explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3087: Pascal's Law

2025-05-11T22:58:34Z

RandalSchwartz: s/Randal/Randall/g

I remember learning about this and thinking it was intuitive, but I didn't really think of these consequences. Maybe everybody is making powerful lifting machines for lifting cars and houses with your bare hands, rather than explaining the article, that there isn't one yet. Pascal's law basically says that if you make one end of a container of fluid X times larger, then any force exerted on the small end is multiplied by X on the large end, so you can make it near-infinite by making the small end very small. But you'll need a little more machinery added (like a gear system) if you want the distance actually moved to be higher. Actually I think that might undo the gains in force entirely. That might be how it happens, it might swap distance for force so the same work is performed.

Hey, remember that comic where Randall challenged people to fold a paper too small? This hand-makeable device could get farther on that!
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.110|172.70.111.110]] 21:46, 9 May 2025 (UTC)
: yes, that's how it works; the total work is constant and the hydraulic system is converting a small force over a long distance to a large force over a small distance. if you additionally want the force to be over a larger distance, you need to put more energy into the system or else you could push this machine with its own output and get free energy from nothing. really though hydraulics are just smoother, backlashless, equivalents to a gear train in the first place so you generally wouldnt need to use both. - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 23:37, 9 May 2025 (UTC)
:: Small tube needs to be X times as long to get same displacement. Good for linear force rather than torque. Fluid's own pressure can be the force if tube is long enough. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.33|172.68.55.33]] 11:41, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

As someone old enough to remember the [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect slashdot effect], I wonder if XKCD comics generate a similar effect on search engines. Though I doubt they would buckle under the weight these days. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.60.148|172.69.60.148]] 22:00, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

To whoever wrote the initial transcript, remember that we don't include the title text. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:06, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

I have to wonder whether he has the same disbelief of, say, levers... which allow one to move the Earth. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 23:34, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

Although some laws of physics are absolute and lead to extreme consequences, others are taught in a simplified form that can lead to wrong conclusions. For example, "Light and heavy objects fall at the same rate" can be used to prove that objects fall at the same rate on the Earth and the Moon - which is far from correct. If the Moon were somehow dropped onto the Earth, it would fall at a certain rate. The Earth dropped on the Moon would necessarily fall at the same rate. So if the Moon falling on the Earth fell at the same rate as a bowling ball, then the bowling ball would have to fall at the same rate on the Moon. When I read Heinlein's _The Rolling Stones_ as a pre-teen, where he describes things falling slower on the Moon, I applied this reasoning and concluded that Heinlein must have made a mistake. The solution to this paradox is that something as big as the Moon will not only accelerate toward the Earth, it will significantly accelerate the Earth toward it, so the Moon does not actually fall at the same rate as a bowling ball. [[User:Cphoenix|Cphoenix]] ([[User talk:Cphoenix|talk]]) 01:01, 10 May 2025 (UTC)
: I think if you stand at the shared center of mass of the Earth and Moon, that then you see the Moon falling toward the Earth according to its constant field of gravitational acceleration, as well as the Earth falling toward the Moon according to its constant field of acceleration. It was indeed confusing for me to realize this, involving visit to pages such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_acceleration . F=Gm1m2/r^2 so if m1 is taken out you get a constant F=m1 a2 and vice versa. But I think the page says this only holds if the masses are far enough from each other to be treatable as points. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.47|172.68.55.47]] 11:57, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

Besides, isn't it better to just ''believe'' in Pascal's Law if it offers a reward of near-infinite force?
[[User:StapleFreeBatteries|StapleFreeBatteries]] ([[User talk:StapleFreeBatteries|talk]]) 04:58, 10 May 2025 (UTC)
:I'll wager that you're pleased with that reference... ;) (Whether or not you actually were!) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.43|172.71.26.43]] 15:58, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

Could this be referencing or inspired by this recent paper talking about the use of hydraulics to build pyramids? https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0306690 [[Special:Contributions/172.68.234.169|172.68.234.169]] 08:52, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

It could be noted that simple machines can multiply forces more or less arbitrarily, but only up to what the machine itself can withstand. Many "why didn't the ancients do that?" can be answered with "bronze kind of sucks". [[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.149|172.69.246.149]] 14:19, 10 May 2025 (UTC)
:Right. Archimedes's "Give me a lever long enough..." assumes that the lever is made of a material that won't buckle or snap under the weight of the Earth. If there were a material like that it would make building long bridges much simpler. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:58, 10 May 2025 (UTC)
:It is also quite difficult to efficiently contain a fluid under pressure in a moving system. All considerations of innovation-stiffling aside, the same problem hindered the use of the Stirling engine untill very recently. Force applied to a rigid mediom is much easier to predict / monitor (a solid either holds or doesn't, but it doesnt leak -not in a way that would have been hindering the use in everyday life by "the ancients" anyway). To a certain extent it is also the reason why most common bikes still use cable brakes : sure it't less efficient but it's much cheaper and you can repair them in no time with common garden-shed-grade equipment.

;Donald Knuth?
Is there a name for the teacher character (a cueball with tufts of hair on the sides of his head)? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:58, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

:The teacher appears to be Donald Knuth, though not sure why Randall has used him.--[[User:Darth Vader|Darth Vader]] ([[User talk:Darth Vader|talk]]) 09:14, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

::We should add the comic to [[:Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]] then. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:09, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

----

Here's a reference that claims that water hammer, rather than just depth pressure, was the major effect used in ''ruina montium'': https://blog.ferrovial.com/en/2022/08/ruina-montium-use-water-for-digging-romans/ -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 00:04, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

A few years back I posted a question on Stack Exchange (https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/60189/which-mountain-collapsed-in-france-in-1820-21) about a report, in a 19th-century biblical commentary, of a mountain collapsing due to just this kind of thing - fluid pressure building up. First thought when I saw the reference to ''ruina montium'' in the comic was that maybe that's it - but no. So, just curious: anyone have any thoughts on what event is being referred to in that commentary? (The one suggestion that someone made there, about a glacier advancing, doesn't seem to fit.) Thanks! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.23.87|172.71.23.87]] 03:38, 11 May 2025 (UTC)
:No idea, but I gotta say, that font or scan is unreadable. Some words are decipherable like הר גבוה and ובמקומו but damn, about half of it is just splotches. No idea how you could read that. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 05:12, 11 May 2025 (UTC)
::I hear. There's a transcript of it (though without the diagram) at https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%91%D7%99%22%D7%9D_%D7%A2%D7%9C_%D7%90%D7%99%D7%95%D7%91_%D7%9E%D7%91_%D7%99%D7%93. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.208|172.70.175.208]] 18:50, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

Should there be a goofs section here, because the white board is drawn with perspective, but the picture on it is not. It will look odd, like the whole contraption is tilted, to the students[[User:Drkaii|Drkaii]] ([[User talk:Drkaii|talk]]) 09:10, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

3080: Tennis Balls

2025-04-25T15:17:17Z

RandalSchwartz: As usual, s/Randal/Randall/ (yes, I notice these things)

{{comic
| number = 3080
| date = April 23, 2025
| title = Tennis Balls
| image = tennis_balls_2x.png
| imagesize = 411x574px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = After initial tests created a series of large holes in the wall of the lab, the higher-power Scanning Tunneling Tennis Ball Microscope project was quickly shut down.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The first sentence might be a little too short, maybe we should give examples where scanning electron microscope are used? Could use clarification on what is needed for quantum tunneling to happen.}}

A {{w|scanning electron microscope}} produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons, and interpreting the different signals that are generated in response. Since [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] find electrons too small to work with, they have created a macroscopic version using tennis balls instead. The tennis ball launcher uses a similar mechanism to a scanning electron microscope: it fires tennis balls, instead of electrons, over a wide range of heights, and detects objects obstructing the stream (in this case a person) by the noises generated on impact. However, this would mostly be 'useful' in scanning things at a macroscopic level, so is not really a microscope. {{w|Computational microscopy}} can be used to increase the resolution of an image beyond the size of the sampling medium by extensively analyzing details of interactions, and a tennis ball microscope could potentially be used to tune such algorithms at an observable scale — the joke of striking a human, as well as the manual single-ball operation, imply that Randall did not intend this use.

Megan and Cueball have detected a person using their device, by the fact that it generated two yells during the scan, possibly from impacting the person's face or another part of their body. They intend to repeat the experiment to determine the person's height, by working out the angle of the tennis balls that generate the yells. Combined with the velocity and time to impact, this should give them enough information to work out the height above ground at impact and the distance from the launcher. The joke is that this height measurement could probably have been completed with a visual assessment, and with far more accuracy than using tennis balls to approximate their height. Most humans work with large-scale objects in their day-to-day lives and hence do not see by using a microscope, although the lens in the eye operates on the same principal as the objective lens in an optical one. This method is also likely to be problematic, as the person would likely duck or run away in response to being bombarded with tennis balls, affecting future measurements. This is known as the {{w|Observer effect (physics)|Observer Effect}} as well as a normal {{w|Sampling (signal processing)#Practical considerations|consideration of sampling}}. (It may also be why the 'scanning' is done from the top down, as early {{tvtropes|GroinAttack|low-hitting projectiles}} might reduce the height that later projectiles can detect.)

The title text is a reference to {{w|scanning tunneling microscope}}s, which take advantage of the {{w|quantum tunnelling}} effect. In this case, the tennis balls were actually tunneling through the wall, creating holes in the process, which is not what tunneling electrons would do. Tunneling is a non-intuitive quantum phenomenon whereby particles may "teleport" across a barrier they would otherwise bounce off of, but it requires a number of particles of extremely low mass to exploit quantum effects, with a comparatively thin barrier, to be observable. It would not be reasonable to produce this effect at tennis ball scale with any typical building wall, but naively attempting to do so by launching tennis balls at a sufficiently high velocity (the required speed dependant upon whether they are aimed at the likes of plasterboard, brick or concrete) could lead to damaging the wall instead.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball fires eight tennis ball at decreasing heights using a tennis ball machine, which makes four "thunk" noises. Megan is standing behind him. The tennis ball machine has a container for tennis balls at the top, which is connected to a tube where the balls are launched. Behind the machine is a handle that Cueball holds with both hands to control the machine, and at the bottom is a stand with two legs.]

:[Cueball has stopped firing tennis balls and is resting his hand on the handle of the machine. Ten noises come from the right side of the panel:]
:Bonk
:Bonk
:Bonk
:Bonk
:Bonk
:OW!
:Bonk
:OW!
:Bonk
:Bonk
:[Megan has her hand to her chin.]
:Megan: Ok, there's definitely a person over there. Let's do one more pass to try to measure their height.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Electrons are small and hard to work with, so some scientists have developed a scanning tennis ball microscope instead.

==Trivia==

{{w|Electron tomography#Atomic Electron Tomography (AET)|Atomic electron tomography}} uses electrons to precisely identify and map the individual atoms of a sample and is leading to extensive novel materials research.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]

Talk:3048: Suspension Bridge

2025-02-09T22:55:54Z

RandalSchwartz: add link

What if a car doing one of the fun jumps lands on a car that didn't do a fun jump? Should we mandate that every car does a fun jump for this reason (and yay, fun jump!)? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.227.115|198.41.227.115]] 22:08, 7 February 2025 (UTC)
:Radar speed management, vehicles are only let on the bridge if their expected land point is between the vehicles around them. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.80|172.68.55.80]] 22:48, 7 February 2025 (UTC)
::Carrot/stick question. If they do a jump, they get their toll refunded on the far side of the bridge. Maybe give them double refund if they do a flip. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.135|172.69.246.135]] 04:07, 8 February 2025 (UTC)
:::The same would happen as on a normal road. If you drive faster than the car in front of you and do not break you will run into it. Only difference here is that you cannot break after jumping so if the one in front of you did make a small jump and then hit the brakes you could hit him. But if you drive very fast up towards a car on a normal road, and they hit the brakes, you will likely also hit them. Even though you do have a chance to brake as opposed to after a jump. So I do not see this as any different than a regular road. Only problem is someone will find it so fun to drive fast towards the top, they might forget to think about safety. But that is already a real problem on normal roads... You cannot stop someone from entering the bridge based on their speed before thet enter the bridge... So the radar comment makes no sense to me!? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:20, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

Do suspension bridges still work when built this way? Those pilings look much easier to sway to me. Maybe they are just buried a little more securely. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.80|172.68.55.80]] 22:48, 7 February 2025 (UTC)
:Yep! With "classic" suspension bridges (like the Golden Gate Bridge), there is no fixed connection between the deck and the towers. With differring loads and temperatures the deck can move up and down about 30cm at tower level (and almost 2 netres at midpoint). Some modern bridges do ise a fixed connection or hinge between deck and tower. [[User:IIVQ|IIVQ]] ([[User talk:IIVQ|talk]]) 12:58, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

This looks a lot like a {{w|stressed ribbon bridge}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.64.132|172.69.64.132]] 22:59, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

This ''exact'' proposal, the [https://poly-bridge-2.fandom.com/wiki/Dangling_Road 'dangling road'], is actually The Meta in Poly Bridge 2. Poly Bridge 3 tried to tweak the numbers to make this strat less effective, but a variant of it continues to persist to this day. (This probably goes in the trivia section, because it seems like Randall came to this concept from first principles.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.65|172.71.151.65]] 01:07, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

:I came to the comment section to see if somebody already said that. The other thing I would have said is I wonder if RCE reads XKCD… if not, I think someone should ask him to do a blind reaction to this comic. I'd love to see his response :) -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 19:18, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

It's funny to me, there's a level in Jak II for the PS2 that's literally just this idea: for whatever reason the city's central palace is held up by five suspension bridge-esque wires, and one level has you crawling along wire #4 to get inside the palace (the catch? The wires are covered in security robots) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.159.7|172.71.159.7]] 01:54, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

I like the fact that vehicles are clearly on flexible cables, not some rigid material formed into a catenary shape. There's a truck between the two towers that is visibly depressing the cable it's riding. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:57, 8 February 2025 (UTC)
:Happy happy joy joy. {{w|Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_(1940)|No dogs allowed on this bridge}}. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.42.87|162.158.42.87]] 04:35, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

If you add a downward pressure to a rope that's significantly stronger than it's normal tension, you end up with a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catenary#Suspension_bridge_curve parabola] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.137.212|162.158.137.212]] 17:47, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

Related: The Wooden bridge Tatzlwurm" in Essing Germany by Richard Johann Dietrich: [https://bsky.app/profile/jamonir.bsky.social/post/3lddc7rae4s24]. Maybe it could be included in the explanation. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 20:46, 8 February 2025 (UTC)
:Not sure I think this is really related. It is also possible as opposed to Randall's proposal here ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:20, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

It would seem that Randall has re-invented the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_suspension_bridge {{unsigned ip|172.68.54.207|15:17, 9 February 2025}}
:More so the mostly 'simple'-derived {{w|Stressed ribbon bridge}}. Unless you consider that development more a version of the non-simple type, with the descenders degenerated completely into the deck structure through high tension, i.e. a step beyond the "structure hiding" levels of other {{w|Millennium Bridge, London|low-profioe suspension bridges}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.78|172.71.178.78]] 15:37, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

I seem to recall a bridge on the overseas highway (Florida Keys) that was originally an arch bridge above a grade-level rail line. When they wanted to "upgrade" the route for cars, cars wouldn't fit into the narrow rail bridge, so they planked up and over the arches, and it was apparently quite a scary drive. I can't seem to locate it via google, although I'm sure I recall seeing it on my drive to key west about 20 years ago. I suspect it's gone now. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 20:34, 9 February 2025 (UTC)
:Ahh, it was the Bahia Honda Railroad Bridge. A few pictures of the structure (mostly torn down now) can be seen [https://www.abandonedspaces.com/uncategorized/bahia-honda-rail-bridge.html here]. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 22:55, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3048: Suspension Bridge

2025-02-09T20:34:59Z

RandalSchwartz: add note about bridge in the florida keys

Talk:3038: Uncanceled Units

2025-01-16T23:05:26Z

RandalSchwartz: add gas consumption analogy

DUDE I'M STILL IN SCHOOL RN, WHAT?
(also, the joke is that energy is power*time, so kWh is kJ/s... in an hour [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 13:27, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I guess not every comic can be a winner. Talking about an appliance using a certain amount of kWH per day is clear and normal. Power gets billed by the kWh, not the Joule. While technically not wrong, wanting "cancel" a sub-part of the commonly-used energy unit kWh and leaving it in deliberately-obscured units most people are less familiar with is the sort of insanity I'd more expect from White Hat than Cueball. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.171|172.70.35.171]] 13:39, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:Maybe that is a meta-joke? To frame kWh/day as something crazy by giving that line to whitehat --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:52, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:There's a difference between instantaneous power draw, and the total "volume"(/area, really) of power over time. Though a fridge is "always on", it is still only irregularly at full-draw. But, to the power company (or to the gas company, who will generally give a kWh measure of 'energy taken from the network'), they don't (generally) care whether you used twice as many kW over half the time or half as many over twice the time, within any given total billing period, even if it affects what you think. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.46|172.70.163.46]] 14:39, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::Using joule as if it was an everyday unit of energy would be weird but I don't agree that watt is crazy. It's a normal unit of energy consumption that does mean something to people, e.g. 1000W microwave, 100W (incandescent) light bulb. Don't get me wrong kWh/day is also useful to translate it to your energy bill, but I do feel slightly uncomfortable every time I see that time divided by time :-) [[User:Mtcv|Mtcv]] ([[User talk:Mtcv|talk]]) 14:40, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:I don't think the complaint is that it's unclear, it's that Cueball/Randall instinctively wants units simplified - as they would be in a science context rather than a useful-for-normal-people's-everyday-needs context. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.183|108.162.238.183]] 02:40, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

This is especially funny with US units. My car needs about 5l/100km, or 0.05mm². Now I am wondering how many ft^(-2) my car does... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:49, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: You make a good point about the units (at least in one instance). Shouldn't the reduced units for fuel economy be inverse area? Effectively, it is a measure of the distance the vehicle could travel while consuming a column of fuel with a specific height and specific top (or bottom) surface area. Or, The better the fuel economy, the less the surface area that is necessary to move a specific distance. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 20:41, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::It depends on what the original unit is. In my country (Germany) we measure it in volume/distance, which would reduce to area. North American convention is in distance/volume which would reduce to inverse area. Good thing about distance/volume is that "high number = good". However I think outside of escaping from a nuclear disaster or in a zombie apocalypse it isn't a really helpful thing to know. Because how often do you know "I got x amount of fuel. Wonder how far I can get." But you will likely be in the situation where you quickly want to see "How much fuel do I need to get to place x which is y distance from here". --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 21:57, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::: how often do you know "I got x amount of fuel. Wonder how far I can get." Quite often, because the question I'm really asking is whether I can get where I'm going with some margin built in before I need to refuel my car. When I do refuel or recharge the car, I'll go to 100% of capacity. I just want to know whether I have to do that now or if I can wait and do it later because later would be more convenient. The only time I want the number the other way is when I'm buying a car and want to make it as efficient as possible. Once I have it, the amount of fuel I need isn't going to change.[[User:Yttrium|Yttrium]] ([[User talk:Yttrium|talk]]) 09:02, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
::::Mhh... probably a question of what one is used to. If I need to go 400 km, and I know my car uses 5l/100km, I just multiply 4*5 to see that I need 20l, and will know if what I have is enough or not. But I guess with mpg you can do a just as easy calc: If my car gets 50mpg (roughly 5l/100km) and I have 5 gallons (roughly 20l), I can go 50*5=250 miles, which is roughly 400km. My nitpick is: My car, and I think all cars I ever drove just shows me a dial from empty to full. Knowing how much "full" is, I can estimate how much gas I have, while my GPS will tell me a pretty exact number of km I need to go. So if I am fuelling up on a monday morning (where gas tends to be more expensive in my area than on other times), or fuel up right before I get my next salary, I might just put in as much as I need right now. But yes, maybe/probably it is mostly a thing about habits and what you are used to. And might be more of an European issue, since fuel is basically free in North America in comparison. So I guess everyone just fuels up fully all the time, but has to be cautious to reach the next gas station when travelling through the more sparely-populated areas...--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:19, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:: More usefully imagined as the front (or back) end of a horizontal column (or, twisting as it may, a pipeline) that traverses the journey made by the vehicle. As if (instantaneous variations excepted) you consume precisely the fuel that your vehicle passes 'through/around'. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.92|141.101.76.92]] 20:45, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::: Yeah. Maybe we should express fuel consumption in terms of the speed fuel needs to be drawn through a standard fuel line. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 21:01, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

fridge [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.147|172.70.126.147]] 14:22, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

The late [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._C._MacKay Sir David MacKay] wrote an excellent book, [http://www.withouthotair.com/ Sustainable Energy – without the hot air] (which is available free online).
On [http://www.withouthotair.com/c2/page_24.shtml this page] he talks about the units he uses in the book: kWh for energy ("one unit") and kWh/day for power - becuase it's simple for lay-people to understand - how many units does this appliance use per day.
It's a good book if any of you are interested in sustainable energy (although it was written in 2008, so some bits might be out of date by now) {{unsigned ip|172.70.85.33|14:33, 15 January 2025}}

If anyone's curious, I found an online gallons per square foot calculator: https://www.omnicalculator.com/construction/gallons-per-square-foot [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.6|172.71.223.6]] 15:54, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

The answer to Cueball's question is likely NO in the US and YES in the UK, due not just to gallon size but also fridge size (a model like that is a particularly large fridge, when I bought one 10 years ago going for the smallest available I had to modify my cabinet above the fridge as there wasn't one less than 6'8"- the fridge hole was 6' previous).[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 16:02, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I disagree with this comic, and I think the final paragraph in the explanation about Hubble's constant best explains why. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 15:57, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:It doesn't make any sense to 'disagree' with an observation.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.245|141.101.98.245]] 09:36, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Technically, kWh should be written as kW⋅h or kW h, because it literally means "kilowatts multiplied by one hour", not "kilowatts per hour" as many people assume. However, almost nobody writes it correctly. (kW/h is sometimes also seen, but egregiously incorrect.) Also, particularly now that electric vehicles are becoming more popular, people often get confused between kW and kW h. The car can charge at a peak or average rate expressed in kW, but energy billed by a charging service provider is expressed in kWh. People frequently either add or remove the "h" incorrectly because they don't understand the difference. In some places like India, a kilowatt-hour is simply referred to as a "unit" to avoid confusion. In my opinion, it was an enormous mistake to use kWh when we could be using mJ instead, which I think is probably something close to the point Randall may have been trying to make. Anyway, I wasn't sure if there was a place for any of this random trivia in the article itself, but feel free to use it. [[User:Equites|Equites]] ([[User talk:Equites|talk]]) 17:11, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: No!. TF?. ms is meter times seconds, m/s is meter per second. There is NOTHING wrong with kWh, it literally means kW times hours, and CANNOT mean anything else. kW per hour would be kW/h.. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.34|172.71.160.34]] 12:41, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:: Technically, the SI would have you write m s for meter-seconds and ms for milliseconds. Thus, similarly, it should be kW h for kilowatt-hours, not kWh. It is unambiguous either way, but the standard is the standard. But that is a totally bizarre thing to get hung up on. Also, Equites's suggestion to use millijoules instead was maybe not well thought-out. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.15.234|172.68.15.234]] 17:45, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Relevant XKCD… I mean relevant YouTube video: "Cursed units" 1 and 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkfIXUjkYqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg7xe8MkJHs [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 17:31, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

: Highly relevant, in fact. The first video referred to the kilowatt-hour as "cursed", which became a highly polarizing issue in the comments, something that was addressed at the beginning of part 2. Assuming these responses weren't cherry-picked, I get the impression that there are a lot of people on both sides of this. It seems like the same kind of thing we're seeing in this very comment section. [[User:ISaveXKCDpapers|ISaveXKCDpapers]] ([[User talk:ISaveXKCDpapers|talk]]) 18:10, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I always wonder why people here prefer liter/m^2 for the amount of rain. Where the same number as mm is way easier to imagine. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.99|172.68.50.99]] 18:14, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: At first, I was wondering if you would have rather had it in microliters/mm^2, but you meant the column height of the rain, like inches are used in the US. Along the line of L/m^2, something like mL/cm^2 might be nice considering the density of water, although the value also would be different by a factor. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 20:51, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: That's the neat thing about the metric system, they are trivially simple to convert. 1l/m² is exactly 1mm. The fact that the meteorology uses the former just stems from the fact that that's how they measure it. The catch the rain on an area of 1m² into a beaker that contains some volume which is measured in liters. What annoys me though, is that noone seems to be talking about how terribly inefficient the fridge in the comic is. Mine only needs a tenth of the one that Whitehat tries to sell, and that's not even particularly good. --21:21, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:: UK measurements, once it gets to weather reports/forecasts, tend to be in millimetres (or centimetres, where more for the layperson who don't need mm-resulution; or occasionally recast as 'old money' inches, with ''really'' bad rain events summarised in relation to whole feet), which is implicitly the depth to which ''any'' area would be filled (in a case where large catchment + funnelling valley situation is concerned, suffering from the run-off, might be ''reported'' as "equivalent to ''N'' feet of rain", down where the bad effects get concentrated, but this is not a meteorological measure as such).
:: Not sure I've ever seen volume/area as an end-result figure (might be relevent as an intermediate for measurement/calculation, especially when discussing the funelling effects of the given local geography), but of course it's trivially relatable.
:: Density of water would only figure in from replacing litres with kilogrammes (litres are 1/1000th of metres³ and any m² is 10,000 times the cm² (or millilitre), so a factor of 10 between L/m² and mL/cm²; divide L to mL by 1000, times m² to cm² by 10,000, => 10x) but I always find it useful to know that three 2L bottles of pop are (very close to, going by the nominal water content alone) 6kg... makes me feel better about lugging the weekly shopping home, where these might be the single most significant part of the weight. More usefully than cross-converting into length-cubed measure. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.69|141.101.98.69]] 21:42, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Isn't the point that KwH/day can be simplified to Watts (an average perhaps, but still) {{unsigned ip|162.158.41.72|21:24, 15 January 2025}}
: Yes, the joke seems pretty clearly about watts or kilowatts, not megajoules. Using megajoules doesn't result in any units being canceled; the denominator remains "/day". [[User:BatmanAoD|BatmanAoD]] ([[User talk:BatmanAoD|talk]]) 23:52, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

If the argument for kWh/day is that it's easy for the consumer to understand how it will affect their electricity bill – then kWh/month would be the right choice, because I doubt anyone receives an electricity bill every day. But the salesman prefers 3 kWh/day because it sounds like a smaller number than 90 kWh/month. And of course, if electricity bills were written in joules instead of illogical watt-hours, then MJ/month would be the easiest for the consumer. {{unsigned ip|162.158.134.90|22:31, 15 January 2025}}
:Per-month is tricky. You seem to assume month=30 days, when it can be 28-31 and is only 30 days a third of the time. Per quarter(-year) is a bit more consistent, less fractionally variant ''and'' closer to most utility bill frequencies as well, if you're looking for something not as eye-wateringly frightening as an annual estimate (which 'only' varies every 4.1237... years, on average). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.47|172.70.163.47]] 00:21, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:: "''Per-month is tricky. You seem to assume month=30 days, when it can be 28-31...''" My electric bill for December 2024 is 33 days. The company closes the book when it is convenient, not per some calendar. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 05:22, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:::Which is why electric consumption per month is even more tricky. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:33, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:::It's still per some calendar. Just a calendar of the electric company, that you're not privy to.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.245|141.101.98.245]] 09:36, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
::It's an average. We're not talking specifically about February. You could multiply by 365.24/12 and get 91.31 kWh/month on average – but there's only one significant figure in 3 kWh/day. White Hat doesn't say 3.000 kWh/day. You have to round 91.31 to 90 to avoid false precision.
::The stated average is an estimate based on assumptions about how much you'll fill the fridge, how often you'll open the door, how long you'll leave the door open, the room temperature in your kitchen, how much surrounding cabinets will restrict air flow across the condenser, et cetera. The combined uncertainties make it meaningless to state a highly precise power consumption. The length of the month is just one of many sources of variation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.90|162.158.134.90]] 10:40, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:::Ahem... "multiply by 365.24'''25'''/12". As anyone with a fridge at least 125-years-old would appreciate... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.178|141.101.98.178]] 12:23, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

I suspect this comic is inspired by the much more common pet peeve of incorrect/nonsensical units, frequently encountered in similar contexts. I'm so used to hearing kWh mistakenly written simply as kW, that I initially misread and assumed that's what the comic is about. That's a particularly common example, where you'll hear battery capacities listed in kW, or instantaneous power described in watt-hours. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 09:53, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:{{w|Calorie#Chemistry and physics|Calories}} vs. {{w|Calorie#Nutrition|calories}}, also... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.178|141.101.98.178]] 12:23, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

It could be worse.. I keep seeing TVs marked in kWh per 1000 hours... That is just insanity pure and simple.. It is in fact Watts!!![[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.34|172.71.160.34]] 12:38, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:This is even some kind of a "standard", officially. See first image in here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_4484
:Also, world power consumption is almost exclusively represented in TWh per year, because TW is obviously not a thing. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.6|172.68.50.6]] 13:42, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Can I be the obnoxious arse that points out that a 125W fridge will NOT be pulling 3kWh (or 3 units?) per day? Fridges run a compressor which makes the cold happen (via science and magic) and when there's enough cold in the box, it'll click off until cold is lacking. The durations will depend on ambient temperature, however observing my (oldish) fridge, it seems to run for about fifty seconds every four or five minutes.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.92|141.101.69.92]] 18:45, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:Fridge is actually heating device: it heats up your kitchen by pumping the heat from inside to outside. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:32, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

There is actually a good reason to differentiate between Wh/h (energy over time) and W (power): Non-constant consumption. If the fridge consumes 3kWh/d, its compressor will be rated in the 300-400W nominal range (the thermostatic controller will cycle the compressor on and off; for a modern fridge-freezer combination, a typical duty cycle would be in the 25-30% range). The unit nameplate will say "400W" because that's the rated power the electrical installation will have to be designed for (how many of these fridges can you put on a 20A breaker etc.). This is only determined by the physical properties of the compressor motor. The energy consumption additionally depends on insulation, internal space of the cabinet etc. etc. and only makes sense as a time average (due to the intermittent operation of the compressor). Not sure about US rules, but here in Europe, there's a standard energy class label for fridges which specifies kWh/a as a primary means of comparison. (Averaging over a year has the advantage that you can test against a standardized profile of ambient temperature change between summer and winter).
[[User:Ogehrke|Ogehrke]] ([[User talk:Ogehrke|talk]]) 21:28, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

The explanation incorrectly states that fuel efficiency in the metric system is measured in km/l. It's not. It's measured in l/km, so it reduces to area, not 1/area.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.77|172.71.182.77]] 22:40, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:I recall seeing a book in my youth about "understanding units" that included great things like viscosity and explanations for why E=mc² cancels units properly. But they got to gasoline consumption, and used the analogy that the "area" represented here is the equivalent of the area of an adjacent trough of gas that would have to be scooped up by your car to keep it running. Very interesting way of illustrating unit cancellation. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 23:05, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3015: D&D Combinatorics

2024-11-28T20:19:11Z

RandalSchwartz: add meta-combinatorics

The bot originally created this page as “D Combinatorics”. I renamed it to the correct title and tried to get as many of the references as possible (including a few redirects). [[User:JBYoshi|JBYoshi]] ([[User talk:JBYoshi|talk]]) 00:54, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

:The title in the Atom feed (which I'm assuming the bot consumes) is "D Combinatorics". I'm guessing something in Randall's pipeline didn't like the ampersand. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.160|162.158.154.160]] 01:41, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

::Yup, if you look at [https://xkcd.com/3015/info.0.json 3015's JSON] you see that <code>title</code> and <code>safe_title</code> differ, and if you look at the HTML page source you'll see '''3''' different things: <code><title>xkcd: D Combinatorics</title></code>, <code><meta property="og:title" content="D&amp;D Combinatorics"></code>, and <code><div id="ctitle">D&D Combinatorics</div></code>! So probably what happened is Randall entered D&D but was supposed to enter D&amp;D, and the openGraph tags adder code, having to be HTML-aware, decoded & normalized D&D as HTML would, but the other parts of the pipeline just ate it for some reason. {{unsigned ip|172.69.65.224|06:09, 23 November 2024}}

::: The problem now is that the feed doesn't validate (because it contains a bare &) and it's also not updating (maybe because of the previous problem). --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.119.13|172.71.119.13]] 11:10, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

What are the odds of rolling 16 or higher on 3D6+D4? 3D6 average 10.5, D4 average is 2.5, total average should be 13. I do not know how to proceed from here. {{unsigned ip|172.71.147.206|01:14, 23 November 2024}}
:By raw combinatorics: 71 + 52 + 34 + 20 + 10 + 4 + 1 ways to get each of 16 - 22 respectively, for a total of 192, out of 4(6^3) = 864 total. 192/864 simplifies to exactly 2/9. I have no idea how Randall found this; if anyone has an idea, please let me know. [[User:Kaisheng21|Kaisheng21]] ([[User talk:Kaisheng21|talk]]) 01:33, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
::I used some simple python code to loop over every dice and confirm and it's 2/9 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.111|162.158.158.111]] 12:11, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

It seems like we edited the transcript at the same time. The odds of rolling 16 or higher in this situation seem to be 2/9? [[User:Darkmatterisntsquirrels|Darkmatterisntsquirrels]] ([[User talk:Darkmatterisntsquirrels|talk]]) 01:29, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

: There are 864 possible rolls (6 * 6 * 6 * 4). If you enumerate all of the rolls you will find that 192 are 16 or higher. 192/864 = 2/9, the value from the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.139|172.68.54.139]] 01:41, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

I added a table of outcomes to clarify how it works out to 2/9, anyone know how to make it pretty? -- Laurence Cheers {{unsigned ip|172.71.150.247|02:03, 24 November 2024}}

A much simpler approach: Roll two six sided dice and sum the result. You are successful if the result is 5 or 9. That happens 8 times out of 36. 8/36 = 2/9. (Or successful if the sum is 4 or 6, or 2 or 7, or 2,3,4 or 11, or several other combinations.) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.139|172.68.54.139]] 01:41, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
:Clever, but dice rolls in D&D involving summing all the dice, applying modifiers, if any, and then comparing to one or more threshold values. Your method makes it very difficult to apply modifiers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.8|162.158.41.8]] 02:49, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
::I think you misunderstand the problem here. This is not skill, no modifiers apply, it's purely probability [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.111|162.158.158.111]] 12:11, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

Minor quibble, arrows aren't fired (unless they're flaming or self-propelled, perhaps), they are shot. (Shotguns are fired of course.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.73|162.158.41.73]] 02:52, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
:Arrows are "loosed", even more accurately. At least to avoid the confusion from how so many things may be shot, or ''a'' shot. (Many different nouns, from a physical measure of liquer/coffee/vaccine to a projectile, or an even abstract fundemental of chance; and, as verb, projectiles perhps may be shot, then so may their targets.) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.178|172.68.205.178]] 14:32, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
:Well, lets not quarrel over it.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.103.67|172.71.103.67]] 14:37, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
:Too many barbed comments, and I'd be all of a quiver... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.153|141.101.99.153]] 14:51, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

Rolling 22 or lower on percentile dice (or, equivalently, 79 or higher) is close enough, and easier to come up with. (Give or take whether 00 is treated as 100 or zero.) Or directly represent the action: roll a d10. If it's 1-5, you lose. If it's 6-10, roll again; if it's 1-5 you lose, 6-9 you win, 10 roll again. (Modify slightly if you want to distinguish the case of grabbing *two* cursed arrows.) [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 03:26, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

Alternative exact solution for getting this probability using dice: Roll: 1d8, 2d6, 1d4 succeed on 19 or higher.{{unsigned ip|172.68.55.11|03:54, 23 November 2024}}

I couldn’t remember the formula for binomial coefficients (“n choose k”), but there’s an easy way to calculate that the probability of drawing no cursed arrows is 2/9 without that formula. You just need to multiply the probabilities that each of the arrows drawn is not cursed. Since only two arrows are drawn, you only have to multiply two numbers.

The probability that the first arrow is not cursed is 5/10 – there are 5 non-cursed arrows and 5 cursed arrows out of 10 total. After taking out one non-cursed arrow, there are 4 non-cursed arrows and 5 cursed arrows out of 9 total, so the probability that the second arrow is not cursed is 4/9. Multiplying the two probabilities, the probability of drawing two non-cursed arrows is (4*5)/(10*9) = 20/90 = 2/9.

I was considering writing this observation in the Explanation section of the page, but I’m not if it belongs there. This solution avoids using formulas from combinatorics, so it might not be connected enough to the comic.—[[User:Roryokane|Roryokane]] ([[User talk:Roryokane|talk]]) 06:02, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

My simple-minded approach:
* Roll d10 once for your first arrow: if 1 to 5, the arrow is cursed, otherwise not;
* Roll d10 again for your second arrow: same rules, but repeat until you have a different number from the first one (so d10 is in fact only a d9 this time)
* I won't calculate probabilities – these are your arrows, live with it ;-) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.109.51|172.69.109.51]] 07:33, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
:That has the benefit (over 3d6+1d4) of telling you which arrow(s) (if either) was cursed. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 07:52, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
::Also tells you how many cursed arrows are left, which is useful if the next player wants to take their chances with them too.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.103.68|172.71.103.68]] 14:40, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
:If you don't like re-rolls, you can make d9 out of 2d3. Nine possibilities, so just assign one of them (perhaps by rolling them one at a time) to be the more significant digit. Don't have a d3 handy? Use d6 and modulo off the extra! (1=1, 2=2, 3=3, 4=1, 5=2, 6=3) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.91|172.68.150.91]] 05:59, 24 November 2024 (UTC)

There seems to be doubt that a "N locks and M keys to unlock them" system could be easily accomplished. I think it could be trivial, with strategically interlocking locked-restraints. A chain formed of bike-locks can give a larger locked loop that can be unlocked by just unlocking any ''single'' one of the constituent locks, leaving the other locked loops to not matter (or you could also try the {{w|Borromean rings}} system, whereby it is again secure against itself, until just one ring is opened up to reveal that the rest now ''aren't even locked at all''...). With almost arbitrary ability to cross-link (or, if you will, repeated/alternating-reflected Borromean triplet connections), you can extend the requirements to more than one unlocking being required (by looping chain elements to mre than just the 'adjacent' loops, sideways onto a parallel meta-loop or up/down the chain, all you might do is allow some slack (could be sufficient to get a thing held directly closed by the taut loop-of-loops, but not enough if the passage of the loop through a hasp/sneck actually prevents the otherwise free movement of the final slide-to-unlock action to occur), but a second (or third, or fourth) unlocking can be required to open-end the whole metaloop of locks. At the top end, M=N solutions are also trivial (e.g. two keys, two locks popularly of safety deposit boxes or [[2677: Two Key System|other things]]). Which is not to say that a specific M-of-N puzzle (where 1<M<N) might not need a ''little'' bit of thought to actually design and implement, but there's no obvious reason why all such combinations shouldn't be nicely doable. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.165|172.69.79.165]] 14:56, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
:Can we first confirm that the M-of-N Encryption was what Randall was referencing in the first place? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.140|172.71.154.140]] 03:17, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
::No, first confirm that this is what the explanation treats as what Randall was referencing. As it was, "complicated lock mechanics" and/or "magic" were suggested as the only ways of doing this, when this (or what we thought this was) just needs a little thought and N bike-locks suitably entangled. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.58.45|172.70.58.45]] 13:17, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
:I'm glad someone else chimed in on this, because it is definitely ''not'' difficult to require unlocking of multiple discrete locks! I can't even figure out why one might think it would be? [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:55, 24 November 2024 (UTC)

"other polyhedral dice, with the number of faces denoted by dX (e.g., d10 is a 10-sided die, with numbers from 1 to 10 on it)." - the d10 may be a poor choice as exemplar here; Back in the last century, when I was playing D&D, d10 were typically (and uniquely) numbered 0-9, not 1-10. This may no longer be the case, and I may be showing my age, but if it is still the norm, the d8 or d20 might be a better choice of example. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.6|172.68.210.6]] 02:40, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
:Typically, I've only seen 0-9 d10s, as part of a "d100" dice pair, with one reading 0-9 & the other reading 0⁰-9⁰... Single d10, mostly seem to come in 1-10? Maybe it depends which reseller one shops at... [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:49, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
::They are usually numbered 0-9, but the 0 represents 10, since writing 10 would require that face to have a different font size. It is still a d10, since the die has ten sides, and still cannot roll at 0. The d100 variant does the same thing with 100, but for the added reason that the 00 face actually does mean 0 when the other die rolls a 1-9. This is the convention, so a die that actually writes 10 on it instead of 0 will be rare. [[User:Stardragon|Stardragon]] ([[User talk:Stardragon|talk]]) 23:14, 24 November 2024 (UTC)

You've all been nerd-sniped. [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 10:53, 24 November 2024 (UTC)

Combinatorics degree? Does such a degree really exist? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.130.37|162.158.130.37]] 17:19, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
:There are degrees for all kinds of things. A quick search reveals a number of "Combinatorics" or "Combinatorics and <Foo>" (e.g. "Optimisation") degrees. Some of them are marked as Masters degrees, and I haven't dug into the others to see if there are any 'pure' undergraduate ones (apart from anything else, I know there are crucial differences between the structures and scopes of UK and US 'degree courses' to consider, in particular), but there seems to be representation on both sides of the Atlantic (and elsewhere, e.g. Oceana).
:At the very least, it could be a selected specialised segment of an even wider mathematical degree course, or a cross-disciplinary one (like my own, which was part under Physics and part under Computing, but could have included a Stats-based element). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.49|162.158.74.49]] 19:07, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
::So "Combinatorics and <Foo>" would be meta-combinatorics, since it is combining something with something else. :) [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 20:19, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

I'm trying this on my DM. -[[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 15:11, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

Can someone put into the Explanation the current details regarding the nature of cursed arrows, in whatever edition of DnD we're currently up to. (8th? I've lost track.) In different DnD-like media, I know that it can act somewhat negatively (reduces aim accuracy) or even outright problematic (it curses the person loosing the projectile; or even renders the bow otherwise useless, as analogue to a cursed weapon), or else reduces/inverts the damage (breaks easier, or essentially acts like a thrown beneficial potion to increase health/strength/stamina/etc of the target). I assume that it one of these, from the assumption that the player desires a "good enough" roll to avoid. On the other hand, cursed projectiles could be treated akin to poisoned arrows or vengeful weapons in doing more, better or more targeted damage (in which case it's a powerful aid, the archer is instead taking a chance of using up a stock of 'special arrows', perhaps in line with not knowing whether their foe ''needs'' that extra degree of offensive power). But, at least from the explaining text's approach to dice-roll results, that doesn't exactly mesh with the typical "higher is better" rolling mantra. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.129|172.70.86.129]] 22:43, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

I don't think making an M-of-N mechanism with physical locks would be "extremely cumbersome". For example you could have a bolt that must be drawn back to open the mechanism, with several padlocks over it, where the shackle of each padlock blocks the motion of the bolt, such that the distance you can draw the bolt is proportional to how many padlocks are removed. Removing any m of the n padlocks gives you enough range of motion to open the mechanism.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.224|172.71.154.224]] 23:17, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2985: Craters

2024-09-15T22:02:52Z

RandalSchwartz: add stonehenge/crater lake connection.

==Delaware/Pennsylvania Arc==
The Delaware/Pennsylvania arc is a circle, sure, but so is every other allegedly "straight" line on the map. The 49N parallel looks like a straight line on some projections, but a polar projection shows that it is clearly a circle around a point on the Earth's axis. The Delaware/Pennsylvania arc is only unique for NOT being aligned with the axis. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.20|172.71.102.20]] 19:07, 13 September 2024 (UTC)
:The "Delaware/Pennsylvania arc" has a long and juicy history. Not a circle. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-Mile_Circle Twelve-Mile Circle] Signed- --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 20:36, 13 September 2024 (UTC)
:True about map projections, but the Venn section title here does say *Weird*. The Delaware/Pennsylvania arc is indeed "weird"; few other such arcs are found in regular map content, and the original story for it is indeed uncommon. <s>Great Circle</s> Parallel latitude "arcs" aren't weird in either way. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.64|172.68.34.64]] 20:52, 13 September 2024 (UTC)
::North-South lines are great-circle arcs, but non-equatorial East-West lines - as well as many diagonal ones - are minor-circle arcs (is that the right term?), just link the 12-Mile Circle. (Let's see if this retains my IP address from my top post.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.109|172.70.46.109]] 21:29, 13 September 2024 (UTC)
:::Right you are! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.64|172.68.34.64]] 23:00, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

==Great Blue Hole==
There are two Great Blue Holes, one in Belize, one in Dahab, Egypt (Red Sea). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.20|172.71.102.20]] 19:11, 13 September 2024 (UTC)
==Recent Google Maps discovery==
This may be inspired Joël Lapointe's very recently announced discovery of a 15km-diameter "pit" he found near Marsal Lake (Quebec) using Google Maps. [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-meteorite-impact-crater-1.7313418 "He saw a suspicious pit on Google Maps. Experts say it could be a crater from an ancient space rock"] [[Special:Contributions/172.69.64.185|172.69.64.185]] 20:10, 13 September 2024 (UTC)

----

man, why are so many of these in Quebec? does it have a natural meteor/circle magnet? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.232|172.68.174.232]] 01:11, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

: Parce qu'on y parle français. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.68|172.69.71.68]] 12:39, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

==New Column==
I'm thinking about a new column or two: GPS coordinates (with an Open Earth link?) and a satellite image, or something. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.76|172.71.102.76]] 03:27, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

: The table seems incomplete without something like that. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.172|172.69.34.172]] 22:50, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

==Meta Reference: Venn Diagram Double Crater==
No comment yet on the fact that the two circles in the Venn Diagram refer to craters and circles... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.53|172.71.102.53]] 01:32, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

==Geographic bias by meteorites or Randall?==
Boy am I happy that I don't live in North or Central America, where 11 out of 13 "craters" are located... [[User:Mumiemonstret|Mumiemonstret]] ([[User talk:Mumiemonstret|talk]]) 07:44, 15 September 2024 (UTC)
:Maybe over here (rightpondia, oceania, down-under and the cradle of humanity itself), we just cleaned them up easier (or messed them up badly) so they were less obvious. (c.f. Nördlingen.) Y'all over thataway, however, haven't had time to do anything too drastic to obscure them. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.48|172.70.163.48]] 14:10, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

I am tickled pink that two significant items in my life appear adjacent in this diagram: Stonehenge, and Crater Lake. My company name is Stonehenge (and I've been to the real rock pile a few times), and I'm a native Oregonian, using Crater Lake as my video-call background. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 22:02, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2983: Monocaster

2024-09-10T21:59:13Z

RandalSchwartz: fix sig

Unicycles aren't (or at least aren't usually) chain-driven. I might try to fix that if my phone stops being so slow that it feels like I'm using a 90s PC to do this. Maybe a restart will help. Rebooting in 10, 9, 8... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.76|172.70.91.76]] 07:46, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
:I just went in and Actual Citation Needed it (seeing lower comment, when editor reloaded this page for me, forcing me to rewrite, that may have changed now).
:*It doesn't look like a chain-drive. Could be hub-geared, but not the same thing.
:*Chain-drive to raise the rider (most of the mass) up higher will ''raise'' the CoG.
:*'Underslung' chain-drive (see 1880s example, [[1673: Timeline of Bicycle Design|here]]?) has problems. Pedals hitting the ground would be one of them, unless your wheel was indeed significantly larger...
:*...and if it is (perhaps for better off-roading?), this intrinsically pushes up the CoG. Perhaps you are trying to lower it slightly, again, then. But you can't bring the saddle (and crotch!) lower than the now higher top of the wheel. ("Timeline of Bicycles" version excepted, assumed assymetric? In [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-4b7d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 some manner]?)
:Add to that a few niggles about the bicycle. Not sure if intended to be a Moulton-style one (wheels maybe the classic 17", frame totally wrong) or a roadbike-style-ish one (frame relatively Ok, as drawn by someone not fully adhering to the design, maybe confused by some MTB variations, but clearly not in the ~27" wheel range, give or take). Of course, wheels are neither concentric nor circular, so depends a bit on which bits of the 'circles' are right for the intended arc and which bits ended up more casually doodled. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.99|172.70.91.99]] 08:51, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Hmm, Randall missed an opportunity to put a Penny-Farthing in there... though I'm not sure how that would have categorised given that it has two wheels of different sizes. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.178|172.68.205.178]] 08:19, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
:He has a "Big Wheel Trike" (child's low-rider style thing) in there. On the logarithmic scale, and imprecise reference point (bottom/middle(/CoG,where different)/top of wheel/vehicle/rider/whole?), both the big front wheel and the small trailing wheels colpd be in the right place-ish, although having it slightly inclined could put them in the (place Tandall considers to be) ''exactly'' right place. ((Note also where the 10(?)-wheeler truck-and-trailer is placed horizontally vs the possibly relevent "number of wheels".))
:You could do something similar with the Old Ordinary (i.e. "Penny-Farthing"), either make it roughly right or depict going up a ''marginally'' steeper hill. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.142|172.69.194.142]] 09:04, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Re: unicycles, the COG thing doesn't look right either, but I was distracted by a (thankfully) now-deleted troll comment before and actually fixing the description is beyond my skills, especially on so little sleep.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.184|172.69.43.184]] 08:35, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
:i had good intentions, we need to call randall out --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.122|172.69.194.122]] 09:44, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
:::If you mean your calling out the ''other'' point, that has been deleted anyway: Randall doesn't read this site (that we know; and, if I had a site such as this made for my works, I'd think it wisest to stay clear), so he probably won't get your 'message'. This particular comic doesn't even have the slightest connection to that subject, so not even the page to say anything about it. And the point made (even if it was a valid one... it presupposes that there are no nuances and compromises, that one cannot have a complex set of opinions that neither wholly match nor wholly mismatch ''your'' opinions) was also absurd, when you consider how the ''other'' party involved has proven to be even more so. I won't dignify this issue further by putting names and places here, it really isn't the forum for it. But please realise (if you don't already) that your irrelevent point is out of place here. And most places on this site that you/others like you may have tried such messaging on before. Go to /pol/, or your favourite forum's dedicated boards/threads. Ok? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.19|172.70.85.19]] 12:26, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
::Call him out for *what* exactly? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.70.135|172.68.70.135]] 12:05, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
:::As I dare to hint, just above, someone thinks Randall has a wrong personal opinion on some current issue. Which has nothing to do with this comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.19|172.70.85.19]] 12:26, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

As a unicyclist myself, I don't think the unicycle is easier to balance because of a lower center of mass and a chain drive. As a few others have mentioned, they don't normally have a chain drive, although there are a few specialist ones that do. Normally, the cranks are just attached to the hub so you can directly control the speed of the wheel at a 1 to 1 ratio, which makes it easier to balance on. The other thing that would make the unicycle easier than the monocaster is that you can control what direction the wheel is pointing by turning the seat with your thighs. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.128|172.68.186.128]] 09:22, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Love the log-log scale. Now let's see the zoomed-out version, with orders of magnitude more wheels and orders of magnitude larger diameters. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.230|172.71.166.230]] 13:59, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
:The scale if off either way. Or Randall wrote centimeters while he meant inches... At least for some cases. Examples: he placed the skatebord at 2cm while skateboord wheels are at ca 5cm - which are approx. 2 inches. Scooter wheels are approx 8.5 inches, not 8.5 cm... The car is mostly fine, albeit it would be a rather small car at ~50cm (a 19 inch (50cm) wheel designates the size of the rims, not the wheel) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 15:18, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
::out of all people i would think Randall would be the last one to use a non-SI unit to measure distance. --[[User:Markifi|Markifi]] ([[User talk:Markifi|talk]]) 17:45, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

I have NEVER heard anyone call inline skates "three wheel skates". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.193|141.101.109.193]] 19:04, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
:As a quad skater through most of my youth, the depicted "three-wheel skate" was only called "inline" skates. Not sure where this 3-wheel designation came from! [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 21:59, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2907: Schwa

2024-03-18T00:43:40Z

RandalSchwartz: pacific northwest schwa city

In what crazy dialect do these all use the same 1 vowel? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.73|172.68.210.73]] 22:10, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:I can think of several. I was immediately reminded of Lucy Porter's Hull accent ([https://www.google.com/search?q=hull+accent+oh+no some examples, including videos/audio, here]), but I can also think of New Zealand (more 'i'ish vowels, at least stereotypically), South African (down a couple of tones from that), and a number of state-side accents that ''conceivably'' are what Randall's drawing upon. [...as ninjaed, below, by 172.71.166.190 at 22:30]
:My own accent (when given its full reign) actually tends to be consonant-light ("o'er" for "over", such that my vowels tend to be ''two or three'' separate tones in a row), so it doesn't work so well. But if I shift my focus to try to impersonate people from ten miles to the north (or a dozen or so miles east) from where I grew up then I can actually get quite close to 'perfect monovowelism' (still suppressing the consonants!). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.139|172.69.79.139]] 22:32, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:All of them? I had to read the explanation to get what constitutes a schwa, but then I read the comic again, and yeah, they're all roughly the same sound, in the average North American accent anyway. Only exception is the word "A", which people might often pronounce like the letter "A", which of course isn't a schwa, :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:57, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
::'Round these 'ere parts, you'd never say "A"-to-rhyme-with-"Hay" (except to stress "that isn't just ''a(y)'' good song but ''the(e)'' best song ever!", e.g.). Still confused, me, though when at my first ever French class at school, the teacher (with not far off the local accent) told us that 'un' and 'une' were "the words for 'uh'...". Which only became clear when she clarified "...like 'uh book', 'uh table', 'uh window'...". This was actually how we all spoke. (More or less... Ah din't spake quart ser m'tch lahk dat, wot wi' mi mam'n'dad bofe bin frum a cupla tarns ovver, f'witch ah gut uh rep f'beyin "posch". Ur mebbe 'twuz cuz mi mam whir uh titch'r, ser ah gut lurnt t' spake proppah?) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.3|172.71.242.3]] 17:23, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

Personally I pronounce those pretty much all the same (I live in Boston like Randall but don't have an actual Boston accent)
--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.190|172.71.166.190]] 22:30, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:I too, living in the Pacific Northwest of the US, immediately saw all the vowels the same. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 00:43, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

I didn't think it was considered schwa when stressed as in "up" and "love". But my dictionary has a schwa in its pronunciation guide for both, so I guess I was wrong. But this basically means the usual "short U" pronunciation is schwa. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:59, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:Some dialects split the vowel at the end of "comma" from the vowel in "strut," but most North American dialects don't. So in pronouncing dictionaries, you will sometimes see the strut vowel written ʌ and the comma vowel written ə even though they might be exactly the same in your accent. In vowels that split comma and strut, schwa is rarely stressed, but that's not a rule. This is sometimes confused by American teachers, who try to explain why they see two different symbols for the same sound. But they really are different sounds, and Americans just don't use /ʌ/ at all. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 02:50, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
::Plus, this "schwa is never stressed" mnemonic doesn't even make perfect predictions for dialects without the merger. I've heard that in ''undone'' /ʌnˈdʌn/, the unstressed vowel doesn't go to schwa. In the end, the IPA wasn't created just for English, and it only defines [ə] as a mid central vowel, not an unstressed one. Reduced vowels may often mid-centralize, but nothing says a language can't stress mid central vowels at other times, just like any other vowel quality can be stressed or unstressed. [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]] 21:53, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

This all works in a generically american accent, except for the i vowel in onion, which cannot be schwa-ified in any english accent I've ever heard. [[Special:Contributions/
172.69.34.171|172.69.34.171]] 23:27, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:Depends. {{wiktionary|onion|Wiktionary says}} /ˈʌn.jən/ (any particular places?) or /ˈʌŋ.jɪn/ (Canada) (and an obsolete version that I'd imagine the Kiwis to use).
:If the /j/ ''isn't'' considered a vowel then you could definitely justify something like "un-yun" or "ern-yern" or even "in-yin" (amongst various ''other'' like-vowel versions)...
:If you do the /j*n/ more as in {{wiktionary|eon|/ˈi.ɑn/, /ˈeɪ.ɑn/, /ˈiː.ən/, /ˈiː.ɒn/ or /ˈeɪ.ɒn/}} then clearly you can't switch to "uhn-uh-uhn" quite so easily. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.69|162.158.74.69]] 23:52, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
:It says every vowel SOUND, which is different than "how each vowel sounds". The sound of that I is a Y. The O following it indeed uses the schwa. :) That's my guess, anyway, I don't know these pronunciation things that deeply. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:57, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
:This dipthong has a consonant in it. What is going on? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.182|172.69.65.182]] 12:15, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
: "''except for the i vowel in onion''" IMHO, there is no 'i' in onion. UN-YUN. The Y acts more of a consonant. -Me (born of a Missouri mom and a Connecticut father, babbled in Colorado, schooled in Calif then New Jersey within hearing of South Philly, yo!) [[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 20:18, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
I can't read the words "love cult" without thinking of DHMIS 3. [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|Trogdor147]] ([[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|talk]]) 00:10, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
::The /j/ sound commonly found in "onion" is not generally considered a vowel. As a test, try to put it between two consonants to make a complete syllable: first try to say /np/, and notice you have to add a schwa (neutral vowel), /nəp/; then try to say /nyp/, and you'll add that same extra vowel, /nyəp/. It's sometimes called a "semivowel", because it has some properties of a vowel and some of a consonant; or sometimes a "glide", because of the way it sets at the edge a syllable. - [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 16:01, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

If someone actually read this conversation to me using only schwa, I don't think I'd understand it. I usually consider myself a fluent English speaker, but my native language - Polish - doesm't have this vovel at all. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.231|162.158.103.231]] 07:16, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah, I think for us non-native speakers this is quite hard to replicate. I had to read the sentences out loud several times before I heard it. The standard British English I learned at school 35 years ago tends to have less Schwas in it, I guess. In German we do have some Schwas, mainly towards the end of words, but I don't think it is possible to construct whole sentence without any other vowels. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.157|162.158.155.157]] 07:56, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
I’m american (boston area) but some of these vowels do sound different from others to me, although it still seems it would be clear and ok if they’re all said the same. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.182|172.69.65.182]] 12:15, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

Randall seems to have terminally confused the schwa [ǝ] with [ʌ] as in "cup". I've never seen such an incorrect xkcd. In the UK, the Manchester accent almost universally consists of [ǝ] and even they wouldn't be able to use [ǝ] for "onion" [[Special:Contributions/172.69.223.163|172.69.223.163]] 13:04, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
:The explanation mentioned the {{w|strut–comma merger}} well before this comment. There's no need to jump to {{w|Linguistic prescriptivism|calling other dialects "incorrect"}}. [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]] 21:53, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

Maybe a better symbol could be used than an apostrophe in the explanation? It's difficult to read/spot, and the quote is surrounded in quotation marks, which makes it a little confusing. I'm not sure what though. --[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 15:24, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

:Maybe an underscore? “D_gs c_s(_)n, th_ _n fr_m L_nd_n, r_ns _ B_mbl l_v c_lt.” - 16:01, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

It's a shame Schwa isn't pronounced with a schwa. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:47, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

For an example of where people mispronounce vowels for comic effect, here's a 40 year old and occasionally very impolite/politically incorrect BBC comedy which used people speaking in different accents as their conceit for different languages. So an englishman speaking very bad french comes across very like these XKCD characters https://youtu.be/ycqc0L4a2wQ?si=KO_qvZqMJH-3Gy1N&t=90 [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:52, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

This is highly inconsistent both with my experience and the diction/IPA I studied in college as part of a vocal music education degree. The short U [ʌ] and schwa [ǝ] are different vowels, and the difference is most obvious (in words used in the strip) in "cousin" and "obstruction" which would sound ridiculous if you pronounced all the vowel sounds exactly the same. I would have failed an assignment I turned in marking this strip full of schwas. They're almost all [ʌ] except in those words and "a" and "of". {{unsigned ip|172.70.131.119|13:10, 17 March 2024}}
:Diction ('correct' diction, e.g. RP or other elevated standards) is one thing, but this is everyday casual speech. Maybe your vocal music emphasis is on something like RADA's high-baseline 'standard' accent, beating out the provincial drawl (like they certainly used to, yet anyone in a Ken Loach film is expected to use more highly local inflections (as suited to themselves and their intended character). Accents in music are going to be different (either hyper, in 'folk'/regional, suppressed in easy-listening or stylised for partifular wide genres), but again hard to compare with casual (lazy?) speech.
:Ironically "of" is the one word I might not 'schwaify' so quickly. For something "I would've done it", there's a schwa in the "d'v", but "I would of course have done it" has none in the "d of" (even run together). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.190|172.71.178.190]] 14:48, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

We should make this post able to be spoken only using ə. I'll have a go tomorrow if no-one does first. [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 22:30, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2900: Call My Cell

2024-03-01T19:25:09Z

RandalSchwartz: oregon u-turns

I think he just forgot Cueball's name. By asking hom to call him, he would see the name on the screen And remember it. Thus also remembering how annoyed he is by Cueball. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.114.136|172.71.114.136]] 06:08, 29 February 2024 (UTC)
:Nah, this is just Black Hat being a [[72: Classhole|classhole]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.234|172.70.211.234]] 06:14, 29 February 2024 (UTC)
:Would have been kind of cute, though. :D I often have to ask people “what’s your name, again”? Letting them call me to see their name could easily have been my idea. (But in that scenario, Randall would probably have drawn Cueball (as himself, he seems to have similar difficulties as me) instead of Black Hat. “[[1746: Making Friends|Social tip]]: It seems less awkward to ask people for their name for the 5th time if you pretend you lost your phone.”) --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.185|198.41.242.185]] 19:27, 29 February 2024 (UTC)
:This was how I read it, too. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.169|172.71.151.169]] 00:24, 1 March 2024 (UTC)
: Another reading of it is that Black Hat, being Black Hat, didn't even pay any attention to who he was talking to, since they were merely a means to an end. It's then only when he looks at the phone that he registers who it is.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.147|172.70.86.147]] 09:02, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

What kind of person would need to check their contacts to see if a person is blocked when you can just ask them to ring your phone? [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 06:21, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

I'm a bit sad that comic 2900 was not released on 29th of February. :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:16, 29 February 2024 (UTC)
:Perhaps it technically ''was''. By the timing of the auto-pickup/article creation by the 'Bot, it was 29/Feb all the way up to (and including) Randall's own TZ. It was pretty much as 'late' as you can get before you start getting to the realms of actual "delayed a day for technical reasons" as occasionally exbibited by some of his. (Or the rare times the current 'bot fell over and humans were initially tardy at filling in.) Though the 'official' date is likely the 28th; I haven't checked the publication DB, yet, but I'd guess it still is listed as Wednesday-as-usual.
:It's also been quite some time since Randall deliberately juggled numbers (possibly even by inserting Guest Week, which ISTR allowed a years-later numerical 'synchonicity' (can't quite remember/find what that was, but it was one accepted as entirely intended). It'd be an even longer game to have also engineered ''this'' one by seemingly impromptu non-MWF comics. And not then make it something like the recent leap-light-year one to make it relevent. So probably not planned. But ''possibly'' spontaneously held back as a last-minute (and entirely unofficial) whim, on seeing the same coincidence as we have noted. IMO. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.124|172.69.195.124]] 12:39, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Could Cueball have annoyed Black Hat in the past, so he then displays this type of behavior in revenge? --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 22:11, 29 February 2024 (UTC)
:I think anyone who ''actively'' annoys BH won't get away with just this kind of response, somehow. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.137|141.101.98.137]] 22:22, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Am I the only one who went down a rabbit hole and ended up at [https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/79990/is-the-questionably-legal-maneuver-from-xkcd-207-actually-legal a SX about Oregon U-turn legality]? [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 19:25, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2883: Astronaut Guests

2024-01-21T21:03:30Z

RandalSchwartz: forgot

Bot's down so i took the liberty of making the page myself [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 03:12, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
:The bot isn't actually down. I think you just saw the comic before it did! —[[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 03:37, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
:: If that's the case i find it really weird that Randall posted at *checks time* 10:40 PM... uncharacteristically late upload from my experience, assumed bot was down [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 03:47, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
Dining room is 50 meters long? ----Bob thé Farmer----
:I don't think that's how long they were over the dining room, but how long they were over the property. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.56|172.69.247.56]] 16:35, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

It is quite curious that this comic was published exactly when an italian wannabe astronaut (twice discarded by ESA) finally managed to get into outer space by having the italian armed forces pay for his ticket, so now he's on ISS as a *guest*. Of course it's impossible that Randal was hinting at this, but it's an amazing coincidence. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.114.175|172.71.114.175]] 17:26, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Noting in the Explanation that the length of the ISS solid angle 'area' is going to be a footprint slightly smaller than the stated size of the ISS (not by much, as it isn't really that far up, compared with how far the centre of the Earth is down, but it ''will'' be smaller. Also that (by my own from-first-principle calculations - please ''do'' check my stated working assumptions given in the relevent Edit Summary, or just do it yourself from scratch) slightly over a fifth of the Earth's surface ''never'' gets to experience the ISS being directly overhead. I was going to enumerate the sort of 'general chance that any given point at any given latitude might have the ISS above it', perhaps then to shove overflying speed (assuming zero eccentricity - which it pretty much is), compared with any given proportion of a surface latitude (assuming zero Earth oblateness - even though it is certainly a little bit, even at first approximation). But that seems overkill to actually Explain. Though I think it ''will'' make an interesting graph of +/-latitude vs overlfly 'timeshare' so I'll perhaps do that for my own entertainment momentarily. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.67|172.70.86.67]] 20:34, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Alright, who's going to start trying to narrow down the specific places where this comic could be set, assuming a reasonable definition of "dinnertime" and "mid-August"? Not it. [[User:Reschultzed|Reschultzed]] ([[User talk:Reschultzed|talk]]) 16:49, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

If anyone is interested, his guests that day would have been ISS Expedition 32: Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin, and Yuri Malenchenko of Russia, Joseph M. Acaba and Sunita Williams of the US, and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.64|172.69.247.64]] 17:13, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

Someone needs to make a calculator for this. I need to use this statement but I also don't want to be flat out wrong. Like, enter in a GPS coordinate and you get sets of dates the ISS was overhead and who was in it. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.140.184|172.69.140.184]] 18:14, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

I think both the energy measurements should be in either kilojoules '''or''' megajoules, but not both. I had to re-read that back and forth a few times to sort out the decimal shifting.[[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 21:03, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2883: Astronaut Guests

2024-01-21T21:03:03Z

RandalSchwartz: units?

Talk:2822: *@gmail.com

2023-08-31T23:28:42Z

RandalSchwartz: add * email

Why not send to *@*.*? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.45|172.69.247.45]] 03:08, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
:Either *@* suffices (if not just a *), or (because of non-standard wildcard parsing) it would reach neither ''<whatever@mydomain.me.uk>'' nor ''<something@business.com.au>''... But it'd depend upon how you invoke the query of the relevent MXRecords. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.22|172.71.178.22]] 03:18, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Based on the caption of the comic, I believe the real joke is that many GMail recipients of the original mass email would incorrectly use the "Reply-All" functionality of their email client and thereby further bomb the gmail server with a much larger volume of emails. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 03:21, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

:That's certainly part of it, but getting millions of emails is far more annoying than the typical few. [[User:DownGoer|DownGoer]] ([[User talk:DownGoer|talk]]) 04:44, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

I have a setup to shorten mail notifications and "XKCD: *.gmail.com" totally looks like something it could output as the sender name, so for a moment I got very confused why the latest comic was suddenly sent from a GMail address and with no subject. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 05:51, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Add to this the unfortunate tendency to promote Top-Posting (I'm looking at you, Outlook Express, but the various successors and competitors over the last three decades need not have followed that most unconventional convention too!) and 'email chains' of nested replies so easily build up in volumes that never would if each sender were encouraged to actually read through the prior chain of messaging (perhaps realise their contribution was unnecessary, given what someone already else said two iterations ago!) and judiciously prune out the historic ">>>>..."ed contributions that they aren't replying to. It also lets you mid-post (respond to a paragraph/point immediately after that embedded paragraph/point, to skip and excising later points intelligently) and stops it from becoming a hige hidden upside-down tree of ''everything'' in that message's history. (Which can also be a different problem... Something might have been said early on that might be best not to repeat to a later "copied in" contributor, for security or even politeness reasons, but now it's there to be discovered.) But, instead, the modern solution is to hide these top-post tree-roots behind client-side "collapsed"-content and keep forwarding all historic context ''unless'' someone takes time to scroll down-down-down from their "Yeah, I agree" simple response and snip the "..."-worthy stuff out (as well as many, many repetitions of "Please don't print this email out if you don't have to", "This email is intended only for the stated recipients", "The views of this sender do not necessarily reflect the views of his company", etc, often adding up and combining into .sig additions much larger than their respective senders' contributions). Plus an often confusing attempt to "threadify" multiple received messages, which (done right) would actually do better than the retention of a full and unexpurgated reply tree within Every. Single. Individual. Email! ...can you tell that I've been annoyed about this for pretty much almost thirty years? And it really hasn't been made any better over the last decade or so. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.153|172.71.178.153]] 12:16, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Inevitably someone would reply all with "Me too" to *@aol.com [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 13:15, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

I don't see any implication in the comic of "attempting to expand the resulting lists within the mail body of the above email"; I just read it as the user typing that literally, like someone might write "I'm looping in sales@" instead of "I'm looping in the Sales Team" - they're not expecting the client to do anything magic with the body of their e-mail, just explaining what they've typed into the To / CC box. - [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 14:14, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
:Looked to me like invoking some scripting language. e.g. "loop <address> in (*@outlook.com, *@yahoo.com) do add_address(_To_,<address>)", or somesuch according to required syntax, but I also didn't know whether this script fragment was supposed to be parsed/expanded/invoked/exec()ed within the To: or Body: fields.
:I suppose "looping in" could well be a synonym for "copying in" (perhaps implicitly ''not'' "Cc:ing in", but adding to To: field), but I've not been aware of that precise terminology so that's probably why I too defaulted to thinking it's some sort of macro command being invoked at some level (despite there being few such mechanisms established to do so).
:But, if you're more sure/correct than the prior editors apparently were, go ahead and edit it... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.99|141.101.68.99]] 16:36, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

On another note, a notable real-life incident involving this was [https://www.wired.co.uk/article/nhs-email-reply-all-down in the UK National Health Service], involving a distribution list of 1.2 million users! - [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 14:14, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

A relatively famous Perl programmer had a legal, deliverable email address of <code>*@qz.to</code>, and has retained the * for his current email. I have an auto-reply bot at <code>fred&barney@stonehenge.com</code> as a demonstration to anyone that it's a legal address but often rejected by stupid regexen. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 23:28, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2792: Summer Solstice

2023-06-23T04:45:05Z

RandalSchwartz: add link to my facebook post

Related to [[1878: Earth Orbital Diagram]]? [[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 00:32, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
:Great minds think alike*. Hadn't read down here when I leapt in and added that link (and made some other very minor tweaks). Or at least leapt in once I'd found it myself (not rembering its title or enough of its keywords), having had to trawl through [[:Category:Astronomy]] and visit almost all likely titles and several unlikely ones. Which was enjoyable, so not a problem. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.92|172.70.85.92]] 00:58, 22 June 2023 (UTC) ''* - fools never differ... :P''

I think there's a 3rd option for what the "fix" entails: eliminating Earth's axial tilt so it's always equinox (12 hour days almost everywhere, perpetual dawn at the poles). The title text specifies "on the equator", not "near" the equator. The only way for eclipses always "on" the equator is if the equator is always aligned with the ecliptic. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 02:06, 22 June 2023 (UTC)

:Wouldn’t that cause a lot of trouble with stuff like crop growth patterns? —[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 16:58, 22 June 2023 (UTC)

I think that to make the solstices match the earliest sunrise/sunset might require straightening out the Earth's tilt as well. Making it a circular orbit I think actually makes the summer solstice even further from the latest sunset (but the winter solstice closer to latest sunrise). [https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/equation-of-time.html]. Oh but straightening the tilt would mean no more solstices at all, hm. Maybe what's required is an elliptical orbit but with the sun at the center rather than a focus. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.153|172.70.111.153]] 14:27, 22 June 2023 (UTC)

:I think elliptical orbit with the Sun at the center is not stable. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:05, 22 June 2023 (UTC)

While we're at it, can we please make the year, lunar phase period, and day neat ratios of one another? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.44|172.69.247.44]] 13:52, 22 June 2023 (UTC)

:I'll email someone at NASA about it, don't worry. [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|Trogdor147]] ([[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|talk]]) 20:54, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
:Should we make it 360 days/year (360 is a highly composite number) or should we go with 400, for easy multiples? Either then means we have to redefine the length of the week. I'm OK with 50 eight-day weeks. I propose the new day to be called Randallday. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 21:51, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
::Definitely 360, it would nicely match there being 3600 seconds in hour. Also, the bigger change you would do the worse effect would it have on biosphere. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:07, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
:::Why? There would only be a small lengthening of the day (~1.5%), presuming the actual time length of the year is the same. BTW, do flatearthers call it a biodisc? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 01:00, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Anyone have any What If? type insights about any unintended consequences of the proposed changes? Thinking more of the physical and natural rather than societal, but anything might be an interesting addition to the article. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.28|172.68.35.28]] 14:58, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
:Tides, possibly ocean currents. Need a physicist for details (I'm a marine biologist; tides are on my radar, tide modeling isn't), but regularization of Earth and Moon orbits would remove many of the gravitational drivers of things like "spring" and "neap" tides, leading (it sez here) to permanent changes to littoral zones and their biotas, and (ditto) impacting coastal zone management strategies, especially if the "new normal" (and consistent) tides were much higher or lower than previous means. Arguably, an ocean biosphere already under stress from global warming would resent having to put up with yet another anthropogenic set of challenges. Hm? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.169|162.158.186.169]] 16:41, 22 June 2023 (UTC)

Great Randal[l]s think alike... I had just posted [https://www.facebook.com/merlyn/posts/pfbid027XNEX93Yud8iU8LYbmvtw6B7QwSBfYJhkmMpaza3DXM6HENxTmuz623FhyzL5aQAl this to Facebook] a day before seeing Randall's work. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 04:45, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2785: Marble Run

2023-06-07T00:04:15Z

RandalSchwartz: cite needed

Sorry if this is a mess (it's my first time editing). [[User:ProgrammerG|ProgrammerG]] ([[User talk:ProgrammerG|talk]]) 22:02, 5 June 2023 (UTC)
:It's honestly much better than anything I could have done. [[User:Trogdor147|Trogdor147]] ([[User talk:Trogdor147|talk]]) 22:04, 5 June 2023 (UTC)
::Hey, it's all good. Not sure what you wrote (as opposed to anyone else that then pounced upon it, before I first saw it), but we have our own Rube Goldbergesque way of bashing it all into a (largely) mutually-approved shape. I think I spot some further changes I'd like to make, so I'm going to dive back in in a moment, but it has to start somewhere!
::...the only big picky thing I'd say (to whoever did this, here or elsewhere recently), is that its fairly standard to note use the <code><nowiki>[URL link text]</nowiki></code> format when you can use the hand {{template|w}}-template to write <code><nowiki>{{w|Wiki article title|link text}}</nowiki></code>, instead, and often this lets you miss the "<code>|link text</code>" part out because the Wiki article title ''is'' the link text you want. I mean someone <s>who died whilst</s> creating a template to make this more streamlined, ought to have their work put to good use... ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.21|162.158.74.21]] 23:36, 5 June 2023 (UTC)
Added Citation-needed for pacincko inspiration. I mean, I think the order of appearance is even wrong for that to be possible.[[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 00:04, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

2785: Marble Run

2023-06-07T00:02:39Z

RandalSchwartz: /* Explanation */ cite needed for pachiko reference

{{comic
| number = 2785
| date = June 5, 2023
| title = Marble Run
| image = marble_run_2x.png
| imagesize = 438x512px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I have so many plans. It would incorporate a Galton board, a Ranque-Hilsch marble vortex tube, and a compartment lined with pinball bouncers with a camera-and-servo Maxwell's Demon that separated the balls into fast and slow sides.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MAXWELL'S DEMON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT roll away this tag too soon.}}

A {{w|Rube Goldberg machine}} is a fancifully complex system (either real or imagined), which makes use of an overly elaborate chain of actions. The name comes from an American cartoonist who was one of those who became famous for depicting convoluted and outlandish processes for accomplishing simple tasks.

There's a long history of people building actual contraptions along these lines. Such devices are almost never intended for practical purposes, but exist entirely for entertainment, and as an exercise in building complex and carefully planned systems. This has become particularly common in the internet age, as videos of particularly interesting examples can gain popularity online. The most common category of these devices is probably the marble run (also known as a {{w|rolling ball sculpture}}), in which the goal of the system is to move a one more balls or marbles from the beginning of the device to the end in interesting ways. This contrasts to the {{w|Domino toppling|domino run}} where motions are transfered by many intermediate pieces painstakingly arranged, although both aspects are commonly combined in such contrivances.

When [[Megan]] tries to show [[Cueball]] an example of such a video, he refuses, not because he lacks interest, but because of how he predicts it will impact him. Cueball (likely as a stand-in for [[Randall]]), has sufficiently strong interest in things like designing, building and engineering complexity that he's certain he will eventually adopt building such devices as a hobby, and that it will dominate his time and attention. Accordingly, he appears to be deliberately delaying his exposure to such devices so that he can continue to pursue other hobbies, with the assumption that he will eventually succumb to this one.

Megan responds that he knows where he's going, but is taking "a really interesting and circuitous path" to get there. This points out the irony that the very avoidance of building Rube Goldberg machines follows the same principle on which such machines work.

The title text mentions specific ideas Cueball plans to incorporate into such a device.

A {{w|Galton board}} is a device that distributes falling balls into a {{w|normal distribution}}. It is the inspiration behind {{w|pachinko}}-style games{{Citation needed}}.

A Ranque-Hilsch {{w|Vortex tube}} is a device for separating compressed gas into hot and cold streams. While such a device isn't directly applicable to marbles, one can imagine using the principle to separate a stream of marbles based on speed.

{{w|Maxwell's Demon}} is a thought experiment by James Clerk Maxwell which would violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Maxwell proposed that, if a container of air was separated by a divider, with a door that allowed only one molecule through at a time, and a theoretical "demon" were to control the door to sort high-energy atoms into one side and low energy atoms into the other, the two sides would develop a temperature difference with no energy input.

Cueball's version of this apparently involves a large number of marbles bouncing around inside a compartment, with an automated system to divert the fastest moving marbles into one side, and the slowest moving into the other.

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

:[Megan is walking towards Cueball and showing her phone. Cueball holds a hand to his face and looks away.]
:Megan: Check out this cool video of a Rube Goldberg marble run.
:Cueball: No! Not yet.

:[Megan has lowered her phone. Cueball has his hand in a fist.]
:Cueball: I've always known I'm doomed to eventually become one of those people who builds elaborate marble runs in their garage.
:Cueball: I can feel the pull.
:Cueball: So satisfying.

:[Close-up on Cueball.]
:Cueball: I just want to do as many other things as I can before I give in and disappear into that world.

:[Megan and Cueball are walking.]
:Megan: So you know where you're going to end up, but you're trying to take a really interesting and circuitous path to get there.
:Cueball: Exactly. Bounce around, maybe go off a few jumps.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

Talk:2780: Physical Quantities

2023-05-25T23:11:58Z

RandalSchwartz: tweak

Planck Length here actually refers to the length of Planck himself. The same may apply to other names. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 03:02, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
: And here I was thinking it meant the length of Planck planking. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 22:00, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

I wonder if this is alluding to the [[wikipedia:Smoot|Smoot]], a unit of measure devised by MIT students to represent the height of Oliver R. Smoot. Probably worth a mention in the description nonetheless. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:45, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Hawking radiation: ~100 W (through heat)

Planking is a thing.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planking_(fad) One pretends that one is a board, or plank. Are some funny pics. The opposite of planking would be good god how? How can even a cat!?!! [Special:Contributions/172.69.58.161|172.69.58.161]] 06:26, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Hubble length is {{w|Hubble Space Telescope|13.2 m}}. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.64|141.101.98.64]] 10:30, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

The m³ unit for Broca's area is surely a typo, right? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.47|162.158.94.47]] 14:55, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:That would be my guess. I sent a note to Randall to ask. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 21:24, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Just a couple of others: 1 Watt is what it takes to invent the condensing steam engine and Euler's number doesn't exist, because he died before telephones were invented. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.45|172.69.247.45]] 15:08, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:There are lots of <someone>'s Number constants. We could have an entire phonebook of these. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:53, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
::I tried phoning Graham's Number, once. I'm still not yet finished dialling! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.186|172.70.91.186]] 19:22, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:::I thought you meant Alexander Graham Bell's number. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.129|172.69.22.129]] 23:04, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:Chandresekhar's Limit = 3 pints? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:53, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:Don't forget that numbers are now [[2721|Euler letters]]! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.137|172.70.85.137]] 20:41, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

From a friend, regarding Fermi's current temperature:
''The typical ground temperature of a burial plot in Chicago depends on the depth and the season. According to the Illinois State Climatologist Office, the average soil temperature at 4 inches depth ranges from about 25°F in January to about 75°F in July. The average soil temperature at 8 inches depth ranges from about 30°F in January to about 77°F in July. These measurements are made under grass, so the soil temperature under other ground covers or under bare ground may vary somewhat from those shown here. In the winter, when the ground is frozen, cemeteries are able to continue burying the dead by using special equipment such as frost rippers or steamers to break through the frozen layer of soil. They also use heaters or blankets to keep the graves open until the burial service is completed.'' [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 23:09, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2780: Physical Quantities

2023-05-25T23:09:57Z

RandalSchwartz: fermi's current temperature

Planck Length here actually refers to the length of Planck himself. The same may apply to other names. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 03:02, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
: And here I was thinking it meant the length of Planck planking. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 22:00, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

I wonder if this is alluding to the [[wikipedia:Smoot|Smoot]], a unit of measure devised by MIT students to represent the height of Oliver R. Smoot. Probably worth a mention in the description nonetheless. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:45, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Hawking radiation: ~100 W (through heat)

Planking is a thing.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planking_(fad) One pretends that one is a board, or plank. Are some funny pics. The opposite of planking would be good god how? How can even a cat!?!! [Special:Contributions/172.69.58.161|172.69.58.161]] 06:26, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Hubble length is {{w|Hubble Space Telescope|13.2 m}}. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.64|141.101.98.64]] 10:30, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

The m³ unit for Broca's area is surely a typo, right? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.47|162.158.94.47]] 14:55, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:That would be my guess. I sent a note to Randall to ask. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 21:24, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Just a couple of others: 1 Watt is what it takes to invent the condensing steam engine and Euler's number doesn't exist, because he died before telephones were invented. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.45|172.69.247.45]] 15:08, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:There are lots of <someone>'s Number constants. We could have an entire phonebook of these. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:53, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
::I tried phoning Graham's Number, once. I'm still not yet finished dialling! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.186|172.70.91.186]] 19:22, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:::I thought you meant Alexander Graham Bell's number. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.129|172.69.22.129]] 23:04, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:Chandresekhar's Limit = 3 pints? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:53, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:Don't forget that numbers are now [[2721|Euler letters]]! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.137|172.70.85.137]] 20:41, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

From a friend, regarding Fermi's current temperature:
''The typical ground temperature of a burial plot in Chicago depends on the depth and the season. According to the Illinois State Climatologist Office, the average soil temperature at 4 inches depth ranges from about 25°F in January to about 75°F in July. The average soil temperature at 8 inches depth ranges from about 30°F in January to about 77°F in July. These measurements are made under grass, so the soil temperature under other ground covers or under bare ground may vary somewhat from those shown here.
In the winter, when the ground is frozen, cemeteries are able to continue burying the dead by using special equipment such as frost rippers or steamers to break through the frozen layer of soil. They also use heaters or blankets to keep the graves open until the burial service is completed.'' [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 23:09, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2772: Commemorative Plaque

2023-05-08T03:10:12Z

RandalSchwartz: add toronto recursive

Maybe like this? https://www.plaquemaker.com/aluminum-signs?quantity=1&width=4&height=4&backing=101&material=1&shape=1&print-color=16&text=On%20this%20site%20on*r*May%205th%2C%202023*r*I%20realized%20that%20you%20could%20order%20custom%20commemorative%20plaques%20online%20that%20say*r*whatever%20you%20want*r*and%20it%27s%20not%20that%20expensive*r*&mounting=1&size=2 [[Special:Contributions/172.71.174.240|172.71.174.240]] 22:01, 7 May 2023 (UTC)TheHighArtOfWikiSignatures

Any bets on how many copies of this plaque people send him? [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 00:25, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

I do not understand the plaque... If the test is correct, shouldn't there be an order button for not that expensive commemorative plaques on xkcd.com/2772? Questions over questions...[[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 07:31, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
:By site, they mean "location". It was in that location when Randall figured out what is on the plaque. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.82.17|172.71.82.17]] 14:08, 7 May 2023 (UTC)Bumpf

Because it's vague, not worth an Explain expansion, but I'm wondering how much of the intervening week was delivery time of the original plaque (assuming the "lesson learnt" moment was the instant the original plaque was ordered, as it was too late on receipt to then ''make'' the claim of the achievement appear upon it). And it sounds like the plaquer had the bits handy (standard "202 different bits, screwdriver heads, sockets and related hardware"-type everyman-handyman accessory kit that you might get 'because why not?'/’it was marked as a deal!' on one visit to the hardware depot) but just had never (properly?) used the whole masonry set in anger, until now. And I don't discount the possibility that the second plaque was ordered to place over some initial ill-drilled holes from the first attempt at mounting (either done without regard to where further holes would need to align to the mortar bonds and courses, or an attempted to take advantage of that but badly), making the announcement of the second 'triumphant' occasion instrumental in legitimately masking the evidence of the learning process that led up to it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.154|172.70.86.154]] 08:48, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

I wonder if that's an oblique reference to the commemorative plaque Dieter Meier [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Meier#Artist had had installed at the Kassel railway station in 1972] that announced him standing there 22 years later? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.141|172.68.51.141]] 11:22, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

In Denmark we celebrate the {{w|Denmark_in_World_War_II#Legacy|liberation from the Germans}} at the end of WW2 on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark_in_World_War_II#/media/File:Danmarks_Befrielse,_Sdr_Hygum.jpg May 5th 1945]. And later also my birthday ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:08, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

A bit of time paradox here. . . . . If he didn't figure out how to use a masonry drill until 12 May, then the top plaque couldn't have been installed before then. And the lower plaque would have been ordered, delivered and installed sometime after 12 May. Can we expect a third plaque commemmorating the mounting of the first and second? If so, when? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.5|172.68.210.5]] 01:12, 7 May 2023 (UTC) Beechmere
:No idea about the second, but I would assume that on 12 May, he ALSO installed the top plaque. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 03:46, 7 May 2023 (UTC)
:5/5, figured out the plaques thing and ordered one (or sat on it, ordered a day or two later). ⩽12/5, received plaque and tried to install. 12/5, successfully installed, second plaque ordered (or possibly shortly after). >12/5, received and installed second plaque. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.202|172.71.242.202]] 10:00, 7 May 2023 (UTC)
:Which makes this technically a science fiction comic, as it was released on 5/5. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.127|172.68.50.127]] 14:30, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

It was a few years ago when I learned how to use masonry drills. An importand difference is whether you use a “[[wikipedia:Hammer drill|Schlagbohrmaschine]]” or “[[wikipedia:Rotary hammer|Hammerbohrmaschine]]”, and you need the correct bit for both. Now I am frustrated that English uses the same word for both of them. The first one (cam action) has a disgusting user experience, while the second one (pneumatic) is a joy. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.110.218|162.158.110.218]] 19:54, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

This seems remarkably recent after news stories about this: https://readtheplaque.com/plaque/the-toronto-recursive-history-project. I presume Randall was inspired by that as well. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 03:10, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2753: Air Handler

2023-03-26T18:24:35Z

RandalSchwartz: ENOBEES

I called the device an Air Handler in the transcript, but should we change that? [[User:E'); DROP TABLE users;--|E'); DROP TABLE users;--]] ([[User talk:E'); DROP TABLE users;--|talk]]) 5:11, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

"It is not particularly usual to directly monitor the number of bees in an air-stream" - understatement of the week :o) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.41|172.68.210.41]] 05:46, 23 March 2023 (UTC)
:And statements like these are the reason why explainxkcd is so great :D [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:06, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

I think the transcript is complete, will be deleting unless someone proves otherwise in four hours. [[User:E'); DROP TABLE users;--|E'); DROP TABLE users;--]] ([[User talk:E'); DROP TABLE users;--|talk]]) 11:50, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

Some of these parameters have an ideal range (temperature, humidity, pressure), but others should be minimized (dust, smoke, odors, number of bees). Well, not into the negative range, but I think you'll understand me! ~ [[user:megan|Megan]] she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 23:44, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

:Well, if there are config files, you can just set the range to be from 0 to 0. Then again, this is Black Hat... [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.10|198.41.238.10]] 03:15, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
::I think that he made it so that "number of bees" had to be nonzero. Also, I think that the negative range could be available, and would be... weird. --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 12:38, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
:::I personally would like to see a device that generates negative bees... I'm deathly phobic. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 18:24, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

This immediately got me wondering how it would deal with excess bees. It's not like you can filter them out as they pass through the device. It'd have to launch some kind of tiny flying robot to attack them or something. And then if there's too few bees, well… Let's just say I was pretty confident that the title text would use the word "drones" at least twice. -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 09:15, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

I could see a VR rig adding a (controlled) pulse of H2S when you enter a sewer. With hardware limits to prevent any dangerous concentrations of course. {{unsigned ip|172.71.158.7}}

Talk:2733: Size Comparisons

2023-02-05T22:40:05Z

RandalSchwartz: olympic swimming pool

But Texas isn't even the largest US State. It's the ''second'' largest state, behind Alaska. Mind you, if you took Alaska and divided it into two then Texas would no longer be in second place... It would now be third! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.203|172.71.242.203]] 02:11, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:LOL, poor Texans. I'm from Australia. We only have 6 states, and 4 of them are bigger than Texas. So Texas would be in the smallest 50% of states if it was part of Australia [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 14:01, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

I started an explanation. My first, so I hope it's OK. Notice how I resisted [Citation needed]. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:20, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

:... and ninjaed. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:21, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

Fixed the beginning, now it says Texas is the second-largest state. [[User:WhatDoWeDoNow|WhatDoWeDoNow]] ([[User talk:WhatDoWeDoNow|talk]]) 03:29, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:Alaska isn't usually considered part of the "contiguous US", so Texas is indeed first there. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 03:39, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
::Whoops, didn't see that. Sorry! [[User:WhatDoWeDoNow|WhatDoWeDoNow]] ([[User talk:WhatDoWeDoNow|talk]]) 19:09, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

Note that if you scale Rhode Island up to the size of the Solar System, the ants would be even larger. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 06:46, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

Trivia: In Germany we like to compare big things to the size of the Saarland, the smallest federal state that is not a city state. But since it is also the state with the least people living in it almost noone really knows how big the Saarland really is (and of the rest noone really cares to find out). This reminds me a lot of this Texas vs. Alaska discussion and I wonder if every country has something like this...? --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.39|172.71.160.39]] 07:44, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:In the UK, at a certain range of scale our general comparison standard is (half/three times /etc) "the size of Wales". e.g. the quantity of rainforest that is doomed, at any particular time. There ''are'' a lot of people there (often, according to the Welsh themselves, too many English incomers) and it is usefully easy to identify (I think of it as the "head of the pig that the gnome is riding", but that might just be me), given its prominant appearance in the outline of Great Britain itself. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3715512.stm Usually!] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.81|172.70.85.81]] 08:51, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
::In Australia we seem compelled to use Sydney Harbour as the unit of measurement for any large amount of water[[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 13:57, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:::And when we don't compare to the size of states, we usually use sports fields. "football fields" is a frequent unit of measurement in the media. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:13, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
::::Oh, yes, football fields (association football, aka. soccer) are popular here, too, but less controversial as they are always roughly 100 by 50 meters in size. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.37|172.71.160.37]] 05:46, 5 February 2023 (UTC)
:::::I just started a similar conversation, where we started discussing comparing the size of something with the size of an Olympic Swimming Pool, which is 25x50 meters, but never spoken like that in the US, because, metric. :) The volume can vary, since it might be somewhere between 2 and 3 meters deep, but is also often used for a tangible volume of things. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 22:40, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

Notably, the larger the state you scale up the smaller the ants will be, as you would have to scale it by a smaller factor. The comparison would be more accurate if it read: "Texas is so big that if you expanded it to the size of the Solar System, the ants there would "only* be as big as Rhode Island."
[[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 10:31, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:Wait, Jordan Brown already said that. [[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 10:32, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

I just barely resisted changing the "Dallas" wikipedia link to point to the page for the TV show. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:11, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

A note that, in an edit I just made, amongst other things I went through and (hopefully) clarified the style of the area measurements. (Though only assuming that they were numerically correct... Didn't check!) If you say "''N'' kilometres squared", this can be so easily taken/meant as "(''N'' km)²", rather than "''N'' square kilometres", which is "''N'' (km²)". Both areas, but different. Just like the volume described as "10 centimetres cubed" would also be "1000 cubic centimetres". (In both cases being 1 litre).
 The easy confusion coming from the "km²" unit which you will read straight as "kilometres squared". And a single one is a "kilometre squared", before being given a number as some multiple of "kilometre squared"s, but that generally aint the same as a "multiple of kilometres" squared. So it is instead best to word it (if you do that at all) as "(a multiple of) square kilometres".
 ((Next up, I shall probably go on to explain the technical difference between "degrees Kelvin", °K (or alternately as required for the scales Centigrade, Fahrenheit, Rankine, Delisle, whatever), and "Kelvin degrees", K°... ;) ))
 Oh and, don't worry. Though I used the international version of "litre", etc, above, I tried to make sure I use the American-type spelling in the article itself, despite all my British instincts and natural preference... Just that here I couldn't.conscuously stand to write it 'wrongly' in my own far more personalised bit of prose. :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.31|172.70.86.31]] 17:06, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
If Texas were expanded to the size of the solar system, the size of an ant would not change. The size of objects is not affected by changes in scale of the surrounding environment. An ant would still be the same size relative to Texas as it would be relative to the solar system.[[user:chatgpt|chatgpt]]

Hey, couldn't the joke also be that ant sizes don't really change around states, and so it would be a bad comparison because it doesn't tell you about the size of Texas at all? ||10:33, February 4 2023 (PST)

Talk:378: Real Programmers

2023-01-09T01:16:15Z

RandalSchwartz:

I was going to edit the above description, but it was taking too much time to edit it into a suitable format, so here's the long version.

In the beginning was UNIX. And it was good. And it was written by some very clever people.

One of the first very useful tools they wrote was '''{{w|ed (text editor)|ed}}''', a "line-editor" (i.e. it works one line at a time). It uses some simple commands, and was created to work on very-old-school teletype machines, where you type a command, and '''ed''' types a response back.

It was a lovely bit of code. Using very little the way of resources, it allowed you to create a text document of any length, including source code in whatever language you wanted to program in.

Eventually, a more sophisticated version called '''{{w|ex (text editor)|ex}}''' (short for EXtended) was written by a clever man named Bill Joy. While it has some great improvements over ed, it was still a line-editor.

The trouble was, using a line-editor like '''ed''' or '''ex''' requires you to have a very good {{w|mental model}} of the document you are creating. Unfortunately, humans aren't very good at this, so they constantly need to refresh their mental model by printing out big chunks of the document (or program) they are working on. This took a LOT of paper using teletypes.

Eventually, teletypes were replaced with {{w|Computer_terminal#Dumb_terminal|terminals}}. This saved a lot of paper. But the people who created the terminals began making them smarter than teletypes, so that magic character sequences could be used to move the cursor around, rather that simply going character-by-character across the line, then scrolling down to the next line, and so on. This opened up a whole new world.

The very clever Bill Joy took advantage of these magic character sequences to create his wonderful "full-screen" text editor '''{{w|vi}}'''. '''vi''' was the "VIsual mode" of '''ex'''. With '''vi''', the user could see a screen-full of text at once. Entire forests were saved.

'''Emacs''' was developed at the same time as '''vi''', using the same magic characters, and was also a full-screen text editor. I've never used it, so I can't speak to its merits, but there are many people who still find it more useful than any GUI they've tried.

On the one hand, '''vi''' and '''emacs''' are more sophisticated tools, and thus take longer to learn to use than '''ed'''. However, once you learn to use them, they make writing code EASIER, and they are therefore considered a less praise-worthy way of writing code by those concerned with defining what a "Real Programmer" is. (In other words, those programmers suffering from {{w|testosterone poisoning}}.)

Using '''cat''' to write a program looks like this: (Note that the $ is the prompt provided by the computer. The rest is typed by the user. And the ^D means the user held down the control key while typing the letter "d".)

<blockquote>
'''$''' cat | cc
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
''The user types C code here, and ends with ^D. Assuming all goes well, the compiler silently finishes after creating the executable program '''a.out''' in the user's current working directory.''
</blockquote>

The reason this is considered a more praise-worthy way of coding is that, in those early days, doing this meant that your code was lost the instant you typed it. If you made a mistake, you would have to type the whole thing again. So doing this for code of any sophistication was considered an act of courage, confidence, and conviction. (I myself did it several times, for the fun of it, when no-one was watching, though never for a program that took more than about 30 lines of code. I was delighted that it worked all 3 times, but since I love to write re-usable code, this wasn't really something I wanted to keep doing.)

NOW PAY ATTENTION. '''VI IS NOT VIM!''' '''{{w|Vim (text editor)|Vim}}''' was written in 1991, long after more sophisticated {{w|Shell (computing)|shells}} were created that made it possible to copy and paste text from one part of the screen to another. This ability greatly reduced the risks of using '''cat''' to pass your source code directly to the compiler, so it was no longer a praise-worthy stunt. Thus the line "Real programmers use vim" was NEVER considered true by any UNIX programmer.

Whether this was a mistake of the author, or the character (possibly Megan?) is unclear. It seems possible that it was a simple typo, but since I've never seen one in the strip before, I'm somewhat skeptical.

--[[User:MisterSpike|MisterSpike]] ([[User talk:MisterSpike|talk]]) 07:12, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

:<code>cat | cc</code> doesn't work on my system. My <code>cc</code> is simply a symlink to <code>gcc</code>; what's yours? --[[User:Lucaswerkmeister|Lucaswerkmeister]] ([[User talk:Lucaswerkmeister|talk]]) 10:16, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

::One can also use
::<blockquote>
::'''$''' cat | gcc -xc -
::</blockquote>
::The program will be an a.out file.{{unsigned ip|200.131.199.28}}

:These are officially worthy of a "useless use of cat award", and I hereby decree it so. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 01:16, 9 January 2023 (UTC)

Some comments:

I would never claim to be an emacs expert, but I'm reasonably proficient in it. Command of the form M-x (whatever) are a way of calling commands (or, really, arbitrary functions in the emacs code) by name. SO 'M-x butterfly' means that there is a function named "butterfly" somewhere, but that it has not been assigned a keyboard shortcut (or it has, but you're calling it the long way).

Also, three are still advanced Linux programmers today who swear by vim or emacs being superior to IDEs. There are specific technical reasons for this: emacs is basically an IDE construction kit that's incredibly easy to extend and customize, and is more customizable than pretty much any other program in the history of software with the exception of a Smalltalk installation. And vim has highly evolved commands to give experts a superhuman typing and editing speed when coding.

So when someone claims that "real programmers use vim," they are claiming that RIGHT NOW, vim is the best possible editor for developers of sufficient competence. There's a community of very smart people that basically thinks this.

[[User:Tess|Tess]] ([[User talk:Tess|talk]]) 04:19, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

What is "Meta"? As in "M-butterfly"?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.180|108.162.219.180]] 23:20, 27 April 2015 (UTC)
When I read this, I started up emacs and tried this... until I realized that there was no butterfly key... --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.58|108.162.215.58]] 00:51, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

"Meta" is binded to "Alt" in modern keyboard. "Meta" is referring to the "Meta" key in early {{w|Space-cadet keyboard|LISP keyboard}}. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.93|173.245.62.93]] 18:58, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

I assume this cartoon was inspired by an earlier [http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20091201 User Friendly cartoon], in which Miranda ends an editor one upsmanship discussion by saying: "Well, I edited the inodes by hand. with magnets." See also [http://dilbert.com/strip/1992-09-08 this classic Dilbert cartoon]. [[User:Espertus|Espertus]] ([[User talk:Espertus|talk]]) 21:56, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Real programmers don't use any negative calls to sqrt(), of course. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.114|199.27.128.114]] 22:07, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

August 1984 "Real programmers use cat as their editor." http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~kirkenda/joy84.html --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.180|141.101.104.180]] 00:21, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

Could the title text be a reference to the novel "Heechee Rendezvous" by Frederik Pohl, in which an alien species causes the universe to start to contract, in order to provoke a new Big Bang which would lead to "improved" natural constants? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.220|162.158.114.220]] 09:37, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

The title text is more likely a reference to the end of the book [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Beginning..._Was_the_Command_Line "In the Beginning Was the Command line"], where programming / simulation develops to creating worlds on a single command line, specifying natural constants (in all their precision). [[User:Hrabbey|Hrabbey]] ([[User talk:Hrabbey|talk]]) 13:23, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

There has been a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the Category:Multiple Cueballs. In this comic it cannot be said clearly that any of the four/five (if the guy with the butterfly in hand is not the same as the one speaking off-panel about it) is more correctly called Cueball than any of the others. But typically the one named Cueball is either the protagonist or the one with the interesting parts, or the one with the punch line. In this comic it would be the e-mac Cueball, as he makes the butterfly guy loose out to e-mac. It may thus be OK to list him as Cueball, and the others as something else. So I changed that some time ago in the explanation, and transcript. But then I also made sure that it was clear that the other guys also looks like Cueball. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:20, 20 December 2015 (UTC)

'''Real Programmers''' use MS Paint: http://i.imgur.com/QlGpd.gif [[User:Luc|Luc]] ([[User talk:Luc|talk]]) 01:40, 3 July 2016 (UTC)

I don't know which came first but this quote reminded me of this comic http://bash.org/?6130[[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.228|172.69.34.228]] 04:20, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

It occurs to me that, during the Apollo space program, the core-rope memory which contained the program code for the ship's onboard guidance computer was, quite literally, hand-woven. While it was non-magnetic, a needle was used to thread a single strand of wire through a frame containing an array of ferrite cores. Similar to then-conventional core memory, except that wires selectively did or did not pass through any given core to permanently set their state as 0 or 1. - Thraddax, 02 June 2021.

This is extremely late but I'm assuming he meant <code>vi</code> but confused the two. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 13:01, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2717: L6 Lagrange Point

2022-12-27T21:13:38Z

RandalSchwartz: add lagrange texas

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)

Talk:2705: Spacetime Soccer

2022-12-02T04:54:39Z

RandalSchwartz: scoreboard wanted

Wow, that was fast {{unsigned ip|172.70.131.8|03:48, 1 December 2022‎}}
:What was? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.46|172.70.162.46]] 04:27, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
Does someone want to point out to Randall that it is the offside rule, not offsides rule [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.122|172.70.134.122]] 04:57, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
:It's often pluralized in American English, per Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offside_(sport) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.44|172.71.151.44]] 05:22, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
:That makes no sense, it's an adjective, not a noun. It can't be pluralised. Even that wikipedia article, despite its assertion at the top, doesn't at any point use "offside" as a noun.
::Side is a noun. It's colloquial in the US because other games use the same word. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.92|172.70.206.92]] 12:03, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
:::Interesting that the inherent pluralisation doesn't extend to "math(ematic)s"... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 12:27, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
:I can only imagine that Randall used the less-preferred (more-despised?) term to troll some of us. Does he not like the beautiful game? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.252|172.70.214.252]] 01:15, 2 December 2022 (UTC)
I currently have no time to expand the explanation, but it should be pointed out that the gravity well drawing is a graph and not an actual surface. Also, people are perfectly fine with moving though 4 dimensional spacetime. We do it every day. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 09:19, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
[citation needed] [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.83|198.41.242.83]] 09:59, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
:...though note that I probably can't ever go back to where I was yesterday. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 12:27, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
::That has more to do with the fact that you flooded the museum's basement than spacetime though [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.62|172.69.22.62]] 15:24, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
:::I did not! I flooded their second floor. It was ''their'' fault that the basement subsequently flooded (and gained a few new items/display cases/members of staff and also an improved influx of visitors to the "Dried Goods Through The Ages" exhibit that they already kept down there), but they still blamed me for some strange and probably erroneous reason... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.30|162.158.159.30]] 16:36, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it mocks the fact that in the rest of the world, "football" is the sport where you play the ball with your *feet*, with a particular obscure rule that you can't touch it with your hands (unless you are a goalkeeper). On the other hand, American "football" is the sport where you grab the ball with your hands and carry it around. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.43|172.71.160.43]] 16:35, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

haha...I thought there actually was ''[more]'' [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.155|172.71.182.155]] 22:10, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
:Can we get a scoreboard here for everyone who clicked on "more" somehow expecting more... :) [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 04:54, 2 December 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2696: Precision vs Accuracy

2022-11-11T06:00:03Z

RandalSchwartz: s/Randal/Randall/g

87.532% of all statistics are just made up. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.220|172.70.178.220]] 11:10, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

Why is 'Barack Obama is 6'1"' and 'Barack Obama has 4 legs' medium precision? It seems to give exact value, so high precision. [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 11:44, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
: OK, I get it. 6'1" means something between 6'0.50" and 6'1.49". For height it's OK, but when counting legs, it seems like a stretch. [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 12:30, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
:: The four legs are probably considered to be only medium precise, not because of the number but because of the imprecise term "leg". While humans can walk on all four extremities, thereby using them as legs, the upper two are commonly referred to as arms. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 14:54, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
:: (ECed by Bischoff) Plus a person's height (excluding differences to footwear and perhaps hairstyle) varies by an inch or so over the course of a day, as the spine compresses whilst mostly upright (would depend a bit upon your daily activities, but "an inch" or 2-3cm is the typical quoted value, with all the questions about precision ''as well as'' accuracy). Within an inch of such a foot-and-inch value is basically between slightly over a percentage point of drift across a continuum of ultimately non-integer values.
:: The number of legs is ''generally'' a whole number (perhaps lower-limb amputees could claim "half a leg", but is that for above the knee or below or... that's beyond my wish to define, I would leave it up to the individual amputee to finesse to their own liking) and assigning decimals, even .000(recurring), would be ''over-''precise. A definite plain figure (however inaccurate) being the happy and acceptable medium between that and the vague imprecision (never mind inaccuracy) of the kind in the cell below. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 15:00, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
:::The medium is because it says most, and not all! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:08, 10 November 2022 (UTC)
::::It says "most cats", indeed, but the above was about Obama, singular. Though I think it's covered anyway... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.25|172.70.85.25]] 09:44, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

Someone should add an explanation of the difference between precision and accuracy. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 13:13, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
:Tried it myself. Maybe made it too compact, but I often go on too long so I tried made it as brief and snappy as I felt I could. Over to other editors to rewrite or replace. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 15:00, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
::That there is confusion over this was a bit of a surprise to me, about 20 years ago, when I worked (as I did for many years) in the outdoor pursuits trade. GPS units would give a 12-character grid reference (1m2), but couldn't be relied upon to that level. I would tell people they're more precise than they are accurate, until it became apparent that they were waiting for me to complete the joke they thought I'd begun, as I was so clearly contradicting myself, what with the two words meaning identical things.
::Having gone on to explain the difference between the words, the neat brevity I'd sought was lost.
::Obviously they can be used sort of interchangeably in casual conversation, but I thought the difference was well enough known that, when talking about a navigational instrument, it would be obvious what was meant.
::Nope. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 20:18, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
:::I deal with OS Grid References a lot, in a similar context, and a number of people who give 10-digits or more (2x5, for 1m res) from devices that typically don't ever settle down to less than 3m, and provably can be tens of metres off if there happens to be a small tree or shrub nearby.
:::(In fact, the other day I was geohashing myself, and my device was insisting I was in a totally different bit of the open field, 50m or so, no matter how much I sat it down at the provably correct point and wandered away so that even ''I'' wasn't obscuring its view of the sky. But it was good enough for me, which was all I do it for, so after giving it 5 minutes I counted it as done.)
:::And, in yet another activity, the publicised information for an event included a 12ish-DP reference for the starting area (vaguer than that), but just the ''postcode'' for the HQ (a very definite building that you could bullseye on a map), in a rural area where it covered half the valley! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.12|172.70.86.12]] 22:19, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

How is 17.082 palindromic? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:54, 9 November 2022 (UTC)
:My error, I meant an anagram! (Was going for "anagramic", and my brain clearly rebelled.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 15:00, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

High Precision High accuracy, Randall Munroe misses when Obama was president. Low precision Medium-rare accuracy, so do we, Randall, so do we. {{unsigned ip|172.70.130.154 }}

It is so annoying that the US uses . and , to mean the opposite of what most European countries (including Denmark where I live). So when I read this it states that Obama was president less than 3 days (70 hours) but it more than 70000 feet tall. :-) Of course I now the difference but I have to think about it more than if everyone used the same standard. Also height should use SI units as everyone should ;-) (weight given in number of cats is the new SI unit as far as I know, but don't use inches and feet ;-D ) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:17, 10 November 2022 (UTC)
:Well, as a UKian, I was happy enough. Tell you what, though, let's develop a [[927: Standards|new and mutually-acceptable standard notation]]... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.25|172.70.85.25]] 09:44, 10 November 2022 (UTC)
::Good idea. Lets meet on [[2562|11/12/22]] to discuss the details. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:41, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

I think Randall missed an opportunity to clarify how high precision can make something inaccurate. He could have said that Obama is 6’ 1.02173” tall, which would clearly be very precise, and also clearly inaccurate, simply because of the excessive precision. [[User:John|John]] ([[User talk:John|talk]]) 15:22, 10 November 2022 (UTC)
:Saying 6'1.0278 would have been more in theme, there. And it would be not really more inaccurate (might even be closer to the truth...) but would convey a false precision.
:Interstingly, when Andrew Waugh measured Mount Everest (before it was so named) he got a diffraction-adjusted figure of 29,000 feet, but decided to announced that it was 29,002 so that it didn't just like a rough figure rounded to the nearest hundred or even thousand feet. This made him the first person to put two feet on the top of Everest!
:(...The actual error was not bad, given his measurements had to be made from hundreds of miles away. Current official measurements with on-the-spot modern GPS say 29,031.7 feet (for the snow-peak, which is all that Waugh could mention), after 170ish years of (by some estimates, but contested) about a foot of extra height per decade through the continuing techtonic raising of the Himalaya. And any unknown differences in snow-depth. Certainly it was within tens of feet, i.e. a dozen or so metres. With a bit of an error-bar, but not really that big when you consider it...)
: So, arguably, that case was a deliberately false accuracy to help convey the true precision. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.3|172.70.90.3]] 16:15, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

I was expecting maybe a reference to Schrödinger's President when I first read the comic - but later realized that this could have been misconstrued as a threat. Oops!

Talk:2663: Tetherball Configurations

2022-08-26T04:37:38Z

RandalSchwartz:

Is anyone else reminded of the "classes of a lever" sort of classification? Where the load, fulcrum, and force are permuted. I know that's not explicitly connected to this comic, but it feels like a similar vibe, since you've got 4 (or 3 out of the 4) elements, and you're just changing the order they're oriented relative to each other. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 03:52, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Ground-rope-ball is arguably a playable cooperative configuration. Player 1 whirls the ball above her head like a bola; Player 2 attempts to hit the ball and get it to reverse direction. Play continues until the ball hits the ground. The final score is equal to the number of reversals. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.93.43|172.70.93.43]] 06:29, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
: Ground-rope-ball is actually quite legit - I have one of these somewhere in the basement... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FT0Z95kN4w [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:59, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
:: How does that base stay on the ground? --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 07:52, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
::: It's quite heavy. You could have the same result by somehow connecting the rope directly to the ground. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:35, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
: Ground-rope-ball (GRB) definitely looks good. If you just place it in a playground and let some kids mess around, I guarantee they will eventually come up with rules that make for a fun game. It might not be Tetherball, but it's gotta be worthy of at least 4 stars. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 07:52, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
::Not agreeing that it would work in any way related to Tetherball. But a call stuck in the ground like this would definitely get kicked by kids. So as a game it might be used, gut not as Tetherball. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:27, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
:::Though I take your point that the original comic probably intends the meaning of the rating as being "how good AS tetherball" I disagree that it's that bad at being tether ball. There is still a ball, it is tethered and you can even kick it and have it orbit back towards you. [[User:Nbrader|Nbrader]] ([[User talk:Nbrader|talk]]) 12:20, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

I feel like this comic missed some opportunities:
*Pole-Rope-Pole: Nunchuks
*Ground-Pole-Rope-Pole-Ground: Tightrope
*Pole: This configuration could be used at the same time as the above for added stability
I'm sure there are more![[User:Nbrader|Nbrader]] ([[User talk:Nbrader|talk]]) 12:20, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

:"Pole" could also be for Festivus. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 04:36, 26 August 2022 (UTC)

:If it doesn't have a ball, can it really be called tetherball? I think the ball and rope are the minimum requirements. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 13:48, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

In Denmark I never played this game, but often played {{w|Totem tennis}} (tether tennis or swingball). Had to find out what it was called in English first before I could write it here. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:27, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
:I always assumed that tetherball/swingball was effectively the same whether entirely freely pivoting/rolling-over or as the helical-track system (which just automated the 'scoring' system, and undeniably triggered the top to pop up when either limit of travel was reached) that I recall from my teen years. Not sure if it was branded to Mookie Toys, but was definitely more than a decade before the 1993 date that this article appears to suggest the helix-version was created (by some interpretations*) so it could have been amongst the properties it says they bought at that time.
:(* - I'd check exactly what it should mean and rewrite that article accordingly, but my mobile IP at any given moment is almost always on Wikipedia's no-editting list, so I'd need to wait to be tethered to a landline broadband again, and by then I'll have forgotten...)
:I also recall a 'ground weight'-tethered version (with optional peg-holes for further immobilisation if placed upon peggable ground, like your average lawn) in the box of sports equipment taken on cub-/scout-camps, which was full of many other (and often not very Health-And-Safety-compatible) outdoor 'toys' and sports equipment like lawn-darts and several rather antique-looking boxing gloves. Can't recall any branding. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.78|172.70.91.78]] 09:03, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
:In wikipedia it mentions something I think which is similar: "An early variant described in Jessie H. Bancroft's 1909 book Games for the Playground... involves a tethered tennis ball hit by racquets, with similar rules of the game." It sounds like this would be a rather dangerous version, with kids swinging racquets wildly in close quarters. Are there a lot of racquet-related injuries? [[User:Gbisaga|Gbisaga]] ([[User talk:Gbisaga|talk]]) 11:42, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
::Wait, I didn't even notice thst thetherball was ''not'' played with rackets. Whatever-it-was-I-played used rackets (probably light plastic toy rackets/flyswat-griddle-alikes), though, not full-blown competition tennis rackets with a strung wooden frame. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 13:39, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

In France, we have "Jokari" which is pretty similar to the first scenario, except that the rope is a rubber band, played by two people. It's a bit like tennis but without the net and with a ball that comes back. Totally playable. The article on English Wikipedia is not the same thing. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.130.29|172.71.130.29]] 10:17, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Ground-Pole-Ground is described in What-if 157: https://what-if.xkcd.com/157/

Pole-Rope-Ground is like the biggest flail ever. But where do you stand? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.177|172.68.110.177]] 20:42, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2663: Tetherball Configurations

2022-08-26T04:36:35Z

RandalSchwartz: festivus

Is anyone else reminded of the "classes of a lever" sort of classification? Where the load, fulcrum, and force are permuted. I know that's not explicitly connected to this comic, but it feels like a similar vibe, since you've got 4 (or 3 out of the 4) elements, and you're just changing the order they're oriented relative to each other. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 03:52, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Ground-rope-ball is arguably a playable cooperative configuration. Player 1 whirls the ball above her head like a bola; Player 2 attempts to hit the ball and get it to reverse direction. Play continues until the ball hits the ground. The final score is equal to the number of reversals. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.93.43|172.70.93.43]] 06:29, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
: Ground-rope-ball is actually quite legit - I have one of these somewhere in the basement... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FT0Z95kN4w [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:59, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
:: How does that base stay on the ground? --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 07:52, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
::: It's quite heavy. You could have the same result by somehow connecting the rope directly to the ground. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:35, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
: Ground-rope-ball (GRB) definitely looks good. If you just place it in a playground and let some kids mess around, I guarantee they will eventually come up with rules that make for a fun game. It might not be Tetherball, but it's gotta be worthy of at least 4 stars. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 07:52, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
::Not agreeing that it would work in any way related to Tetherball. But a call stuck in the ground like this would definitely get kicked by kids. So as a game it might be used, gut not as Tetherball. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:27, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
:::Though I take your point that the original comic probably intends the meaning of the rating as being "how good AS tetherball" I disagree that it's that bad at being tether ball. There is still a ball, it is tethered and you can even kick it and have it orbit back towards you. [[User:Nbrader|Nbrader]] ([[User talk:Nbrader|talk]]) 12:20, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

I feel like this comic missed some opportunities:
*Pole-Rope-Pole: Nunchuks
*Ground-Pole-Rope-Pole-Ground: Tightrope
*Pole: This configuration could be used at the same time as the above for added stability
I'm sure there are more![[User:Nbrader|Nbrader]] ([[User talk:Nbrader|talk]]) 12:20, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
:"Pole" could also be for Festivus. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 04:36, 26 August 2022 (UTC)
:If it doesn't have a ball, can it really be called tetherball? I think the ball and rope are the minimum requirements. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 13:48, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

In Denmark I never played this game, but often played {{w|Totem tennis}} (tether tennis or swingball). Had to find out what it was called in English first before I could write it here. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:27, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
:I always assumed that tetherball/swingball was effectively the same whether entirely freely pivoting/rolling-over or as the helical-track system (which just automated the 'scoring' system, and undeniably triggered the top to pop up when either limit of travel was reached) that I recall from my teen years. Not sure if it was branded to Mookie Toys, but was definitely more than a decade before the 1993 date that this article appears to suggest the helix-version was created (by some interpretations*) so it could have been amongst the properties it says they bought at that time.
:(* - I'd check exactly what it should mean and rewrite that article accordingly, but my mobile IP at any given moment is almost always on Wikipedia's no-editting list, so I'd need to wait to be tethered to a landline broadband again, and by then I'll have forgotten...)
:I also recall a 'ground weight'-tethered version (with optional peg-holes for further immobilisation if placed upon peggable ground, like your average lawn) in the box of sports equipment taken on cub-/scout-camps, which was full of many other (and often not very Health-And-Safety-compatible) outdoor 'toys' and sports equipment like lawn-darts and several rather antique-looking boxing gloves. Can't recall any branding. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.78|172.70.91.78]] 09:03, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
:In wikipedia it mentions something I think which is similar: "An early variant described in Jessie H. Bancroft's 1909 book Games for the Playground... involves a tethered tennis ball hit by racquets, with similar rules of the game." It sounds like this would be a rather dangerous version, with kids swinging racquets wildly in close quarters. Are there a lot of racquet-related injuries? [[User:Gbisaga|Gbisaga]] ([[User talk:Gbisaga|talk]]) 11:42, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
::Wait, I didn't even notice thst thetherball was ''not'' played with rackets. Whatever-it-was-I-played used rackets (probably light plastic toy rackets/flyswat-griddle-alikes), though, not full-blown competition tennis rackets with a strung wooden frame. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 13:39, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

In France, we have "Jokari" which is pretty similar to the first scenario, except that the rope is a rubber band, played by two people. It's a bit like tennis but without the net and with a ball that comes back. Totally playable. The article on English Wikipedia is not the same thing. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.130.29|172.71.130.29]] 10:17, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Ground-Pole-Ground is described in What-if 157: https://what-if.xkcd.com/157/

Pole-Rope-Ground is like the biggest flail ever. But where do you stand? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.177|172.68.110.177]] 20:42, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

2649: Physics Cost-Saving Tips

2022-07-25T02:24:42Z

RandalSchwartz: Undo revision 290624 by Davidy22 the tranny killer (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2649
| date = July 22, 2022
| title = Physics Cost-Saving Tips
| image = physics_cost_saving_tips.png
| titletext = I got banned from the county fair for handing out Helium-2 balloons. Apparently the instant massive plasma explosions violated some local ordinance or something.
}}

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

This comic is another one of [[Randall|Randall's]] [[:Category:Tips|Tips]], this time to reduce costs or provide something for free for physicists to save money on their research. None of these would provide any real advantages even when possible to implement. It continues the previous [[2648: Chemicals]] comic's jocular theme of tricks to supposedly save money based on misinterpretations of science. Obtaining money from physics experiments was also described in [[2007: Brookhaven RHIC]].

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" |Cost-Saving Tip
! scope="col" |Explanation
|-
|Try replacing regular vectors with pseudovectors whenever possible
|[[File:Torque animation.gif|frame|right|Relationship of pseudovectors {{w|torque}} ('''τ''') and {{w|angular momentum}} ('''L''') to "regular" Euclidian vectors {{w|Position (vector)|position}} ('''r'''), {{w|force}} ('''F'''), and linear {{w|momentum}} ('''p''') in an oscillatory rotating system. Not shown is the {{w|centripetal force}} of the spoke's {{w|Tension (physics)|tension}}, a Euclidian vector towards the axle proportional to linear momentum, converting it to angular momentum.]]

The prefix "pseudo-" refers to an inauthentic variation of something. Fakes are usually cheaper than their original brand-name product, while often working just as well, so the comic implies a {{w|pseudovector}} could be a less expensive substitute for a regular vector. On the contrary, pseudovectors, or axial vectors, are distinct from regular {{w|Euclidean vector}}s, the former usually being involved with rotation or physical effects that share properties with rotation, similar to the relationship between angles and lengths. Pseudovectors are formed from the {{w|cross product}}s of Euclidean vectors, in three dimensions, and while similar to Euclidean vectors, there is no physical meaning to their specific direction, only their magnitude and portions of their position. For example, {{w|angular momentum}} is described by a pseudovector, labeled '''L''' in the comic, {{w|Normal (geometry)|normal}} to the {{w|plane of rotation}}, originating from the center of rotation, with magnitude equal to the angular velocity of rotation '''ω''' multiplied by the {{w|moment of inertia}} '''I'''. (The comic's diagram is drawn according to very uncommon {{w|Right-hand rule#Coordinates|left-handed coordinates}} instead of the standard {{w|right-hand rule}}. Randall is right-handed.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1tcyEo2tQk&t=28s])
|-
|A square wave can be broken down into an infinite supply of valuable sine waves
|{{w|Fourier analysis}} can decompose any periodic function into a series of {{w|sine wave}}s. A {{w|square wave}} can thereby be represented as the sum of an infinite series of sine waves. However, the sine waves are not removed or separated individually, so such a {{w|Fourier transform}} does not produce a "supply" of sine waves for practical use in any tasks other than analysis, and as abstract mathematical objects exempt from the laws of supply and demand, their value is similarly limited.
|-
|Cut waste by buying lighter isotopes that don't have any dead-weight neutrons
|Chemical elements are identified by the number of protons in each atomic nucleus, equal to the number of electrons in their shell (unless the atom is ionized), which dictates most of their chemical behavior. {{w|Isotopes}} are variants of the element with different numbers of neutrons in the nucleus, among which chemical behavior is usually nearly identical. The comic suggests that the neutrons don't serve any useful purpose, so, in theory, if purchasing an element by weight, and its isotopes have the same price per unit weight, then you can save money by buying isotopes with no neutrons at all. In reality, the cost per unit weight for material containing a larger concentration of normally rare isotopes, such as {{w|heavy water}} or {{w|enriched uranium}}, is much higher than the cost of material containing isotopes in their ordinary proportions. (An exception is {{w|depleted uranium}}, which costs less than regular uranium because it is a byproduct of the production of enriched uranium.) In addition, a certain range of neutron quantity is needed to keep atoms stable, as atoms with too many or too few neutrons will decay more quickly than the common isotopes. The image shown is helium-2, an {{w|Isotopes of helium|isotope of helium}} which has a half-life of less than a nanosecond. It decays into two ionized hydrogen atoms, releasing a large amount of energy—hence the explosions mentioned in the title text.
|-
|Conductors are a great source of free electrons (may carry charges)
|{{w|Charge carrier|Free}} {{w|electron}}s are electrons that are not tightly bound to specific atoms so they can move freely, such as in {{w|conduction band}}s of the {{w|metallic bond}}s throughout the iron ingot depicted in the comic. Randall interprets "free" in a different sense, meaning no cost. The charges free electrons carry are electric, not monetary as implied by the pun.
|}

In the title text, Randall claims to have been banned from the county fair for handing out helium-2 balloons because of the instant massive explosions caused by its radioactive decay. He jokes they violated a local ordinance. Helium balloons are often given out at county fairs and similar events, but they are filled with helium-4 and therefore inert. A balloon filled with helium-2 is a practical impossibility because of its nanosecond half-life. Assuming a 12-inch diameter balloon at 1 atmosphere of pressure, the balloon-bomb would have a yield of roughly 17 {{w|TNT equivalent|tons of TNT equivalent}}.

{{cot|[[User:SqueakSquawk4|Calculations]]}}
{{User:SqueakSquawk4}} 
{{cob}}

The smallest nuclear bomb, the {{w|W54}}, had a yield of between 10 and 1,000 tons of TNT. The largest conventional bomb, the {{w|GBU-43/B MOAB}}, has a yield of roughly 11 tons. The {{w|2020 Beirut explosion}} was roughly equivalent to 500 tons. So, while the helium-2 balloon bomb would be larger than all conventional bombs, it would still be smaller than most nukes. Handing out what are effectively small atomic bombs at a county fair would not go down well with any surviving local authorities, so merely being banned is a very mild punishment. Criminal charges such as mass murder and terrorism would be more likely if it weren't for the absurd impossibility of the scenario.

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

:[Title]
:Physics Cost-Saving Tips

:[A diagramatical spinning disc, at an angle]
:[It is identified with an 'I', with a dotted axial arrow labelled 'L' and a rotational movement labelled 'ω' (small omega)]
:[It sits on the left, and to the right of this is text...]
:Try replacing regular vectors with pseudovectors whenever possible

:[A square wave with three maxima (between four minima), and arrows pointing down into a collection of five sine waves of different wavelengths]
:[One of the waves having the same frequency as the square wave and the rest of them are of shorter lengths with more peaks and troughs]
:[It sits on the right, and to the left of this is text...]
:A square wave can be broken down into an infinite supply of valuable sine waves

:[Two atomic models]
:[The left containing two protons (white with a "+" sign), two neutrons (black) and orbited by two electrons (small outlines, dotted orbits/movement lines), labelled below with the text of superscript atomic weight and element symbol]
:4He
:[The right model has just the two protons and the two electrons, labelled below with the text of an atomic weight and elemental symbol, and some subtext within brackets]
:2He
:(Decays fast - use quickly)
:[Both models sit on the left of the comic, and to the right is text...]
:Cut waste by buying lighter isotopes that don't have any dead-weight neutrons

:[A flat rectangular bar, drawn in perspective with a scattering of dots/small circles on the top face and on the forward-facing one the label]
:Iron
:[An arrow points to the dots, from the text...]
:Free electrons
:[It sits to the right, and there is text to the left...]
:Conductors are a great source of free electrons
:(May carry charges)

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Tips]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]

2639: Periodic Table Changes

2022-07-02T13:27:55Z

RandalSchwartz: His name is not spelled like mine. Fix typo "Randal"

{{comic
| number = 2639
| date = June 29, 2022
| title = Periodic Table Changes
| image = periodic_table_changes.png
| titletext = It's nice how the end of the periodic table is flush with the edge these days, so I think we should agree no one should find any new elements after #118 unless they discover a whole row at once.
}}

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

The {{w|periodic table}} is a table used to arrange {{w|chemical elements}} according to their chemical and physical properties. This comic proposes "changes" to the periodic table that would be more pleasant aesthetically or make the periodic table look more regular. Some of these are (somewhat) practical changes to element abbreviations that could improve clarity in English, though changing documents to use different abbreviations would probably be more trouble than it's worth. However, other changes move elements around without taking into account that elements would stop being arranged by their properties. The periodic table would stop being useful after such changes unless said changes were meant to physically change the material properties of the elements, which would be impossible{{citation needed}}, although the comic plans to solve the problem with "free training" to their atomic behavior.

Other modifications make up new elements or remove existing ones from the table, which would not be a reasonable decision given that the periodic table is supposed to include all existing elements, whether they make the table neater or they don't.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Proposed change !! Explanation
|-
|Move helium over here. It fits nicely!||Helium is moved from the upper right corner to the second column next to hydrogen. However, the reason it is placed at the far-right Group 18 and not Group 2 is because it is a {{w|noble gas}}, rather than a reactive {{w|alkaline earth metal}}. You could say helium is in group 2 because it has two electrons in its outer shell, but normal periodic tables place it in group 18, the noble gases, with which it has far more in common. Hydrogen has similar problems being in group 1, as it's a non-metal and the elements below it are metals which don't have much in common with it chemically. There are periodic tables that show hydrogen floating above the periodic table for that reason.

Group 18 was not known at the time of the original table, which used I-VII (1-7) for the otherwise full-height columns, which turns out to reflect the number of free ('valence') electrons in their outer 'orbit', in one useful understanding of the atomic model. When added, the new final column was called either VIII (having a full outer shell) or Group 0 (having none free) and placed to the right of VII. It was originally thought that these so-called "noble gases" (no relation to Alfred Nobel of explosives and science prize fame) were unable to react with other elements. However, xenon compounds were discovered in 1962, and many other {{w|noble gas compounds}} have been discovered since then under a variety of conditions.

From the fourth row downwards the inserted block of Transition Metals represent a larger electron shell with more positions for free electrons and those elements to the right would have more electrons than those above them, by this measure, but their physical properties are still best dictated and aligned by the complement to the valence (i.e. the gap-size). The current numbering system shows the outer-shell electrons accurately in the rows where the ten new columns are, but the upper rows of columns 13-18 have ten more (or sixteen more, for Helium) than is the case. Similarly, once lanthanides and actinides are considered, the group number and outer-shell count becomes disconnected again in the opposite way. But it still seems useful enough to currently label in this manner under current {{w|IUPAC}} guidance.
|-
|Elements in this corner are cool. Add more!|| TBD (to be determined). Elements in that corner, such as carbon, oxygen, phosphorous, and nitrogen, participate in covalent bonding and are the primary elements involved in biochemical reactions, which may be why they are considered cooler than other elements.
|-
|Sp (Spite element)||Wedged between fluorine and neon. This is a reference to spite houses, houses jammed into a narrow space to block other construction, or spite fences, which are fences built to annoy neighbors. However, such an element would have an atomic number greater than fluorine's (9) but less than neon's (10).
|-
|Merge these boring metals with titanium to make *tixanium*||Tixanium (Tx) replaces five metals, including titanium (Ti). This may be a reference to the term "UX" (user experience) being used instead of "UI" (user interface) as more of an umbrella term.

While titanium certainly has an impressive name, and is used in the aerospace industry and other high-performance applications, the others are hardly boring; manganese, for example, was part of the cover story for the top-secret {{w|Project Azorian}}.
|-

|Update Latin/Neo-Latin symbols to match names. This isn't ancient Rome.
* Sodium: Na (Natrium) => So
* Potassium: K (Kalium) => Pm
* Iron: Fe (Ferrum) => I
* Silver: Ag (Argentum) => Sv
* Gold: Au (Aurum) => Gd
* Tin: Sn (Stannum) => Tn
* Lead: Pb (Plumbum) => Ld
|Since I is already used for Iodine, it gets a new abbreviation Io, and Gadolinium is re-abbreviated to Gm to free up Gd.

Note that most of these changes will actually make the table less readable if one considers languages other than English. For example, in European languages, 'I' for iron will work for Irish and Dutch, while 'Fe' currently matches in French, Italian, Portuguese, and most of the languages in Spain. Similarly, Natrium is still used in most Germanic languages.

This group of changes doesn't include antimony (Sb -- stibium), but that’s because it gets replaced by “carbon III” (see below). Nor is copper changed from its "Cu" for "cuprum".
|-
|Replace the blander post-transition metals with new kinds of carbon||
* Indium (In) -> C II.
* Antimony (Sb) -> C III.
* Tellurium (Te) -> C IV.
* Thallium (Tl) -> C V.
* Bismuth (Bi) -> C VI.
Carbon can make four covalent bonds, which means it can form a huge range of chemicals, above all ones vital to life. The post-transition metals don't have this level of interest. If there were more chemicals like carbon, it could allow more exciting chemistry and perhaps new kinds of life.
|-
|That W annoys me|| Tungsten: W (Wolfram) -> Tg.

Another element whose symbol doesn't match its English name. "Wolfram" is the name for tungsten in some languages and is derived from the mineral wolframite, which comes from the name "wolf rām" in Middle High German (wolf soot).

Oddly, despite changing Latin and German abbreviations to English, Randall does not change the symbol for mercury (Hg from the Greek "hydrargyrum").

|-
|3.4% of all elements are named after Ytterby, Sweden (pop. 3,000). Let's keep Yttrium, but rename the other 3 after bigger cities (Tokyium, Delhium, and Jakartium?) to be more fair.
|Four elements -- yttrium (Y), ytterbium (Yb), terbium (Tb) and erbium (Er) -- are named after {{w|Ytterby}}, a Swedish village where they were discovered. Scandium (Sc), thulium (Tm), holmium (Ho) and gadolinium (Gd) were isolated from minerals found in the same quarry. Randall suggests naming 3 of them after some other major world cities, despite those cities having no connection to those elements.
* Terbium (Tb) -> Tokyium (Ty) - Tokyo
* Erbium (Er) -> Delhium (Dh) - Delhi
* Ytterbium (Yb) -> Jakartium (Jk) - Jakarta
Randall may be using using 2010 census data (2946); Ytterby mine is located on the island of Resarö, found under 0187TB103 in table [https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/environment/land-use/localities-and-urban-areas/pong/tables-and-graphs/localities-2020-population-land-area-population-density-per-locality/ MI0810], population 3212 (2020 census).

Interestingly, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov Isaac Asimov] made essentially the same remark in his science essay ''The Multiplying Elements'', saying that it was a waste of element names that could have been used to honor great contributors to chemistry. One obvious candidate would be [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moseley Henry Moseley] (mentioned in another of Asimov's essays, ''The Nobel Prize That Wasn't'') who used early X-ray spectroscopy to resolve the confusion over rare earth elements, finally put the Periodic Table on a firm ground and conceived the idea of "Atomic Number".
|-
|Inserting the lanthanides and actinides properly makes the table too wide. Triage is needed. Each element will be offered free training to help adjust to its new column.||Though the lanthanides and actinides typically are placed underneath the bottom of the table, they actually belong in the 6th and 7th rows of the table between the 2nd and 3rd columns, as they are numbered elements 57-70 and 89-102. This section of the table is typically excised to give the overall shape more appealing dimensions; including this section in the main table [https://sciencenotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PeriodicTableExtended.png extends the length dramatically]. This proves rather unwieldy especially when referencing the table for the lower-numbered elements, which are generally more common, and/or elements far to the sides of the table, which are often more influential in chemical reactions. Randall recommends that a subset of these elements be placed in a new row at the bottom of the table (making them elements 93-110) and they will receive "training" to adjust to their new columns.
|}

The title text suggests discovering elements only in entire rows at once. Elements with more protons than 118 could be discovered in future by collisions in particle accelerators, but aren't likely to be discovered in an entire row at a time.

Changing the periodic table was also the topic of [[2214: Chemistry Nobel]], and the red-ink style of "aesthetic" revision over a complex and established diagram is highly reminiscent of [[1902: State Borders]].

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

:Changes I would make to the periodic table
:[A modified periodic table is shown, with changes in red.]

:[Helium is moved from the upper right corner to the second column next to hydrogen.]
:Move helium over here. It fits nicely!
:[Two elements labeled TBD are added to the left of boron and aluminium.]
:Elements in this corner are cool. Add more!
:[A narrow triangular shape is wedged between fluorine and neon.]
:Sp (Spite element)
:[Tx replaces five elements: scandium, titanium, vanadium, chromium and manganese.]
:Merge these boring metals with titanium to make *tixanium*
:[The symbols of sodium, potassium, iron, silver, gold, tin and lead are changed to use letters from their English names.]
:Update Latin/Neo-Latin symbols to match names. This isn't ancient Rome.
:[The symbols of indium, antimony, tellurium, thallium and bismuth are changed to symbols containing the letter C followed by Roman numerals II to VI, respectively.]
:Replace the blander post-transition metals with new kinds of carbon
:[The symbol of tungsten is changed from W to Tg.]
:That W annoys me
:[Neodymium is highlighted.]
:Neodymium can stay—magnets are cool
:[A subset of lanthanides and actinides are to be placed under the bottom of the main table into a single row.]
:Move
:Inserting the lanthanides and actinides properly makes the table too wide. Triage is needed. Each element will be offered free training to help adjust to its new column.
:[The symbols of terbium, erbium and ytterbium are changed to Ty, Dh and Jk, respectively.]
:3.4% of all elements are named after Ytterby, Sweden (pop. 3,000). Let's keep yttrium, but rename the other 3 after bigger cities (tokyium, delhium, and jakartium?) to be more fair.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

Talk:2612: Lightsabers

2022-04-29T17:41:04Z

RandalSchwartz:

Not sure what's going on here. Are {{W|electric arcs}} what's happening between the lightsabers? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.207|172.70.242.207]] 12:48, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Could be based on properties of plasma? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 12:53, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Probably something like {{W|cold welding}}. The fields keeping the light saber beam coherent would not be able to differentiate between the two plasma beams, and would join together. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 13:22, 27 April 2022 (UTC)
:That's my take. The effect that confines the laser (to make it a [[1433: Lightsaber|handy length]], at the very least) is potentially too 'self-sticky', but certainly with that of the opposing blade after a bit of awkward cross-resonance. And then the deactivation/withdrawing (typoed that as "sithdrawing"!) still drags the other blade-tip inwards too. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 13:35, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

::My reaction: And THAT's why the two dueling Jedis should have different color of the blade! -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 19:47, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Very good job on the transcript (except a few minor grammar errors). I didn't envy someone trying to describe all the imagery. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:25, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Lots of comics about lightsabers. Maybe it's time to make a category for them? Many things got categories after just 4-5 appearaces. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.249|141.101.105.249]] 17:20, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

This is potentially inspired by a scene from Spaceballs where two lightsabers "tangle", although in thta scene they don't actually connect. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.134|141.101.104.134]] 19:11, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

I see your Schwartz is almost as big as mine.
: Like I've never used that line before. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 17:41, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

In panels 10 and 11, the bodies seem to cast shadows on the ground. I don't recall seeing this previously on XKCD, is this the first time? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.249|141.101.105.249]] 19:58, 27 April 2022 (UTC)
: I think that's just to indicate that they are off the ground (having been yanked in the air by the lightsaber contracting). Unsurprisingly, depictions of people in mid-air are fairly uncommon. (Before I got bored and gave up) I found 9 examples since comic 2000 - approximately 1 in every 68. Four are levitating, through either advanced technology (https://xkcd.com/2485/ https://xkcd.com/2222/) or mystical powers (https://xkcd.com/2193/ https://xkcd.com/2180/), and in four it's already clear from the context that they're off the ground, because of their actions (https://xkcd.com/2343/ https://xkcd.com/2291/), or from other cues (https://xkcd.com/2148/ https://xkcd.com/2106/). The ninth (https://xkcd.com/2022/) uses the same convention as the current comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.237|162.158.34.237]] 11:21, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

== That’s not what’s happening ==

“In this situation one Jedi tries to shake the beam, maybe to break the bond, but instead the wave travels down the combined beam to also shake the other Jedi's hand-held hilt.”

Nuh uh. One tries to shake loose, then the other tries, also. Why do people make up complex explanations for obvious simple things?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 20:07, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

: Strongly agree. I guess either interpretation is possible, but this seems obvious to me, so I’ve changed the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.54.65|172.70.54.65]] 15:16, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Reminds me of the ''Priori Incantatem'' stuff in Harry Potter where wands with the same core source connect with each other :)
: My first thought was 'This is why you "don't cross the streams."'
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:57, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

== Reverted from vandalism ==
The most recent edits were all converting the explanation to "pig latin". (No explanation in English.) I've undone them. If it gets vandalized again, please address that? [/br]
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:57, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
:I just reverted the pig Latin twice. Can someone block our IP vandal, please? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 22:01, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
::Just did another reversal. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 22:04, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
:::What exactly is going on with the edit summaries they're sending? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.221|141.101.98.221]] 22:10, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
::::Trying to get a sort of ransom out us apparently. We’re not doing that of course. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 22:18, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
:::::Apparently we did, sort of. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.211|172.70.90.211]] 22:32, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
::::::Wouldn’t say so. We did nothing but undo edits, having no regard for any demands. Eventually the user took measures to fulfill his own demands and called that a win 💁🏻 [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 22:40, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
:::::::I've been noticing quite a bit of vandalism recently (page blanking, "disaster"/"last xkcd", and now pig Latin). Is there any way to stop this? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.33|172.70.178.33]] 03:29, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
::::::::I'm done vandalizing this page, because I got the emoji I wanted. --[[User:🎄|🎄]] ([[User talk:🎄|talk]]) 04:38, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
:::::::::And no doubt you'll be back to vandalise something ''else'', later, because you're pathetic and imagine you've discovered a new game that only you have the skill and wit to accomplish. Pathetic and predictable. But small things amuse small minds... See you next Tuesday, I'm sure. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.135|141.101.98.135]] 08:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

2527: New Nobel Prizes

2021-10-12T21:35:57Z

RandalSchwartz: No, he has two L's

{{comic
| number = 2527
| date = October 11, 2021
| title = New Nobel Prizes
| image = new_nobel_prizes.png
| titletext = They've endowed a separate prize in Physiology or Medicine or Stopping Dr. Adams.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE OR STOPPING DOCTOR ADAMS - This explanation may be incomplete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The {{w|Nobel Prize}} is a set of prizes awarded in memory of Alfred Nobel to, "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind."

In this comic a Nobel prize is being awarded for the discovery of two new Nobel prizes. This parallels [[2214:_Chemistry_Nobel|Nobel Prizes awarded for the discovery of new elements]]. However, unlike elements, Nobel Prizes cannot be discovered.

The comic suggests that the doctor being awarded the prize came up with the idea of "discovering" Nobel Prizes, and no one can figure out how to stop awarding them to her.
In reality, the categories were established by Alfred Nobel's will for contributions or discoveries in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. In 1968, Sweden's central bank funded an award for economics in honor of its 300th anniversary that is also colloquially called the Nobel Prize in Economics. While there is currently a petition to add a Nobel prize for contributions to environmental conservation, it would presumably also need external funding, although the decision process is unclear.

The title text is a play on the {{w|Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine}}, insinuating that the {{w|Nobel Assembly}} (the group in charge of awarding Nobel Prizes) has become so desperate to stop Doctor Adams that they have decided to award a Nobel Prize to anyone who can stop them. The joke also plays on the name of the said prize, because as of the writing of this comic the {{w|Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine}} is the only Nobel Prize with two subjects (e.g. with "or" in the title). This may also be a jab by Randall at the fields of Physiology and Medicine, as poking fun at other disciplines is a recurring theme on xkcd.

This comic was published on the Monday the week following the announcements of the 2021 Nobel Prize recipients.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan stands at a podium on a stage, facing right. Behind her is a screen showing eight Nobel Prizes. Ponytail is approaching the front of the stage while waving.]
:Megan: And all eight Nobel Prizes for the Discovery of New Nobel Prizes have been awarded to...
:Megan: ''*sigh*''
:Megan: ...Doctor Adams, '''''again''''', for the discovery of two new Prizes.
:Ponytail: Thank you, thank you!

:[Caption below frame:]
:We don't know how she started this and now we can't figure out how to stop her.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Science]]

2435: Geothmetic Meandian

2021-03-12T00:24:04Z

RandalSchwartz: there should be a filter for this. it's Randall, unlike my name.

{{comic
| number = 2435
| date = March 10, 2021
| title = Geothmetic Meandian
| image = geothmetic_meandian.png
| titletext = Pythagorean means are nice and all, but throwing the median in the pot is really what turns this into random forest statistics: applying every function you can think of, and then gradually dropping the ones that make the result worse.
}}

==Explanation==

There are a number of different ways to identify the '{{w|average}}' value of a series of values, the most common unweighted methods being the {{w|median}} (take the central value from the ordered list of values if there are an odd number - or the value half-way between the two that straddle the divide between two halves if there are an even number) and the {{w|arithmetic mean}} (add all the numbers up, divide by the number of numbers). The {{w|geometric mean}} is less well-known but works similarly to the arithmetic mean. To take the geometric mean of 'n' values, they are multiplied and then the 'n'th root is taken. It will be seen that for purely identical values this returns the single value as the singular average, as would the arithmetic calculation with serial addition then re-division, but it reacts differently to any perturbed values. You might also consider operating arithmetically upon logarithms of the list, then re-exponate the result.

The geometric mean, arithmetic mean and {{w|harmonic mean}} (not shown) are collectively known as the {{w|Pythagorean means}}, as specific modes of a greater and more generalised mean formula that extends arbitrarily to various other possible nuances of mean-value rationisations (cubic, etc).

{{w|Outlier}}s and internal biases within the original sample can make boiling down a set of values into a single 'average' sometimes overly biased by flaws in the data, with your choice of which method to use perhaps resulting in a value that is misleading, exagerating or suppressing the significance of any blips.



In this depiction, the three named methods of averaging are embedded within a single function that produces a sequence of three values - one output for each of the methods. Being a series of values, Randall suggests that this is ideally suited to being ''itself'' subjected to the comparative 'averaging' method. Not just once, but as many times as it takes to narrow down to a sequence of three values that are very close to one another.

It can be shown that the xkcd value of 2.089 for GMDN(1,1,2,3,5) is validated:

{|-
| F0 || 1 || 1 || 2 || 3 || 5
|-
| || Ave || Geomean || Median ||
|-
| F1 || 2.4 || 1.974350486 || 2
|-
| F2 || 2.124783495 || 2.116192461 || 2
|-
| F3 || 2.080325319 || 2.079536819 || 2.116192461
|-
| F4 || 2.0920182 || 2.091948605 || 2.080325319
|-
| F5 || 2.088097374 || 2.088090133 || 2.091948605
|-
| F6 || 2.089378704 || 2.089377914 || 2.088097374
|-
| F7 || 2.088951331 || 2.088951244 || 2.089377914
|-
| F8 || 2.089093496 || 2.089093487 || 2.088951331
|-
| F9 || 2.089046105 || 2.089046103 || 2.089093487
|-
| F10 || '''2.089061898''' || '''2.089061898''' || '''2.089046105'''
|}

The function GMDN in the comic is properly defined since F acts on a vector to produce another three vector, so repeated applications of F will always result in a 3 vector for which the ave, geomean and median can be iterated again. Each row shows the set Fn(..) composed of the average, geomean and median computed on the previous row, with the sequence {1,1,2,3,5} as the initial F0. Since the average, geomean and median are all forms of averaging, and the composition of averages can be shown to be equivalent to a smoothing function, the value of GMDN will converge to a singular value for any set of starting values. This can be interpreted as similar to a heat equation which approaches equilibrium.

The comment in the title text about suggests that this will save you the trouble of committing to the 'wrong' analysis as it gradually shaves down any 'outlier average' that is unduly affected by anomalies in the original inputs. It is a method without any danger of divergence of values, since all three averaging methods stay within the interval covering the input values (and two of them will stay strictly within that interval).

The title text may also be a sly reference to an actual mathematical theorem, namely that if one performs this procedure only using the arithmetic mean and the harmonic mean, the result will converge to the geometric mean. Randall suggests that the (non-Pythagorean) median, which does not have such good mathematical properties with relation to convergence, is, in fact, the secret sauce in his definition.

There does exist an {{w|arithmetic-geometric mean}}, which is defined identically to this except with the arithmetic and geometric means, and sees some use in calculus. In some ways it's also philosophically similar to the {{w|truncated mean}} (extremities of the value range, e.g. the highest and lowest 10%s, are ignored as not acceptable and not counted) or {{w|Winsorized mean}} (instead of ignored, the values are readjusted to be the chosen floor/ceiling values that they lie beyond, to still effectively be counted as 'edge' conditions), only with a strange dilution-and-compromise method rather than one where quantities can be culled or neutered just for being unexpectedly different from most of the other data.

The following python code (inefficiently) implements the above algorithm:

<pre>
from functools import reduce
from itertools import count

def f(*args):
args = sorted(args)
mean = sum(args) / len(args)
gmean = reduce(lambda x, y: x * y, args) ** (1 / len(args))
if len(args) % 2:
median = args[len(args) // 2]
else:
median = (args[len(args) // 2] + args[len(args) // 2 - 1]) / 2
return mean, gmean, median

max_number_of_iterations = 10
l0 = [1, 1, 2, 3, 5]
l = l0
for iterations in range(max_number_of_iterations):
fst, *rest = l
if all((abs(r - fst) < 0.00000001 for r in rest)):
break
l = f(*l)
print(l[0], iterations)
</pre>

And here is an implementation of the Gmdn function in R:

Gmdn <- function (..., threshold = 1E-6) {
# Function F(x) as defined in comic
f <- function (x) {
n <- length(x)
return(c(mean(x), prod(x)^(1/n), median(x)))
}
# Extract input vector from ... argument
x <- c(...)
# Iterate until the standard deviation of f(x) reaches a threshold
while (sd(x) > threshold) x <- f(x)
# Return the mean of the final triplet
return(mean(x))
}

The input sequence of numbers (1,1,2,3,5) chosen by Randall is also the opening of the {{w|Fibonacci sequence}}. This may have been selected because the Fibonacci sequence also has a convergent property: the ratio of two adjacent numbers in the sequence approaches the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio#Relationship_to_Fibonacci_sequence golden ratio] as the length of the sequence approaches infinity.

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

F(x1,x2,...xn)=({x1+x2+...+xn/n [bracket: arithmetic mean]},{nx,x2...xn, [bracket: geometric mean]} {x n+1/2 [bracket: median]})

Gmdn(x1,x2,...xn)={F(F(F(...F(x1,x2,...xn)...)))[bracket: geothmetic meandian]}

Gmdn(1,1,2,3,5) [equals about sign] 2.089

Caption: Stats tip: If you aren't sure whether to use the mean, median, or geometric mean, just calculate all three, then repeat until it converges

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

User:RandalSchwartz

2021-01-29T01:48:52Z

RandalSchwartz: Created page with "Yeah, '''that''' Randal Schwartz."

Yeah, '''that''' Randal Schwartz.

Talk:2417: 1/1,000th Scale World

2021-01-29T01:47:41Z

RandalSchwartz: clarify even/odd rules.

Just for reference: the maths to scale down the Niagara Falls flow an convert from cubic feet to cubic centimeters:
<pre>
> 1e5*(.3048)^3*1000^2/(1e3)^3
[1] 2.831685
> 1e5*(.3048)^3*1000^2/(1e3)^3/2
[1] 1.415842
</pre>
American editors may want to adapt the formulas to add the numbers in cubic inches.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 18:29, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

do we have a category for these small scale world comics if not we might want to discuss that. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.246|162.158.75.246]] 18:51, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

Based on the original Star Trek canon, I believe it more than reasonable to say that all of the Enterprises would be able to operate at least partially submerged, but I would be very worried about a scale aircraft carrier breaking in two if lifted. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.115|162.158.62.115]] 20:56, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

Tensile/shear strength works on cross-section, so would be proportional to the square of the scale, not the cube. A scaled-down Golden Gate Bridge would only support a millionth of the full load, not a billionth, so the proportional load is only 0.3 of a person. (And it basically wouldn't have to support itself, which, as it turns out, takes care of most of the remaining part.) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.117|162.158.183.117]] 22:07, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

Neutrino Detector/Observatory seem to be 2 different things? one under an icesheet, one in tunnels? Some light should be shed on what they are, where they are, wether the ice sheet is to scale, etc. Also why the implication of the neutrino detector being functional ("The fact that people are not supposed to create false positives implies that the neutrino detector is functional.") - also: The no hot stuff on the ice could be just about not melting the ice and therefore destroying the model, instead of messing with the detectors... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:25, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Only particles that travel faster than the speed of light (in ice) will emmit Cherenkov light, so the part about the "hot objects" is incorrect. What is shown here is the IceCube observatory, whose main detector part are the "strings" with "DOMs" buried deep down in the ice (between about 1500m and 2500m below the surface) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.213|141.101.69.213]] 08:45, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

I find that the zeppelin part doesn't make much sense (in the comic, not the explanation) as modern zeppelins are filled with helium rather than hydrogen... even "classic" zeppelins were filled with helium if available. The resaon for the Hindenburg not being filled with helium but hydrogen was a ban on helium exports by the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_129_Hindenburg#Use_of_hydrogen_instead_of_helium [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 09:04, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Would have been interesting if he had put a shipwreck on the ocean floor next to Cueball with the warning/reminder, "Do not try to raise the Titanic." [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 09:46, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

In the upper left corner of the comic there is a girl with a "Mickey Mouse" and perhaps cornrows hairstyle. Is she black? Does Randal have other black characters in any of the comics?
[[User:Punchcard|Punchcard]] ([[User talk:Punchcard|talk]])
:I thought that was Science Girl...looks like her in [[1058]]. [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 15:35, 28 January 2021 (UTC)
== Order of comics ==

I wonder why he posted this one after the 1/10,000 and 1/100,000 comics instead of publishing them in order. My thought is maybe he worked on them simultaneously but this one wasn't ready, or maybe he made this one because he felt the response to the previous two was positive. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.11|172.69.68.11]] 23:50, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

== Small planes ==

I was fascinated by the east/west layers shown under "Watch for small planes". I assume this is in reference to actual US FAA and/or global practices? And of course the next question that occurs to me is what about planes flying due north or due south? Can anyone fill in some notes on this? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.18|108.162.245.18]] 01:12, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

:Global. Well, not entirely universal, but common for lot of countries. See {{w|Flight level#Semicircular/hemispheric_rule|Semicircular Flight Level rule}}. Apparently, New Zealand, Italy and Portugal prefer to divide by North/South but most countries use West/East. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:34, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

:Any aircraft with a heading from 0° to 179° is considered to be flying "east", and one with a heading anywhere from 180° to 359° is considered to be flying west. (Headings get rounded to nearest degree, so nobody flies at 359.5°.) Traffic headed east flies at odd flight levels (31,000 ft, 33,000 ft, etc.) while traffic heading west flies at even flight levels (30,000 ft, 32,000 ft, etc.) -- [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.132|172.68.174.132]] 03:38, 28 January 2021 (UTC)
:: This is sensible (required?) for VFR flights below the flight levels, where the even/odd rules are followed. Up in the PCA, you just fly at whatever level makes ATC happy. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 01:47, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

==Girl in the background==
I don't get the girl sitting at top left. What is she sitting on?
:It's the {{w|Antarctic ice sheet}}. Big, innit? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.20|141.101.76.20]] 22:27, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

::But why is she up in the atmosphere?

:::She's not. She's sitting on top of the ice sheet. [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]])

:::The sheet averages 1.6km thick (1.6 scaled metres) or maybe more. But in places ''significantly'' more. The weight of ice can be depressing the ground beneath by greater than a couple of km. The detector array is (at the surface infrastructure) 2800m ASL with variously 1.5-2.5km of string-holes dangled down into the ice-cap. Comparing with Cueball, if brought away from wading in the ocean, that makes him slightly taller than I'd have guessed. (How you can see this - in the same view as the Golden Gate, all those cork-tipped buildings and other stuff - is an issue with the model layout rather than scale.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.126|141.101.77.126]] 01:43, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2366: Amelia's Farm Fresh Cookies

2020-10-01T21:16:22Z

RandalSchwartz: get the L outta there!

32841 is not a valid zip code. I'm also dubious that the town/city name is Orlando. Sure, it probably does start with an O (and not a cursive A, since the street name has a capital A to show the way the letter should look), but it certainly doesn't continue on long enough to be Orlando, especially with no ascending stroke for the 'd' and not appearing to end with a round shape for a letter like 'o'. It appears to me to be more of an n/m/r final letter. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.14|162.158.75.14]] 23:19, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

:Ah, that's what I get for just punching "32841 zip code" into Google and seeing Orlando FL come up. The closest-looking valid zip code I can find that's still in Orlando is 32891; fixed the transcript. The end of the word Orlando just seems intended to be generic squiggles not actually matching any letters, like almost everything after the Ingredients label. If you can find another town/city in FL that starts with O and has a similar-looking enough zip code, go for it. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 23:59, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

::All zip codes that begin 328 are in Orlando. 32841 specifically is not in use. [[User:Silverpie|Silverpie]] ([[User talk:Silverpie|talk]]) 02:12, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I don't see that the mouse-over suggests an escalation as described. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 00:23, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:I saw it as "had address on packaging, just so; grandma starts campaign of complaints to give granddaughter a similar experience; granddaughter suggests stopping original action if that would stop granny's retalation; (but apparently an armistice purely on those terms is not acceptable to Big-G)" - But there's other interpretations, I'll admit. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.154|141.101.98.154]] 00:45, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
::That's how I saw it too -- no suggestion that the package didn't originally have the address. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 01:17, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Isn't this a reference to the Annie's brand?
:"Annie Withey believed it was possible to build a socially conscious and successful business. This was her mission in 1989, when she wrote her name, address, and phone number on the very first boxes of Annie’s Mac and Cheese. Her legacy lives on as Annie’s strives to change the future for our kids, starting with food." per https://www.annies.com/our-mission/ . So maybe? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:59, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I didn't get the clues pointing that it's a package and mistakenly thought it was a cooking recipe web page. Many sites feel obliged to precede the recipe with a personal story on the food, which distracts from what the reader wants -- the recipe itself. I'd been a good comic as well if it was a pun on that. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.94.50|172.68.94.50]] 03:44, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
: I didn't interpret it as a package of the cookies, either. To me it looked like the company's ("Amelia's Farm") website and I interpreted the "nutrition facts" table as the site's menu. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:35, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
::For readers in the USA, it's more obviously a Nutritional Facts box - the varied weight of horizontal lines and the Percentage (%) symbol at the end of each line is standard.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 21:04, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Anyone else think the additional squiggles at the bottom left include a circle K (Kosher) and Parve (containing neither meat nor milk) which would be plausible for cookies (and could easily anger some grandmothers)? If so, is it worth adding to the transcript?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.212|108.162.219.212]] 12:10, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
: On magnification, it just looks like random squiggles to me. The letter in the circle looks like a lowercase "i", which is not (as far as I know) the symbol for any kosher certification. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 13:42, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Upon reading the address I immediately thought that the city was Orlando and that granny's name was "Wanda Munroe". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.43|162.158.74.43]] 13:16, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Per the editing FAQ, we use the smaller version of the comic here. But perhaps we should always include a link to the high-res version when one is available? Though it doesn't quite fit under either "Transcript" or "Explanation". [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:44, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I think the city's actually Ocala and Randal didn't even try to match the city to the zip code. (Too many L's!) [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 21:16, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2347: Dependency

2020-08-19T05:56:58Z

RandalSchwartz: Add link to interview with NTP's author/maintanier.

I worked for the Linux Foundation on the Core Infrastructure Initiative supporting OpenSSL and other projects. The one that scared me was Expat the XML parser maintained by two people on alternate Sunday afternoons assuming no other distractions. We did get funding for a test suite. Joe Biden was a supporter of LF and CII and was going to host a fund raiser for us at the White House until a perverse result.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.222|141.101.98.222]] 22:46, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

== Relevance of Imagemagick? ==

Could someone perhaps add to the explanation an explanation of how this applies to Imagemagick (as mentioned in the title text)? —[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.174|108.162.219.174]] 22:58, 17 August 2020 (UTC)
:I don't use it myself, but it is a very versatile standalone utility that does a lot through command-line (batched) processing or can be accessed through actual API interface (I use GIMP tools that way, in automation, when not using it directly as a manual interface, but I understand there's a lot of love out there for IM). There's potentially untold uses for that, hidden in the background of other applications. If it disappeared or changed in just the wrong way, could perhaps half the CAPTCHA dialogues suddenly break? Could a self-driving car company find its vehicles are suddenly blind? We might suddenly have so many fewer Doge memes! (Wow! Much up-to-datedness! So topical!).
: In Randall's (or his characters') world, that is. In our world, I see someone mentioned Leftpad in the Explanation, which probably needs more Explanation (or else wikilinking) but is an interesting thing that actually happened in our world, albeit not ''quite'' armagg3don for society... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.131|162.158.154.131]] 23:22, 17 August 2020 (UTC)
: Imagemagick is the de-facto standard for Image processing. Since the 90's engineers were either adding support for new formats to ImageMagick or adding new language bindings for ImageMagick. This resulted in a single library that is available on almost every server and desktop platform and can read and write almost every image format. Using imageMagick is sometimes unwieldly. e.g. on nodeJS it actually spawns a sub-process to run imagemagick. But it is still the de-facto (and the only practical) choice in most cases.--[[User:Deepjoy|Deepjoy]] ([[User talk:Deepjoy|talk]]) 00:24, 18 August 2020 (UTC)
:: I would put emphasis on the "almost every image format" ... there are lot of alternative image libraries, but most only support handful of formats (often just jpeg, png and gif). Meanwhile, I suspect not even Gimp supports as many formats as ImageMagick ... and, of course, Gimp is not really usable as library OR for shelling-out. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:43, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

== from the late 2010s onwards? ==

I'm pretty sure re-use and modularization was a thing long before then. Maybe it got more popular in the 2010s, but it's been around since at least the '70s.
: The ideal of reusable code libraries has been around for nearly ever, but except for some popular Fortran statistics libraries I don't think it achieved widespread achievement until much later, e.g. CPAN. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 03:25, 18 August 2020 (UTC)p

The timezone database (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database#History) has been around since 1986. libc in various forms has been around as long as C has. Reuse and modularity is a fundamental principle of software engineering, and not an invention of the last few years. I'd just remove any mention of date.
: I think it's relatively recent that you can delete a file from one Web server and everything on the internet breaks. Dependencies are one thing, dependency on live updated resources is new. Because it's rather a bad idea. Incidentally overall... I think today's comic needs to be explained slower. Most people in the world are very unfamiliar with these concepts. Although coronavirus responses have taught a lot of us about "supply chains" that put stuff into shops for us to buy. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.87|141.101.69.87]] 10:18, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

:: While libc in various forms has been around as long as C has, it was never SINGULAR. Every version of C compiler had it's own version of C library maintained by different people. Even now there are alternatives to GNU libc. The timezone database might be better example. Also, reuse and modularity is fundamental principle, but reusing code maintained by someone else in project with bigger staff than that of such code is relatively recent. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:48, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

== This has happened before ==

It may be worth mentioning a case where this actually happened, like https://www.theregister.com/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/ [[Special:Contributions/141.101.97.101|141.101.97.101]] 01:03, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

One particularly big risk that instantly came to mind is the timezone database, which is maintained by volunteers yet underpins basically everything: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database#Maintenance

I remember hearing about this a few years back at a Linux Foundation conference - the NTP daemon was underfunded (as I recall) and the one person maintaining it was struggling to pay bills. Losing NTP breaks an awful lot of things.... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.167|162.158.107.167]] 19:48, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

: I see this was [https://www.infoworld.com/article/3144546/time-is-running-out-for-ntp.html problem in 2016] ... I'm not able to find any update on the situation ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:10, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

:: [https://twit.tv/shows/floss-weekly/episodes/350 Nice long interview with Harlan Stenn, author/maintainer of NTP]. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 05:56, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

== Some random person in Nebraska ==

Is the reference to a random person in Nebraska totally arbitrary, or is it a reference to someone in particular?

Also, it would be good to have examples of heavily used projects with very small (especially one person) maintainer teams. OpenSSL definitely comes to mind, from what I have read. [[User:Stevage|Stevage]] ([[User talk:Stevage|talk]]) 01:49, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

Nebraska came up in 1667, "Algorithms" as well.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.33|162.158.79.33]] 02:22, 18 August 2020 (UTC)
:Nebraska is... Well, I'm sure some Nebraskonians might have a more fully-fleshed out and accurate opinion of its subtleties, depth of culture(s?) and Diety-given geographic artisanship but viewed from further afield it is one of the contenders for "miles and miles of not much going on", or similar, peopled by people that largely live within that promise.
:It may be just a [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Power_Cable meme of such a generality], as a brief look at a {{w|List_of_people_from_Nebraska|list of people from Nebraska}} tends to support the hypothesis that the ones who became significant (Astair, Brando, Carson...) probably did so only once they left.
:OTOH, there are (at least) four computing pioneers/developers mentioned among them, creator or authors of significant 'products', and maybe {{w|Sketchpad|one of these}} matches the (intellectual) dependency meme quite well - other than being written in Massachusetts. Or {{w|Blogger_(service)|this one}}, though that might have been LA-baked, maybe?
:I learnt [[1053|some interesting things]] when investigating this issue, just now. Cheers! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.142|108.162.229.142]] 09:54, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

== Microservices reference ==
Microservices reference is not related to this comic, as ImageMagick is monolith application. Also microservices are way of operating and deploying web services, not utility apps.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.177|162.158.103.177]] 07:56, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

:ImageMagick is a library. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:50, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

== The Thirty Million Line Problem ==
See [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRE7HIO3vk The Thirty Million Line Problem]. Randall's drawing looks like a house of cards on the verge of collapse. In the video, Casey talks about how the lack of a "hardware ISA" causes critical software (like OS'es and browsers) to bloat like crazy (a "hardware ISA" would be a standard for how hardware works, just like the x86 ISA is a standard for how an x86 CPU works, that both AMD and Intel agrees on). Also, he mentions how fragile and broken software is due to this "Thirty Million Line" bloat.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.167|162.158.107.167]] 19:48, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

:Based on [https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/8iyqk9/the_thirty_million_line_problem/ related discussion], that's a VERY bad video: he may have a point, but it takes VERY long time before he gets to it. I'm not going to watch it that long myself. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:03, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

== "Famous" Left Pad Incident ==
The "famous" left-pad incident in JavaScript's package manager could use some elaboration for those of us for which it isn't. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.89|162.158.107.89]] 02:42, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

2201: Foucault Pendulum

2019-09-12T20:08:17Z

RandalSchwartz: /* Trivia */ add OMSI reference

{{comic
| number = 2201
| date = September 11, 2019
| title = Foucault Pendulum
| image = foucault_pendulum.png
| titletext = Trust me, you don't want to get on the wrong side of the paramilitary enforcement arm of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Black Hat]] is attending what appears to be a physics lecture. The professor, [[Megan]], is talking about the {{w|Foucault pendulum}}, a device which demonstrates the rotation of the Earth. Black Hat, being himself, sees an opportunity to cause chaos and seizes it with both hands, quite literally - that is, he grabs the pendulum. The professor objects strongly to this, seemingly for fear of ruining the delicate demonstration. However, the news anchor in the final panel reveals to us that by arresting the motion of the pendulum, Black Hat has somehow stopped the rotation of the Earth. This of course is blatantly impossible since the Foucault pendulum's motion is tied to the earth's rotation, not the other way around.

A Foucault pendulum swings from a bearing that allows rotation in any direction, like your shoulder joint instead of your elbow. If the Earth were stationary, it would continue to swing in the same plane as when it was released. However, because the Earth moves beneath it, over the course of the day the pendulum's motion gradually changes direction relative to the room. The low-resistance bearing doesn't allow the rotation of the Earth to affect the motion of the pendulum, so it stays aligned to its original inertial reference frame rather than the rotating one of the Earth.

The fact that the Earth's rotation does not influence the motion of the pendulum does NOT mean that other things can't affect it - for example, by running up and manually repositioning the pendulum. Of course, the apparent rotation of the pendulum's plane relative to the Earth is an effect of the planet's motion, rather than the cause of it. Thus, stopping a Foucault pendulum manually does not entail pausing the rotation of the Earth.

If it were somehow possible for a Foucault pendulum to control Earth's rotation, Black Hat would probably not want to alter the momentum of the pendulum, unlike most cases where he causes chaos (assuming he was told that it was related to Earth's rotation and assuming that he would prefer to preserve his own life over making chaos). The reason why is because if the rotation of Earth were to be stopped for even very short amounts of time (a few seconds), it would cause everything on Earth that wasn't bolted/fastened to the ground to be sent flying eastward (assuming they are near the Equator) at a speed of 300-360 meters per second, likely causing the death of most lifeforms on Earth within an hour or less, and causing massive windstorms, tsunamis, volcanic and tectonic events on a scale not previously observed on Earth. This would likely cause a mass extinction event and wipe out 99% of humanity in the initial events (which would eventually lead to our extinction). It is possible that Black Hat's grabbing the pendulum would cause a gradual slowing prior to stopping, minimizing the issue (though this doesn't seem to be the case), but the results would still be catastrophic, as the aforementioned events are still likely to occur (specifically the tsunamis and volcanic events). If the earth were to become tidally locked with the sun, it would begin to heat up the side that is facing the sun, and cool down the side that is facing away from the sun, which over a period of several years to decades, would cause the solar side to resemble Venus, and the cool side resembling Pluto. However, there could still be a band of habitability near the twilight zone. The gases from the cool side would condense and create a vacuum, pulling hot air from the solar side, which would continue the storms that initially happened in the moments that earth stopped. It is noted that earth's inner core would eventually stop over a few millennia to a few million years, at which point, our magnetic field would stop being generated and decay to a level similar to Mars over a period of a few hundred million years. By the end of the ordeal, earth would barely resemble what it used to look like.

Randall covered this scenario in detail in his [https://io9.gizmodo.com/xkcds-creator-explains-what-would-happen-if-earth-stopp-1625068208 What If] book.

The title text refers to a (probably) fictional paramilitary enforcement arm of the [https://www.iers.org/IERS/EN/Home/home_node.html International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service] and the foolishness of tangling with such a force. If Foucault pendulums were somehow able to influence the rotation of the Earth in any measurable way, the IERS enforcers would probably strictly control their installation and monitor their use (and misuse). Black Hat is likely in for a rough day.

==Trivia==
The Foucault Pendulum in this comic strongly resembles that in the Museum of Science in Boston (both in shape and the way it is knocking over the pegs).
And the one that was in the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry for many years. I suspect there's really only one way to build it.

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

:[Cueball, Black Hat, Ponytail, and Megan are standing next to a large swinging sphere on a pendulum with markers under it; Megan is pointing at it.]

:Megan: This Foucault pendulum demonstrates Earth's rotation. It stays in a fixed plane while the Earth rotates under it.

:[Close-up on Black Hat]

:Black Hat: Hmm, really. So that means...

:[Close-up on Black Hat and pendulum; Black Hat grabs pendulum, and a line points from the pendulum saying "GRAB!"]

:Character out of panel: Hey!

:Character out of panel: Stop him!

:[Blondie is standing next to Black Hat's picture in an inset frame, captioned with "BREAKING NEWS."]

:News Anchor: The Earth's rotation was briefly halted today until geophysicists wrestled the intruder to the ground...

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:2199: Cryptic Wifi Networks

2019-09-08T17:42:17Z

RandalSchwartz: Add linksys

Reminds me of [https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Doctor-Who-Wifi-SSIDs.jpg these] :) [[User:BytEfLUSh|BytEfLUSh]] ([[User talk:BytEfLUSh|talk]]) 00:17, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

It would be nice to check to see if this SSID exists already (using LocationAPI.org, Combain Positioning Service, Google location services, Wiggle, etc.). Could also be interesting to track use of this SSID over time. Of course takes a while for any changes to show up in the search engines. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.166|108.162.245.166]] 02:17, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

:Is there a way to make a https://github.com/freifunk/openwifimap-api/blob/master/API.md query out of a URL? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.82|162.158.255.82]] 14:45, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

Soon those names will be e.g. "StarLink_6514". ;) [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:46, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

Could the 46UHZ be a reference to the frequency band, i.e. 5GHz? Maybe this WiFi network was originally configured to operate on an unknown-to-us 46μHz band. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.88|172.68.38.88]] 18:49, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

: 46 microHz would be in the submarine communications area. Unlikely to exist on a mountain top.

I live in the middle of the forest, even in the winter when there are no leaves to block the way there's only one house even within sight, and yet there are five 802.11* networks in my scan right now. I mean, they're all mine, but still...—[[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 23:09, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

"a character with a knit cap is on top of a high mountain in a remote location. He sees" How do we know that Knit Cap is a "he"? We don't, actually . . . . [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.136|162.158.214.136]] 12:19, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

My favorite ISP is linksys! [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 17:42, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2132: Percentage Styles

2019-04-03T19:44:03Z

RandalSchwartz:

The only proper style for Britain and the US is ‘%65’. [[User:Aasasd|Aasasd]] ([[User talk:Aasasd|talk]]) 16:20, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
:O RLY? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.52|108.162.241.52]] 16:37, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

:: Yes. You don't write ‘65$’, do you? British/US standards should be followed properly and consistently. [[User:Aasasd|Aasasd]] ([[User talk:Aasasd|talk]]) 17:19, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

::I've definitely seen %NN stated by style guides, but I almost never see anybody using it, because reading it aloud encourages saying it as "percent sixty-five". Oddly, people seem to have no trouble remembering to write $65 instead of 65$, despite the same "dollars sixty-five" vs "sixty-five dollars" vocalization issue. Perhaps it's because we often see things like $65.95 but %65.95 is used less often? Writing 65.95% is potentially ambiguous depending on how it's read out loud: "sixty-five point ninety-five percent" could definitely be misinterpreted very easily. 65.95$ is definitely not ideal, & $65.95¢ is somehow even worse. How about 65$.95¢? ''';S'''
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:08, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

----
There's also 65/100, 65:100, <math>\textstyle\frac{65}{100}</math>, sixtyfive-hundreth, 0.65, and point sixty-five. Benny. 16:41, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

There's also 650‰ [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.41|172.69.33.41]] 16:52, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
:Wouldn't that be 650 hundredths? I've seen "and sixty-five ‰" a cheque before. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:08, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
::"650‰" is "650 per mille (per thousand)", and is precisely the same as "65%". [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 19:42, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

====
BTW, I can imagine the transcript of this one posing some challenge for screen readers. [[User:Aasasd|Aasasd]] ([[User talk:Aasasd|talk]]) 17:01, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

: On a second thought, I can also imagine people who use screen readers never hearing any difference between the writing styles listed in the comic. [[User:Aasasd|Aasasd]] ([[User talk:Aasasd|talk]]) 17:24, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

== Missing ==

Compile here the missing styles:

* %65
* sixty-five percent; sixty-five per cent; sixty-five per ¢
* 65% percent; 65% per cent; 65% per ¢
* 65/100; 65÷100; 65:100
* 65*10^-2; 65×10⁻²; 65×10^-2; 65*10⁻²
* 0.65; 0,65

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.191|162.158.79.191]] 19:35, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2132: Percentage Styles

2019-04-03T19:42:27Z

RandalSchwartz: clarify 650‰

The only proper style for Britain and the US is ‘%65’. [[User:Aasasd|Aasasd]] ([[User talk:Aasasd|talk]]) 16:20, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
:O RLY? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.52|108.162.241.52]] 16:37, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

:: Yes. You don't write ‘65$’, do you? British/US standards should be followed properly and consistently. [[User:Aasasd|Aasasd]] ([[User talk:Aasasd|talk]]) 17:19, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

::I've definitely seen %NN stated by style guides, but I almost never see anybody using it, because reading it aloud encourages saying it as "percent sixty-five". Oddly, people seem to have no trouble remembering to write $65 instead of 65$, despite the same "dollars sixty-five" vs "sixty-five dollars" vocalization issue. Perhaps it's because we often see things like $65.95 but %65.95 is used less often? Writing 65.95% is potentially ambiguous depending on how it's read out loud: "sixty-five point ninety-five percent" could definitely be misinterpreted very easily. 65.95$ is definitely not ideal, & $65.95¢ is somehow even worse. How about 65$.95¢? ''';S'''
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:08, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

----
There's also 65/100, 65:100, <math>\textstyle\frac{65}{100}</math>, sixtyfive-hundreth, 0.65, and point sixty-five. Benny. 16:41, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

There's also 650‰ [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.41|172.69.33.41]] 16:52, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
:Wouldn't that be 650 hundredths? I've seen "and sixty-five ‰" a cheque before. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:08, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

"650‰" is "650 per mille", and is precisely the same as "65%". [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 19:42, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

====
BTW, I can imagine the transcript of this one posing some challenge for screen readers. [[User:Aasasd|Aasasd]] ([[User talk:Aasasd|talk]]) 17:01, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

: On a second thought, I can also imagine people who use screen readers never hearing any difference between the writing styles listed in the comic. [[User:Aasasd|Aasasd]] ([[User talk:Aasasd|talk]]) 17:24, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

== Missing ==

Compile here the missing styles:

* %65
* sixty-five percent; sixty-five per cent; sixty-five per ¢
* 65% percent; 65% per cent; 65% per ¢
* 65/100; 65÷100; 65:100
* 0.65; 0,65

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.191|162.158.79.191]] 19:35, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2098: Magnetic Pole

2019-01-15T02:39:55Z

RandalSchwartz:

GPS relies on satellites not the magnetic pole, so it wouldn't be affected.

So, GPS ''receivers'' don't need magnetic poles... but what about the GPS ''satellites''? GPS works being them transmitting their exact location, so they need so way of knowing what that is. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 22:58, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

I was wondering about that. Just added {{Citation needed}} to that and a couple of other alleged facts that should really be cited if true, and removed if not. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.208|108.162.216.208]] 20:35, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

It was speculated that reversals were linked to mass extinctions. This would make the alt-text appear to be a bit blase - but " Statistical analysis shows no evidence for a correlation between reversals and extinctions." so it seems we will probably be OK.
It does seem odd that GPS wouldn't be calibrated against fixed ground positions. [[User:Baldrickk|Baldrickk]] ([[User talk:Baldrickk|talk]]) 22:06, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

I expect we'll be fine, but don't a lot of migratory critters use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation over very long distances? I mean, it's not as though they check a calendar and say, "Oh, hey, winter's coming, I guess I'd better head North." They just go in the direction they are 'programmed' to go when they start to feel the urge to do so. So... If the poles reverse (or whatever else) aren't they going to go the wrong direction? There are lots of other species that rely on those migratory species for their lunch. Yeah, I can imagine that there could be a lot of problems. Assuming, of course, that what I read about migratory species using the magnetic field of the Earth for navigation is true.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.143|162.158.79.143]] 02:39, 15 January 2019 (UTC)

I don't believe any "location systems" depend on magnetic field for their accuracy, other than a magnetic compass. As noted above, GPS is calculated numerically from signals received from satellites, so the only effect the magnetic field could have on that is if it somehow disrupts the broadcast of the satellite radio signals. Similarly, LORAN calculates location based on radio signal, from towers on land. There are others as well, and I'm pretty sure none that depend on the location of the magnetic pole. GPS in general is not calibrated to fixed ground positions, but there are enhancements to GPS that do. But those still use radio broadcasts from towers whose locations are known, and don't need to take into account the location of magnetic north.
[[User:Lnthomp|Lnthomp]] ([[User talk:Lnthomp|talk]]) 22:28, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

I agree that the way it is currently phrased is misleading (to the point of being wrong), but some "location systems" use multiple factors to increase their accuracy. A good smartphone will use GPS together with signal strengths to wifi routers with known locations together with its compass to increase accuracy above that which it could obtain from GPS alone. I've only taken little glimpses into the issue professionally but if I were making an algorithm for such a thing I'd also use input from the accelerometers. In any event, I'd most certainly use the built-in compass. Cheap estimation of direction of travel. Of course I'm just being pedantic with all of that. The difference in accuracy for such a scenario would most likely be minor to the point that nobody would notice. I just kind of think the algorithms that try to combine all that sensor data are cool. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.51|162.158.62.51]] 01:24, 15 January 2019 (UTC)

Granted no one has ever experienced and documented a magnetic reversal event, however, would it be possible for the magnetic flux to cause errors on magnetic media? (eg HDD, credit cards, floppies, cassette, VHS, etc) If it were a cause for alarm, would a faraday cage be useful in protecting against the effects? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.34|172.68.34.34]] 23:05, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

No. Magnetic media would not be affected. Geomagnetic field strengths are orders of magnitude weaker than those used to write to magnetic media. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.51|162.158.62.51]] 01:27, 15 January 2019 (UTC)

The biggest issue during a magnetic pole reversal will be the loss of the Van Allen belt, frying all of us. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 02:39, 15 January 2019 (UTC)

GPS and Solar weather [https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/impacts/space-weather-and-gps-systems citation ] - worth a read. Basically, the ionosphere disturbance from a changing Earth field (analogous to a changing solar wind) leads to notable inaccuracy and service disruption. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.167|108.162.221.167]] 23:12, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

2038: Hazard Symbol

2018-08-27T14:21:55Z

RandalSchwartz: If those are evenly spaced (and they seem to be), it's not "at 4:30 and 8:30" but rather "at 4 and 8".

{{comic
| number = 2038
| date = August 27, 2018
| title = Hazard Symbol
| image = hazard_symbol.png
| titletext = The warning diamond on the Materials Safety Data Sheet for this stuff just has the "😰" emoji in all four fields.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LASER EMITTING RADIOACTIVE SLIPPERY BIOHAZARD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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

The comic emphasizes a conglomerate of warning symbols (described below), drawn in black on top of a 'safety-yellow' background.
*The outer symbol is the outer portion of the international sign for bio hazard (not to be confused with the Jolly Rodger for poison).
** The section is much larger than the other symbols as it contains them all.
*At the center of the biohazard's contribution is the international symbol for radiation.
**The symbol and the remaining symbols are approximately the same size.
*Directly above (at 12:00) radiation is a common American symbol for slippery floors.
**It is a line representing the floor, and a person suspended in air and tilted at an angle as though falling backwards.
*At 4:00, is the symbol for high powered lasers
**This is tilted approximately 225 degrees and its tail shorted as a result of the conglomeration.
**This symbol is a trail of a laser, and emission of lines at some imagined point of contact.
*At 8:00 is the inter nation symbol for high voltage
**This is tilted approximately 45degrees, and drawn with significant irregularities.
**This symbol is an inverted Z like, lightning bolt with an arrow tip.

Under that from is a written caption:

"It's important to know the international warning symbol for radioactive high-voltage laser-emitting biohazards that coat the floor and make it slippery."

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2008: Irony Definition

2018-06-19T02:09:51Z

RandalSchwartz:

Adding to the irony are the complaints from overeducated drama fans criticizing common uses of the term, assuming that "dramatic irony" is the only valid definition. Search "alanis morissette ironic misuse" for lots of fun with semantics and pseudo-intellectualism. I suspect that Randall is poking fun at the critics, rather than those who misuse the term. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.89|172.68.142.89]] 17:56, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

* I agree it's poking fun at the critics. The explanation should include correct examples of irony that even non-USA pedantics agree meet the definition.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.82|108.162.216.82]] 19:03, 18 June 2018 (UTC)Pat

Should mention be made that a possible motivation of this comic is President Trump's misuse of the word "ironic" 11 days earlier in a tweet? [https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1004693718945984512]
[[User:Heshy|Heshy]] ([[User talk:Heshy|talk]]) 18:40, 18 June 2018 (UTC)
: Eleven days ago seems a bit distant to be an inspiration. It's not like this comic is infrequently updated.... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.59.30|172.68.59.30]] 23:51, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

If sarcasm is a type of irony, is this question ironic? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.82|162.158.126.82]] 20:19, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Since when is Canada not part of America? :) [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 02:09, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1957: 2018 CVE List

2018-02-19T18:22:31Z

RandalSchwartz: Monty says it's "my ess cue ell"

[[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)
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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Talk:1883: Supervillain Plan

2017-08-30T15:16:22Z

RandalSchwartz: California is not UTC-8 yearround!

California is UTC-8 during the winter, but UTC-7 during the summer. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 15:16, 30 August 2017 (UTC)