2882: Net Rotations

2024-01-18T04:17:44Z

OGWick: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2882
| date = January 17, 2024
| title = Net Rotations
| image = net_rotations_2x.png
| imagesize = 318x477px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = For decades I've been working off the accumulated rotation from one long afternoon on a merry-go-round when I was eight.
}}

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

This comic may refer to a thing that some people with {{w|OCD}} do, which is to spin around to get rid of "net rotations," hence the title of this comic. [[Cueball]] (perhaps representing [[Randall]]?) takes this one step beyond the typical person with OCD - he calculates the net rotations each day and spins around at the end of the day to cancel this out.

A mobile device with position/orientation sensing would be able to keep track of one's net rotations, eliminating the need for calculations. One would need only to do one's spinning while monitoring the device to see when it returned to zero.

The caption at the bottom of the comic suggests that it is another one of Randall’s [[Category:Tips]] and says that it is healthy and necessary/highly recommended to do this. However, most people don’t, and most people are still ok. In fact, xkcd's own characters are perfectly ok with [[162: Angular Momentum|accumulating net rotations]] and [[2679: Quantified Self|similar topological excesses]].

Unlikely but could also be influenced by a 1966 novel, The Revolving Boy by Gertrude Friedberg, if Randall has read it, whose protagonist suffered from being out of true depending on the number of turns he was forced to make in his everyday life. No spoiler as to why that was important to the plot.

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

:[Cueball is standing on one leg in front of a whiteboard with his arms crossed, thinking to himself. There are circular curves around Cueball indicating rotary motion. The whiteboard contains two vertical helix-like curves crossing over each other at multiple points and other notes shown as rows of illegible scribbles, the bottom one of which is circled. There is a thought bubble over Cueball.]
:Cueball (thinking): ...and three lefts for going down the stairwell at work, two rights from cloverleaf interchanges, minus one for the Earth's rotation...
:Cueball (thinking): Okay, that's a net of 17 right.

:[Caption below the comic:]
:Spacetime health tip: Remember to cancel out your accumulated turns at the end of each day to avoid worldline torsion.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Tips]]

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2882: Net Rotations