distributed in a file format called wheels. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.5|162.158.183.5]] 19:00, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

The influence of this comic on the popularity of searching the word seems to have been minor, but noticeable: https://imgur.com/dkuBK5h [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.190|162.158.238.190]] 19:29, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
: What I want to know is, how can we make a cheese wheel show up? Can we google bomb this image search?
[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 05:08, 24 April 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2120: Brain Hemispheres

2019-03-09T00:18:32Z

Keybounce:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_hemisphere#Hemisphere_lateralization
If the left side controls the top half of the body, wouldn't that mean it also controls the right half? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.248|108.162.241.248]] 20:04, 6 March 2019 (UTC)
: It is uncontroversial that many senses and motoric functions are swapped between the right and left side. The anatomy of the nerve swaps can also be shown. But it is still under discussion, why evolution led to this swap (source: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contralateral_brain Contralateral brain] and the even better organized German version [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontralateralit%C3%A4t_des_Vorderhirns Kontralateralität des Vorderhirns]) Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.46|172.68.110.46]] 08:41, 7 March 2019 (UTC)
: I'm referring exclusively to the hypothetical model posed by the comic; rather than the reality.

I don't think the sentence "all 3 claims are false" is accurate. I think the claim that the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body is accurate. It says so on the Wikipedia article mentioned and in several other sources. What the Wikipedia article disputes is whether or not "higher-level" functions are partitioned to one side of the brain. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.42.64|172.69.42.64]] 20:29, 6 March 2019 (UTC) Harrison
: With regard to the retina, the right half of the brain processes what the right half of each retina receives, and the left half processes what the left half of each retina receives (see e.g. [https://nba.uth.tmc.edu/neuroscience/m/s2/chapter15.html optic nerve]), but because our retina is behind the focal point of our lens so all the lightbeams cross and images hit the back of the eyeball upside-down and backwards, that means the halves of our brain process the opposite halves of what we see. But it's the same side of our body! I stopped learning neuroscience after we got to the optic nerve ;p [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.95|108.162.221.95]] 21:48, 6 March 2019 (UTC)
: You must've stopped in the middle of the lesson, because the optic nerves split so that both brain halves get a copy of each eye. Your own link points it out in the figure as the "Optic chiasm".--[[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 13:09, 7 March 2019 (UTC)
:: If you look closer, you can see how the left half of each eye (retina) goes only to the left half of the brain, and same for the right, even though both eyes do go to both sides. The split is by what is seen, not which eye sees it, which specially maps to the left side or right side of the eyeball. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.185|162.158.79.185]] 19:03, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

:I think the "right side of your brain controls the left side of your body" is NOT accurate, it's just closer to truth than the reverse. Some parts of perception and motor control are divided that way, but unless you have corpus callosotomy the high-level control is centralized and/or distributed regardless the side. Would be hard to synchronize both hands if not. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 02:05, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

Having survived an ischemic stroke on the left side of my brain, which temporarily paralyzed the right side of my body, this comic speaks to me like none other.

Is it possible that the title text is a reference to the whole "magnetic north is actually south" thing? {{unsigned ip|162.158.78.208}}

Completely rewrote the explanation. There are two key phrases that were removed with the following justifications:

'''"left arm and left leg, and vice versa for the left half of the brain, and competing theories such as [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1003.1872.pdf these] [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02972358 two] attempt to explain why this is the case."
'''
Those are not competing theories. It is the abandonment of one old theory in favor of a one that is better supported with evidence! It's like saying "There are competing theories of what an atom is actually made out of. One says that they are the smallest indivisible part of all matter. Another says that they are like plum-puddings with with a positive charge particle studded with negative charge corpsucles. And the last theory of what an atom is is a core particle with positive charge, made of many many smaller parts, surrounded by an probability/statistical cloud of negative particles which can act as both particles and waves and cannot have their speed and location determined at the same time.

... And if you think these are all "competing" and equally valid theories of what an atom is... I can not help you. Please... I don't know. Take a class or read a textbook or something. Good luck. May God have mercy on you.

'''Similarly, many people incorrectly argue that different parts of the brain control logic and emotion, due to the importance of the [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393211000285?via%3Dihub left] brain for language processing.
'''
Removed and replaced it with a better explanation. Not technically "incorrectly argue". There is basis for which the arguments are founded.

--[[User:Evilbob0|Evilbob0]] ([[User talk:Evilbob0|talk]]) 03:12, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

The concern about the left leg being independent of the brain can be confirmed. Just scratch your left side, and watch your left leg kick.
[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 00:18, 9 March 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-22T00:31:32Z

Keybounce:

The Tobin citation comes from James Tobin's Fred Hirsch Memorial Lecture "On the Efficiency of the Financial System" in 1984 [https://economicsociologydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/tobin-on-the-efficiency-of-the-financial-system.pdf].

The explanation says “allego” and “prologue“ are “musical terms such as may be used in the introduction of a performed piece”. That may be true of “prologue” but “allegro”, according to Wikipedia, is “a tempo marking indicate to play fast, quickly and bright”. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 11:40, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

:And, derived from this, a movement of a piece that is performed quickly may be referred to as an allegro. It can also be used to refer to an entire piece, such as this piece by Mozart: [https://www.pianostreet.com/mozart-sheet-music/allegro-k-1-f-major.htm] [[User:Kazzie|Kazzie]] ([[User talk:Kazzie|talk]]) 12:00, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
::But based on the placement of the allego and the way it is written it is most likely a tempo. Tempo goes just above the music and in this case it is the only word on the page that is italicized. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.108|162.158.186.108]] 14:09, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

How would this compare with “candlestick patterns” - the bathtub one looks like a funny name for a pattern *meant* to signal that prices could rise https://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/06/advcandlesticks.asp. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.144.145|172.68.144.145]] 13:55, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Random Walk might refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_walk [[User:Curtobi4|Curtobi4]] ([[User talk:Curtobi4|talk]]) 14:00, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_walk_hypothesis [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.202|108.162.241.202]] 16:33, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Should we make a table for each term like there is for other comics? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.232|162.158.63.232]] 18:01, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
:Yes please. Also, the individual jokes could be explained better. For instance, I'm pretty sure "lumbar support" is there as a joke on the word "spline" looking & sounding a lot like "spine". I'm 90% certain it's a pun, but that's not mentioned yet.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 19:30, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

XKCD lessons with Randall: Today I learned that the word "Allegro" actually has a meaning, and isn't just a random website name. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.160|162.158.92.160]] 19:27, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

The fundamental problem is that price movements are NOT a random walk. It is safe to assume that people who know a market well will study it, and make purchases/sells based on the underlying market drivers. And in doing so, they will leave "tells" in the pricing data. It becomes possible to look at markets, and see what the people in-the-know are doing, and follow along after them. That is the fundamental basis of technical analysis, and it works -- it works unbelievably well.

If there is a problem, it is that computers can do this pattern recognition so fast that there is longer any room for people to do this.

In other words, computerized arbitrage has gotten so good that people need not apply, and a few high-end groups with high speed electronic trading can get in before any person can.

[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 00:31, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Talk:1765: Baby Post

2018-11-27T00:27:35Z

Keybounce: Stewy

Somebody doesn't know young children very well. Or the amount of time they spend watching old movies. I know a couple of four year olds who might just do this after catching a rerun of one of the Pink Panther movies. Get away with it, though, is something entirely different.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:35, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Check the header, new shirts! [[User:Jacky720|Jacky720]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]]) 15:01, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

If the cell phone or tablet is set to remember passwords, it's not impossible to a children to buy a ticket to london or even call an uber. [[User:Wrojr|Wrojr]] ([[User talk:Wrojr|talk]]) 15:24, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

This cartoon would be funnier if it didn't imply there were years (or decades) between the first and last frames. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 21:35, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
:It doesn't, what makes you say that? [[User:Jacky720|Jacky720]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]]) 21:47, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

;Wrong use of plurals?

Shouldn't this be Crown Jewels Rooms? Beside which, how can one jewel be in more than one room? [[User:Bitsofstring|Bitsofstring]] ([[User talk:Bitsofstring|talk]]) 15:54, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure that Ponytail just doesn't care about pluralizing in this informal context. [[User:Jacky720|Jacky720]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]]) 16:05, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
I'm not sure if there's anything wrong with saying "crown jewel rooms". As an analogy, if you had several rooms for your trophies, you'd say "these are my trophy rooms" (ie. my rooms for trophies) even though, presumably, you have more than one trophy. The only part that makes me a bit hesitant is that they are called the "crown jewels". But "crown jewels rooms" sounds really awkward to me. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.248}}

There is also the puzzle of using blueprints to describe a room's security plan. But it might just be simplified to put into a strip. 18:15, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Feels like the baby might be related to {{w|Stewie Griffin|Stewie}} from Family Guy... --[[User:IByte|IByte]] ([[User talk:IByte|talk]]) 10:00, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Is Fhfff''m supposed to be something? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.142|162.158.69.142]] 14:29, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Does anybody else think that "FHFF,,,M,,,," is supposed to be some sort of code? Like his daughter was sending a secret message as part of the heist or something? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.67|108.162.216.67]] 23:16, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

"The Wheels on the Bus" song was also used as a plot line in the TV series Eureka in connection with nuclear escalation/mutually assured destruction. http://eureka.wikia.com/wiki/The_Wheels_on_the_Bus And don't evil geniuses usually have some earth-destroying plan in mind? cavac [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.15|162.158.92.15]] 12:27, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

Clearly, Stewy is planning something, and only Brian knows the truth. [[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 00:27, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2058: Rock Wall

2018-10-16T05:27:41Z

Keybounce: /* Third Doctor */ new section

There doesn't seem to be a link from the previous (#2057/Internal Monologues) comic to this one yet. I tried in another browser just in case my cache was messing up. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:21, 12 October 2018 (UTC)
:Thanks for your note. It's maybe the proxy in the background so I will wait a little bit for further actions. Nonetheless this shouldn't happen and I will figure out the reason. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:58, 12 October 2018 (UTC)
::The link is now shown and this means the problem is definitely caused by the proxy cache. If this happens again on Monday the BOT will handle this in the future. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:54, 12 October 2018 (UTC)
:::The link showed up when I [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2057:_Internal_Monologues&action=purge purged it] and completely forgot to comment here (sorry). So that might give a good hint for why it was happening. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 18:15, 12 October 2018 (UTC)
::::Thanks, that's exactly what the BOT will do at the than former latest comic if really needed. This expires all caches, hopefully. But the BOT action is only a workaround I don't like. It did work in the past when the site template provided a new link and it should do so now without a BOT. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:41, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

I am not a mantle geologist, but I've always thought that if the core of Mars has really cooled & solidified, blasting the whole surface off could let us get at that sweet nickel-iron core. I mean it's a giant wad of semi-refined metals with some rock caked on top of it, right? If there's no magma to deal with, we could actually get at the good stuff much more easily. Mine Mars' core!
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:20, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

:That would make terraforming Mars lot harder. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:11, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

Wouldn't the part of astronomy which studies black holes be even more frustrating? Also, peeling away the event horizon, even locally, might destroy whole universe ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:11, 12 October 2018 (UTC)
:I think, perhaps, that theology might top even that. Perhaps a really enterprising (hah!) astronomer could find a way to the other side of the event horizon (though transmitting her findings back might be hard) and perhaps someday the Kola Superdeep Borehole project will be, ah, re-opened. But getting anything truly verifiable back from beyond the dead is probably ... a bit out of reach. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.12|162.158.186.12]] 02:03, 14 October 2018 (UTC)
::Good point, theology is even more hard to reach AND likely more dangerous when peeling away ... (note: for why peeling away the event horizon from singularity might be possible, just not good idea, see {{w|Naked singularity}}) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:02, 16 October 2018 (UTC)

Something Weird Would Happen - may refer to this expedition to find out what weird thing happens at mantle exposure. https://www.livescience.com/1317-mission-study-earth-gaping-open-wound.html -- FT [[User:FreeTim|FreeTim]] ([[User talk:FreeTim|talk]]) 09:01, 14 October 2018 (UTC)

== Third Doctor ==

Anybody remember the Dr. who episode where the third doctor had to deal with people trying to break through the crust on an alternate Earth?

Talk:2043: Boathouses and Houseboats

2018-09-07T16:34:57Z

Keybounce: Forgot to sign

The state of California already believes that a house held by a car is a housecar:
:Vehicle Code - VEH
:DIVISION 1. WORDS AND PHRASES DEFINED [100 - 681] ( Division 1 enacted by Stats. 1959, Ch. 3. )
:362.
:A “house car” is a motor vehicle originally designed, or permanently altered, and equipped for human habitation, or to which a camper has been permanently attached. A motor vehicle to which a camper has been temporarily attached is not a house car except that, for the purposes of Division 11 (commencing with Section 21000) and Division 12 (commencing with Section 24000), a motor vehicle equipped with a camper having an axle that is designed to support a portion of the weight of the camper unit shall be considered a three-axle house car regardless of the method of attachment or manner of registration. A house car shall not be deemed to be a motortruck.[http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=362.]
Bonus: "motortruck" does indeed refer to a truck that holds a motor.
[[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 15:57, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

Randall did just correct the comic. The first version said "this [row] held by this [column]", which would have meant, that e.g. a towtruck is a car held by a car, which is just wrong. It has just be updated to the correct "a this [column] that holds a this [row]". I do not know how to change that here. Should be mentioned in Trivia [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 16:11, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

== Boat boat ==

Shouldn't a boat that holds another boat be some sort of either carrier, or at-sea repair dock?

Sort of like a mothership, or a drydock?
Or an oil rig (technically considered a ship by international law), etc?

For that matter, how about the distinction between a boat and a ship?
[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 16:34, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2043: Boathouses and Houseboats

2018-09-07T16:34:31Z

Keybounce: /* Boat boat */ new section

Talk:1975: Right Click

2018-04-02T19:48:06Z

Keybounce: /* Bing image search */ new section

I created this page manually. DgbrtBOT fail?

Also, notably, while the comic at xkcd.com works as intended (even from Chrome on Android, to a certain degree), the mobile site, m.xkcd.com, does not. It shows the standard system/browser-specific context menu. --[[User:Videblu|Videblu]] ([[User talk:Videblu|talk]]) 00:28, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:The BOT didn't fail, the comic just wasn't released on Mon, Wen, or Fri. And in the past there was no comic on 1. April when it didn't fit into that rule. And the release was LATE; it was already the 2. April in Europe.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 09:45, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:The mobile version at m.xkcd.com works fine in Android. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 10:56, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
::Untrue; going to m.xkcd.com on my Android devices brings up a '''non-interactive''' version of the comic, whereas going to xkcd.com (without setting the browser to present a Desktop client type) works fine. Viewing https://xkcd.com/1975 on mobile works fine for me; viewing https://m.xkcd.com/1975 does not work properly. I'm on Kit-Kat & Marshmallow, using the standard browsers; you? [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:04, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:::You are right. I don't remember what I've tested before. It cannot work because the embedded [https://m.xkcd.com/1975/alto/comic.js JavaScript file] doesn't exist. Maybe this will be fixed in the future. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:46, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

How are we going to handle submenus submenus and subitems etc? (Also Captcha outdated! Update immediately!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.34|162.158.238.34]] 01:46, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:Um, I don't see a reCapatcha. Just saying...[[User:Fmccarthy|Fmccarthy]] ([[User talk:Fmccarthy|talk]]) 04:17, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
::There is one when saving edits. I'm assuming this is the one they mean. Also, aside from a table with way too many columns I don't really know. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.215|162.158.79.215]] 04:21, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Oh my gosh this is incredible. The Games section, especially, is mind boggling. Entropy! [[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 00:30, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Whoever owns this site update ReCaptcha! [[User:Sizzilingbird|Sizzilingbird]] ([[User talk:Sizzilingbird|talk]]) 00:40, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

WOO!!! [https://uni.xkcd.com/ Unicode XKCD]!!! [[User:Phoenix Up|Phoenix Up]] ([[User talk:Phoenix Up|talk]]) 00:44, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Its not fair! I am reading this on a school chromebook, so I can't experience the full comic. Tea killed my last windows laptop...[[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 11:38, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

This (uni.xkcd.com) is not new, I remember using this months (perhaps years) ago :P [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 02:44, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Is there a second for easter eggs in there? Fork bombs ( :(){ :|: &};: ) work, I'm not sure what else. [[User:Waterlubber|Waterlubber]] ([[User talk:Waterlubber|talk]]) 02:52, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Sorry if this is already well known, but there are a couple unlisted commands, e.g. you can delete things individually using rm -rf. It looks like auto-completion and * don't work. [[User:Power Factor|Power Factor]] ([[User talk:Power Factor|talk]]) 03:27, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Reluctant to call it an Easter Egg, but Utilities / Identify Song / Hey Now / Hey now na now / Sing "This Corrosion" to me inverts the colours on the comic/background [[User:Maslink|Maslink]] ([[User talk:Maslink|talk]]) 02:02, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

: He missed a chance for a Rick Roll there (For all we know there may be a Rick Roll in here) [[User:Phoenix Up|Phoenix Up]] ([[User talk:Phoenix Up|talk]]) 02:36, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

SPOILER:

I managed to save the image by playing ADVENT.exe, has anyone else found other ways? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.172|162.158.75.172]] 00:54, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

'''COMIC MAY BE UNDER CONSTRUCTION''' I think one of the menu options change since the comic was first posted. Randall may still be changing things. --[[User:Videblu|Videblu]] ([[User talk:Videblu|talk]]) 01:15, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
: Actually it's that once you do some things others "unlock". For instance, accessing File > Open > A:\ > Insert > Floppy disk, and then File > Open > A:\ you get the Games, Music, and the really cool Bookmarks catalog of comics. Also, as said above, completing the game ADVENT.exe lets you go to save:
{{Collapse top|title=Egg spoiler: Text adventure route}}
* Games
* ADVENT.EXE
* Castle
* Well
* Pull up the bucket
* Examine bucket
* Get key
* Back
* Back to the castle
* Open door
* Get clamp
* This might come in handy
* Get outta here
* Enter castle
* Examine machine
* Hmmm
* Put clamp in C-Remover
* Take lamp
* Leave
* Go back
* Cave
* Go deeper
* N
* E
* N
* N
* N
* W
* S
* W
* Examine nest
* Take egg
* ''Click''
Now you can save [https://i.imgur.com/X4LX3w9.png the image]! :)
{{Collapse bottom}}
: I made it hidden so that anyone who wants to explore on their own may still... [[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 02:01, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:How did you solve the maze? Is there a clue anywhere or just brute force?{{unsigned ip|141.101.98.196}}
::When at the Well, maybe try wishing for wisdom[[User:Steampunkery|Steampunkery]] ([[User talk:Steampunkery|talk]]) 19:44, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:: The Help menu changed after I refreshed the page (that is what I see at first glance), other things may have changed as well. [[User:Phoenix Up|Phoenix Up]] ([[User talk:Phoenix Up|talk]]) 02:29, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
::: Ah - I don't recall it being different, but I may have missed an earlier version. Anyway here is another way to make the image available:
: C-remover is a reference to the interactive fiction "[http://emshort.com/counterfeit_monkey/ Counterfeit Monkey]". (Adding it for future restructure) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.142|162.158.134.142]] 08:00, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:: I claimed earlier that it was a Counterfeit Monkey reference on the Reddit thread, but someone who worked on the comic pointed out on [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501/status/980703946971860993 Twitter] that it is actually a reference to "Leather Goddesses of Phobos", though Counterfeit Monkey also uses that mechanic. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.52|172.69.90.52]] 16:23, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
{{Collapse top|title=Egg spoiler: London Underground route}}.
* Games
* Mornington Crescent
* Euston
* Warren Street
* Goodge Street
* Tottenham Court Road
* Leicester Square
* Charing Cross
* Embankment
* Westminster
* St James's Park
* Victoria
* Pimlico
* Vauxhall
* Easter basket
* Take egg (''Click'')
Though in reality it may be [https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Mornington+Crescent,+London+NW1+2JA,+United+Kingdom/Vauxhall,+London,+UK/@51.5103249,-0.1720918,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761b2037dd36b9:0x11812a2d5cfb2ea3!2m2!1d-0.1388607!2d51.5343884!1m5!1m1!1s0x487604ec2b79a13d:0xdfa3f51e98dee89c!2m2!1d-0.1227798!2d51.4861366!3e1 faster to bike]?
{{Collapse bottom}}
:::This is really fun! (and there's [https://xkcd.com/1975/kat-bun-small.png this]) --[[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 02:43, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

I followed the "Land of 1000 dances" "na-na"s over 1000 times and didn't hit an end. It may be infinite. [[User:Jedi.jesse|Jedi.jesse]] ([[User talk:Jedi.jesse|talk]]) 02:45, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Doing System > / > home/ > guest (''click'') takes you to [https://uni.xkcd.com/ uni.xkcd.com] which it pretty neat. [[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 02:53, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

List of D&D spells can be ported into explanation from [https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/88vwoe/xkcds_latest_comic_has_a_dd_easter_egg/ here].
And [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/88v6if/xkcd_1975_right_click/dwnp4ml/ here] is a path through Mornington Crescent to an easter egg.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.142|162.158.134.142]] 07:52, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game) Mornington Crescent is a joke nonsensical game from an old British radio show. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.142}}

;Land of 1,000 Dances
This goes on forever. Or at least well over 1000 levels: [Media:https://i.imgur.com/iiHDE3e.png number of popups checked with jQuery]--[[User:MikeOShay|MikeOShay]] ([[User talk:MikeOShay|talk]]) 04:21, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

;Transscript
Is the transscript really unfinished? It transcribes the entirety of the comic image itself, and the menu part is in explanations. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.142|162.158.238.142]] 05:36, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

;Release date
This comic was probably released on April 2, 00:00 UTC. But of course it was still April 1 in the US. I don't really care, but the release date here is probably wrong.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:31, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

;More discussions
No effect for iOS. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.138.88|162.158.138.88]] 05:37, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

If you quickly right click on the comic after refreshing the page, it is possible to save the comic. Unfortunately there is no easter egg for doing so. [[User:Baquea|Baquea]] ([[User talk:Baquea|talk]]) 12:26, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Katamari in the music bit is a reference to [https://youtu.be/iMH49ieL4es?t=48s this song] --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.137|141.101.99.137]] 13:31, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

spell list (half of it, i didnt test spells with material components): --norill
{{Collapse top|title=Spellbook}}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!V !! S !! M !! L !! School !! Spell !! Class !! Result
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Illusion || Blur || Wizard || Causes the screen/comic to appear blurry
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Illusion || Blur || Sorcerer || Causes the screen/comic to appear blurry
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Divination || Contact Other Plane || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Divination || Contact Other Plane || Warlock
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Divination || Hunter's Mark || Ranger
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Necromancy || Blindness/Deafness || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Necromancy || Blindness/Deafness || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Necromancy || Blindness/Deafness || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Necromancy || Blindness/Deafness || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Enchantment || Power Word Kill || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Enchantment || Power Word Kill || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Enchantment || Power Word Kill || Warlock
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Enchantment || Power Word Kill || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Enchantment || Power Word Stun || Wizard || Links to https://what-if.xkcd.com/156/
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Enchantment || Power Word Stun || Sorcerer || Links to https://what-if.xkcd.com/156/
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Enchantment || Power Word Stun || Warlock || Links to https://what-if.xkcd.com/156/
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Enchantment || Power Word Stun || Bard || Links to https://what-if.xkcd.com/156/
|-
|V || - || - || 6 || Enchantment || Irresistible Dance || Wizard || Links to https://xkcd.com/878/
|-
|V || - || - || 6 || Enchantment || Irresistible Dance || Bard || Links to https://xkcd.com/878/
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Enchantment || Geas || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Enchantment || Geas || Paladin
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Enchantment || Geas || Druid
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Enchantment || Geas || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Enchantment || Geas || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Enchantment || Command || Paladin
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Enchantment || Command || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 0 || Enchantment || Vicious Mockery || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Transmutation || Time Stop || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Transmutation || Time Stop || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Transmutation || Glibness || Warlock
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Transmutation || Glibness || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Transmutation || Knock || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Transmutation || Knock || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Transmutation || Knock || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 0 || Transmutation || Thaumaturgy || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Conjuration || Wish || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Conjuration || Wish || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 6 || Conjuration || Word of Recall || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 4 || Conjuration || Dimension Door || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 4 || Conjuration || Dimension Door || Warlock
|-
|V || - || - || 4 || Conjuration || Dimension Door || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 4 || Conjuration || Dimension Door || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 4 || Conjuration || Guardian of Faith || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Conjuration || Misty Steep || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Conjuration || Misty Steep || Warlock
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Conjuration || Misty Steep || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 7 || Evocation || Divine Word || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 3 || Evocation || Mass Healing Word || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Evocation || Prayer of Healing || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Evocation || Branding Smite || Paladin
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Evocation || Healing Word || Druid
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Evocation || Healing Word || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Evocation || Healing Word || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Evocation || Faerie Fire || Druid
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Evocation || Faerie Fire || Bard
|-
|- || S || - || 5 || Illusion || Mislead || Wizard
|-
|- || S || - || 5 || Illusion || Mislead || Bard
|-
|- || S || - || 0 || Divination || True Strike || Wizard
|-
|- || S || - || 0 || Divination || True Strike || Warlock
|-
|- || S || - || 0 || Divination || True Strike || Sorcerer
|-
|- || S || - || 0 || Divination || True Strike || Bard
|-
|- || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Counterspell || Wizard
|-
|- || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Counterspell || Warlock
|-
|- || S || - || 8 || Conjuration || Demiplane || Wizard
|-
|- || S || - || 8 || Conjuration || Demiplane || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Illusion || Weird || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Illusion || Mirage Arcane || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Illusion || Mirage Arcane || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Illusion || Mirage Arcane || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Illusion || Seeming || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Illusion || Seeming || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Illusion || Seeming || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Illusion || Greater Invisibility || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Illusion || Greater Invisibility || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Illusion || Greater Invisibility || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Illusion || Phantasmal Killer || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Illusion || Phantom Steed || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Mirror Image || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Mirror Image || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Mirror Image || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Silence || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Silence || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Silence || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Illusion || Disguise Self || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Illusion || Disguise Self || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Illusion || Disguise Self || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Divination || Commune with Nature || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Divination || Commune with Nature || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Divination || Find Traps || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Divination || Find Traps || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Divination || Find Traps || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Speak with Animals || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Speak with Animals || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Speak with Animals || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Evil and Good || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Evil and Good || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Divination || Guidance || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Divination || Guidance || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Necromancy || Finger of Death || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Necromancy || Finger of Death || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Necromancy || Finger of Death || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Necromancy || Eyebite || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Necromancy || Eyebite || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Necromancy || Eyebite || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Necromancy || Eyebite || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Necromancy || Harm || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Necromancy || Contagion || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Necromancy || Contagion || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Necromancy || Blight || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Necromancy || Blight || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Necromancy || Blight || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Necromancy || Blight || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Necromancy || Vampiric Touch || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Necromancy || Vampiric Touch || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Necromancy || Bestow Curse || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Necromancy || Bestow Curse || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Necromancy || Bestow Curse || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Necromancy || Ray of Enfeeblement || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Necromancy || Ray of Enfeeblement || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Necromancy || Inflict Wounds || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Necromancy || Chill Touch || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Necromancy || Chill Touch || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Necromancy || Chill Touch || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Enchantment || Dominate Monster || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Enchantment || Dominate Monster || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Enchantment || Dominate Monster || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Enchantment || Dominate Monster || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Enchantment || Dominate Person || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Enchantment || Dominate Person || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Enchantment || Dominate Person || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Enchantment || Modify Memory || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Enchantment || Modify Memory || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Enchantment || Dominate Beast || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Enchantment || Dominate Beast || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Enchantment || Compulsion || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Enthrall || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Enthrall || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Zone of Truth || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Zone of Truth || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Zone of Truth || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Calm Emotions || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Calm Emotions || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Charm Person || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Charm Person || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Charm Person || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Charm Person || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Charm Person || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Heroism || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Heroism || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Transmutation || Animal Shapes || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Transmutation || Etherealness || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Transmutation || Etherealness || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Transmutation || Etherealness || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Transmutation || Etherealness || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Transmutation || Etherealness || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Transmutation || Telekinesis || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Transmutation || Telekinesis || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Transmutation || Animate Objects || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Transmutation || Animate Objects || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Transmutation || Animate Objects || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Transmutation || Fabricate || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Transmutation || Giant Insect || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Blink || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Blink || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Plant Growth || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Plant Growth || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Plant Growth || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Speak with Plants || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Speak with Plants || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Speak with Plants || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Meld into Stone || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Meld into Stone || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Transmutation || Alter Self || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Transmutation || Alter Self || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Transmutation || Magic Weapon || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Expeditious Retreat || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Expeditious Retreat || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Expeditious Retreat || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Purify Food and Drink || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Purify Food and Drink || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Purify Food and Drink || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Transmutation || Prestidigitation || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Transmutation || Prestidigitation || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Transmutation || Prestidigitation || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Transmutation || Prestidigitation || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Transmutation || Druidcraft || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Abjuration || Prismatic Wall || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Abjuration || Mind Blank || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Abjuration || Mind Blank || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Abjuration || Death Ward || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Abjuration || Death Ward || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Protection from Energy || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Protection from Energy || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Protection from Energy || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Protection from Energy || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Remove Curse || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Remove Curse || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Remove Curse || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Remove Curse || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Beacon of Hope || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Lesser Restoration || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Lesser Restoration || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Lesser Restoration || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Lesser Restoration || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Lesser Restoration || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Protection from Poison || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Protection from Poison || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Protection from Poison || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Protection from Poison || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Abjuration || Shield || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Abjuration || Shield || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Conjuration || Storm of Vegance || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Conjuration || Maze || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Conjuration || Incendiary Cloud || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Conjuration || Incendiary Cloud || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Conjuration || Conjure Celestial || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Conjuration || Transport via Plants || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Conjuration || Planar Ally || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Conjuration || Cloudkill || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Conjuration || Cloudkill || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Conjuration || Tree Stride || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Conjuration || Tree Stride || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Conjuration || Conjure Animals || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Conjuration || Conjure Animals || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Conjuration || Create Food and Water || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Conjuration || Create Food and Water || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Conjuration || Call Lightning || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Conjuration || Find Steed || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Conjuration || Fog Cloud || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Conjuration || Fog Cloud || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Conjuration || Fog Cloud || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Conjuration || Fog Cloud || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Conjuration || Entangle || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Acid Splash || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Acid Splash || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Poison Spray || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Poison Spray || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Poison Spray || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Poison Spray || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Mage Hand || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Mage Hand || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Mage Hand || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Mage Hand || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Produce Flame || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Evocation || Meteor Swarm || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Evocation || Meteor Swarm || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Evocation || Mass Heal || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Evocation || Prismatic Spray || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Evocation || Prismatic Spray || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Evocation || Fire Storm || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Evocation || Fire Storm || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Evocation || Fire Storm || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Evocation || Heal || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Evocation || Heal || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Evocation || Blade Barrier || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Evocation || Mass Cure Wounds || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Evocation || Mass Cure Wounds || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Evocation || Mass Cure Wounds || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Evocation || Daylight || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Evocation || Daylight || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Evocation || Daylight || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Evocation || Daylight || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Evocation || Scorching Ray || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Evocation || Scorching Ray || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Evocation || Spiritual Weapon || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Burning Hands || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Burning Hands || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Magic Missle || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Magic Missle || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Thunderwave || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Thunderwave || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Thunderwave || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Thunderwave || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Hellish Rebuke || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Cure Wounds || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Cure Wounds || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Cure Wounds || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Cure Wounds || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Cure Wounds || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Divine Favor || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Guiding Bolt || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Fire Bolt || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Fire Bolt || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Ray of Frost || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Ray of Frost || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Shocking Gasp || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Shocking Gasp || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Eldritch Blast || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Sacred Flame || Cleric
|-
|}
{{Collapse bottom}} {{unsigned ip|172.68.110.52}}

'''Recursive package managers''' are perfectly sane if the two package managers use different repositories, for example apt install python3-pip. The true hilarity arrives if you install a package manager for the sole purpose of installing another, or if they use the same repositories. But that's not unheard of either: apt install npm && npm install yarn -78.68.24.134 but your site thinks I'm [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.130|162.158.134.130]] 16:42, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

== Bing image search ==

Surprisingly, when you are playing 20 questions and get into the section with the animals, all of the image requests go to Bing.

I'm curious if anyone will look at the traffic of Bing and compare the normal traffic with the traffic from this comic. I want to see just how much of a spike Bing image search gets from this.

And by the way, "Bing" is actually a red underlined misspelling according to Firefox.
[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 19:48, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1959: The Simpsons

2018-03-05T03:14:11Z

Keybounce: Ash isn't the only Pokémon character not to age

Provided an explanation, feels short but I really cant think of any more to say! :) As a Simpsons fan / Harry Potter fan / night owl who's reading this "fresh off the presses", as it were, I felt obligated, LOL! I can't think of any reason / explanation why Bart being born the same year as Harry Potter means he'd automatically be in the HP universe, or automatically magical and accepted to Hogwarts (especially seeing as, as an American, presumably he'd go to some American magic school instead). Going to workup the transcript now. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:49, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

Provided the transcript. Even figured out how to do the gray text, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 07:25, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

The U.S.A school is [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_in_Harry_Potter#Ilvermorny Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry]. [[User:Andcoz|Andcoz]] ([[User talk:Andcoz|talk]]) 08:09, 23 February 2018 (UTC)
: Ah, yes, thank you. I knew there must be something, though I figured on several, scattered over the continent, not just one. The only extra material I've seen (i.e. beyond the original 7 books and original 8 movies) are the two little Comic Relief books, nothing really from Pottermore. Cursed Child and the Fantastic Beasts movie are still on my to-do list. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:42, 27 February 2018 (UTC)

The modern seasons have 22 episodes, they're currently in season 29. The episodes are usually longer than 20 minutes. That means that there about 9 days of Simpsons so far, little enough to not completely disprove the timeline. If just two episodes on average depict one day, it's reasonable that the characters stay the same age, they would just have an extremely busy year. Yes, many episodes depict multiple days, but nobody said that one episode has to start after the previous one ended. And the other ones could fit more into one day. So Randall's spell theory could be right, but doesn't have to. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:22, 23 February 2018 (UTC)
:except that the timing of the setting changes. For example: In the early episodes there wasn't any modern technologies, later episodes focus on wether or not Bart is old enough to have a simple cell phone, in more recent ones he has a smartphone and it is no big deal. Other example: Real people making appereance in the series reflect the age of the real people. Not only age, but also job, etc. E.g. in many episodes you can see who is US-President. [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 19:08, 25 February 2018 (UTC)
:: And except they experience seasons and holidays (most notably Hallowe'en and Christmas) :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:42, 27 February 2018 (UTC)

Kinda funny he posted this in the wake of the whole Ted Cruz saying all the Simpsons except Lisa are Republicans. -[[User:Sensorfire|Sensorfire]] ([[User talk:Sensorfire|talk]]) 14:11, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

It doesn't actually make me feel that old because I remember the Simpsons on the Tracey Ullman Show, which ended in 1990. (And I cannot believe that Tracey Ullman isn't mentioned already.) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.70|198.41.238.70]] 00:10, 24 February 2018 (UTC)

Not related to the Simpsons or Harry Potter, but what the Simpsons underwent was Comic Book Time where the characters, even after a span of years, they will always be as the same age as where they started from. Comics like Foxtrot and Garfield are the best examples of that, since they are still the same age where they debuted from.Boeing-787lover 04:13, 24 February 2018 (UTC)
: Actually, between comic strips and cartoons, the ONLY exception I can think of, where characters actually age, is the Canadian comic For Better Or Worse, which focuses on parenting, and over the decades the 2 kids from the early strips slowly turned into adults by the end (including a third kid being born during the strip becoming a teenager by the end). Helps that the whole family - except the baby born - were based on the author's real-life family. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:42, 27 February 2018 (UTC)

Pretty sure the transcript is done already, can someone's check? It looks ok to me but I'm not sure if it's finished. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 10:45, 24 February 2018 (UTC)

I'm 85% sure this is a reference to Simpson's Paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox, which is unrelated to the Simpsons family. The way the table was constructed and highlighted is a giveaway. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.120|162.158.90.120]] 12:54, 24 February 2018 (UTC)

The hover over text is also similar to various theories about why Ash in Pokemon does not age. The theory is typically Ash stays 10 years old because in the first episode he sees Ho-Oh who magically blessed him with eternal happiness and not aging.
: But that doesn't explain all the other characters. Team rocket is the same age. Etc. [[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 03:14, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1845: State Word Map

2017-08-04T16:12:21Z

Keybounce: Reference to directory porn.

New Hampshire and Maine are merged together? Significance? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 04:19, 2 June 2017 (UTC)
: That's weird, because there're definitely 50 words. Am I overlooking something... [[User:PvOberstein|PvOberstein]] ([[User talk:PvOberstein|talk]]) 04:22, 2 June 2017 (UTC)
:: Well, there are two words assigned to the merged state. It's just that the political boundary line is missing. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 04:26, 2 June 2017 (UTC)
::: Oh, duh. [[User:PvOberstein|PvOberstein]] ([[User talk:PvOberstein|talk]]) 04:54, 2 June 2017 (UTC)
::::Added trivia about Randall's error. Wonder if he will spot it and correct it later?--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:10, 2 June 2017 (UTC)
:::::The picture update here doesn't show any difference and the original picture still lacks the border line. So I've changed the trivia according to this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:24, 4 June 2017 (UTC)
::::::Now the border line has been added. But the original picture here on explain xkcd also has the line. This is really weird. Anyone who has the original picture without the border line? Else we should remove the trivia, as there is no proof... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:18, 6 June 2017 (UTC)
:::::::The original both picture uploads never had that border. You must mix something up. I've done a new upload right now, but you have to wait maybe a few hours until this damn cloud server cache will show this. BTW: Please avoid double nested lists in the trivia section. That's a bad style ;)...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:53, 6 June 2017 (UTC)

"The comic continues to make fun of Florida in the title text by saying that Florida searches for sex porn instead of porn, when porn is already about sex." [https://www.reddit.com/r/EarthPorn/ But is it really, though?] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.59|108.162.212.59]] 05:40, 2 June 2017 (UTC)
: Exactly - since terms like "food porn", "bacon porn" and "space porn" have started to gain popularity, the Florida approach makes more and more sense. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.66|162.158.90.66]] 07:55, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
:: Besides, we know from another XCKD that abusing link() with a modified kernel is yet another form of porn :-) --[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 16:12, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

The <nowiki>Insert non-formatted text here</nowiki>misspelling map reference is clear, but the first thing I thought of was all the conclusions in the recently published book [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AFXZ2F4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_qqqmzbRKZY0X0 Everybody Lies] about people's real opinions and desires drawn from Google data. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.107|108.162.246.107]] 06:27, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

The word "porn" has become slightly more generic than that in informal speech. See eg. Scenery Porn on TVTropes. So, searching for "sex porn" is probably mostly redundant, but not necessarily completely so. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.148|162.158.92.148]] 13:16, 2 June 2017 (UTC)
:Alas, "porn" is rather entrenched as meaning sexual, so "sex porn" is indeed pretty completely redundant. And there's enough of it that a search is unlikely to have a generic use appear in the first several pages of results, making specificity unnecessary. It's widely understood that a qualifier is required when using it generically, such as a Subreddit I know of called EarthPorn (which features beautiful landscape pictures). - NiceGuy1[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 04:28, 8 June 2017 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:28, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

As a non-native speaker and also someone who failed statistics: how is distinctive e.g. with the syphilis thing different from most? should this be explained more? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.160|162.158.202.160]]

"Distinctive" would indicate that it makes the state stand out from the others. If the most common cause of death in Louisiana were also one of the top 5 in most of the other states, then it would not really be distinctive in that it doesn't make Lousiana stand out from the others. If you took the list of most frequent causes of death for each state, and then removed all the causes that appeared in the "Top 10" of the other states, then the top entry for each state might (or might not) make it distinctive - for example, "eaten by an alligator". A more precise way of determining "distinctive" would be to calculate the mean and standard deviation of death rate for each cause of death across all states, and then calculate how many standard deviations each state's mean is from the national mean. The state cause that deviates the most from the national mean would be considered "distinctive" in that is an outlier in the national distribution.

Not sure if important enough to be included in official explanation, but a couple days before this comic, a map showing the most misspelled words in every state was making the rounds on Facebook, etc. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/what-are-most-misspelled-words-every-state-n766361 the color scheme is pretty similar, too [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.135|162.158.74.135]] 17:03, 2 June 2017 (UTC)katherine

I thought an aspect of the Florida joke was a callback to the Google misspelled words map, which also featured a single state (Wisconsin) labeled with the state name instead of a word.
:It's just subtle enough that it might be. I think, though, that if it were an intended joke "Florida" would have been misspelled. [[User:OldCorps|OldCorps]] ([[User talk:OldCorps|talk]]) 14:58, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
:From the timing reported here, and the similarities (including pairing words with states) I'd say this comic is flat out a direct reference to the Google Trends map, blatantly making fun of it as a whole. I could see "Florida" landing in Florida being part of that. Oh, and according to the link provided above, "Wisconsin" wasn't an accidental label, it's actually their most misspelled word! - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 04:21, 8 June 2017 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:28, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

Talk:979: Wisdom of the Ancients

2017-08-04T08:34:27Z

Keybounce: I read more of that html source ...

"There was uh, a thing called a segfault that made my computer like, all blurry and stuff." '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:58, 2 February 2013 (UTC)

That was one reason why [http://stackoverflow.com/ StackOverflow] came to life: main authors fed up with (mis)using forums for query & answer site --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 23:03, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

Just two googling steps brought me here:
http://www.mirrorsoferis.com/forum/thread05232003a.html
Relevant for "Trivia"? Even the year fits! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.230.89|108.162.230.89]] 11:28, 12 September 2014 (UTC)
:From the HTML source:
::<tt>
::
::
::</tt>
:Cute theory, though. -[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.126|108.162.254.126]] 12:23, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
::Even better, looking at other stuff in that source:
:: <td><input class="button" value="Log in" tabindex="104" title="Enter your username and password in the boxes provided to login, spin round three times, vomit, click your heels together and TA-DA!" accesskey="s" type="submit"></td>
:: Will this actually enter properly, or will those formatted tags not be input scrubbed? Tables ... [[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 08:34, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

The link above seems to be dead now. DNS failed. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.15|162.158.167.15]] 09:03, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
: Working now --[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 08:34, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

2nd paragraph of the explanation is nonsense! A forum post is nothing like a FAQ entry. The problem didn't get solved and was probably put away and forgotten. Happens all the time. {{unsigned ip|162.158.83.144}}

"The title text is a suggestion to forums to be aware of the fact that people are likely going to come across such posts in the future" My pet peeve is when I Google an error and get led to a post like in the comic, and one of the last comments is a person necro-bumping with new information on the same issue, but then a moderator locks the post because its X years old and needs to be left alone. This is the fucking Internet; data doesn't rot. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.83|108.162.212.83]] 13:52, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

Talk:981: Porn Folder

2017-08-04T07:39:58Z

Keybounce: Formatting

Its not difficult to do that. {{unsigned ip|200.196.51.166}}

What?
Apply subjective motivations to subjects?

It may easy but you would soon learn not to.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 12:19, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

Xcopy would be a killer. [[User:Jakee308|Jakee308]] ([[User talk:Jakee308|talk]]) 10:59, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

----

I did this. Way, way back, in version 7 (I said way, way back), the convention of directory entries "." and ".." was only a convention, not enforced. It was possible, and I did, make a directory where ".." did NOT go to the parent directory, but went to a hidden directory. Only I could find the files there.

This ended when system 3's fsck found that directory, and put it in lost+found.

--[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 07:38, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

Talk:981: Porn Folder

2017-08-04T07:38:55Z

Keybounce: I did this. For real.

Its not difficult to do that. {{unsigned ip|200.196.51.166}}

What?
Apply subjective motivations to subjects?

It may easy but you would soon learn not to.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 12:19, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

Xcopy would be a killer. [[User:Jakee308|Jakee308]] ([[User talk:Jakee308|talk]]) 10:59, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

----

I did this. Way, way back, in version 7 (I said way, way back), the convention of directory entries "." and ".." was only a convention, not enforced. It was possible, and I did, make a directory where ".." did NOT go to the parent directory, but went to a hidden directory. Only I could find the files there.
This ended when system 3's fsck found that directory, and put it in lost+found.
--[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 07:38, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

1301: File Extensions

2017-06-09T05:25:23Z

Keybounce: A silly tautalogy of justified accuracy. :-)

{{comic
| number = 1301
| date = December 9, 2013
| title = File Extensions
| image = file_extensions.png
| titletext = I have never been lied to by data in a .txt file which has been hand-aligned.
}}

==Explanation==
Computer file names often end in {{w|file extension}}s like ".ppt" or ".exe". These extensions are a holdover from early operating systems like {{W|DOS}} in which filenames had a maximum eight characters followed by a period and the three-character extension. The extension was used by the operating system to determine filetype so that the system would know how to handle the file (e.g. which program could open the file). Newer operating systems and file systems now accept longer-than eight-character filenames, and extensions of greater than three characters; although most extensions remain three characters.

Most extensions are created as proprietary to certain pieces of software, although software by other developers may later be designed to be able to read the format. For example, .doc is a Microsoft Word document, although because of that software's popularity, many word processors include the ability to open .doc files. Some common file extensions are not proprietary to a piece of software and may be handled by various programs; .jpg or .gif images are examples. In either case, a file's extension is generally a good indicator of what type of data the file contains.

Certain file types are more prevalent for certain uses, with some being almost exclusive to one use, while other are in general use and might contain almost anything. Here, [[Randall]] presents a series of file extensions which often contain information, and he is rating the reliability of the information they generally contain from most reliable to least.

*{{w|.tex}} files are source files for the programs {{w|TeX}} and {{w|LaTeX}}, which are used often and almost exclusively by academics, especially in mathematics and the hard sciences. .tex pretty much means serious business, and Randall does not anticipate that anyone would use such a format other than for reliable information.
*{{w|.pdf}} files are a document format by Adobe, frequently used for publication. Companies use them for official documentation. Thus, a .pdf file is likely to be some type of final product or polished work. Further, .tex files are generally compiled into .pdf files in order to make them readable. It would be strange to trust a .tex file without trusting the .pdf to which it compiles. For example, when submitting to academic journals in math and the hard sciences, the journal accepts the .tex file, but then compiles it and publishes the resulting .pdf.
*{{w|.csv}} are comma-separated values: tables of information delimited by commas, and often consist of computer-generated raw data (from, say, a scientific experiment or a database).
*{{w|.txt}} files contain only plain text, no "rich text" or anything fancy. Programmers often use them for README files.
*{{w|.svg}} files are a (scalable) vector graphics format used a lot for diagrams, such as on Wikipedia.
*{{w|.xls}} and {{w|.xlsx}} files are spreadsheets used and created by the program Microsoft Excel, part of a bundle of applications known as Microsoft Office (also supported by compatible free software such as LibreOffice). These applications are very commonly used, especially for business, finance and data analysis tasks. {{w|.xls}} is a binary format used for Excel versions up to 2003, while {{w|.xlsx}} is a ZIPped XML-based format used for Excel versions 2007 and later.
*{{w|.doc}} files are a rich-text document format used and created by the program {{w|Microsoft Word}}, another application in the Microsoft Office bundle. As with .xls, almost anyone with access to Microsoft Office could easily make one of these. While Excel is generally used for creating tables and presenting data, Word could be used for any text-based document. Thus, Word documents tend to be far more prevalent and casually created than Excel documents, which is presumably why Randall doesn't trust them as much.
*{{w|.png}} files are a bitmap image format designed for the Internet. They enjoy wide popularity for providing crisp, full-color images with lossless (reversible) compression. Almost all xkcd comics, this diagram included, use PNG. But since he rates the format so low, is Randall saying we shouldn't trust this chart?
*{{w|.ppt}} files are used and created by the program {{w|Microsoft PowerPoint}}; as with the other two Office applications, almost anyone could easily make one of these. As they are usually used for presentations rather than documents, the information in them may be arranged differently, possibly to "dumb down" the content, or in marketing materials or talks in which the author may not be very objective. Further, several years ago, PowerPoint presentations were sometimes included instead of plain images as attachments in e-mail forwards containing inaccurate information. These emails still occasionally circulate, and may be the source of Randall's distrust.
*{{w|.jpg}} files are another image format with high compression capabilities, good for storing photos and not so good for many other things. Photographs in general are prone to image manipulation, hence Randall's low score for this file format.
*{{w|.jpeg}} files are the same thing as .jpg files, but these are more likely to have been created manually rather than automatically, making them even less reliable.
*{{w|.gif}} files are yet another bitmap image format, notable for supporting short animations. GIF was once ''the'' Internet image file format until PNG gradually replaced it. Since GIF is the only common image format capable of animation, it is often used to contain things like silly clips of cats falling into boxes, or annoying, blinking advertisements claiming that you're the '''[[570|100,000,000]]th VISITOR!'''. GIFs are also created by Internet trolls, such as on 4chan.org, to feed misinformation to gullible gamers and computer users. For example, a recent [http://mashable.com/2013/12/09/xbox-one-hoax-4chan-backward-compatible/ Xbox One Hoax GIF] contained supposed instructions for making the Xbox One backwards compatible. The instructions instead make the console inoperable.

Note that while the extensions .xls/.xlsx, .doc, and .ppt were originally exclusive only to Microsoft Office and users of Windows, there now exist a number of open source programs such as Open Office, Libre Office, and some Android apps that are capable of editing such files. These programs can run on systems other than just Windows, such as Linux, perhaps contributing to making them even more widespread and easy to make than before.

The title text refers to how .txt files contain only plain text and nothing else, meaning that any alignment (such as for indentation, tables, or {{w|Justification (typesetting)|justification}}) would have to be performed manually by adding in spaces or tabs. Anyone who would go through such an effort to improve their text's readability is likely to be trustworthy, and almost by definition, the opinion presented would be justified.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the bar chart:]
:Trustworthiness of Information by File Extension

:[A line is going down and from that gray bars is charting the trustworthiness in a bar graph that goes both left and right of the line. No units or figures are given. For ease of comprehension this transcript will arbitrarily designate the highest score as [+100]; subsequent scores are estimates based on the size of their bars.]
:[+100]: .tex
:[+89]: .pdf
:[+85]: .csv
:[+67]: .txt
:[+65]: .svg
:[+49]: .xls/.xlsx
:[+21]: .doc
:[+15]: .png
:[+14]: .ppt
:[+3]: .jpg
:[-8]: .jpeg
:[-36]: .gif

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Bar chart]]

1795: All You Can Eat

2017-02-06T17:29:34Z

Keybounce: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1795
| date = February 6, 2017
| title = All You Can Eat
| image = all_you_can_eat.png
| titletext = After my absent-mindedness resulted in a bad posterboard-related stomachache, I learned to do the sign-making place last.
}}

==Explanation==
An all-you-can-eat buffet is when a restaurant will charge you once for entry and then continuously serve you more food at no additional cost until you have eaten all-you-can-eat. Part of the "[[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]]" series, this comic shows [[Randall]] wishes to append "all-you-can-eat" to random stores. These stores do not sell food, so the very idea of eating their product would be ridiculous. However, this is what Randall's stunt makes the stores he defaces seem to advertise. Most people would not seriously consider eating the products these stores sell even with the signs suggesting they should, as it is just a monumentally stupid idea.

In the title text, Randall seems to have fallen for his own prank. After he puts the "all-you-can-eat" sign onto the signmakers' shop, he proceeds to heed his own sign literally and eat the plasterboards that he is supposed to make signs from. To remind himself not to make the same mistake again, he tells himself to "do the sign-making place last".

Note that some "pets" are considered food in some cultures; "dog" is a food item in some areas, and "cat" is a food to some fictional characters. Even more normally, a cat owner that wants to buy an "all you can eat" bird feast for their cat would be happy with this last store.

==Transcript==
:[The panel shows the facades of four shops appended with white signs. The white signs partially cover the names of the stores, with the possible exception of the third store.]
:[Shop number 1:]
:(Sign obscured by the white sign, intermediate letters not visible): A...k
:White sign: All-you-can-eat
:Store sign: discount tires
:[Shop number 2:]
:White sign: All-you-can-eat
:Store sign: hair salon
:[Shop number 3:]
:White sign: All-you-can-eat
:Store sign: lumber and flooring depot
:[Shop number 4:]
:White sign: All-you-can-eat
:(Sign obscured by the white sign): Kevin's
:Store sign: pet store
:[Caption below the frame:]
:My hobby: Going out at night and adding "all-you-can-eat" to every store's sign
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:My Hobby]]

Talk:1794: Fire

2017-02-03T18:44:03Z

Keybounce: Just being a silly one-liner

This is probably the first time I have ZERO idea what the comic is supposed to mean... --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.88|141.101.96.88]] 17:02, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Seems to be a reference to the way fire departments measure fire intensity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-alarm_fire
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.161|108.162.212.161]] 17:12, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

The joke being that because its an alarm factory its 50,000 alarms, the amount of physical alarms on site, as opposed to the alarm rating given by the fire commander [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.70|162.158.142.70]] 17:14, 3 February 2017 (UTC) MrMX

Not sure the alarms have to be functioning or "set off" to be relevant, they could just be alarms, in whatever state, that are on fire. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.76|172.68.54.76]] 17:24, 3 February 2017 (UTC)Fred

"We didn't start the fire" :-) [[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 18:44, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1744: Metabolism

2016-10-21T21:15:46Z

Keybounce: A gene controls insulin response to blood sugar.

I think the comics explanation should include dieticians.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.49.12|162.158.49.12]] 14:58, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

A reference on the topic of metabolic energy balance and common beliefs surrounding it: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/95/4/989.full [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.149|162.158.34.149]] 17:47, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

If it was White Hat saying this, I'd expect him to be literally able to eat whatever he wants, even items that are not normally edible. It is not, however (which is strange, because, even aside from that alternate interpretation, it sounds a lot like his style). --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.36|172.68.11.36]] 02:56, 11 October 2016 (UTC)
: I'd say in that case it had to be Beret Guy instead of White Hat. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:31, 11 October 2016 (UTC)
:: I agree - not sure why I mistook one for the other. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.39|172.68.11.39]] 12:11, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

I have one of those metabolisms where if I eat more than what I need, I sweat a lot during the night and I never fatten. I'm always underweight. é_è [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] ([[User talk:Seipas|talk]]) 09:07, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

The explaination is mistaken. It is indeed possible to eat and not gain weight, and well document and most parts of it understood by medicine. Excess energy is only stored as fat if the body is stressed, you can piss out the sugar or the intestines can absorb less. The problem with the idea is that is hard to impossible to correct what your body does in this regard which makes is a red herring for the already overweight. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.87.11|162.158.87.11]] 16:45, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

:It's even worse: if you try some diet to reduce weight and you start feeling hungry due to this diet, your body will interpret it as signal that it needs to work harder to preserve and/or obtain energy. When you stop the diet, you will then gain even more weight, which is also known as {{w|Yo-yo effect}}. Overweight people who already tried multiple diets, some of them based on bad ideas, will typically get more fat from the same food than people who never cared. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:37, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

[https://xkcd.com/1475/ Technically], Cueball says he can eat "'whatever I want," which would imply he could eat traditionally non-edible items. I don't think this is actually intended based on context, but... {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.154}}
:Mentioned already in my comment above (and the discussion after it). It would probably have been intended if that was Beret Guy, but that's not Beret Guy. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.36|172.68.11.36]] 20:48, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

It may be coincidence but this comic was published the day before the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) Jewish fast. There was a reference to the Jewish calendar a few comics ago. {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.123}}

This is stated too strongly. Most of our energy consumed goes toward our basal metabolic rate, which does seem to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate#Causes_of_individual_differences_in_BMR vary among individuals]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.134|108.162.215.134]] 19:22, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

You can think about this topic as much as you want. The final answer is sports. Always. Beautiful women do sports. REAL men do sports. It's all so simple. {{unsigned ip|162.158.83.144}}

There actually is a gene that controls insulin response to blood sugar, and it comes in two allies, one for low, and one for high. These mix, giving low, medium, medium, high.

It turns out that "low" corresponds to people that have trouble putting on fat, "high" corresponds to insulin resistance diabetes, and "medium" corresponds to most people who wind up overweight / needing to exercise.

[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 21:15, 21 October 2016 (UTC)