https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=108.162.246.18&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T20:13:36ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2503:_Memo_Spike_Connector&diff=216672Talk:2503: Memo Spike Connector2021-08-16T21:47:00Z<p>108.162.246.18: </p>
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Just made my first ever wiki edit! There was no text yet so I filled in some basic info. I guarantee what I wrote will be removed though :( . Oh well, I tried! [[User:Zman350x|Zman350x]] ([[User talk:Zman350x|talk]]) 15:20, 16 August 2021 (UTC)<br />
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:Your first edit inspired me to my own first edit. Maybe at the end there will be a good article made entirely by noobs. :) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.115|172.68.110.115]] 16:33, 16 August 2021 (UTC)<br />
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In restaurants these are not used for orders for the kitchen. Those are usually put on an order wheel or ticket holder, which have clips that the order can easily pulled out of. The spike is at the checkout counter, and it's used after the bill is paid. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:57, 16 August 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Do we want to mention the vampire taps in both the article and trivia? Cause that's how it currently is. [[User:Zman350x|Zman350x]] ([[User talk:Zman350x|talk]]) 21:27, 16 August 2021 (UTC)<br />
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My first comment too! Where it says... "The implication is that any cable can be connected to any other cable as a form of universal adapter/splitter/combiner"... That's not the title text joke. It's that a device like an iPad could also be impaled on the spike, making electrical connection to its innards. It says nothing about cable to cable connections. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.18|108.162.246.18]] 21:47, 16 August 2021 (UTC)</div>108.162.246.18https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2472:_Fuzzy_Blob&diff=216001Talk:2472: Fuzzy Blob2021-08-04T00:30:20Z<p>108.162.246.18: </p>
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That bot description is comedy gold, I think the page is already perfect. "It's a finger." [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.60|141.101.98.60]] 02:30, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Really, what more explanation do we need? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.13|172.69.63.13]] 02:39, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:The only thing I could see being added is if there is a sub joke regarding the historic 4th ave church being unusual. It might just be an unimportant detail, but most of Randell's jokes have something extra behind them.[[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 03:28, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:That didn't come from the bot, it comes from anonymous user 162.158.62.37. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:46, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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The NAVY UFOs are the same type of feature; a little bug is inside the camera, sitting on the lens inside the aircraft window. You can see the insects feet, blurry, of course, and you can watch it turn around.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.186|172.69.35.186]] 02:48, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Nice of the insects to show up on radar too, for consistency.[[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 03:28, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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The people in the comics are stick figures. Their limbs and appendages are simple lines. Why would they know that the blob in the image is a finger? That’s a construct for the 3D world of people.<br />
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Someone showed me a photo of a "spirit guide" - a strange glowing fuzzy orb, floating near a group of spiritually-minded people in a dim room. I thought a few minutes, threw a pinch of flour into the air in a dim room, took a flash photo, and there were dozens of little fuzzy orbs in the photo! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.72|172.69.35.72]] 06:29, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:That's why ghosts are white, obviously. They keep throwing flour around, and end up covering themselves. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.36|141.101.98.36]] 08:54, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:I have photos full of fuzzy orbs from tunnel. I'm not sure what EXACTLY those are, but I think bad lighting has more to do with them than ghosts. Unless there were much more causalities building that tunnel than reported. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 03:54, 6 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Will there be an explanation of “zoning permits” joke? Sounds like something local to US. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.122|162.158.222.122]] 07:02, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: I just did add something, but without seeing your request here so maybe I need to dig up a Wikilink for that definition in particular. But I always understood Zoning Permits as being roughly equivalent to Planning Permissions in the UK, or close enough. That's from my exposure to US films/TV, where it can be a (usually) minor plot-point. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.36|141.101.98.36]] 08:54, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: Addendum: Yeah, it's like Planning Permission (skewed towards Land Use designations, but the two systems are overlapping in concept). What I found funny was that "Euclidean zoning" was ''not'' actually named for the coordinate system. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.46|141.101.98.46]] 09:12, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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What's the joke about 4th avenue church? Google fins a 4th avenue church, but it doesn't seem to be related to any mistery.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 10:24, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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: It might just be that churches tend to employ unusual architecture, and historic churches tend to employ a combination of antique and unusual architecture, making them distinct from the surrounding buildings, especially in urban areas. Maybe people seeing the churches would think that there's some hidden conspiratorial meaning behind their structure. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.117.38|172.70.117.38]] 14:12, 7 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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: Could be this church: https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x88690d53a414c0ff%3A0x38c51a845c08ff8a!3m1!7e115!4s%2Fmaps%2Fplace%2F%2522historic%2Bfourth%2Bavenue%2Bchurch%2522%2F%4038.2373688%2C-85.7595726%2C3a%2C75y%2C190.58h%2C90t%2Fdata%3D*213m4*211e1*213m2*211s8YHVWQJ-DS513U1EBHZ7Tg*212e0*214m2*213m1*211s0x88690d53a414c0ff%3A0x38c51a845c08ff8a%3Fsa%3DX!5s%22historic%20fourth%20avenue%20church%22%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e2!2s8YHVWQJ-DS513U1EBHZ7Tg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiUmdTU94XxAhXaMlkFHfpaAZMQpx8wBXoECDQQCA. There's a blur in the middle of the lens.<br />
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:: This comment is underappreciated... Although for this specific image, moving forward and backward show the same blob, so it's likely a camera/software problem. *ahem* A ghost sticking to car on one side! *gasp!* --[[User:Eelitee|Eelitee]] ([[User talk:Eelitee|talk]]) 22:33, 24 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Should it mentioned that these are stick figures, and usually don't have "fingers"? Also, why is it (white) flesh-toned instead of (ink) black? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.178|172.69.71.178]] 23:59, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: Rand's white, so he probably didn't think of that and would possibly be embarrassed or change it if brought to his attention. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.226|172.70.110.226]] 00:59, 6 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
::A finger in front of a lens blocks light from reaching the film, or the sensor array. Why, then, is the finger a light shade of supposed skin tone? Isn't that another reason why it should appear black instead? [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 04:40, 6 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:::The convex nature of a fingertip means often plenty of side-lighting is available (unless you've stoppered the whole finger right straight over the whole aperture and have no exposure at all, never mind an off-focus finger). I can confirm a finger-blob looks lit and skin-coloured (assuming daytime/lit-room photography) from a non-zero number of photos returned from the lab (remember those days?) with a sticker on them to suggest that their sharp-eyed QCing (and possibly statutory "illegal/immoral content guardianship" filtering) had determined that there was an obvious technical fault with the image, but it wasn't their fault/nothing they can do about it, and next time don't stick your finger there (or shake the camera, or fail to use a flash, or get the basic focal length right, or whatever). But an easily removable sticker, because maybe you ''were'' a budding experimental photographer not yet with your own darkroom to see your results quicker than an hour (drop-in photography shops) or a few days/couple of weeks (postal processing).<br />
::: ((There's also precedence for the 'stick figures' having close up details, but I'm not going to reference them, because having it ''not'' be a flesh-pink blob, but something more stick-figurey would remove a layer of viewer certainty in interpreting the desired joke. And, possibly, there's a little bit of an echo of Spiderman Noir (from the "Spiderverse" film) and the Rubik's Cube, making it ''actually'' and legitimately surprising to stickworld civilisation...)) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.38|141.101.98.38]] 07:23, 6 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
::: Clearly this really is a conspiracy and it runs deeper than us. Is Randall part of the NWO?!?!!!?! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.10|108.162.216.10]] 18:26, 7 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I removed the incomplete text because I think this is done. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.18|108.162.246.18]] 00:30, 4 August 2021 (UTC)</div>108.162.246.18https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2414:_Solar_System_Compression_Artifacts&diff=2157352414: Solar System Compression Artifacts2021-07-29T17:32:44Z<p>108.162.246.18: Expanded on explanation of title text and how dark matter is outside of the dynamic range</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2414<br />
| date = January 20, 2021<br />
| title = Solar System Compression Artifacts<br />
| image = solar_system_compression_artifacts.png<br />
| titletext = Most of our universe consists of dark matter rendered completely undetectable by our spacetime codec's dynamic range issues.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a MISSING PHYSICAL PHENOMENON LOST DUE TO HIGH COMPRESSION. More on the title text - dark matter and dynamic range issues need to be explained in more detail. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
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''{{w|Voyager 1}}'' is a [[:Category:Space probes|space probe]] launched by the United States in 1977. Originally designed to study the outer planets of the {{w|Solar System}}, it is now several decades into an extended mission beyond Neptune. The Voyager probe has made history for passing many milestones of our solar system.<br />
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When images are compressed by a {{w|lossy compression}} format (e.g. {{w|JPEG}}), visual artifacts are created. Randall here is suggesting that the probe has passed the artifacts as if the artifacts were an actual feature of the solar system rather than a consequence of our technology. The banding lines he has drawn are commonly seen in old images with low bit depth built by software that doesn't implement a technique to remove them called dithering. However, the slightly discolored regions often created by compression could also be a metaphor for the region of space that that solar radiation prevents from being a complete vacuum: because there is some gas in these areas, they may reflect light, causing banding lines when their density is high enough. Voyager 1 has passed through numerous such boundaries, as mentioned previously in [[1189: Voyager 1]].<br />
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Compression artifacts are often caused by large changes in coloration over a short distance, and Randall could feel that the drastic change in coloration from bright sun to dark vacuum could be creating a compression artifact around the Sun, somewhat like the Sun looking blurry due to low video quality. However, there is no definite region where solar radiation stops, only a boundary where it fades to a level lower than that of radiation from other sources. Some compression methods result in compression artifacts that behave in the same way, fading as the distance from the color boundary increases but never completely disappearing.<br />
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The 'solar system' in the snapshot appears to be a 4-bit greyscale-plane at a more pixelated level than the image given. It can be picked out as being in 16 'banded' levels from the brightest (closest zones, within this image, to the Sun) to darkest (the furthest illustrated expanses, heading into interstellar space), with irregular or non-trivial transitional edges but no obvious or dominant dithering/speckling or 'noise'. The Voyager image (and track) is overlaid at finer resolution in the white 'line drawing' format.<br />
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The 'apparent pixels' seem to be at a resolution close to the order of 1AU². A rough count of the pixelation boundaries from the craft to the leftmost edge, plus an additional allowance for the likely radius of the 'sun' (or, rather, its solar wind density, or similarly represented measure) still beyond the edge, is surprisingly close to to the ~150 AU current distance of Voyager 1.<br />
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For perspective, the Earth is then within/adjacent to the single lower-resolution 'pixel' that holds the Sun, and as of the comic's date of publication, over on its far side. But the Sun itself is not even visible, as the bright ball of pixels representing its environs is centered off the left side of the comic. It would be a dot so far beyond the left boundary of the image that Neptune, at around 30 'pixels' distance, may only ''just'' be placed within the leftmost extreme of this view at its own rightmost point in its orbit. The overlaid Voyager 'sketch' (in its more native resolution/bit-depth and antialiasing) stretches out over maybe a dozen such low-res pixels/AUs; this suggests that the viewpoint of the observer is close to the Voyager craft, making the craft appear large by comparison.<br />
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In the title text the mystery of the undetectable {{w|Dark Matter}}, which current mainstream physics supposes makes up most of the mass in the universe, is explained since this dark matter is rendered completely undetectable by our spacetime codec's {{w|dynamic range}} issues (thus brushing against the theme of a simulated universe). When an area is too dark or too bright for a system (computer simulation, screen, camera, etc.), it is shown as either absolute black or absolute white, respectively. There might be details in that area that is outside of the dynamic range of the system, but the system is unable to handle the inputs. The title text is saying that dark matter is too dark{{Citation needed}} to be properly rendered in detail.<br />
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Artifacts are evident in [[1683: Digital Data]], and mentioned in the title text of [[331: Photoshops]].<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Irregular bands of gray are shown, shading from a white circular segment on the lower left side of the panel to completely black on the right. The bands have pixelated edges. A small white space probe is shown just outside the last dark gray band, in the completely black area. A dotted line starting from inside the dark gray area and ending at the space probe indicates that it is moving to the right, out of the gray area. Close to the white area, there are many bands packed closely together and with hard to define edges. But there are five gray areas clearly separated from the white, with a tendency to be elongated in the space probe's direction.]<br />
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:[Caption below the panel]: Milestone: ''Voyager'' has passed through the streaming video compression artifacts that mark the edge of the solar system<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Space probes]]</div>108.162.246.18https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2492:_Commonly_Mispronounced_Equations&diff=215439Talk:2492: Commonly Mispronounced Equations2021-07-22T18:50:47Z<p>108.162.246.18: </p>
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This comic is obviously a take on the generation Z style of writing words without vowels so that they fit on T-Shirts, text messages or to avoid censorship, like "BRLN", "O RLY", "PIX PLZ". Some of the people from that generation are now established scientist, leading their respective fields forward. Obviously this is how they refer to common equations. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.29|162.158.92.29]] 13:10, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I think the wave equation is wrong based on units, but it's been a while. The wave speed ought to be squared. Of course, ''c'' could be a squared speed, but it's usually not. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.164|172.70.34.164]] 01:22, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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:I agree, normally it's written as C squared... The equations in order are 1: Gravitational Attraction, 2: Einstein's Mass / Energy Conversion, 3: Pythagorean Theorem (triangle side relations), 4: Area of a Circle, 5: Entropy equation, 6: Ideal Gas Law, 7: Euler's Identity, 8: Newtons Second law, 9: Wave equation, 10: The derivative of a function f, and, 11: The Quadratic Equation... I don't understand the linguistic rules being applied to the names, but they seem to be visual as much as anything [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.66|108.162.237.66]] 02:04, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
::You should turn that into a table in the explanation. We can have a column where we try to come up with the pronunciation rule. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:10, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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The equation for the thing I have as what it was made by is <br />
L<br />
=<br />
i<br />
ψ<br />
¯<br />
γ<br />
μ<br />
∂<br />
μ<br />
ψ<br />
−<br />
e<br />
ψ<br />
¯<br />
γ<br />
μ<br />
(<br />
A<br />
μ<br />
+<br />
B<br />
μ<br />
)<br />
ψ<br />
−<br />
m<br />
ψ<br />
¯<br />
ψ<br />
1<br />
4<br />
F<br />
μ<br />
ν<br />
F<br />
μ<br />
ν<br />
.<br />
{\displaystyle {\mathcal {L}}=i{\bar {\psi }}\gamma ^{\mu }\partial _{\mu }\psi -e{\bar {\psi }}\gamma ^{\mu }(A_{\mu }+B_{\mu })\psi -m{\bar {\psi }}\psi -{\frac {1}{4}}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }.}<br />
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when copy-pasted from Wikipedia. {{w|Quantum electrodynamics#Equations_of_motion|here is the link:}} [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_electrodynamics#Equations_of_motion These are both the links.] <br />
For archival, this is the thing: LAGRONJ EYSIBARYMOODMOOSIOYLERSIBRYMOOAMOOBAMOOSIMASIBRSIQORTFAHMOOVYFAHMOOVY. <br />
[[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 02:22, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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My friends and I actually pretty often say "PəV-nert" for the ideal gas law. First syllable is kind of vowel-less, sort of a schwa if anything. But also stressed? Didn't know you could stress a schwa but, guess I did.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.160|172.70.130.160]] 02:36, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
:My teachers always pronounced it PIV-nert. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.20|172.69.62.20]] 18:38, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I think this is the XKCD that has made me laugh the most, out of all 2492.<br />
:I'd say it might be the one that made me laugh the most, out of all {{LATESTCOMIC}}. I won't, because it didn't, but I could. --[[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 03:23, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I tried to transcribe these pronunciations into IPA, because reading them like this is kind of ambiguous. I probably got a bunch of stuff wrong though.<br />
fəˈdʒæmɚ |<br />
ˈɛmkɑˌtu |<br />
ætˈbutkut |<br />
ˈæpɚˌtu |<br />
həˈsplɒgpi |<br />
ˈpævnɚt |<br />
ˈaɪpɪn |<br />
ˈfimɑ |<br />
dut kəˈduks |<br />
ˈfækslɪmˌoʊ ˈfæksəˌfɒx |<br />
zəˈbɔbə fækˈtoʊɑ |<br />
ˌɛpsɪˈhutəˌmu ˈdupsɪˌkwɔrps<br />
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Why is it a soft G in the gravity equation? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:10, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
:I believe it's a reference to the "gif" pronunciation debate. "Fuh-gam-er" is the obvious pronunciation, Randal is facetiously asserting "Fuh-jam-er" is correct.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.130|108.162.250.130]] 05:00, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
:I think it might be because the English letter "G" is pronounced "Gee" (i.e. "Jee"), which made its way into the pronunciation here.[[User:BenjaminTheBenevolent|BenjaminTheBenevolent]] ([[User talk:BenjaminTheBenevolent|talk]]) 10:27, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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The most similar time when equations are actually 'pronounced' a bit like this is the "soh cah toa" mnemonic for the trigonometric identities - should this be in the explanation? (the comic made at least me think that might be the original inspiration) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.204|141.101.99.204]] 06:42, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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:The circle area might be meant to read out like "upper two", referencing the square. I can't see the same for any of the others though. / [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.157|162.158.183.157]] 06:52, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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:Mneumonics are supposed to make it easier to remember the equations; this collection would actually make it more challenging to remember these. Mind you, as a math tutor, my first thought was that these were attempts at mnemonics that missed the mark, '''badly'''. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 15:04, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I see nobody has attempted the Transcript yet. (Also I'm wondering how to 'properly' pronounce P-One V-One Over T-One Equals P-Two V-Two Over T-Two.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.157|162.158.155.157]] 10:41, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
:I started a transcript. --[[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 16:54, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Sorry to come in as an amateur, but I think the equation pronounced Ha-SPLOG-pee is actually the equation for Shannon diversity. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.134|162.158.126.134]] 11:58, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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The Pythagorean Theorem one made me think of the AT-AT debate for Star Wars<br />
:The wave equation reminded me of Jimmy Durante's Ink A Dinka Doo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWqi9eWwXvk I think I'm dating myself (no one else will). [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:55, 22 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I don't think it's clear if the provided pronunciations are the ''Correct'' ones or the common ''mispronunciations''</div>108.162.246.18