explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3207: Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination

2026-02-14T08:35:09Z

Quantum7: projection axis

First! Can't believe I'm north! [[User:King Pando|King Pando]] ([[User talk:King Pando|talk]]) 03:34, 14 February 2026 (UTC)
:What do you mean that you're north? [[User:This isn't a good name|This isn't a good name]] ([[User talk:This isn't a good name|talk]]) 03:42, 14 February 2026 (UTC)
:You’re north, I’m fourth :) [[User:Logalex8369|Logalex8369]] ([[User talk:Logalex8369|talk]]) 04:53, 14 February 2026 (UTC)
:: Hi fourth! i'm John [[Special:Contributions/45.178.1.151|45.178.1.151]] 05:31, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

I can't figure out what the red arrows are. My best guess is that they indicate the direction that the map was distorted in that area. It would be good if somebody would explain. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 04:07, 14 February 2026 (UTC)
:I think you are right. here's a rough ([https://imgur.com/a/ESLZmYQ map comparison]) [[User:Sameldacamel34|Sameldacamel34]] ([[User talk:Sameldacamel34|talk]]) 05:41, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Wouldn't such a map actually be quite useful to anyone using only a compass to navigate?
[[Special:Contributions/2A06:C701:46AF:2C00:7577:585:1183:EFBD|2A06:C701:46AF:2C00:7577:585:1183:EFBD]] 07:37, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

I'm confused by the cylindrical projection used for this. I would have expected him to use the geomagnetic dipole for the projection axis, but this would put Ellesmere Island at the top of the map, which is clearly incorrect. Instead he seems to have used the geometric axis for the projection (or maybe the axis between magnetic dip poles, which would be similar in 2025?). This joke would have been better 20 years ago when the dip pole was solidly in Canada. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:35, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3186: Truly Universal Outlet

2025-12-28T12:48:55Z

Quantum7: DEMO observation

No comments yet, add the first comment! [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 16:25, 26 December 2025 (UTC)
:You should have mentioned that this is the [[3186:_Truly_Universal_Outlet#Trivia|SECOND YEAR IN A ROW]] without Christmas comics! ;-( --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:17, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

I checked on the info.0.json and there doesn't seem to be a transcript for this one. I don't know whether that's normal, since I understand that most comics have one, but I wrote in a basic transcript. I might have just not looked in the right place. [[User:R128|R128]] ([[User talk:R128|talk]]) 16:58, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

I try not to be nationalistic or jingoistic about anything, but I'm sorry—British plugs are simply the best plugs. Strong, easy to use and safe—fits snugly into the socket, can't expose live or neutral outlets without first connecting to earth, no overly sharp pins. I don't like myself for saying this, but I honestly think the rest of the world would be better off switching to our plugs.[[Special:Contributions/109.149.114.159|109.149.114.159]] 18:00, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

:I'm American, and British plugs and sockets seem huge and clunky to me. I've also heard that (some?) Brits think US plugs are alarmingly flimsy. I'm sure that a big part of the differences of opinion is what we grew up with, and I'd love to hear a physics/engineering/UI/UX-based evaluation of which one is *actually* better. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 19:38, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

:: I am an American (soon to be a Gileadian after we will rename our nation to the Republic of Gilead —— ¡ChrisoFascism sucks!); so now I do not have a dog in this fight, but the [http://wikipedia.org/wiki/europlug | EuroPlug ] looks very space efficient, unlike the bulky American plus & sockets, & the ridiculously enormous UK-plugs.

::I am also an American and I agree with the sentiment that British plugs/sockets seem huge and clunky, but it depends on the plug and socket in the US how flimsy they are. I have found some sockets where plugs will literally fall out of them, and other ones where it is hard to pull them out. But American plugs are dangerous from the lack of protection against contacting power and neutral at the same time while they're live. {{unsigned ip|2601:441:4b7c:7c6a::1009|03:15, 27 December 2025}}

:I've heard this sentiment before, but I have no idea where it comes from. British plugs are ridonkulously huge and not exactly easy to use. From safety perspective, I find it odd only a handful of (European) socket types are recessed. [[Special:Contributions/81.94.52.186|81.94.52.186]] 22:07, 26 December 2025 (UTC)
::British plugs are just the right size for a hand (assuming you don't have ''very'' small hands, when you probably shouldn't be messing about with them) ''and'' the direction the cable emerges is much more convenient (e.g. handy for sockets behind furniture, outlets for worktop equipment in a kitchen or in server racks). At least that's my assesment, having had to use both US and UK systems in all cases. ;) [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208|92.23.2.208]] 22:47, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

: British plugs do not even meet their own design specs. This is why there is an internally different, but externally identical (apart from markings) BS 1363-2 plug for EV charging. This exists because if you draw the continuous rated current from a standard socket it is likely to melt.
: British wiring has many problematic aspects. Ring final circuits, undersized wiring for the protective fuse, too many devices on the same circuit, too few outlets so people stack extenders for the one socket in the room and run extensions cords under the rug, excessively tolerant ground fault detectors. Most of the supposed safety features of British plugs are trying to compensate for other design flaws. Not to mention mechanically identical sockets with different continuous current ratings.[[Special:Contributions/76.180.39.133|76.180.39.133]] 23:20, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Someone will probably address this, but voltage issues aside, I would guess that the USAGE of the various pins across countries is likely different in catastrophic ways. E.g. I imagine that one glob of pins is hot/live in one country but ground/earth in others so that plugging an appliance from different countries into the universal outlet would cause shocks, breaker trips, explosions, etc. I did laugh at the title text - yes, I'm sure building inspectors are constantly encountering this mess. ;) [[Special:Contributions/47.248.235.170|47.248.235.170]] 18:39, 26 December 2025 (UTC)Pat
:Nope. The ground pin is always intentionally made special in all mains plugs existing, and it's basic potty training for electricians to never, ever trust the two others. --[[Special:Contributions/88.65.244.212|88.65.244.212]] 20:24, 26 December 2025 (UTC)
[https://www.internationalconfig.com/catalog_pages/universal_adapter_page.jpg Universal/travel plug adaptors] do kind of look like this. Not quite as universal though. [[Special:Contributions/220.244.124.170|220.244.124.170]] 19:50, 26 December 2025 (UTC)
:https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DAIOqOxI0K_I --[[Special:Contributions/88.65.244.212|88.65.244.212]] 20:24, 26 December 2025 (UTC)
:Some come surprisingly close: https://tessan.com/products/65w-gan-universal-travel-adapter-wta09 https://canyon.eu/product/cns-ta1005w/ https://aluratek.com/products/universal-20w-travel-adapter (not an endorsement - I expect most if not all of these are dangerous) [[Special:Contributions/2600:4041:351:4800:D040:FA1F:BB70:CDED|2600:4041:351:4800:D040:FA1F:BB70:CDED]] 01:26, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

Just for my own amuesment, I [https://filebin.net/ehv155pyjeib5qkk tried to work out what bits were which], green for the pins, red for 'the aditional bits the pins would rattle around in' (the rest left black). ''Really'' not sure I got all the "D E M O" bits right. E, in particular, looks like it has a reverse pin that goes into the plug, but I'm also not as familiar with the old D+M different ampages/sizes (I'll only ever see them in stage-lighting, and I don't plug 'em in or out) as I am with the type-G I normally use. ...but, if anyone wants it, it'll be downloadable for the next seven days. Tidy it up, ''correct it'' as necessary, change the timings (currently 1 second a frame), recolour it (perhaps use different colours for Live, Neutral and (where there is one) Earth), whatever you want. If it's useful. And if that's done by anyone who can upload to this site (or someone does a better version off their own back). [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208|92.23.2.208]] 21:03, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

FWIW, it is notable that this plug is officially not a [[:category:Cursed_Connectors|cursed]] connector. --[[Special:Contributions/2001:A62:572:F601:905B:6D6D:6686:E863|2001:A62:572:F601:905B:6D6D:6686:E863]] 00:14, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

These already exist outside of this comic: https://diyhardware.ph/cdn/shop/files/YAE0838_800x.webp?v=1686379936
[[Special:Contributions/2605:C740:90:F41:842D:1EC2:FEB9:2B80|2605:C740:90:F41:842D:1EC2:FEB9:2B80]] 04:16, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

: You can also [https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_2160,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2Fgrounding640-9ed51722fe5c6fcb6a336b5bbfa005e3.jpg find them on airplanes].
: You can also [https://www.epickatech.com/products/ta-105-universal-travel-adapter buy them for traveling].
: (That travel plug also has "universal" prongs for ''plugging in'' to various different outlets, selected by those sliders on the side.)
: —[[User:Scs|Scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 06:00, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

The comic doesn't actually specify *anything* about the internals of the universal outlet, it just says to cut holes in whatever outlet you have. I find this the funniest part of it.
[[User:Rorrison|Rorrison]] ([[User talk:Rorrison|talk]]) 13:07, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

[[927:_Standards|Oh boy there are 15 different plug types, better create a universal outlet that covers everyone's use cases!]] [[Special:Contributions/2A02:3100:8698:AA00:7DEE:9693:120D:56C|2A02:3100:8698:AA00:7DEE:9693:120D:56C]] 14:58, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

I assumed that DEMO was going to be part of the joke, but apparently those are real standards that include the top hole. It's rather shocking that Randall didn't need to make up a single standard to make this look like a cursed connector. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 12:48, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

File:geometriphylogenetics annotated.png

2024-11-14T13:50:05Z

Quantum7: Quantum7 uploaded a new version of File:geometriphylogenetics annotated.png

== Summary ==
One possible ancestor reconstruction of the tree from [[3010:_Geometriphylogenetics|Geometriphylogenetics]] tree with some annotated mutations.

== Licensing ==
{{XKCD file derived}}

Talk:3010: Geometriphylogenetics

2024-11-14T13:44:38Z

Quantum7: An alternate "missing links" diagram

Does the phrase "maximum likelihood" have any relationship to phylogenetics? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 03:01, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
: {{w|Computational_phylogenetics#Maximum_likelihood|Profoundly so}}. Most contemporary analyses, especially of large datasets, use either maximum-likelihood methodologies or Bayesian inference (q.v.). I will see if I can say something coherent and comprehensible about this in the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.58|172.71.147.58]] 03:30, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
::If it was you who added the explanation for the title text, nicely done! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 05:04, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

"Pointy circle" is, of course, an oxymoron. Randall is also making a joke about how older phylogenetic trees were based on anatomy, like saying that squares and triangles are close because they have exoskeletons with straight lines and joints. Now, the tree is (where possible) based on genetic similarity. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 05:10, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Hippos can't swim? Did the BBC lie to us? https://youtu.be/X20NjqMiQyo?si=8pN-xwgKJEWM08ZF
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.135|172.68.186.135]] 06:18, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
:Fiona the Hippo begs to differ. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-YRJCSZRJU] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:40, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
::Not sure if you're being ironic, but that video shows that Fiona ''can't'' swim. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 17:23, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Why was phylogenetic analysis required to establish this relationship? Reuleaux triangles are an intermediate form, demonstrating a close relation between circles and triangles. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.130.208|172.71.130.208]] 06:24, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

''Obviously'', he's doing phylogenetics wrong: the pentagons (& hexagons, not shown) should also be shown as descending from the circles. Plus, the ovoids (far more than a middle step between lentiform & triangle, truly an extant branch in their own right) are not represented ''at all''. A major oversight, to cut such corners, given the point he's circling about?
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 06:31, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
:There are two competing theories of the origin of circles. They are either very basal polygons (having one side) or very derived (having infinite sides). It's possible that both are true and 'circle' is a polyphyletic group. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 16:19, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
::Circles are priests, obviously. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 23:46, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Someone should add something about how circles and triangles are related through trig in a way that the rest aren't. Sorry I am new to this and don't know how to format my comment correctly.

I'm sure you could develop a 'DNA' sequence for geometric shapes. [Number of active vertices + angle, Number of curves in each side + variation from straight + orientation from centre, thickness of stroke, etc] basically the sort of data in any drawing data of said shape. Thus you could have two circles that look every similar, but one being an extreme Reulaux triangle and the other a 10,000 sided polygon with no side curvature at all! C.f. Swift and swallow! YMMV [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 10:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
: The result would be a taxon x character data matrix, the first step in all forms of phylogenetic analysis. On such a small matrix, you could probably perform maximum parsimony analysis by hand, as Hennig did. However, with such a small number of characters per taxon, taxon resolution would probably be low (lots of polytomies instead of fully resolved dichotomies), and [https://wiki.christophchamp.com/index.php?title=Bootstrapping bootstrap support values] would be horrible. The resulting consensus tree would likely be [ahem] sharply criticized - not least because it would be a "mere" {{w|Analysis_of_similarities|similarity analysis}} and not a true phylogeny (not a reconstruction of descent with modification of progeny). Do not submit such a tree for peer review, and especially do not take it to a meeting of the [https://cladistics.org/ Willi Hennig Society]. You have been warned. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.42.130|162.158.42.130]] 13:56, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

:I’m reminded of the incircle and circumcircle of a triangle. Triangles are the only shape where all polygons of that edge count are guaranteed to have an incircle and a circumcircle (unless, of course, it is degenerate). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.24.5|172.71.24.5]] 13:34, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Sorry, but I don't believe in this "Theory of Polygon Evolution". I believe all abstract polygons were created in their current state by intelligent mathematicians. [[User:Mathmannix|Mathmannix]] ([[User talk:Mathmannix|talk]]) 12:21, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

:Heathen - The One True Creator is Euclid! 😉 [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 12:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Reminds me of pedigree genetic charts as well, anyways you geomreationists are so absurdly wrong it's laughable /j [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.130|108.162.238.130]] 13:24, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

'''Obviously''' both triangles and squares descended from circles. But, while triangles evolved from circles with protrusions that extended into points for improved dynamics, squares evolved from circles that developed flattened sides for more stability. Looking forward at their descendants, we see that both shapes have crab-like descendants. But again, developed from very different mechanisms: The evolved triangles's points split and reformed into the crab claws, while the squares evolved into rectangles which developed concave ends that eventually consolidated into the crab claw shape. [[2314: Carcinization]] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.73|162.158.41.73]] 20:11, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

It also reminds me of the quadrilateral family tree (google it, I guess), which has always bothered me exactly because it shows just how unapplicable phylogenetics is to geometry, or they are just super incestuous in a time-traveling sort of way? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.29|172.70.43.29]] 20:14, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
:Also (re-)interbreeding. c.f. parallelograms that (regularised) become rhombi, but also the "kite" branch can lead, by regularising, to a rhombus. And rhombi descend to the special case of squares, as do special cases of rectangles (differently special cases of parallelograms than rhombi). If anything, the most interesting sub-family of quadrilateral are all the ones that (while not self-intersecting, adding further complications) manage not to be a rhombus, parallelogram ''or'' trapezium. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 23:46, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland Circles are descended from polygons and squares are descended from triangles], at least according to the renowned expert [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Abbott_Abbott Edwin Abbott Abbott]. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.175.23|172.71.175.23]] 21:48, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Exciting new research may have found the universal common ancestor, which is being called a 'point'.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.111|172.70.86.111]] 09:32, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

If anyone would like to peer review me, I've filled in the "missing links" https://jimmysfiles.com/misc/evolution-of-shapes.png {{unsigned ip|172.69.194.78|10:18, 13 November 2024}}
:Nice! I did a very different ancestor reconstruction. Not to take any of this too seriously, but making an ancestor that is intermediate between the descendants (as in your triangle subtree) is rarely parsimonious because it requires mutations on both branches. So I end up with a circle as the root. I do like what you did with the quadrilaterals though, where changing an angle or side length counts as a mutation. Maybe angles are more fundamental in shape DNA than concepts like parallel and symmetric; who knows?
:[[File:geometriphylogenetics_annotated.png]]
: --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 13:44, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

File:geometriphylogenetics annotated.png

2024-11-14T13:34:34Z

Quantum7: One possible ancestor reconstruction of the tree from Geometriphylogenetics tree with some annotated mutations.

== Summary ==
One possible ancestor reconstruction of the tree from [[3010:_Geometriphylogenetics|Geometriphylogenetics]] tree with some annotated mutations.

== Licensing ==
{{XKCD file derived}}

3001: Temperature Scales

2024-10-22T08:01:40Z

Quantum7: /* Explanation */ Add definition of Dalton

{{comic
| number = 3001
| date = October 21, 2024
| title = Temperature Scales
| image = temperature_scales_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x535px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In my new scale, °X, 0 is Earths' record lowest surface temperature, 50 is the global average, and 100 is the record highest, with a linear scale between each point and adjustment every year as needed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an EXPONENTIAL TEMPERATURE SYSTEM. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

There are many different temperature scales. Most of the world uses {{w|Celsius}} for everyday temperature measurements, as it is part of the {{w|metric system}} that has been widely adopted as at least the more officially favored civil measurement. However, the United States and Liberia retain the US customary (or 'imperial') system, where the unit is {{w|Fahrenheit}}. There are also many more temperature scales. Most notable is {{w|Kelvin}}, using the 'separation' of Celsius degrees but rooted upon {{w|absolute zero}} (as {{w|Rankine scale|Rankine}} does with Fahrenheit degrees), which is more directly useful for the purposes of scientific calculation. This comic showcases all these, as well as a lot of mostly unused but still real (except for in the title text) scales.

{| class=wikitable
! scope="col" | Unit
! scope="col" | Water Freezing Point
! scope="col" | Water Boiling Point
! scope="col" | Notes
! scope="col" | Cursedness
! scope="col" | Explanation
|-
| {{w|Celsius}} || 0 || 100 || Used in most of the world || 2/10 || All but a handful of countries use degrees Celsius as their default measurement of temperature, and most of the remainder use Celsius in conjunction with another scale. Celsius is defined (indirectly, these days, by way of comparison to Kelvin) so that the freezing and boiling points of pure water at standard atmospheric pressure are 0 and 100 degrees respectively. This (along with Kelvin) is considered the least cursed temperature system (at least from those where the ranking values make any sense), likely due to Randall's background. Notably it is still considered a 2/10, implying an inherent degree of cursedness for all systems.
|-
| {{w|Kelvin}} || 273.15 || 373.15 || 0K is absolute zero || 2/10 || Kelvin is a scientific unit of measure invented by {{w|Lord Kelvin}} that intends to use the same base metric as degrees Celsius, but zero is set to absolute zero and (by way of using the {{w|Boltzmann constant}}, as of 2019) the melting point of ice (0°C) is considered to be 273.15K. Immediately prior to this, the {{w|Triple point#Triple point of water|triple-point of water}} was precisely 273.16K (and 0.01°C), and the conversion remains commonly considered that ''°C = K – 273.15'', within any useful degree of precision.
|-
| {{w|Fahrenheit}} || 32 || 212 || Outdoors in most places is between 0–100 || 3/10 || Fahrenheit is a system officially used in only 5 countries in the world (Liberia, the USA and its three associated free states in the Pacific), and unofficially in several countries across the globe, mostly those with ties to the UK or the US, alongside Celsius. It was originally defined with 0 degrees as the freezing point of a particular solution of brine (salt water) and 90 degrees being an (inaccurate) guess of standard human body temperature. Despite being in common use in Randall's home country, due to being defined by such arbitrary fixed points (and Randall's scientific education) it is ranked as slightly more cursed than Celsius.
|-
| {{w|Réaumur scale|Réaumur}} || 0 || 80 || Like Celsius, but with 80 instead of 100 || 3/8 || A historical French system used in some places until the early 20th century. In modern times mostly used in cheesemaking. The rating (3/8) is a joke on the boiling point of water in standard atmosphere being 80 instead of 100 as it is in Celsius; converting this to an out-of-ten scale would give 3.75/10, labelling it as more cursed than Fahrenheit but less so than Rømer.
|-
| {{w|Rømer scale|Rømer}} || 7.5 || 60 || Fahrenheit precursor with similarly random design || 4/10 || Created by the Danish astronomer Ole Christensen Rømer in around 1702, while the Fahrenheit scale was proposed in 1724.
|-
| {{w|Rankine scale|Rankine}} || 491.7 || 671.7 || Fahrenheit, but with 0°F set to absolute zero || 6/10 || Randall has shown disdain for this before, like in [[2292: Thermometer]].
|-
| {{w|Newton scale|Newton}} || 0 || 33-ish || Poorly defined, with reference points like "the hottest water you can hold your hand in" || 7-ish/10 || Created by Isaac Newton, measuring "degrees of heat". The rating (7-ish/10) is a joke about the vagueness of the scale's definition.
|-
| {{w|Wedgwood scale|Wedgwood}} || –8 || –6.7 || Intended for comparing the melting points of metals, all of which it was very wrong about || 9/10 || Created by potter Josiah Wedgwood in the 18th century. The measurement was based on the shrinking of clay when heated above red heat, but was found to be very inaccurate. Randall has a typo, as the scale is called Wedgwood (''without the e'').
|-
| Galen || –4? || 4?? || Runs from –4 (cold) to 4 (hot). 0 is "normal"(?) || 4/–4 || Galen, in his medical writings, is said to have proposed a standard "neutral" temperature made up of equal quantities of boiling water and ice; on either side of this temperature were four degrees of heat and four degrees of cold, respectively. The rating (4/–4) is a joke about the scale being defined between positive and negative 4, and could be interpreted as –100% cursedness.
|-
| {{w|Celsius#History|''Real'' Celsius}} || 100 || 0 || In Anders Celsius's original specification, bigger numbers are ''colder''; others later flipped it || 10/0 || As most scales' temperatures can be indefinitely large but there exists an absolute minimum temperature, defining the scale in this way (giving an absolute maximum but allowing indefinitely negative values) is indeed cursed, as nearly all possible temperatures will be negative. The rating (10/0) is a joke on the scale "flipping" the fixed points of modern Celsius. This might be interpreted as "infinitely cursed", or else just {{w|NaN|Not a Number}}.
The original logic was that zero could be easily calibrated to the height of a column of mercury at the temperature of boiling water, and further measurements then made of the amount it ''reduced'' in height under cooler conditions. This direction 'survives' in the historic {{w|Delisle scale}}, which predates (and arguably helped greatly inspire, though with a different factor) the classic version of °C. The version originally used by Anders was only 'corrected' posthumously, but nobody seemed bothered enough to do the same with Delisle's scale.
|-
| [https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/459851/john-daltons-temperature-scale#459863 Dalton] || 0 || 100 || A nonlinear scale; 0°C and 100°C are 0 and 100 Dalton, but 50°C is 53.9 Dalton || 53.9/50 || {{w|John Dalton}} proposed a logarithmic temperature scale. The scale is defined so that absolute zero is at negative infinity, with the exponent chosen to match Celsius at 0 and 100. While Dalton temperature is defined for all positive and negative numbers, the nonlinear scale is difficult to work with since the amount of heat represented by a change of one degree Dalton is not constant. Degrees Dalton differs from Celcius by as much as 3.9 degrees between 0 and 100, but diverges much more for more extreme temperatures.

The rating (53.9/50) is a joke about the unit, as 53.9 Dalton would be 50 degrees Celsius — i.e. the cursedness could be understood as 50/50 (or 10/10, entirely cursed), but perhaps instead as 107.8% (even more than entirely cursed).
|-
| °X ([[Randall]]'s new temperature scale as defined in the title text) || 42 || 154.4 || "In my new scale, °X, 0 is Earths' record lowest surface temperature, 50 is the global average, and 100 is the record highest, with a linear scale between each point and adjustment every year as needed." || ∞ (estimated) || The record lowest surface temperature on Earth as of 2024 is –89.2°C (–128.6°F), recorded at the {{w|Vostok Station|Vostok Research Station}} in Antarctica on July 21, 1983. The average surface temperature is 17.16°C (63°F.)[https://wmo.int/media/news/earth-experiences-warmest-day-recent-history][https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-climate-2024-now-very-likely-to-be-warmest-year-on-record/][https://climate.copernicus.eu/new-record-daily-global-average-temperature-reached-july-2024] The record highest surface temperature is 56.7°C (134.1°F), recorded on July 10, 1913 at {{w|Furnace Creek, California|Furnace Creek Ranch}} in Death Valley, California.

{{cot|Derivation}}
To break the scale into two linear parts (below and above 17.16°C), we define two separate equations for each range:

1. Below 17.16°C (from –89.2°C to 17.16°C):
* 0 °X corresponds to –89.2°C
* 50 °X corresponds to 17.16°C

We calculate the slope m₁:

m₁ = (50 – 0) / (17.16 – (–89.2)) = 50 / (17.16 + 89.2) = 50 / 106.36 ≈ 0.47

Now, using the point (17.16°C, 50 °X), we calculate the intercept b₁:

<center>50 = 0.47 × 17.16 + b₁</center>

<center>50 = 8.06 + b₁</center>

<center>b₁ = 50 – 8.06 = 41.94</center>

Thus, the equation for temperatures below 17.16°C is:

<center>'''X = 0.47 × C + 41.94'''</center>

2. Above 17.16°C (from 17.16°C to 56.7°C):
* 50 °X corresponds to 17.16°C
* 100 °X corresponds to 56.7°C

We calculate the slope m₂:

m₂ = (100 – 50) / (56.7 – 17.16) = 50 / 39.54 ≈ 1.26

Now, using the point (17.16°C, 50 °X), we calculate the intercept b₂:

<center>50 = 1.26 × 17.16 + b₂</center>

<center>50 = 21.63 + b₂</center>

<center>b₂ = 50 – 21.63 = 28.37</center>

Thus, the equation for temperatures above 17.16°C is:

<center>'''X = 1.26 × C + 28.37'''</center>

;Freezing and Boiling Points

Freezing point of water (0°C): Since 0°C is below 17.16°C, we use the equation X = 0.47 × C + 41.94:

<center>X = 0.47 × 0 + 41.94 = 41.94</center>

So, the freezing point is 42 °X.

Boiling point of water (100°C): Since 100°C is above 17.16°C, we use the equation X = 1.26 × C + 28.37:

<center>X = 1.26 × 100 + 28.37 = 126 + 28.37 = 154.37</center>

So, the boiling point is 154.4 °X.
{{cob}}
See also [[2701: Change in Slope]].
|}

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

:Temperature Scales

:[A table with five columns, labelled: Unit, water freezing point, water boiling point, notes, cursedness. There are eleven rows below the labels.]

:[Row 1:] Celsius, 0, 100, Used in most of the world, 2/10
:[Row 2:] Kelvin, 273.15, 373.15, 0K is absolute zero, 2/10
:[Row 3:] Fahrenheit, 32, 212, Outdoors in most places is between 0–100, 3/10
:[Row 4:] Réaumur, 0, 80, Like Celsius, but with 80 instead of 100, 3/8
:[Row 5:] Rømer, 7.5, 60, Fahrenheit precursor with similarly random design, 4/10,
:[Row 6:] Rankine, 491.7, 671.7, Fahrenheit, but with 0°F set to absolute zero, 6/10
:[Row 7:] Newton, 0, 33-ish, Poorly defined, with reference points like "the hottest water you can hold your hand in", 7-ish/10
:[Row 8:] Wedgewood, –8, –6.7, Intended for comparing the melting points of metals, all of which it was very wrong about, 9/10
:[Row 9:] Galen, –4?, 4??, Runs from –4 (cold) to 4 (hot). 0 is "normal"(?), 4/–4
:[Row 10:] ''Real'' Celsius, 100, 0, In Anders Celsius's original specification, bigger numbers are ''colder''; others later flipped it, 10/0
:[Row 11:] Dalton, 0, 100, A nonlinear scale; 0°C and 100°C are 0 and 100 Dalton, but 50°C is 53.9 Dalton, 53.9/50

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas

2024-06-28T07:53:05Z

Quantum7: /* How would the rest of the world look? */

Seems weird that it's just the contiguous US, with "hints" about what lies within. I hope Randall will release another version with the rest of the world included.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.61|162.158.158.61]] 03:20, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Would the center be both poles ''and'' Kansas's antipode? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.27.150|172.68.27.150]] 03:58, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Including Hawaii would have been the cherry on the cake. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.174|198.41.242.174]] 05:42, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: As the center of the map corresponds to Kansas' antipode (Kerguelen in the Indian Ocean https://www.geodatos.net/en/antipodes/united-states/kansas-city), Hawaii isn't really "near the center", but rather to the right of the center (in the direction of the "Pacific Ocean" tag). --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.100|162.158.86.100]] 05:58, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

:: Admittedly, I guessed where they would be. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.174.139|172.71.174.139]] 06:09, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the middle part is meant to be seen as 'water', just 'out of scope'. [[User:Jaap-Jan|Jaap-Jan]] ([[User talk:Jaap-Jan|talk]]) 07:44, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah, this is similar to a map like https://suncatcherstudio.com/uploads/patterns/us-maps/pdf-png/usa-map-states-names-color-010101.png In that map, Canada and Mexico aren't "rendered as water", they're not rendered at all, and neither are the oceans. I'm going to edit that. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.73|162.158.78.73]] 13:34, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

== How would the rest of the world look? ==

Currently the center is all water. If I understand correctly the rest of the world could be added, but how would it look? For example, would Europe and Asia cover a good part of the water or would they be tiny specs in the middle (almost making this a world map already)
:My impression (without measuring/replicating) is that this is mathematically (or whatever) a gnomonic projection (which can only show half the world, anyway, even on a sheet stretching up to infinity) radially inverted. As such quite a lot of features that aren't shown ('beyond/within' the 'coastline'/borders) couldn't be, anyway, as more than half the world away. Map-centre would be the compressed singularity of the Great Circle exactly 90° off the 'centre of Kansas' that itself now exists at infinite-radius-every-angle far off the page.
:Though it could just be stereographic with any negatively positioned projection origin. Instead of -1, for gnomonic, with a -2 radii origin you would get the whole surface (at infinity!) in ways that whatever you do to radially invert (probably the direct reciprocal) and otherwise scale (clearly choosing the additional 'zoom level' factor that neatly brings the Kansas border more or less into frame) to compress all offshore/over-border territories into the 'oceanic' centre. Or it could just be a useful rescale of a -2r projection ''of'' the Kansas-antipode, such that all borders of Kansas are pulled into frame.
:(Regarding Hawaii, if quick googling is right about Hawaii being 3,600km from Kansas(-centre?), then that puts it at various preskewed factors towards the 'hemispherical horizon' of ~10,000km or the antipodal point at ~20,000km, before then being further squashed by the particular coordinate conversion system in use. If it's a near-side orthographic projection and, say approaching +1 radii up from the surface-tangent, then it could perhaps be 'over the horizon' in the direct projection and thus 'beyond the singularity' of the inverted-radius version.)
:I'd have to mess with some map data, to be sure the existing features fit either idea of projection (or find the actual one (ab)used), but this'd probably be what I'd do, straight off the bat. And then I could apply it to extraterratorial features, also. I've got some of the necessary data and mungable code handily sitting on a machine that I am ''unhandily'' not going to next use until at least the weekend, and reimplimenting it on this tablet would mean starting from first principles again/testing/etc... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.120|172.70.163.120]] 09:23, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: Check out the Wikipedia article "Azimuthal equidistant projection" and scroll to "Sample azimuthal equidistant projection maps". There is an inverse example, that puts California at the center of a world map. Now imagine everything else in the "great sea" of Randall's map, using a similar projection. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.32|172.71.99.32]] 13:48, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: Yay! A task for a geography teacher (i.e. me, and I'm a big fan of Randall's work with maps), and I just happen to have the right bookmarks for this kind of thing in my browser. So here's a little toy to play around with: [https://www.worldmapgenerator.com/en/wizard/step/centering/?config=eyJpZCI6IkNVU1RPTV9XSVpBUkQiLCJsYXllcklkcyI6WyJDTElQX1BBVEgiLCJCQUNLR1JPVU5EIiwiU1BIRVJFIiwiR1JBVElDVUxFUyIsIkxBTkQiLCJPQ0VBTiJdLCJwcm9qZWN0aW9uSWQiOiJBWklNVVRIQUxfRVFVSURJU1RBTlQiLCJyZW5kZXJpbmdBZGFwdGVySWQiOiJDQU5WQVMiLCJtYXBUaGVtZUlkIjoiREVGQVVMVCIsImNlbnRlciI6WzAsMF0sInJvdGF0aW9uIjpbLTgxLDQwLDBdLCJ6b29tIjowLjksIndpemFyZFN0ZXBQcm9ncmVzc0lkeCI6MywidmVyc2lvbiI6IjEuMC4wIn0%3D] I hope my settings got preserved in the link as they should, else whoever added all those letters and numbers clearly has something to answer for! If the link works as it should it'll show you what a map of the whole wide world would look like in an Azimuthal Equidistant Projection with Kansas on the exterior. That is, I first used this Antipodes Map [https://www.antipodesmap.com] to locate the point opposite to Lebanon, Kansas at 39°48'35"S, 81°26'39.8"E , which is quite literally in the middle of the Indian Ocean, near the islands of Saint Paul and Nouvelle Amsterdam (which, incidentally, belong to France and are mainly known for being as far away from anything as you can possibly get on this planet*) and then set the centre of the worldmapgenerator.com map approximately there. It's not a very precise tool, but it'll do - it's precise enough for me to use in lessons anyway. Surprisingly, you actually get a more or less usable map for much of the world (if you're not too fussy or trying to navigate with it or anything), ''except only'' for North and Middle America. :D [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 16:04, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:: * At least, you can say that if you happen to land there, you're really not in Kansas any more. ;) [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 16:30, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
::Oh, I really like map stuff, but: "This site uses cookies to improve the results of our bakery. With your acceptance we can add more honey, sugar and flour to improve the website. [Accept]". Only "[Accept]", no other options (even long-winded 'deselect "things ''we'' suggest are important" options that I might disagree with'). I really don't like that. And then it also offers to install an App, apparently... Oh, website builders, just because I'm currently on a mobile device, it doesn't mean I'm eager to "app everything"; entirely the opposite, perhaps! Yeah, I know script/cookie blockers or specialist browsers exist to avoid these things, but... Anyway, nice to see a geography teacher taking it seriously, even if I've got my own conflicting issues in picking up on what you've found. (Behind/before the popup stuff, it truly looked interesting. Don't know if there's a legit way to get a screenshot of it. Don't break any Ts&Cs in doing so!) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.164|141.101.98.164]] 17:03, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
::: The joke is that worldmapgenerator doesn't store ANY cookies. Meanwhile the site you are posting from stores 63 kB of browser data just visiting the homepage. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 21:08, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:::: Hmm, I get the "This site uses cookies to improve the results of our bakery." too. If they don't use cookies, then they shouldn't have that.
:::: I am actually on a desktop system, I can probably go in there and remove the "don't do anything until the Accept is clicked" popover ''without clicking on the popover'', and even check out what it tries to store, or doesn't... I'm not even overly paranoid about these things, but I agree with above poster that it's bad form. ''Especially'' if it's a joke (no reason to suppose it is).
:::: Yeah, I'll accept Cookies if essential, but often they aren't, so it's not even a very good joke to make. Maybe they do just do everything in URL-encoded/GET data. It's my own prefered method, to make fully transparent GET data on websites I use (barring anything that needs to be POST-submitted), and if I ever use cookies it's a single own-site-only cookie for session control, not the mass of "Legitimate Use" (as if!) items.
:::: Have you ever gone and looked in the list? (Assuming the "Do you accept cookies" doesn't do a "Yes, accept all"/"No, reject all (inessential)" and gives you the 'option' to painstakingly turn off half a dozen "default cookie sets".) It's frightening how many 'interested parties' are potentially getting info (dozens to hundreds, at a time). And, realistically, I'm not sure I even believe that by selecting 'off' on that kind of dialogue that I'm actually not being Cookified just as much as if I accidentally clicked on the prominent "Accept All".
:::: Sorry, the above comment just resonates with me, too. Decided I had to vent a bit. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.121|172.70.163.121]] 23:51, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:::: I checked the cookies it uses, none of them contain any sort of tracking identifier. It stores the selected language, whether you accepted cookies, and for which screens of the wizard you've seen the tutorial screen. [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 03:14, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

:: Thanks for the wonderful link. I suggest we include an image from this in the article. Your settings were preserved nicely. Given how little of north America is visible, I suspect that Randal must have used an even more extreme azimuthal protection than the equidistant one to shrink the center. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 21:18, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
::: Added [[:File:Exterior_Kansas_Azimuthal_Projection.png]][[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 07:53, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

==Adding an image?==
Is it possible to add an image to the description? I'm looking at the Wikipedia article "Azimuthal equidistant projection" and the "external Antarctica" map is relevant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg Thanks! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.32|172.71.99.32]] 13:43, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:You could use a variation on <code><nowiki>[[File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg|300px]]</nowiki></code> maybe. Add align/wrap options, as necessary, and use a size that seems to work. Remember to try it with Preview, before you're submitting it for real, lets you fine-tune to your liking without spamming the edit-history. Doesn't need (explicit) uploading to the wiki, this way. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.97|172.69.194.97]] 17:11, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:I added [[:File:Exterior_Kansas_Azimuthal_Projection.png]]. Is that what you had in mind? It's an equidistant projection; I haven't found a tool that lets you change the projection radius to better match Randal's projection.[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 07:51, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Should Now [https://xkcd.com/1335/] be mentioned? Same type of projection. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.90|162.158.159.90]] 20:51, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

== Actual azimuthal projection centered at Kansas' antipode ==

It turns out that, this being the internet, there's an actual tool for generating azimuthal projections ([https://ns6t.net/azimuth/]). For the curious minds out there, here's what the exterior Kansas would look like as an actual azimuthal projection: [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/i87r5524u952cam4dbtdx/Kansas-Azimuthal.pdf?rlkey=h5f3qp8esotyk50uaurht8gj4&st=drjzszjk&dl=0]. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.178|172.69.90.178]] 21:05, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

:[https://i.ibb.co/W33xmKC/Screenshot-2024-06-27-3-17-30-PM.png Here's one where the conformal lines are still latitude and longitude], from https://maps.ontarget.cc/azmap/en.html which releases it as CC-BY-SA if someone wants to upload it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.73|172.68.23.73]] 01:24, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas

2024-06-28T07:51:23Z

Quantum7: /* Adding an image? */ image added.

Seems weird that it's just the contiguous US, with "hints" about what lies within. I hope Randall will release another version with the rest of the world included.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.61|162.158.158.61]] 03:20, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Would the center be both poles ''and'' Kansas's antipode? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.27.150|172.68.27.150]] 03:58, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Including Hawaii would have been the cherry on the cake. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.174|198.41.242.174]] 05:42, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: As the center of the map corresponds to Kansas' antipode (Kerguelen in the Indian Ocean https://www.geodatos.net/en/antipodes/united-states/kansas-city), Hawaii isn't really "near the center", but rather to the right of the center (in the direction of the "Pacific Ocean" tag). --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.100|162.158.86.100]] 05:58, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

:: Admittedly, I guessed where they would be. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.174.139|172.71.174.139]] 06:09, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the middle part is meant to be seen as 'water', just 'out of scope'. [[User:Jaap-Jan|Jaap-Jan]] ([[User talk:Jaap-Jan|talk]]) 07:44, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah, this is similar to a map like https://suncatcherstudio.com/uploads/patterns/us-maps/pdf-png/usa-map-states-names-color-010101.png In that map, Canada and Mexico aren't "rendered as water", they're not rendered at all, and neither are the oceans. I'm going to edit that. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.73|162.158.78.73]] 13:34, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

== How would the rest of the world look? ==

Currently the center is all water. If I understand correctly the rest of the world could be added, but how would it look? For example, would Europe and Asia cover a good part of the water or would they be tiny specs in the middle (almost making this a world map already)
:My impression (without measuring/replicating) is that this is mathematically (or whatever) a gnomonic projection (which can only show half the world, anyway, even on a sheet stretching up to infinity) radially inverted. As such quite a lot of features that aren't shown ('beyond/within' the 'coastline'/borders) couldn't be, anyway, as more than half the world away. Map-centre would be the compressed singularity of the Great Circle exactly 90° off the 'centre of Kansas' that itself now exists at infinite-radius-every-angle far off the page.
:Though it could just be stereographic with any negatively positioned projection origin. Instead of -1, for gnomonic, with a -2 radii origin you would get the whole surface (at infinity!) in ways that whatever you do to radially invert (probably the direct reciprocal) and otherwise scale (clearly choosing the additional 'zoom level' factor that neatly brings the Kansas border more or less into frame) to compress all offshore/over-border territories into the 'oceanic' centre. Or it could just be a useful rescale of a -2r projection ''of'' the Kansas-antipode, such that all borders of Kansas are pulled into frame.
:(Regarding Hawaii, if quick googling is right about Hawaii being 3,600km from Kansas(-centre?), then that puts it at various preskewed factors towards the 'hemispherical horizon' of ~10,000km or the antipodal point at ~20,000km, before then being further squashed by the particular coordinate conversion system in use. If it's a near-side orthographic projection and, say approaching +1 radii up from the surface-tangent, then it could perhaps be 'over the horizon' in the direct projection and thus 'beyond the singularity' of the inverted-radius version.)
:I'd have to mess with some map data, to be sure the existing features fit either idea of projection (or find the actual one (ab)used), but this'd probably be what I'd do, straight off the bat. And then I could apply it to extraterratorial features, also. I've got some of the necessary data and mungable code handily sitting on a machine that I am ''unhandily'' not going to next use until at least the weekend, and reimplimenting it on this tablet would mean starting from first principles again/testing/etc... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.120|172.70.163.120]] 09:23, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: Check out the Wikipedia article "Azimuthal equidistant projection" and scroll to "Sample azimuthal equidistant projection maps". There is an inverse example, that puts California at the center of a world map. Now imagine everything else in the "great sea" of Randall's map, using a similar projection. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.32|172.71.99.32]] 13:48, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: Yay! A task for a geography teacher (i.e. me, and I'm a big fan of Randall's work with maps), and I just happen to have the right bookmarks for this kind of thing in my browser. So here's a little toy to play around with: [https://www.worldmapgenerator.com/en/wizard/step/centering/?config=eyJpZCI6IkNVU1RPTV9XSVpBUkQiLCJsYXllcklkcyI6WyJDTElQX1BBVEgiLCJCQUNLR1JPVU5EIiwiU1BIRVJFIiwiR1JBVElDVUxFUyIsIkxBTkQiLCJPQ0VBTiJdLCJwcm9qZWN0aW9uSWQiOiJBWklNVVRIQUxfRVFVSURJU1RBTlQiLCJyZW5kZXJpbmdBZGFwdGVySWQiOiJDQU5WQVMiLCJtYXBUaGVtZUlkIjoiREVGQVVMVCIsImNlbnRlciI6WzAsMF0sInJvdGF0aW9uIjpbLTgxLDQwLDBdLCJ6b29tIjowLjksIndpemFyZFN0ZXBQcm9ncmVzc0lkeCI6MywidmVyc2lvbiI6IjEuMC4wIn0%3D] I hope my settings got preserved in the link as they should, else whoever added all those letters and numbers clearly has something to answer for! If the link works as it should it'll show you what a map of the whole wide world would look like in an Azimuthal Equidistant Projection with Kansas on the exterior. That is, I first used this Antipodes Map [https://www.antipodesmap.com] to locate the point opposite to Lebanon, Kansas at 39°48'35"S, 81°26'39.8"E , which is quite literally in the middle of the Indian Ocean, near the islands of Saint Paul and Nouvelle Amsterdam (which, incidentally, belong to France and are mainly known for being as far away from anything as you can possibly get on this planet*) and then set the centre of the worldmapgenerator.com map approximately there. It's not a very precise tool, but it'll do - it's precise enough for me to use in lessons anyway. Surprisingly, you actually get a more or less usable map for much of the world (if you're not too fussy or trying to navigate with it or anything), ''except only'' for North and Middle America. :D [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 16:04, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:: * At least, you can say that if you happen to land there, you're really not in Kansas any more. ;) [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 16:30, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
::Oh, I really like map stuff, but: "This site uses cookies to improve the results of our bakery. With your acceptance we can add more honey, sugar and flour to improve the website. [Accept]". Only "[Accept]", no other options (even long-winded 'deselect "things ''we'' suggest are important" options that I might disagree with'). I really don't like that. And then it also offers to install an App, apparently... Oh, website builders, just because I'm currently on a mobile device, it doesn't mean I'm eager to "app everything"; entirely the opposite, perhaps! Yeah, I know script/cookie blockers or specialist browsers exist to avoid these things, but... Anyway, nice to see a geography teacher taking it seriously, even if I've got my own conflicting issues in picking up on what you've found. (Behind/before the popup stuff, it truly looked interesting. Don't know if there's a legit way to get a screenshot of it. Don't break any Ts&Cs in doing so!) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.164|141.101.98.164]] 17:03, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
::: The joke is that worldmapgenerator doesn't store ANY cookies. Meanwhile the site you are posting from stores 63 kB of browser data just visiting the homepage. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 21:08, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:::: Hmm, I get the "This site uses cookies to improve the results of our bakery." too. If they don't use cookies, then they shouldn't have that.
:::: I am actually on a desktop system, I can probably go in there and remove the "don't do anything until the Accept is clicked" popover ''without clicking on the popover'', and even check out what it tries to store, or doesn't... I'm not even overly paranoid about these things, but I agree with above poster that it's bad form. ''Especially'' if it's a joke (no reason to suppose it is).
:::: Yeah, I'll accept Cookies if essential, but often they aren't, so it's not even a very good joke to make. Maybe they do just do everything in URL-encoded/GET data. It's my own prefered method, to make fully transparent GET data on websites I use (barring anything that needs to be POST-submitted), and if I ever use cookies it's a single own-site-only cookie for session control, not the mass of "Legitimate Use" (as if!) items.
:::: Have you ever gone and looked in the list? (Assuming the "Do you accept cookies" doesn't do a "Yes, accept all"/"No, reject all (inessential)" and gives you the 'option' to painstakingly turn off half a dozen "default cookie sets".) It's frightening how many 'interested parties' are potentially getting info (dozens to hundreds, at a time). And, realistically, I'm not sure I even believe that by selecting 'off' on that kind of dialogue that I'm actually not being Cookified just as much as if I accidentally clicked on the prominent "Accept All".
:::: Sorry, the above comment just resonates with me, too. Decided I had to vent a bit. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.121|172.70.163.121]] 23:51, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:::: I checked the cookies it uses, none of them contain any sort of tracking identifier. It stores the selected language, whether you accepted cookies, and for which screens of the wizard you've seen the tutorial screen. [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 03:14, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

:: Thanks for the wonderful link. I suggest we include an image from this in the article. Your settings were preserved nicely. Given how little of north America is visible, I suspect that Randal must have used an even more extreme azimuthal protection than the equidistant one to shrink the center. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 21:18, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

==Adding an image?==
Is it possible to add an image to the description? I'm looking at the Wikipedia article "Azimuthal equidistant projection" and the "external Antarctica" map is relevant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg Thanks! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.32|172.71.99.32]] 13:43, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:You could use a variation on <code><nowiki>[[File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg|300px]]</nowiki></code> maybe. Add align/wrap options, as necessary, and use a size that seems to work. Remember to try it with Preview, before you're submitting it for real, lets you fine-tune to your liking without spamming the edit-history. Doesn't need (explicit) uploading to the wiki, this way. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.97|172.69.194.97]] 17:11, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:I added [[:File:Exterior_Kansas_Azimuthal_Projection.png]]. Is that what you had in mind? It's an equidistant projection; I haven't found a tool that lets you change the projection radius to better match Randal's projection.[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 07:51, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Should Now [https://xkcd.com/1335/] be mentioned? Same type of projection. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.90|162.158.159.90]] 20:51, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

== Actual azimuthal projection centered at Kansas' antipode ==

It turns out that, this being the internet, there's an actual tool for generating azimuthal projections ([https://ns6t.net/azimuth/]). For the curious minds out there, here's what the exterior Kansas would look like as an actual azimuthal projection: [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/i87r5524u952cam4dbtdx/Kansas-Azimuthal.pdf?rlkey=h5f3qp8esotyk50uaurht8gj4&st=drjzszjk&dl=0]. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.178|172.69.90.178]] 21:05, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

:[https://i.ibb.co/W33xmKC/Screenshot-2024-06-27-3-17-30-PM.png Here's one where the conformal lines are still latitude and longitude], from https://maps.ontarget.cc/azmap/en.html which releases it as CC-BY-SA if someone wants to upload it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.73|172.68.23.73]] 01:24, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas

2024-06-28T07:41:40Z

Quantum7: /* Explanation */ Add azimuthal projection image

{{comic
| number = 2951
| date = June 26, 2024
| title = Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas
| image = bad_map_projection_exterior_kansas_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x706px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Although Kansas is widely thought to contain the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states, topologists now believe that it's actually their outer edge.
}}

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

[[File:Exterior_Kansas_Azimuthal_Projection.png|thumb|Projection of the world from the same perspective as the comic. This uses an azimuthal equidistant projection, so distances from the center point (39°50′S 98°35′E) are correct but areas are distorted. ]]

This is the seventh comic in the series of [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] displaying Bad Map Projection #45: Exterior Kansas.

This comic portrays an unusual projection of a map of the contiguous United States based loosely on an {{w|azimuthal projection}}. Maps of individual countries are common, especially in academic settings. It is typical for such maps, which only display a limited area of the globe, to use a projection that does not severely distort the shape of the country or its internal borders, but a country that is large enough (as with the United States) will always noticeably suffer from certain distortions of at least one element chosen from distances, areas or angles. This usually occurs at its extremities (though some projections can be made more faithful to its extremities at the expense of distorting its interior).

Here, however, Randall has opted for a much different projection. Rather than placing the geographical center of the country in the middle and the borders on the outside, this map has gone the opposite direction, with the border of the US toward the center, and the geographical center of the contiguous US (Kansas) and surrounding states distorted to surround the entire map. This, understandably, results in the shape of both the national and state borders being largely unrecognizable as it effectively puts ''every'' bit of the chosen map features out towards the distorted extremities. Much of the internal area of Kansas itself (should one wish to display further internal features) may be located far beyond the comic's edges, perhaps even to infinitely far away on the projected plane.

If Alaska and Hawaii were present in this map and represented in geographically accurate locations (as opposed to inset, as is common in many maps of the United States), Alaska would in the upper right of the empty space, between Minnesota and Washington, while Hawaii would be in the center to the right, off the coast of California. Both would be rather small, with Hawaii particularly compressed (to an extent dictated by the exact projection method used). Additionally, if all 50 states were included, the geographical center would be further to the northwest, resulting in an "Exterior South Dakota" projection.

This map is somewhat similar to the polar {{w|azimuthal equidistant projection}} that one sees on the {{w|flag of the United Nations}}. Some maps of that style depict an "exterior Antarctica":

[[File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg|300px|center]]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Map description could be improved? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A distorted map of the contiguous United States with the states labeled, where the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Canadian and Mexican borders are located closest to the center, with there being a gray void in the middle of the map, while the central U.S. states are distributed in the edges of the panel, with Kansas being in all of the four corners of the map.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Bad Map Projection #45:
:Exterior Kansas

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]
[[Category:US maps]]

File:Exterior Kansas Azimuthal Projection.png

2024-06-28T07:30:54Z

Quantum7: Azimuthal equidistant projection around 40 S 99 E. This is the antipode (within rounding) of the geographic center of the contiguous United States (39°50′N 98°35′W). The projection was generated with [https://www.worldmapgenerator.com/en/wizard/s...

Azimuthal equidistant projection around 40 S 99 E. This is the antipode (within rounding) of the geographic center of the contiguous United States (39°50′N 98°35′W). The projection was generated with [https://www.worldmapgenerator.com/en/wizard/step/projection/?config=eyJpZCI6IkNVU1RPTV9XSVpBUkQiLCJsYXllcklkcyI6WyJDTElQX1BBVEgiLCJHUkFUSUNVTEVTIiwiTEFORCIsIk9DRUFOIiwiQ09VTlRSSUVTIiwiU1BIRVJFIl0sInByb2plY3Rpb25JZCI6IkFaSU1VVEhBTF9FUVVJRElTVEFOVCIsInJlbmRlcmluZ0FkYXB0ZXJJZCI6IkNBTlZBUyIsIm1hcFRoZW1lSWQiOiJCTFVFX1RPTkVTXzEiLCJjZW50ZXIiOlswLDBdLCJyb3RhdGlvbiI6Wy04MSw0MCwwXSwiem9vbSI6MC45LCJ3aXphcmRTdGVwUHJvZ3Jlc3NJZHgiOjkwMDcxOTkyNTQ3NDA5OTEsInZlcnNpb24iOiIxLjAuMCJ9 worldmapgenerator.com] and is licensed CC-BY-SA.

Talk:2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas

2024-06-27T21:18:01Z

Quantum7: /* How would the rest of the world look? */ Respond to worldmapgenerator link

Seems weird that it's just the contiguous US, with "hints" about what lies within. I hope Randall will release another version with the rest of the world included.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.61|162.158.158.61]] 03:20, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Would the center be both poles ''and'' Kansas's antipode? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.27.150|172.68.27.150]] 03:58, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Including Hawaii would have been the cherry on the cake. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.174|198.41.242.174]] 05:42, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: As the center of the map corresponds to Kansas' antipode (Kerguelen in the Indian Ocean https://www.geodatos.net/en/antipodes/united-states/kansas-city), Hawaii isn't really "near the center", but rather to the right of the center (in the direction of the "Pacific Ocean" tag). --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.100|162.158.86.100]] 05:58, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

:: Admittedly, I guessed where they would be. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.174.139|172.71.174.139]] 06:09, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the middle part is meant to be seen as 'water', just 'out of scope'. [[User:Jaap-Jan|Jaap-Jan]] ([[User talk:Jaap-Jan|talk]]) 07:44, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah, this is similar to a map like https://suncatcherstudio.com/uploads/patterns/us-maps/pdf-png/usa-map-states-names-color-010101.png In that map, Canada and Mexico aren't "rendered as water", they're not rendered at all, and neither are the oceans. I'm going to edit that. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.73|162.158.78.73]] 13:34, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

== How would the rest of the world look? ==

Currently the center is all water. If I understand correctly the rest of the world could be added, but how would it look? For example, would Europe and Asia cover a good part of the water or would they be tiny specs in the middle (almost making this a world map already)
:My impression (without measuring/replicating) is that this is mathematically (or whatever) a gnomonic projection (which can only show half the world, anyway, even on a sheet stretching up to infinity) radially inverted. As such quite a lot of features that aren't shown ('beyond/within' the 'coastline'/borders) couldn't be, anyway, as more than half the world away. Map-centre would be the compressed singularity of the Great Circle exactly 90° off the 'centre of Kansas' that itself now exists at infinite-radius-every-angle far off the page.
:Though it could just be stereographic with any negatively positioned projection origin. Instead of -1, for gnomonic, with a -2 radii origin you would get the whole surface (at infinity!) in ways that whatever you do to radially invert (probably the direct reciprocal) and otherwise scale (clearly choosing the additional 'zoom level' factor that neatly brings the Kansas border more or less into frame) to compress all offshore/over-border territories into the 'oceanic' centre. Or it could just be a useful rescale of a -2r projection ''of'' the Kansas-antipode, such that all borders of Kansas are pulled into frame.
:(Regarding Hawaii, if quick googling is right about Hawaii being 3,600km from Kansas(-centre?), then that puts it at various preskewed factors towards the 'hemispherical horizon' of ~10,000km or the antipodal point at ~20,000km, before then being further squashed by the particular coordinate conversion system in use. If it's a near-side orthographic projection and, say approaching +1 radii up from the surface-tangent, then it could perhaps be 'over the horizon' in the direct projection and thus 'beyond the singularity' of the inverted-radius version.)
:I'd have to mess with some map data, to be sure the existing features fit either idea of projection (or find the actual one (ab)used), but this'd probably be what I'd do, straight off the bat. And then I could apply it to extraterratorial features, also. I've got some of the necessary data and mungable code handily sitting on a machine that I am ''unhandily'' not going to next use until at least the weekend, and reimplimenting it on this tablet would mean starting from first principles again/testing/etc... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.120|172.70.163.120]] 09:23, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: Check out the Wikipedia article "Azimuthal equidistant projection" and scroll to "Sample azimuthal equidistant projection maps". There is an inverse example, that puts California at the center of a world map. Now imagine everything else in the "great sea" of Randall's map, using a similar projection. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.32|172.71.99.32]] 13:48, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: Yay! A task for a geography teacher (i.e. me, and I'm a big fan of Randall's work with maps), and I just happen to have the right bookmarks for this kind of thing in my browser. So here's a little toy to play around with: [https://www.worldmapgenerator.com/en/wizard/step/centering/?config=eyJpZCI6IkNVU1RPTV9XSVpBUkQiLCJsYXllcklkcyI6WyJDTElQX1BBVEgiLCJCQUNLR1JPVU5EIiwiU1BIRVJFIiwiR1JBVElDVUxFUyIsIkxBTkQiLCJPQ0VBTiJdLCJwcm9qZWN0aW9uSWQiOiJBWklNVVRIQUxfRVFVSURJU1RBTlQiLCJyZW5kZXJpbmdBZGFwdGVySWQiOiJDQU5WQVMiLCJtYXBUaGVtZUlkIjoiREVGQVVMVCIsImNlbnRlciI6WzAsMF0sInJvdGF0aW9uIjpbLTgxLDQwLDBdLCJ6b29tIjowLjksIndpemFyZFN0ZXBQcm9ncmVzc0lkeCI6MywidmVyc2lvbiI6IjEuMC4wIn0%3D] I hope my settings got preserved in the link as they should, else whoever added all those letters and numbers clearly has something to answer for! If the link works as it should it'll show you what a map of the whole wide world would look like in an Azimuthal Equidistant Projection with Kansas on the exterior. That is, I first used this Antipodes Map [https://www.antipodesmap.com] to locate the point opposite to Lebanon, Kansas at 39°48'35"S, 81°26'39.8"E , which is quite literally in the middle of the Indian Ocean, near the islands of Saint Paul and Nouvelle Amsterdam (which, incidentally, belong to France and are mainly known for being as far away from anything as you can possibly get on this planet*) and then set the centre of the worldmapgenerator.com map approximately there. It's not a very precise tool, but it'll do - it's precise enough for me to use in lessons anyway. Surprisingly, you actually get a more or less usable map for much of the world (if you're not too fussy or trying to navigate with it or anything), ''except only'' for North and Middle America. :D [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 16:04, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:: * At least, you can say that if you happen to land there, you're really not in Kansas any more. ;) [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 16:30, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
::Oh, I really like map stuff, but: "This site uses cookies to improve the results of our bakery. With your acceptance we can add more honey, sugar and flour to improve the website. [Accept]". Only "[Accept]", no other options (even long-winded 'deselect "things ''we'' suggest are important" options that I might disagree with'). I really don't like that. And then it also offers to install an App, apparently... Oh, website builders, just because I'm currently on a mobile device, it doesn't mean I'm eager to "app everything"; entirely the opposite, perhaps! Yeah, I know script/cookie blockers or specialist browsers exist to avoid these things, but... Anyway, nice to see a geography teacher taking it seriously, even if I've got my own conflicting issues in picking up on what you've found. (Behind/before the popup stuff, it truly looked interesting. Don't know if there's a legit way to get a screenshot of it. Don't break any Ts&Cs in doing so!) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.164|141.101.98.164]] 17:03, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
::: The joke is that worldmapgenerator doesn't store ANY cookies. Meanwhile the site you are posting from stores 63 kB of browser data just visiting the homepage. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 21:08, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:: Thanks for the wonderful link. I suggest we include an image from this in the article. Your settings were preserved nicely. Given how little of north America is visible, I suspect that Randal must have used an even more extreme azimuthal protection than the equidistant one to shrink the center. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 21:18, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

==Adding an image?==
Is it possible to add an image to the description? I'm looking at the Wikipedia article "Azimuthal equidistant projection" and the "external Antarctica" map is relevant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg Thanks! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.32|172.71.99.32]] 13:43, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:You could use a variation on <code><nowiki>[[File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg|300px]]</nowiki></code> maybe. Add align/wrap options, as necessary, and use a size that seems to work. Remember to try it with Preview, before you're submitting it for real, lets you fine-tune to your liking without spamming the edit-history. Doesn't need (explicit) uploading to the wiki, this way. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.97|172.69.194.97]] 17:11, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Should Now [https://xkcd.com/1335/] be mentioned? Same type of projection. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.90|162.158.159.90]] 20:51, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

== Actual azimuthal projection centered at Kansas' antipode ==

It turns out that, this being the internet, there's an actual tool for generating azimuthal projections ([https://ns6t.net/azimuth/]). For the curious minds out there, here's what the exterior Kansas would look like as an actual azimuthal projection: [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/i87r5524u952cam4dbtdx/Kansas-Azimuthal.pdf?rlkey=h5f3qp8esotyk50uaurht8gj4&st=drjzszjk&dl=0]. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.178|172.69.90.178]] 21:05, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas

2024-06-27T21:08:05Z

Quantum7: Explain the cookie joke to the anonymous fan of map stuff

Seems weird that it's just the contiguous US, with "hints" about what lies within. I hope Randall will release another version with the rest of the world included.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.61|162.158.158.61]] 03:20, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Would the center be both poles ''and'' Kansas's antipode? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.27.150|172.68.27.150]] 03:58, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Including Hawaii would have been the cherry on the cake. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.174|198.41.242.174]] 05:42, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: As the center of the map corresponds to Kansas' antipode (Kerguelen in the Indian Ocean https://www.geodatos.net/en/antipodes/united-states/kansas-city), Hawaii isn't really "near the center", but rather to the right of the center (in the direction of the "Pacific Ocean" tag). --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.100|162.158.86.100]] 05:58, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

:: Admittedly, I guessed where they would be. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.174.139|172.71.174.139]] 06:09, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the middle part is meant to be seen as 'water', just 'out of scope'. [[User:Jaap-Jan|Jaap-Jan]] ([[User talk:Jaap-Jan|talk]]) 07:44, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah, this is similar to a map like https://suncatcherstudio.com/uploads/patterns/us-maps/pdf-png/usa-map-states-names-color-010101.png In that map, Canada and Mexico aren't "rendered as water", they're not rendered at all, and neither are the oceans. I'm going to edit that. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.73|162.158.78.73]] 13:34, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

== How would the rest of the world look? ==

Currently the center is all water. If I understand correctly the rest of the world could be added, but how would it look? For example, would Europe and Asia cover a good part of the water or would they be tiny specs in the middle (almost making this a world map already)
:My impression (without measuring/replicating) is that this is mathematically (or whatever) a gnomonic projection (which can only show half the world, anyway, even on a sheet stretching up to infinity) radially inverted. As such quite a lot of features that aren't shown ('beyond/within' the 'coastline'/borders) couldn't be, anyway, as more than half the world away. Map-centre would be the compressed singularity of the Great Circle exactly 90° off the 'centre of Kansas' that itself now exists at infinite-radius-every-angle far off the page.
:Though it could just be stereographic with any negatively positioned projection origin. Instead of -1, for gnomonic, with a -2 radii origin you would get the whole surface (at infinity!) in ways that whatever you do to radially invert (probably the direct reciprocal) and otherwise scale (clearly choosing the additional 'zoom level' factor that neatly brings the Kansas border more or less into frame) to compress all offshore/over-border territories into the 'oceanic' centre. Or it could just be a useful rescale of a -2r projection ''of'' the Kansas-antipode, such that all borders of Kansas are pulled into frame.
:(Regarding Hawaii, if quick googling is right about Hawaii being 3,600km from Kansas(-centre?), then that puts it at various preskewed factors towards the 'hemispherical horizon' of ~10,000km or the antipodal point at ~20,000km, before then being further squashed by the particular coordinate conversion system in use. If it's a near-side orthographic projection and, say approaching +1 radii up from the surface-tangent, then it could perhaps be 'over the horizon' in the direct projection and thus 'beyond the singularity' of the inverted-radius version.)
:I'd have to mess with some map data, to be sure the existing features fit either idea of projection (or find the actual one (ab)used), but this'd probably be what I'd do, straight off the bat. And then I could apply it to extraterratorial features, also. I've got some of the necessary data and mungable code handily sitting on a machine that I am ''unhandily'' not going to next use until at least the weekend, and reimplimenting it on this tablet would mean starting from first principles again/testing/etc... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.120|172.70.163.120]] 09:23, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: Check out the Wikipedia article "Azimuthal equidistant projection" and scroll to "Sample azimuthal equidistant projection maps". There is an inverse example, that puts California at the center of a world map. Now imagine everything else in the "great sea" of Randall's map, using a similar projection. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.32|172.71.99.32]] 13:48, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

: Yay! A task for a geography teacher (i.e. me, and I'm a big fan of Randall's work with maps), and I just happen to have the right bookmarks for this kind of thing in my browser. So here's a little toy to play around with: [https://www.worldmapgenerator.com/en/wizard/step/centering/?config=eyJpZCI6IkNVU1RPTV9XSVpBUkQiLCJsYXllcklkcyI6WyJDTElQX1BBVEgiLCJCQUNLR1JPVU5EIiwiU1BIRVJFIiwiR1JBVElDVUxFUyIsIkxBTkQiLCJPQ0VBTiJdLCJwcm9qZWN0aW9uSWQiOiJBWklNVVRIQUxfRVFVSURJU1RBTlQiLCJyZW5kZXJpbmdBZGFwdGVySWQiOiJDQU5WQVMiLCJtYXBUaGVtZUlkIjoiREVGQVVMVCIsImNlbnRlciI6WzAsMF0sInJvdGF0aW9uIjpbLTgxLDQwLDBdLCJ6b29tIjowLjksIndpemFyZFN0ZXBQcm9ncmVzc0lkeCI6MywidmVyc2lvbiI6IjEuMC4wIn0%3D] I hope my settings got preserved in the link as they should, else whoever added all those letters and numbers clearly has something to answer for! If the link works as it should it'll show you what a map of the whole wide world would look like in an Azimuthal Equidistant Projection with Kansas on the exterior. That is, I first used this Antipodes Map [https://www.antipodesmap.com] to locate the point opposite to Lebanon, Kansas at 39°48'35"S, 81°26'39.8"E , which is quite literally in the middle of the Indian Ocean, near the islands of Saint Paul and Nouvelle Amsterdam (which, incidentally, belong to France and are mainly known for being as far away from anything as you can possibly get on this planet*) and then set the centre of the worldmapgenerator.com map approximately there. It's not a very precise tool, but it'll do - it's precise enough for me to use in lessons anyway. Surprisingly, you actually get a more or less usable map for much of the world (if you're not too fussy or trying to navigate with it or anything), ''except only'' for North and Middle America. :D [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 16:04, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:: * At least, you can say that if you happen to land there, you're really not in Kansas any more. ;) [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 16:30, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
::Oh, I really like map stuff, but: "This site uses cookies to improve the results of our bakery. With your acceptance we can add more honey, sugar and flour to improve the website. [Accept]". Only "[Accept]", no other options (even long-winded 'deselect "things ''we'' suggest are important" options that I might disagree with'). I really don't like that. And then it also offers to install an App, apparently... Oh, website builders, just because I'm currently on a mobile device, it doesn't mean I'm eager to "app everything"; entirely the opposite, perhaps! Yeah, I know script/cookie blockers or specialist browsers exist to avoid these things, but... Anyway, nice to see a geography teacher taking it seriously, even if I've got my own conflicting issues in picking up on what you've found. (Behind/before the popup stuff, it truly looked interesting. Don't know if there's a legit way to get a screenshot of it. Don't break any Ts&Cs in doing so!) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.164|141.101.98.164]] 17:03, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
::: The joke is that worldmapgenerator doesn't store ANY cookies. Meanwhile the store you are paying from stores 63 kB of browser data just visiting the homepage. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 21:08, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

==Adding an image?==
Is it possible to add an image to the description? I'm looking at the Wikipedia article "Azimuthal equidistant projection" and the "external Antarctica" map is relevant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg Thanks! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.32|172.71.99.32]] 13:43, 27 June 2024 (UTC)
:You could use a variation on <code><nowiki>[[File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg|300px]]</nowiki></code> maybe. Add align/wrap options, as necessary, and use a size that seems to work. Remember to try it with Preview, before you're submitting it for real, lets you fine-tune to your liking without spamming the edit-history. Doesn't need (explicit) uploading to the wiki, this way. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.97|172.69.194.97]] 17:11, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Should Now [https://xkcd.com/1335/] be mentioned? Same type of projection. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.90|162.158.159.90]] 20:51, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

== Actual azimuthal projection centered at Kansas' antipode ==

It turns out that, this being the internet, there's an actual tool for generating azimuthal projections ([https://ns6t.net/azimuth/]). For the curious minds out there, here's what the exterior Kansas would look like as an actual azimuthal projection: [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/i87r5524u952cam4dbtdx/Kansas-Azimuthal.pdf?rlkey=h5f3qp8esotyk50uaurht8gj4&st=drjzszjk&dl=0]. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.178|172.69.90.178]] 21:05, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

2793: Garden Path Sentence

2023-07-06T07:20:06Z

Quantum7: /* Explanation */ Fix indentation in parenthetical diagram

{{comic
| number = 2793
| date = June 23, 2023
| title = Garden Path Sentence
| image = garden_path_sentence.png
| imagesize = 273x273px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Arboretum Owner Denied Standing in Garden Path Suit on Grounds Grounds Appealing Appealing
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a bird watcher strikes judge then modified by said strikes. Please add information here regarding what remains to be done for the article. (Clarity should be added to the first explanation. More possible explanations maybe should be added?)}}

A {{w|garden-path sentence}} is one in which the first or most obvious attempt at parsing the beginning of a sentence leads to the wrong meaning, causing confusion when the sentence is completed. A classic example of a garden path sentence is "The old man the boat.", leading to an initial incorrect parsing of "the old man" as a noun phrase, and therefore to assuming there is no verb before the noun "the boat". The actual correct way to parse this sentence is to treat "the old" as a noun and "man" as a verb, meaning "to crew", so the sentence means "The old people operate the boat."

Possible grammatically correct interpretations of the sentences in this comic are:

There was a court case regarding green walkways. The case was resolved with a sentence relating to an olive garden path. That sentence was vacated (cancelled) by a judge. That judge was flying an airplane. The airplane struck multiple birds. The plane overturned, but righted (turned right-side-up) and landed safely.

After (bird strikes)1, (judge)2, (who ordered)3 (olive garden-path sentence)4 in (case of green walkways)5 (vacated)3, (overturned but rights and lands safely.)2

# "[[wikipedia:bird strike|bird strike]]s": Airplane colliding with birds in flight, or alternatively "bird strikes" could refer to the strikes called by the Bird union that this judge was known for or involved in the ruling of.
# "judge ... overturned but rights and lands safely": The judge (and presumably the plane they were in) flipped over but was able to get right-side up again and land safely
# "who [[wikipedia:Court order|ordered]] [the sentence to be] [[:wikipedia:Vacated judgment|vacated]]": Identifies the judge as one who issued a ruling cancelling an earlier ruling.
# "[[wikipedia:Olive|olive]] garden path [[wikipedia:Sentence (law)|sentence]]": The thing that was cancelled was a punishment related to a path in an olive garden
# "[[wikipedia:Legal case|case]] of [[wikipedia:Greenway (landscape)|green walkways]]": The punishment was in a court case about shared-use walkways (likely the same paths listed above, which may have been placed in an olive garden)

This interpretation is backed by the images below the headline on the depicted newspaper which show an airplane and a map with apparently a flight path with two markings in between.

Another way to break it down is, "After [the] bird strikes, [the] judge... [is] overturned, but [she] rights and lands safely." And she was "[the] judge who ordered [that the] olive garden-path sentence" (the legal sentence concerning a path in an olive garden) "in" (what is known as) "[the] Case of [the] Green Walkways [be] vacated."

This comic also pokes fun at newspaper headlines, which typically have minimal punctuation or articles and use only capital letters, leading to such ambiguities.

For another valid parsing of the sentence, here are some explanatory notes that aid in understanding:
* A criminal court case occurred involving green-colored walkways.
* The sentence handed down in the case involved a specific walkway (a garden path) and a specific shade of green (olive).
* A certain judge had ordered that the sentence be vacated (a legal term meaning undone or expunged).
* That judge was recently piloting a plane which, due to being struck by birds, overturned.
* The judge righted the plane (turned it right-side-up) and landed safely.

A mostly similar, but slightly more comical interpretation (though less likely for a newspaper headline) can be:
After (a) bird strikes, (the) judge ... (as above) (is) overturned, but rights and lands safely. In this case, the judge is standing, a bird strikes her and she is overturned, but she manages to right herself and land safely on the ground (not banging her head, for instance).

Another way of diagramming this (where noun phrases are in parenthesis and verbal clauses in brackets) would be:
[ after
(bird strikes)
],
[ ( the judge
[ who ordered
( ( ( olive garden path)
sentence
)
[ in case of
(green walkways)
]
) be vacated
]
)
is overturned, but
[ (she) rights (herself) and
[lands safely]
]
].

Certain combinations of words in the sentence are particularly easy to parse incorrectly. For example:
* "bird" the headline is in all caps so this could be an avian but could also mean a person with the name of Bird such as Larry Bird the basketball player.
* "bird strikes judge" can be interpreted to mean that a bird deliberately hit the judge with an appendage or weapon. If bird is a person or other worker, the phrase might mean a labour dispute in which Bird is withdrawing services
* "Olive Garden" is the name of a restaurant chain, and "ordered Olive Garden" could mean "placed an order for food from Olive Garden"
* Olive Garden could be a person who was the subject of the case in question
* "Garden path sentence" is a type of (written language) sentence
* "Green" could be referring to "green" initiatives, environmentally-friendly practices being used or to the color green, rather than to a park area
* "in case of" can mean "in the event of" (e.g. "in case of emergency, break glass")
* "vacated" and "overturned" can both mean "undone" in a legal context, and "rights" can refer to legal or constitutional rights

Ignoring the pictures showing a plane and flight path and only focusing on the headline, it could also be interpreted this way:
* "After bird strikes judge", "overturned but rights and lands safely": an avian creature flew into the judge, and as it bounced off it was upside-down, but it managed to recover in time to go right-side-up to land nearby.
* "case of green walkways", "olive garden path sentence": There was a case about green walkways, and the ruling was for an olive garden path (or it is dubbed the "Olive Garden path sentence" for the restaurant chain, because it is strongly linked to the chain - either they wanted this sentence as it benefits them or the chain is notorious for it).
* "judge who ordered", "vacated": The aforementioned judge is known to people for ordering that the sentence be vacated (perhaps this was highly controversial), thus making this event significant enough to warrant a headline.

If one focuses on the word "judge", many of the phrases relate to legal proceedings, making the parsing of the sentence especially difficult:
* "strike": to remove or delete from a legal document and especially from the record of a trial
* "order": a direction issued by a court or a judge requiring a person to do or not do something
* "sentence": punishment assigned to a defendant found guilty by a court
* "case": a civil or criminal proceeding at law or in equity
* "vacate": to legally annul, set aside, or render void
* "overturn": to disagree with a decision made earlier by a lower court
* "rights": powers or privileges held by the general public as the result of a constitution, statute, regulation, judicial precedent, or other type of law

Furthermore, the word "lands" can have two meanings:
* The present simple variation of "to land": in the context of an airplane, to come down through the air and alight on the ground
* The plural of "land", a common issue in legal proceedings

The title text is also an example of a garden path sentence. The meaning is probably the following: Arboretum owner, [who was] denied [legal] standing in [the] garden-path [law]suit on grounds (the reason) [that the garden] grounds [are] appealing, [is] appealing [the ruling]. Alternatively: Arboretum owner, [who was] denied [legal] standing in [the] garden-path [law]suit on grounds (reasoning) grounds (why it was denied), [is] appealing appealing [the ruling].

==Transcript==
:[A newspaper titled ''News'' with two pictures on the front page: one showing a judge with an airplane in the background, and the other displaying a map depicting the airplane's route. Above the pictures there is the following headline, displayed in all capital letters:]
:AFTER BIRD STRIKES JUDGE WHO ORDERED OLIVE GARDEN PATH SENTENCE IN CASE OF GREEN WALKWAYS VACATED OVERTURNED BUT RIGHTS AND LANDS SAFELY

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]

Talk:2788: Musical Scales

2023-06-13T06:35:18Z

Quantum7: comment

Now I have to re-listen to In the Hall…; I think there are some errors here.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.212|172.71.146.212]] 01:23, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

The page says it was last edited about four hours from now. I'm wondering wether the lineage of in the hall... is worth mentioning. ie Grieg composed it for an Ibsen play. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.178|172.70.175.178]] 23:06, 12 June 2023 (UTC)

Can someone make a midi of Hall of the Mountain King but with an exponential time scale to "compensate" for the log transform? I want to hear a version that both starts and ends at 200 bpm. Is there any music that actually uses mathematically varying tempos? [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 06:35, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2769: Overlapping Circles

2023-04-29T05:25:22Z

Quantum7: lens shape

Incorrect. I’m sure there are set theorists who get excited about that shape who are not astronomers, and astronomers who get excited about that shape who are not set theorists, and people who get excited about it who are neither. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.35|162.158.91.35]] 23:16, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
:Hmmm, I'm not a set theorist, but I don't think that's what the Venn diagram is trying to say. My understanding is that both set theorists and astronomers get excited about that shape, not that only people who are both astronomers and set theorists would be excited. [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 23:20, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
::I agree with Alcatraz ii. The original poster has a point that there are people who agree neither set theorists nor astronomers and get excited about this shape, but a Venn diagram does not imply that the people in the overlapping section are both set theorists and astronomers. [[User:Python|Python]] ([[User talk:Python|talk]]) 23:31, 28 April 2023 (UTC)Python
:Actually, it does. That's what overlaps in a Venn diagram mean, it's the set of entities that satisfy both conditions. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:25, 29 April 2023 (UTC)
::You're right. People who get excited about the diagram would be the union of the two sets, not intersection. Unless Randall is saying that only astronomers who are also set theorists are so enamored of the two diagrams that they get excited about it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:52, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

On title text: I'm pretty sure that if two sets are represented by a single circle rater than two, it's no longer a Venn diagram but merely an Euler diagram. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.94.3|172.71.94.3]] 00:22, 29 April 2023 (UTC)
:A single circle can be either. Two (or more) intersecting circles/loops-of-whatever-shape can be either, but might disqualify themselves from being strict Venns if they do not exhibit exactly 2ⁿ different sub-regions from ''n'' basic standalone partitioning regions. (This includes the whole surrounding one, not within any single partition, which purists might deem needs an "everything else"-sort of label/manifest, if you're putting things inside other parts, but that maybe can be taken as read.)
:You can't but help having 2 regions (inside and outside) from an ''n''=1 circle. (And one region from being constrained by ''n''=0 partitioning boundaries!)
:It's once you have two or more that you start to get the Euler-not-Ven exceptions, like [[1180: Virus Venn Diagram|entirely unintersecting groups]] (notably misnamed, by this comic) or [[2721: Euler Diagrams|only partially supporting all groups]] (misnamed by Cueball, in-Universe), unless you make effort to have some (singly unique) areas covering [[2122: Size Venn Diagram|all combinations of all options]].
:But an annular eclipse probably doesn't count. In 9ne, you cannot see/infer a point upon the Moon's surface that is not also where the Sun 'is' – albeit obscured – though you do see bits of Sun-surface that have no Moon coincident to your view (during the phase of maximum coverage). One assumes that non-annular eclipses (or hypo-annular ones, where the Sun's bodily 'cross-section' is at a minimum compared to the Moon's) are just onzerved as perfect fits. And this must exclude the upper-atmosphere/corona of the Sun (the Bailey's Beads/Diamond Ring effects being the limiting factors), so that you theoretically have a single circle and announce to yourself that all that you see within that is on a sightline which intersects both Sun and Moon, and all sightlines outwith that circle intersect neither. No room in your defining diagram/worldview/skyview for one XOR the other (like having a region for "red cars", but handling red non-cars and non-red cars (and all things that are neither red nor a car) as possibilities. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.9|141.101.98.9]] 03:47, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

The shape formed by the intersection of two circles is called a lens. Lenses are also of interest to astronomers for telescope manufacture. A lens shape causes spherical aberation when used as an optical element, leading to the use of aspheric lenses and mirrors on higher quality telescopes. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 05:25, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

2761: 1-to-1 Scale

2023-04-17T23:49:45Z

Quantum7: /* Explanation */ Add image, courtesy of 172.69.194.80

{{comic
| number = 2761
| date = April 10, 2023
| title = 1-to-1 Scale
| image = 1_to_1_scale_2x.png
| imagesize = 444x281px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = There's a version that shows the planets with no cropping, but it's hard to find a display that supports it.
}}

==Explanation==

[[File:NASA_1-to-1_scale.png|200px|thumb|left|Scaled representation of the full diagram. The comic corresponds to a tiny rectangle at the intersection of all the planets.]]

This comic is implied to be a part of a huge diagram that shows each of the eight planets at real size (as seen by the ant on Earth's surface). Each planet is represented by a circle thousands of kilometers in diameter. However, the planets have been awkwardly placed in an extremely tight circle, so that all eight planets touch (or nearly touch) a tiny central area of "space" a few inches large. This comic shows a fraction of this diagram, cropped so that we see this area of "space" and a little of the edge of each planet intentionally arranged next to it.

The joke of this comic appears to be that when planets are indeed displayed at a 1:1 scale, it is almost impossible to tell their relative sizes, even when the image technically shows (part of) each of the planets

The reason why each planet's circular border appears straight is because it's such a small area of each planet: you're only seeing a couple of square inches of the surface of each of the planets, and even though they are all round, the curvature would be imperceptible on this scale. The four gas giants are completely smooth, whereas the four rocky planets display features, most notably on Earth where grass and an ant are visible.

That it cannot have been an image of the real planets aligning is clear, as Mercury can be shown to be in front of Jupiter (implying that the latter is in the part of its orbit on the far side of the Sun from the viewer), yet Jupiter obscures Earth (which necessitates that it be in the arc of orbit ''nearest'' any given observer). In the title text it is made clear that this is just a small part of a larger drawing, so this is not an image taken from far away – they are only placed this way for scale.

The title text remarks that it is hard to find a display that supports a version of the image without cropping. This is because a true 1:1 scale image showing all of the planets would be at least as big as the largest one, Jupiter - far larger than any monitor or display currently available[https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1164/how-big-is-the-solar-system/]. Furthermore, the amount of video memory that a graphics card would need to have in order to output at anywhere near the same {{w|Dots per inch|DPI}} to such a display, even as a 1-bit-per-pixel-image (i.e., all pixels are either black or white), is well beyond the capabilities of any graphic card that existed at the time of publication.{{cn}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|The main panel itself is missing explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A frame with a central area of black 'space', bounded at various intersecting angles by eight 'straight lines' representing planetary surfaces, originating from various out-of-frame angles of 'down' and the white of some bodies obscuring some part of the others.]
:[There are labels indicating which line represents each planet.]
:[The four gas-giants' lines are simply drawn, near straight and featureless.]
:[The lines for the rocky inner-planets have variations to them, stereotypical of some part of their surface.]
:[The "Earth" line ('down' being out the top of the frame) has a profile indicating various small-scale vegetation and also features the white sillouette of an ant that may be of a realistic size for your display.]
:[Caption below the panel:]
:The solar system's planets at 1:1 scale

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Space]]
[[Category:Comics_with_inverted_brightness]]

File:NASA 1-to-1 scale.png

2023-04-17T23:46:40Z

Quantum7: Zoomed-out visualization of 2761: 1-to-1 Scale Images provided by [https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/686/solar-system-sizes/ NASA/Lunar and Planetary Institute]. Public Domain. Composited by 172.69.194.80

Zoomed-out visualization of [[2761: 1-to-1 Scale]]

Images provided by [https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/686/solar-system-sizes/ NASA/Lunar and Planetary Institute]. Public Domain.
Composited by [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.80|172.69.194.80]]

Talk:2761: 1-to-1 Scale

2023-04-17T23:36:54Z

Quantum7: Correction: image is by 172.69.194.80 not Flekkie

Really want an explanation for this one. [[User:JobbieJimmies|Melomaniac]] ([[User talk:JobbieJimmies|talk]]) 03:23, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

My comment got deleted by a bot!!! [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 03:23, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:RIP... [[User:JobbieJimmies|Melomaniac]] ([[User talk:JobbieJimmies|talk]]) 03:25, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:No, UC, it just got overwritten by the 'bot, when it did its job and (re)created the whole initial state of the various pages to depict the new comic coming out. (Noting that you'd not set them all up fully/correctly.)
:That you had spotted it already and had ''just'' gotten in ahead of the 'bot clearly isn't something it was prepared to handle. But as someone spotting it can usually wait a short while for the 'bot to catch up, I don't think it's a problem. In fact, you could have just copied your old contributions into the now receptive page(s), with nary any comment. Too late now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.101|172.70.90.101]] 03:44, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:: This may have broken the next link on the previous page. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.36|172.71.160.36]] 06:41, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

The lines represent the surfaces of the planets I think, so it's basically all the planets overlaid on top of each other. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.35|172.71.142.35]] 03:28, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:Yup, I think it's what he meant - but I find it unlikely that the gas giants would have this clear cutoff of a "surface". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.189.241|162.158.189.241]] 03:34, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::If there is a gas - liquid phase transition (and I think at least the gas giants have them): Why not? OK, you could see "rain" as blurring a clear cutoff, but wouldn't that also apply to Earth, then?[[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 08:04, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:::Gas giants' diameters are frequently defined at the average radius at which the atmosphere has a pressure of 1 bar (approximately equal to the pressure at sea level on Earth). There's not a physical edge there, like the boundary between the ground and the atmosphere on a rocky planet, but it is a reasonably well-defined (or, at least, define-able) measurement. FWIW, the pressure gradient is pretty high, and Jupiter's atmospheric pressure increases from 1 bar to 10 bar over about 100 km, which is about 0.1% of the radius, so it's fairly insensitive to the pressure you choose.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.139|162.158.158.139]] 16:20, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

I’d think the same citation as stands for ridiculously large would also cover larger than currently exists on earth, and his that citation is not in fact needed? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.186|162.158.174.186]] 06:53, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:It seems like the gas-covered worlds are explicitly those with clearly cutoff "surfaces," so maybe in those cases the cutoff is some specific gas density -- which occurs at a consistent radius throughout the planet, thus creating a flat surface. While for rocky worlds (except Venus, which is treated like a gas planet here), a density cutoff can lead to bumpiness due to terrain. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:57, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::Correct re: gas giants. Typically 1 bar, which is approximately Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.139|162.158.158.139]] 16:20, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
:: just to be very clear (this being a explanation site!) that Venus is "treated like a gas giant" because of it's thick atmosphere. It would be just as correct to say "All the gas giants are treated like Venus" After all, ordinary telescopes couldn't take a picture that sees through any atmospheres, except Earth, where you'd see clouds but often surface where clouds don't appear. Sorry if that's an overexplanation [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 19:10, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

On Twitter there seems to be concern that all planets are depicted flat. This may make this a contribution/mockery of the ongoing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth Flat Earth] discussions in some corners of the internet. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.132|198.41.242.132]] 06:49, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:You can't see the curvature of the Earth when standing on it; doesn't mean it's flat. Since we're looking at the planets at a 1:1 scale, we're literally only seeing a couple of inches of each of their edges (notwithstanding the whole gas-giants-don't-have-a-sharp-edge issue). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.20|162.158.239.20]] 12:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:actually you can see it, standing on the shore of any large lake on a calm day looking at a shore that's ~6.5 miles (10.5km) away. You'll lose ~8ft (2.5m) below the horizon - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.213|162.158.186.213]] 13:55, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

The display for an uncropped version of the image would not only be larger than any display on earth. It would be larger than earth. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.243|162.158.86.243]] 06:59, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:By necessity, at least as large as Jupiter. Maybe slightly above two Jupiters (max dimension squared compared to display height*width of any common aspect ratio) if you wanted to not overlay any of the others at all. And make the lower limit a packing-problem, then add a buffer so there isn't the actual need for any to touch. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.253|172.70.90.253]] 10:02, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::I'm going to add that. Someone was confused enough to put {{cite needed}} there, which may be a joke onto itself?, I can't tell. I've removed the cite needed, but I guess it needs to be more clear why it's totally nonsensical and doesn't need a citation? [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 19:16, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:::The four inner planets are small enough to fit the upper left corner of any display big enough for Jupiter. As Uranus and Neptune are smaller than the latter one, they cannot extend past its top, bottom or right edge in the constellation shown, so they will not need additonal screen space either. Only Saturn is shifted so far to the left that he will require more width than Jupiter itself, but will still fit within the same height. Knowing Randall, the shown angles are not random, but were calculated to match a commercial available display ratio with Saturn placed touching the left edge and Jupiter touching the top, bottom and right edges. 16:9 or 16:10 at 142 km hight would be a fair guess, so I would not rule out 4:3 resulting in total width significantly smaller than two Jupiters. Of course Randall might also be playing hardcore nerd: The outer diameter of Saturns F ring, which is almost always included in representations, has almost exactly a ratio of 32:9 to Jupiters polar diameter, making a picture showing the former in front of the latter a perfect match for those new fancy double wide monitors. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.77|162.158.111.77]] 00:22, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

:What can we use as a citation for the graphics card? I couldn't find a single unified source for that concept, but stitched together some information to cover this:
:The world's largest digital display is the Fremont Street Experience, at 457m by 27m, which is about 12,000 sq meters. It has 16.4 megapixels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_video_screens
:The mean radius of Jupiter is about 70x10^6 m, so its area is roughly 1.5x10^16 sq meters.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter
:That means the world's largest digital display would only provide a 7.8x10^-13 fraction of the area of Jupiter.
:Going with NVIDIA's Titan V, which has Total Video Memory of 12288 MB, that would mean it could handle about 98x10^9 black-and-white (1 bit) pixels.
:Using the pixel density of the world's largest digital display (16.4 megapixels), scaling it up by its 12000 sq meters to the area of Jupiter (1.5x10^6 sq meters), that comes out to 2.1x10^19 1-bit pixels. So, we would somehow need about 2.1x10^8 of those graphics cards working together to handle our Jupiter-sized display.
:That display wouldn't even be at HD resolution, let alone 4K. Then again, if we use Apple's "Retina" designation that is dependent on reasonable viewing distance, that might be acceptable. [[User:DanShock|DanShock]] ([[User talk:DanShock|talk]]) 20:22, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

1-to-1 scale means 'assume all planets are the same size,' right? I see Earth's grass is shown to be as large as Martian rocks, because Earth is a third again as large. (At the scale where grass is visible, Earth looks flat.) At first I thought the point was that altitude variation in cloud-tops varied so little that a gas giant shrunk down to Earth size would be featureless and have a distinct edge, but that's wrong. Ground isn't cloud-tops. Do gas giants have any solid ground? We've seen Jupiter eat comets, and it makes sense they would've collected at least some minerals and metals. According to [[https://www.teachastronomy.com/textbook/The-Giant-Planets-and-Their-Moons/Internal-Structure-of-the-Gas-Giant-Planets/|Teach Astronomy]], gas giants have Earth-sized solid cores. I'm guessing gas giants' immense gravity compresses their cores into featureless spheres, which, if scaled to Earth-size and viewed at the scale where one could see grass, would look flat. Yes?
[[User:EllenNB|EllenNB]] ([[User talk:EllenNB|talk]]) 10:14, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:Gravity itself won't compress (and 'flatten') the cores. "Shell theory" shows that gravitational force only counts from the proportion of the body that is within the radius of the bit you're concerned with. But there'll also be the external pressure (from being at the bottom of a thick atmosphere that ultimately ''is'' above far more of the planetary mass) and possibly a degree of compression density to make any Earth-sized core slightly heavier than if it was just a bare core of the same size but shorn of outer layers.
:As to flatness, I can take you to very flat stretches of Earth and very lumpy bits (depends which direction I go, from where I am now), all within 30 minutes' drive. We can'teven know how representative a sample of planetary cross-sections we are seeing (once we get over the issues of gas/space boundaries for gas-giants), but I bet there are bits that resemble the diagram... If you ''really'' want it to be so real. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.87|172.71.242.87]] 11:05, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:No, 1-to-1 means that they are actual size, not the same size. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 13:37, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

There are several pieces of information here that are featured but don't make sense to me. What's the function of the dark polygon in the center? Why are the lines showing each surface going in random directions? Why is the surface of each planet so flat at a full scale rendition? When I look out my window at full sized Earth, it's not flat. It's quite bumpy, actually. But perhaps he doesn't mean these are full size, he might be saying that they're all shrunk, but the same amount, so 1:1:1:1:1... but even then, I'm totally lost.

"What's the function of the dark polygon in the center?"
I think it is a view of the dark sky, "above" the surface of the Earth, Mars, etc. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 11:43, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:I think the "polygon" is a grassy Earth itself, with the white above it sky. Earth is the rearmost planet pictured. Then in front of Earth, on all sides except the top, are the overlays of the various planets, what little of each one as can fit. But then maybe the polygon is night starry sky, and Earth is the white area above it. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:35, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::No, the polygon is the sky. Zoom in and you see the Milky Way and stars and other space stuff. And the ant on the Earth has its legs pointing upwards (in the reference frame of the image). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.26|162.158.239.26]] 03:09, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
:::Agreed. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 13:43, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

Is this an ant on earth, over the letters "EA" ? On my monitor, set for my less-than-perfect vision, it is 15mm long, which (at a 1:1 scale) makes it a cow ant, or a large african ant. I guess people with normal vision get fire and carpenter ants instead? And those on smartphones get pavement ants?[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.73|172.68.50.73]] 11:00, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:I do believe it is! It's 6 mm on my desktop monitor and 3 mm on my phone. We also don't know what side of the Earth we're looking at, so I suppose it could really be any ant, including the one in your local area. I like to think it's a black garden ant (''Lasius niger''), since I'm most familiar with those :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.25|162.158.239.25]] 12:16, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:: The image metadata suggests 80dpi for the image. The ant is around 20px long, so the ant is 6.35 mm long. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 23:21, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

It took me a good while to figure out this one; I don't normally need to come here, but this one stumped me at first. (The comments as of right now weren't too illuminating either.) I think the lack of color was an issue; I first thought the black polygon in the center was the earth, and then interpreted the various lines as a really weird diagram type I'd never seen before, like a phase diagram or something; I also considered one-dimensional planets. [https://imgur.com/a/yJOYvk1 I colored in the planets to aid me.] The way I now interpret this one is thus: imagine an observer sitting a tremendous distance away from the solar system, and they have a camera with an extremely supremely highly zooming telephoto lens. Then a lining-up of all eight planets happens – I believe this is impossible IRL (because of resonances or something), but just go with it. The observer manages to snap this incredible image of a teeny tiny spot of the sky, which simultaneously manages to include the very very edges of all the planets as well as some of the sky behind them all. The sky is the black polygon: it has nebulae and stars. Neptune is in front of Uranus, and that as well as Mercury are in front of Saturn, which is in front of both Jupiter and Mars; Venus is between Mercury, Mars and the Earth, and the Earth is also behind Jupiter. The reason why these are all so smooth is because it's such a small area: we're literally only seeing a couple of square inches of the surface of each of the rocky planets. (See, you can see an individual ant on the Earth. Go to the most rugged mountain range you can find and observe a couple of square inches; it'll be locally flat.) The lack of atmospheres on the rocky planets as well as the hard edges of the gas giants are artistic license. This one is a member of the genre of "true yet unhelpful diagrams"; I'm surprised that isn't a category on this wiki. – [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.4|162.158.238.4]] 12:58, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

((Written whilst 162.158.238.4 was editing, above, and I got an edit conflict on that. The editor concerned touches on this ordering business, but I'm pasting my original in unaltered, not rejigged as a more focused reply.)) I was wondering abut the "overlap order" for a while, until I twigged it. May not be worth officially documenting, but my analysis, showing that (perhaps depending upon specific orbital positions, during a given range of times, which can of course be checked) it's ''probably'' based upon distance away from Earth.
*Earth is bottom-most. Could be 1st/2nd, shared with Mars, as their overlap isn't shown.
*Mars is our nearest neighbour. (As above, could be 1st ''or'' 2nd on stack.)
*Venus next. Although it could be 7th (only obscured by Mercury) or anywhere else down to 3rd.
*Jupiter as 4th from bottom. (''Could'' be 3rd..5th, though.)
*Saturn takes 5th-up position. (4th..6th)
*Mercury as 6th. (Or all the way to topmost, but I made an assumption about its relationship to the last two.)
*Uranus as 7th. (6th/7th a possibility, depends on Mercury)
*Neptune as 8th. (7th/8th possible, Mercury again.)
...or at least that's what my mental notes tell me. Not helped by starting off counting from near to far and possibly messing up my numbers when I realised it made sense to flip them. It could also be "delta-V needed to reach the planet concerned" (either without or ''including'' flyby slingshot momentum borrowing/burning), but that's something I'd also need to check. I doubt it really needs tying down/Explaining, and when I edited the Transcript I decided not to record every nuance of the "variously orientated surfaces", as I think it adds nothing so long as the description gives the general idea. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.121|141.101.98.121]] 13:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

So no one is going to mention that for the clarity depicted you'd need to literally place the planets inside of each other, or have some sort of focal length from zero to infinity? I'm not sure if that bothers me more or less than the missed trick of making the length of ground shown relate to some comparative parameter (albedo might have been a fun one) - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.213|162.158.186.213]] 13:55, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:To be fair, you're also going to have to choose a "flat" few inches of surface that stands proud of the local geography (such that anything higher is below the curvature of the Earth for its proximity), and deal with an impossible resolution of an impossibly zoomed telephoto shot from a viewpoint unimaginably distant (''whilst'' a near-enough non-Solar conjunction/asterism is happening, or at least was, when the light passed each body), without significant atmospheric distortion (which is a relatively minor issue, compared with the scarcity of photons that reach the camera ''anyway'').
:Can we perhaps instead assume that these are just individual 1:1-scale cross-sectional diagrams (or even carefully curated local photos) drawn together into a hybrid image to accurately retain the scaling verisimilitude, and individual contexts, but happily faking the relative positions? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.56|172.70.85.56]] 15:00, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

It would take some work to check, but I'm wondering if the angle of the horizons of the various planets are perpendicular to the line made between the earth and the planet in question [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.141|162.158.154.141]] 15:36, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

This is how I interpret this image: [https://imgur.com/a/WwdbXkN I didn't want to make the black dot as small as in the picture so dimensions are insanely larger] [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.80|172.69.194.80]] 20:35, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
: that is a very clarifying picture, thank you! Shall we include it on the explanation page? It belongs there IMO [[User:Flekkie|Flekkie]] ([[User talk:Flekkie|talk]]) 22:19, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:: You may by me. The original picture is from NASA https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/686/solar-system-sizes/ and they have no restrictive copyright either. I view this picture as 2D planets stacked and not real planets viewed in space since this is clearly impossible orientation and you couldn't see half the planets, let alone ant on Earth's surface, from behind Neptunes orbit [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.26|162.158.239.26]] 10:43, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
::: I calculated the positions of the planets based off the same idea and created a [https://gist.githubusercontent.com/sbliven/83324f3d59f7733828191733cd62ee00/raw/a47df59fa229a4df37a6115b3c52b91290cbb56e/1_to_many_scale.svg similar figure] mathematically ([https://gist.github.com/sbliven/83324f3d59f7733828191733cd62ee00 source code]). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.80|172.69.194.80]]'s version differs very slightly: the "window" is exaggerated a bit (all planets should meet at this scale) and Mars is visible rather than being behind Venus/Satern. However as it is much prettier with the NASA images I suggest we include [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.80|172.69.194.80]]'s in the main explaination. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 23:34, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

: Is this right though? Based off the image Mercury is in front of Saturn. For this to happen, Mercury has to be closer distance wise, so Saturn has to be on the opposite side of the sun. But that can't be true if Saturn is in front of Jupiter and behind Uranus/Neptune?

I don't like the current explanation, since the planets never line up like this. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.40|162.158.203.40]] 07:11, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

This is truly one of the comics of all time. AzureArmageddon 08:48, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

We have a 1::1 bird book, where each page has a photo of the bird (or a portion of the bird, in case of flamingos) at 1::1 scale. This comic is a play on those books. -- Bob Jenkins [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.174|172.71.150.174]] 15:25, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
:Regarding the flamingo, and anything else bigger than the book, what a waste of an opportunity for a fold-out section..! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 18:58, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

This image is only going to be 1:1 scale on a really large display too; The grass on Earth is around a centimeter in length when the image is full-screen on my 27" (68.58 cm) monitor, while it's clear from the way it is depicted that it is supposed to be long grass, at least 50 centimeters in length. That means that the display which would make this truly 1:1 is about 50 times larger than mine, or in other words has a diagonal of about 34 m. This is bigger than a typical cinema screen, but I suppose not that much bigger and there ought to be cinemas in which one can display this image such that it is truly 1:1. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.87.66|162.158.87.66]] 06:27, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
:The ant is 'about right' for a possible ant even on my display (8"/20cm). If that would be 0.5m long grass, the ant would be truly huge, nothing like the typical ones around here. Which I think are actually smaller (certainly more svelte) than the image, if I wandered down the garden path to find an actual ant or three in the 'wild'.
:So I don't think that's long grass of the kind you're assuming. But it does resemble the kind of 'pre-grass' (one step up from mosses) or microscrub (effectively bonzaied grass due to local growing conditions) to be found on a bit of semi-fresh dusty hardcore/well-worn footpath, as also shown by the loose stoney debris also present. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 09:50, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2761: 1-to-1 Scale

2023-04-17T23:34:12Z

Quantum7: Another scaled image showing all planets

Really want an explanation for this one. [[User:JobbieJimmies|Melomaniac]] ([[User talk:JobbieJimmies|talk]]) 03:23, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

My comment got deleted by a bot!!! [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 03:23, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:RIP... [[User:JobbieJimmies|Melomaniac]] ([[User talk:JobbieJimmies|talk]]) 03:25, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:No, UC, it just got overwritten by the 'bot, when it did its job and (re)created the whole initial state of the various pages to depict the new comic coming out. (Noting that you'd not set them all up fully/correctly.)
:That you had spotted it already and had ''just'' gotten in ahead of the 'bot clearly isn't something it was prepared to handle. But as someone spotting it can usually wait a short while for the 'bot to catch up, I don't think it's a problem. In fact, you could have just copied your old contributions into the now receptive page(s), with nary any comment. Too late now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.101|172.70.90.101]] 03:44, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:: This may have broken the next link on the previous page. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.36|172.71.160.36]] 06:41, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

The lines represent the surfaces of the planets I think, so it's basically all the planets overlaid on top of each other. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.35|172.71.142.35]] 03:28, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:Yup, I think it's what he meant - but I find it unlikely that the gas giants would have this clear cutoff of a "surface". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.189.241|162.158.189.241]] 03:34, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::If there is a gas - liquid phase transition (and I think at least the gas giants have them): Why not? OK, you could see "rain" as blurring a clear cutoff, but wouldn't that also apply to Earth, then?[[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 08:04, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:::Gas giants' diameters are frequently defined at the average radius at which the atmosphere has a pressure of 1 bar (approximately equal to the pressure at sea level on Earth). There's not a physical edge there, like the boundary between the ground and the atmosphere on a rocky planet, but it is a reasonably well-defined (or, at least, define-able) measurement. FWIW, the pressure gradient is pretty high, and Jupiter's atmospheric pressure increases from 1 bar to 10 bar over about 100 km, which is about 0.1% of the radius, so it's fairly insensitive to the pressure you choose.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.139|162.158.158.139]] 16:20, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

I’d think the same citation as stands for ridiculously large would also cover larger than currently exists on earth, and his that citation is not in fact needed? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.186|162.158.174.186]] 06:53, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:It seems like the gas-covered worlds are explicitly those with clearly cutoff "surfaces," so maybe in those cases the cutoff is some specific gas density -- which occurs at a consistent radius throughout the planet, thus creating a flat surface. While for rocky worlds (except Venus, which is treated like a gas planet here), a density cutoff can lead to bumpiness due to terrain. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:57, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::Correct re: gas giants. Typically 1 bar, which is approximately Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.139|162.158.158.139]] 16:20, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
:: just to be very clear (this being a explanation site!) that Venus is "treated like a gas giant" because of it's thick atmosphere. It would be just as correct to say "All the gas giants are treated like Venus" After all, ordinary telescopes couldn't take a picture that sees through any atmospheres, except Earth, where you'd see clouds but often surface where clouds don't appear. Sorry if that's an overexplanation [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 19:10, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

On Twitter there seems to be concern that all planets are depicted flat. This may make this a contribution/mockery of the ongoing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth Flat Earth] discussions in some corners of the internet. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.132|198.41.242.132]] 06:49, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:You can't see the curvature of the Earth when standing on it; doesn't mean it's flat. Since we're looking at the planets at a 1:1 scale, we're literally only seeing a couple of inches of each of their edges (notwithstanding the whole gas-giants-don't-have-a-sharp-edge issue). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.20|162.158.239.20]] 12:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:actually you can see it, standing on the shore of any large lake on a calm day looking at a shore that's ~6.5 miles (10.5km) away. You'll lose ~8ft (2.5m) below the horizon - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.213|162.158.186.213]] 13:55, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

The display for an uncropped version of the image would not only be larger than any display on earth. It would be larger than earth. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.243|162.158.86.243]] 06:59, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:By necessity, at least as large as Jupiter. Maybe slightly above two Jupiters (max dimension squared compared to display height*width of any common aspect ratio) if you wanted to not overlay any of the others at all. And make the lower limit a packing-problem, then add a buffer so there isn't the actual need for any to touch. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.253|172.70.90.253]] 10:02, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::I'm going to add that. Someone was confused enough to put {{cite needed}} there, which may be a joke onto itself?, I can't tell. I've removed the cite needed, but I guess it needs to be more clear why it's totally nonsensical and doesn't need a citation? [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 19:16, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:::The four inner planets are small enough to fit the upper left corner of any display big enough for Jupiter. As Uranus and Neptune are smaller than the latter one, they cannot extend past its top, bottom or right edge in the constellation shown, so they will not need additonal screen space either. Only Saturn is shifted so far to the left that he will require more width than Jupiter itself, but will still fit within the same height. Knowing Randall, the shown angles are not random, but were calculated to match a commercial available display ratio with Saturn placed touching the left edge and Jupiter touching the top, bottom and right edges. 16:9 or 16:10 at 142 km hight would be a fair guess, so I would not rule out 4:3 resulting in total width significantly smaller than two Jupiters. Of course Randall might also be playing hardcore nerd: The outer diameter of Saturns F ring, which is almost always included in representations, has almost exactly a ratio of 32:9 to Jupiters polar diameter, making a picture showing the former in front of the latter a perfect match for those new fancy double wide monitors. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.77|162.158.111.77]] 00:22, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

:What can we use as a citation for the graphics card? I couldn't find a single unified source for that concept, but stitched together some information to cover this:
:The world's largest digital display is the Fremont Street Experience, at 457m by 27m, which is about 12,000 sq meters. It has 16.4 megapixels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_video_screens
:The mean radius of Jupiter is about 70x10^6 m, so its area is roughly 1.5x10^16 sq meters.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter
:That means the world's largest digital display would only provide a 7.8x10^-13 fraction of the area of Jupiter.
:Going with NVIDIA's Titan V, which has Total Video Memory of 12288 MB, that would mean it could handle about 98x10^9 black-and-white (1 bit) pixels.
:Using the pixel density of the world's largest digital display (16.4 megapixels), scaling it up by its 12000 sq meters to the area of Jupiter (1.5x10^6 sq meters), that comes out to 2.1x10^19 1-bit pixels. So, we would somehow need about 2.1x10^8 of those graphics cards working together to handle our Jupiter-sized display.
:That display wouldn't even be at HD resolution, let alone 4K. Then again, if we use Apple's "Retina" designation that is dependent on reasonable viewing distance, that might be acceptable. [[User:DanShock|DanShock]] ([[User talk:DanShock|talk]]) 20:22, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

1-to-1 scale means 'assume all planets are the same size,' right? I see Earth's grass is shown to be as large as Martian rocks, because Earth is a third again as large. (At the scale where grass is visible, Earth looks flat.) At first I thought the point was that altitude variation in cloud-tops varied so little that a gas giant shrunk down to Earth size would be featureless and have a distinct edge, but that's wrong. Ground isn't cloud-tops. Do gas giants have any solid ground? We've seen Jupiter eat comets, and it makes sense they would've collected at least some minerals and metals. According to [[https://www.teachastronomy.com/textbook/The-Giant-Planets-and-Their-Moons/Internal-Structure-of-the-Gas-Giant-Planets/|Teach Astronomy]], gas giants have Earth-sized solid cores. I'm guessing gas giants' immense gravity compresses their cores into featureless spheres, which, if scaled to Earth-size and viewed at the scale where one could see grass, would look flat. Yes?
[[User:EllenNB|EllenNB]] ([[User talk:EllenNB|talk]]) 10:14, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:Gravity itself won't compress (and 'flatten') the cores. "Shell theory" shows that gravitational force only counts from the proportion of the body that is within the radius of the bit you're concerned with. But there'll also be the external pressure (from being at the bottom of a thick atmosphere that ultimately ''is'' above far more of the planetary mass) and possibly a degree of compression density to make any Earth-sized core slightly heavier than if it was just a bare core of the same size but shorn of outer layers.
:As to flatness, I can take you to very flat stretches of Earth and very lumpy bits (depends which direction I go, from where I am now), all within 30 minutes' drive. We can'teven know how representative a sample of planetary cross-sections we are seeing (once we get over the issues of gas/space boundaries for gas-giants), but I bet there are bits that resemble the diagram... If you ''really'' want it to be so real. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.87|172.71.242.87]] 11:05, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:No, 1-to-1 means that they are actual size, not the same size. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 13:37, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

There are several pieces of information here that are featured but don't make sense to me. What's the function of the dark polygon in the center? Why are the lines showing each surface going in random directions? Why is the surface of each planet so flat at a full scale rendition? When I look out my window at full sized Earth, it's not flat. It's quite bumpy, actually. But perhaps he doesn't mean these are full size, he might be saying that they're all shrunk, but the same amount, so 1:1:1:1:1... but even then, I'm totally lost.

"What's the function of the dark polygon in the center?"
I think it is a view of the dark sky, "above" the surface of the Earth, Mars, etc. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 11:43, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:I think the "polygon" is a grassy Earth itself, with the white above it sky. Earth is the rearmost planet pictured. Then in front of Earth, on all sides except the top, are the overlays of the various planets, what little of each one as can fit. But then maybe the polygon is night starry sky, and Earth is the white area above it. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:35, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::No, the polygon is the sky. Zoom in and you see the Milky Way and stars and other space stuff. And the ant on the Earth has its legs pointing upwards (in the reference frame of the image). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.26|162.158.239.26]] 03:09, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
:::Agreed. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 13:43, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

Is this an ant on earth, over the letters "EA" ? On my monitor, set for my less-than-perfect vision, it is 15mm long, which (at a 1:1 scale) makes it a cow ant, or a large african ant. I guess people with normal vision get fire and carpenter ants instead? And those on smartphones get pavement ants?[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.73|172.68.50.73]] 11:00, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:I do believe it is! It's 6 mm on my desktop monitor and 3 mm on my phone. We also don't know what side of the Earth we're looking at, so I suppose it could really be any ant, including the one in your local area. I like to think it's a black garden ant (''Lasius niger''), since I'm most familiar with those :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.25|162.158.239.25]] 12:16, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:: The image metadata suggests 80dpi for the image. The ant is around 20px long, so the ant is 6.35 mm long. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 23:21, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

It took me a good while to figure out this one; I don't normally need to come here, but this one stumped me at first. (The comments as of right now weren't too illuminating either.) I think the lack of color was an issue; I first thought the black polygon in the center was the earth, and then interpreted the various lines as a really weird diagram type I'd never seen before, like a phase diagram or something; I also considered one-dimensional planets. [https://imgur.com/a/yJOYvk1 I colored in the planets to aid me.] The way I now interpret this one is thus: imagine an observer sitting a tremendous distance away from the solar system, and they have a camera with an extremely supremely highly zooming telephoto lens. Then a lining-up of all eight planets happens – I believe this is impossible IRL (because of resonances or something), but just go with it. The observer manages to snap this incredible image of a teeny tiny spot of the sky, which simultaneously manages to include the very very edges of all the planets as well as some of the sky behind them all. The sky is the black polygon: it has nebulae and stars. Neptune is in front of Uranus, and that as well as Mercury are in front of Saturn, which is in front of both Jupiter and Mars; Venus is between Mercury, Mars and the Earth, and the Earth is also behind Jupiter. The reason why these are all so smooth is because it's such a small area: we're literally only seeing a couple of square inches of the surface of each of the rocky planets. (See, you can see an individual ant on the Earth. Go to the most rugged mountain range you can find and observe a couple of square inches; it'll be locally flat.) The lack of atmospheres on the rocky planets as well as the hard edges of the gas giants are artistic license. This one is a member of the genre of "true yet unhelpful diagrams"; I'm surprised that isn't a category on this wiki. – [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.4|162.158.238.4]] 12:58, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

((Written whilst 162.158.238.4 was editing, above, and I got an edit conflict on that. The editor concerned touches on this ordering business, but I'm pasting my original in unaltered, not rejigged as a more focused reply.)) I was wondering abut the "overlap order" for a while, until I twigged it. May not be worth officially documenting, but my analysis, showing that (perhaps depending upon specific orbital positions, during a given range of times, which can of course be checked) it's ''probably'' based upon distance away from Earth.
*Earth is bottom-most. Could be 1st/2nd, shared with Mars, as their overlap isn't shown.
*Mars is our nearest neighbour. (As above, could be 1st ''or'' 2nd on stack.)
*Venus next. Although it could be 7th (only obscured by Mercury) or anywhere else down to 3rd.
*Jupiter as 4th from bottom. (''Could'' be 3rd..5th, though.)
*Saturn takes 5th-up position. (4th..6th)
*Mercury as 6th. (Or all the way to topmost, but I made an assumption about its relationship to the last two.)
*Uranus as 7th. (6th/7th a possibility, depends on Mercury)
*Neptune as 8th. (7th/8th possible, Mercury again.)
...or at least that's what my mental notes tell me. Not helped by starting off counting from near to far and possibly messing up my numbers when I realised it made sense to flip them. It could also be "delta-V needed to reach the planet concerned" (either without or ''including'' flyby slingshot momentum borrowing/burning), but that's something I'd also need to check. I doubt it really needs tying down/Explaining, and when I edited the Transcript I decided not to record every nuance of the "variously orientated surfaces", as I think it adds nothing so long as the description gives the general idea. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.121|141.101.98.121]] 13:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

So no one is going to mention that for the clarity depicted you'd need to literally place the planets inside of each other, or have some sort of focal length from zero to infinity? I'm not sure if that bothers me more or less than the missed trick of making the length of ground shown relate to some comparative parameter (albedo might have been a fun one) - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.213|162.158.186.213]] 13:55, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:To be fair, you're also going to have to choose a "flat" few inches of surface that stands proud of the local geography (such that anything higher is below the curvature of the Earth for its proximity), and deal with an impossible resolution of an impossibly zoomed telephoto shot from a viewpoint unimaginably distant (''whilst'' a near-enough non-Solar conjunction/asterism is happening, or at least was, when the light passed each body), without significant atmospheric distortion (which is a relatively minor issue, compared with the scarcity of photons that reach the camera ''anyway'').
:Can we perhaps instead assume that these are just individual 1:1-scale cross-sectional diagrams (or even carefully curated local photos) drawn together into a hybrid image to accurately retain the scaling verisimilitude, and individual contexts, but happily faking the relative positions? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.56|172.70.85.56]] 15:00, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

It would take some work to check, but I'm wondering if the angle of the horizons of the various planets are perpendicular to the line made between the earth and the planet in question [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.141|162.158.154.141]] 15:36, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

This is how I interpret this image: [https://imgur.com/a/WwdbXkN I didn't want to make the black dot as small as in the picture so dimensions are insanely larger] [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.80|172.69.194.80]] 20:35, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
: that is a very clarifying picture, thank you! Shall we include it on the explanation page? It belongs there IMO [[User:Flekkie|Flekkie]] ([[User talk:Flekkie|talk]]) 22:19, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:: You may by me. The original picture is from NASA https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/686/solar-system-sizes/ and they have no restrictive copyright either. I view this picture as 2D planets stacked and not real planets viewed in space since this is clearly impossible orientation and you couldn't see half the planets, let alone ant on Earth's surface, from behind Neptunes orbit [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.26|162.158.239.26]] 10:43, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
::: I calculated the positions of the planets based off the same idea and created a [https://gist.githubusercontent.com/sbliven/83324f3d59f7733828191733cd62ee00/raw/a47df59fa229a4df37a6115b3c52b91290cbb56e/1_to_many_scale.svg similar figure] mathematically ([https://gist.github.com/sbliven/83324f3d59f7733828191733cd62ee00 source code]). [[User:Flekkie|Flekkie]]'s version differs very slightly: the "window" is exaggerated a bit (all planets should meet at this scale) and Mars is visible rather than being behind Venus/Satern. However as it is much prettier with the NASA images I suggest we include Flekkie's in the main explaination. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 23:34, 17 April 2023 (UTC)
: Is this right though? Based off the image Mercury is in front of Saturn. For this to happen, Mercury has to be closer distance wise, so Saturn has to be on the opposite side of the sun. But that can't be true if Saturn is in front of Jupiter and behind Uranus/Neptune?

I don't like the current explanation, since the planets never line up like this. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.40|162.158.203.40]] 07:11, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

This is truly one of the comics of all time. AzureArmageddon 08:48, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

We have a 1::1 bird book, where each page has a photo of the bird (or a portion of the bird, in case of flamingos) at 1::1 scale. This comic is a play on those books. -- Bob Jenkins [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.174|172.71.150.174]] 15:25, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
:Regarding the flamingo, and anything else bigger than the book, what a waste of an opportunity for a fold-out section..! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 18:58, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

This image is only going to be 1:1 scale on a really large display too; The grass on Earth is around a centimeter in length when the image is full-screen on my 27" (68.58 cm) monitor, while it's clear from the way it is depicted that it is supposed to be long grass, at least 50 centimeters in length. That means that the display which would make this truly 1:1 is about 50 times larger than mine, or in other words has a diagonal of about 34 m. This is bigger than a typical cinema screen, but I suppose not that much bigger and there ought to be cinemas in which one can display this image such that it is truly 1:1. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.87.66|162.158.87.66]] 06:27, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
:The ant is 'about right' for a possible ant even on my display (8"/20cm). If that would be 0.5m long grass, the ant would be truly huge, nothing like the typical ones around here. Which I think are actually smaller (certainly more svelte) than the image, if I wandered down the garden path to find an actual ant or three in the 'wild'.
:So I don't think that's long grass of the kind you're assuming. But it does resemble the kind of 'pre-grass' (one step up from mosses) or microscrub (effectively bonzaied grass due to local growing conditions) to be found on a bit of semi-fresh dusty hardcore/well-worn footpath, as also shown by the loose stoney debris also present. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 09:50, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2761: 1-to-1 Scale

2023-04-17T23:21:25Z

Quantum7: Adding signature for previous comment

Really want an explanation for this one. [[User:JobbieJimmies|Melomaniac]] ([[User talk:JobbieJimmies|talk]]) 03:23, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

My comment got deleted by a bot!!! [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 03:23, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:RIP... [[User:JobbieJimmies|Melomaniac]] ([[User talk:JobbieJimmies|talk]]) 03:25, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:No, UC, it just got overwritten by the 'bot, when it did its job and (re)created the whole initial state of the various pages to depict the new comic coming out. (Noting that you'd not set them all up fully/correctly.)
:That you had spotted it already and had ''just'' gotten in ahead of the 'bot clearly isn't something it was prepared to handle. But as someone spotting it can usually wait a short while for the 'bot to catch up, I don't think it's a problem. In fact, you could have just copied your old contributions into the now receptive page(s), with nary any comment. Too late now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.101|172.70.90.101]] 03:44, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:: This may have broken the next link on the previous page. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.36|172.71.160.36]] 06:41, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

The lines represent the surfaces of the planets I think, so it's basically all the planets overlaid on top of each other. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.35|172.71.142.35]] 03:28, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:Yup, I think it's what he meant - but I find it unlikely that the gas giants would have this clear cutoff of a "surface". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.189.241|162.158.189.241]] 03:34, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::If there is a gas - liquid phase transition (and I think at least the gas giants have them): Why not? OK, you could see "rain" as blurring a clear cutoff, but wouldn't that also apply to Earth, then?[[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 08:04, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:::Gas giants' diameters are frequently defined at the average radius at which the atmosphere has a pressure of 1 bar (approximately equal to the pressure at sea level on Earth). There's not a physical edge there, like the boundary between the ground and the atmosphere on a rocky planet, but it is a reasonably well-defined (or, at least, define-able) measurement. FWIW, the pressure gradient is pretty high, and Jupiter's atmospheric pressure increases from 1 bar to 10 bar over about 100 km, which is about 0.1% of the radius, so it's fairly insensitive to the pressure you choose.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.139|162.158.158.139]] 16:20, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

I’d think the same citation as stands for ridiculously large would also cover larger than currently exists on earth, and his that citation is not in fact needed? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.186|162.158.174.186]] 06:53, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

:It seems like the gas-covered worlds are explicitly those with clearly cutoff "surfaces," so maybe in those cases the cutoff is some specific gas density -- which occurs at a consistent radius throughout the planet, thus creating a flat surface. While for rocky worlds (except Venus, which is treated like a gas planet here), a density cutoff can lead to bumpiness due to terrain. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:57, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::Correct re: gas giants. Typically 1 bar, which is approximately Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.139|162.158.158.139]] 16:20, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
:: just to be very clear (this being a explanation site!) that Venus is "treated like a gas giant" because of it's thick atmosphere. It would be just as correct to say "All the gas giants are treated like Venus" After all, ordinary telescopes couldn't take a picture that sees through any atmospheres, except Earth, where you'd see clouds but often surface where clouds don't appear. Sorry if that's an overexplanation [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 19:10, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

On Twitter there seems to be concern that all planets are depicted flat. This may make this a contribution/mockery of the ongoing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth Flat Earth] discussions in some corners of the internet. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.132|198.41.242.132]] 06:49, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:You can't see the curvature of the Earth when standing on it; doesn't mean it's flat. Since we're looking at the planets at a 1:1 scale, we're literally only seeing a couple of inches of each of their edges (notwithstanding the whole gas-giants-don't-have-a-sharp-edge issue). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.20|162.158.239.20]] 12:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:actually you can see it, standing on the shore of any large lake on a calm day looking at a shore that's ~6.5 miles (10.5km) away. You'll lose ~8ft (2.5m) below the horizon - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.213|162.158.186.213]] 13:55, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

The display for an uncropped version of the image would not only be larger than any display on earth. It would be larger than earth. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.243|162.158.86.243]] 06:59, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:By necessity, at least as large as Jupiter. Maybe slightly above two Jupiters (max dimension squared compared to display height*width of any common aspect ratio) if you wanted to not overlay any of the others at all. And make the lower limit a packing-problem, then add a buffer so there isn't the actual need for any to touch. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.253|172.70.90.253]] 10:02, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::I'm going to add that. Someone was confused enough to put {{cite needed}} there, which may be a joke onto itself?, I can't tell. I've removed the cite needed, but I guess it needs to be more clear why it's totally nonsensical and doesn't need a citation? [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 19:16, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:::The four inner planets are small enough to fit the upper left corner of any display big enough for Jupiter. As Uranus and Neptune are smaller than the latter one, they cannot extend past its top, bottom or right edge in the constellation shown, so they will not need additonal screen space either. Only Saturn is shifted so far to the left that he will require more width than Jupiter itself, but will still fit within the same height. Knowing Randall, the shown angles are not random, but were calculated to match a commercial available display ratio with Saturn placed touching the left edge and Jupiter touching the top, bottom and right edges. 16:9 or 16:10 at 142 km hight would be a fair guess, so I would not rule out 4:3 resulting in total width significantly smaller than two Jupiters. Of course Randall might also be playing hardcore nerd: The outer diameter of Saturns F ring, which is almost always included in representations, has almost exactly a ratio of 32:9 to Jupiters polar diameter, making a picture showing the former in front of the latter a perfect match for those new fancy double wide monitors. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.77|162.158.111.77]] 00:22, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

:What can we use as a citation for the graphics card? I couldn't find a single unified source for that concept, but stitched together some information to cover this:
:The world's largest digital display is the Fremont Street Experience, at 457m by 27m, which is about 12,000 sq meters. It has 16.4 megapixels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_video_screens
:The mean radius of Jupiter is about 70x10^6 m, so its area is roughly 1.5x10^16 sq meters.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter
:That means the world's largest digital display would only provide a 7.8x10^-13 fraction of the area of Jupiter.
:Going with NVIDIA's Titan V, which has Total Video Memory of 12288 MB, that would mean it could handle about 98x10^9 black-and-white (1 bit) pixels.
:Using the pixel density of the world's largest digital display (16.4 megapixels), scaling it up by its 12000 sq meters to the area of Jupiter (1.5x10^6 sq meters), that comes out to 2.1x10^19 1-bit pixels. So, we would somehow need about 2.1x10^8 of those graphics cards working together to handle our Jupiter-sized display.
:That display wouldn't even be at HD resolution, let alone 4K. Then again, if we use Apple's "Retina" designation that is dependent on reasonable viewing distance, that might be acceptable. [[User:DanShock|DanShock]] ([[User talk:DanShock|talk]]) 20:22, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

1-to-1 scale means 'assume all planets are the same size,' right? I see Earth's grass is shown to be as large as Martian rocks, because Earth is a third again as large. (At the scale where grass is visible, Earth looks flat.) At first I thought the point was that altitude variation in cloud-tops varied so little that a gas giant shrunk down to Earth size would be featureless and have a distinct edge, but that's wrong. Ground isn't cloud-tops. Do gas giants have any solid ground? We've seen Jupiter eat comets, and it makes sense they would've collected at least some minerals and metals. According to [[https://www.teachastronomy.com/textbook/The-Giant-Planets-and-Their-Moons/Internal-Structure-of-the-Gas-Giant-Planets/|Teach Astronomy]], gas giants have Earth-sized solid cores. I'm guessing gas giants' immense gravity compresses their cores into featureless spheres, which, if scaled to Earth-size and viewed at the scale where one could see grass, would look flat. Yes?
[[User:EllenNB|EllenNB]] ([[User talk:EllenNB|talk]]) 10:14, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:Gravity itself won't compress (and 'flatten') the cores. "Shell theory" shows that gravitational force only counts from the proportion of the body that is within the radius of the bit you're concerned with. But there'll also be the external pressure (from being at the bottom of a thick atmosphere that ultimately ''is'' above far more of the planetary mass) and possibly a degree of compression density to make any Earth-sized core slightly heavier than if it was just a bare core of the same size but shorn of outer layers.
:As to flatness, I can take you to very flat stretches of Earth and very lumpy bits (depends which direction I go, from where I am now), all within 30 minutes' drive. We can'teven know how representative a sample of planetary cross-sections we are seeing (once we get over the issues of gas/space boundaries for gas-giants), but I bet there are bits that resemble the diagram... If you ''really'' want it to be so real. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.87|172.71.242.87]] 11:05, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:No, 1-to-1 means that they are actual size, not the same size. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 13:37, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

There are several pieces of information here that are featured but don't make sense to me. What's the function of the dark polygon in the center? Why are the lines showing each surface going in random directions? Why is the surface of each planet so flat at a full scale rendition? When I look out my window at full sized Earth, it's not flat. It's quite bumpy, actually. But perhaps he doesn't mean these are full size, he might be saying that they're all shrunk, but the same amount, so 1:1:1:1:1... but even then, I'm totally lost.

"What's the function of the dark polygon in the center?"
I think it is a view of the dark sky, "above" the surface of the Earth, Mars, etc. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 11:43, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:I think the "polygon" is a grassy Earth itself, with the white above it sky. Earth is the rearmost planet pictured. Then in front of Earth, on all sides except the top, are the overlays of the various planets, what little of each one as can fit. But then maybe the polygon is night starry sky, and Earth is the white area above it. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:35, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::No, the polygon is the sky. Zoom in and you see the Milky Way and stars and other space stuff. And the ant on the Earth has its legs pointing upwards (in the reference frame of the image). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.26|162.158.239.26]] 03:09, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
:::Agreed. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 13:43, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

Is this an ant on earth, over the letters "EA" ? On my monitor, set for my less-than-perfect vision, it is 15mm long, which (at a 1:1 scale) makes it a cow ant, or a large african ant. I guess people with normal vision get fire and carpenter ants instead? And those on smartphones get pavement ants?[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.73|172.68.50.73]] 11:00, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:I do believe it is! It's 6 mm on my desktop monitor and 3 mm on my phone. We also don't know what side of the Earth we're looking at, so I suppose it could really be any ant, including the one in your local area. I like to think it's a black garden ant (''Lasius niger''), since I'm most familiar with those :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.25|162.158.239.25]] 12:16, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:: The image metadata suggests 80dpi for the image. The ant is around 20px long, so the ant is 6.35 mm long. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 23:21, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

It took me a good while to figure out this one; I don't normally need to come here, but this one stumped me at first. (The comments as of right now weren't too illuminating either.) I think the lack of color was an issue; I first thought the black polygon in the center was the earth, and then interpreted the various lines as a really weird diagram type I'd never seen before, like a phase diagram or something; I also considered one-dimensional planets. [https://imgur.com/a/yJOYvk1 I colored in the planets to aid me.] The way I now interpret this one is thus: imagine an observer sitting a tremendous distance away from the solar system, and they have a camera with an extremely supremely highly zooming telephoto lens. Then a lining-up of all eight planets happens – I believe this is impossible IRL (because of resonances or something), but just go with it. The observer manages to snap this incredible image of a teeny tiny spot of the sky, which simultaneously manages to include the very very edges of all the planets as well as some of the sky behind them all. The sky is the black polygon: it has nebulae and stars. Neptune is in front of Uranus, and that as well as Mercury are in front of Saturn, which is in front of both Jupiter and Mars; Venus is between Mercury, Mars and the Earth, and the Earth is also behind Jupiter. The reason why these are all so smooth is because it's such a small area: we're literally only seeing a couple of square inches of the surface of each of the rocky planets. (See, you can see an individual ant on the Earth. Go to the most rugged mountain range you can find and observe a couple of square inches; it'll be locally flat.) The lack of atmospheres on the rocky planets as well as the hard edges of the gas giants are artistic license. This one is a member of the genre of "true yet unhelpful diagrams"; I'm surprised that isn't a category on this wiki. – [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.4|162.158.238.4]] 12:58, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

((Written whilst 162.158.238.4 was editing, above, and I got an edit conflict on that. The editor concerned touches on this ordering business, but I'm pasting my original in unaltered, not rejigged as a more focused reply.)) I was wondering abut the "overlap order" for a while, until I twigged it. May not be worth officially documenting, but my analysis, showing that (perhaps depending upon specific orbital positions, during a given range of times, which can of course be checked) it's ''probably'' based upon distance away from Earth.
*Earth is bottom-most. Could be 1st/2nd, shared with Mars, as their overlap isn't shown.
*Mars is our nearest neighbour. (As above, could be 1st ''or'' 2nd on stack.)
*Venus next. Although it could be 7th (only obscured by Mercury) or anywhere else down to 3rd.
*Jupiter as 4th from bottom. (''Could'' be 3rd..5th, though.)
*Saturn takes 5th-up position. (4th..6th)
*Mercury as 6th. (Or all the way to topmost, but I made an assumption about its relationship to the last two.)
*Uranus as 7th. (6th/7th a possibility, depends on Mercury)
*Neptune as 8th. (7th/8th possible, Mercury again.)
...or at least that's what my mental notes tell me. Not helped by starting off counting from near to far and possibly messing up my numbers when I realised it made sense to flip them. It could also be "delta-V needed to reach the planet concerned" (either without or ''including'' flyby slingshot momentum borrowing/burning), but that's something I'd also need to check. I doubt it really needs tying down/Explaining, and when I edited the Transcript I decided not to record every nuance of the "variously orientated surfaces", as I think it adds nothing so long as the description gives the general idea. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.121|141.101.98.121]] 13:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

So no one is going to mention that for the clarity depicted you'd need to literally place the planets inside of each other, or have some sort of focal length from zero to infinity? I'm not sure if that bothers me more or less than the missed trick of making the length of ground shown relate to some comparative parameter (albedo might have been a fun one) - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.213|162.158.186.213]] 13:55, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:To be fair, you're also going to have to choose a "flat" few inches of surface that stands proud of the local geography (such that anything higher is below the curvature of the Earth for its proximity), and deal with an impossible resolution of an impossibly zoomed telephoto shot from a viewpoint unimaginably distant (''whilst'' a near-enough non-Solar conjunction/asterism is happening, or at least was, when the light passed each body), without significant atmospheric distortion (which is a relatively minor issue, compared with the scarcity of photons that reach the camera ''anyway'').
:Can we perhaps instead assume that these are just individual 1:1-scale cross-sectional diagrams (or even carefully curated local photos) drawn together into a hybrid image to accurately retain the scaling verisimilitude, and individual contexts, but happily faking the relative positions? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.56|172.70.85.56]] 15:00, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

It would take some work to check, but I'm wondering if the angle of the horizons of the various planets are perpendicular to the line made between the earth and the planet in question [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.141|162.158.154.141]] 15:36, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

This is how I interpret this image: [https://imgur.com/a/WwdbXkN I didn't want to make the black dot as small as in the picture so dimensions are insanely larger] [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.80|172.69.194.80]] 20:35, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
: that is a very clarifying picture, thank you! Shall we include it on the explanation page? It belongs there IMO [[User:Flekkie|Flekkie]] ([[User talk:Flekkie|talk]]) 22:19, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:: You may by me. The original picture is from NASA https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/686/solar-system-sizes/ and they have no restrictive copyright either. I view this picture as 2D planets stacked and not real planets viewed in space since this is clearly impossible orientation and you couldn't see half the planets, let alone ant on Earth's surface, from behind Neptunes orbit [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.26|162.158.239.26]] 10:43, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
: Is this right though? Based off the image Mercury is in front of Saturn. For this to happen, Mercury has to be closer distance wise, so Saturn has to be on the opposite side of the sun. But that can't be true if Saturn is in front of Jupiter and behind Uranus/Neptune?

I don't like the current explanation, since the planets never line up like this. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.40|162.158.203.40]] 07:11, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

This is truly one of the comics of all time. AzureArmageddon 08:48, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

We have a 1::1 bird book, where each page has a photo of the bird (or a portion of the bird, in case of flamingos) at 1::1 scale. This comic is a play on those books. -- Bob Jenkins [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.174|172.71.150.174]] 15:25, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
:Regarding the flamingo, and anything else bigger than the book, what a waste of an opportunity for a fold-out section..! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 18:58, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

This image is only going to be 1:1 scale on a really large display too; The grass on Earth is around a centimeter in length when the image is full-screen on my 27" (68.58 cm) monitor, while it's clear from the way it is depicted that it is supposed to be long grass, at least 50 centimeters in length. That means that the display which would make this truly 1:1 is about 50 times larger than mine, or in other words has a diagonal of about 34 m. This is bigger than a typical cinema screen, but I suppose not that much bigger and there ought to be cinemas in which one can display this image such that it is truly 1:1. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.87.66|162.158.87.66]] 06:27, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
:The ant is 'about right' for a possible ant even on my display (8"/20cm). If that would be 0.5m long grass, the ant would be truly huge, nothing like the typical ones around here. Which I think are actually smaller (certainly more svelte) than the image, if I wandered down the garden path to find an actual ant or three in the 'wild'.
:So I don't think that's long grass of the kind you're assuming. But it does resemble the kind of 'pre-grass' (one step up from mosses) or microscrub (effectively bonzaied grass due to local growing conditions) to be found on a bit of semi-fresh dusty hardcore/well-worn footpath, as also shown by the loose stoney debris also present. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 09:50, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

2755: Effect Size

2023-03-29T05:40:23Z

Quantum7: /* Explanation */ convert pages to studies given 11 studies/page

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

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

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

Here, the meta-analysis consists of a graph of {{w|effect sizes}} for what is allegedly every single study ever conducted. Accordingly, even page 53,589 of the meta-analysis is only about 1/4 of the total graph, as the scroll bar on the right is only about 1/4 of the way down; this makes the total included in the meta-analysis approximately 210,000 pages, or around 2.3 million studies. Below the graph is an estimate of the "average effect" across all of these variables, the effect normally being the relationship being analyzed by the studies within a meta-analysis, though here it seems again to be just a conglomerate of all known effects, along with a (likely) 95% {{w|confidence interval}} for the findings of the meta-analysis. It's absurd to analyze all studies this way, as the variables that all of those studies measure are wildly different and it makes no sense whatsoever to average (or otherwise analyze) them together. In addition, 2.3 million scientific studies is much too small a number; a [https://www.stm-assoc.org/about-stm/ recent estimate] is that about 3 million papers are published ''each year'', and while not all of them would have a numerical hypothesis test, many others would have several such tests.

Statistical studies are produced by generating hypotheses and then testing those hypotheses. A meta-analysis of all studies would therefore include both studies where the original hypothesis turns out to be false, as well as studies where the original hypothesis is confirmed. Hypotheses that fail to be confirmed by studies are often discarded; however, these studies would still be included in this meta-analysis.

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

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

In the title text, Randall reports that {{w|subgroup analysis}} is ongoing. The joke here is that since all scientific studies are subsets of the overall meta-analysis, every field of scientific endeavor can be separately assessed by constraining the subgroup to include only studies in that field. Hence the subgroup analysis could be considered to include analyses of every individual area or question that scientists have made subject to statistical studies. Again, analyzing any subgroup would lump together studies that measured very different things and hence would still be meaningless.

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

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

:Meta-analysis
:Inclusion criteria: All studies

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Statistics]]

Talk:2717: L6 Lagrange Point

2023-01-01T07:28:51Z

Quantum7: l0 comment

Daily comics. —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&printable=yes printable version] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&action=info page information] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:WhatLinksHere/User:While_False what links there] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&days=30&from=&target=User%3AWhile_False related changes] | a late contribution | current time: {{CURRENTTIME}}) 19:05, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

This came out about a year after JWST was launched, and it's stationed at a Lagrange point of the Sun and Earth. It might be related to the anniversary, although it would make more sense if it came out in a month, on the anniversary of the telescope reaching L2. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:49, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

Missed opportunity to reference [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grange,_Texas La Grange, Texas], the basis of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grange_(song) song] by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZ_Top ZZ Top]. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 21:13, 27 December 2022 (UTC)
: Well I hear it's fine, if you got the time [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.5|108.162.249.5]] 13:55, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

Not ''probable'' but maybe a reference to the recent "Ohio" meme?[[Special:Contributions/172.71.82.41|172.71.82.41]] 22:14, 27 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
: Probably not on purpose but it definitely fits in with the rest of the “Ohio” memes 22:38 27 December 2022 (ETC) Comi123

;Can I use a subscript notation in the transcript?

Any clues where to find the code? Comic seems to have the numeral portions of "L1" to "L6" as subscripts. Is that a standard notation for Lagrange points, if so should we also use it in the main article? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.66.102|172.68.66.102]] 06:14, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

:Sure. Use HTML tags. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.39|172.71.154.39]] 07:41, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

Why Cleveland? Well, Yakov Smirnoff said, "In every country, they make fun of city. In U.S. you make fun of Cleveland. In Russia, we make fun of Cleveland." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.168|172.71.26.168]] 12:14, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

The center of the Earth is also a Lagrange point (I think I'll call it L0). So Lagrange, OH is only 4,000 miles off, which should be close enough for many astronomers. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.135.100|172.70.135.100]] 16:12, 28 December 2022 (UTC)
:Well, LaGrange, OH is in a stable orbit around L0, so would this also be a Halo orbit? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.5|141.101.77.5]] 09:26, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
::Not really. It rotates around a point 4800km north of L0, but I don't think this is technically an orbit since it experiences a lot of non-gravitational forces. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 07:28, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

And I thought La Grange was in Texas I should not listen to three wise men with beards, even at this time of year. Wikipedia tells m there are over 25 across the US. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.223|172.71.242.223]] 10:38, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
:Two men with beards, one man named Beard. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.77|172.70.46.77]] 11:35, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
::Thus three men, each with a beard. (Actually the phrase "three wise men with beards" isn't explicit about how many beards they have between them.)

Normally cartoons come out MWF, but this came out on a Tuesday. Any known (or hypothesized) reason. Should the unusual timing get a mention. No comic in the normal Wed slot. [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 02:36, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
:In the light of there being "no Wednesday", in the obvious manner, we can make the presumption that this was supposed to be the Wednesday but (for some reason; ...other tween-holiday commitents? ...had the usual "what actual day ''is'' this of the season? ...distracted by family gatherings?) was released super-early. As in even Tuesday in more advanced timezones. Either that, or he was visiting a GMT+6 (or greater) place and posted it merely 'early Wednesday', but I don't think he would be visiting China (GMT+8) - for any number of reasons. Aus/NZ/etc? (Forgive me, just musing. Still no reason to think so.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.137|172.69.79.137]] 23:32, 30 December 2022 (UTC)

There are [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange#France several places called Lagrange in France (with correct spelling)], there are also [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_Bay Lagrange Bay] on Western Australia and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange,_Virginia Lagrange, Virginia] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange,_Maine Lagrange, Maine]. There are [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_(disambiguation)#United_States many places with names spelled as LaGrange or La Grange in the U.S.A.]. [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 19:35, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

2717: L6 Lagrange Point

2023-01-01T07:17:45Z

Quantum7: /* Explanation */ three-body assumption

{{comic
| number = 2717
| date = December 27, 2022
| title = L6 Lagrange Point
| image = l6_lagrange_point_2x.png
| imagesize = 399x400px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's difficult to orbit L6 stably due to gravitational perturbation from Akron and Toledo.
}}

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

In celestial mechanics, the {{w|Lagrange point}}s are points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the influence of two massive orbiting bodies. Or in simpler terms, positions in space where objects can float motionless relative to the defining bodies. The L1, L2, and L3 points are unstable, as any drifting off the point (e.g. due to the gravity of other bodies) might quickly increase the tendency to depart the area. However, there are quasi-stable {{w|Halo orbit}}s around these points, like the one used by the {{w|James Webb Space Telescope}}. The L4 and L5 points can actually retain objects stably over long periods, resulting in the Sun-Jupiter L4 and L5 points capturing the {{w|Trojan (celestial_body)|Trojan Asteroids}}.

There are five traditional Lagrange points. Two form equilateral triangles with the two massive objects (in this case the Earth and the Sun), and three more are collinear with the massive objects. Randall claims that a sixth Lagrange point has been discovered outside of {{w|Cleveland}}, {{w|Ohio}}. This is pretty obviously farcical,{{Citation needed}} as this would be part of the Earth and thus not gravitationally balanced between Earth and the Sun, though it is balanced by the countering forces that hold anything stable on the surface of any body: {{w|gravity}} and {{w|electromagnetism}}. The joke here is that there actually is a small village named {{w|LaGrange, Ohio|LaGrange, OH}} (population 2,595 in 2020) just outside Cleveland ([https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lagrange,+OH+44050/ map]). However, the village name is spelled with a capital G, unlike {{w|Joseph-Louis Lagrange}} after which the Lagrange points were named.

The title text mentions {{w|Akron}} and {{w|Toledo,_Ohio|Toledo}}, two other large cities in Ohio. It says that their gravitational influence is the reason why orbits around the LaGrange L6 are unstable. The Lagrange points are solutions for a simplified three-body system, and orbits around them may be disrupted if additional bodies such as moons or planets are close enough or massive enough to exert significant gravitational forces. Trying to orbit around a point on the ground would, of course, run into much more serious problems, {{w|lithobraking|such as the ground.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Grey on white diagram of the Earth orbiting the Sun, not to scale. Earth is depicted as a circle with pale grey continents on darker grey seas, and shows a view from above the North Pole without any Arctic ice. The sun is drawn surrounded by radially symmetrical exaggerated wave pattern.
:Also in grey, approximate locations of Lagrange points 1 to 5 are marked with dots and labels: "L1" "L2" "L3" "L4" "L5".
:In black, a point on the Earth's surface within the boundary of a continent that could be North America. Also in black, an arrow pointing towards the point, and the label "L6".
:[Caption below the panel:]
:Huge space news: Astronomers have discovered a new Lagrange point just outside Cleveland.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Science]]

2577: Sea Chase

2022-02-07T12:15:32Z

Quantum7: Rewrite dymaxion projection section

{{comic
| number = 2577
| date = February 4, 2022
| title = Sea Chase
| image = sea_chase.png
| titletext = There are two rules on this ship: Never gaze back into the projection abyss, and never touch the red button labeled DYMAXION.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a STRETCHED OBLONG PARABOLOID. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, Randall returns to one of his pet subjects: [[977: Map Projections|map projections]]. Unusually, this time it is from the perspective of people living - or, in this case, sailing - upon the world that is quite literally being mapped.

Two sailing ships, of circa 18th century design, are engaged in a close chase across the {{w|Atlantic}}, the aggressor flying the Skull and Crossbones of a stereotypical pirate vessel. It can be seen from the flags of both ships that they are tacking into the wind, the trailing ship seeming to be lighter and yet deploying more effective canvas with two active sails than the forward one can with three. The ship being chased has a plan to escape and the means to do so. At a crucial moment, [[Cueball]] is told to flip a large incongruous switch that (like several [[1620: Christmas Settings|other]] [[1763: Catcalling|artifacts]] in the xkcd universe) alters the nature of their reality.

Whereas beforehand the world is directly represented upon a simply contiguous map, the {{w|Robinson projection}}, it is now changed to one (which is actually the new reality) known as {{w|Goode homolosine projection|Goode Homolosine}} in which the flattening of the world mitigates localised warping of angle/distance/area by introducing discontinuities in relatively 'unused' parts of the mapped world, such as the center of the Atlantic.

By precisely timing the change (as they cross a particular {{w|meridian}}, possibly the 40°W one), they leave the pursuer now on the wrong side of the very real gap, allowing the pursued ship to escape whatever fate they were trying to avoid. Though there is still an oceanic connection, it requires sailing down the edge towards the tropics, rounding this particular rent in the planet's surface and heading back up the other side. This is vastly further than Cueball's ship needs to travel to reach (presumably) any European port in which they can safely moor.

The title text elaborates on the policies of the ship: crewmates are never to look into the "projection abyss" and to never hit the red button labeled "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map DYMAXION]."

The first rule suggests that changing the projection of physical reality produces a gap in reality, a void. This may be dangerous to gaze into or simply unnerving to crewmates, hence the rule. This may also be a reference to a well known quote by philosopher {{w|Friedrich Nietzsche}}: “He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” See [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363-h/4363-h.htm Beyond Good and Evil at Project Gutenberg]

[[Image:Dymaxion_projection.png|thumb|300px|Dymaxion projection of the world]]

The second rule references a button that seems to do the same thing as the lever but changes the world into a {{w|Dymaxion map|Dymaxion projection}}. The Dymaxion map projects the Earth onto 20 triangles, which are typically chosen such that land mass are contiguous while adding many discontinuities in the oceans. This would make navigating by ship in such a 2D world even more difficult than in the Goode homolosine projection. In particular, crossing the Atlantic ocean becomes impossible because of the introduction of a projection abyss from Norway to the Caribean.

The Robinson, Goode Homolosine, and Dymaxion projections have been referenced in [[977: Map Projections]].

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

:[A pirate ship flying the Skull and Crossbones is sailing after a merchant ship.]
:Merchant ship sailor #1: They're closing in!
:Merchant ship sailor #2: Hang on, we're almost at the meridian!

:[A map of the Earth in the Robinson projection, with two red dots in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A voice comes from the red dot further to the east.]
:Merchant ship sailor #2: ''Now!'' Throw the switch!

:[Cueball, representing merchant ship sailor #1, pulls down a giant lever switch labeled "Projection", from "Robinson" to "Goode Homolosine".]

:[A map of the Earth in the Goode Homolosine projection, with one red dot on the American side of the split and one red dot on the European side of the split.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2471: Hippo Attacks

2021-06-04T13:12:06Z

Quantum7: /* Explanation */ Add listicle link

{{comic
| number = 2471
| date = June 2, 2021
| title = Hippo Attacks
| image = hippo_attacks.png
| titletext = It's cool how, when there's a number lots of people are curious about, but which isn't easy to measure, some random guess will get cited everywhere and become the universally quoted value. Unrelatedly, did you know there are 850 trillion waves in the ocean?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HIPAA-VIOLATING HIPPO. I think we have managed to capture the broad strokes of the comic, but it could use some copy-editing (especially my words), and I am not confident I am not missing some finer details. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The first part of this comic deals with unreliable sources on the internet. Neither "viral posts" nor "random [[wikipedia:Listicle|listicles]]" are usually very reliable sources of information. They rarely cite their sources, and they are often published without much fact-checking, as published volume and impressive-sounding numbers are far more important for ad-revenue than actual facts.

The viral post appears to be [https://www.facebook.com/clickhole/photos/a.1461385317435063/2945077732399140/?type=3 this Facebook post.] The relevant source is unknown (and may very well be made up, since the source is ClickHole, a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClickHole satirical website formerly owned by The Onion]). There are a number of listicles Cueball may be referring to, but they all appear to be citing [https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquito-Week the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.]

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ({{w|HIPAA}}, pronounced ''HIP-uh'') is an American healthcare law enacted in 1996. One of the most commonly cited provisions from HIPAA is the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which regulates the use and disclosure of protected health information.

In this comic, Cueball and Megan are discussing the number of {{w|hippopotamus}} attacks, which is unverified. Megan proposes an alternative explanation as to why this particular number is hard to come by: it would be violating the patients' privacy to create statistics of a very specific and unusual cause of death. The punchline comes with the pun on "hippo violation" ("HIPAA violation").

The title text amplifies the criticism of listicles. They sometimes provide factoids with regards to ill-defined, hard-to-measure numbers, and these factoids might end up in common circulation between such articles. One extreme example would be the number of waves in the ocean. Some problems with this definition would be:

* In which ocean/oceans?
* What is the smallest ripple that counts as a wave?
* When does one count two interacting waves as separate, and when does one count them as one?
* Are counted waves limited to water waves, or can EM waves be considered?
* Should sub-surface waves be evaluated, too?

With different replies to these questions, wildly different answers could be reached. But, counting every body of water on the planet, this obviously works out as around 2.354 (unique) waves per square meter. Another possibility is that Cueball is trying to tell you how many hippo deaths there are without violating HIPAA/hippo code. (Note: There are less than 8 billion people on the earth, so this doesn't work.)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting in an office chair at his desk. He has lifted both arms with palm up towards the screen of his laptop in front of him. Megan stands behind him to the right, looking over his shoulder at the screen.]
:Cueball: I hate unsourced statistics.
:Cueball: ''This'' viral post says hippos kill 2,900 people a year, but ''this'' random listicle says 500.
:Megan: Makes sense.
:Megan: Publishing the real number would be a HIPPO violation.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Puns]]

Talk:2447: Hammer Incident

2021-04-08T05:53:38Z

Quantum7: /* inspiration */ new section

big --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.153|162.158.187.153]] 02:04, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

I added a basic explanation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.212.224|162.158.212.224]] 02:28, 8 April 2021 (UTC)
== Giant comic ==

Is it meant to be that size? Does the bad luck apply to trying to upload comics at reasonable sizes?

[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.19|172.69.33.19]] 02:09, 8 April 2021 (UTC)
:Oooh boy, indeed... "Error creating thumbnail: File with dimensions greater than 12.5 MP" is the Wiki's assessment of the auto-uploaded image. I haven't checked the resolution, but the https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hammer_incident.png one is apparently 4332x4838 (scales to 8% on my device), and I don't care to test the _2x version right now. I'm not sure that was the native res of it on creation, looks to be an accidental up-scaling prior to posting to xkcd itself. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.6|141.101.98.6]] 02:20, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

::The _2x version is actually the proper size for a normal comic - 578x645 pixels. [[User:Noëlle|Noëlle]] ([[User talk:Noëlle|talk]]) 02:21, 8 April 2021 (UTC)
:::Still seems larger than normal to me, even the 2x seems larger than I would expect. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.78|172.69.34.78]] 04:02, 8 April 2021 (UTC)
:Maybe the extra-large image is what the original looks like using the James Webb telescope? Maybe over-thinking. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.145|172.68.132.145]] 04:19, 8 April 2021 (UTC)
::Or perhaps its an resolution/aspect ratio/zoom factor difference between it and the old telescope. Implying all other comics have secretly been placed in front of the other telescope [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.50|172.69.170.50]] 04:56, 8 April 2021 (UTC)
:Perhaps overthinking, if the main reflecting mirror was actually destroyed, the light entering the telescope would never be focused into the secondary mirror and the image would be "light size" so you would only be able to see a small portion of what you expect

== inspiration ==

When I read this comic I was worried it might have been inspired by recent news of something breaking during the final assembly process. Fortunately this seems not to be the case. Among the many delays of the telescope, were any of them caused by mirror and/or cryo failures that might have inspired this comic? [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 05:53, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2407: Depth and Breadth

2021-01-08T08:46:39Z

Quantum7: Child enumeration order is arbitrary

Soldier loves bread-first search for obvious reasons.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.49.50|162.158.49.50]] 10:53, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

where did the quality go [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.24|172.69.34.24]] 19:34, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
: I noticed this too. As discussed at [[User:DgbrtBOT]] there are two sizes of each comic. The default (smaller) size of [https://xkcd.com/2407/ 2407] looks much worse than the original, which you can find at [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/depth_and_breadth_2x.png https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/depth_and_breadth_2x.png] I suggest we use the larger version for this comic. [[User:Alchemistmatt|Alchemistmatt]] ([[User talk:Alchemistmatt|talk]]) 20:18, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
: I tried to upload the higher quality PNG but I do not have permission; we'll have to wait for an editor to provide their opinion. [[User:Alchemistmatt|Alchemistmatt]] ([[User talk:Alchemistmatt|talk]]) 20:35, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
It would appear that the first version of the picture of this day's cartoon presents artifacts due to an unusual export method.
The image seems to have been exported using the 'nearest neighbor' resampling method, which would explain the jaggy edges.
Usually, the images appear to be exported using bilinear downsampling from an white-grey-black original, resulting in a published version with a larger color palette.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.161|162.158.111.161]] 20:17, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
: Randall has uploaded a new image: [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/depth_and_breadth.png], which I uploaded to explainxkcd. [[User:Natg19|Natg19]] ([[User talk:Natg19|talk]]) 21:48, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
In the breadth-first, for the second node on the right, the right branch is searched first, while everywhere else, the left branch is.
And in deadth-first, the nodes are searched multiple times (e.g. left-most node of layer 3 is search 3 times, assuming a search is at the end of a continuous line). Alternatively, maybe the search goes up first sometimes (it's not actually clear when a node is being looked at), but that doesn't explain the order of the left-most node of layer 2. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.201|172.68.142.201]] 22:15, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
:I noticed that. With perhaps two reasons: 1) aesthetics - drawn to go to nodes .2, .2.1, (.2), .2.2, then .1.1.1 (via .1.1, crossing .2.1, .1.2) would look a bit worse than this (crossing just .1.2); or 2) there's no absolute sorting order vs choice, it's just chance (or aesthetic choice) that .1s take priority over .2s in every other case - 3 out of the four choices is well within explorative chance.
: I favour the latter (with maybe an aesthetic bias) as often when I run a tree-searching algorithm I like to randomly splice the next option out of the list of options (rather than run from first to last or last to first) where I am not aware of any advantageous link (maybe in ruling out 'dead' branches early to prune off useless branches early) and thus whatever natural sort-order the structure imposes would create biases.
: Alternately, if continued it would definitely prioritise .2s down every .2(-dominant) branch, for a nicely symmetric 'wide-breadth first' pattern (.2.2.2 over .2.2.1, etc) for a pattern only visible once continued beyond the step currently shown. The root choice ''cannot'' be anything other than symmetry-breaking, but could as easily be a coinflip. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.68|141.101.98.68]] 00:32, 5 January 2021 (UTC)
: If you look at the bottom row you can see that these are not binary trees but rather arbitrary graphs (one node has 3 children). So assuming arbitrary order when enumerating children is reasonable. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:46, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

The top two drawings for "depth" and "breadth" are legitimate methods of listing out a tree structure. The next two drawings substitute the "d" and "br" from "depth" and "breadth" to get "brepth" and "deadth". The fifth drawing removes the "th" from "breadth" to get "bread". And the title text substitutes the "p" from "depth" with an "a" to get "death". [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 22:32, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

After the bread-first search, the next logical variant is the breakfast search! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 04:58, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

I associated this comic with the way (non native english speakers like myself) tend to pronounce words like depth and breadth, especially during discussions about which tree traversal strategy to use. Then, using a term like breadth-first can easily degrade to dep-first and bread-first (skipping the harder-to-pronounce 'th'). So maybe add this as a possible background? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.50|162.158.159.50]] 12:42, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

Somebody erased my commentary on deadth-first and hell regarding AI problems. These problems are real and people have experienced them firsthand. I notice the changes added in some heaven-references. I'm happy to add a much more pro-AI slant to the commentary; obviously AI makes lots of heaven, this is just not the _only_ thing that happens as people explore it. I don't think it's appropriate to leave information out, calling the brepth-first search more adaptive than the deadth-first search. It's pretty obvious from the dotted lines that the deadth-first search is adaptively considering its branches, and not revisiting nodes. I don't have the energy atm to start an actual edit war and add my information back in. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.74|108.162.219.74]] 18:07, 6 January 2021 (UTC) EDIT: on closer review I see both exploration strategies have pretty deterministic behavior, and are quite poorly described by the commentary.

I went ahead and tried to implement this on NPM https://www.npmjs.com/package/bread-first-search [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.149|162.158.74.149]] 19:30, 6 January 2021 (UTC)
: This made me laugh! [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:44, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Can anyone write pseudocode for the brepth searches? I feel like there is a certain logic to it, but I'm unable to clearly articulate the recursion. Pseudocode seems infeasible for deadth-first, as the multiple visits make it fairly incomprehensible. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:44, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2407: Depth and Breadth

2021-01-08T08:44:24Z

Quantum7: pseudocode suggestion

Soldier loves bread-first search for obvious reasons.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.49.50|162.158.49.50]] 10:53, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

where did the quality go [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.24|172.69.34.24]] 19:34, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
: I noticed this too. As discussed at [[User:DgbrtBOT]] there are two sizes of each comic. The default (smaller) size of [https://xkcd.com/2407/ 2407] looks much worse than the original, which you can find at [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/depth_and_breadth_2x.png https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/depth_and_breadth_2x.png] I suggest we use the larger version for this comic. [[User:Alchemistmatt|Alchemistmatt]] ([[User talk:Alchemistmatt|talk]]) 20:18, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
: I tried to upload the higher quality PNG but I do not have permission; we'll have to wait for an editor to provide their opinion. [[User:Alchemistmatt|Alchemistmatt]] ([[User talk:Alchemistmatt|talk]]) 20:35, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
It would appear that the first version of the picture of this day's cartoon presents artifacts due to an unusual export method.
The image seems to have been exported using the 'nearest neighbor' resampling method, which would explain the jaggy edges.
Usually, the images appear to be exported using bilinear downsampling from an white-grey-black original, resulting in a published version with a larger color palette.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.161|162.158.111.161]] 20:17, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
: Randall has uploaded a new image: [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/depth_and_breadth.png], which I uploaded to explainxkcd. [[User:Natg19|Natg19]] ([[User talk:Natg19|talk]]) 21:48, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
In the breadth-first, for the second node on the right, the right branch is searched first, while everywhere else, the left branch is.
And in deadth-first, the nodes are searched multiple times (e.g. left-most node of layer 3 is search 3 times, assuming a search is at the end of a continuous line). Alternatively, maybe the search goes up first sometimes (it's not actually clear when a node is being looked at), but that doesn't explain the order of the left-most node of layer 2. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.201|172.68.142.201]] 22:15, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
:I noticed that. With perhaps two reasons: 1) aesthetics - drawn to go to nodes .2, .2.1, (.2), .2.2, then .1.1.1 (via .1.1, crossing .2.1, .1.2) would look a bit worse than this (crossing just .1.2); or 2) there's no absolute sorting order vs choice, it's just chance (or aesthetic choice) that .1s take priority over .2s in every other case - 3 out of the four choices is well within explorative chance.
: I favour the latter (with maybe an aesthetic bias) as often when I run a tree-searching algorithm I like to randomly splice the next option out of the list of options (rather than run from first to last or last to first) where I am not aware of any advantageous link (maybe in ruling out 'dead' branches early to prune off useless branches early) and thus whatever natural sort-order the structure imposes would create biases.
: Alternately, if continued it would definitely prioritise .2s down every .2(-dominant) branch, for a nicely symmetric 'wide-breadth first' pattern (.2.2.2 over .2.2.1, etc) for a pattern only visible once continued beyond the step currently shown. The root choice ''cannot'' be anything other than symmetry-breaking, but could as easily be a coinflip. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.68|141.101.98.68]] 00:32, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

The top two drawings for "depth" and "breadth" are legitimate methods of listing out a tree structure. The next two drawings substitute the "d" and "br" from "depth" and "breadth" to get "brepth" and "deadth". The fifth drawing removes the "th" from "breadth" to get "bread". And the title text substitutes the "p" from "depth" with an "a" to get "death". [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 22:32, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

After the bread-first search, the next logical variant is the breakfast search! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 04:58, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

I associated this comic with the way (non native english speakers like myself) tend to pronounce words like depth and breadth, especially during discussions about which tree traversal strategy to use. Then, using a term like breadth-first can easily degrade to dep-first and bread-first (skipping the harder-to-pronounce 'th'). So maybe add this as a possible background? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.50|162.158.159.50]] 12:42, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

Somebody erased my commentary on deadth-first and hell regarding AI problems. These problems are real and people have experienced them firsthand. I notice the changes added in some heaven-references. I'm happy to add a much more pro-AI slant to the commentary; obviously AI makes lots of heaven, this is just not the _only_ thing that happens as people explore it. I don't think it's appropriate to leave information out, calling the brepth-first search more adaptive than the deadth-first search. It's pretty obvious from the dotted lines that the deadth-first search is adaptively considering its branches, and not revisiting nodes. I don't have the energy atm to start an actual edit war and add my information back in. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.74|108.162.219.74]] 18:07, 6 January 2021 (UTC) EDIT: on closer review I see both exploration strategies have pretty deterministic behavior, and are quite poorly described by the commentary.

I went ahead and tried to implement this on NPM https://www.npmjs.com/package/bread-first-search [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.149|162.158.74.149]] 19:30, 6 January 2021 (UTC)
: This made me laugh! [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:44, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Can anyone write pseudocode for the brepth searches? I feel like there is a certain logic to it, but I'm unable to clearly articulate the recursion. Pseudocode seems infeasible for deadth-first, as the multiple visits make it fairly incomprehensible. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:44, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

2379: Probability Comparisons

2020-11-02T10:42:23Z

Quantum7: Rewrite Carly Rae Jepsen section

{{comic
| number = 2379
| date = October 30, 2020
| title = Probability Comparisons
| image = probability comparisons new.png
| titletext = Call me, MAYBE.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by LEBRON JAMES THROWING M&Ms AT A KEYBOARD. The table for the explanations of the chances isn't complete, nor is the transcript. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a list of probabilities for different events. There are numerous recurring themes, of which the most common are free throws (13 entries), birthdays (12), dice (12, split about evenly between d6 and d20 types), M&M candies (11), playing cards (9), NBA basketball mid-game victory predictions (9), Scrabble tiles (7), coins (7), white Christmases (7), and the NBA players Stephen Curry and LeBron James (7 each).

Themes are variously repeated and combined, for humorous effect. For instance, there are entries for both the probability that St. Louis will have a white Christmas (21%) and that it will not (79%). Also given is the 40% probability that a random Scrabble tile will contain a letter from the name "Steph Curry".

There are 80 items in the list, the last two of which devolve into absurdity - perhaps from the stress of preparing the other 78 entries.

The list may be an attempt to better understand probabilistic election forecasts for the {{w|2020 United States presidential election}} which was four days away at the time this comic was published, and had also been alluded to in [[2370: Prediction]] and [[2371: Election Screen Time]]. Statistician and psephologist {{w|Nate Silver}} is referenced in one of the list items. On the date this cartoon was published, Nate Silver's website FiveThirtyEight.com was publishing forecast probabilities of Donald Trump and Joe Biden winning the US Presidential election. [[https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/]]. On 31 October 2020, the forecast described the chances of Donald Trump winning as "roughly the same as the chance that it’s raining in downtown Los Angeles. It does rain there. (Downtown L.A. has about 36 rainy days per year, or about a 1-in-10 shot of a rainy day.)" A day previously, when the chances were 12%, the website had also described Trump's chances of winning as "slightly less than a six sided die rolling a 1".

The probabilities are calculated from [https://xkcd.com/2379/sources/ these sources], as mentioned in the bottom left corner.

The title text refers to the song "{{w|Call Me Maybe}}" by {{w|Carly Rae Jepsen}} (cited twice in the list). "MAYBE" is emphasized, perhaps because the probability of getting her phone number correct, as in the last item in the list, is very low. The capitalization could also be a reference to Scrabble tiles, as was previously mentioned in association with Carly Rae Jepsen.

==Table==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Odds
! Text
! Explanation
|-
| 0.01%
| You guess the last four digits of someone's {{w|Social Security Number}} on the first try
| There are 10 digits in a {{w|Social Security Number}}, but the last four are commonly used as an identity verification factor. (1/10)4 = 0.0001, or 0.01%
|-
| 0.1%
| Three randomly chosen people are all left-handed
| The chances of having left-{{w|handedness}} is about [https://www.healthline.com/health/left-handers-and-health-risk 10%], and 10%3 = 0.1%.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 0.2%
| You draw 2 random {{w|Scrabble}} tiles and get M and M
| This appears to be an error. Under standard English {{w|Scrabble letter distribution}} there are 100 tiles of which 2 are M. This would give a probability of randomly drawing M and M as 2/100 × 1/99 ≈ 0.02%. However, other language editions of Scrabble have different letter distributions, some of which could allow this to be true.
|-
| You draw 3 random {{w|M&Ms}} and they're all red
| According to Randall's source, the proportion of reds is 13%.<ref>M&Ms color proportion 13% red 13% brown 14% yellow 16% green 20% orange 24% blue</ref> 0.133 ≈ 0.22%.
|-
| 0.3%
| You guess someone's birthday in one try.
| 1/365 ≈ 0.27%. Taking into account that a person might have been born February 29, the probability with a random guess is slightly lower. If the guesser knows on which days there are slightly more births (for example, early October, believed to be because of conceptions occurring on the evening of December 31) and which days there are slightly fewer (for examples, holidays on which a planned, pre-scheduled C-section is unlikely to be held), then the probability is slightly higher.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 0.5%
| An {{w|NBA}} team down by 30 at halftime wins
| This calculation, along with all related ones, use the source NBA Win Probability Calculator. Entering Q2, 0:00, and -30 into the calculator yields 0.6% .
|-
| You get 4 M&Ms and they're all brown or yellow
| Depending on the source of one's M&Ms in the U.S., the proportion of them that is brown or yellow is either 0.25 or 0.259 . 0.254≈ 0.39%; 0.2594 ≈ 0.45% .
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1%
| {{w|Steph Curry}} gets two free throws and misses both
| Curry is a 91% career free throw shooter, so the percentage of missing 1 FT is about 9%. The chance of missing 2 FTs is about 0.8% ≈ 1%.
|-
| {{w|LeBron James}} guesses your birthday, if each guess costs one free throw and he loses if he misses
| LeBron James' free-throw odds are ~73% . The odds of him winning on the first round are 1/365, for the second (1/364)(0.73), for the third (1/363)(0.73)2... Summing all of these from 1 to 365 gives us his total odds of winning at any point in the game are ≈ 1.022% .
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1.5%
| You get two M&Ms and they're both red
| According to Randall's sources, the probability of a red M&M is about 13%, so the probability of 2 M&Ms being red is (13%)2 ≈ 1.69%.
|-
| You share a birthday with a {{w|Backstreet Boys|Backstreet Boy}}
|Each of the five Backstreet Boys has a different birthday, so the odds that you share a birthday with one is 5/365.25 ≈ 1.3% .
|-
| 2%
| You guess someone's card on the first try
| There are 52 cards in a normal deck of cards (excluding jokers), so the probability is 1/52, which is approximately 0.019 (1.9%).
|-
| rowspan="2"| 3%
| You guess 5 coin tosses and get them all right
| The chance of correctly predicting a coin toss is 0.5. The chance of predicting 5 in a row is 0.55, or 3.125%.
|-
| Steph Curry wins that birthday free throw game
| Swap out 0.73 for 0.91 in the above calculations to find Steph Curry's odds of winning. This sum yields ~3.13% .
|-
| rowspan="3"| 4%
| You sweep a 3-game {{w|rock paper scissors}} series
| Picking randomly, you have a 1 in 3 chance of beating an opponent on the first try. (1/3)3 = 1/27 ≈ 4% .
|-
| {{w|Portland, Oregon}} has a {{w|White Christmas (weather)|white Christmas}}
| According to Randall's source (from the ''Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society''), the probability of snow cover in Portland is 4%.
|-
| You share a birthday with two {{w|US Senator}}s
| At the time this comic was published, 15 days were birthdays for more than one Senator.<ref>Rand Paul and John Thune - January 7 
Chris Van Hollen and Roy Blunt - January 10 
Tina Smith and James Lankford - March 4 
Tammy Duckworth and Mitt Romney - March 12 
Angus King and Patrick Leahy - March 31 
Jim Risch and Ron Wyden - May 3 
Dianne Feinstein and Elizabeth Warren - June 22 
Todd Young and Joe Manchin - August 24 
Kamala Harris, Brian Schatz, and Sheldon Whitehouse - October 20 
Jeff Merkley and Mike Rounds - October 24 
Jim Inhofe and Pat Toomey - November 17 
Dick Durbin and John Kennedy - November 21 
Rick Scott and Gary Peters - December 1 
John Boozman and David Perdue - December 10 

Based on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_senators List of current US Senators on Wikipedia] (and processed through [https://bit.ly/2HZeqQs this Google sheet)].
</ref>
|-
| rowspan="2"| 5%
| An NBA team down 20 at halftime wins
| Entering Q2, 0:00, and -20 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 5.2% or 5.3% .
|-
| You roll a natural 20
| A natural 20 indicates a critical hit in the {{w|Dungeons & Dragons}} role playing game. "Natural" means that it is the number showing when rolling a d20 (a 20-sided die), as opposed to an overall total of 20 when counting the die roll plus modifiers. There are twenty sides to a d20 die. 1/20 = 0.05 = 5%
|-
| 6%
| You correctly guess someone's card given 3 tries
| Picking a random card within 3 times gives 1 - (51/52)(50/51)(49/50) ≈ 6% .
|-
| 7%
| LeBron James gets two free throws and misses both
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of a miss is 27%. The probability of 2 misses is (27%)2, which is about 7%.
|-
| 8%
| You correctly guess someone's card given 4 tries
| Assuming you guess four different cards, 4/52 = 0.0769 ≈ 8% .
|-
| 9%
| Steph Curry misses a free throw
| Curry's career free throw percentage is 91%, so the probability of a miss is 9%.
|-
| rowspan="2"|10%
| You draw 5 cards and get the Ace of Spades
| There are 52 cards in a normal deck of cards (excluding jokers), and the Ace of Spades is one of them. The chances of getting the card is 1 - 51/52 * 50/51 * 49/50 * 48/49 * 47/48 which is approximately 0.096, which rounds to the given 10%. 
|-
| There's a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8+ earthquake in the next month
| Note that, unlike other earthquake examples, this does not specify where the earthquake occurs.
|-
| 11%
| You sweep a 2-game rock paper scissors series
| You have a 1/3 chance of winning the first comparison, and a 1/3 chance of winning the second. (1/3) * (1/3) = 1/9 ~ 0.11 = 11% .
|-
| rowspan="3"|12%
| A randomly-chosen American lives in {{w|California}}
| California is the most populous state in the US. Out of the approximately 328.2 million Americans (as of 2019), 39.51 million live in California. This means that a randomly chosen American has about a 39.51/328.2 ≈ 10.33% chance of living in California. Due to population change and rounding based on different sources, this could be pushed to 12%.
|-
| You correctly guess someone's card given 6 tries
| Assuming you don't repeat previous wrong guesses, the probability is 6/52 ≈ 11.54%.
|-
| You share a birthday with a {{w|US President}}
| Presidents {{w|James Polk}} and {{w|Warren Harding}} share a birthday, and are the only presidents so far (in 2020) to do so. Additionally, {{w|Grover Cleveland}} served two non-consecutive terms and is counted twice (as the 22nd and 24th presidents). He therefore shares a birthday with himself. With 43 distinct birthdays, the odds of sharing a birthday are 43/365 ≈ 12%. (This does not consider February 29 or that more births occur on some days than others.)
|-
| rowspan="3"|13%
| A {{w|Dice#Polyhedral_dice|d6}} beats a {{w|Dice#Polyhedral_dice|d20}}
| The odds of a d6 beating a d20 are (0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5)/(120) = 0.125 ≈ 13% .
|-
| An NBA team down 10 going into the 4th quarter wins
| Entering Q3, 0:00, and -10 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 12.6% or 12.8% .
|-
| You pull one M&M from a bag and it's red
| According to Randall's source, the probability of a red M&M is 13%.
|-
| 14%
| A randomly drawn scrabble tile beats a D6 die roll
| {{w|Scrabble}} is a game in which you place lettered tiles to form words. Most of the scores per letter are 1, making it rare to beat a d6. The odds are (70/100)(0) + (7/100)(1/6) + (8/100)(2/6) + (10/100)(3/6) + (1/100)(4/6) + (4/100)(6/6) ≈ 14%.
|-
| 15%
| You roll a D20 and get at least 18
| The set of "at least 18" on a d20 is 18, 19, and 20. The odds of rolling one of these is 3/20 = 15% .
|-
| 16%
| Steph Curry gets two free throws but makes only one
| Steph Curry's FT percentage is 91%, so (0.91)(0.09) = 8.19% . However, the order of these is irrelevant, so the total odds are 16.38% .
|-
| 17%
| You roll a D6 die and get a 6
| The odds are 1/6 ≈ 17% .
|-
| 18%
| A D6 beats or ties a D20
| The odds are (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6)/(120) = 17.5% .
|-
| 19%
| At least one person in a random pair is left-handed
| The chances of being left handed is about 10%, so the probability of both people in the pair not being left-handed is 0.92=0.81, and 1-0.81=0.19.
|-
| 20%
| You get a dozen M&Ms and none of them are brown
| The odds that an M&M is not brown is 87%, so the odds that a dozen are not brown is (0.87)12 = 18.8% .
|-
| 21%
| {{w|St. Louis}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in St. Louis is 21%.
|-
| 22%
| An NBA team wins when they're down 10 at halftime
| Entering Q2, 0:00, and -10 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 22.3% or 22.5% .
|-
| rowspan="2"| 23%
| You get an M&M and it's blue
| According to Randall's source, the "test probability" of a blue M&M is 24%.
|-
| You share a birthday with a US senator
| There are 100 Senators, but 31 Senators share 15 birthdays and 69 Senators have unique birthdays, so there are a total of 84 days of the year that are the birthday of a Senator.
|-
| 24%
| You correctly guess that someone was born in the winter
| The winter lasts ~24% of the year, so ~24% of birthdays are in the winter.
|-
| rowspan="2"| 25%
| You correctly guess that someone was born in the fall
| The fall lasts ~25% of the year, so ~25% of birthdays are in the fall. This statement would also have been true for spring.
|-
| You roll two plain M&Ms and get M and M.
| An M&M can land on one of two sides, one with an M and one without. The odds of "rolling" two Ms is 1/4 = 25%. The term "rolling" is used jokingly in reference to the d6s and d20s above, suggesting that an M&M is a standard d2; this becomes especially true once you consider that a more accurate reference would have been to a coin, not a die.
|-
| 26%
| You correctly guess someone was born in the summer
| The summer lasts ~26% of the year, so ~26% of birthdays are in the summer.
|-
| 27%
| LeBron James misses a free throw
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of missing is 27%.
|-
| 32%
| {{w|Pittsburgh}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Pittsburgh is 32%.
|-
| rowspan="3"| 33%
| A randomly chosen Star Wars movie (Episodes I-IX) has "of the" in the title
| Episodes II (Attack of the Clones), III (Revenge of the Sith), and VI (Return of the Jedi) are the movies. This gives the odds of 3/9 ≈ 33% .
|-
| You win the Monty Hall sports car by picking a door and refusing to switch
| The {{w|Monty Hall problem}} is a counterintuitive logic problem, in which you pick one of three doors at random. One of the doors has a car behind it, so the odds that you picked the door are 1/3 ≈ 33%. Thus, by not switching doors, your odds remain the same. The Monty Hall problem has previously appeared in [[1282: Monty Hall]] and [[1492: Dress Color]].
|-
| You win rock paper scissors by picking randomly
| The odds of beating an opponent on the first try by picking randomly is 1/3 ≈ 33% .
|-
| 34%
| You draw five cards and get an ace
| The odds are 1 - (48/52)(47/51)(46/50)(45/49)(44/48) ≈ 34% .
|-
| 35%
| A random Scrabble tile is one of the letters in "random"
| The odds of drawing a letter in "random" are (6 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 8 + 2)/100 = 35% .
|-
| 39%
| LeBron James gets two free throws but misses one
| LeBron James' FT percentage is 73% , so the odds are (0.73)(0.27) = 19.71% . However, the order is irrelevant, so the odds are actually twice, or 39.42% .
|-
| 40%
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Steph Curry"
| The odds of drawing a letter in "Steph Curry" are (4 + 6 + 12 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 2)/100 = 40% .
|-
| 46%
| There's a magnitude 7 quake in LA within 30 years
|
|-
| rowspan="2"|48%
| {{w|Milwaukee}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Milwaukee is 48%.
|-
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in Carly Rae Jepsen
| The odds of a Scrabble tile being in her name are (2 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 2 + 12 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 6)/100 = 48% .
|-
| 50%
| You get heads in a coin toss
| There are two options in a coin toss, heads or tails, so the odds of getting heads is 50% (1/2).
|-
| 53%
| {{w|Salt Lake City}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Salt Lake City is 53%.
|-
| 54%
| LeBron James gets two free throws and makes both
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of making 2 FT is (73%)2 = 53.9%.
|-
| 58%
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Nate Silver"
| {{w|Nate Silver}} is a recurring person on xkcd. The odds of a Scrabble tile being in his name are (6 + 9 + 6 + 12 + 4 + 9 + 4 + 2 + 6)/100 = 58% .
|-
| 60%
| You get two M&Ms and neither is blue
| The odds that an M&M is not blue is 77%, so the odds that 2 are not blue is (0.77)2 = 59.29% .
|-
| 65%
| {{w|Burlington, Vermont}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Burlington is 65%.
|-
| 66%
| A randomly chosen movie from the main Lord of the Rings trilogy has “of the” in the title twice
| The titles are:
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Fellowship '''of the''' Ring''
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Two Towers''
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Return '''of the''' King''
All of them have “of the” at least once, in “The Lord of the Rings”, but only the first and third have it twice, and 2/3 ≈ 66%. This number typically rounds up to 67% , however, and it is unclear why it is not, given that the same reduced fraction is written in the 67% category below.
|-
| 67%
| You roll at least a 3 with a d6
| The set of "at least 3" on a d6 refers to 3, 4, 5, and 6. The odds are 4/6 ≈ 67%.
|-
| 71%
| A random Scrabble tile beats a random dice roll
| This is a typo, as the correct probability is at the 14% entry. A random (d6) die roll beats a random Scrabble tile 71% of the time. [[Randall]] probably meant to write '''A random d6 dice roll''' beats '''a random Scrabble tile'''.
|-
| 73%
| LeBron James makes a free throw
| This is James' career FT percentage, 73%.
|-
| 75%
| You drop two M&Ms and one of them ends with the "M" up so it's clear they're not Skittles
| The odds of at least one 'M' showing up is 1 - (1/4) = 75% . The reference to {{w|Skittles}} is that the two candies look similar to one another, and Randall has probably bit into a Skittle thinking it was an M&M, or vice versa. This trick might prevent that from happening in the future.
|-
| 76%
| You get two M&Ms and neither is red
| The odds that an M&M is nor red is 85%, so the odds that 2 are not red is 71.9% .
|-
| 77%
| You get an an M&M and it's not blue
| The odds that an M&M is blue is 23%, so the odds that it's not blue is 77% .
|-
| 78%
| An NBA team wins when they're up 10 at halftime
| Entering Q2, 0:00, and 10 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 77.5% or 77.7% .
|-
| 79%
| St. Louis doesn't have a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in St. Louis is 21%, thus the probability of ''no'' snow cover is 79%.
|-
| 81%
| Two random people are both right-handed
| The probability of 1 person being right-handed is about 90%, thus the probability of 2 right-handers is (90%)2 = 81%.
|-
| 83%
| Steph Curry gets two free throws and makes both
| Curry's career FT percentage is 91%, so the probability of making 2 FTs is (91%)2 = 82.81%.
|-
| 85%
| You roll a d20 and get at least a 4
| The set "at least 4" on a d20 refers to 4, 5, 6... 18, 19, 20. The odds of this are 17/20 = 85% .
|-
| rowspan="2"| 87%
| An NBA team up by 10 going into the 4th quarter wins
| Entering Q3, 0:00, and 10 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 87.2% or 87.4% .
|-
| Someone fails to guess your card given 7 tries
|Assuming they guess seven different cards, there are 45 unguessed cards left. 45/52 = 0.865384615 ~ 86.5%
|-
| 88%
| A randomly chosen American lives outside California
| This is the opposite of the previous California probability. As the probability of an American living in California is 12%, the opposite would be 88%.
|-
| 89%
| You roll a 3 or higher given two tries
| The probability of rolling a 3 or higher (on a 6-sided die) is 66%, so the percentage of rolling a 3 or higher given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.66)2 = 89%.
|-
| 90%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 5 tries
| Assuming they guess five different cards, there are 47 unguessed cards left. 47/52 = 0.90385 ~ 90%
|-
| rowspan="2"| 91%
| You incorrectly guess that someone was born in August
| If the odds of someone being born in August are ~9% , then the odds that a person was not born in August are ~91%. (In an average month, 8 1/3% of the population was born. August has an above average number of days, but still only about 8.5% of the year is in August.)
|-
| Steph Curry makes a free throw
| This is Curry's career FT percentage, 91%.
|-
| 92%
| You guess someone's birth month at random and are wrong
| On average, a month lasts 8⅓% of the year. Thus, if you were to guess someone's birth month at random, you would be wrong 91 ⅔% of the time.
|-
| 93%
| Lebron James makes a free throw given two tries
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the percentage of his making at least 1 FT given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.73)2 = 93%.
|-
| 94%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 3 tries
| The odds of this happening are (51/52)(50/51)(49/50) ≈ 94% .
|-
| 95%
| An NBA team wins when they're up 20 at halftime
| Entering Q2, 0:00, and 20 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 94.7% or 94.8% .
|-
| 96%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 2 tries
| The odds of this happening are (51/52)(50/51) ≈ 96% .
|-
| 97%
| You try to guess 5 coin tosses and fail
| The odds of this happening are 1 - (1/2)5 ≈ 97% .
|-
| 98%
| You incorrectly guess someone's birthday is this week
| The odds of this happening are about 51/52 ≈ 98%. (This depends on the week; there are more births in early October and fewer in holiday weeks.)
|-
| 98.5%
| An NBA team up 15 points with 8 minutes left wins
| Entering Q4, 8:00, and 15 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 98.0% or 98.6% .
|-
| 99%
| Steph Curry makes a free throw given two tries
| James' career FT percentage is 91%, so the percentage of his making at least 1 FT given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.91)2 = 99%.
|-
| 99.5%
| An NBA team that's up by 30 points at halftime wins
| Entering Q2, 0:00, and 30 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 99.4% .
|-
| 99.7%
| You guess someone's birthday at random and are wrong
| The odds of this are 364/365 ≈ 99.7%.
|-
| 99.8%
| There's not a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8 quake in {{w|California}} next year
|
|-
| 99.9%
| A random group of three people contains a right-hander
| About 90% of people are right-handed, so the percentage of at least 1 right-hander in a group of 3 is 1 - (1-.9)3 = 99.9%.
|-
| 99.99%
| You incorrectly guess the last four digits of someone's social security number
| There are 10 digits in a Social Security Number, but the last four are commonly used as an identity verification factor. The odds of this are 1 - (1/10)4 = 99.99% .
|-
| 99.9999999999999995%
| You pick up a phone, dial a random 10-digit number, and say 'Hello Barack Obama, there's just been a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8 earthquake in {{w|California}}!" and are wrong
| This probability combines two events.

First, the probability that a random 10-digit telephone number belongs to Obama is 1/1010. This ignores potential complications from Obama owning multiple phones or failing to answer personally (perhaps using an assistant or answering machine). Additionally, it assumes numbers are dialed at random rather than making more intelligent guesses like using likely addresses to guess area codes.

Second, the probability of a magnitude 8 California quake is given in a previous entry as 0.2% per year. Although the time window for an earthquake to "just occur" is not given, a 15 minute window corresponds (within rounding error) to the total probability given.
|-
| 0.00000001%
| You add "Hang on, this is big — I'm going to loop in Carly Rae Jepsen", dial another random 10-digit number, and she picks up
| Carly Rae Jepsen is a Canadian singer. As Canada uses the 10-digit {{w|North American Numbering Plan}}, the odds of a random number being hers would be 1 - (1/10)10 = 0.00000001%. Like Obama, this ignores the possibility that she has multiple phones or that she doesn't answer personally.
|}

===References===
{{#tag:references}}

==Trivia==
In the original comic, "outside" in the 88% probability section is spelled incorrectly as "outide". In addition, the 39% section had "two free throw" instead of "throws".

The (seemingly unimportant) odds of LeBron James' versus Stephen Curry's free throws and names in Scrabble refer to [[2002: LeBron James and Stephen Curry]].

==Transcript==
<big>Probability Comparisons</big>

0.01% You guess the last four digits of someone's social security number on the first try

0.1% Three randomly chosen people are all left-handed

0.2% You draw 2 random Scrabble tiles and get M and M

You draw 3 random M&Ms and they're all red

0.3% You guess someone's birthday in one try.

0.5% An NBA team down by 30 at halftime wins

You get 4 M&Ms and they're all brown or yellow

1% Steph Curry gets two free throws and misses both

LeBron James guesses your birthday, if each guess costs one free throw and he loses if he misses

1.5% You get two M&Ms and they're both red

You share a birthday with a Backstreet Boy

2% You guess someone's card on the first try

3% You guess 5 coin tosses and get them all right

Steph Curry wins that birthday free throw game

4% You sweep a 3-game rock paper scissors series

Portland, Oregon has a white Christmas

You share a birthday with two US Senators

5% An NBA team down 20 at halftime wins

You roll a natural 20

6% You correctly guess someone's card given 3 tries

7% LeBron James gets two free throws and misses both

8% You correctly guess someone's card given 4 tries

9% Steph Curry misses a free throw

10% You draw 5 cards and get the Ace of Spades

There's a magnitude 8+ earthquake in the next month

11% You sweep a 2-game rock paper scissors series

12% A randomly-chosen American lives in California

You correctly guess someone's card given 6 tries

You share a birthday with a US President

13% A d6 beats a d20

An NBA team down 10 going into the 4th quarter wins

You pull one M&M from a bag and it's red

14% A randomly drawn scrabble tile beats a d6 die roll

15% You roll a d20 and get at least 18

16% Steph Curry gets two free throws but makes only one

17% You roll a d6 die and get a 6

18% A d6 beats or ties a d20

19% At least one person in a random pair is left-handed

20% You get a dozen M&Ms and none of them are brown

21% St. Louis has a white Christmas

22% An NBA team wins when they're down 10 at halftime

23% You get an M&M and it's blue

You share a birthday with a US senator

24% You correctly guess that someone was born in the winter

25% You correctly guess that someone was born in the fall

You roll two plain M&Ms and get M and M.

26% You correctly guess someone was born in the summer

27% LeBron James misses a free throw

32% Pittsburgh has a white Christmas

33% A randomly chosen Star Wars movie (Episodes I-IX) has "of the" in the title

You win the Monty Hall sports car by picking a door and refusing to switch

You win rock paper scissors by picking randomly

34% You draw five cards and get an ace

35% A random Scrabble tile is one of the letters in "random"

39% LeBron James gets two free throws but misses one

40% A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Steph Curry"

46% There's a magnitude 7 quake in LA within 30 years

48% Milwaukee has a white Christmas

A random Scrabble tile is a letter in Carly Rae Jepsen

50% You get heads in a coin toss

53% Salt Lake City has a white Christmas

54% LeBron James gets two free throws and makes both

58% A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Nate Silver"

60% You get two M&Ms and neither is blue

65% Burlington, Vermont has a white Christmas

66% A randomly chosen movie from the main Lord of the Rings trilogy has “of the” in the title twice

67% You roll at least a 3 with a d6

71% A random Scrabble tile beats a random dice roll

73% LeBron James makes a free throw

75% You drop two M&Ms and one of them ends with the "M" up so it's clear they're not Skittles

76% You get two M&Ms and neither is red

77% You get an an M&M and it's not blue

78% An NBA team wins when they're up 10 at halftime

79% St. Louis doesn't have a white Christmas

81% Two random people are both right-handed

83% Steph Curry gets two free throws and makes both

85% You roll a d20 and get at least a 4

87% An NBA team up by 10 going into the 4th quarter wins

Someone fails to guess your card given 7 tries

88% A randomly chosen American lives outside California

89% You roll a 3 or higher given two tries

90% Someone fails to guess your card given 5 tries

91% You incorrectly guess that someone was born in August

Steph Curry makes a free throw

92% You guess someone's birth month at random and are wrong

93% Lebron James makes a free throw given two tries

94% Someone fails to guess your card given 3 tries

95% An NBA team wins when they're up 20 at halftime

96% Someone fails to guess your card given 2 tries

97% You try to guess 5 coin tosses and fail

98% You incorrectly guess someone's birthday is this week

98.5% An NBA team up 15 points with 8 minutes left wins

99% Steph Curry makes a free throw given two tries

99.5% An NBA team that's up by 30 points at halftime wins

99.7% You guess someone's birthday at random and are wrong

99.8% There's not a magnitude 8 quake in California next year

99.9% A random group of three people contains a right-hander

99.99% You incorrectly guess the last four digits of someone's social security number

99.9999999999999995% You pick up a phone, dial a random 10-digit number, and say 'Hello Barack Obama, there's just been a magnitude 8 earthquake in California!" and are wrong

0.00000001% You add "Hang on, this is big — I'm going to loop in Carly Rae Jepsen", dial another random 10-digit number, and she picks up

Sources: https://xkcd.com/2379/sources/

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Nate Silver]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Food]]

2379: Probability Comparisons

2020-11-02T10:18:41Z

Quantum7: Rewrite Obama earthquake call item

{{comic
| number = 2379
| date = October 30, 2020
| title = Probability Comparisons
| image = probability comparisons new.png
| titletext = Call me, MAYBE.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by LEBRON JAMES THROWING M&Ms AT A KEYBOARD. The table for the explanations of the chances isn't complete, nor is the transcript. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a list of probabilities for different events. There are numerous recurring themes, of which the most common are free throws (13 entries), birthdays (12), dice (12, split about evenly between d6 and d20 types), M&M candies (11), playing cards (9), NBA basketball mid-game victory predictions (9), Scrabble tiles (7), coins (7), white Christmases (7), and the NBA players Stephen Curry and LeBron James (7 each).

Themes are variously repeated and combined, for humorous effect. For instance, there are entries for both the probability that St. Louis will have a white Christmas (21%) and that it will not (79%). Also given is the 40% probability that a random Scrabble tile will contain a letter from the name "Steph Curry".

There are 80 items in the list, the last two of which devolve into absurdity - perhaps from the stress of preparing the other 78 entries.

The list may be an attempt to better understand probabilistic election forecasts for the {{w|2020 United States presidential election}} which was four days away at the time this comic was published, and had also been alluded to in [[2370: Prediction]] and [[2371: Election Screen Time]]. Statistician and psephologist {{w|Nate Silver}} is referenced in one of the list items. On the date this cartoon was published, Nate Silver's website FiveThirtyEight.com was publishing forecast probabilities of Donald Trump and Joe Biden winning the US Presidential election. [[https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/]]. On 31 October 2020, the forecast described the chances of Donald Trump winning as "roughly the same as the chance that it’s raining in downtown Los Angeles. It does rain there. (Downtown L.A. has about 36 rainy days per year, or about a 1-in-10 shot of a rainy day.)" A day previously, when the chances were 12%, the website had also described Trump's chances of winning as "slightly less than a six sided die rolling a 1".

The probabilities are calculated from [https://xkcd.com/2379/sources/ these sources], as mentioned in the bottom left corner.

The title text refers to the song "{{w|Call Me Maybe}}" by Carly Rae Jepsen (cited twice in the list). "MAYBE" is emphasized, perhaps because the probability of getting her phone number correct, as in the last item in the list, is very low. The capitalization could also be a reference to Scrabble tiles, as was previously mentioned in association with Carly Rae Jepsen.

==Table==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Odds
! Text
! Explanation
|-
| 0.01%
| You guess the last four digits of someone's {{w|Social Security Number}} on the first try
| There are 10 digits in a {{w|Social Security Number}}, but the last four are commonly used as an identity verification factor. (1/10)4 = 0.0001, or 0.01%
|-
| 0.1%
| Three randomly chosen people are all left-handed
| The chances of having left-{{w|handedness}} is about [https://www.healthline.com/health/left-handers-and-health-risk 10%], and 10%3 = 0.1%.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 0.2%
| You draw 2 random {{w|Scrabble}} tiles and get M and M
| This appears to be an error. Under standard English {{w|Scrabble letter distribution}} there are 100 tiles of which 2 are M. This would give a probability of randomly drawing M and M as 2/100 × 1/99 ≈ 0.02%. However, other language editions of Scrabble have different letter distributions, some of which could allow this to be true.
|-
| You draw 3 random {{w|M&Ms}} and they're all red
| According to Randall's source, the proportion of reds is 13%.<ref>M&Ms color proportion 13% red 13% brown 14% yellow 16% green 20% orange 24% blue</ref> 0.133 ≈ 0.22%.
|-
| 0.3%
| You guess someone's birthday in one try.
| 1/365 ≈ 0.27%. Taking into account that a person might have been born February 29, the probability with a random guess is slightly lower. If the guesser knows on which days there are slightly more births (for example, early October, believed to be because of conceptions occurring on the evening of December 31) and which days there are slightly fewer (for examples, holidays on which a planned, pre-scheduled C-section is unlikely to be held), then the probability is slightly higher.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 0.5%
| An {{w|NBA}} team down by 30 at halftime wins
| This calculation, along with all related ones, use the source NBA Win Probability Calculator. Entering Q2, 0:00, and -30 into the calculator yields 0.6% .
|-
| You get 4 M&Ms and they're all brown or yellow
| Depending on the source of one's M&Ms in the U.S., the proportion of them that is brown or yellow is either 0.25 or 0.259 . 0.254≈ 0.39%; 0.2594 ≈ 0.45% .
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1%
| {{w|Steph Curry}} gets two free throws and misses both
| Curry is a 91% career free throw shooter, so the percentage of missing 1 FT is about 9%. The chance of missing 2 FTs is about 0.8% ≈ 1%.
|-
| {{w|LeBron James}} guesses your birthday, if each guess costs one free throw and he loses if he misses
| LeBron James' free-throw odds are ~73% . The odds of him winning on the first round are 1/365, for the second (1/364)(0.73), for the third (1/363)(0.73)2... Summing all of these from 1 to 365 gives us his total odds of winning at any point in the game are ≈ 1.022% .
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1.5%
| You get two M&Ms and they're both red
| According to Randall's sources, the probability of a red M&M is about 13%, so the probability of 2 M&Ms being red is (13%)2 ≈ 1.69%.
|-
| You share a birthday with a {{w|Backstreet Boys|Backstreet Boy}}
|Each of the five Backstreet Boys has a different birthday, so the odds that you share a birthday with one is 5/365.25 ≈ 1.3% .
|-
| 2%
| You guess someone's card on the first try
| There are 52 cards in a normal deck of cards (excluding jokers), so the probability is 1/52, which is approximately 0.019 (1.9%).
|-
| rowspan="2"| 3%
| You guess 5 coin tosses and get them all right
| The chance of correctly predicting a coin toss is 0.5. The chance of predicting 5 in a row is 0.55, or 3.125%.
|-
| Steph Curry wins that birthday free throw game
| Swap out 0.73 for 0.91 in the above calculations to find Steph Curry's odds of winning. This sum yields ~3.13% .
|-
| rowspan="3"| 4%
| You sweep a 3-game {{w|rock paper scissors}} series
| Picking randomly, you have a 1 in 3 chance of beating an opponent on the first try. (1/3)3 = 1/27 ≈ 4% .
|-
| {{w|Portland, Oregon}} has a {{w|White Christmas (weather)|white Christmas}}
| According to Randall's source (from the ''Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society''), the probability of snow cover in Portland is 4%.
|-
| You share a birthday with two {{w|US Senator}}s
| At the time this comic was published, 15 days were birthdays for more than one Senator.<ref>Rand Paul and John Thune - January 7 
Chris Van Hollen and Roy Blunt - January 10 
Tina Smith and James Lankford - March 4 
Tammy Duckworth and Mitt Romney - March 12 
Angus King and Patrick Leahy - March 31 
Jim Risch and Ron Wyden - May 3 
Dianne Feinstein and Elizabeth Warren - June 22 
Todd Young and Joe Manchin - August 24 
Kamala Harris, Brian Schatz, and Sheldon Whitehouse - October 20 
Jeff Merkley and Mike Rounds - October 24 
Jim Inhofe and Pat Toomey - November 17 
Dick Durbin and John Kennedy - November 21 
Rick Scott and Gary Peters - December 1 
John Boozman and David Perdue - December 10 

Based on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_senators List of current US Senators on Wikipedia] (and processed through [https://bit.ly/2HZeqQs this Google sheet)].
</ref>
|-
| rowspan="2"| 5%
| An NBA team down 20 at halftime wins
| Entering Q2, 0:00, and -20 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 5.2% or 5.3% .
|-
| You roll a natural 20
| A natural 20 indicates a critical hit in the {{w|Dungeons & Dragons}} role playing game. "Natural" means that it is the number showing when rolling a d20 (a 20-sided die), as opposed to an overall total of 20 when counting the die roll plus modifiers. There are twenty sides to a d20 die. 1/20 = 0.05 = 5%
|-
| 6%
| You correctly guess someone's card given 3 tries
| Picking a random card within 3 times gives 1 - (51/52)(50/51)(49/50) ≈ 6% .
|-
| 7%
| LeBron James gets two free throws and misses both
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of a miss is 27%. The probability of 2 misses is (27%)2, which is about 7%.
|-
| 8%
| You correctly guess someone's card given 4 tries
| Assuming you guess four different cards, 4/52 = 0.0769 ≈ 8% .
|-
| 9%
| Steph Curry misses a free throw
| Curry's career free throw percentage is 91%, so the probability of a miss is 9%.
|-
| rowspan="2"|10%
| You draw 5 cards and get the Ace of Spades
| There are 52 cards in a normal deck of cards (excluding jokers), and the Ace of Spades is one of them. The chances of getting the card is 1 - 51/52 * 50/51 * 49/50 * 48/49 * 47/48 which is approximately 0.096, which rounds to the given 10%. 
|-
| There's a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8+ earthquake in the next month
| Note that, unlike other earthquake examples, this does not specify where the earthquake occurs.
|-
| 11%
| You sweep a 2-game rock paper scissors series
| You have a 1/3 chance of winning the first comparison, and a 1/3 chance of winning the second. (1/3) * (1/3) = 1/9 ~ 0.11 = 11% .
|-
| rowspan="3"|12%
| A randomly-chosen American lives in {{w|California}}
| California is the most populous state in the US. Out of the approximately 328.2 million Americans (as of 2019), 39.51 million live in California. This means that a randomly chosen American has about a 39.51/328.2 ≈ 10.33% chance of living in California. Due to population change and rounding based on different sources, this could be pushed to 12%.
|-
| You correctly guess someone's card given 6 tries
| Assuming you don't repeat previous wrong guesses, the probability is 6/52 ≈ 11.54%.
|-
| You share a birthday with a {{w|US President}}
| Presidents {{w|James Polk}} and {{w|Warren Harding}} share a birthday, and are the only presidents so far (in 2020) to do so. Additionally, {{w|Grover Cleveland}} served two non-consecutive terms and is counted twice (as the 22nd and 24th presidents). He therefore shares a birthday with himself. With 43 distinct birthdays, the odds of sharing a birthday are 43/365 ≈ 12%. (This does not consider February 29 or that more births occur on some days than others.)
|-
| rowspan="3"|13%
| A {{w|Dice#Polyhedral_dice|d6}} beats a {{w|Dice#Polyhedral_dice|d20}}
| The odds of a d6 beating a d20 are (0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5)/(120) = 0.125 ≈ 13% .
|-
| An NBA team down 10 going into the 4th quarter wins
| Entering Q3, 0:00, and -10 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 12.6% or 12.8% .
|-
| You pull one M&M from a bag and it's red
| According to Randall's source, the probability of a red M&M is 13%.
|-
| 14%
| A randomly drawn scrabble tile beats a D6 die roll
| {{w|Scrabble}} is a game in which you place lettered tiles to form words. Most of the scores per letter are 1, making it rare to beat a d6. The odds are (70/100)(0) + (7/100)(1/6) + (8/100)(2/6) + (10/100)(3/6) + (1/100)(4/6) + (4/100)(6/6) ≈ 14%.
|-
| 15%
| You roll a D20 and get at least 18
| The set of "at least 18" on a d20 is 18, 19, and 20. The odds of rolling one of these is 3/20 = 15% .
|-
| 16%
| Steph Curry gets two free throws but makes only one
| Steph Curry's FT percentage is 91%, so (0.91)(0.09) = 8.19% . However, the order of these is irrelevant, so the total odds are 16.38% .
|-
| 17%
| You roll a D6 die and get a 6
| The odds are 1/6 ≈ 17% .
|-
| 18%
| A D6 beats or ties a D20
| The odds are (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6)/(120) = 17.5% .
|-
| 19%
| At least one person in a random pair is left-handed
| The chances of being left handed is about 10%, so the probability of both people in the pair not being left-handed is 0.92=0.81, and 1-0.81=0.19.
|-
| 20%
| You get a dozen M&Ms and none of them are brown
| The odds that an M&M is not brown is 87%, so the odds that a dozen are not brown is (0.87)12 = 18.8% .
|-
| 21%
| {{w|St. Louis}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in St. Louis is 21%.
|-
| 22%
| An NBA team wins when they're down 10 at halftime
| Entering Q2, 0:00, and -10 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 22.3% or 22.5% .
|-
| rowspan="2"| 23%
| You get an M&M and it's blue
| According to Randall's source, the "test probability" of a blue M&M is 24%.
|-
| You share a birthday with a US senator
| There are 100 Senators, but 31 Senators share 15 birthdays and 69 Senators have unique birthdays, so there are a total of 84 days of the year that are the birthday of a Senator.
|-
| 24%
| You correctly guess that someone was born in the winter
| The winter lasts ~24% of the year, so ~24% of birthdays are in the winter.
|-
| rowspan="2"| 25%
| You correctly guess that someone was born in the fall
| The fall lasts ~25% of the year, so ~25% of birthdays are in the fall. This statement would also have been true for spring.
|-
| You roll two plain M&Ms and get M and M.
| An M&M can land on one of two sides, one with an M and one without. The odds of "rolling" two Ms is 1/4 = 25%. The term "rolling" is used jokingly in reference to the d6s and d20s above, suggesting that an M&M is a standard d2; this becomes especially true once you consider that a more accurate reference would have been to a coin, not a die.
|-
| 26%
| You correctly guess someone was born in the summer
| The summer lasts ~26% of the year, so ~26% of birthdays are in the summer.
|-
| 27%
| LeBron James misses a free throw
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of missing is 27%.
|-
| 32%
| {{w|Pittsburgh}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Pittsburgh is 32%.
|-
| rowspan="3"| 33%
| A randomly chosen Star Wars movie (Episodes I-IX) has "of the" in the title
| Episodes II (Attack of the Clones), III (Revenge of the Sith), and VI (Return of the Jedi) are the movies. This gives the odds of 3/9 ≈ 33% .
|-
| You win the Monty Hall sports car by picking a door and refusing to switch
| The {{w|Monty Hall problem}} is a counterintuitive logic problem, in which you pick one of three doors at random. One of the doors has a car behind it, so the odds that you picked the door are 1/3 ≈ 33%. Thus, by not switching doors, your odds remain the same. The Monty Hall problem has previously appeared in [[1282: Monty Hall]] and [[1492: Dress Color]].
|-
| You win rock paper scissors by picking randomly
| The odds of beating an opponent on the first try by picking randomly is 1/3 ≈ 33% .
|-
| 34%
| You draw five cards and get an ace
| The odds are 1 - (48/52)(47/51)(46/50)(45/49)(44/48) ≈ 34% .
|-
| 35%
| A random Scrabble tile is one of the letters in "random"
| The odds of drawing a letter in "random" are (6 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 8 + 2)/100 = 35% .
|-
| 39%
| LeBron James gets two free throws but misses one
| LeBron James' FT percentage is 73% , so the odds are (0.73)(0.27) = 19.71% . However, the order is irrelevant, so the odds are actually twice, or 39.42% .
|-
| 40%
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Steph Curry"
| The odds of drawing a letter in "Steph Curry" are (4 + 6 + 12 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 2)/100 = 40% .
|-
| 46%
| There's a magnitude 7 quake in LA within 30 years
|
|-
| rowspan="2"|48%
| {{w|Milwaukee}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Milwaukee is 48%.
|-
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in Carly Rae Jepsen
| The odds of a Scrabble tile being in her name are (2 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 2 + 12 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 6)/100 = 48% .
|-
| 50%
| You get heads in a coin toss
| There are two options in a coin toss, heads or tails, so the odds of getting heads is 50% (1/2).
|-
| 53%
| {{w|Salt Lake City}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Salt Lake City is 53%.
|-
| 54%
| LeBron James gets two free throws and makes both
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the probability of making 2 FT is (73%)2 = 53.9%.
|-
| 58%
| A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Nate Silver"
| {{w|Nate Silver}} is a recurring person on xkcd. The odds of a Scrabble tile being in his name are (6 + 9 + 6 + 12 + 4 + 9 + 4 + 2 + 6)/100 = 58% .
|-
| 60%
| You get two M&Ms and neither is blue
| The odds that an M&M is not blue is 77%, so the odds that 2 are not blue is (0.77)2 = 59.29% .
|-
| 65%
| {{w|Burlington, Vermont}} has a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in Burlington is 65%.
|-
| 66%
| A randomly chosen movie from the main Lord of the Rings trilogy has “of the” in the title twice
| The titles are:
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Fellowship '''of the''' Ring''
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Two Towers''
* ''The Lord '''of the''' Rings: The Return '''of the''' King''
All of them have “of the” at least once, in “The Lord of the Rings”, but only the first and third have it twice, and 2/3 ≈ 66%. This number typically rounds up to 67% , however, and it is unclear why it is not, given that the same reduced fraction is written in the 67% category below.
|-
| 67%
| You roll at least a 3 with a d6
| The set of "at least 3" on a d6 refers to 3, 4, 5, and 6. The odds are 4/6 ≈ 67%.
|-
| 71%
| A random Scrabble tile beats a random dice roll
| This is a typo, as the correct probability is at the 14% entry. A random (d6) die roll beats a random Scrabble tile 71% of the time. [[Randall]] probably meant to write '''A random d6 dice roll''' beats '''a random Scrabble tile'''.
|-
| 73%
| LeBron James makes a free throw
| This is James' career FT percentage, 73%.
|-
| 75%
| You drop two M&Ms and one of them ends with the "M" up so it's clear they're not Skittles
| The odds of at least one 'M' showing up is 1 - (1/4) = 75% . The reference to {{w|Skittles}} is that the two candies look similar to one another, and Randall has probably bit into a Skittle thinking it was an M&M, or vice versa. This trick might prevent that from happening in the future.
|-
| 76%
| You get two M&Ms and neither is red
| The odds that an M&M is nor red is 85%, so the odds that 2 are not red is 71.9% .
|-
| 77%
| You get an an M&M and it's not blue
| The odds that an M&M is blue is 23%, so the odds that it's not blue is 77% .
|-
| 78%
| An NBA team wins when they're up 10 at halftime
| Entering Q2, 0:00, and 10 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 77.5% or 77.7% .
|-
| 79%
| St. Louis doesn't have a white Christmas
| According to Randall's source, the probability of snow cover in St. Louis is 21%, thus the probability of ''no'' snow cover is 79%.
|-
| 81%
| Two random people are both right-handed
| The probability of 1 person being right-handed is about 90%, thus the probability of 2 right-handers is (90%)2 = 81%.
|-
| 83%
| Steph Curry gets two free throws and makes both
| Curry's career FT percentage is 91%, so the probability of making 2 FTs is (91%)2 = 82.81%.
|-
| 85%
| You roll a d20 and get at least a 4
| The set "at least 4" on a d20 refers to 4, 5, 6... 18, 19, 20. The odds of this are 17/20 = 85% .
|-
| rowspan="2"| 87%
| An NBA team up by 10 going into the 4th quarter wins
| Entering Q3, 0:00, and 10 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 87.2% or 87.4% .
|-
| Someone fails to guess your card given 7 tries
|Assuming they guess seven different cards, there are 45 unguessed cards left. 45/52 = 0.865384615 ~ 86.5%
|-
| 88%
| A randomly chosen American lives outside California
| This is the opposite of the previous California probability. As the probability of an American living in California is 12%, the opposite would be 88%.
|-
| 89%
| You roll a 3 or higher given two tries
| The probability of rolling a 3 or higher (on a 6-sided die) is 66%, so the percentage of rolling a 3 or higher given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.66)2 = 89%.
|-
| 90%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 5 tries
| Assuming they guess five different cards, there are 47 unguessed cards left. 47/52 = 0.90385 ~ 90%
|-
| rowspan="2"| 91%
| You incorrectly guess that someone was born in August
| If the odds of someone being born in August are ~9% , then the odds that a person was not born in August are ~91%. (In an average month, 8 1/3% of the population was born. August has an above average number of days, but still only about 8.5% of the year is in August.)
|-
| Steph Curry makes a free throw
| This is Curry's career FT percentage, 91%.
|-
| 92%
| You guess someone's birth month at random and are wrong
| On average, a month lasts 8⅓% of the year. Thus, if you were to guess someone's birth month at random, you would be wrong 91 ⅔% of the time.
|-
| 93%
| Lebron James makes a free throw given two tries
| James' career FT percentage is 73%, so the percentage of his making at least 1 FT given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.73)2 = 93%.
|-
| 94%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 3 tries
| The odds of this happening are (51/52)(50/51)(49/50) ≈ 94% .
|-
| 95%
| An NBA team wins when they're up 20 at halftime
| Entering Q2, 0:00, and 20 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 94.7% or 94.8% .
|-
| 96%
| Someone fails to guess your card given 2 tries
| The odds of this happening are (51/52)(50/51) ≈ 96% .
|-
| 97%
| You try to guess 5 coin tosses and fail
| The odds of this happening are 1 - (1/2)5 ≈ 97% .
|-
| 98%
| You incorrectly guess someone's birthday is this week
| The odds of this happening are about 51/52 ≈ 98%. (This depends on the week; there are more births in early October and fewer in holiday weeks.)
|-
| 98.5%
| An NBA team up 15 points with 8 minutes left wins
| Entering Q4, 8:00, and 15 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 98.0% or 98.6% .
|-
| 99%
| Steph Curry makes a free throw given two tries
| James' career FT percentage is 91%, so the percentage of his making at least 1 FT given 2 tries is 1 - (1-.91)2 = 99%.
|-
| 99.5%
| An NBA team that's up by 30 points at halftime wins
| Entering Q2, 0:00, and 30 into the NBA Win Probability Calculator yields 99.4% .
|-
| 99.7%
| You guess someone's birthday at random and are wrong
| The odds of this are 364/365 ≈ 99.7%.
|-
| 99.8%
| There's not a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8 quake in {{w|California}} next year
|
|-
| 99.9%
| A random group of three people contains a right-hander
| About 90% of people are right-handed, so the percentage of at least 1 right-hander in a group of 3 is 1 - (1-.9)3 = 99.9%.
|-
| 99.99%
| You incorrectly guess the last four digits of someone's social security number
| There are 10 digits in a Social Security Number, but the last four are commonly used as an identity verification factor. The odds of this are 1 - (1/10)4 = 99.99% .
|-
| 99.9999999999999995%
| You pick up a phone, dial a random 10-digit number, and say 'Hello Barack Obama, there's just been a {{w|Moment magnitude scale|magnitude}} 8 earthquake in {{w|California}}!" and are wrong
| This probability combines two events.

First, the probability that a random 10-digit telephone number belongs to Obama is 1/1010. This ignores potential complications from Obama owning multiple phones or failing to answer personally (perhaps using an assistant or answering machine). Additionally, it assumes numbers are dialed at random rather than making more intelligent guesses like using likely addresses to guess area codes.

Second, the probability of a magnitude 8 California quake is given in a previous entry as 0.2% per year. Although the time window for an earthquake to "just occur" is not given, a 15 minute window corresponds (within rounding error) to the total probability given.
|-
| 0.00000001%
| You add "Hang on, this is big — I'm going to loop in Carly Rae Jepsen", dial another random 10-digit number, and she picks up
| The odds of a random number being hers would be 1 - (1/10)10 = 0.00000001% if she had only one phone number. However, that is not the probability that "she picks up", because, like Obama, she might either have more than one phone number (increasing the probability) or be letting calls from unknown callers go to voice mail (making the probability zero).
|}

===References===
{{#tag:references}}

==Trivia==
In the original comic, "outside" in the 88% probability section is spelled incorrectly as "outide". In addition, the 39% section had "two free throw" instead of "throws".

The (seemingly unimportant) odds of LeBron James' versus Stephen Curry's free throws and names in Scrabble refer to [[2002: LeBron James and Stephen Curry]].

==Transcript==
<big>Probability Comparisons</big>

0.01% You guess the last four digits of someone's social security number on the first try

0.1% Three randomly chosen people are all left-handed

0.2% You draw 2 random Scrabble tiles and get M and M

You draw 3 random M&Ms and they're all red

0.3% You guess someone's birthday in one try.

0.5% An NBA team down by 30 at halftime wins

You get 4 M&Ms and they're all brown or yellow

1% Steph Curry gets two free throws and misses both

LeBron James guesses your birthday, if each guess costs one free throw and he loses if he misses

1.5% You get two M&Ms and they're both red

You share a birthday with a Backstreet Boy

2% You guess someone's card on the first try

3% You guess 5 coin tosses and get them all right

Steph Curry wins that birthday free throw game

4% You sweep a 3-game rock paper scissors series

Portland, Oregon has a white Christmas

You share a birthday with two US Senators

5% An NBA team down 20 at halftime wins

You roll a natural 20

6% You correctly guess someone's card given 3 tries

7% LeBron James gets two free throws and misses both

8% You correctly guess someone's card given 4 tries

9% Steph Curry misses a free throw

10% You draw 5 cards and get the Ace of Spades

There's a magnitude 8+ earthquake in the next month

11% You sweep a 2-game rock paper scissors series

12% A randomly-chosen American lives in California

You correctly guess someone's card given 6 tries

You share a birthday with a US President

13% A d6 beats a d20

An NBA team down 10 going into the 4th quarter wins

You pull one M&M from a bag and it's red

14% A randomly drawn scrabble tile beats a d6 die roll

15% You roll a d20 and get at least 18

16% Steph Curry gets two free throws but makes only one

17% You roll a d6 die and get a 6

18% A d6 beats or ties a d20

19% At least one person in a random pair is left-handed

20% You get a dozen M&Ms and none of them are brown

21% St. Louis has a white Christmas

22% An NBA team wins when they're down 10 at halftime

23% You get an M&M and it's blue

You share a birthday with a US senator

24% You correctly guess that someone was born in the winter

25% You correctly guess that someone was born in the fall

You roll two plain M&Ms and get M and M.

26% You correctly guess someone was born in the summer

27% LeBron James misses a free throw

32% Pittsburgh has a white Christmas

33% A randomly chosen Star Wars movie (Episodes I-IX) has "of the" in the title

You win the Monty Hall sports car by picking a door and refusing to switch

You win rock paper scissors by picking randomly

34% You draw five cards and get an ace

35% A random Scrabble tile is one of the letters in "random"

39% LeBron James gets two free throws but misses one

40% A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Steph Curry"

46% There's a magnitude 7 quake in LA within 30 years

48% Milwaukee has a white Christmas

A random Scrabble tile is a letter in Carly Rae Jepsen

50% You get heads in a coin toss

53% Salt Lake City has a white Christmas

54% LeBron James gets two free throws and makes both

58% A random Scrabble tile is a letter in "Nate Silver"

60% You get two M&Ms and neither is blue

65% Burlington, Vermont has a white Christmas

66% A randomly chosen movie from the main Lord of the Rings trilogy has “of the” in the title twice

67% You roll at least a 3 with a d6

71% A random Scrabble tile beats a random dice roll

73% LeBron James makes a free throw

75% You drop two M&Ms and one of them ends with the "M" up so it's clear they're not Skittles

76% You get two M&Ms and neither is red

77% You get an an M&M and it's not blue

78% An NBA team wins when they're up 10 at halftime

79% St. Louis doesn't have a white Christmas

81% Two random people are both right-handed

83% Steph Curry gets two free throws and makes both

85% You roll a d20 and get at least a 4

87% An NBA team up by 10 going into the 4th quarter wins

Someone fails to guess your card given 7 tries

88% A randomly chosen American lives outside California

89% You roll a 3 or higher given two tries

90% Someone fails to guess your card given 5 tries

91% You incorrectly guess that someone was born in August

Steph Curry makes a free throw

92% You guess someone's birth month at random and are wrong

93% Lebron James makes a free throw given two tries

94% Someone fails to guess your card given 3 tries

95% An NBA team wins when they're up 20 at halftime

96% Someone fails to guess your card given 2 tries

97% You try to guess 5 coin tosses and fail

98% You incorrectly guess someone's birthday is this week

98.5% An NBA team up 15 points with 8 minutes left wins

99% Steph Curry makes a free throw given two tries

99.5% An NBA team that's up by 30 points at halftime wins

99.7% You guess someone's birthday at random and are wrong

99.8% There's not a magnitude 8 quake in California next year

99.9% A random group of three people contains a right-hander

99.99% You incorrectly guess the last four digits of someone's social security number

99.9999999999999995% You pick up a phone, dial a random 10-digit number, and say 'Hello Barack Obama, there's just been a magnitude 8 earthquake in California!" and are wrong

0.00000001% You add "Hang on, this is big — I'm going to loop in Carly Rae Jepsen", dial another random 10-digit number, and she picks up

Sources: https://xkcd.com/2379/sources/

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Nate Silver]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:2379: Probability Comparisons

2020-11-02T09:59:48Z

Quantum7: /* Obama earthquake probability */ new section

(Sidenote: for the 88% entry in the comic, "outside" is misspelled as "outide" as of the current moment.)

What's the best way to organize the explanations for this comic, when they begin to be added? By the order they're listed in the comic? That seems inefficient, since presumably many of the entries can be answered as a group by a single explanation. If they should be grouped, how should they be grouped? --[[User:V2Blast|V2Blast]] ([[User talk:V2Blast|talk]]) 03:59, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
: The table I added is sortable. You could add a "type" column of some sort and users could sort by that if they want. [[User:Captain Video|Captain Video]] ([[User talk:Captain Video|talk]]) 04:42, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
There's a discrepancy between the version here and the current official version. Here, 0.2% has the red M&Ms thing paired with the odds of drawing a flush in poker ("you draw 5 cards and they're all the same suit"); the official version has it with "You draw 2 random Scrabble tiles and get M and M." Here, the latter piece of information is at 0.1%, and there the 0.1% item is "Three randomly chosen people are all left-handed." I'm guessing we have an old version of the page? [[User:Captain Video|Captain Video]] ([[User talk:Captain Video|talk]]) 06:03, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
: Updated. [[User:Natg19|Natg19]] ([[User talk:Natg19|talk]]) 08:29, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
:: Cool, thanks. [[User:Captain Video|Captain Video]] ([[User talk:Captain Video|talk]]) 01:22, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

Wouldn't the Lord of the rings one be, technically, 67%, since 66.6666666... rounds to 67%, not 66? Also, we should really add a better comment interface. [[User:BarnZarn|BarnZarn]] ([[User talk:BarnZarn|talk]]) 06:28, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
: The same goes for the next entry, imho, since LOTR-one is 2 out of 3 movies and the dice rolls are 4 out of 6, which comes down to the exact same percentage.

Hooray, xkcd is finally xkcd again! For the last fifty strips it’s basically been lighter SMBC. Yay Randall!

Also, if anyone wants to read something very English and very horrible, https://endicottstudio.typepad.com/poetrylist/the-white-road-by-neil-gaiman.html. [[User:Lightcaller|Lightcaller]] ([[User talk:Lightcaller|talk]]) 07:21, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

I have to think the second to last is off. First, what is meant by "just been"? Minutes, hours, days? Second, does anyone know the correct number of 10-digit phone numbers that are answered by people named "Barack Obama" (as pronounced, not spelled)? I remember that Obama had a cell, and including the phones in his office and his bedroom (separate #'s), so during his term, that's at least 3. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 15:50, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
:first of all, this is no longer his term, so the number of phone numbers he has nowadays might be different. Also, the scenario requires him to pick up the phone, and he probably wouldn't simultaneously be available to pick up a phone in both his office and bedroom, and unless it's a cell phone, only a fraction of the time would he be there. Also, like many people, he might not answer calls from unknown numbers, or he may have a secretary or someone screening his calls. Judging from the following line though, the calculations used here probably just used 1 in 10 billion for that value, leaving only the "just been an 8.0 earthquake in Calfornia" part.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.124|108.162.216.124]] 09:12, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

:Isn't the second to last entry really just a sneaky way of listing the probability of a magnitude 8 earthquake having just occurred in California? The entry says nothing about Barack Obama actually answering the phone, nor even that the number dialed being Barack Obama's. If agreed, then can the explanation in the table be updated? If disagreeing, then I'd appreciate you pointing out where I'm in error.

:Could Obama's phone number be referring to when he Tweeted a phone number to text him at in late September[https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1308769164190941187]? And so the chance of it being the correct number is much higher? [[User:B. A. Beder|B. A. Beder]] ([[User talk:B. A. Beder|talk]]) 01:09, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

guys i have never edited the transcript section im scared. — [[User:Sqrt-1|The 𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭]] [[User talk:Sqrt-1|talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|stalk]] 16:36, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
:This comic has so many American jokes and brands I can't understand this... I found this from [https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1263600/probability-of-picking-up-two-mms-of-same-color-randomly mathematics stack exchange] and that helped me understand what this M&M stuff is... — [[User:Sqrt-1|The 𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭]] [[User talk:Sqrt-1|talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|stalk]] 16:39, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
::Alright, I if the only colours are red green and blue how can there be fucking yellow or brown godammit I give up someone else do this shit AHAHAHA — [[User:Sqrt-1|The 𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭]] [[User talk:Sqrt-1|talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|stalk]] 16:45, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
:::There are currently 6 colors, blue, red, brown, yellow, green and orange. Each comes in different ratios, for some reason. If there were all the same ratio, then getting 2 that are both red would be 1/36=2.777%, so red is below average. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 00:58, 1 November 2020 (UTC)
::::The colors used to be different a number of years ago. I forget what year, but they had a contest for people to vote on a new M&M flavor. They had people vote between blue, pink, and purple. I guess blue won as both pink and purple are considered girly colors and blue is considered manly, but the presencee of two girly colors split the vote for that. At the same time they got rid of there having used to be light brown M&Ms, and for a while they had commercials with blue M&Ms singing the blues. Anyway, I also read speculation the reason some colors are more common is they put less of the ones where the dye they use is more expensive, though I'm not sure if that's accurate.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.124|108.162.216.124]] 09:07, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

I don't understand the "You share a birthday with two US Senators" as being 4%. If there is only one pair of U.S. Senators with the same birthday, then your chance of sharing a birthday with them would be 1/365 (~0.27%). --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.143|162.158.74.143]] 20:25, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
:I'm not certain of the math offhand, but it is the odds of randomly sharing a birthday with 2 out of 100 Senators. Not that just a pair shares one with you. Although all this birthday talk ignores Feb 29 births. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 00:58, 1 November 2020 (UTC)
::I just noticed the note about there being 9 days that have a pair of Senators sharing a birthday. Does the 4% take that into consideration? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 01:08, 1 November 2020 (UTC)
:::It's been updated to say that there are 15 days that have at least 2 Senators who share a birthday. That would make the probability (15/365.25), or 4.1%, so Randall is correct. (Using 365.25 to account for Feb. 29 births.) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.55|162.158.74.55]] 03:57, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Um... in the Trivia section, someone wrote:

"the 67% probability of rolling at least a 3 with a D6 is correct. "At least a 3" means a 3, 4, 5, or 6."

Four out of six is ~67%, right? Please don't tell me I've forgotten basic maths. I'm going to delete that section, but feel free to add it back in if I'm just being an idiot. [[User:BlackHat|BlackHat]] ([[User talk:BlackHat|talk]]) 22:28, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

The explanation for the Social Security Number is wrong- it should be that there are ten possible digits for each of the four digits you're trying to guess. The number of digits in a SSN doesn't matter since the comic specifies you're only guessing the last four. [[User:Duraludon|Duraludon]] ([[User talk:Duraludon|talk]]) 00:59, 1 November 2020 (UTC)
:In addition, there are no valid SSN's with any group as all zeros, so there are only 9999 valid numbers to guess at. Still close enough to .01% [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 13:21, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

XKCD comics are getting later and later in the (American) day. This one was posted Sunday the 1st, from the point of view of us Aussies. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.119.159|162.158.119.159]] 01:40, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

== 2/3 = both 66% and 67%? ==

I get picking either 66% or 67% as a rounding for 2/3 but to have one of each?? Is there any actual reason for this?

<blockquote>66% A randomly chosen movie from the main Lord of the Rings trilogy has “of the” in the title twice 67% You roll at least a 3 with a d6</blockquote>

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.152|162.158.79.152]] 21:40, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

I wonder what time frame he meant for there "just" having been an earthquake in California.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.124|108.162.216.124]] 09:03, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

Angus King is from Maine, that’s ME not MN. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.200|108.162.219.200]] 14:43, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

== Do we do calculus? ==

I think I've got how Randall did the birthday party/free-throw calculations, but it's kind of math-intensive. How much should I put in the explanation column? It's quite easier to explain with summations, but that requires a lot of background to someone who doesn't know calculus (i.e., probably a lot of people who read this). Should I forego the sum entirely? Should I say "the proof is by magic"? Also, at least some of this is stemming from the fact that I have no clue how one would insert a summation sigma into the editing, and I'm too afraid to try it. I'll write it with a bunch of plus signs (basically a sum, but longhand notation) until somebody decides to step in and clean it up. [[User:BlackHat|BlackHat]] ([[User talk:BlackHat|talk]]) 18:05, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

== Let's talk M&Ms ==

I'm beginning to think Randall is nerd-sniping us, because none of the values for M&M colours seem to line up with his source. The easiest example to demonstrate is '77% : An M&M is not blue'. '''Nowhere in the article is there a value which rounds to 23% for blue M&Ms.''' Most of the other calculations also seem to have small-scale differences, and a few have differences so big only using the 95% confidence interval values help. Can anybody figure out his line of reasoning with this? [[User:BlackHat|BlackHat]] ([[User talk:BlackHat|talk]]) 19:12, 1 November 2020 (UTC)
:You have to remember that 87% of all stats are made up. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 21:24, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

== Hemispheres and Seasons ==

Should there be a note of the fact that the summer/winter percentages are only true in the northern hemisphere? In the southern hemisphere, where summer is December-February and winter is June-August, the figures should be reversed (and at the equator, summer and winter don't really exist). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.86.114|172.68.86.114]] 21:49, 1 November 2020 (UTC)
:I'm not entirely sure ''which'' season boundaries are being espoused. Equinox/Solstice ones (summer starts on "mid-summer's day", ''sic''), mid-way between adjacent equinoces/solstices (mid-summer's day ''is'' exactly half way through summer), meteorlogical (groupings of three calendar months)..? I suspect the latter, to provide the off-quarter values from almost continually variable month-lengths, but the other two (in conjunction with the elliptical orbit of the Earth changing the rate each phase of oscillation made by the ecliptic) would be a far more scientific reason worthy of Randall. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.102|162.158.155.102]] 02:47, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

== Obama earthquake probability ==

I'm was thinking about the second-to-last probability. This should be Pr[call Obama] * Pr[Magnitude 8 earthquake "just" occured in CA] = 5e-18.
* From the phrasing we assume 10-digit numbers are dialed randomly, giving Pr[call Obama] = 1e-10
* From the previous quake we know Pr[CA quake/year] = 2e-3
* The time period for "just occurred" is not defined.
* SDSpivey points out there is some ambiguity with the number of phones Obama has and whether to include the probability of him answering personally

If we assume Obama answers a single phone number than the time period would be 5e-18/(1e-10 * 2e-3) = 2.5e-5 years = 13 minutes.

It seems likely that a 15 min period was considered for "just occurred", which would be within rounding error of the quake probability.
--[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 09:59, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

2377: xkcd Phone 12

2020-10-29T10:05:29Z

Quantum7: /* Explanation */ 3 MV section

{{comic
| number = 2377
| date = October 26, 2020
| title = xkcd Phone 12
| image = xkcd_phone_12.png
| titletext = New phone OS features: Infinite customization (home screen icons no longer snap to grid), dark mode (disables screen), screaming mode (self-explanatory), and coherent ultracapacitor-pumped emission (please let us know what this setting does; we've been afraid to try it).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PERSON NAMED MAX. Closed timelike curves need more explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is the "12th" (actually the 8th) in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone]] series in which Randall explains his new joke phone designs with many strange and useless features. It is also a reference to the recently released {{w|iPhone 12}}. However, there have only been 8 comics released, with the previous two being [[2000: xkcd Phone 2000]] and [[1889: xkcd Phone 6]].

The note about the xkcd Phone 12 and the xkcd Phone 12 Max (only for people named Max) is a joke about the different models of iPhone 12: iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. The xkcd Phone 12 Max would be expected to have a larger screen, but it seems that this phone is also only for people with the name Max. If the phones are respectively placed, Max's (Maxes'?) phone is the smaller of the two models.

The slogan '"The only phone you'll ever own"' could be interpreted as something of a threat, which is believable given some of the purported features. The slogan has the "registered trademark" symbol, with that symbol supposedly itself trademarked, which is highly unlikely. It is similar to the phrase ''"The last suit you'll ever wear"'', describing the black suits worn by the Men In Black in the movie of the same name.

Multiple features are labelled on the phone that are common when advertising other products, but highly unusual in mobile phones, for comedic effect:

* '''Full drivetrain warranty''' — A common warranty feature for automobiles--see {{w|drivetrain}}. As a side note, the phone here would be cheaping out on the warranty if it were a car; a "drivetrain" warranty covers almost everything ''except'' the engine; only if it was a "{{w|powertrain}}" warranty would it cover the engine. A phone typically has none of these things, although this one seemingly does.
* '''Coated for easy swallowing''' — A common feature on solid medicines meant to be taken orally. Phones do not belong in the set of edible objects, much less orally-taken medicines{{Citation needed}}. Since some parents of young children let them teethe on their phones, this would be an undesirable feature. There may be a pun here, based on the larger smartphones being practically the same as the more {{w|Tablet_computer|minimal portable computers}}.
* '''Surgical-grade apps''' — "Surgical-grade steel" is sometime used as a selling point indicating quality materials. This feature suggests that the apps themselves are made from high-quality material, although this is absurd because an app is (as the name suggests) a software application, not any physical object that could be reasonably defined as 'surgical-grade' or not. Note that both hardware and software can be certified for {{w|Safety-critical_system|safety-critical applications}}.
* '''Built-in 600 lb magnet for magnet fishing''' — {{w|Magnet fishing}} is an activity for searching for objects that can be pulled in by a strong magnet. A 600 pound magnet can lift a 600 pound (272 kg) object (at Earth's surface). This would tend to make the phone stick to any iron or steel objects (such as refrigerators) and be impossible to remove with human strength, and only the strongest humans could pick up the phone even if it were properly insulated. It would also be impossible to separate two phones without destroying one of them if the interlocking feature were used. This feature would also erase any credit cards the owner puts in the vicinity of the phone, meaning this phone could not be put in one's pocket with a wallet.
* '''Oral-B partnership: hold phone against teeth to ultrasonically remove plaque''' — This is a reference to {{w|ultrasonic toothbrush}}es. {{w|Oral-B}} does not produce any ultrasonic toothbrushes, but does produce ''{{w|sonic toothbrush}}es.'' There is a logical connection between electric toothbrushes and smartphones, namely they are both electronic and both vibrate; however, most phones cannot perform dentistry autonomously{{Citation needed}}.
* '''40 mL emergency water supply''' — 40 milliliters is equal to 40 cubic centimeters. For comparison, the iPhone 11 Pro Max's volume is just shy of 100 cubic centimeters; if the Phone 12 Max is similarly sized, then the water supply would take up over 40% of its total volume. In this day and age, many phones are water-resistant to some degree; nevertheless, shipping a phone with an interior consisting of a 3:2 ratio of electronics-to-water will surely lead to many short-circuited, inoperable phones. Furthermore, {{w|survival kit}}s often come with pouches that can hold several liters of water, in case of emergency. Because people typically take their phones with them everywhere they go, storing a survival kit inside the phone would be a life-saving feature. Unfortunately, 40cc of water is not enough to stave off thirst for a meaningful amount of time, extinguish a flame much larger than a candle's, or deal with most other situations which would constitute an emergency. Unless you are suitably proficient at {{w|Katara_(Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender)#Waterbending|waterbending}}, this feature is useless for its intended function. 40 milliliters is also the amount of fluid that a shot glass holds.
* '''Security feature: unmarked side buttons''' — Some vendors (particularly car dealers) try to explain away horrible User Interface functions as "Security Features". Technically, if no one (including the owner) can use it, it is secure... Some modern phones have unmarked side buttons, so the secureness of this feature is doubtful. No buttons are visible which could indicate the side of the phone functions is touch sensitive and the buttons are not only unlabeled but not visible.
* '''3,000,000-volt arc allows wireless charging from a range of up to 36 inches''' — {{w|Inductive charging|Induction charging}} is a method that a number of modern phones advertise, allowing power to (inefficiently but 'conveniently') transfer into a device from a mains charging station or another device's battery without the need for plugging in cables. It transfers energy between safely tuned coils, that do not touch, though typically the case of one device must remain placed directly upon the other for the optimal transfer of charge between them. An electric arc can also be used to transfer electrical energy through the air through a lightning-like discharge. While arcs can transfer large amounts of energy quickly, the plasma generated would be very dangerous and damaging to the phone, charger, and immediate vicinity. The {{w|electrical breakdown}} voltage of air is approximately 3 kV / mm, which would allow a 3 MV potential to jump a distance of 100 cm (40 inches). 36 inches (91 cm), however, is within reach of a simple extension cord. {{w|Electrical_injury#Lethality|Shocks of 11,000 volts are usually lethal}}, so 3,000,000 volts of electricity (possibly from a complete {{w|Tesla coil}} assemblage) would require considerable protection.
* '''99.9% BPA- and hands- free''' — {{w|Bisphenol A}} (or BPA) is a compound that is used in making plastics. BPA has been found to exhibit hormone-like properties, so there is a movement to produce BPA-free plastics using alternative bisphenols. {{w|Hands-free}} describes using the device "without hands", e.g. using voice commands. This is important when using a device while driving. These are 2 unrelated ideas, which use the suffix "free" in different meanings ("BPA-free" means "containing no BPA", while "hands-free" means "your hands need not be used"). The construction "NOUN- and NOUN-ADJ" is normally only used with the meaning of "ADJ" repeated for both nouns, implying that this phone "contains no hands" (or possibly "your BPA is left free"). The "percentage free" description is also a standard form of advertising {{w|weasel word}}s, as remarked by Randall in [[641: Free]]. A food might be described as "90% fat-free" with the heavy implication that it has a tenth of the usual fat content, but likely really means "10% of the product is pure fat" (typically by weight or maybe pre-cooked volume) compared with perhaps 15% in the typical non-'fat-free' recipe. 0.1% of BPA is not an insignificant quantity given its possible effects, and is likely to be a higher leachable content if it is all concentrated in external trimmings. It is unclear what a tenth of a percent of a hand needs to do, to operate the device, but it does also mean that it is not as completely hands-free as implied. Or else it ''also'' implies that up to 0.1% of the phone contains ingredients sourced from human hands. At best, this could be skin cells from the workers (although phone assembly lines ''should'' be kept meticulously clean, to prevent damage to delicate components), or at worst, some workers could be losing hands into the assembly line due to poor safety practices.
* '''Extended release charge cable''' — Electronics manufacturers support standards to reduce time to fully recharge, e.g. Qualcomm {{w|Quick Charge}} standard. This is a reference to {{w|Modified-release dosage|"extended release" medication}}. It's unclear what purpose would be served by charging a phone slower than normal.
* '''Closed timelike curves''' — This label is applied to the curved corner of the phone. Randall may be making a visual joke by referring to the corner of the phone by a very complex relativistic concept. Given that {{w|Closed timelike curves}} are usually associated with solutions to general relativity that allow for time travel... It could also be a reference to the [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-13/apple-plans-ipad-like-design-for-next-iphone-smaller-homepod|''Bloomberg'' leaks] that predicted the sharper corners of the iPhone 12, the phone model this is designed on.
* '''Fits in standard shipping container''' - An {{w|intermodal shipping container}} is large enough to fit automobiles, raising the question of just how big this xkcd phone is.
* '''Interlocking, stackable''' — A quality of, among other things, LEGO bricks. Probably a bad idea to use this feature, given how close the phone is to critical mass.
* '''Nintendo partnership: GameBoy Printer compatibility''' — The {{w|Game Boy Printer}} was a thermal paper printer originally paired with the {{w|Game Boy Camera}}. This device was released in 1998 and discontinued in 2003, so this partnership would be obsolete.
* '''Sustain pedal''' — A {{w|sustain pedal}} is commonly associated with a digital keyboard or piano; it lets the note continue sounding when the key is released. It's unclear what purpose it would serve in a phone, although it might be used for the screaming mode in the title text.
* '''CDC partnership: when in an indoor space with too many people, phone begins playing "We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)" at slowly increasing volume until everyone leaves''' — An allusion to the COVID-19 pandemic. CDC stands for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States public health institute. In [[2284: Sabotage]], Randall "promised" to bring an annoying karaoke song to a party to hopefully discourage people from attending, but this phone will apparently do so automatically. "{{w|We Like to Party! (Vengaboys song)|We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)}}" is a 1998 Eurodance/techno hit by the Vengaboys, and is perhaps most familiar to Americans from a series of {{w|Six Flags}} ads.
* '''Sacrificial anode''' — Useful if something metal will be in a wet environment for a long time. Commonly used on bridges and boats, but it may be a 'feature' of this phone because of its built-in water reservoir. The {{w|sacrificial anode}} is made of a material with higher redox potential (typically zinc), and will corrode faster than the (more valuable) metal object it's attached to. It's unclear if the phone HAS a sacrificial anode or IS a sacrificial anode.
* '''Tactical helium reserve''' — Since 1925, the United States has had a {{w|National Helium Reserve|strategic helium reserve}}. Helium is very rare on earth and has important scientific and military uses, so it’s important to have a supply in case supplies disappear. But here we have a tactical helium reserve, which suggests it's smaller and focused on shorter-term goals. Compare {{w|strategic bombing}} focused on destroying entire cities or countries and {{w|tactical bombing}} aimed at destroying individual targets or military units. Helium also has the property of being lighter than air, so if this reserve is large enough, the phone could float away if let go. However, this is unlikely, as the phone boasts other, heavy components such as large magnets, a water reserve and a critical mass of fissile material.
* '''50% below critical mass (2x safety factor)''' — Indicates the phone contains fissile material. This "2x safety factor" means that if you put 2 phones next to each other, or put one phone next to a {{w|neutron reflector}}, you would have a {{w|criticality accident}}, which may explain why you would not own another phone after this one. A phone with this much fissile material would pose a radiation hazard. The "2x safety factor" claim may be related to physicist {{w|Richard Feynman|Richard Feynman's}} famous criticism of NASA in the {{w|Rogers Commission}} report on the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Feynman found that when he confronted NASA engineers with a part worn one third of the way through, which was not supposed to be worn through at all, the engineers claimed that this demonstrated a 3x safety factor rather than a failure of the part.
* '''Shake for factory reset''' — A {{w|factory reset}} is often possible on electronic devices, and is usually accomplished either by pressing a button that is often well-protected against accidental contact, for an extended period or closing an electrical bridge. This one works like an {{w|Etch A Sketch|Etch-a-Sketch}}, which would not be preferred, as [http://www.ahajokes.com/com045.html slight disturbances] could easily cause massive losses of data.
* '''Norton MacAfee protection: if you're ever attacked by John MacAfee, Peter Norton will come out of retirement to defend you''' — {{w|Norton (software)|Norton}} and {{w|McAfee}} (note spelling!) are competing software security companies. This "protection" combines the two of them and claims that Norton (the person) will defend you if McAfee (the person) attacks you. May have been inspired by [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/business/mcafee-arrested-tax-evasion.html John McAfee's recent arrest] which brought attention to the allegation that he had hired a hit man to kill his neighbor in Belize in 2012.

The title text mentions xkcd phone OS updates, including:
* '''Infinite customization (home screen icons no longer snap to grid)''' — If icons snap to a grid with, say, 6x5 positions, then for each icon you only have 30 customization options. If, on the other, you don't have to keep them aligned to a grid, and your phone has, say, one million pixels, then you have one million customization choices for each icon. This is a lot, but it's still not "Infinite customizations", so we're clearly facing a case of misleading advertising. Whether on-screen icons snap to a grid is a very minor aspect of customization. Not having it would be incredibly unsatisfying, as it would make it very difficult to get icons exactly lined up vertically and horizontally.
* '''Dark mode (disables screen)''' — Dark mode is a popular feature on websites/apps with light backgrounds like Twitter and Reddit, changing the background to a dark color to help late-night users sleep better. Disabling the screen would not be a pleasant surprise when a user goes to turn on beloved dark mode. May be impossible to turn off if the screen is no longer touch sensitive when darkened unless the unmarked buttons can be used to disable it. Also a possible reason to want to use the shake-activated factory reset.
* '''Screaming mode (self-explanatory)''' — The phone screams. Reference to the screaming-while-falling [[1363: xkcd Phone|xkcd Phone 1]].
* '''Coherent ultracapacitor-pumped emission (please let us know what this setting does; we've been afraid to try it)''' - This mysterious feature has a terrifying name, with even the developers refusing to test it out. This option would probably be very easy to accidentally tap, given the style of every xkcd Phone ever. Possibly activated with one of the unlabeled buttons making it even more dangerous. Coherent and Emission are associated with laser devices and the use of a laser could justify the helium reserve, and the Ultracapacitor implies a high energy throughput. Raises the question of who designs the phone if the people marketing it don't know what it does.

==Transcript==
* Full drivetrain warranty
* Coated for easy swallowing
* Surgical-grade apps
* Built-in 600 lb magnet for magnet fishing
* Oral-B partnership: hold phone against teeth to ultrasonically remove plaque
* 40 mL emergency water supply
* Security feature: unmarked side buttons
* 3,000,000-volt arc allows wireless charging from a range of up to 36 inches
* 99.9% BPA- and hands- free
* Extended release charge cable
* Closed timelike curves
* Fits in standard shipping container
* Interlocking, stackable
* Nintendo partnership: GameBoy Printer compatibility
* Sustain Pedal
* CDC partnership: when in an indoor space with too many people, phone begins playing "We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)" at slowly increasing volume until everyone leaves
* Sacrificial anode
* Tactical helium reserve
* 50% below critical mass (2x safety factor)
* Shake for factory reset
* Norton MacAfee protection: if you're ever attacked by John MacAfee, Peter Norton will come out of retirement to defend you

The xkcd Phone 12* and 12 Max**

<nowiki>*Standard</nowiki> **For people named Max

"The only phone you'll ever own"®™

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]

2377: xkcd Phone 12

2020-10-29T09:41:41Z

Quantum7: Remove speculative statement

{{comic
| number = 2377
| date = October 26, 2020
| title = xkcd Phone 12
| image = xkcd_phone_12.png
| titletext = New phone OS features: Infinite customization (home screen icons no longer snap to grid), dark mode (disables screen), screaming mode (self-explanatory), and coherent ultracapacitor-pumped emission (please let us know what this setting does; we've been afraid to try it).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PERSON NAMED MAX. Closed timelike curves need more explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is the "12th" (actually the 8th) in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone]] series in which Randall explains his new joke phone designs with many strange and useless features. It is also a reference to the recently released {{w|iPhone 12}}. However, there have only been 8 comics released, with the previous two being [[2000: xkcd Phone 2000]] and [[1889: xkcd Phone 6]].

The note about the xkcd Phone 12 and the xkcd Phone 12 Max (only for people named Max) is a joke about the different models of iPhone 12: iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. The xkcd Phone 12 Max would be expected to have a larger screen, but it seems that this phone is also only for people with the name Max. If the phones are respectively placed, Max's (Maxes'?) phone is the smaller of the two models.

The slogan '"The only phone you'll ever own"' could be interpreted as something of a threat, which is believable given some of the purported features. The slogan has the "registered trademark" symbol, with that symbol supposedly itself trademarked, which is highly unlikely. It is similar to the phrase ''"The last suit you'll ever wear"'', describing the black suits worn by the Men In Black in the movie of the same name.

Multiple features are labelled on the phone that are common when advertising other products, but highly unusual in mobile phones, for comedic effect:

* '''Full drivetrain warranty''' — A common warranty feature for automobiles--see {{w|drivetrain}}. As a side note, the phone here would be cheaping out on the warranty if it were a car; a "drivetrain" warranty covers almost everything ''except'' the engine; only if it was a "{{w|powertrain}}" warranty would it cover the engine. A phone typically has none of these things, although this one seemingly does.
* '''Coated for easy swallowing''' — A common feature on solid medicines meant to be taken orally. Phones do not belong in the set of edible objects, much less orally-taken medicines{{Citation needed}}. Since some parents of young children let them teethe on their phones, this would be an undesirable feature. There may be a pun here, based on the larger smartphones being practically the same as the more {{w|Tablet_computer|minimal portable computers}}.
* '''Surgical-grade apps''' — "Surgical-grade steel" is sometime used as a selling point indicating quality materials. This feature suggests that the apps themselves are made from high-quality material, although this is absurd because an app is (as the name suggests) a software application, not any physical object that could be reasonably defined as 'surgical-grade' or not. Note that both hardware and software can be certified for {{w|Safety-critical_system|safety-critical applications}}.
* '''Built-in 600 lb magnet for magnet fishing''' — {{w|Magnet fishing}} is an activity for searching for objects that can be pulled in by a strong magnet. A 600 pound magnet can lift a 600 pound (272 kg) object (at Earth's surface). This would tend to make the phone stick to any iron or steel objects (such as refrigerators) and be impossible to remove with human strength, and only the strongest humans could pick up the phone even if it were properly insulated. It would also be impossible to separate two phones without destroying one of them if the interlocking feature were used. This feature would also erase any credit cards the owner puts in the vicinity of the phone, meaning this phone could not be put in one's pocket with a wallet.
* '''Oral-B partnership: hold phone against teeth to ultrasonically remove plaque''' — This is a reference to {{w|ultrasonic toothbrush}}es. {{w|Oral-B}} does not produce any ultrasonic toothbrushes, but does produce ''{{w|sonic toothbrush}}es.'' There is a logical connection between electric toothbrushes and smartphones, namely they are both electronic and both vibrate; however, most phones cannot perform dentistry autonomously{{Citation needed}}.
* '''40 mL emergency water supply''' — 40 milliliters is equal to 40 cubic centimeters. For comparison, the iPhone 11 Pro Max's volume is just shy of 100 cubic centimeters; if the Phone 12 Max is similarly sized, then the water supply would take up over 40% of its total volume. In this day and age, many phones are water-resistant to some degree; nevertheless, shipping a phone with an interior consisting of a 3:2 ratio of electronics-to-water will surely lead to many short-circuited, inoperable phones. Furthermore, {{w|survival kit}}s often come with pouches that can hold several liters of water, in case of emergency. Because people typically take their phones with them everywhere they go, storing a survival kit inside the phone would be a life-saving feature. Unfortunately, 40cc of water is not enough to stave off thirst for a meaningful amount of time, extinguish a flame much larger than a candle's, or deal with most other situations which would constitute an emergency. Unless you are suitably proficient at {{w|Katara_(Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender)#Waterbending|waterbending}}, this feature is useless for its intended function. 40 milliliters is also the amount of fluid that a shot glass holds.
* '''Security feature: unmarked side buttons''' — Some vendors (particularly car dealers) try to explain away horrible User Interface functions as "Security Features". Technically, if no one (including the owner) can use it, it is secure... Some modern phones have unmarked side buttons, so the secureness of this feature is doubtful. No buttons are visible which could indicate the side of the phone functions is touch sensitive and the buttons are not only unlabeled but not visible.
* '''3,000,000-volt arc allows wireless charging from a range of up to 36 inches''' — {{w|Inductive charging|Induction charging}} is a method that a number of modern phones advertise, allowing power to (inefficiently but 'conveniently') transfer into a device from a mains charging station or another device's battery without the need for plugging in cables. It transfers energy between safely tuned coils, that do not touch, though typically the case of one device must remain placed directly upon the other for the optimal transfer of charge between them. {{w|Electrical_injury#Lethality|Shocks of 11,000 volts are usually lethal}}, so 3,000,000 volts of 'pure' electricity (possibly from a complete {{w|Tesla coil}} assemblage) is pretty much guaranteed to kill you. Worse still, it would render the phone unusable due to the high voltage emitted to any object or bodypart within its large range. The {{w|Electrical breakdown}} voltage of air is approximately 3 kV / mm, which would allow a 3 MV potential to jump a distance of 100 cm. 36 inches (91 cm), however, is within reach of a simple extension cord.
* '''99.9% BPA- and hands- free''' — {{w|Bisphenol A}} (or BPA) is a compound that is used in making plastics. BPA has been found to exhibit hormone-like properties, so there is a movement to produce BPA-free plastics using alternative bisphenols. {{w|Hands-free}} describes using the device "without hands", e.g. using voice commands. This is important when using a device while driving. These are 2 unrelated ideas, which use the suffix "free" in different meanings ("BPA-free" means "containing no BPA", while "hands-free" means "your hands need not be used"). The construction "NOUN- and NOUN-ADJ" is normally only used with the meaning of "ADJ" repeated for both nouns, implying that this phone "contains no hands" (or possibly "your BPA is left free"). The "percentage free" description is also a standard form of advertising {{w|weasel word}}s, as remarked by Randall in [[641: Free]]. A food might be described as "90% fat-free" with the heavy implication that it has a tenth of the usual fat content, but likely really means "10% of the product is pure fat" (typically by weight or maybe pre-cooked volume) compared with perhaps 15% in the typical non-'fat-free' recipe. 0.1% of BPA is not an insignificant quantity given its possible effects, and is likely to be a higher leachable content if it is all concentrated in external trimmings. It is unclear what a tenth of a percent of a hand needs to do, to operate the device, but it does also mean that it is not as completely hands-free as implied. Or else it ''also'' implies that up to 0.1% of the phone contains ingredients sourced from human hands. At best, this could be skin cells from the workers (although phone assembly lines ''should'' be kept meticulously clean, to prevent damage to delicate components), or at worst, some workers could be losing hands into the assembly line due to poor safety practices.
* '''Extended release charge cable''' — Electronics manufacturers support standards to reduce time to fully recharge, e.g. Qualcomm {{w|Quick Charge}} standard. This is a reference to {{w|Modified-release dosage|"extended release" medication}}. It's unclear what purpose would be served by charging a phone slower than normal.
* '''Closed timelike curves''' — This label is applied to the curved corner of the phone. Randall may be making a visual joke by referring to the corner of the phone by a very complex relativistic concept. Given that {{w|Closed timelike curves}} are usually associated with solutions to general relativity that allow for time travel... It could also be a reference to the [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-13/apple-plans-ipad-like-design-for-next-iphone-smaller-homepod|''Bloomberg'' leaks] that predicted the sharper corners of the iPhone 12, the phone model this is designed on.
* '''Fits in standard shipping container''' - An {{w|intermodal shipping container}} is large enough to fit automobiles, raising the question of just how big this xkcd phone is.
* '''Interlocking, stackable''' — A quality of, among other things, LEGO bricks. Probably a bad idea to use this feature, given how close the phone is to critical mass.
* '''Nintendo partnership: GameBoy Printer compatibility''' — The {{w|Game Boy Printer}} was a thermal paper printer originally paired with the {{w|Game Boy Camera}}. This device was released in 1998 and discontinued in 2003, so this partnership would be obsolete.
* '''Sustain pedal''' — A {{w|sustain pedal}} is commonly associated with a digital keyboard or piano; it lets the note continue sounding when the key is released. It's unclear what purpose it would serve in a phone, although it might be used for the screaming mode in the title text.
* '''CDC partnership: when in an indoor space with too many people, phone begins playing "We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)" at slowly increasing volume until everyone leaves''' — An allusion to the COVID-19 pandemic. CDC stands for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States public health institute. In [[2284: Sabotage]], Randall "promised" to bring an annoying karaoke song to a party to hopefully discourage people from attending, but this phone will apparently do so automatically. "{{w|We Like to Party! (Vengaboys song)|We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)}}" is a 1998 Eurodance/techno hit by the Vengaboys, and is perhaps most familiar to Americans from a series of {{w|Six Flags}} ads.
* '''Sacrificial anode''' — Useful if something metal will be in a wet environment for a long time. Commonly used on bridges and boats, but it may be a 'feature' of this phone because of its built-in water reservoir. The {{w|sacrificial anode}} is made of a material with higher redox potential (typically zinc), and will corrode faster than the (more valuable) metal object it's attached to. It's unclear if the phone HAS a sacrificial anode or IS a sacrificial anode.
* '''Tactical helium reserve''' — Since 1925, the United States has had a {{w|National Helium Reserve|strategic helium reserve}}. Helium is very rare on earth and has important scientific and military uses, so it’s important to have a supply in case supplies disappear. But here we have a tactical helium reserve, which suggests it's smaller and focused on shorter-term goals. Compare {{w|strategic bombing}} focused on destroying entire cities or countries and {{w|tactical bombing}} aimed at destroying individual targets or military units. Helium also has the property of being lighter than air, so if this reserve is large enough, the phone could float away if let go. However, this is unlikely, as the phone boasts other, heavy components such as large magnets, a water reserve and a critical mass of fissile material.
* '''50% below critical mass (2x safety factor)''' — Indicates the phone contains fissile material. This "2x safety factor" means that if you put 2 phones next to each other, or put one phone next to a {{w|neutron reflector}}, you would have a {{w|criticality accident}}, which may explain why you would not own another phone after this one. A phone with this much fissile material would pose a radiation hazard. The "2x safety factor" claim may be related to physicist {{w|Richard Feynman|Richard Feynman's}} famous criticism of NASA in the {{w|Rogers Commission}} report on the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Feynman found that when he confronted NASA engineers with a part worn one third of the way through, which was not supposed to be worn through at all, the engineers claimed that this demonstrated a 3x safety factor rather than a failure of the part.
* '''Shake for factory reset''' — A {{w|factory reset}} is often possible on electronic devices, and is usually accomplished either by pressing a button that is often well-protected against accidental contact, for an extended period or closing an electrical bridge. This one works like an {{w|Etch A Sketch|Etch-a-Sketch}}, which would not be preferred, as [http://www.ahajokes.com/com045.html slight disturbances] could easily cause massive losses of data.
* '''Norton MacAfee protection: if you're ever attacked by John MacAfee, Peter Norton will come out of retirement to defend you''' — {{w|Norton (software)|Norton}} and {{w|McAfee}} (note spelling!) are competing software security companies. This "protection" combines the two of them and claims that Norton (the person) will defend you if McAfee (the person) attacks you. May have been inspired by [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/business/mcafee-arrested-tax-evasion.html John McAfee's recent arrest] which brought attention to the allegation that he had hired a hit man to kill his neighbor in Belize in 2012.

The title text mentions xkcd phone OS updates, including:
* '''Infinite customization (home screen icons no longer snap to grid)''' — If icons snap to a grid with, say, 6x5 positions, then for each icon you only have 30 customization options. If, on the other, you don't have to keep them aligned to a grid, and your phone has, say, one million pixels, then you have one million customization choices for each icon. This is a lot, but it's still not "Infinite customizations", so we're clearly facing a case of misleading advertising. Whether on-screen icons snap to a grid is a very minor aspect of customization. Not having it would be incredibly unsatisfying, as it would make it very difficult to get icons exactly lined up vertically and horizontally.
* '''Dark mode (disables screen)''' — Dark mode is a popular feature on websites/apps with light backgrounds like Twitter and Reddit, changing the background to a dark color to help late-night users sleep better. Disabling the screen would not be a pleasant surprise when a user goes to turn on beloved dark mode. May be impossible to turn off if the screen is no longer touch sensitive when darkened unless the unmarked buttons can be used to disable it. Also a possible reason to want to use the shake-activated factory reset.
* '''Screaming mode (self-explanatory)''' — The phone screams. Reference to the screaming-while-falling [[1363: xkcd Phone|xkcd Phone 1]].
* '''Coherent ultracapacitor-pumped emission (please let us know what this setting does; we've been afraid to try it)''' - This mysterious feature has a terrifying name, with even the developers refusing to test it out. This option would probably be very easy to accidentally tap, given the style of every xkcd Phone ever. Possibly activated with one of the unlabeled buttons making it even more dangerous. Coherent and Emission are associated with laser devices and the use of a laser could justify the helium reserve, and the Ultracapacitor implies a high energy throughput. Raises the question of who designs the phone if the people marketing it don't know what it does.

==Transcript==
* Full drivetrain warranty
* Coated for easy swallowing
* Surgical-grade apps
* Built-in 600 lb magnet for magnet fishing
* Oral-B partnership: hold phone against teeth to ultrasonically remove plaque
* 40 mL emergency water supply
* Security feature: unmarked side buttons
* 3,000,000-volt arc allows wireless charging from a range of up to 36 inches
* 99.9% BPA- and hands- free
* Extended release charge cable
* Closed timelike curves
* Fits in standard shipping container
* Interlocking, stackable
* Nintendo partnership: GameBoy Printer compatibility
* Sustain Pedal
* CDC partnership: when in an indoor space with too many people, phone begins playing "We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)" at slowly increasing volume until everyone leaves
* Sacrificial anode
* Tactical helium reserve
* 50% below critical mass (2x safety factor)
* Shake for factory reset
* Norton MacAfee protection: if you're ever attacked by John MacAfee, Peter Norton will come out of retirement to defend you

The xkcd Phone 12* and 12 Max**

<nowiki>*Standard</nowiki> **For people named Max

"The only phone you'll ever own"®™

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]

Talk:2320: Millennium Problems

2020-06-16T06:35:02Z

Quantum7: guessing equations

Ironically, Randall misspells Perelman as "Perlman" in the comic but spells it correctly in the alt-text.

[[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.147|172.69.63.147]] 02:56, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

:Perhaps he meant Perlman the Perl-programming superhero? ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.123.145|162.158.123.145]] 03:33, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

There has been some controversy over the millennium prizes, given that in mathematics important results are often a product of the work of different mathematicians who are not necessarily close associates. Perelman reportedly believed that his work was a corollary to prior work by Richard S. Hamilton.

I think the idea of this comic is an extension to a question, which I've seen before in this discussion, "what if person A shows that 2 millennium problems are equivalent, and then person B proves one of them?" Should person B get both prizes, or should person A get one of them? It is easy to think of situations where it is hard to know who deserves the credit, and I think this comic takes that
to a logical exteme. [[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 03:59, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman Wikipedia article] for Grigori Perelman states the following: "The Clay Institute subsequently used Perelman's prize money to fund the 'Poincaré Chair', a temporary position for young promising mathematicians at the Paris Institut Henri Poincaré.", so no funding would be available for Randall's eighth prize. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.61|162.158.74.61]] 04:21, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

By process of elimination, the matrix and the equation should represent Yang-Mills and P=NP, but which is which? The 4x4 matrix could represent the 4D unitary transformation from Yang-Mills? The equation seems to say 'Ar + (squiggles)' but I can't think of any complexity problems that might take this form. --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 06:35, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2236: Is it Christmas?

2019-12-03T08:39:41Z

Quantum7:

according Wayback Machine, the site [https://web.archive.org/web/20181225014549/https://isitchristmas.com/ still] [https://web.archive.org/web/20171225032723/https://isitchristmas.com/ says] [https://web.archive.org/web/20161209052757/https://isitchristmas.com/ NO] [https://web.archive.org/web/20151225060146/https://isitchristmas.com/ even] on Christmas. --[[User:Valepert|valepert]] ([[User talk:Valepert|talk]]) 21:56, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

:Hmmm, maybe it will be fixed this year. I imagine everybody spammed the guy on twitter when it didnt work last year. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.155|172.68.132.155]] 22:06, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

:; It checks your system time
:It uses the <code>new Date()</code> constructor to check whether it is Christmas, which uses your system time. Thus, the Wayback won't get anything, but changing your system time will. Kay? [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 22:14, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Okay so looking at isitchristmas.com, there's a comment at the top of the page saying to look at the console, but I don't see anything in there, anyone know what that might be about? Also at the bottom of the html file, the bottommost <script> tag looks like it might contain code for a chat client? I don't know JS so I'm unsure, but I tried changing all the related "false" values to "true" that looked relevant and nothing happened, so idk. Maybe someone else can figure it out. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.155|172.68.132.155]] 22:03, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

:(I'm the dev.) Check back again closer to Christmas, on 12/23 or 12/24. [[User:Konklone|Konklone]] ([[User talk:Konklone|talk]]) 00:55, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

::I mean, I kind of find that suspect. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.234|172.68.47.234]] 01:39, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

Well, one way to put it is that the overall probability of a false negative is 0.27%, which doesn't seem too bad, but the conditional probability of a false negative given that it's Christmas is 100%, which is horrid. --[[User:IByte|IByte]] ([[User talk:IByte|talk]]) 22:37, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Of course it depends on your definition of "It's Christmas". The figure is right if you just mean Christmas Day and ignore the Julian vs Gregorian issue, but not you subscribe to "the 12 days of Christmas" = Christmas ... Just saying ;-) [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 23:53, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

:Every year, people ask me about including multiple definitions of Christmas, but I think for my own sanity it's going to keep looking just at 12/25. ;) [[User:Konklone|Konklone]] ([[User talk:Konklone|talk]]) 00:57, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

How do we know Randall's version is wrong on Christmas? Has anyone set their system clock to Dec 25 and checked it? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 02:14, 3 December 2019 (UTC)
:Have tested; Randall's displayed "no" as per main image. isitchritmas displayed "yes" as per explanation. [[User:RedHillian|RedHillian]] ([[User talk:RedHillian|talk]]) 02:44, 3 December 2019 (UTC)
::It may be Randall uses Server-Time, and not client-time like isitchristmas.com - Also, in the official Calendars, there are two Christmas days, first and second day of Christmas. I think Randall went only for the gifting day, which is different in many countries anyway. My kids get there presents on Christmas eve (24 December), their friends mostly on 6 December (Sint Nicolas) (or the evening before). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.62|141.101.77.62]] 07:45, 3 December 2019 (UTC)
:: Based on his 99.73% accuracy comment, I assume the comic is a static image, and will always show "NO", even on Christmas day. I think that is the whole joke, that his comic is correct 364 (+ leap days) of the year, when it is not Christmas. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.158|172.69.34.158]] 08:23, 3 December 2019 (UTC)
:::Of course this is a static image, that is the whole point. ;-) In Demark we also have the [https://erdetfredag.dk/ is it Friday] which at least is easier to check if it works, as it changes from No (Nej) to Yes (Ja) once a week. As mentioned above in Denmark the isitchristmas answers in Danish with a Nej. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:34, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

About "when is christmas". Christmas consists of two days, which makes the calculation of predicted correctness too optimistic. (99,45% for 363/365 and for 364/366; 99,38% for 363/365.25)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.62|141.101.77.62]] 07:45, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

"In the western world celebrated on 25th" is not correct. For UK,US and Canada and probably a lot others it might be true, german and I think spanish speaking countries not.
:No no. Even when you celebrate Christmas Eve on December 24th (as also in Denmark) we call the 25th Christmas Day. Even if you also celebrate the 2nd Christmas day, there is only one day a year that it is Christmas, and that is the 25th of December. That is when Christians claim Jesus was born. Of course I celebrate the Winter solstice (and accept that I do this a few days off, since that is when I can have the day off.) In Denmark we count the days up till the 24th and celebrate in the evening, (as the Vikings always did, because the new day began the sun set.) We do not look at the 12 days after. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:34, 3 December 2019 (UTC)
:The XKCD page has the additional advantage of being equally accurate whether you follow [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar Western] or [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_liturgical_calendar Eastern Orthodox] calendars, or whatever calendar you choose! --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:39, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

2092: Consensus New Year

2019-01-01T14:12:07Z

Quantum7: /* Time zones */ 24:00 -> 00:00

{{comic
| number = 2092
| date = December 31, 2018
| title = Consensus New Year
| image = consensus_new_year.png
| titletext = The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT. Please complete this explanation once everyone has entered the new year. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Randall]] is proposing a compromise for when to celebrate, or recognize, {{w|New Year's Day}}. These celebrations traditionally take place at the stroke of midnight between Dec. 31st and Jan. 1st, at the local time of the event's location. With "Consensus New Year", these celebrations would happen at the same time, world over, and would be at exactly 1:30 pm {{w|Eastern Time Zone|EST}} (6:30 pm {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}}). At this time, about half the world's population would be in 2018 local time and the other half would be in 2019. This is due to the various time zones throughout the world, and the graph is based on the proportion of the population in these zones.

This is based on the erroneous assumption that the entire world uses the same calendar system. Randall's graph shows the year starting on the same day for the entire world. In fact, the Eastern Orthodox churches uses the Julian calendar, on which the year will begin 13 days later, and the year (as of December 2018-January 2018) is 1440 on the Muslim calendar and 5779 on the Hebrew calendar.

The Wiktionary entry for "{{Wiktionary|consensus}}" includes multiple definitions, including these two meanings:
* General agreement among the members of a given group or community...
* (attributive) Average projected value

The second definition represents a noun (the word "consensus") placed before another noun (the phrase "new year") to assign an attribute to it. This is how the word is used in the comic title and also describes the graph in the comic, which shows the "average projected value" of the percentage of the world population reaching the new year at any given time.

The highlighted point at 1:30 PM EST matches the first definition, where more than 50% of the world population has reached the new year, thereby achieving a consensus agreement among the world population.

===Time zones===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Time EST !! Time UTC !! %Population in 2019 !! Regions entering 2019
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 0 || Kamchatka (Russia), Figi, New Zealand
|-
| 8:00 AM || 13:00 || 0 || Magadan (Russia), Pacific Islands
|-
| 9:00 AM || 14:00 || 0 || Vladivostok (Russia), Queensland (Australia)
|-
| 10:00 AM || 15:00 || 5 || Yakutsk (Russia), Japan, Korea, Eastern Indonesia
|-
| 11:00 AM || 16:00 || 25 || China, Irkutsk (Russia), Taiwan, Western Australia, Malaysia
|-
| 12:00 PM || 17:00 || 30 || Krasnoyarsk (Russia), Vietnam, Thailand,A
|-
| 1:00 PM || 18:00 || 35 || Omsk (Russia), Kazakhstan, Bangladesh
|-
| 1:30 PM || 18:30 || 55 || India, Sri Lanka
|-
| 2:00 PM || 19:00 || 60 || Yekaterinburg (Russia), Pakistan
|-
| 3:00 PM || 20:00 || 60 || Samara (Russia), Georgia, Oman, UAE
|-
| 4:00 PM || 21:00 || 70 || Moscow (Russia), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, East Africa
|-
| 5:00 PM || 22:00 || 75 || Egypt, Central & Southern Africa, Eastern Europe
|-
| 6:00 PM || 23:00 || 85 || Central Europe, Africa
|-
|7:00 PM || 00:00 || 90 || (GMT) UK, Portugal, Ireland, Western Africa
|-
| 8:00 PM || 01:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 9:00 PM || 02:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 10:00 PM || 03:00 || 90 || Northern Brazil, Argentina,
|-
| 11:00 PM || 04:00 || 90 || Quebec, Venezuela
|-
| 12:00 AM || 05:00 || 95 || (EST) Eastern USA, Peru, Chile
|-
| 1:00 AM || 06:00 || 100 || (CT) Central USA, Mexico, Central America
|-
| 2:00 AM || 07:00 || 100 || (MT) Central USA, Western Mexico
|-
| 3:00 AM || 08:00 || 100 || (PST) Western USA
|-
| 4:00 AM || 09:00 || 100 || Alaska
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A graph labeled “Percentage of the world's population living in 2019” with Y-axis markers at 0%, 50%, and 100%, and X-axis markers at 10:00 AM EST Dec 31st, 1:30 PM EST, 7:00 PM EST, Midnight EST, 3:00 AM EST Jan 1st, and 7:00 AM EST.]
:[The line graph shows the percentage increasing from 0 to 100% in several steps, with 50% reached at 1:30 PM EST.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Consensus New Year: as of 1:30PM Eastern Time (6:30PM UTC) a majority of the world's population will be living in 2019.

==Trivia==
Randall has mislabeled the leftmost point of the graph: the Earth's earliest time zone ({{w|UTC+14:00}}) should have the midnight at 5:00 AM EST rather than 10:00 AM EST. The number of one-hour increments on the x-axis does not match Randall's label.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Time]]

2092: Consensus New Year

2019-01-01T14:10:53Z

Quantum7: Fix 12:00 AM/PM

{{comic
| number = 2092
| date = December 31, 2018
| title = Consensus New Year
| image = consensus_new_year.png
| titletext = The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT. Please complete this explanation once everyone has entered the new year. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Randall]] is proposing a compromise for when to celebrate, or recognize, {{w|New Year's Day}}. These celebrations traditionally take place at the stroke of midnight between Dec. 31st and Jan. 1st, at the local time of the event's location. With "Consensus New Year", these celebrations would happen at the same time, world over, and would be at exactly 1:30 pm {{w|Eastern Time Zone|EST}} (6:30 pm {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}}). At this time, about half the world's population would be in 2018 local time and the other half would be in 2019. This is due to the various time zones throughout the world, and the graph is based on the proportion of the population in these zones.

This is based on the erroneous assumption that the entire world uses the same calendar system. Randall's graph shows the year starting on the same day for the entire world. In fact, the Eastern Orthodox churches uses the Julian calendar, on which the year will begin 13 days later, and the year (as of December 2018-January 2018) is 1440 on the Muslim calendar and 5779 on the Hebrew calendar.

The Wiktionary entry for "{{Wiktionary|consensus}}" includes multiple definitions, including these two meanings:
* General agreement among the members of a given group or community...
* (attributive) Average projected value

The second definition represents a noun (the word "consensus") placed before another noun (the phrase "new year") to assign an attribute to it. This is how the word is used in the comic title and also describes the graph in the comic, which shows the "average projected value" of the percentage of the world population reaching the new year at any given time.

The highlighted point at 1:30 PM EST matches the first definition, where more than 50% of the world population has reached the new year, thereby achieving a consensus agreement among the world population.

===Time zones===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Time EST !! Time UTC !! %Population in 2019 !! Regions entering 2019
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 0 || Kamchatka (Russia), Figi, New Zealand
|-
| 8:00 AM || 13:00 || 0 || Magadan (Russia), Pacific Islands
|-
| 9:00 AM || 14:00 || 0 || Vladivostok (Russia), Queensland (Australia)
|-
| 10:00 AM || 15:00 || 5 || Yakutsk (Russia), Japan, Korea, Eastern Indonesia
|-
| 11:00 AM || 16:00 || 25 || China, Irkutsk (Russia), Taiwan, Western Australia, Malaysia
|-
| 12:00 PM || 17:00 || 30 || Krasnoyarsk (Russia), Vietnam, Thailand,A
|-
| 1:00 PM || 18:00 || 35 || Omsk (Russia), Kazakhstan, Bangladesh
|-
| 1:30 PM || 18:30 || 55 || India, Sri Lanka
|-
| 2:00 PM || 19:00 || 60 || Yekaterinburg (Russia), Pakistan
|-
| 3:00 PM || 20:00 || 60 || Samara (Russia), Georgia, Oman, UAE
|-
| 4:00 PM || 21:00 || 70 || Moscow (Russia), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, East Africa
|-
| 5:00 PM || 22:00 || 75 || Egypt, Central & Southern Africa, Eastern Europe
|-
| 6:00 PM || 23:00 || 85 || Central Europe, Africa
|-
|7:00 PM || 24:00 || 90 || (GMT) UK, Portugal, Ireland, Western Africa
|-
| 8:00 PM || 01:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 9:00 PM || 02:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 10:00 PM || 03:00 || 90 || Northern Brazil, Argentina,
|-
| 11:00 PM || 04:00 || 90 || Quebec, Venezuela
|-
| 12:00 AM || 05:00 || 95 || (EST) Eastern USA, Peru, Chile
|-
| 1:00 AM || 06:00 || 100 || (CT) Central USA, Mexico, Central America
|-
| 2:00 AM || 07:00 || 100 || (MT) Central USA, Western Mexico
|-
| 3:00 AM || 08:00 || 100 || (PST) Western USA
|-
| 4:00 AM || 09:00 || 100 || Alaska
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A graph labeled “Percentage of the world's population living in 2019” with Y-axis markers at 0%, 50%, and 100%, and X-axis markers at 10:00 AM EST Dec 31st, 1:30 PM EST, 7:00 PM EST, Midnight EST, 3:00 AM EST Jan 1st, and 7:00 AM EST.]
:[The line graph shows the percentage increasing from 0 to 100% in several steps, with 50% reached at 1:30 PM EST.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Consensus New Year: as of 1:30PM Eastern Time (6:30PM UTC) a majority of the world's population will be living in 2019.

==Trivia==
Randall has mislabeled the leftmost point of the graph: the Earth's earliest time zone ({{w|UTC+14:00}}) should have the midnight at 5:00 AM EST rather than 10:00 AM EST. The number of one-hour increments on the x-axis does not match Randall's label.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Time]]

2092: Consensus New Year

2019-01-01T14:09:39Z

Quantum7: /* Time zones */ Fix truncated EST times

{{comic
| number = 2092
| date = December 31, 2018
| title = Consensus New Year
| image = consensus_new_year.png
| titletext = The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT. Please complete this explanation once everyone has entered the new year. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Randall]] is proposing a compromise for when to celebrate, or recognize, {{w|New Year's Day}}. These celebrations traditionally take place at the stroke of midnight between Dec. 31st and Jan. 1st, at the local time of the event's location. With "Consensus New Year", these celebrations would happen at the same time, world over, and would be at exactly 1:30 pm {{w|Eastern Time Zone|EST}} (6:30 pm {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}}). At this time, about half the world's population would be in 2018 local time and the other half would be in 2019. This is due to the various time zones throughout the world, and the graph is based on the proportion of the population in these zones.

This is based on the erroneous assumption that the entire world uses the same calendar system. Randall's graph shows the year starting on the same day for the entire world. In fact, the Eastern Orthodox churches uses the Julian calendar, on which the year will begin 13 days later, and the year (as of December 2018-January 2018) is 1440 on the Muslim calendar and 5779 on the Hebrew calendar.

The Wiktionary entry for "{{Wiktionary|consensus}}" includes multiple definitions, including these two meanings:
* General agreement among the members of a given group or community...
* (attributive) Average projected value

The second definition represents a noun (the word "consensus") placed before another noun (the phrase "new year") to assign an attribute to it. This is how the word is used in the comic title and also describes the graph in the comic, which shows the "average projected value" of the percentage of the world population reaching the new year at any given time.

The highlighted point at 1:30 PM EST matches the first definition, where more than 50% of the world population has reached the new year, thereby achieving a consensus agreement among the world population.

===Time zones===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Time EST !! Time UTC !! %Population in 2019 !! Regions entering 2019
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 0 || Kamchatka (Russia), Figi, New Zealand
|-
| 8:00 AM || 13:00 || 0 || Magadan (Russia), Pacific Islands
|-
| 9:00 AM || 14:00 || 0 || Vladivostok (Russia), Queensland (Australia)
|-
| 10:00 AM || 15:00 || 5 || Yakutsk (Russia), Japan, Korea, Eastern Indonesia
|-
| 11:00 AM || 16:00 || 25 || China, Irkutsk (Russia), Taiwan, Western Australia, Malaysia
|-
| 12:00 AM || 17:00 || 30 || Krasnoyarsk (Russia), Vietnam, Thailand,A
|-
| 1:00 PM || 18:00 || 35 || Omsk (Russia), Kazakhstan, Bangladesh
|-
| 1:30 PM || 18:30 || 55 || India, Sri Lanka
|-
| 2:00 PM || 19:00 || 60 || Yekaterinburg (Russia), Pakistan
|-
| 3:00 PM || 20:00 || 60 || Samara (Russia), Georgia, Oman, UAE
|-
| 4:00 PM || 21:00 || 70 || Moscow (Russia), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, East Africa
|-
| 5:00 PM || 22:00 || 75 || Egypt, Central & Southern Africa, Eastern Europe
|-
| 6:00 PM || 23:00 || 85 || Central Europe, Africa
|-
|7:00 PM || 24:00 || 90 || (GMT) UK, Portugal, Ireland, Western Africa
|-
| 8:00 PM || 01:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 9:00 PM || 02:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 10:00 PM || 03:00 || 90 || Northern Brazil, Argentina,
|-
| 11:00 PM || 04:00 || 90 || Quebec, Venezuela
|-
| 12:00 PM || 05:00 || 95 || (EST) Eastern USA, Peru, Chile
|-
| 1:00 AM || 06:00 || 100 || (CT) Central USA, Mexico, Central America
|-
| 2:00 AM || 07:00 || 100 || (MT) Central USA, Western Mexico
|-
| 3:00 AM || 08:00 || 100 || (PST) Western USA
|-
| 4:00 AM || 09:00 || 100 || Alaska
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A graph labeled “Percentage of the world's population living in 2019” with Y-axis markers at 0%, 50%, and 100%, and X-axis markers at 10:00 AM EST Dec 31st, 1:30 PM EST, 7:00 PM EST, Midnight EST, 3:00 AM EST Jan 1st, and 7:00 AM EST.]
:[The line graph shows the percentage increasing from 0 to 100% in several steps, with 50% reached at 1:30 PM EST.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Consensus New Year: as of 1:30PM Eastern Time (6:30PM UTC) a majority of the world's population will be living in 2019.

==Trivia==
Randall has mislabeled the leftmost point of the graph: the Earth's earliest time zone ({{w|UTC+14:00}}) should have the midnight at 5:00 AM EST rather than 10:00 AM EST. The number of one-hour increments on the x-axis does not match Randall's label.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Time]]

2092: Consensus New Year

2019-01-01T14:07:36Z

Quantum7: /* Time zones */ Add all timezone descriptions

{{comic
| number = 2092
| date = December 31, 2018
| title = Consensus New Year
| image = consensus_new_year.png
| titletext = The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT. Please complete this explanation once everyone has entered the new year. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Randall]] is proposing a compromise for when to celebrate, or recognize, {{w|New Year's Day}}. These celebrations traditionally take place at the stroke of midnight between Dec. 31st and Jan. 1st, at the local time of the event's location. With "Consensus New Year", these celebrations would happen at the same time, world over, and would be at exactly 1:30 pm {{w|Eastern Time Zone|EST}} (6:30 pm {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}}). At this time, about half the world's population would be in 2018 local time and the other half would be in 2019. This is due to the various time zones throughout the world, and the graph is based on the proportion of the population in these zones.

This is based on the erroneous assumption that the entire world uses the same calendar system. Randall's graph shows the year starting on the same day for the entire world. In fact, the Eastern Orthodox churches uses the Julian calendar, on which the year will begin 13 days later, and the year (as of December 2018-January 2018) is 1440 on the Muslim calendar and 5779 on the Hebrew calendar.

The Wiktionary entry for "{{Wiktionary|consensus}}" includes multiple definitions, including these two meanings:
* General agreement among the members of a given group or community...
* (attributive) Average projected value

The second definition represents a noun (the word "consensus") placed before another noun (the phrase "new year") to assign an attribute to it. This is how the word is used in the comic title and also describes the graph in the comic, which shows the "average projected value" of the percentage of the world population reaching the new year at any given time.

The highlighted point at 1:30 PM EST matches the first definition, where more than 50% of the world population has reached the new year, thereby achieving a consensus agreement among the world population.

===Time zones===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Time EST !! Time UTC !! %Population in 2019 !! Regions entering 2019
|-
|5:00 AM || 10:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
|6:00 AM || 11:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
|7:00 AM || 12:00 || 0 || Kamchatka (Russia), Figi, New Zealand
|-
|8:00 AM || 13:00 || 0 || Magadan (Russia), Pacific Islands
|-
|9:00 AM || 14:00 || 0 || Vladivostok (Russia), Queensland (Australia)
|-
|0:00 AM || 15:00 || 5 || Yakutsk (Russia), Japan, Korea, Eastern Indonesia
|-
|1:00 AM || 16:00 || 25 || China, Irkutsk (Russia), Taiwan, Western Australia, Malaysia
|-
|2:00 AM || 17:00 || 30 || Krasnoyarsk (Russia), Vietnam, Thailand,A
|-
|1:00 PM || 18:00 || 35 || Omsk (Russia), Kazakhstan, Bangladesh
|-
|1:30 PM || 18:30 || 55 || India, Sri Lanka
|-
|2:00 PM || 19:00 || 60 || Yekaterinburg (Russia), Pakistan
|-
|3:00 PM || 20:00 || 60 || Samara (Russia), Georgia, Oman, UAE
|-
|4:00 PM || 21:00 || 70 || Moscow (Russia), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, East Africa
|-
|5:00 PM || 22:00 || 75 || Egypt, Central & Southern Africa, Eastern Europe
|-
|6:00 PM || 23:00 || 85 || Central Europe, Africa
|-
|7:00 PM || 24:00 || 90 || (GMT) UK, Portugal, Ireland, Western Africa
|-
|8:00 PM || 01:00 || 90 ||
|-
|9:00 PM || 02:00 || 90 ||
|-
|0:00 PM || 03:00 || 90 || Northern Brazil, Argentina,
|-
|1:00 PM || 04:00 || 90 || Quebec, Venezuela
|-
|2:00 PM || 05:00 || 95 || (EST) Eastern USA, Peru, Chile
|-
|1:00 AM || 06:00 || 100 || (CT) Central USA, Mexico, Central America
|-
|2:00 AM || 07:00 || 100 || (MT) Central USA, Western Mexico
|-
|3:00 AM || 08:00 || 100 || (PST) Western USA
|-
|4:00 AM || 09:00 || 100 || Alaska
|-
|5:00 AM || 10:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
|6:00 AM || 11:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
|7:00 AM || 12:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A graph labeled “Percentage of the world's population living in 2019” with Y-axis markers at 0%, 50%, and 100%, and X-axis markers at 10:00 AM EST Dec 31st, 1:30 PM EST, 7:00 PM EST, Midnight EST, 3:00 AM EST Jan 1st, and 7:00 AM EST.]
:[The line graph shows the percentage increasing from 0 to 100% in several steps, with 50% reached at 1:30 PM EST.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Consensus New Year: as of 1:30PM Eastern Time (6:30PM UTC) a majority of the world's population will be living in 2019.

==Trivia==
Randall has mislabeled the leftmost point of the graph: the Earth's earliest time zone ({{w|UTC+14:00}}) should have the midnight at 5:00 AM EST rather than 10:00 AM EST. The number of one-hour increments on the x-axis does not match Randall's label.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Time]]

2092: Consensus New Year

2019-01-01T12:54:35Z

Quantum7: /* Transcript */ Add table

{{comic
| number = 2092
| date = December 31, 2018
| title = Consensus New Year
| image = consensus_new_year.png
| titletext = The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT. Please complete this explanation once everyone has entered the new year. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Randall]] is proposing a compromise for when to celebrate, or recognize, {{w|New Year's Day}}. These celebrations traditionally take place at the stroke of midnight between Dec. 31st and Jan. 1st, at the local time of the event's location. With "Consensus New Year", these celebrations would happen at the same time, world over, and would be at exactly 1:30 pm {{w|Eastern Time Zone|EST}} (6:30 pm {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}}). At this time, about half the world's population would be in 2018 local time and the other half would be in 2019. This is due to the various time zones throughout the world, and the graph is based on the proportion of the population in these zones.

This is based on the erroneous assumption that the entire world uses the same calendar system. Randall's graph shows the year starting on the same day for the entire world. In fact, the Eastern Orthodox churches uses the Julian calendar, on which the year will begin 13 days later, and the year (as of December 2018-January 2018) is 1440 on the Muslim calendar and 5779 on the Hebrew calendar.

The Wiktionary entry for "{{Wiktionary|consensus}}" includes multiple definitions, including these two meanings:
* General agreement among the members of a given group or community...
* (attributive) Average projected value

The second definition represents a noun (the word "consensus") placed before another noun (the phrase "new year") to assign an attribute to it. This is how the word is used in the comic title and also describes the graph in the comic, which shows the "average projected value" of the percentage of the world population reaching the new year at any given time.

The highlighted point at 1:30 PM EST matches the first definition, where more than 50% of the world population has reached the new year, thereby achieving a consensus agreement among the world population.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A graph labeled “Percentage of the world's population living in 2019” with Y-axis markers at 0%, 50%, and 100%, and X-axis markers at 10:00 AM EST Dec 31st, 1:30 PM EST, 7:00 PM EST, Midnight EST, 3:00 AM EST Jan 1st, and 7:00 AM EST.]
:[The line graph shows the percentage increasing from 0 to 100% in several steps, with 50% reached at 1:30 PM EST.]

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Time EST !! Time UTC !! %Population in 2019 !! Regions entering 2019
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 0 || Eastern Kiribati
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 0 || Western Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 0 ||
|-
| 8:00 AM || 13:00 || 0 ||
|-
| 9:00 AM || 14:00 || 0 ||
|-
|10:00 AM || 15:00 || 5 ||
|-
|11:00 AM || 16:00 || 25 || China
|-
|12:00 AM || 17:00 || 30 ||
|-
| 1:00 PM || 18:00 || 35 ||
|-
| 1:30 PM || 18:30 || 55 || India, Sri Lanka
|-
| 2:00 PM || 19:00 || 60 ||
|-
| 3:00 PM || 20:00 || 60 ||
|-
| 4:00 PM || 21:00 || 70 ||
|-
| 5:00 PM || 22:00 || 75 ||
|-
| 6:00 PM || 23:00 || 85 ||
|-
| 7:00 PM || 24:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 8:00 PM || 01:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 9:00 PM || 02:00 || 90 ||
|-
|10:00 PM || 03:00 || 90 ||
|-
|11:00 PM || 04:00 || 90 ||
|-
|12:00 PM || 05:00 || 95 ||
|-
| 1:00 AM || 06:00 || 100 ||
|-
| 2:00 AM || 07:00 || 100 ||
|-
| 3:00 AM || 08:00 || 100 ||
|-
| 4:00 AM || 09:00 || 100 ||
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 100 ||
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 100 ||
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 100 ||
|}

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Consensus New Year: as of 1:30PM Eastern Time (6:30PM UTC) a majority of the world's population will be living in 2019.

==Trivia==
Randall has mislabeled the leftmost point of the graph: the Earth's earliest time zone ({{w|UTC+14:00}}) should have the midnight at 5:00 AM EST rather than 10:00 AM EST. The number of one-hour increments on the x-axis does not match Randall's label.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Time]]

Talk:2072: Evaluating Tech Things

2018-11-15T09:07:22Z

Quantum7: Really, this hasn't been done?

Do we need a reason to do things other than the fact it is freaking awesome? [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 17:42, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
:Look on the other end of the scale -- some of the freaking awesome things we do have devastating long term effects for all of humanity. But not this one. {...mentally weighing...} Probably. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 18:29, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

Ok, I'll setup the google alert: https://www.google.com/alerts/feeds/03781144062642195102/9931051611942254792 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.58|108.162.245.58]] 18:17, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

The Black Mirror-Mythbusters scale. Or, to give it it's proper name, the Brooker-Hyneman Scale. [[User:GranadalandDreamer|GranadalandDreamer]] ([[User talk:GranadalandDreamer|talk]]) 23:59, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

I'm amazed that no one has flown a drone into a tornado yet. Or is it just that they've yet to recover any footage from the mangled remains of the poor smashed drones? --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 09:07, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2035: Dark Matter Candidates

2018-08-20T23:15:15Z

Quantum7: pun response

"thin patina of grime covering the whole universe" is a reference to the "International prototype kilogram" and the necessity to keep it dust-free to preserve its reference status. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.100|108.162.229.100]] 11:14, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
:I think it's just referring to how your room or furniture can get super dirty and completely covered in dust, but you don't really notice it getting dirty because it happens so gradually. But once you actually get around to cleaning your room and you remove all the dust you realize how insanely filthy your room was, now that you can compare it to clean. Since there hasn't been a massive universe cleaning within human history, we wouldn't really be able to tell if the universe was coated in dirt because we wouldn't remember what it looks like clean. [[User:Yosho27|Yosho27]] ([[User talk:Yosho27|talk]]) 12:53, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
::I concur, my thought upon reading the "thin patina of grime" was when I helped a friend power wash his back deck and we realized it was far more dirty than we thought; as the newly washed sections stood out in stark contrast to the grimy parts.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.246|162.158.186.246]] 19:29, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
One can only hope that the solution for dealing with space cows involves space cowboys. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.136|162.158.75.136]] 20:40, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
;109 kg - 1033 kg black holes
Not sure if it's a mistake by Randall or he has something other in mind. But most of his black holes are far too lightweight:
*109 kg is a million tons, the Great Pyramid of Giza wights six times of that
*6x1024 kg Earth
*2x1030 kg Sun
*1031 kg smallest known stellar black hole
*1040 kg the real big black holes with a diameter in the size of our solar system
Everything except the Buzzkill is below a single solar mass. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:24, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
: The theoretical lower limit for black hole mass is the planck mass (22 µg), although such micro black holes would evaporate very quickly under standard models. However, larger black holes were excluded fairly early by gravitational lensing searches ('buzzkill' cases), so smaller black holes had to be considered separately as dark matter candidates. --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 20:40, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
::You misunderstand my point: Those not discovered smaller black holes would need an explanation how they did form but more important here how they could be ruled out as Randall states. A nano black hole at 1010 kg disproved by gamma rays? What's Randall's point? He was more accurate in the past. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:18, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

; Axon pun?
My first thought upon reading 'axion' was that it was a pun on axon. Neurons have typical membrane potentials in the mV range, which lines up nicely with the meV energy of axions. Coincidence? --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 20:44, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
:An axion is a suggested subatomic particle. I'm not a biologist but if one meV is enough energy to trigger an axon our biology wouldn't work that smoothly. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:18, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
:: It's mV (electrical potential), not meV (energy/mass). It's a stretch, but Randall's included more distant puns before in XKCD. Source for action potential strength: [http://understandingcontext.com/2014/01/ei-electric-potential-curve/] --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 23:15, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

While this comic is about Dark Matter, does the explanation really need to include a justification on why Dark Matter really exists as a "substance" instead of being some error in our understanding of gravity? It seems a little excessive and unnecessary to me. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 21:46, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
:I'm with you but this comic is about that "substance" like most astronomers are. This always reminds me to aether - also a famous "substance" in space more than hundred years ago which nobody could explain. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:32, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

Furthermore, while space cowboys were mentioned earlier in the discussion, I suspect Randall included space cows in the chart specifically as a reference to the movie Space Cowboys. Also, I think the point about Neutron Star Data ruling out black holes in that mass range is because you can't have both of them with the same mass, since the current theory is that they both form from a star collapse, but at different masses. You're always going to get one or the other from that size star, and since we find neutron stars in that range, we can't have black holes there too. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 21:59, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
:The mass of neutron stars is well understood. A smaller star ends at a white dwarf and the big ones produce a black hole. Nonetheless our sun will end up into a white dwarf and the others require higher masses as in the buzzkill range at the graph. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:32, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2035: Dark Matter Candidates

2018-08-20T20:44:11Z

Quantum7: Suggest axon ~ axion similarity

Talk:2035: Dark Matter Candidates

2018-08-20T20:40:07Z

Quantum7: Response about black hole sizes

Talk:2011: Newton's Trajectories

2018-06-25T10:01:02Z

Quantum7: parabolic trajectory comment

Actually he's talking about ICBM's that have the potential to end civilisation in fire if actually launched, not the crash of a spaceship.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.156|141.101.107.156]] 04:39, 25 June 2018 (UTC)
Agreed, the object emitted from the cannon is either a rocket or an ICBM.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.158.46|172.69.158.46]] 04:51, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

Couldn't he be talking about the rocket being mistaken for whatever big bomb we use right now and start the whole mutually assured destruction gig? I hear that there have been a lot of close calls/radar malfunctions/whatever whatevers that almost sent us into the apocalypse. Come on, Didn't Germany write a song about that? (Granted, it's apparently the show of force that starts the war, but you guys get my point) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.233|172.69.33.233]] 05:42, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

:I am German and didn't write a song on that issue. The song that comes closest for me is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0nw9PAL9WQ Fylingdale Flyer] by Jethro Tull.

:Ninety-nine red balloons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Luftballons) by Nena - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.148|108.162.219.148]] 08:02, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

I was surprised to see the quote 'slip the bonds of earth' on a circular orbit. This seems pretty bound to earth. Wouldn't it have made more sense to include a parabolic escape trajectory? --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 10:01, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2009: Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

2018-06-21T08:10:56Z

Quantum7: Blue whale response

How the heck is a lava cake more luminous than a campfire? {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.28}}
:It's Lava Lake, as in a large puddle of lava.[[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 15:45, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Now the real question is, Why isn't lava cake included on the diagram?!?! [[User:Veleek|Veleek]] ([[User talk:Veleek|talk]]) 23:54, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
:This is the best misreading that I've seen in a while! [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 07:56, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

As it's a logarithmic scale, is it more correct to say the plot been expanded to 1 on both axes? [[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 15:47, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

It seems Randall thinks an astronomer is about as bright as a lightbulb, probably due to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram itself! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 15:52, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
:A daily food consumption of average human is about 100W when spread out over 24 hours
::It might actually be about that bright, but in the infrared spectrum. http://elte.prompt.hu/sites/default/files/tananyagok/InfraredAstronomy/ch01s04.html [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.89|108.162.246.89]] 20:54, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
:But they are no where near as hot!
::You seem to overestimate the attractiveness of most lightbulbs. I've only seen a few that I would consider really hot.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.198.10|172.69.198.10]] 20:57, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

While wattage is used as an informal proxy for bulb brightness, there is not a 1-to-1 relationship between power consumption and light output. Incandescent bulbs in the United States were commonly labeled with both watts consumed and lumens output to aid consumers in choosing efficient bulbs.

{{w|Ivanpah Solar Power Facility|Ivanpah}} doesn't have a salt tank. Presumably he meant the boiler, and/or was confusing it with {{w|Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project|Crescent Dunes}}.
[[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 17:29, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

I understand the explanation, but what's the joke?

The title text says "The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is located in its own lower right corner, unless you're viewing it on an unusually big screen." But it's clearly on the top left corner... Am I missing something? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.106|108.162.219.106]] 18:47, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

:Why would it be at the top left...? The diagram itself is not particularly luminous, so would not be at the top, and its apparent temperature is quite low, so it would not be on the left.

Why is a blue whale considered more luminous than a campfire? Blue whales don't generate any light.
:It would if your took it out of the water (to reduce convective losses), but it would emit in the infrared. The 78 kW cited here would equate to 588 million kcal of krill per year. That's in the ballpark of other estimates I found (e.g. 490 million[https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/straight-dope/article/13041278/straight-dope-does-the-average-american-use-more-energy-than]). I agree that this is one of the more surprising facts to find on this chart. --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:10, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

In one of the interesting parts of this diagram not that many mundane objects (or at least smaller than earth objects) are much hotter than most stars (surface temperature)... Not mentioned now.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:33, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

I think the current explanation is still taking some of the graph too literally, thereby missing some of the jokes. After all, Randall creates comics, sometimes using innuendo or subtlety to make a point. I still think some of the items on the graph are plotted using luminosity as a measure of "brightness" in the sense of smartness. No offense intended, but he must have had a reason for including France below the planets and the blue whale above the astronomer. Furthermore, the title text is likely talking about the actual HR diagram not being very "bright" in the same way the astronomer is in the lower-right corner of the graph, except when it is displayed on a jumbotron. If you're an astronomer, you might not like hearing this, but the meaning of the HR diagram is difficult to grasp correctly. To leave out any mention of smartness is likely missing the most significant jokes in the comic. Please feel free to disagree, but remember it's still just a comic! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 00:37, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

: More specifically to my point, this part of the explanation
:: "the title text notes that the screen displaying the diagram would probably be plotted..."
: is not correct. The title text states the diagram itself would probably be plotted in the lower-right corner, not the screen displaying it - the screen was only related to the second part of the title text! This IS the primary joke in the comic and likely why Randall is making fun of it in the first place. This is also likely the reason for the astronomer to ALSO be plotted in this corner - I doubt that is just a coincidence. Maybe Randall was too subtle for his point to get through to readers! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 04:37, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

: Just in case I'm also being too subtle, I think Randall is saying that the HR diagram is neat to look at (as in really cool) but also stupid (as in not very bright), putting it in the lower-right corner of itself (cool and dim)! There, I said it! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 04:45, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

How come this diagram says an LED bulb is hotter than a lightbulb, and both are hotter than a campfire? That doesn't seem right. [[User:YM Industries|YM Industries]] ([[User talk:YM Industries|talk]]) 01:49, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
:The confusion is coming from the fact that the arrow at the top is pointing toward lower temperatures. I'm not sure if this is intentional, or if it is a mistake, but seems to be confusing a lot of people (including myself until I read the actual numbers)[[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 03:09, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
:: I noticed that the arrow was pointing in a confusing direction, but LED bulb is to the left of the campfire. The diagram clearly says it's hotter. I'm very confused by this comic. [[User:YM Industries|YM Industries]] ([[User talk:YM Industries|talk]]) 05:22, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

: The location of the LED and Lightbulb temperatures may be related to the actual light source points of these objects (diode junction and wire filament) rather than the outer shells that we can touch. I don't know enough about their internal temperatures to say for sure, but that might explain their positions. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 05:05, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

:Worked it out, it's referring to the colour temperature. [[User:YM Industries|YM Industries]] ([[User talk:YM Industries|talk]]) 05:24, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
::Right. The color temperature of an LED bulb can be much higher than a blackbody of the same power and area because it emits in only a small spectral region.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.47|108.162.238.47]] 05:32, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure there shouldn't be a table in the transcript? I've moved it, but now the table needs to be filled and the transcript needs some work. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 03:10, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

Venus' temperature is correct. Randall is using planetary equilibrium temperature <ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_equilibrium_temperature</ref> [[User:Astronorn|Astronorn]] ([[User talk:Astronorn|talk]]) 04:56, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2009: Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

2018-06-21T07:56:24Z

Quantum7: Lava Cake lol

How the heck is a lava cake more luminous than a campfire? {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.28}}
:It's Lava Lake, as in a large puddle of lava.[[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 15:45, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Now the real question is, Why isn't lava cake included on the diagram?!?! [[User:Veleek|Veleek]] ([[User talk:Veleek|talk]]) 23:54, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
:This is the best misreading that I've seen in a while! [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 07:56, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

As it's a logarithmic scale, is it more correct to say the plot been expanded to 1 on both axes? [[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 15:47, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

It seems Randall thinks an astronomer is about as bright as a lightbulb, probably due to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram itself! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 15:52, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
:A daily food consumption of average human is about 100W when spread out over 24 hours
::It might actually be about that bright, but in the infrared spectrum. http://elte.prompt.hu/sites/default/files/tananyagok/InfraredAstronomy/ch01s04.html [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.89|108.162.246.89]] 20:54, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
:But they are no where near as hot!
::You seem to overestimate the attractiveness of most lightbulbs. I've only seen a few that I would consider really hot.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.198.10|172.69.198.10]] 20:57, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

While wattage is used as an informal proxy for bulb brightness, there is not a 1-to-1 relationship between power consumption and light output. Incandescent bulbs in the United States were commonly labeled with both watts consumed and lumens output to aid consumers in choosing efficient bulbs.

{{w|Ivanpah Solar Power Facility|Ivanpah}} doesn't have a salt tank. Presumably he meant the boiler, and/or was confusing it with {{w|Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project|Crescent Dunes}}.
[[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 17:29, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

I understand the explanation, but what's the joke?

The title text says "The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is located in its own lower right corner, unless you're viewing it on an unusually big screen." But it's clearly on the top left corner... Am I missing something? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.106|108.162.219.106]] 18:47, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

:Why would it be at the top left...? The diagram itself is not particularly luminous, so would not be at the top, and its apparent temperature is quite low, so it would not be on the left.

Why is a blue whale considered more luminous than a campfire? Blue whales don't generate any light.

In one of the interesting parts of this diagram not that many mundane objects (or at least smaller than earth objects) are much hotter than most stars (surface temperature)... Not mentioned now.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:33, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

I think the current explanation is still taking some of the graph too literally, thereby missing some of the jokes. After all, Randall creates comics, sometimes using innuendo or subtlety to make a point. I still think some of the items on the graph are plotted using luminosity as a measure of "brightness" in the sense of smartness. No offense intended, but he must have had a reason for including France below the planets and the blue whale above the astronomer. Furthermore, the title text is likely talking about the actual HR diagram not being very "bright" in the same way the astronomer is in the lower-right corner of the graph, except when it is displayed on a jumbotron. If you're an astronomer, you might not like hearing this, but the meaning of the HR diagram is difficult to grasp correctly. To leave out any mention of smartness is likely missing the most significant jokes in the comic. Please feel free to disagree, but remember it's still just a comic! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 00:37, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

: More specifically to my point, this part of the explanation
:: "the title text notes that the screen displaying the diagram would probably be plotted..."
: is not correct. The title text states the diagram itself would probably be plotted in the lower-right corner, not the screen displaying it - the screen was only related to the second part of the title text! This IS the primary joke in the comic and likely why Randall is making fun of it in the first place. This is also likely the reason for the astronomer to ALSO be plotted in this corner - I doubt that is just a coincidence. Maybe Randall was too subtle for his point to get through to readers! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 04:37, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

: Just in case I'm also being too subtle, I think Randall is saying that the HR diagram is neat to look at (as in really cool) but also stupid (as in not very bright), putting it in the lower-right corner of itself (cool and dim)! There, I said it! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 04:45, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

How come this diagram says an LED bulb is hotter than a lightbulb, and both are hotter than a campfire? That doesn't seem right. [[User:YM Industries|YM Industries]] ([[User talk:YM Industries|talk]]) 01:49, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
:The confusion is coming from the fact that the arrow at the top is pointing toward lower temperatures. I'm not sure if this is intentional, or if it is a mistake, but seems to be confusing a lot of people (including myself until I read the actual numbers)[[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 03:09, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
:: I noticed that the arrow was pointing in a confusing direction, but LED bulb is to the left of the campfire. The diagram clearly says it's hotter. I'm very confused by this comic. [[User:YM Industries|YM Industries]] ([[User talk:YM Industries|talk]]) 05:22, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

: The location of the LED and Lightbulb temperatures may be related to the actual light source points of these objects (diode junction and wire filament) rather than the outer shells that we can touch. I don't know enough about their internal temperatures to say for sure, but that might explain their positions. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 05:05, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

:Worked it out, it's referring to the colour temperature. [[User:YM Industries|YM Industries]] ([[User talk:YM Industries|talk]]) 05:24, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
::Right. The color temperature of an LED bulb can be much higher than a blackbody of the same power and area because it emits in only a small spectral region.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.47|108.162.238.47]] 05:32, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure there shouldn't be a table in the transcript? I've moved it, but now the table needs to be filled and the transcript needs some work. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 03:10, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

Venus' temperature is correct. Randall is using planetary equilibrium temperature <ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_equilibrium_temperature</ref> [[User:Astronorn|Astronorn]] ([[User talk:Astronorn|talk]]) 04:56, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

2009: Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

2018-06-21T07:44:57Z

Quantum7: /* Table */ Ivanpah description

{{comic
| number = 2009
| date = June 20, 2018
| title = Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
| image = hertzsprung_russell_diagram.png
| titletext = The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is located in its own lower right corner, unless you're viewing it on an unusually big screen.
}}

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

The {{w|Hertzsprung–Russell diagram}} is a scatterplot showing absolute luminosities of stars against its effective temperature or color. It's generally used to understand a star's age.

The axes are labeled in {{w|Kelvin}} (degrees {{w|Celsius}} above {{w|absolute zero}}) for {{w|effective temperature}} and, in a unlike many Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams, {{w|Watts}} for {{w|luminosity}}. While most Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams are labelled in units of {{w|solar luminosity}} or {{w|absolute magnitude}}, all three are perfectly valid measures of {{w|luminosity}}, which refers to the total power emitted by the star (or other body). {{w|Effective temperature}} refers to temperature of a blackbody with the same surface area and luminosity. This is meant to provide an estimate of the surface temperature of the object.

Regular Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams cover ranges of about 1,000K to 30,000K, and what is labeled on this diagram as 1021 to 1033 watts—i.e. the upper-left corner. Extended diagrams increase the luminosity range only to include the "Brown Dwarfs". This diagram has been extended to much lower magnitudes on both axes. The joke comes from the absurdity of a diagram meant for stars including much smaller objects, such as planets ... and astronomers.

Though not included in the diagram, the title text notes that the screen displaying the diagram would probably be plotted somewhere in the lower right corner due to its (relatively) low brightness and heat output. Bigger screens have a higher power output (in terms of luminosity) and are thus positioned further towards the diagram's top corner. An "unusually big screen" would have to be something like a JumboTron for its luminosity to put it outside of the lower right corner.
==Table==

{| class="wikitable"
!Item
!Effective Temperature
!Luminosity
!Explanation / Comments
|-
|Betelgeuse
|3200 K
|1.6 * 1031 W
|
|-
|Vega
|10,000 K
|1.8 * 1028 W
|
|-
|Sun
|5800 K
|3.6 * 1026 W
|
|-
|Proxima Centauri
|2700 K
|2.0 * 1023 W
|
|-
|HD 189733b
|2100 K
|4.8 * 1021 W
|
|-
|Interior of a hydrogen bomb during detonation
|~108 K
|~1020 W
|
|-
|Jupiter
|285 K
|1.2 * 1018 W
|
|-
|Venus
|330 K
|5.0 * 1017 W
|It appears that this might have been misplaced on the temperature axis, being far too closely placed to France and to Earth. In fact Venus is at 735K where Earth has a mean of 287K.
|-
|Earth
|300 K
|3.0 * 1017 W
|
|-
|Mars
|255
|2.0 * 1016 W
|
|-
|Moon
|300 K
|1.2 * 1016 W
|
|-
|Nuclear Fireball
|8000 K
|2.0 * 1014 W
|
|-
|France
|300 K
|2.0 * 1014 W
|This is part of Earth (and more precisely a part of Europe), the same temperature as Earth, but less luminous in proportion to its surface area. Including this may be a joke referencing the two possible meanings of ‘Europa’ (see the next entry). France emit less light at night than neighbouring countries, perhaps due to lower population density https://goo.gl/images/H8Dmu3.
|-
|Europa
|90 K
|3.5 * 1014 W
|While this term could refer to Europe (a part of Earth, of which France (the previous entry) is a further part), the temperature and luminosity are both too small for that, so it must refer to the moon of Jupiter instead.
|-
|Lightning Bolt
|30,000 K
|30 GW
|
|-
|Ivanpah Solar Plant Salt Tank
|1200 K
|1.2 GW
|The [[wikipedia:Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility|Ivanpah Solar Power Facility]] is a large solar power generator in the Californian Mojave desert. It concentrates sunlight from 173,500 reflectors onto three boiler towers.
|-
|Medium-sized Lava Lake
|800 K
|32 MW
|
|-
|Cruise Ship
|325 K
|30 MW
|
|-
|Campfire
|870 K
|7.0 kW
|
|-
|Blue Whale
|280 K
|78 kW
|Must be average surface temperature as whales are warm-blooded @ ~100F/37C internally, interestingly this may be the only entry where a significant amount of power produced is conducted away rather than radiated. Also the power seems high compared to what I can find. These images suggest a surface temperature around 295K - 300K for a Humpback whale when surfacing https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321972840/figure/fig1/AS:574004013604864@1513864629274/Visible-and-infrared-spectrum-images-of-various-humpback-whale-surfacing-features.png
|-
|Arc Lamp
|65,000 K
|150 W
|
|-
|Lightbulb
|4800 K
|75 W
|The temperature value here refers to colour temperature, which for an incandescent bulb is the same as the filament temperature.
|-
|LED Bulb
|5800 K
|8 W
|The temperature value here refers to colour temperature, not physical temperature. Color temperature is a better match to effective temperature than physical temperature.
|-
|Astronomer
|310 K
|100 W
| The body temperature of a human (astronomer or otherwise) is about 310K (37°C). Skin Surface Temperature (which would fit the meaning of effective temperature better) is typically 31°C - 35°C. An astronomer standing outside in a thick coat on a cold night would have a much lower skin temperature.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[A scatter plot is shown, with the x-axis labeled Effective Temperature (in degrees Kelvin, and the y-axis Luminosity (watts).]

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1957: 2018 CVE List

2018-03-23T08:49:50Z

Quantum7: snarky response

[[First]] post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, the explanation looks like a train wreck, and I'm not sure if a rearranging it into a table or just adding bullet points to everything is better. I'm guessing that a table would be better, but I don't know how I can rearrange it. Can somebody help? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 06:35, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Added a table layout to the sandbox. Might be of some use to another editor. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.45|162.158.74.45]] 07:32, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: ''Edit: Looks like it's been adapted in; I've cleared the sandbox for future use.'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.45|162.158.74.45]] 11:53, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: Thanks, I think a table is a good way to go. I'm adding it to the article as a place to start. Rather than format the original explanation into the table, I'm leaving the cells blank. The original poorly formatted text can be a starting point, but isn't directly adaptable. --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 09:55, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Never ever have I heard anyone pronounce SQL as "sequel" - Is that a reqional dialect? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.15|162.158.93.15]] 07:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: I heard it's common among MS-SQL users.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:02, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: Oh BTW, look at our IPs. Are you an easybell customer? :-) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::: I somewhat doubt we are using easybell, from the looks of it it's not suited for the size of our company. But I can neither verify nor deny that claim as I am not responsible for the WAN connection at our company. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.9|162.158.93.9]] 15:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Some people pronounce it that way, yes. Don't know if it is "common among MS-SQL users", though. The only person I encountered saying "sequel" never used MS-SQL. [[User:LordHorst|LordHorst]] ([[User talk:LordHorst|talk]]) 09:54, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Not sure if it's regional or not. I personally say "sequel" and I'd say anecdotally that it's about 50/50 among people that I've worked with. I went to school and work in the Midwest US. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 15:40, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: I've also seen references to Oracle users saying "sequel" rather than S-Q-L. That would make sense as it's the DB I'm primarily working with. http://patorjk.com/blog/2012/01/26/pronouncing-sql-s-q-l-or-sequel/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 15:43, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Monty (BDFL for MySQL) always pronounces it as "My ess cue ell". [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 18:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::I've always said 'sequel' but then 'my ess kyoo ell'. Which makes no sense really. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.26|162.158.155.26]] 09:40, 20 February 2018 (UTC)
: When I was in college a couple decades back I have memory of the professor that taught SQL saying that pronouncing it "sequel" had been registered as a trademark of Micosoft. He instructed us to avoid that pronunciation whenever possible because of this. I have not fact-checked this statement. [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 22:00, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:I like to pronounce it "squeel" because that's equally correct phonetically & it never fails to raise eyebrows. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 00:33, 20 February 2018 (UTC)
: I hear it occasionally, even myself once in a while. However, I seriously doubt EVERYBODY who does so is referencing the predecessor, pretty sure everybody I've heard say "sequel" does so because SQL looks like it's short for "sequel", thats all. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:04, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

I want to take a moment to congratulate the dedication of whomever wrote the original explanation. Second languages are hard, bro. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.10|108.162.215.10]] 07:48, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Has someone tried contacting Randall about "extploit"? If not, what would be the best way? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Hack his computer to display a message demanding he fix it if he wants his hard drive decrypted.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.26|162.158.155.26]] 09:24, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::Thanks, will do.

::how to hack complooter
::why does google not work
::how to delete text
::[[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:44, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:If anyone is getting this changed to correct silly errors, removing the full stop in “…<tt>one. Computer</tt>…” would be nice. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.197|141.101.99.197]] 15:22, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Urban Dictionary suggestion: EXTploit - A trojan (usually bearing a harmless looking icon) which takes advantage of the idiotic practice of hiding filename extensions by default within major operating systems. This increases the likelihood that a user will execute the trojan, thinking it is a media file because they cannot see the actual file-extension. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 00:33, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Regarding "Factor a prime": Factoring a prime is easy: The prime itself is the only factor, so it's sufficient to use [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKS_primality_test AKS] or whatever to check that. Public-key encryption relies on how hard it is to factor the product of two primes, which is a much harder problem. Maybe this is a typo in the comic? {{unsigned|Comment Police}}
: I don't think it is a typo. It's exactly the type of "inside-joke" I would expect from XKCD. :) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.214|162.158.134.214]] 10:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: AFAIK, there aren't any primality tests known to run in O(log n). For instance, AKS runs in O(log n ^ 7.5). So for numpy to actually achieve factoring as stated would require assuming the input is prime and just returning (1,n). --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 12:45, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:::Doesn't testing for primality (just) require a list of all primes up to sqrt(n)? So the best possible time is sqrt(however fast you can calculate primes up to a number). That time can at most be square (divide every number by every other number below it), so a primality test only needs O(n) time. Or do I understand something wrong? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:46, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::::Oh yes, I missed that log(n) is less than n. Nevermind then. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:50, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:On the other hand, consider the following phrases that describe a process using the end result of the process as their direct object: "cook scrambled eggs", "bake a cake", "chop firewood", "encode an MP3", and "factor primes". One would "factor primes" out of the semiprime associated with an RSA key. --[[User:Tepples|Tepples]] ([[User talk:Tepples|talk]]) 15:58, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: There are a bunch of things going on:
: * NumPy currently has no primality or factoring functions. SymPy does. We assume the hypothetical CVE happened because someone added it.
: * Factoring a prime is a bit nonsensical. We factor into primes or perform a primality test. Perhaps a reference to the humorously mis-spoken Bill Gates quote: "The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." -Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, pg. 265. We know what he meant (and he likely does too) but it's technically just wrong.
: * The best known factoring methods are sub-exponential, not polynomial as $O(\log n)$ indicates. The current explanation test here is factually wrong (but gets the concept across) -- it isn't $O(2^n)$.
: * Deterministic 64-bit primality testing is $O(\log^2 n)$ using BPSW or deterministic Miller-Rabin. This worse than $O(\log n)$.
: * Heuristic or probabilistic testing for larger inputs is also $O(\log^2 n)$. The best deterministic method for larger inputs is ECPP at $O(\log^4 n)$, which is faster than AKS's $O(\log^6 n)$ in addition to much smaller constants.
: Ignoring or being amused at the "factoring primes" comment, we see the complexity is actually in the correct form (most internet forum contributers mix up "n" vs. "size of n", for example). If it were factoring composites, then $O(log^k n)$ for any constant 'k' would be funny as it says nobody noticed they added a polynomial time factoring algorithm. If it is primality testing then it's funny as-is since this is faster than any known method (basically saying you could do a primality test on any size input with a constant number of multiplies).
: [[User:DAJ NT|DAJ NT]] ([[User talk:DAJ NT|talk]]) 19:29, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Can I edit some spelling errors? There seems to be some spelling errors here and there.Boeing-787lover 10:19, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:Of course, that's what a Wiki is for. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 12:10, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I think the explanation of the one about injecting arbitrary text onto a page with the comments box is overthinking the joke. I think it really is just about the fact that you can write whatever you like in a comment. Look, I just hacked this page to display the word "penguin". [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 10:26, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: I think it can generally be agreed, at least among most people above a certain level of computer knowledge, that this doesn't count as hacking. :) "Hacking" is helping yourself to greater access than you're supposed to have, and requires considerable skill and advanced tools to accomplish. THIS "hacking", both adding to the page and as described in the comic, is perfectly allowed and requires no special knowledge. Wherein lies the joke. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:13, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

Since when is Bruce Schneier not real? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.75|162.158.93.75]] 13:05, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: He never was - it's a cleverly executed art project. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.209|141.101.99.209]] 14:20, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I've added some clarification to the "CRITICAL" item. I know there are several xkcd comics referencing similar problems but I unfortunately don't have the time to look them up, can someone do that and link them appropriately in the table? [[User:Domino|Domino]] ([[User talk:Domino|talk]]) 13:11, 19 February 2018 (UTC)domino
:Isn't the joke really in the hilarious severity assessment? The vulnerability is supposedly CRITICAL!!!!11!1!!one!, while description shows both a ridiculously small vulnerable population and ridiculously low impact. Population: a single, very old kernel version on a rare, outdated architecture, in one timezone only - and WHICH timezone! UTC+14 means just a couple of islands in the Pacific (Tonga, Kiribati...) - the probability of even one vulnerable system actually existing seems almost zero. Impact: the only possible consequence is switching from 12h to 24h (only in this direction)? This whole entry is very creative - just TRY to come up with a possible vulnerability (yes, it would classify as an actual vulnerability, why not?) that would have a LOWER severity than that...--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.89|162.158.91.89]] 13:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
::Agree [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 15:45, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I think the article should start with an explanation of what is the CVE. From https://cve.mitre.org/
"CVE® is a list of entries—each containing an identification number, a description, and at least one public reference—for publicly known cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
CVE Entries are used in numerous cybersecurity products and services from around the world, including the U.S. National Vulnerability Database (NVD)."
-{{unsigned|Comment Police}}

"MySQL server 55.45" it is 5.5.45 if you zoom in a bit. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.161|162.158.91.161]] 13:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)Blocki

"An attacker can execute malicious code on their own machine and no one can stop them" might be a jab at the trend toward more closed systems, where even the owner of a device is limited in what they can do on it. 
"A flaw in Mitre's CVE database allows arbitrary code insertion" could be meant as an explanation for the whole comic, i.e. those joke vulnerabilities were added to the CVE database using this flaw. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.225|141.101.69.225]] 13:52, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

It's my first comment here, so I may be wrong. I see the "CRITICAL" as a "differential” joke exhibiting that the requirement standards may be very different from a constructor to another. In fact, it seems that the apple’s bugs described here (crash, fire, remote access granted) are the mosst critical ones. The only two concerning Linux are the one labeled as critical and the one about bribery. I don’t know what to think about the almost complete absence of windows though. Feriaman.

Could we get an ''Air Bud'' category? It seems to be a recurring theme in his comics. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.88|162.158.246.88]] 18:50, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:List of direct mentions of "air bud" in the explanations: [[115:_Meerkat]], [[1439:_Rack_Unit]], [[1506:_xkcloud/Table_of_Permalinks]], [[1552:_Rulebook]], [[1819:_Sweet_16]], [[1957:_2018_CVE_List]]
:List of direct mentions of "air bud" in the transcripts: [None]
:Beep, boop, I'm not a bot. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 20:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Anyone happen to notice that instead of writing "mischievous," Randall opted for the non-standard spelling "mischevious?" The standard form would have been an I-before-E word... --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.164|162.158.88.164]] 00:45, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

"Diacritics are the accents found on letters in some languages (eg. č, ģ ķ, ļ, ņ, š, ž). These would not be found on emojis." This misses the point. There is nothing that stops a unicode emoji being followed by unicode combining diacritical mark. The rendering engine does not have to display this in any particular way, but catching fire would be considered a bug by must users.{{Citation needed}} [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.213|162.158.74.213]] 03:35, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

"Flash was discontinued", really? Someone should tell Flash. And Facebook. I'm STILL experiencing issues on Facebook over their sloppy Flash programming interfering with my ability to watch Facebook videos (extra irritating as I'm sure my newly built computer is more powerful and capable than the computers owned by anyone I know, and certainly any phone or tablet, which don't experience these problems). And my last Flash update was a couple of weeks ago - seeing as this bug likes to include telling me I need to upgrade my Flash, even if I did so that day and Flash assures me I'm up date. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:04, 20 February 2018 (UTC)
:Flash hasn't been discontinued, but I think one could call it deprecated. Adobe announced that they will [https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/ stop updating and distributing Flash in 2020] so it will be "discontinued" in 2-3 years. Which means that if you're a web site owner, now's the time to migrate any Flash content to another platform (like HTML5/JavaScript). Additionally, most modern browsers make a point of disabling flash by default, forcing you to enable it on a per-site basis. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 14:53, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Timing Attack to exploit a race condition in garbage collection refers to Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws that can be exploited in cloud server like the ones in Wikipedia.
I don't think this is correct. Garbage collection is a technique of freeing up memory no longer used by a program, completely unrelated to speculative execution and the Spectre/Meltdown exploits... [[User:Jaalenja|Jaalenja]] ([[User talk:Jaalenja|talk]]) 07:34, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Apple products execute any code printed over a photo of a dog with a saddle and a baby riding it.
... This "bug" would not only require the device to figure out specifically what the photo contains image-wise, something that's REALLY HARD for computers to do reliably, it would also require OCR (Optical Character Recognition) type code to convert the text superimposed on the photo into executable code. In other words, it's hard to believe in 2018 that such a bug could exist. Maybe in the future when such things are more routine...? ...
The funny thing is that I don't think it's beyond the realm of plausibility. Given the fact that modern operating systems try to index as much as possible, for faster searches, it seems logical that some OS (if not now, then in the future) would try to run OCR against every image and video in order to index whatever text it finds (much like how YouTube auto-generates captions by running speech-recognition over the entire soundtrack). Ditto for more generic image recognition to identify and index the picture content. A system that does this could easily end up with a bug (or back door) where certain kinds of image content result in an attempt to execute its OCR results as code. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 15:03, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Does anyone think the 'I before E' could be a stab at Apple, in reference to Internet Explorer?{{unsigned|Comment Police}}

While it is true that part of the plot of the movie "Air Bud" was that there was nothing in the rules to prevent a dog joining a basketball team, I suspect that the recent attempt to run a dog as candidate for governor of Kansas was more on Randal's mind than a 20+ year old movie that (at most) a few million people saw when it was released.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.16|162.158.78.16]] 05:27, 22 February 2018 (UTC)
: Actually, I find AirBud has become more of a thing to reference than a movie to watch. I believe the idea has been recycled a few times (a dog playing football, I think a dog playing baseball), yet it's AirBud, the original, that's always getting referenced (okay, "always" is an overstatement, but still). At the very least I know Randall has referenced it a few times, sometimes by name, enough times that I'd say it's safe to say AirBud is on his list of favourite references. If anything, this dog governor sounds obscure enough that he may not have heard about it, making the AirBud reference more likely, though being wacky politics I wouldn't be surprised if he's well aware, either. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:49, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

Is it just me, or does it feel like the "hack via edit box" thing feel like a reference to us? I mean, not only can this site be added to like that, it's the only one I know of and visit where you can do so without having an account. Seems perfect as the target of that particular one. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:55, 23 February 2018 (UTC)
: The only one? So I guess you don't go on wikipedia much. --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:49, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

Is it notable that the bugs gradually become more and more trivial except where an Apple device is involved, where they progressively get both more worrying and more impossible to accomplish? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.95|108.162.221.95]] 05:37, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1970: Name Dominoes

2018-03-23T08:42:23Z

Quantum7: /* Maybe a table? */ Algorithm

This comic is a long list of names overlayed onto black domino tiles, arranged so that each touching side corresponds with the first or last name of another person. This will be difficult to transcribe. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.53}}
:Would it be possible to use a fixed width format and try and transcribe like an actual scrabble board? I think there are unicode characters for upside-down and rotated text that we could use for the flipped names. But yes, definitely will be difficult.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.244|172.68.211.244]] 18:21, 21 March 2018 (UTC)
::The transcript doesn't need upside-down and rotated text. It should be enough to mention that some tiles are. A first draft with all names would be good, but even mentioning all the connections would be to complex to read. Think about the reader... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:39, 21 March 2018 (UTC)
::How about using a fixed-width font and then representing each domino with an alphanumeric character, and then put a list below of what each character corresponds to? Even though there are more dominoes than characters, duplicate uses of a character (but referring to different names) can be easily disambiguated if we assign each character in order, left to right and top to bottom. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.71|172.69.70.71]] 20:04, 21 March 2018 (UTC)
:::I have made an image where each tile is numbered from left to right. See this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1970-_Name_Dominoes_-_The_large_image_with_numbers.jpg picture] and [[1970: Name Dominoes/Numbered images|Explanation]] here. I have created a transcript from this list. And the table --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:01, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
:::Do you think that maybe Randall created this comic just to screw with this wiki? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.53|108.162.221.53]] 14:51, 22 March 2018 (UTC)Martin
::::Certainly, a real explanation to Randall's ''Name Dominoes'' doesn't need a numbered list or one of these overwhelming tables. A short overview (a small bullet list would be the best) to the rules implied by the image and shown in the title text would be a proper explanation. Everything else is trivia at maximum. And I can't resist: This table, whenever it will be completely filled, tops them all...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:30, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

I see alternative names or nicknames sometimes matches together. But is the Chris Pratt/Chris Evans match with Topher Grace a bit of a stretch? I see that Topher is a variation of Chris'''topher''' and Chis is a shortening of the same. But I guess it must be an acceptable move if Randle put it in the comic. Maybe it’s worth special points or something. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.70|162.158.38.70]] 18:14, 21 March 2018 (UTC)TheStewart

Walter White/Walt Whitman is a reference to Breaking Bad. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.101|172.68.58.101]] 18:20, 21 March 2018 (UTC)Pat

And Garnet being used to join Ruby and Saffire is clever...
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.64|141.101.98.64]] 18:23, 21 March 2018 (UTC)
This is a reference to Steven Universe where there is a character, Garnet, who is a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire.

"The title text spells out a rule that a player may only place a tile if they know who that person is" is mention as a reason for it not to be a fixed set of dominos, But I took it to mean you can't use "Jim Jones" unless you know of Jim Jones; as in, I could challenge your use of it by asking "okay who is he?". Maybe saying "oh, he went to school with me" or something wouldn't count, anymore than "crft is too a word!" works in Scrabble [[User:Afbach|Afbach]] ([[User talk:Afbach|talk]]) 19:36, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

Harrison Ford is from Blade Runner I believe. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.124|162.158.2.124]] 23:07, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

Ma Bell is interesting... is it the only one that not an actual person? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System

Alistair Cooke's name is misspelt "Alistiar"; it'll be interesting to see if this gets corrected (as errors sometimes do). Not to be confused with Alistair Cookie, a short distance away! -- [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 08:45, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

== Maybe a table? ==

I think a table would be a useful and user-friendly way of capturing everything that's going on here. Forgive this feeble attempt. I am not an html coder. I know enough to go steal something somewhere and see if it works:

{| class="wikitable"
!style="width:15%"|Domino
!style="width:35%"|Notability
!style="width:15%"|Connections
!style="width:35%"|Mode
|-
|Alistair Cookie
|A parody of Alistair Cooke "played" by Cookie Monster in the Sesame Street sketch "Monsterpiece Theatre" in the 1980s, a parody of the PBS series "Masterpiece Theatre".
|James Cook 
Alastair Reynolds
|Last-Last (approximate) 
First-First (approximate)
|-
|James Cook
|18th century British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy.
|Alistair Cooke 
Cokie Roberts 
Alistair Cookie 
James Fenimore Cooper
|Last-Last (approximate) 
Last-First (approximate) 
Last-Last (approximate) 
First-First
|-
|Chris Columbus
|Film director and screenwriter.
|Columbo 
Christopher Columbus 
Chris Hughes
|Last-Only (approximate) 
First-First (approximate) and Last-Last 
First-First

|}

[[User:Imperpay|Imperpay]] ([[User talk:Imperpay|talk]]) 23:27, 21 March 2018 (UTC)
: I like that idea. Especially because it would mean that all those links are removed from the transcript. As far as I understand transcripts (at least in this wiki) they don't inlcude any meta information (e.g. nothing that is not shown in the comic). [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:48, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
::Yes great example of a table, and yes no wiki links in transcript. I will put this in the explanation now. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:42, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
:::I have now made an image where each tile is numbered from left to right. See this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1970-_Name_Dominoes_-_The_large_image_with_numbers.jpg picture] and [[1970: Name Dominoes/Numbered images|Explanation]] here. I have created a transcript from this list. And the table --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:01, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

And I thought Alistair Cookie was a reference to the fact Alistair Cook is batting like a muppet.
BTW I have WG Grace and Grace Darling in my hand - but i cannot seem to fit them in.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.204|141.101.107.204]] 17:16, 22 March 2018 (UT

I've created a table/spreadsheet of all the numbers, with a,b,c meaning first, second, and third part of name, respectively, [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tcxq1Hp3-AcGFrfkv3xRD1wNg9OO12gpN05D1H42-sU/edit?usp=sharing here]. Also, Van Jones is missing in both the numbered image and all text on this page. [[User:Ad1217|Ad1217]] ([[User talk:Ad1217|talk]]) 04:40, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

Does anyone else see the connection between "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon" and the fact that this picture is basically a network/graph? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.136|108.162.249.136]] 05:25, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
: I was disappointed that Kevin Bacon isn't a clear node of some sort. The joke could have been extended by adding a [[wikipedia:Erdős_number|Paul Erdős]] tile. --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:41, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

I wonder if Randall used an algorithm to build this. It would be interesting to generate dense domino packings automatically. Does he have an official github account or similar? --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:42, 23 March 2018 (UTC)