explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2249: I Love the 20s

2024-10-24T22:48:06Z

LupoCani:

{{comic
| number = 2249
| date = January 1, 2020
| title = I Love the 20s
| image = i love the 20s.png
| titletext = Billboard's "Best of the 80s" chart includes Blondie's 1980 hit "Call Me." QED.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic was released on the first day of the year {{w|2020}}. It was the second of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] around the 2019-2020 New Year, after [[2248: New Year's Eve]].

The comic opens with [[Megan]], [[Cueball]], [[White Hat]], and [[Ponytail]] celebrating the new year. Ponytail expresses relief that, they can now unambiguously name the decade "the 20s", since the decade has a well-defined name, any cultural trends that begin in the 20s can be attributed to the decade itself, and not to the generation that happens to coincide with it.

Prior to 2000, and particularly in the latter half of the 20th century, eras were often defined by decades, such as discussing the social movements of the 60s, or the music of the 80s. Beginning in 2000, this trend was noticeably reduced, most likely because the first two decades of a century didn't fit into the same naming convention, making it clunkier to discuss. "{{w|Aughts}}" and "Teens" were names suggested for the {{w|2000s_(decade)|2000s}} and {{w|2010s}} respectively; however, neither of those names managed to gain widespread acceptance.

In this same era, there was an increased emphasis on generational cohorts, which Ponytail seems to see as a replacement for dividing time into decades. {{w|Millennials}} is a name given to the generation which was born in the 1980s through the mid 1990s. The term is sometimes used pejoratively by older generations who view millennials as immature or complacent, and this was particularly common in the 2010s. It's possible that this focus on the generation was really a substitute for a focus on youth culture of that era. This is particularly notable since, as time moves on, Millenials continue to age, but the older generation still views them as the current youth. This phenomenon was previously discussed in [[1849: Decades]].

White Hat, however, raises a pedantic objection to Ponytail's celebration: he believes that the new decade does not properly start until 2021.

Ponytail corrects him on this, but he refuses to accept the correction until Megan cites an unlikely source: the fact that the {{w|VH1}} television show {{w|I Love the '90s (American TV series)|''I Love the '90s''}} categorized MC Hammer's 1990 single "{{w|U Can't Touch This}}" as a 90s song, which supports Ponytail's definition of a decade. The joke is that a pop culture documentary is not an authoritative source for definitions of time standards,{{Citation needed}} yet everyone is willing to immediately accept its authority on such matters anyway. Demonstrating the common usage of language is a valid argument, but the degree to which the authority of a single cable channel resolves the argument is unexpected.

The disagreement over the definition of when decades start is due to the fact that there is more than one way to count decades. You could do it in one of the following two ways:
*By counting every span of ten years that has occurred since the start of year 1 in the Common Era (White Hat's definition)
*By taking the digit that is common to all years in a given ten-year span (Ponytail's definition)

White Hat's definition is an "ordinal" method since it functions by counting the number of ten-year spans ''since the first one'', which is defined to have begun in the year 1. However, Ponytail's definition is the "cardinal" method, which simply groups years by their common most significant digits. For example, when we say "the 1980s", we mean "the span of ten years that all began with the digits 1-9-8".

Both definitions are internally consistent, but Ponytail's definition is clearly the more common one. She notes that this is not how decades are typically determined, and the fact that counting centuries in an ordinal way does not require that the same be done for decades.

White Hat's objection recalls an issue that was frequently discussed around the year 2000. Like decades, centuries may be counted ordinally ("20th century", "19th century", etc.) or cardinally ("1700s", "1600s", etc.). Unlike decades, the ordinal terms are always used for centuries in most languages, including English (except informally). Thus, much of the world celebrated the year 2000 as the start of the 21st century and of the third millennium, even though this was incorrect.

Megan's exclamation "Stop!" is similar to the line famously used by MC Hammer in "U Can't Touch This" ("Stop! Hammer time.").

Continuing the dubious "proof" offered by Megan, the title text goes on to use the {{w|Billboard (magazine)|Billboard}} [https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-billboards-top-songs-80s Best of the 80s] chart as proof that the 1980s started in 1980, as their chart includes {{w|Blondie (band)|Blondie's}} "{{w|Call Me (Blondie song)|Call Me}}", which was released in 1980. The title text ends with {{w|Q.E.D.|QED}} ("quod erat demonstrandum"), which means "which was [necessary] to be shown", and is traditionally used at the end of a mathematical proof, implicitly equating such pop culture references to unassailable logical evidence.

==Transcript==
:[Megan walks in from the left greeting Cueball, White Hat, and Ponytail standing next to each other, the last two looking in her direction.]
:Megan: Happy new decade!
:Ponytail: Welcome to the '20s!
:White Hat: '''''Actually—'''''
:Ponytail: I'm excited we can name decades again.
:Ponytail: "Aughts" and "teens" never caught on.

:[Megan stops next to Cueball as White Hat has his finger raised.]
:White Hat: Actually, the new decade doesn't start-
:Ponytail: Mostly, I'm just glad we can go back to attributing cultural trends to decades instead of generations.

:[All four just stand normal.]
:Cueball: Yeah.
:Cueball: Decades were silly, but making everything about "millennials" turned out to be even worse.
:Ponytail: Seriously.

:[Only White Hat and Ponytail are shown, both with their arms held out to the sides, with White Hats's arms more relaxed than Ponytail's.]
:White Hat: It's technically not a new decade until 2021.
:Ponytail: OK, listen.
:Ponytail: If you're going to be pedantic, you should at least be right.
:White Hat: I '''''am''''' right!
:Ponytail: You're '''''not'''''.

:[Zoom in on White Hat and Ponytail's upper bodies as they gesture towards each other both raising their hands, palm up. Megan interrupts them from off-panel, as made clear in the next panel. Her voice comes out of a starburst on the left panel frame.]
:White Hat: See, the 20th century didn't start until--
:Ponytail: But decades aren't centuries. They're not cardinally numbered.
:White Hat: You don't get it. Let me draw a--
:Ponytail: No, '''''you''''' don't--
:Megan (off-panel): Stop!

:[All four characters are displayed again. Megan has raised a finger and all the others look at her.]
:Megan: I can resolve this.
:Megan: *Ahem*
:Megan: MC Hammer's ''U Can't Touch This'' (1990) was featured in '''''I Love the '90s''''', not ''''' '80s'''''.
:Ponytail: ...That settles that.
:White Hat: Yeah, I accept VH1's authority.
:White Hat: You win.

==Trivia==
* Millennials were also mentioned in [[1962: Generations]] and in [[2165: Millennials]]. Also, [[Randall]] himself is a millennial.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Pedantic]]

2249: I Love the 20s

2024-08-13T17:54:48Z

LupoCani: Reword treatment of "21th century"/"2000s" distinction as a property of specific languages.

{{comic
| number = 2249
| date = January 1, 2020
| title = I Love the 20s
| image = i love the 20s.png
| titletext = Billboard's "Best of the 80s" chart includes Blondie's 1980 hit "Call Me." QED.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic was released on the first day of the year {{w|2020}}. It was the second of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] around the 2019-2020 New Year, after [[2248: New Year's Eve]].

The comic opens with [[Megan]], [[Cueball]], [[White Hat]], and [[Ponytail]] celebrating the new year. Ponytail expresses relief that, they can now unambiguously name the decade "the 20s", since the decade has a well-defined name, any cultural trends that begin in the 20s can be attributed to the decade itself, and not to the generation that happens to coincide with it.

Prior to 2000, and particularly in the latter half of the 20th century, eras were often defined by decades, such as discussing the social movements of the 60s, or the music of the 80s. Beginning in 2000, this trend was noticeably reduced, most likely because the first two decades of a century didn't fit into the same naming convention, making it clunkier to discuss. "{{w|Aughts}}" and "Teens" were names suggested for the {{w|2000s_(decade)|2000s}} and {{w|2010s}} respectively; however, neither of those names managed to gain widespread acceptance.

In this same era, there was an increased emphasis on generational cohorts, which Ponytail seems to see as a replacement for dividing time into decades. {{w|Millennials}} is a name given to the generation which was born in the 1980s through the mid 1990s. The term is sometimes used pejoratively by older generations who view millennials as immature or complacent, and this was particularly common in the 2010s. It's possible that this focus on the generation was really a substitute for a focus on youth culture of that era. This is particularly notable since, as time moves on, Millenials continue to age, but the older generation still views them as the current youth. This phenomenon was previously discussed in [[1849: Decades]].

White Hat, however, raises a pedantic objection to Ponytail's celebration: he believes that the new decade does not properly start until 2021.

Ponytail corrects him on this, but he refuses to accept the correction until Megan cites an unlikely source: the fact that the {{w|VH1}} television show {{w|I Love the '90s (American TV series)|''I Love the '90s''}} categorized MC Hammer's 1990 single "{{w|U Can't Touch This}}" as a 90s song, which supports Ponytail's definition of a decade. The joke is that a pop culture documentary is not an authoritative source for definitions of time standards,{{Citation needed}} yet everyone is willing to immediately accept its authority on such matters anyway. Demonstrating the common usage of language is a valid argument, but the degree to which the authority of a single cable channel resolves the argument is unexpected.

The disagreement over the definition of when decades start is due to the fact that there is more than one way to count decades. You could do it in one of the following two ways:
*By counting every span of ten years that has occurred since the start of year 1 in the Common Era (White Hat's definition)
*By taking the digit that is common to all years in a given ten-year span (Ponytail's definition)

White Hat's definition is an "ordinal" method since it functions by counting the number of ten-year spans ''since the first one'', which is defined to have begun in the year 1. However, Ponytail's definition is the "cardinal" method, which simply groups years by their common most significant digits. For example, when we say "the 1980s", we mean "the span of ten years that all began with the digits 1-9-8".

Both definitions are internally consistent, but Ponytail's definition is clearly the more common one. She notes that this is not how decades are typically determined, and the fact that counting centuries in an ordinal way does not require that the same be done for decades.

White Hat's objection recalls an issue that was frequently discussed around the year 2000. Like decades, centuries may be counted ordinally ("20th century", "19th century", etc.) or cardinally ("1800s", "1700s", etc.). Unlike decades, the ordinal terms are always used (except informally) for centuries in most languages, including English. Thus, much of the world celebrated the year 2000 as the start of the 21st century and of the second millenium, even though this was incorrect.

Megan's exclamation "Stop!" is similar to the line famously used by MC Hammer in "U Can't Touch This" ("Stop! Hammer time.").

Continuing the dubious "proof" offered by Megan, the title text goes on to use the {{w|Billboard (magazine)|Billboard}} [https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-billboards-top-songs-80s Best of the 80s] chart as proof that the 1980s started in 1980, as their chart includes {{w|Blondie (band)|Blondie's}} "{{w|Call Me (Blondie song)|Call Me}}", which was released in 1980. The title text ends with {{w|Q.E.D.|QED}} ("quod erat demonstrandum"), which means "which was [necessary] to be shown", and is traditionally used at the end of a mathematical proof, implicitly equating such pop culture references to unassailable logical evidence.

==Transcript==
:[Megan walks in from the left greeting Cueball, White Hat, and Ponytail standing next to each other, the last two looking in her direction.]
:Megan: Happy new decade!
:Ponytail: Welcome to the '20s!
:White Hat: '''''Actually—'''''
:Ponytail: I'm excited we can name decades again.
:Ponytail: "Aughts" and "teens" never caught on.

:[Megan stops next to Cueball as White Hat has his finger raised.]
:White Hat: Actually, the new decade doesn't start-
:Ponytail: Mostly, I'm just glad we can go back to attributing cultural trends to decades instead of generations.

:[All four just stand normal.]
:Cueball: Yeah.
:Cueball: Decades were silly, but making everything about "millennials" turned out to be even worse.
:Ponytail: Seriously.

:[Only White Hat and Ponytail are shown, both with their arms held out to the sides, with White Hats's arms more relaxed than Ponytail's.]
:White Hat: It's technically not a new decade until 2021.
:Ponytail: OK, listen.
:Ponytail: If you're going to be pedantic, you should at least be right.
:White Hat: I '''''am''''' right!
:Ponytail: You're '''''not'''''.

:[Zoom in on White Hat and Ponytail's upper bodies as they gesture towards each other both raising their hands, palm up. Megan interrupts them from off-panel, as made clear in the next panel. Her voice comes out of a starburst on the left panel frame.]
:White Hat: See, the 20th century didn't start until--
:Ponytail: But decades aren't centuries. They're not cardinally numbered.
:White Hat: You don't get it. Let me draw a--
:Ponytail: No, '''''you''''' don't--
:Megan (off-panel): Stop!

:[All four characters are displayed again. Megan has raised a finger and all the others look at her.]
:Megan: I can resolve this.
:Megan: *Ahem*
:Megan: MC Hammer's ''U Can't Touch This'' (1990) was featured in '''''I Love the '90s''''', not ''''' '80s'''''.
:Ponytail: ...That settles that.
:White Hat: Yeah, I accept VH1's authority.
:White Hat: You win.

==Trivia==
* Millennials were also mentioned in [[1962: Generations]] and in [[2165: Millennials]]. Also, [[Randall]] himself is a millennial.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Pedantic]]

2249: I Love the 20s

2024-08-13T17:32:08Z

LupoCani: Minor wording changes

{{comic
| number = 2249
| date = January 1, 2020
| title = I Love the 20s
| image = i love the 20s.png
| titletext = Billboard's "Best of the 80s" chart includes Blondie's 1980 hit "Call Me." QED.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic was released on the first day of the year {{w|2020}}. It was the second of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] around the 2019-2020 New Year, after [[2248: New Year's Eve]].

The comic opens with [[Megan]], [[Cueball]], [[White Hat]], and [[Ponytail]] celebrating the new year. Ponytail expresses relief that, they can now unambiguously name the decade "the 20s", since the decade has a well-defined name, any cultural trends that begin in the 20s can be attributed to the decade itself, and not to the generation that happens to coincide with it.

Prior to 2000, and particularly in the latter half of the 20th century, eras were often defined by decades, such as discussing the social movements of the 60s, or the music of the 80s. Beginning in 2000, this trend was noticeably reduced, most likely because the first two decades of a century didn't fit into the same naming convention, making it clunkier to discuss. "{{w|Aughts}}" and "Teens" were names suggested for the {{w|2000s_(decade)|2000s}} and {{w|2010s}} respectively; however, neither of those names managed to gain widespread acceptance.

In this same era, there was an increased emphasis on generational cohorts, which Ponytail seems to see as a replacement for dividing time into decades. {{w|Millennials}} is a name given to the generation which was born in the 1980s through the mid 1990s. The term is sometimes used pejoratively by older generations who view millennials as immature or complacent, and this was particularly common in the 2010s. It's possible that this focus on the generation was really a substitute for a focus on youth culture of that era. This is particularly notable since, as time moves on, Millenials continue to age, but the older generation still views them as the current youth. This phenomenon was previously discussed in [[1849: Decades]].

White Hat, however, raises a pedantic objection to Ponytail's celebration: he believes that the new decade does not properly start until 2021.

Ponytail corrects him on this, but he refuses to accept the correction until Megan cites an unlikely source: the fact that the {{w|VH1}} television show {{w|I Love the '90s (American TV series)|''I Love the '90s''}} categorized MC Hammer's 1990 single "{{w|U Can't Touch This}}" as a 90s song, which supports Ponytail's definition of a decade. The joke is that a pop culture documentary is not an authoritative source for definitions of time standards,{{Citation needed}} yet everyone is willing to immediately accept its authority on such matters anyway. Demonstrating the common usage of language is a valid argument, but the degree to which the authority of a single cable channel resolves the argument is unexpected.

The disagreement over the definition of when decades start is due to the fact that there is more than one way to count decades. You could do it in one of the following two ways:
*By counting every span of ten years that has occurred since the start of year 1 in the Common Era (White Hat's definition)
*By taking the digit that is common to all years in a given ten-year span (Ponytail's definition)

White Hat's definition is an "ordinal" method since it functions by counting the number of ten-year spans ''since the first one'', which is defined to have begun in the year 1. However, Ponytail's definition is the "cardinal" method, which simply groups years by their common most significant digits. For example, when we say "the 1980s", we mean "the span of ten years that all began with the digits 1-9-8".

Both definitions are internally consistent, but Ponytail's definition is clearly the more common one. She notes that this is not how decades are typically determined, and the fact that counting centuries in an ordinal way does not require that the same be done for decades.

White Hat's objection recalls an issue that was frequently discussed around the year 2000. Because we ''do'' count centuries ordinally (eg. "1st century", "20th century", etc.), and the first century began on the year 1, the 21st century did not technically start until 2001. Much of the world, not understanding this (or not caring), celebrated the dawning of the year 2000 as the start of both a new century and a new millennium, ignoring those who point out the change wouldn't happen for another year. (Though it should be noted unlike decades this is a genuine mistake rather than two slightly different definitions.) The 2020s may partially or fully overlap with the 203rd decade. This is not a term anyone uses.

Megan's exclamation "Stop!" is similar to the line famously used by MC Hammer in "U Can't Touch This" ("Stop! Hammer time.").

Continuing the dubious "proof" offered by Megan, the title text goes on to use the {{w|Billboard (magazine)|Billboard}} [https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-billboards-top-songs-80s Best of the 80s] chart as proof that the 1980s started in 1980, as their chart includes {{w|Blondie (band)|Blondie's}} "{{w|Call Me (Blondie song)|Call Me}}", which was released in 1980. The title text ends with {{w|Q.E.D.|QED}} ("quod erat demonstrandum"), which means "which was [necessary] to be shown", and is traditionally used at the end of a mathematical proof, implicitly equating such pop culture references to unassailable logical evidence.

==Transcript==
:[Megan walks in from the left greeting Cueball, White Hat, and Ponytail standing next to each other, the last two looking in her direction.]
:Megan: Happy new decade!
:Ponytail: Welcome to the '20s!
:White Hat: '''''Actually—'''''
:Ponytail: I'm excited we can name decades again.
:Ponytail: "Aughts" and "teens" never caught on.

:[Megan stops next to Cueball as White Hat has his finger raised.]
:White Hat: Actually, the new decade doesn't start-
:Ponytail: Mostly, I'm just glad we can go back to attributing cultural trends to decades instead of generations.

:[All four just stand normal.]
:Cueball: Yeah.
:Cueball: Decades were silly, but making everything about "millennials" turned out to be even worse.
:Ponytail: Seriously.

:[Only White Hat and Ponytail are shown, both with their arms held out to the sides, with White Hats's arms more relaxed than Ponytail's.]
:White Hat: It's technically not a new decade until 2021.
:Ponytail: OK, listen.
:Ponytail: If you're going to be pedantic, you should at least be right.
:White Hat: I '''''am''''' right!
:Ponytail: You're '''''not'''''.

:[Zoom in on White Hat and Ponytail's upper bodies as they gesture towards each other both raising their hands, palm up. Megan interrupts them from off-panel, as made clear in the next panel. Her voice comes out of a starburst on the left panel frame.]
:White Hat: See, the 20th century didn't start until--
:Ponytail: But decades aren't centuries. They're not cardinally numbered.
:White Hat: You don't get it. Let me draw a--
:Ponytail: No, '''''you''''' don't--
:Megan (off-panel): Stop!

:[All four characters are displayed again. Megan has raised a finger and all the others look at her.]
:Megan: I can resolve this.
:Megan: *Ahem*
:Megan: MC Hammer's ''U Can't Touch This'' (1990) was featured in '''''I Love the '90s''''', not ''''' '80s'''''.
:Ponytail: ...That settles that.
:White Hat: Yeah, I accept VH1's authority.
:White Hat: You win.

==Trivia==
* Millennials were also mentioned in [[1962: Generations]] and in [[2165: Millennials]]. Also, [[Randall]] himself is a millennial.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Pedantic]]

1643: Degrees

2018-11-15T14:15:53Z

LupoCani: Generally speaking, the role of the wiki appears to be to explain and provide context, not to tell jokes of its own.

{{comic
| number = 1643
| date = February 15, 2016
| title = Degrees
| image = degrees.png
| titletext = "Radians Fahrenheit or radians Celsius?" "Uh, sorry, gotta go!"
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is being asked by a friend for the {{w|temperature}}. While he is checking his smartphone for the weather, he begins pondering what unit he should use when answering the question. (See below for [[#Cueball's reasoning|Cueball's reasoning]].)

In the US (where Cueball and [[Randall]] are from), the {{w|Conversion of units of temperature|temperature scale}} used in daily life is {{w|Fahrenheit}}. However, most of the rest of the world uses {{w|Celsius}} in daily life, and even in the US it is commonly used for science. This is also why Randall has previously made the comic [[526: Converting to Metric]]. There are also people who wish the US to change to the metric system, although some of them still wish to keep the Fahrenheit scale as mentioned in [[1982: Evangelism]]

:'''The Celsius scale''' is from the {{w|metric system}}. Though this system has been officially sanctioned for use in the US since 1866, it is not frequently used in daily American life (except for some things, like liter bottles of soda), although it is the preferred system for trade and commerce according to the {{w|Metric Conversion Act}} of 1975. The US remains the only industrialized country, and one of few countries period, that has not adopted the metric system as its official system of measurement. The unit ''degree Celsius'' or °C is an accepted {{w|International System of Units#Derived units|derived unit}} from the {{w|International System of Units}} (SI units) used in science (which again is the modern form of the metric system). The SI unit of temperature is the {{w|kelvin}}, but this temperature scale is linearly related to the Celsius scale, which is why Celsius can be derived from it.
:'''The Fahrenheit scale''' is from the {{w|United States customary units|US customary system}} and the (British) {{w|Imperial units|imperial system}}. The unit is ''degree Fahrenheit'' or °F, and the relation to the Celsius scale is not easy to find in a mental calculation. The relations are: [°F] = [°C]×9⁄5 + 32 or [°C] = ([°F] − 32)×5⁄9. (For this exact reason Randall has previously made a helpful table for these situations in [[526: Converting to Metric]].)

Unlike most areas of measurement, where the metric system is widely considered superior, there is considerable debate about the relative merits of Fahrenheit vs. Celsius. Cueball weighs up the benefits of both scales, but fails to find a solution he can live with, and since he feels he has to give his friend an answer now, he panics and gives the answer 0.173 {{w|radians}}.
:'''Radian''' is the standard unit of angular measure, used in many areas of mathematics. An angle's measurement in radians is numerically equal to the length of a corresponding arc of a {{w|unit circle}}. It has no units and is denoted with the superscript c, but more commonly rad, lest it be confused with {{w|Degree (angle)|angular degrees}}. One radian is an angle of approximately 57.3 degrees.
:'''Angular degrees''' is a system used to measure {{w|angles}} in {{w|geometry}}, and although it too uses the symbol ° and the word "degrees", it has nothing to do with temperature measurements of any sort.

Thus, this answer is unhelpful and the joke is that traditionally both geometric angles and temperature are measured in "degrees", but there is no connection between the two.

The title text indicates that Cueball's friend still wants to know whether the answer is in radians Fahrenheit or radians Celsius, which, despite being a silly way to express temperature, would actually enable the friend to get some meaning out of the reply. But this just takes Cueball back to the problem he failed to solve in the first place of choosing one scale in preference to the other, so suddenly he announces has to go and runs off without ever clarifying what he meant. This result is probably because he is afraid of being a bad friend according to his very last point regarding Fahrenheit: ''Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend.''

The answer Cueball gives of 0.173 radians corresponds to a geometric angle 9.91° (0.173 × 360°/2π). If this were "radians Celsius" it would be 9.91 °C corresponding to 49.8 °F and if it were "radians Fahrenheit" it would be 9.91 °F corresponding to -12.3 °C. [http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/02/13/new-england-freezing-temperatures-valentines-day-weekend/ Given the temperatures] in {{w|Massachusetts}} (where Randall lives) when this comic came out, the day after Valentine's Day 2016, Cueball was probably giving his answer in radians Fahrenheit.

=== Cueball's reasoning ===
==== Degrees Celsius ====
;International standard
:Degrees Celsius is derived unit in the SI system of units used to measure temperature in most countries today. Using the SI system would allow Cueball to be easily understood in most countries and is by far the most recognized system, but it is not the most commonly used in the United States, his presumed location in the comic.
;Helps reduce America's weird isolationism
:The United States uses its own set of units, including degrees Fahrenheit, called the {{w|United States customary system}} (similar but not equal to the imperial system), in contrast to most of the rest of the world, which uses the SI system. The US's system of units is therefore considered "weird" as it makes the US different from most of the world, but previous efforts to convert the US to the SI system have failed. Cueball evidently believes that by using SI units, he will help to eventually convert the US to the SI system, bringing considerable trade and tourism benefits and reducing confusion when dealing with foreigners.
;Nice how "negative" means below freezing
:On the Celsius scale, the freezing point of water at standard atmospheric pressure (101.325 kilopascals) is very close to 0 °C, and any temperature below that is below the freezing point. The Fahrenheit scale uses different points of reference (using a water/ammonium chloride chemical reaction for the lower calibration, while the upper calibration is set such that water freezing and water boiling are 180 degrees apart), and as a result the freezing point of water is a less memorable 32 °F.
;Physics major loyalty
:Cueball is apparently a physics major, like Randall, and SI units are more commonly used for scientific work (as the kelvin scale is sometimes used in physics and other sciences), even in the US. By using the Celsius scale in casual conversation, he would show his loyalty to the system used by actual physicists.
;Easier to spell
:"Celsius" is generally considered to be an easier word to spell than the German surname "Fahrenheit" (at least this is the case for Cueball, but not necessarily for those who more commonly use Fahrenheit than Celsius). In this case the word is being spoken and the point is not immediately relevant, but part of the joke is that Cueball is overthinking things and worrying about the general use of the word when an answer is needed in this specific case.
;We lost a Mars probe over this crap
:The {{w|Mars Climate Orbiter|Mars Climate Orbiter}} disintegrated in Mars' atmosphere because Lockheed used US customary units instead of the contractually specified metric units. Note that this had nothing to do with temperature scales, but was the use of the unit pound-seconds where newton-seconds should have been used. This was a great and tragic loss for science in general, Mars exploration in particular, and thus also for Randall who has shown deep interest in any kind of space exploration, especially regarding Mars (mentioning many Mars probes in his comics so far).

====Degrees Fahrenheit====
;0 °F to 100 °F good match for temperature range in which most humans live
:In the context of air temperature, 0 °F and 100 °F correspond to "just about as cold as it gets" and "just about as hot as it gets" in temperate zones, thereby making Fahrenheit a useful temperature scale for weather reporting where most people live. By contrast, in Celsius a range of common temperatures in temperate zones is -20 °C to 40 °C, which is a less intuitive range for those used to the Fahrenheit scale.
;Rounds more usefully (70's, 90's)
:An argument sometimes heard for the continued use of Fahrenheit temperatures is that each 10 degrees change is meaningful in how we feel the temperature. Thus, it is convenient to talk about the temperature being in the 70's today, or in the 90's, etc. Since the Celsius degrees are almost twice as large, a similar statement about the temperature being in the 20's or 30's is not as useful, unless more precision is added by using phrases like low 20's or high 30's. However, this seems likely to be more a matter of which scale you are used to using than anything inherent in one scale or the other.
;Unit-aware computing makes imperial less annoying
:If you need to constantly convert between imperial and SI measurements in your head, or even between different imperial units (e.g., ounces and pounds), it gets annoying and is a strong argument for everyone using metric measurements all the time. But when it is easy to get the temperature - or any other measurement - reported in whatever units you want just by selecting the units you want your computer to report, then the annoyance is minimized, and the arguments for why we should stop using a familiar scale are weakened. Note that Cueball is looking at his smart-phone to get the current temperature.
:As many Americans, Randall is confusing the {{w|United States customary units|United States customary system}} with the {{w|imperial system}} used in most of the rest of the English speaking world. In both systems temperature is measured in degrees Fahrenheit.
;SI prefixes are less relevant for temperatures
:One of the nice things about SI measurements is how the same basic unit scales by factors of 10 with common prefixes - e.g., kilometer, millimeter, kilogram, milligram, etc. Imperial measurements don't have this feature - you don't talk about long distances as kiloinches or small weights as millipounds. But, we generally don't use multiple units for atmospheric temperature (millidegrees or kilodegrees), so this argument for using SI measurements for length, mass, volume, etc., isn't as applicable for temperature scales.
;Fahrenheit is likely more clear in this context
:Cueball apparently knows that the inquirer is most likely to assume the answer will be in degrees Fahrenheit, so giving the answer that way would be the least likely to be misinterpreted. If he surprisingly gives an answer in Celsius, without explicitly stating he is reporting the temperature in Celsius, then that could be confusing.
;Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend
:The final thing Cueball considers is to question why he would give an answer that attaches more value to promoting standardization of units when all his friend wants to know is whether it is cold or warm outside. Wouldn't it be more friendly to just answer the question the way his friend will find most convenient? This is probably the reason he ends up not giving any real answer, as giving the answer in Celsius would make him a bad friend. Giving the answer in panic in radians makes him a weird friend, which might or might not be preferable to being a bad friend.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is looking at his smartphone while a friend calls to him from off-panel. Cueball is thinking as indicated with a thought bubble.]
:Off-screen voice: Hey, what's the temperature outside?
:Cueball (thinking): Should I give it in °F or °C?

:[Zoom in on Cueballs head with a list of reason to use Celsius above him:]
:'''Degrees Celsius'''
:* International standard
:* Helps reduce America's weird isolationism
:* Nice how "negative" means below freezing
:* Physics major loyalty
:* Easier to spell
:* We lost a Mars probe over this crap

:[Same view of Cueballs head, but wider frame to accommodate a broader a list of reason to use Fahrenheit:]
:'''Degrees Fahrenheit'''
:* 0°F to 100°F good match for temperature range in which most humans live
:* Rounds more usefully (70's, 90's)
:* Unit-aware computing makes imperial less annoying
:* SI prefixes are less relevant for temperatures
:* Fahrenheit is likely more clear in this context
:* Valuing unit standardization over being helpful possibly makes me a bad friend

:[Cueball is holding his smartphone down while thinking as indicated with another thought bubble floating at the top. He then speaks and gets a reply from his off-panel friend.]
:Cueball (thinking): Crap, gotta pick something. Uhh...
:Cueball: ...0.173 radians.
:Off-screen voice: I'll just go check myself

==Trivia==
* At -0.698 radians (-40 degrees) it would not have mattered whether it was radians Celsius or radians Fahrenheit as the two scales are equal at this point: -40 °F is the same temperature as -40 °C.

The Fahrenheit/Celcius debate was later referenced in (see [[1923: Felsius]]).

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]