https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=172.68.51.203&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T13:30:52ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2710:_Hydropower_Breakthrough&diff=3011912710: Hydropower Breakthrough2022-12-13T06:00:45Z<p>172.68.51.203: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2710<br />
| date = December 12, 2022<br />
| title = Hydropower Breakthrough<br />
| image = hydropower_breakthrough_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 261x303px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = A hydroelectric dam is also known as a heavy water reactor.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a PRACTICAL WATER REACTOR - Please don't change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag until the year 2039, or until fusion reactors have succeeded.}}<br />
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The comic parodies fusion reactors, with energy produced seemingly never positive. In the past years, constant developments in fusion reactors have slowly increased the energy output of fusion to more then the input. It is possible this is meant to directly parody the Department of Energy's anticipated announcement of Q>1 fusion. The announcement is scheduled for the day after this comics release, and the date of this announcement was announced the day this comic went up. [https://www.ft.com/content/4b6f0fab-66ef-4e33-adec-cfc345589dc7]<br />
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In the comic, Beret Guy, unscientific as always, presents a hydroelectric dam, which instead of generating energy, generates a flow of water. This is similar to the way that a fusion reactor takes energy (and hydrogen isotopes) as an input and energy (and helium isotopes) as outputs. <br />
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The symbol Q is normally used to refer to {{w|fusion energy gain factor}}, the ratio of power generated by a fusion reactor to the energy used to maintain it -- an energy source isn't useful if it takes more power to run it than it produces. Q also can represent the volumetric flow rate of water through a hydroelectric dam, and in this case, a Q > 1 would have no great significance. Beret Guy has somehow mixed the two up, making the rate of flow as the output of the reaction and increasing it. <br />
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A {{w|hydroelectric dam}} is a power facility that generates electricity from water flowing in a river passing through a water turbine and generator.<br />
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The title text further confuses the issue as it introduces nuclear ''fission'' and equates the hydroelectric dam with a heavy water reactor, which is a special type of nuclear fission reactor that uses deuterium as a moderator to absorb neutrons. This is also a pun because one could simplistically say that a hydroelectric dam runs on "heavy water". The electricity comes from potential energy stored in the water, which is directly related to its mass (U = mgh). Alongside that, it possibly is making a pun on water and fusion reactors. Heavy water is the primary source of deuterium, a specific isotope of hydrogen required for the most energy-efficient fusion reactions needed today. On the other hand, water is the liquid that passes through dams, and is rarely used for fusion reactions today{{citation needed}}—although [https://what-if.xkcd.com/14/ it could be used as fusion fuel because it is made of hydrogen and oxygen.]<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
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{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
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[Beret Guy is standing on a podium. A lectern is in front of him, and he is pointing to a picture behind him of a dam.]<br />
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Beret Guy: We are pleased to announce that our hydroelectric dam has achieved Q > 1, producing more water than we fed into it!<br />
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Off-panel voice: Hooray!<br />
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Off-panel voice: Wait. <br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]<br />
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]</div>172.68.51.203https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2704:_Faucet&diff=300037Talk:2704: Faucet2022-11-29T10:56:31Z<p>172.68.51.203: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
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Are faucet designs considered to be confusing? I'm never confused by normal ones like [https://www.ikea.com/us/en/images/products/sundsvik-kitchen-faucet-chrome-plated__0756711_pe749051_s5.jpg?f=s these] {{unsigned|Flekkie|02:12, 29 November 2022}}<br />
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:Yeah I came here wondering the same thing. Is the joke perhaps not so much that the controls are confusing in terms of intent, but just in terms of determining the bounds? Eg, with two identical faucet controls and identical water pressures, "full blast hot" still translates to something radically different, if one building has a water heater set to 120F and the other building has a water heater set to 160F.{{unsigned ip|172.69.170.189|02:46, 29 November 2022}}<br />
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:(I find °F confusing, personally, but...) ...the easiest thing is to have two taps, one hot and one cold. Yes, they can combine into a single spout, but there are various conflicting plusses and minuses of that over having the two independent ones per outlet. Speaking (as I'm sure mixer-tap afficionados worldwide will appreciate) as a Brit. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.24|172.70.85.24]] 03:03, 29 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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::Relevant Tom Scott video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfHgUu_8KgA Why Britain Uses Separate Hot and Cold Taps]. TL;DR: British houses used to get their hot water from rat-filled cisterns so they wanted to keep the hot water separate from the cold water, and old habits die hard. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.152|162.158.63.152]] 03:34, 29 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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:::Silliness of dual-taps aside, that doesn't solve the issue of identical tap hardware yielding radically different results depending on what the hot water thermostat is set to. Maybe that's not the original joke (I'm still not sure what it was) but it's worth mentioning at least. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.146|172.69.170.146]] 03:39, 29 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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: I don't think those are confusing, but in many cases the feedback is too slow (e.g. due to the water in the pipes coming from the hot water source having cooled since the tap was last used), or inconvenient (e.g. the pressure of the hot water not being enough to trigger on-demand gas heaters). While theoretically that design allows exploring the whole temperature/pressure space, in practice one needs some trial-and-error and delay to find the correct setting (as Randall points out in the title text) to make it work. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 10:54, 29 November 2022 (UTC) <br />
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:It's really a joke we are too European to understand. Visit the US to see faucet control disasters in all their glory. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.203|172.68.51.203]] 10:56, 29 November 2022 (UTC) <br />
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I sympathize with Randall here; even controls designed to independently control temperature and flow rarely meet both the "intuitive to use at a glance" and "function as described" requirements to make them non-confusing. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 03:44, 29 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Wouldn't it be super simple to just have a slider that goes from hot to cold, and a second one that goes from slow to fast flow? Or one for hot, one for cold, with the higher the slider goes, the more the flow is increased? I don't see how much simpler you can get it. Hell, you could even use a dial for temperature (all dials turn clockwise to increase) with a digital readout. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.44|172.70.131.44]] 05:25, 29 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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: I suppose the issue with that is that, unlike simple mixer taps that control the flow of hot and cold water independently, relying on the human to find the right mixture that creates the desired flow and temperature, what you're describing requires a more complex system that is able to do that process automatically, so it can't be a simple mechanical valve. It would require temperature and pressure sensors for both the hot and cold water streams, and it would have to dynamically adjust the physical valve settings depending on all six parameters (position of the flow handle/slider/knob, position of the temperature handle/slider/knob, temperature of the hot water, temperature of the cold water, pressure of the hot water, pressure of the cold water). I'm not even sure this is possible with a fully mechanical system — likely some electronics would need to be involved, which might complicate things. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 10:50, 29 November 2022 (UTC) <br />
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This is probably the very first xkcd comic where I have absolutely no idea where Randal is coming from. While different people have different preferences for different designs, I've never heard of anyone being confused by any faucet design.<br />
Maybe he's trolling us, by trying to get a rise out of people wondering what the hell he's talking about? [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 08:20, 29 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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This may be a reference to "Design of Everyday Things - Dan Norman" or books in that direction. Although he talked a lot more about creating doors wrong he also mentioned faucet designs as terrible. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.29|198.41.242.29]] 09:17, 29 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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: I am actually puzzled by how many people ''don't'' relate to this, judging by the comments here. I guess I've been unlucky with the faucets I've encountered so far? Over the years I've had spontaneous conversations with multiple people abut how tap designs are either inconvenient (i.e. hard to find the right handle positions to produce the desired temperature and flow), or confusing to use, especially for hotel showers. In fact I'm adding this comment mostly so other people who share the same perception don't feel gaslighted or otherwise confused by so many people not recognizing this issue. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 10:50, 29 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Is that hairy? looks like him? [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 10:07, 29 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Is it too pedantic to point out the distinction between a helix (the shape of the control) and a spiral (mentioned by the character)?</div>172.68.51.203