explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1488: Flowcharts

2015-02-18T07:44:19Z

Towel: /* List of Items in Flowchart */ Changed interpretation for missing line between scatter plot decision and "Data or axis" box

{{comic
| number = 1488
| date = February 18, 2015
| title = Flowcharts
| image = flowcharts.png
| titletext = Whoa, and if you overlay a Fibonacci spiral on a golden spiral it matches up almost perfectly!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Improve the explanation and finish the table please.}}
This comic is a flowchart style. Interestingly, the first option, "Do you like flowcharts?" loops back to itself until you choose NO.

After asking about flowcharts, the reader can choose either graphs or batteries. After batteries, the reader can choose to follow the arrow to the random comic button, or a slowly graying spiral. The spiral quickly becomes too difficult to see, but if contrast is increased, one can see that the graph is arranged on the spiral.

The title text and the faint image of a golden spiral parody the fact that the golden spiral is superimposed on nearly ''everything''. The golden spiral is a spiral that has the growth rate of the golden ratio, a number that has inspired both artists and mathematicians alike. However, people try to find the golden ratio in seemingly random objects, and they fall to confirmation bias when drawing a golden spiral on top that seemingly fits. The comic links to [http://xkcd.com/spiral/], where one can see exactly that- golden spirals Randall "found" in random photographs. The title text is funny because the mathematics of the famous Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio are actually one and the same- the limit of the ratios of each successive term in the sequence is equal to the golden ratio. So it matches up perfectly, not "almost" perfectly like the pictures in the mobile site link.

===List of Items in Flowchart===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Text
! Explanation
! Successor(s)
! Predeccessor
|-
| Start
| Start here
| Do you like flowcharts?
| Tired of flowcharts yet?
|-
| Do you like flowcharts?
| Asking whether or not the reader likes flow charts. Recursively returns to itself until the reader is annoyed enough to not like flowcharts.
| Do you like flowcharts?, Do you like graphs?
| Start
|-
| Data or Axis?
| This item is duplicated. It is asking which type of graph you prefer
| Data, line, access
| Do you like graphs?
|-
| Line
| This forms a line on top of the axis of time and happiness. It is positive slope.
|
| Data or Axis?
|-
| Axis
| Leads to A choice
| Time or your happiness?, X or Y?
| Data or axis?
|-
| Time or your happiness?
| Choose between your time and your happiness. Presumably, choose whichever you value more.
| Time, Happiness
| Data or axis?
|-
| Time
| You value your time more than your happiness. This forms the horizontal axis for the line graph.
|
| Time or your happiness?
|-
| Your happiness
| You value your happiness more than your time. This forms the vertical axis for the line graph.
|
| Time or your happiness?
|-
| X or Y?
| Which axis do you prefer?
| X, Y
| Axis
|-
| X
| Forms the horizontal axis for the {{w|Scatterplot|scatterplot}}.
|
| X or Y?
|-
| Y
| Forms the vertical axis for the scatterplot.
|
| X or Y?
|-
| Data
| Leads to a scatterplot. May be a series of AC current symbols leading into one another
|
| Data or Axis?
|-
| Scatter plots?
| A scatter plot is made of not connected points in a graph. This is why there's no line to the second Data or axis option
| Help charge a battery?
| Do you like graphs?
|-
| Help charge a battery?
|
| Are you A/C or D/C?, Like Spirals?
| Asks whether you have knowledge in {{w|AC current}} or {{w|DC current}}. No output is given for DC,l even though that would be the prefered method of charging a battery.
| Positive or Negative Phase?
| Help charging a battery?
|-
| Positive or Negative Phase?
| This is useless, because both choices lead to the same result.
| Positive or negative DC terminal?
| Are you A/C or D/C?
|-
| Positive or negative DC terminal?
| This box looks like a {{w|Rectifier bridge}}, which is used to convert AC to DC, but two of the diodes point in the wrong direction, making this a loop directing both inputs to the top. The single output leads to a battery. Since the battery is not connected to the other side of the rectifier, no current can flow. In this way the battery can also be seen as an end-point in the flow chart.
| Battery
| Positive or negative phase?
|-
| Like Spirals?
| Well, do you?
| Take the path of least resistance?, Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
| Help charge a battery?
|-
| Take the path of least resistance?
| This one is a pun. If resistance is seen as electrical resistance, then the bottom output is correct. Alternatively, telling some one "No" is a form of resisting what they say, in which case you would follow the other path out of Like Spirals?.
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
| Like Spirals?
|-
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
|
| Yes, even though it's total BS., Tired of flowcharts yet?
| Like spirals?, Take the path of least resistance?
|-
| Yes, even though it's total BS.
| This option fades out to a golden spiral to which the flowchart is aligned.
|
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
|-
| Tired of flowcharts yet?
| Are you?
| Yes, I want to look at something else, Start
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
|-
| Yes, I want to look at something else
| This option leads to the random comic button. The joke is that you click the button and look at some other comic.
| Tired of Flowcharts yet?
| [http://c.xkcd.com/random/comic/ Random]
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1488: Flowcharts

2015-02-18T07:40:17Z

Towel: /* List of Items in Flowchart */ Changed interpretation of the rectifier-bridge like item.

{{comic
| number = 1488
| date = February 18, 2015
| title = Flowcharts
| image = flowcharts.png
| titletext = Whoa, and if you overlay a Fibonacci spiral on a golden spiral it matches up almost perfectly!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Improve the explanation and finish the table please.}}
This comic is a flowchart style. Interestingly, the first option, "Do you like flowcharts?" loops back to itself until you choose NO.

After asking about flowcharts, the reader can choose either graphs or batteries. After batteries, the reader can choose to follow the arrow to the random comic button, or a slowly graying spiral. The spiral quickly becomes too difficult to see, but if contrast is increased, one can see that the graph is arranged on the spiral.

The title text and the faint image of a golden spiral parody the fact that the golden spiral is superimposed on nearly ''everything''. The golden spiral is a spiral that has the growth rate of the golden ratio, a number that has inspired both artists and mathematicians alike. However, people try to find the golden ratio in seemingly random objects, and they fall to confirmation bias when drawing a golden spiral on top that seemingly fits. The mobile site links to [http://xkcd.com/spiral/], where one can see exactly that- golden spirals Randall "found" in random photographs. The title text is funny because the mathematics of the famous Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio are actually one and the same- the limit of the ratios of each successive term in the sequence is equal to the golden ratio. So it matches up perfectly, not "almost" perfectly like the pictures in the mobile site link.

===List of Items in Flowchart===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Text
! Explanation
! Successor(s)
! Predeccessor
|-
| Start
| Start here
| Do you like flowcharts?
| Tired of flowcharts yet?
|-
| Do you like flowcharts?
| Asking whether or not the reader likes flow charts. Recursively returns to itself until the reader is annoyed enough to not like flowcharts.
| Do you like flowcharts?, Do you like graphs?
| Start
|-
| Data or Axis?
| This item is duplicated. It is asking which type of graph you prefer
| Data, line, access
| Do you like graphs?
|-
| Line
| This forms a line on top of the axis of time and happiness. It is positive slope.
|
| Data or Axis?
|-
| Axis
| Leads to A choice
| Time or your happiness?, X or Y?
| Data or axis?
|-
| Time or your happiness?
| Choose between your time and your happiness. Presumably, choose whichever you value more.
| Time, Happiness
| Data or axis?
|-
| Time
| You value your time more than your happiness. This forms the horizontal axis for the line graph.
|
| Time or your happiness?
|-
| Your happiness
| You value your happiness more than your time. This forms the vertical axis for the line graph.
|
| Time or your happiness?
|-
| X or Y?
| Which axis do you prefer?
| X, Y
| Axis
|-
| X
| Forms the horizontal axis for the {{w|Scatterplot|scatterplot}}.
|
| X or Y?
|-
| Y
| Forms the vertical axis for the scatterplot.
|
| X or Y?
|-
| Data
| Leads to a scatterplot. May be a series of AC current symbols leading into one another
|
| Data or Axis?
|-
| Scatter plots?
| Randall may have intended a line going from yes to the second Data or axis option
| Help charge a battery?
| Do you like graphs?
|-
| Help charge a battery?
|
| Are you A/C or D/C?, Like Spirals?
| Asks whether you have knowledge in {{w|AC current}} or {{w|DC current}}. No output is given for DC,l even though that would be the prefered method of charging a battery.
| Positive or Negative Phase?
| Help charging a battery?
|-
| Positive or Negative Phase?
| This is useless, because both choices lead to the same result.
| Positive or negative DC terminal?
| Are you A/C or D/C?
|-
| Positive or negative DC terminal?
| This box looks like a {{w|Rectifier bridge}}, which is used to convert AC to DC, but two of the diodes point in the wrong direction, making this a loop directing both inputs to the top. The single output leads to a battery. Since the battery is not connected to the other side of the rectifier, no current can flow. In this way the battery can also be seen as an end-point in the flow chart.
| Battery
| Positive or negative phase?
|-
| Like Spirals?
| Well, do you?
| Take the path of least resistance?, Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
| Help charge a battery?
|-
| Take the path of least resistance?
| This one is a pun. If resistance is seen as electrical resistance, then the bottom output is correct. Alternatively, telling some one "No" is a form of resisting what they say, in which case you would follow the other path out of Like Spirals?.
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
| Like Spirals?
|-
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
|
| Yes, even though it's total BS., Tired of flowcharts yet?
| Like spirals?, Take the path of least resistance?
|-
| Yes, even though it's total BS.
| This option fades out to a golden spiral to which the flowchart is aligned.
|
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
|-
| Tired of flowcharts yet?
| Are you?
| Yes, I want to look at something else, Start
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
|-
| Yes, I want to look at something else
| This option leads to the random comic button. The joke is that you click the button and look at some other comic.
| Tired of Flowcharts yet?
| [http://c.xkcd.com/random/comic/ Random]
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}