https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=162.158.155.242&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T14:21:10ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2310:_Great_Attractor&diff=192399Talk:2310: Great Attractor2020-05-23T01:44:52Z<p>162.158.155.242: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Is Beret Guy talking about the {{w|Great Attractor}}? or simply about the Sun? It would fit in Beret Guy's quirkiness to call the Sun "the Great Attractor". Also, I didn't even know there was actually something called the Great Attractor... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.229|172.69.33.229]] 23:42, 22 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Well, given that it's "below him all day" and on the horizion at night, it's probably not the Sun. [[User:Argis13|Argis13]] ([[User talk:Argis13|talk]]) 23:58, 22 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Has anyone (inc Randall) done an analyses on TGA similar to https://what-if.xkcd.com/25/ does for other things? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.242|162.158.155.242]] 01:44, 23 May 2020 (UTC)</div>162.158.155.242https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2310:_Great_Attractor&diff=1923982310: Great Attractor2020-05-23T01:40:04Z<p>162.158.155.242: /* Explanation */ Titletext needed referencing, and better wording (maybe). ((Edit conflict redo. May need to double-check I've not quashed anything my predecessor just did.))</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2310<br />
| date = May 22, 2020<br />
| title = Great Attractor<br />
| image = great_attractor.png<br />
| titletext = Living in the southern hemisphere was nice because I could jump extra high, but I like it here too. Besides, if I ever want to move back, I can just curl up in a ball and wait!<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a Greatly Attractive SpaceBOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] comments on the fact that as summer approaches, the sun rises earlier and sets later, a common topic of conversation, especially to complain that it is still light at times of day where you are used to it being dark out. [[Beret Guy]] comments that he fell off of the wall this morning, a seemingly unconnected topic.<br />
<br />
People will often complain about falling out of bed as an indicator of having slept badly. The later sunset is often linked to worsened sleep [https://www.insider.com/why-its-hard-to-sleep-in-the-summer-2018-6]. However, Cueball didn't fall from the bed, he fell from the wall. While being able to figure out he's talking about his worsened sleep, Cueball is understandably confused, so Beret Guy clarifies. <br />
<br />
Beret Guy is strongly affected by the The {{w|Great Attractor}}, a large gravitational anomaly that influences the galaxies near it, but is difficult to observe directly. Beret Guy claims that the great attractor pulls on him unusually hard, which could be another one of his strange powers. This attraction, while not overpowering the gravity of the earth, (as he states that he can only "Jump extra high" in the Title Text) affects his life greatly, such as allowing him to sleep on walls. While 'normal' people can probably (if uncomfortably) lie down on the top of a boundary wall, for Beret Guy this may, at various times, mean that he can lie on the vertical surface of any wall (external or internal) that is currently orientated in a fortuitous direction.<br />
<br />
He fell off of the Wall this morning due the Great Attractor being below him during daylight hours and on the horizon during night hours. Because the Day starts earlier in the summer, he fell unexpectedly.<br />
<br />
He gives a short explanation of why The Great Attractor affects him, apparently caused by his bones existing in more dimensions than our normal 3 dimensions of space and 1 of time, and the motion of galaxies, which normally has no significant affect on a person. <br />
<br />
Beret Guy then says that Day-Sliding Season is near, due to The Great Attractor being at the horizon in the Day, and offers to run errands for Cueball in the South, implying that he will be pulled towards the South During Day-Sliding Season. <br />
<br />
Beret Guy is not standing straight up during this comic, he has one knee slightly bent; and walks with a strange gait and movement lines around him. This is presumably due to the extra downwards force that the Great Attractor is currently exerting on him, so he has to exert more effort to hold himself upright and seems quite content, in the titletext, to entirely stop bracing himself against the pull by crouching into a more spherical shape and rolling down the 'sloping' ground to some place with lower net gravitational potential. <br />
<br />
The unexpected onset of summer daylight patterns may be further commentary on the ongoing COVID-19 measures and how they have affected perception of time.<br />
<br />
A prior example of an xkcd character with alternate gravitational susceptibility is [[417: The Man Who Fell Sideways]], where a consistent off-vertical pull somehow applies (rather than one linked to a spot on the stellar sphere) while other fictional examples of 'personalised' [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Tethys gravitational] [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sally_Cambric susceptibilities] also exist, in various forms.<br />
.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[Cueball and Beret Guy stand next to each other, talking.]<br />
:Cueball: I can't believe it's still light out. It's 8:00 PM!<br />
:Beret Guy: Seriously! This morning I fell off the wall.<br />
<br />
:[In a frameless panel, Cueball and Beret Guy are still standing and talking. Beret Guy is gesturing to the right.]<br />
:Cueball: Wait, why were you sleeping on the wall?<br />
:Beret Guy: The Great Attractor is near the horizon at night right now.<br />
<br />
:[A regular panel, zoomed in on Beret Guy, who is gesturing to the left.]<br />
:Cueball (off screen): The Great Attractor?<br />
:Beret Guy: Yeah! The space one. <br />
:Beret Guy: It pulls on me extra hard. Doctors said it's something to do with galactic motion and how many dimensions my bones have.<br />
<br />
:[Zoomed back out to show Cueball, standing still, and Beret Guy, who is sliding away to the right.]<br />
:Beret Guy: This time of year, it's below us all day, so I stand vertically. But day-sliding season is near!<br />
:Beret Guy: Let me know if you have any errands to run to the south! <br />
:Beret Guy: ''Goodniiighttt''<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category: Comics featuring Beret Guy]]</div>162.158.155.242https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2309:_X&diff=192362Talk:2309: X2020-05-22T11:47:17Z<p>162.158.155.242: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
id certainly use that language lol ([[User talk:172.69.70.101|172.69.70.101]])<br />
<br />
-- haXkell is a X-based dialect of haskell<br/><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">X</span> :: Integer -> Integer<br/><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">X</span> 0 = 1<br/><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">X</span> X = X * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">X</span> (X-1)<br/><br />
[[User:Capncanuck|Capncanuck]] ([[User talk:Capncanuck|talk]]) 02:35, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
https://esolangs.org/wiki/X isn't taken. --[[User:Blacksilver|Blacksilver]] ([[User talk:Blacksilver|talk]]) 02:40, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Some unique looking variable names would be X and x in the fonts Webdings, Wingdings, Wingdings 2, and Wingdings 3.<br/><br />
They are respectively as follows:<br/><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Webdings';">X</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Webdings';">x</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Wingdings';">X</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Wingdings';">x</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Wingdings 2';">X</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Wingdings 2';">x</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Wingdings 3';">X</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Wingdings 3';">x</span> --[[User:Dstrube|Dstrube]] ([[User talk:Dstrube|talk]]) 02:49, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br/><br />
:This comment is quite uninformative to someone who doesn't have those fonts installed. [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 09:57, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
:: This comment highlights another issue with Cueball's language. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 11:22, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
As well as esolangs, among which I would consider the likes of Whitespace and b****fuck as potential inspirations, I think I'm also minded of TempleOS and its creator as vaguer but possibly still related influences... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.163|162.158.158.163]] 03:28, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
:I find it ironic that you censored the word "brain" but left in the word "fuck". <br />
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:09, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I added an explanation of what a variable is and why it's bad to have every one named X. It's pretty rudimentary though, hope someone more experienced than me will improve it. [[User:Unpopular Opinions|Goodbye, world!]] ([[User talk:Unpopular Opinions|talk]]) 04:39, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Forth basically doesn't use variable names. Commands operate on and consume the last number mentioned. A Forth program "1 2 3 . . ." prints 3, then 2, then 1. "2 3 + ." prints 5 I think??<br />
:In Microsoft "Transact-SQL" you can script variables named starting @ and temporary objects starting #. I promise I try to resist naming objects @ or # and especially if @ or # is going to be a different object in each program... or is not. And if someone else needs to reads this (and I don't want to punish them). Not to mention "@ " for instance. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.54|141.101.98.54]] 09:21, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Psh you're all chicken. Chicken chicken chicken.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/677507038607048704/706860858587873310/ShapeLikeItSelf_img1.png?width=282&height=209 Language where you can have return keyword in a if condition]],<br />
[[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/677507038607048704/712914169774735441/unknown.png?width=292&height=103 Language that uses unicode symbols for built_in operators]],<br />
[[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/677507038607048704/712915431446282240/unknown.png?width=396&height=379 Language, I have no words to describe]],<br />
and this this '''X''' thing is winning so far...<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.139|162.158.89.139]] 06:35, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Yeah, but C++ does that shit either '''unintentionally''' or '''at user demand''' (although, to be clear, I'm not saying it's any good; C++ and Java are possibly the worst programming languages in terms of shoddy design). The X programming language is just the designer being an asshole. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.205|172.68.189.205]] 07:04, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
::Those links have nothing to do with C++/Java and you can Not do those things in C++ or Java (except an if in an assignment).[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.208|162.158.92.208]] 08:02, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
:Those look like pretty sane language features; just looks weird because of the Eliza effect; those keywords don't behave like you'd expect them to based on experience of other languages. In the first example, you can certainly do that in Perl using "if (defined wantarray)"; it's just unusual (but comprehensible) to name the keyword "return". What language is that? [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 09:57, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
::Language is called ShapedLikeItSelf, but it currently has no runner. Documentation is just of images like these on discord server.<br />
::[[https://discord.gg/ercPss9 This is link to it]] if you are intersted. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.19|162.158.89.19]] 10:19, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Did Randall refer to this comic? https://xkcd.com/1537/<br />
I vaguely remember another one about an esoteric language. Is there a category of programming languages on explainxkcd?<br />
<br />
Am I the only one that tried fiddling the CSS on the page to see if the X would change? Spoiler -> It didn't. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 08:54, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
If X is the only variable name, can it be omitted? For example, writing a single-argument function name in a different font to imply which X should be treated as its argument. And that gets me wondering how the source is stored; will the IDE allow use of fonts not installed on your system? Will the compiler fail if it can't find the font, requiring you to track down all of the fonts a developer used in order to compile their code? And what would be the legality of mixing open-source code and proprietary fonts? [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 09:57, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"… and array indices start at 8, because anything smaller than that would be unreadable." [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 10:00, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Who is going to implement this first??[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.122|108.162.216.122]] 13:03, 21 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey guys what coding language did he do to almost be arrested? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.139|162.158.187.139]] 14:18, 21 May 2020 (UTC)Anonymous<br />
:Well, I've got this one with just four operands, everything's a relative address in 4-cored circular memory and there's no paractical differentiation between the packed opcodes, addresses and data (or their 2-bit lower-limit boundaries) when operated upon from elsewhere. Everything suggests it should be be Turing-complete. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.242|162.158.155.242]] 11:47, 22 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Isn't the fixed vs variable width a pun on the variable's internal size, eg. a 64-bit integer [fixed width) vs a string (variable width) ?<br />
<br />
I sure hope this new language at least supports indexed tuples. If so, that wouldn't be so bad, unless for some reason I needed more than one tuple in the same scope.[[User:Whiteheadw|Whiteheadw]] ([[User talk:Whiteheadw|talk]]) 23:01, 21 May 2020 (UTC)</div>162.158.155.242https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2307:_Alive_Or_Not&diff=192068Talk:2307: Alive Or Not2020-05-15T22:15:55Z<p>162.158.155.242: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
I'm pretty sure high-pressure fire hoses belong on this scale[[User:60sRefugee|60sRefugee]] ([[User talk:60sRefugee|talk]]) 21:47, 15 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Funny, for once viruses are said to be alive. That's new... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.138|141.101.107.138]] 22:01, 15 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Do we want to bicker over the placement of the line (like "Why is it below viruses"), or the order things are placed in (like "Why are slime molds below plants")? [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 22:06, 15 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
True fossils have remineralised so generally do not have DNA left. They are merely the shadow of a previous life.</div>162.158.155.242https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:451:_Impostor&diff=167116Talk:451: Impostor2018-12-18T06:07:30Z<p>162.158.155.242: </p>
<hr />
<div>It could be that no one understands the literary criticism, even if they read it. The panel shows a student listening to Cueball. A fun, alternative explanation is that Cueball has found his real niche! A natural genius in literary criticism! (I know that's not what he's driving at. Stick with my first explanation.)[[User:Theo|Theo]] ([[User talk:Theo|talk]]) 13:22, 13 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I know this is easy to find, but the wikipedia article on deconstruction is very relevant. There should be a link in the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 01:05, 30 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I believe the multiple issues listed in the '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction Deconstruction]''' Wikipedia article speak for themselves:<br />
<br />
:'''This article has multiple issues.''' Please help '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deconstruction&action=edit improve it]''' or discuss these issues on the '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Deconstruction talk page]'''.<br />
:*This article '''contains [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:QUOTE too many or too-lengthy quotations] for an encyclopedic entry'''. (''February 2014'') <br />
:*This article '''may be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vagueness confusing or unclear] to readers'''. (''February 2014'') <br />
:*This article '''may be too [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/technical#Adjective technical] for most readers to understand'''. (''February 2014'') <br />
:*This article's '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:LEAD introduction] may be too long for the overall article length'''. (''February 2014'') <br />
:*This article '''may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style quality standards]'''. (''February 2014'') <br />
:*The '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view neutrality] of this article is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NPOV_dispute disputed]'''. (''February 2014'')<br />
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.5|199.27.133.5]] 20:10, 27 June 2014 (UTC)<br />
::I'm wondering how anyone can make enough sense of that article to notice bias. :) [[User:NealCruco|NealCruco]] ([[User talk:NealCruco|talk]]) 17:24, 31 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think that, on the literary criticism explanation, Randall wrote "Eight papers and two books and they haven't caught on" to mean that he ''talked'' about eight papers and two books, not that he has already had a literary criticism writing career consisting of eight written papers and two books and no one has noticed. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.53|199.27.133.53]] 04:19, 16 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
:I disagree. A 'paper' usually means an academic paper, not literary work. Then, the books part follows suit. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 06:52, 3 August 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Could also be a reference to the Sokal Hoax...implying he did the same thing over and over but without the "reveal." {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.178}}<br />
<br />
Given the "Eight papers and two books" that the narrator has written on literary criticism, could this actually be talking about [[wikipedia:Impostor syndrome|impostor syndrome]], where the author ''believes'' that they're frauds and that they're not as good as people think they are, but in actual fact are knowledgable in their field? --[[User:Sophira|Sophira]] ([[User talk:Sophira|talk]]) 04:13, 23 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I find the claim "Since Klingon is a constructed language, designed to sound "alien" and to avoid sounding like any human language, it cannot be part of any real linguistic family."- specifically the "since it's constructed, it can't belong to a real language family"- to be rather dubious. Now, full disclosure, I have absolutely no formal education in Linguistics- the closest is that I'm in my first year of learning German- but there's no reason a conlang can't belong to a language family.<br />
<br />
For example:<br />
* {{w|Linguistic purism in English|Anglish}}, English's form of linguistic purism that aims to remove all foreign influences (or at least romance influences) from the language is arcane and distinct enough from normal English to the degree that it can be considered a separate language almost (about the same difference as between English and {{w|Scots language|Scots}}). Anglish is pretty obviously constructed (a lot of vocabulary was mangled together to talk about modern concepts that didn't exist prior to foreign influences), but it's not a stretch to say it belongs to the Germanic language family.<br />
* {{w|Esperanto}} is probably the world's most famous Conlang, but it was greatly influenced by the author's experience with language. It takes its grammar from Slavic languages and its vocabulary from Germanic and Romance languages; while it might not be an obvious member of any language family, I wouldn't call it a stretch to classify it in one (or more!) based on its influences.<br />
* The biggest issue is that "real language family" is a dubious term- a group of related-but-distinct conlangs could be said to belong to the same language family, and it would be a ''real'' language family- if they're real languages, they form a real family.<br />
<br />
Now, the given example of Klingon probably doesn't belong to any earthly families since it was meant to be alien, but the cause-and-effect statement is just a little fishy. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 21:35, 30 March 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Membership in a language family is based on common descent, not a featural analysis. As such, Esperanto absolutely cannot be classified as Germanic, Romance or Slavic, even if it is in large part a relexified version of its creator's native dialect of Polish. That said, you're correct that there's no reason a conlang couldn't be part of a language family. For one, if I use a reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European and derive a language from it by applying sound changes, what I've made is both a conlang and an Indo-European language. For another, if I create a language and then derive daughter languages from it by applying sound changes, that's an entire family of conlangs. (Klingon doesn't have such a language family, as it happens, but Marc Okrand has written about some dialectal variations.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.242|162.158.155.242]] 06:07, 18 December 2018 (UTC)</div>162.158.155.242https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=273:_Electromagnetic_Spectrum&diff=163474273: Electromagnetic Spectrum2018-09-30T12:53:42Z<p>162.158.155.242: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 273<br />
| date = June 6, 2007<br />
| title = Electromagnetic Spectrum<br />
| image = electromagnetic spectrum.png<br />
| titletext = Sometimes I try to picture what everything would look like if the whole spectrum were compressed into the visible spectrum. Also sometimes I try to picture your sister naked.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This panel is a play on the {{w|Electromagnetic spectrum}}, showing a large piece of the spectrum and examples of phenomena that absorb or emit light along the spectra. Such spectra are commonly used in physics or astronomy education contexts when discussing the nature of light. This comic extends it to absurd lengths by including examples that may be variously hyper-specific, humorous, or non-EM phenomena.<br />
<br />
The first two scales at the bottom show the wavelength λ (in meters) and the frequency f (in Hertz) of the wave. The values are related as λ=c/f, where c is the speed of light. The last line showing Q(Gal²/Coloumb) is nonsense; Gal ({{w|Gallon}}) is a unit of liquid volume measurement, and Coloumb is a likely typo for {{w|Coulomb}}, the SI unit of electric charge. Photons do not have volume in the traditional sense of the word, and are electrically neutral (thus carrying no charge). <br />
<br />
In 1887, the {{w|Michelson–Morley experiment}} proved for the first time that the {{w|aether theory}} was wrong. The year (1897) cited underneath the comic title may be an incorrectly-dated reference to this experiment. Nevertheless, after that time, many physicists like {{w|Hendrik Lorentz}} or {{w|Joseph Larmor}} were still working on some aether theories. {{w|Albert Einstein}}'s theory of {{w|Special Relativity}} in 1905 helped explain the theoretical basis for the lack of aether and was a definitive step in discarding previous work.<br />
<br />
===The comic in detail===<br />
The wavelength starts at high values on the left and decreases in a {{w|logarithmic scale}} to the right. As a result of the inverse relationship between frequency and wavelength, the frequency scale starts at low values and increases logarithmically. The nonsense ''Q'' parameter does not change monotonically with either frequency or wavelength.<br />
<br />
Both scales are labeled with powers of ten and with {{w|metric prefix}}es. For frequencies above 100 {{w|tera-}}Hertz, it just says "other entertaining Greek prefixes like {{w|peta-}} and {{w|exa-}} and zappa-." The last prefix should be {{w|zetta-}} (denoting a factor of 10<sup>21</sup>), but is intentionally mislabeled, referencing musician {{w|Frank Zappa}}. <br />
<br />
'''Other waves'''<br />
<br />
Three drawings of other types of waves than the electromagnetic type:<br />
*Slinky waves by a coil. These can be either longitudinal or transverse waves, depending on the manner in which the Slinky is driven. Notably, Randall has drawn the Slinky as tangled up; if you've ever played with a Slinky, you know how frustrating it is to untangle it.<br />
*The human audio spectrum (from 20&nbsp;Hz to 20&nbsp;kHz). The "high-pitched noise in empty rooms" refers to {{w|tinnitus}} (also see [[1590: The Source]]).<br />
*"{{w|Wave (audience)|The Wave}}" in a stadium, a transverse wave phenomenon that travels through people.<br />
<br />
'''Power and Telephone'''<br />
*"{{w|CIA}} (Secret)" is a joke about all the wiretapping on phones and such.<br />
<br />
'''Radio and TV'''<br />
*"Shouting car dealership commercials" is a reference to the massive and often extreme advertising for car retailers.<br />
*{{w|Ham radio}} is a private amateur radio used for communication. <br />
*"Kosher radio" is playing with the ambiguousness of the word HAM. {{w|Kosher}} is a Jewish law for food, and it states, amongst others, that Jews are never allowed to eat meat from the unclean pigs - so no ham!<br />
*Some frequencies of famous FM broadcast stations. "99.3 The Fox" is a modern rock station in {{w|Vancouver, British Columbia}}. "101.5 The Badger" is a classic rock station in {{w|Madison, Wisconsin}} (home of the University of Wisconsin, whose mascot is a badger). "106.3 The Frightened Squirrel" is not a real station, but makes a play off of the animal names commonly used as nicknames for either radio stations, programs, or hosts.<br />
*The rays controlling {{w|Steve Ballmer}} are nonsense, but may reference real {{w|Balmer series}}, a set of transitions in the hydrogen atom that produce photons in the optical and ultraviolet light range.<br />
*AM {{w|Amplitude modulation}}, VHF {{w|Very high frequency}}, and UHF {{w|Ultra high frequency}} are frequency ranges approved for commercial broadcasting companies.<br />
*Cell phone cancer rays is playing with the belief of many people that cell phones may cause cancer.<br />
*Aliens belong to a range slightly higher than the frequencies used by human communications. So they can't hear us.<br />
<br />
'''Microwaves'''<br />
*{{w|SETI}} is the "Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence" project trying to find messages from aliens. Most genuine astronomical research in this area concentrates in the microwave and radio regimes. Since aliens work at different frequencies on this diagram, that might explain why there has of yet been no positive results from SETI.<br />
*{{w|WIFI}} is the standard for wireless computer communications.<br />
*FHF is probably "Fucking high frequency;" it is not an abbreviation for any broadcasting frequency ranges and lies above the (real) V(ery)HF and U(ltra)HF.<br />
*{{w|Gravity wave}}s are a phenomenon in fluid dynamics, and distinct from {{w|Gravitational wave}}s. Neither is related to electromagnetic emission.<br />
*Brain waves could be a reference to {{w|Neural oscillation}}.<br />
*{{w|Sulawesi}} is an island in the Indian Ocean that belongs to Indonesia.<br />
<br />
'''Toasters'''<br />
*This is a pun on the microwave oven, which emits light at its namesake frequencies to cook food. It also takes a stab at people who claim that microwaved food is dangerous, by pointing out that toasters also heat food using electromagnetic radiation, of frequencies just higher than microwaves. (The actual spectrum of a toaster goes all the way into visible frequencies.)<br />
<br />
'''IR (infrared)'''<br />
*{{w|Infrared}} belongs to heat. The reference to {{w|Superman}} covers his heat vision power, which has been used many times within the canon. American comedian {{w|Jack Black}} starred in a proposed scifi/comedy television show in 1999 titled "{{w|Heat Vision and Jack}}", which covered the adventures of an astronaut and his talking motorcycle.<br />
<br />
'''Visible light'''<br />
*At the bottom, it is split into "visible light" and "visible dark." While dark is the opposite of light in many grammatical contexts, in the physical sense it only reflects the absence of visible photons.<br />
*The human visible spectrum is shown by all colors, including {{w|octarine}}, the colour of magic on the fictional {{w|Discworld}} (in the books by {{w|Terry Pratchett}}).<br />
*On top, there are two {{w|absorption spectrum|absorption spectra}}, hydrogen and helium. These are the two most common elements in the Sun, and their presence in the Sun's outer envelope and Earth's atmosphere does block some small frequencies from the Sun. Next come two cases of {{w|Absorption (chemistry)|absorption}} in the chemical/technical meaning:<br />
**{{w|Depends}} is a brand of underwear for adults experiencing urinary or fecal incontinence. The color is consequently yellow.<br />
**{{w|Tampax}} is a brand of tampon. The color is red.<br />
<br />
'''UV (ultraviolet)'''<br />
*{{w|Ultraviolet}} light cannot be seen by humans. No entries here.<br />
<br />
'''Miller Light'''<br />
*{{w|Miller Lite}} is a lager beer. "Light beer" typically has a lower alcohol content and calorie count, although it is also usually a light color for beer.<br />
<br />
'''Empty section'''<br />
*"Main Death Star Laser" is a reference to {{w|Star Wars}}.<br />
<br />
'''Censored under {{w|Patriot Act}}'''<br />
*No entry because it's censored; this is a humorous exaggeration of how much authority the government can supposedly exercise under said bill.<br />
<br />
'''X-rays'''<br />
*Potatoes absorb and reflect radiation waves the same way humans do, because their chemistry and water content is very similar to the human body. Look here: [http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2012/12/24/boeing-wifi-potatoes/1789109/ Boeing uses potatoes to improve Wi-Fi signals].<br />
*Mail-order x-ray glasses refers to {{w|X-Ray Specs (novelty)|a novelty item}} based on an optical effect, not actual x-rays. {{w|Google Glass}} did not exist at the time when this comic was created.<br />
<br />
'''Gamma/Cosmic rays'''<br />
*Blogorays are emitted by the {{w|Blogosphere}}; apparently only [[Randall]] can detect them.<br />
*Sinister Google Projects: {{w|Google}}, despite having a motto "don't be evil", has such significant power that it is a frequent target of conspiracy theories. <br />
<br />
And finally, the '''Title Text''': Randall likes to speculate what the world would look like if humans could see radio waves, gamma waves, etc. Such a thought experiment would be pretty abstract due to the total lack of a frame of reference (since everything outside the visible light spectrum is by definition invisible and thus beyond human comprehension), but for many people, that's also what makes it enticing. Randall immediately turns this profound train of thought around with a crude joke that he wants to know what the viewer's sister would look like in the nude.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Missing much of the details}}<br />
:[Everything is one big panel.]<br />
<br />
:The Electromagnetic Spectrum<br />
<br />
:These waves travel through the electromagnetic field. They were formerly carried by the aether, which was decommissioned in 1897 due to budget cuts.<br />
<br />
:Other waves:<br />
:*Slinky waves [Cueball and Megan hold the ends of a tangled slinky.]<br />
:*Sound waves [There is a snippet of a frequency band. Between 20 Hz and 20 KHz is labeled "Audible Sound." Towards the top is a line labeled "That high-pitched noise in empty rooms."]<br />
:*The wave [A row of people does a wave.]<br />
<br />
:[Three parallel scales are across the bottom. The first is lambda (m), ranging from 100Mm to 100fm; second is f (Hz), which starts at 1 Hz and reaches 100 THz about 2/3 of the way along, after which the labels read "other entertaining greek prefixes like peta- exa- and zappa-;" last is Q (Gal^2/Coloumb), whose labels are 17, 117, pi, 17, 42, phi, e^pi-pi, -2, 540^50, and 11^2. Above the scales and lined up accurately with the first two are the following:]<br />
<br />
:*Power & Telephone (100Mm to 1km)<br />
:*Radio & TV (1km to somewhere between 1m and 10cm); above that are many boxes showing subranges (AM, VHF, UHF, 24/7 NPR pledge drives, a very thin band for the space rays controlling Steve Ballmer, 99.3 "The Fox," 101.5 "The Badger," 106.3 "The Frightened Squirrel," cell phone cancer rays, CIA, ham radio, kosher radio, shouting car dealership commercials.)<br />
:*Microwaves (a bit more than 10cm to a bit more than 1mm); it also has subranges (aliens, just below SETI, wifi, FHF, brain waves, sulawesi, gravity)<br />
:*Toasters (about 1mm to about 100 micrometers)<br />
:*IR (about 100 micrometers to somewhere between 1 micrometer and 1 nm); above that is a bell graph labeled "Superman"s heat vision," with a motorcycle driving up the left side labeled "Jack Black's Heat Vision."<br />
:*Visible light (and, under it, visible dark); above that is a bell graph labeled "sunlight." There's a breakout chart above it showing the visible spectrum from 700nm (red) to 450nm (violet). There's an arrow pointing to where octarine would be, somewhere off to the side. Above that are bars showing the absorption spectra for hydrogen, helium, Depends(R) (yellow only), and Tampax(R) (red only).<br />
:*UV (about 100nm to about 10nm)<br />
:*Miller Light (a thin bar around 10nm)<br />
:*An unlabeled section with a thin line above it showing the frequency of the main death star laser<br />
:*A blocked-off portion labeled "Censored Under Patriot Act."<br />
:*X-rays (from about 1nm to about 10pm); a line above shows the frequency of mail-order x-ray glasses. Somewhere vaguely above the 10pm mark is a potato.<br />
:*Gamma/cosmic rays (10pm and smaller); above that is a bar marked Sinister Google Projects that also trails off into higher frequencies, and blogorays, which are slightly lower.<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
'Empty room hum" was later referred to in [[1590: The Source]].<br />
<br />
Cell phones as a cause of cancer was later referred to in [[925: Cell Phones]].<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]<br />
[[Category:SETI]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Your sister]]</div>162.158.155.242https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1287:_Puzzle&diff=1632951287: Puzzle2018-09-26T01:40:52Z<p>162.158.155.242: /* Transcript */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1287<br />
| date = November 6, 2013<br />
| title = Puzzle<br />
| image = puzzle.png<br />
| titletext = Prediction for Carlsen v. Anand: ...25. Qb8+ Nxb8 26. Rd8# f6 27. "...dude." Qf5 28. "The game is over, dude." Qxg5 29. Rxe8 0-1 30. "Dude, your move can't be '0-1'. Don't write that down." [Black flips board]<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The game of {{w|Go (game)|go}} (also called Weiqi, Baduk or Igo) is usually played on the 19×19 intersections of a grid, but sometimes a faster, simpler version is played on the 9×9 intersections of a grid; which thus has 8×8 squares, as a chessboard, though they are not colored in an alternating pattern – {{w|White and Black in chess|introduced to chess in the 13th century}}. In the comic, white has chess pieces and plays against black, which uses go stones.<br />
<br />
In chess, particularly in puzzles, the phrasing "White to move" indicates that it's the White player's turn; "White to play and win" indicates that it's White's turn and if White plays correctly, the next series of moves will result in an advantageous position or possibly outright win for White. The caption "White to continue insisting this is a chessboard" is a play on this traditional phrasing. The same kind of phrasing is also used in {{w|Tsumego|Go puzzles}}. In Go puzzles the objectives are often of a local or tactical character, such as "White to capture four black stones" or "White to live in the corner".<br />
<br />
Two versions of the board were posted by Randall: both had white after e3, d4, Nf3, Nc3, but the first with an extra bishop at e4 (B@e4), the second after Bd2.<br />
<br />
B@e4 in the first version of the board was perhaps intended to represent confusion in White's mind whether he was playing Go (placing a piece) or Chess (it's a chess piece) – as a 'placement' this move could have been first, and could explain the pawn at e3, with e4 already being blocked. Like [[1230: Polar/Cartesian]], this comic thrives on ambiguity; the two boards appear similar but are incompatible in practice, but either side could be seen as right.<br />
<br />
It is unclear who has gone first. In Go it is traditional for black to go first, while in Chess it has been traditional for white to go first for about a century. Indeed, both players have made five moves, although the caption/"punchline" implies it is the start of white's sixth turn; though if black did go first, none of his/her pieces are in the 3-3 handicap positions marked on a 9×9 Go board.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to the (at the time) upcoming {{w|World Chess Championship 2013|2013 World Chess Championship}} between Carlsen and Anand. {{w|Magnus Carlsen}} is a 25 year old Norwegian chess grandmaster, who had the highest peak rating and was the third youngest grandmaster in history. He was the world's 2009 blitz champion and is also the current 2 time world champion, and currently ranked #1 in the world by FIDE. {{w|Viswanathan Anand}} is a 46 year old Indian grandmaster, 5 time World Champion, who is currently ranked #8 in the world.<br />
<br />
The game transcript in the title text refers to the ending of the famous {{w|Morphy versus the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard|Opera Game}} between Paul Morphy and the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard. That game ends with 16. Qb8+ Nxb8 17. Rd8#. In the title text, Black continues to make moves as if he has not been checkmated, over White's protests. After White uses his rook to capture Black's king to emphasize the checkmate, Black defiantly writes "0-1" (the notation symbolizing a Black victory) on his scoresheet. When informed that his move cannot be to declare victory, he flips the board. "0-1" may also represent a position on a go board (first down on the top left corner) in [http://senseis.xmp.net/?Coordinates certain coordinates systems].<br />
<br />
The game transcript is written in standard {{w|Algebraic notation (chess)|algebraic notation}}. The destination square is represented by a lowercase letter (a-h, on the x-axis) and a number (1-8, on the y-axis), with the bottom-left square being a1 and the top-right square being h8. The uppercase letters refer to the piece that is moving to that square (e.g., Q = Queen, K = King, N = Knight, R = Rook), so Qa1 would mean moving the Queen to the bottom-left square. The absence of an uppercase letter refers to a pawn's move (e.g., "f6" means moving a pawn to f6). If the move captures a piece, an "x" is inserted between the piece and the destination (e.g., Nxb8). Checks are indicated by +, and checkmate by #.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A game board with 8×8 white squares and black borders, like a goboard or an all white chessboard, there are white chess pieces in starting position on the bottom after e3, d4, Nf3, Nc3, Bd2 and five black Go pieces on the vertices in the center of the board at d4 d5 c6 g4 g6.]<br />
:White to continue insisting this is a chessboard<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Chess]]</div>162.158.155.242