{{comic
| number = 3238
| date = April 27, 2026
| title = Soniferous Aether
| image = soniferous_aether_2x.png
| imagesize = 290x466px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Imagine you could ride alongside a sound wave. It would probably be pretty cool, right? We're putting in a departmental budget request to buy a really fast plane so we can check it out.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by a BOT THAT BREATHES SONIFEROUS AETHER. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic makes a joke on the speed of light and the speed of sound, and the way in which they travel.

Scientists beginning in the late 1690s would discuss a {{w|luminiferous aether}} to explain properties of light, especially its ability to travel in a vacuum, which should not be possible for a wave. The 1887 {{w|Michelson–Morley experiment}} disproved its existence, and nowadays, this property is explained by {{w|wave–particle duality}}, which says that light can act as both a particle and a wave.

The title text references Albert Einstein's thought experiment where he imagined riding alongside a light particle/wave (which was referenced in [[2959: Beam of Light]]), but with a sound wave instead. Travelling at the speed of sound can be accomplished with a fast airplane, usually military aircraft, however the Tu-144 and Concordé were both commericial aircraft that did manage to achieve the ability to go supersonic, aside from (briefly) a DC-8.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

Ponytail: We all know the speed of light is constant for all observers. But out experiments show that the speed of sound changes based on the observer's motion. Thus, we posit the existence of a Soniferous Aether, a medium that fills the space between us and carries sound waves.

Caption: Sometimes Physicists forget that air exists and rediscover it from first principles.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

2026-04-07T09:40:42Z

Vaedez: a first attempt of a dark theme, seeing as xkcd itself has pseudodark now

/* basic theme and vars */
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--main-bg:#000;
--main-fg:silver;
--focus-fg:#fff;
--sidebar-bg:#242422;
--sidebar-bg:#303030;
--pale-bg:#4446;
--panel-bg:#444844;
--textbox-bg:#242424;
--notice-bg:#328;
--link:#2be;
--link-visited:#8080ff;
}
/* apply theme to main site areas */
body {
background: var(--sidebar-bg);
color: var(--focus-fg);
/*outline:1px dotted red;*/
}
#mw-page-base{background:var(--sidebar-bg);}
.mw-body{background:var(--main-bg);color:var(--main-fg);}
.vectorTabs span{background:var(--panel-bg);color:var(--main-fg)}
#p-logo{background:var(--panel-bg)}
.editOptions{background:var(--panel-bg);}

/* apply theme to classes of element */
a{color:var(--link);}
a:visited{color:var(--link-visited)}
h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{color:var(--focus-fg);}
textarea{background:var(--textbox-bg);color:var(--focus-fg);}
input[type="text"]{background:var(--textbox-bg);color:var(--focus-fg);}
.mw-code{background:var(--pale-bg);color:var(--main-fg);}

/* patch elems not inheriting colors */
#mw-panel li>a{color:var(--link) !important;}
div#simpleSearch{background:var(--textbox-bg);color:var(--focus-fg)}
#localNotice .plainlinks{background:var(--notice-bg) !important;;}
div.vectorTabs li.selected a,
div.vectorTabs li.selected a:visited{color:var(--main-fg)}
#p-lang-label{color:var(--main-fg) !important;;}
}

Talk:3227: Creation

2026-04-02T03:39:49Z

Vaedez:

Talk:3227: Creation

2026-04-01T21:24:42Z

Vaedez:

2025-12-25T01:43:01Z

Vaedez: /* Transcript */

2025-04-17T06:59:33Z

Vaedez: initial explanation

{{comic
| number = 3077
| date = April 16, 2025
| title = de Sitter
| image = de_sitter_2x.png
| imagesize = 292x459px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our anti-de Sitter club is small at the moment, but I've started corresponding with the conformal field theory people.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an exponentially expanding BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
An {{w|Anti-de Sitter space}} is one which has elliptic (negative) spatial curvature, in which there are less than 360° in a full rotation and two parallel lines will meet when extended. This is in contrast to a {{w|De Sitter space}} which has hyperbolic (positive) curvature, more than 360° in a rotation, and two parallel lines will diverge. The caption "My house is an anti-De Sitter space" refers instead to their house being against the actual physicist Willem De Sitter which both spatial geometries are named after, because the speaker themselves forbids De Sitter from entering their house.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A door with a note taped to it.]
:20th century Dutch physicist Willem de Sitter is '''''not''''' welcome here

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My house is an anti-de Sitter space.
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:3032: Skew-T Log-P

2025-01-02T05:09:26Z

Vaedez: salty about unverified AI writing

...did the ip address user really just have chatgpt write an explanation of this page without a proper understanding of what is happening in this page? the only reasonable content in this explanation page right now was contributed by other users and is a couple lines at the beginning. also they didn't even try to hide that the entire text was AI-generated - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 05:09, 2 January 2025 (UTC)