1515: Basketball Earth

2015-04-22T05:32:16Z

Pimellon: spelling!! (guys, use a spell-checker!) and fixed the fourth interruption which had been listed as another third interruption

{{comic
| number = 1515
| date = April 22, 2015
| title = Basketball Earth
| image = basketball earth.png
| titletext = How many points do you get for dunking every basketball in existence at once?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Could definitely use review (or reversion to the first, simpler, explanation) and probably some handy hyperlinking for concepts.}}
It is common to describe the relationship of very large (and very small) objects to common or garden objects on a more human scale. (For small items, it might be something along the lines of if a certain single atom were expanded to the size of a particular sports stadium, such that the electrons would be on the perimeter of the complex, the nucleus is something still surprisingly small, by human standards, upon the centre-spot.) In the case of the Earth-Moon system the comparison can handily be made that for an Earth the size of a basketball, the Moon is about the size of a baseball. This certainly seems to be the comparison that Cueball is repeatedly attempting to make, with two invisibly suspended balls 'representing' each body, but is being interrupted.

In the first interruption, Blackhat touches the 'Earth', generating a megatsunami of epic scale.

In the second interruption, ?Megan? pours water onto the Earthball, seemingly flooding its entire surface.

In the third interruption, a cat attacks the 'Earth' . Probably playfully, but it will have meant forces even greater than Blackhat's digital prodding, and may have even taken the Earth out of its (representative) orbit. One way or another, that will have been (unseen) disasters of far greater proportion.

The fourth interruption involves Ponytail taking the 'basketball' comparison at face value and actually trying to dunk the 'Earth' ''as'' a basketball. This would ''not'' be good for any residents of Earthball who have yet to succumb to the events so far. This simile-callback is continued in the title text with the idea that "every basketball in existence" (i.e. every basketball upon the Earthball, as well as the Earthball itself) is counted towards the score from a single dunking. (Randall may or may not know exactly how many basketballs there are, perhaps through research for some What-If question or other, but almost certainly assumes that there are no basketballs ''not'' on Earthball, even without allowing for recursion. But there might be some question about whether the Earthball's own sub-scale basketballs are within code.)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript| Formatting and description of images}}

:[Cueball is standing next to a basketball-sized Earth with a hand near it.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball is now holding a baseball-sized moon. The basketball-sized Earth is still there. Black hat is in panel.]
:Cueball: The Moon would be -
:Black Hat: Hey, cool!
:[Black Hat is touching the Earth ball.]
:Cueball: Um.
:[Unclear scene, possibly a tsunami caused by Black Hat touching the Earth.]
:AAAAAAAA

:[Back to Cueball standing with the basketball-sized Earth.]
:Cueball: Let's try that again. If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball holding baseball-sized moon, with Megan in frame holding a sports water bottle.]
:Cueball: The Moon would be -
:[Megan squirts the moon with her water bottle and then walks away. The continents have disappeared from the flooded Earth ball.]

:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:Cueball: The Moon- would...
:Cat: MROWL! [Cat jumps at Earth.]
:Cat: RRRRR! [Cat on the ground wrestling with the Earth.]

:[Back to Cueball standing with the basketball-sized Earth.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball with Moon and Earth balls. Ponytail has entered, running.]
:Cueball: The Moon would, uh...
:[Ponytail has grabbed the Earth ball and is holding or dribbling it, still running.]
:[Ponytail reaches a basketball basket and shoots the Earth ball towards it.]

:[Tooltip: how many points do you get for dunking every basketball in existence at once?]

<noinclude>{{comic discussion}}</noinclude>



[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

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1515: Basketball Earth