explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2946: 1.2 Kilofives

2024-06-17T11:27:26Z

TimO:

== Challenge: Come up with a way like this to say the comic number #2946. ==

Challenge: Come up with a way like this to say the comic number #2946. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 03:00, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:How about 4.91 hectosixes? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.190|172.69.33.190]] 04:19, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:A kibitwo, four decascore, four score and eighteen. Two octooctotwentythrees and two. A gross-score, three score and 6. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 05:00, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:A semidozen tetrahectaenneacontahena. [[User:Xkcd machine guy|Xkcd machine guy]] ([[User talk:Xkcd machine guy|talk]]) 08:25, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:A decapentagross minus a semiennea. [[User:Xkcd machine guy|Xkcd machine guy]] ([[User talk:Xkcd machine guy|talk]]) 10:10, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:A gross score and half a dozen elevenses[[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 12:57, 16 June 2024 (UTC)
Interestingly, four score and seven is exactly how you say 87 in French (quatre-vingt sept) and Basque (laurogeita zazpi). Both count on base 20. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.138|172.70.90.138]] 05:16, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

== Comic discussion ==

Fun fact: libqalculate and the "Qalculate"/"qalc" programs can just deal with the title text:
qalc "50milli score"
50 × (10^−3) × score = 1
But it fails on the main part, the best that works is:
qalc "1.2kilo 5"
1.2 × 10³ × 5 = 6000
"five" gets interpreted as Euler's number × imaginary unit × unknown "f" × unknown "v". On my old laptop, I must have some other configuration or maybe an old version, because there it gets interpreted as 0×i×e=0, so you can enter "five plus five" and get 0. Maybe another challenge would be to get arbitrary misleading results out from equations like this. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 05:59, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps East Hills NY, but their "Welcome" boards don't mention population, https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@40.7805262,-73.632634,3a,15y,25.75h,92.88t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sf5guvv2tETuyn0f_lSFh7A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en&coh=205409&entry=ttu so this might just be a random name that R. came up with[[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 07:40, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

In the comic *fives* does not stand for the number five alone, but for five people. So using it with a prefix is more valid. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.4|172.68.110.4]] 10:15, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
: Five kilopeople would be valid. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.63|172.70.91.63]] 10:34, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

I think it would have made more sense to say "half a kilodozen". --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.45|141.101.69.45]] 11:54, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:It's just slightly off a gross of ultimate answers. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.186|172.70.162.186]] 16:30, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

I wonder why Randall chose to make Cueball the character saying that and not Black Hat/classhole. [[User:Turquoise Hat|Turquoise Hat]] ([[User talk:Turquoise Hat|talk]]) 15:35, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:Live long enough to become the villain. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:14, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

I realized that kilofives can be abbreviated as **k5**, as in "the population is 1.2 k5". Or if you're a roman, as **D**. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.92|172.71.22.92]] 16:30, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

Wouldn't CIↃ have been rendered as <nowiki><I></nowiki>? [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:22, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

: I like it. I'm gonna start using this technique more. [[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 20:04, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

The weird thing is, this wasn't a weird way to say a number, it was just an old way to say it. See Psalm 90:10 in the King James Bible more examples. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.17|172.70.162.17]] 20:51, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

Y2K isn't really a nonce, it's rather common to shorten e.g. "123 thousand" to 123K or 123k. From my 00's online gaming days, I even remember kk, kkk and so on having been used to refer to millions, billions and progressively higher powers of 1000 respectively, but that might've been more niche. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.38|172.70.242.38]] 22:09, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

I'd also like to see the source for the claim "they're not ordinarily added to number words to modify their magnitude". For example, in Czech it is very common to say "mega" instead of "million(s)" (similar way as "thousand" is substituted with "K" in "Y2K") when talking about money and I've seen this usage also in English. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.213.148|172.68.213.148]] 22:26, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:English does use mega as a prefix, albeit not frequently. The most common example in common usage is possibly megaton (of TNT) for nuclear weapons, but it's also frequently used in slightly more technical discussions; megahertz, megawatts, megabytes and megapixels are the usages that most immediately come to mind.

Y2K should be Y2k - the SI prefix for 1,000 is k to distinguish it from the unit abbreviation K, for Kelvin. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.22|172.68.210.22]] 23:18, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
:That would be a very cold year.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.184|141.101.98.184]] 09:36, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

I'd have said East Hills is home to a hundred shocks. (Or one hectoshock?) 😉 [[User:PaulEberhardt|PaulEberhardt]] ([[User talk:PaulEberhardt|talk]]) 14:35, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2115: Plutonium

2019-02-25T09:14:11Z

TimO: Correction to the cause of RTG performance degradation.

Even though space is cold, it conducts so poorly that spacecraft would probably have more problems getting rid of heat than keeping heat, considering how isolated they are. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 16:43, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

:It actually has little to do with conduction; the heat radiates pretty effectively, especially as it gets "hotter" vs the surrounding radiation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.124|172.69.69.124]] 17:35, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

::You're right, spacecraft are cooled by radiation. Yet it is far less effective than conductive/convective cooling by blowing the surrounding medium (water, air, whatever) over the hot parts. It's so much easier to cool things down here on Earth! Cooling problems is one of the reasons why nuclear reactors are not very popular in space, they need massive cooling systems.

Reminds me of reddit.com/r/outside [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 16:54, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

I put in how the title text makes a probable reference to game development. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:41, 22 February 2019 (UTC)
:It could, with equal probability, be a reference to parallel universes. There's nothing anywhere that says anything about game development.... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.10|162.158.214.10]] 18:29, 22 February 2019 (UTC)
:”Cool Mechanic” “Unbalanced” and “Join the team” seemed like hints [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:33, 22 February 2019 (UTC)
::It seemed obvious to me it was a reference to episodic story development, as it looks like that happens with shows and comics all the time. Don't understand how it makes sense for parallel universes (except that this kind of happened with star trek and the introduction of the parallel reality) but recommend updating the article to include all interpretations. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.240|172.68.47.240]] 21:20, 22 February 2019 (UTC)
:::I thought it was more in the line of someone joining a D&D game, doing something crazy with their character then leaving, and the remaining players all have to keep up the story.

This seems to be in the same vein as two other recent comics, Internet Archive and ArkXiv. Perhaps real things that seem unrealistic is a new topic of Randalls? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.4|172.69.247.4]] 17:53, 22 February 2019 (UTC)
:Nope, it goes back at least to the 331st comic! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.220|162.158.78.220]] 21:22, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

Re: "Note that the radioactive material obviously doesn't produce this energy forever, although it can produce it so long the device will break before it gets out of energy." The main problem with Voyager I and Voyager II is not that the devices on board have been broken, exhausted a finite reserve or otherwise failed, but that the power supply can not keep most of the machine powered anymore. In fact, if there was enough electrical power, most of the cameras and other sensors would still work; they might see much that far from the sun and other bodies, but they would work. The plutonium power source undergoes exponential decay, producing proportionally less power each year and each year, the NASA scientists have to decide which devices on the spacecraft need to power-down, never to turn on again, or maybe a device is so important, but needs so much power that they will turn it on for less and less time, sort of like rotating brown-outs. I think the Pioneer probes are in the same boat. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 04:13, 23 February 2019 (UTC)
:Also because of the many restrictions on use of highly radioactive material, plus the basic weight factor, you would only use just the amount of plutonium required to power the craft fully over it's expected lifetime. After that lifetime you no longer have full power due to decay.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.146.20|172.68.146.20]] 05:47, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
::Actually, the half-life of the plutonium has a relatively small effect on the loss of power, the degradation of the thermocouples is a more significant cause of the power loss of RTGs on long term spacecraft missions. Plutonium loses about 0.79% of the available energy every year due to decay. [[User:TimO|TimO]] ([[User talk:TimO|talk]]) 09:14, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Could someone perhaps expand on the term "implementing a mechanic"? In New Zealand English at least, a mechanic is a person who works with machines. I thought this was maybe a synonym for "implementing a mechanism", but it seems to have a specific meaning in the team episode writing sense discussed here. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.210|103.22.200.210]] 23:41, 24 February 2019 (UTC)
:As a non-native speaker, I am familiar with the word "mechanic" on a gameplay level. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_mechanics. I am fairly certain that is what Randal is refering to. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.18.142|162.158.18.142]] 07:34, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:This use of the word "mechanic" is extremely confusing. To most English speakers it means someone who fixes machines, usually cars. Either remove it or explain the unusual jargon meaning in this context

Talk:1916: Temperature Preferences

2017-11-16T10:26:03Z

TimO:

As someone who lives near San Fransisco, but has lived in multiple other climates, I can say, San Fransisco can be pretty cold during summer months (compared to normal summers), but is still moderate. If you truely hate heat though, avoid mid-September till November as that is our hottest time of year, since there is not as much fog then. Once November hits it pretty suddenly gets cold again though. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.187|172.68.189.187]] 06:08, 15 November 2017 (UTC)Rowan

This graph doesn't make any sense. In my experience, people who live in places with hot summers hate heat, and people who live in places with cold winters hate coldness. Everyone I've ever spoken from Perth basically constantly complains about the heat! Shouldn't the whole thing be flipped? [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 08:46, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:I just now realized that it says "where ''to'' live," not "where you live." I take back this silly comment ^_^; My bad [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 09:00, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Why is there dirt in the middle of the picture? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:06, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:It appears to be a faded-out image, probably some reference pic that Randall was using while drawing. Something similar appeared in [[1561: Water Phase Diagram#Original version|1561]], and was later removed. [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 11:32, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Coming from Denmark I'm really dissapointed that he left out our capital, and the largest city in Scandinavia, Copenhagen, when he has both Oslo, Stockholm and .... Reykjavik... :-D But guess it should be placed near Oslo... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:54, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:Within the mid-United States, Randall ignored Chicago entirely and highlighted Minneapolis. Since I'm originally from Minnesota, I appreciate that a LOT. (Chicago can keep their wind, those blowhards; if you want a humid summer, find a Minnesota lake for your vacation! Then enjoy the ice fishing in winter, too.) '''--BigMal''' // [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.184|108.162.216.184]] 15:16, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
::Denver isn't on here. We have over 230 temperate days per year; We get big snow sometimes, then it melts away within a day or two. I think it belongs somewhere directly below Paris? I wonder how we'd be positioned relative to Portland...
::There's no way Randall has spent any significant time near Lubbock Texas; It should be shown farther up & to the right, maybe a lot farther.
::[[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.59|172.68.58.59]] 02:46, 16 November 2017 (UTC)
:I'm disappointed he left out Hamburg, Germany (and instead included Berlin). Average high over the year in Hamburg is 13.2°C (highest average is 22.1°C and 22.2°C in July and August, respectively), average low over the year is 6.2°C (lowest average is -1.4°C in January). So, if you like mild winters as much as you like mild summers, you should live in Hamburg. --[[User:LordHorst|LordHorst]] ([[User talk:LordHorst|talk]]) 09:52, 16 November 2017 (UTC)

So I've added a table with one entry for you all to put in data. I don't know where to find humidex info but the average low temperatures should be easy enough to find on e.g. Wikipedia. --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 10:10, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:I think I've sorted all the disambiguations out apart from Richmond. My instinct is to say it's Richmond, Virginia but now I've seen how many Richmonds there are I'm not so sure...--[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 12:07, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

I think that "Altay" is more likely to be {{w|Altay City|Altay City, China}}, not {{w|Altai City|Altai City, Mongolia}}. The Wikipedia-preferred spellings are one piece of evidence, but more convincing is the position of "Altay" right '''above''' (i.e. winters warmer than) "Regina". If this is {{w|Regina, Saskatchewan}}, then its temperature profile (per Wikipedia) is very similar to the Chinese city.
* Jan average: Regina, −20.1 to −9.3°C, and Altay, −21 to −9.4°C (versus Altai, −24.8 to −10.4°C)... pretty close all around, but Altai is a little colder.
* Jul average: Regina, 11.9 to 25.8°C, and Altay, 15.1 to 28.2°C (versus Altai, 8.0 to 19.7°C)... Altay is warmer than Regina, whereas Altai is quite a bit colder.
* Annual average: Regina, −3.2 to 9.3°C, and Altay, −1.4 to 10.7°C (versus Altai, −7.98 to 5.03°C)... Altai is again noticeably colder.
(Oops, edit conflict with [[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]]. Before their edit—which points to Altay City, China—the table said it was unclear which was meant.)
-- [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 12:18, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:Yeah, sorry, I changed my mind, I can't remember why now... --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 13:28, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

So, the table lists temperatures for these cities from some unknown source(s), that may not be the same source(s) Randall used. I think the more interesting table would bte the table of X/y coordinates for each city from the comic. No? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 15:01, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
: I disagree - we can see where they are on the comic, so that's not very interesting at all. This table puts some hard figures on the co-ordinates. (In most explanations when we 'estimate' co-ordinates, it's because there are no hard figures). By the way, the source I'm using for my figures is weatherbase.com as suggested in the transcript. I can't speak what others are using but maybe we should make this clearer. --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 16:05, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Chicago? Bottom right corner.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.12|162.158.106.12]] 15:37, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
: Chicago averages around 12 days of 90+ and none over 100 per year (similar to New York) does not rank as being all that hot on a world scale [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 18:47, 15 November 2017 (UTC).
: Wherever Chicago should go (and it's definitely in the lower right quadrant), it's weird that Randall didn't put it there. It's the USA's third-largest city and by far the biggest metropolitan area in the Midwest. How did Minneapolis make the cut if Chicago didn't? (No offense, Minnesotans.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 23:33, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Added hottest month Humidex values for all cities that have temperature and dew point data, using equation from the Wikipedia page on Humidex.

My jimmies are really rustled by Randall using the puny american McMurdo station (record low of mere -51 centigrade) instead of the glorious russian Vostok station (record low -89 "steel shatters" centigrade).

------
As a resident of Oregon, I vote for Portland being Portland, OR. It is not only larger than Portland, Maine; it also more closely fits the mild climate that Randall seems to place it in on the graph. An early settler wrote two letters back east: The first, "Come live with me, there ain't no winter here", the second six months later "Nevermind, there ain't no summer either" [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 21:44, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

I'm not convinced by the Humidex numbers (or possibly the calculation) for London. It has the third highest value of 49.3, which according to the Wikipedia entry for Humidex, is "Dangerous; heat stroke quite possible". London can occasionally have some unpleasantly hot days in the summer, but generally (as the diagram implies) it's rarely too hot or too cold. --[[User:TimO|TimO]] ([[User talk:TimO|talk]]) 10:26, 16 November 2017 (UTC)

== Temperatures ==

For the low/high temperatures, should it be the average temperature of the coldest/hottest months or the average low/high of the coldest/hottest months?
The two are not the same, and you can get both from weatherbase.com.
Some of the data is already messed up. I highly doubt that Raleigh is the hottest place on earth. AFAIK, people live there, but I don't think anyone could survive between 50C and 70C all year round...
--[[User:Dkasza|Dkasza]] ([[User talk:Dkasza|talk]]) 03:31, 16 November 2017 (UTC)