https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=172.69.135.44&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-19T03:23:59ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2778:_Cuisine&diff=3135552778: Cuisine2023-05-20T20:07:28Z<p>172.69.135.44: /* Explanation */ identify locus of humor</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2778<br />
| date = May 19, 2023<br />
| title = Cuisine<br />
| image = cuisine_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 200x312px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = My connection to it goes way back, to my early days, when I was just a cloud of primordial hydrogen collapsing in the darkness of space.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a MICHELIN-RATED BROWN DWARF. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
{{w|Fusion cuisine}} is a style of cuisine based on combining aspects of the cuisines of two or more cultures, such as a combination of French and Chinese food, or Mexican and Korean food.<br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] humorously conflates the reference to fusion in "fusion cuisine", combining cooking styles to create exciting new forms of food, with {{w|nuclear fusion}}, combining atomic nuclei to create new kinds of atoms. The recipe is described as the initiation of {{w|deuterium}} fusion in a kilogram ("four cups") of {{w|heavy water}} and allowing the reaction to continue to its endpoint, {{w|iron}}. The "very high heat" specified in the recipe would be the million-plus Kelvin at which {{w|deuterium fusion}} is initiated in stars.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to stellar fusion as responsible for at least one atom in each molecule of every living thing, all our food and water, and indeed everything but pure primordial hydrogen in the galaxy; thus Cueball's personal interest in "fusion" cuisine.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[White Hat stands behind Cueball, who is cooking on a stove. The stove is seen from the side. Cueball has his left hand on the handle of a pot which is on one of the stove's burners. In Cueball's right hand is a small cup.]<br />
:Cueball: Next, we heat four cups of heavy water over ''very'' high heat until it thickens and becomes rich in iron.<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:I'm getting really into fusion cuisine.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]<br />
[[Category:Food]]</div>172.69.135.44https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2778:_Cuisine&diff=3135542778: Cuisine2023-05-20T20:06:45Z<p>172.69.135.44: /* Explanation */ not a pertinent link</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2778<br />
| date = May 19, 2023<br />
| title = Cuisine<br />
| image = cuisine_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 200x312px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = My connection to it goes way back, to my early days, when I was just a cloud of primordial hydrogen collapsing in the darkness of space.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a MICHELIN-RATED BROWN DWARF. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
{{w|Fusion cuisine}} is a style of cuisine based on combining aspects of the cuisines of two or more cultures, such as a combination of French and Chinese food, or Mexican and Korean food.<br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] conflates the reference to fusion in "fusion cuisine", combining cooking styles to create exciting new forms of food, with {{w|nuclear fusion}}, combining atomic nuclei to create new kinds of atoms. The recipe is described as the initiation of {{w|deuterium}} fusion in a kilogram ("four cups") of {{w|heavy water}} and allowing the reaction to continue to its endpoint, {{w|iron}}. The "very high heat" specified in the recipe would be the million-plus Kelvin at which {{w|deuterium fusion}} is initiated in stars.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to stellar fusion as responsible for at least one atom in each molecule of every living thing, all our food and water, and indeed everything but pure primordial hydrogen in the galaxy; thus Cueball's personal interest in "fusion" cuisine.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[White Hat stands behind Cueball, who is cooking on a stove. The stove is seen from the side. Cueball has his left hand on the handle of a pot which is on one of the stove's burners. In Cueball's right hand is a small cup.]<br />
:Cueball: Next, we heat four cups of heavy water over ''very'' high heat until it thickens and becomes rich in iron.<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:I'm getting really into fusion cuisine.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]<br />
[[Category:Food]]</div>172.69.135.44https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2778:_Cuisine&diff=3135502778: Cuisine2023-05-20T20:02:06Z<p>172.69.135.44: /* Explanation */ clarify</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2778<br />
| date = May 19, 2023<br />
| title = Cuisine<br />
| image = cuisine_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 200x312px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = My connection to it goes way back, to my early days, when I was just a cloud of primordial hydrogen collapsing in the darkness of space.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a MICHELIN-RATED BROWN DWARF. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
{{w|Fusion cuisine}} is a style of cuisine based on combining aspects of the cuisines of two or more cultures -- such as a combination of French and Chinese food, or Mexican and Korean food.<br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] has chosen to conflate the reference to fusion in "fusion cuisine", combining two or more cooking styles to create exciting new forms of food, with {{w|nuclear fusion}}, combining two or more atomic nuclei to create [https://what-if.xkcd.com/157/ new kinds of atoms]. The recipe is described as the initiation of {{w|deuterium}} fusion in a kilogram ("four cups") of {{w|heavy water}} and allowing the reaction to continue to its endpoint, {{w|iron}}. The "very high heat" specified in the recipe would be the million-plus Kelvin at which {{w|deuterium fusion}} is initiated in stars.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to stellar fusion as responsible for at least one atom in each molecule of every living thing, all our food and water, and indeed everything but pure primordial hydrogen in the galaxy; thus Cueball's personal interest in "fusion" cuisine.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[White Hat stands behind Cueball, who is cooking on a stove. The stove is seen from the side. Cueball has his left hand on the handle of a pot which is on one of the stove's burners. In Cueball's right hand is a small cup.]<br />
:Cueball: Next, we heat four cups of heavy water over ''very'' high heat until it thickens and becomes rich in iron.<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:I'm getting really into fusion cuisine.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]<br />
[[Category:Food]]</div>172.69.135.44https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2773:_Planetary_Scientist&diff=3126912773: Planetary Scientist2023-05-09T16:44:31Z<p>172.69.135.44: /* Explanation */ better</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2773<br />
| date = May 8, 2023<br />
| title = Planetary Scientist<br />
| image = planetary_scientist_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 303x349px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = This rumpled fabric at the corner looks like evidence of ongoing tectonic activity.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT THAT'S PROBABLY FULL OF WATER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
Ponytail, a {{w|planetary scientist}}, is shopping at a mattress store. The store clerk seems to be giving her a guided tour of various models of mattress, including the most popular model shown in the comic.<br />
<br />
Ponytail asks if the bed is a {{w|waterbed}}, a type of mattress which is filled with water instead of the usual solid material. The clerk, Cueball, begins to explain to her that it's actually a hybrid made of foam (among other things, maybe water), but Ponytail interrupts him, saying that she believes it actually is a waterbed based on "how it moves."<br />
<br />
The comic caption reveals the punchline, that because {{w|planetary oceanography|subsurface oceans}} have become so ubiquitous in the study of planetary science (especially because they serve as an indicator for the potential for life on another planet), Ponytail is starting to see them ''everywhere'', even in clearly unrelated contexts such as mattresses. Here, the water in the waterbed is analogous to a planet's subsurface ocean (i.e. both being water underneath a solid outer layer). Alternatively, the comic could be commenting on the difficulty of discerning {{w|hydroxyl}} spectra from water absorbed in mineral {{w|hydrate}}s from free water in remote detection missions to the Moon, asteroids, and Jovian moons.<br />
<br />
The title text goes in a similar direction with planetary science, having Ponytail tell the now-confused clerk that the rumpled fabric on one part of the bed seems like "evidence of ongoing tectonic activity," referencing {{w|plate tectonics}} and how protruding geographic formations (such as mountains) are formed through it. Again, the punchline is the relentless penetration of Ponytail's occupation into her everyday life.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Ponytail is shopping for a mattress and Cueball points with one hand towards a mattress to their left. It lies on a bed with two mattresses on top of each other, there is a price tag on the one on top. To their right is another bed with one mattresses also with a price tag. Both price tag has a $ sign on them. There are five wall posters behind them. To their left is one with a picture of a bed with unreadable text above and below. Next to it is a smaller note with three lines of unreadable text. To their right is a poster with a zoom in on a mattress with some item on top of it, looks like a wineglass. There is a line of unreadable text above. Next to that are two slim posters, one has a large word "Sale" on it, but the rest of the text on that and one the one below is unreadable.]<br />
:Cueball: And this is one of our most popular models.<br />
:Ponytail: Is it a waterbed?<br />
:Cueball: No, it's a hybrid foam--<br />
:Ponytail: No, look at how it moves. I'm pretty sure it's a waterbed.<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:Planetary scientists are starting to see subsurface oceans everywhere.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]<br />
[[Category:Astronomy]]</div>172.69.135.44https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2071:_Indirect_Detection&diff=3119252071: Indirect Detection2023-04-29T20:39:37Z<p>172.69.135.44: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2071<br />
| date = November 12, 2018<br />
| title = Indirect Detection<br />
| image = indirect_detection.png<br />
| titletext = I'm like a prisoner in Plato's Cave, seeing only the shade you throw on the wall.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
This comic shows an angry social media post by one of [[Randall]]’s spiky-haired friends, objecting to the views of unknown third parties, which appear to be a cartoonishly and unrealistically evil take on the proper treatment of abandoned animals. This could perhaps be in part a callback to [[2051: Bad Opinions]], in which Cueball is looking to post a response to an absurd or inflammatory opinion that currently may or may not actually exist anywhere on the internet. Sometimes when posting something on social media, such as Facebook, that post can be seen by all the people you have designated as your "friends." In this case the original comment was intended to be read by the people holding these views, people who are not direct friends of Randall's and whose posts he therefore could not see, but because it was posted by his direct friend he could read that response and was able to imagine what it was those other people were saying. Knowing a little about what these other mystery people are saying, through direct quotes from within his friend's comment, and having to fill in the rest by his imagination, he reflects on how weird it is to learn that people who hold such views exist in such an indirect manner.<br />
<br />
The title text is a pun comparing the shadows of [[Wikipedia:Allegory of the Cave|Plato's cave]] to the practice of "[[Wikipedia:Throwing shade (slang)|throwing shade]]" (slang for throwing insults, usually subtly), and "the wall" could have a double meaning of both the wall of the cave and the term for someone's social media page.<br />
<br />
''The Allegory of the Cave'' is an allegorical concept presented in [[W|Republic_(Plato) Plato's ''Republic''). It proposes the notion of a cave in which prisoners are trapped, from childhood, in such a way that the only thing they can see is one wall of the cave, and the shadows that are cast on that wall are their only exposure to the world outside the cave. Plato proposes that these prisoners would accept these shadows as their only reality, lacking the context to understand that they're merely shadows cast by objects they can't see. In this way, Plato's Cave serves as an allegory for our limited understanding of phenomena that occur primarily or entirely outside direct perception by our natural senses.<br />
<br />
In the same way, Randall seems to acknowledge that he doesn't actually know what goes on in the social or internet circles that he doesn't inhabit, and is left trying to figure them out, solely by the reaction of others to them.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A single social media post is shown. On the top left is a portrait of a spiky-haired face, the text right aside is not readable. The post is:] <br />
:Everyone on here needs to stop laughing about how "adopting pets from a shelter is for losers" and "those animals should all be hunted for sport instead." It's reprehensible on so many levels! First of all...<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the frame:]<br />
:Sometimes, one of my friends posts an angry response to some terrible opinion I've never heard before, and it's a weird indirect way to learn how awful their other friends must be.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Social networking]]</div>172.69.135.44https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2767:_Recipe_Relativity&diff=3115752767: Recipe Relativity2023-04-25T19:40:59Z<p>172.69.135.44: /* Explanation */ the lengths in the near-lightspeed reference frame are contracted, not expanded</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2767<br />
| date = April 24, 2023<br />
| title = Recipe Relativity<br />
| image = recipe_relativity_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 303x332px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = It says to cut the onions into 1/4" slices, but I'd better correct for length contraction.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by an EDITOR MOVING AT 94% OF THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
In this comic, [[Randall]] is cooking a recipe found online. It took him much longer than the recipe said it would, and he concludes that this was due to {{w|time dilation}} as described in the theory of {{w|special relativity}}; that is, the recipe author was moving at 94% of the speed of light, causing relativistic effects, so that only 35 minutes passed for the author while 105 minutes passed for Randall. To calculate the 94% figure, he takes the recipe’s official duration (t’) and his actual duration (t), and then calculates what speed of light fraction would account for the cooking time difference.<br />
<br />
Randall is poking fun at online recipes that state an optimistic cooking time. The recipe author may assume an ideally equipped kitchen, a skilled chef, and the availability of prepared ingredients, such as canned or frozen cooked black beans instead of dried beans which take over an hour to soak and cook.[https://i.ibb.co/sWJR8Vq/Screenshot-2023-04-25-6-28-35-AM.png]<br />
<br />
The title text takes the relativistic theory even further, saying that because of {{w|Length contraction|Lorentz contraction}} caused by the recipe author moving close to the speed of light, he should use different sizes of the ingredients. If the recipe author calling for 1/4" onion slices is indeed travelling at 94% of the speed of light relative to Randall, he wonders whether he should cut his onions to 2/3" slices.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[In a small square panel the top part is written in black. It looks like a search from the internet and most of the top part of the browser is too small to be read. There are three small squares and a long rectangular address bar. To the right of the first small square which has a triangle inside it pointing down, there are two lines with unreadable text. Then followed by the second square, which are empty, and the address bar with a long line of unreadable text. Finally there are two lines of unreadable text before the last square which has a symbol inside it. Beneath this is a large header which can easily be read:]<br />
:<big>Black bean burrito bowl</big><br />
<br />
:[Beneath this header there is a line with unreadable text, and below that line a thin empty rectangle. Beneath this are the second line of readable text. The last part indicating a time is circled in red. The readable black words are written in normal letters, as opposed to the standard of xkcd with all small caps.]<br />
:Total time: 35 minutes<br />
<br />
:[Beneath this there are three more lines of text, but this has all been written in red. Also it uses the standard xkcd all caps text format. The first line is normal text. And the last indication of time is also circled in red as the one above it, and a small double arrow goes between those two red lines around the time.]<br />
:<font color="red">My actual time: 1h 45m</font><br />
:[Below this there are two lines with equations written in math version, but here given here in text. The second equation is split over two lines. The last result is also circled in red.]<br />
:<font color="red">t=t'/√(1-v<sup>2</sup>/c<sup>2</sup>)</font><br />
:<font color="red">v=c*√(1-(t'/t)<sup>2</sup>) = c*√(1-(35/105)<sup>2</sup>) = 0.94c</font><br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:I think this recipe author is moving past me at 94% of the speed of light.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]<br />
[[Category:Food]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]</div>172.69.135.44https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2435:_Geothmetic_Meandian&diff=207515Talk:2435: Geothmetic Meandian2021-03-11T05:07:18Z<p>172.69.135.44: /* Proof of convergence */ new section</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Oh, this one's good. Just checked in (no, I wasn't hovering over the refresh button, my first visit today!) and one glance had me in paroxysms of laughter. But how to explain it? Gonna have to think about that. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.96|141.101.98.96]] 01:12, 11 March 2021 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I made a really bad spreadsheet to understand better how it works: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fqmHwDmirJrsKPdf94PutFDw31DMAYxNeR7jef1jneE/edit?usp=sharing<br />
<br />
Someone fix my ''awful'' transcript edits please. --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 02:31, 11 March 2021 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Seeing the Python added to the Explanation, try this Perl (typed straight here, so not tested)... <br />
## Your prefered variations of "#!/usr/bin/perl", "use strict;" and "use warnings;" here! ##<br />
sub F { my (@vals)=@_; my $invVals=1/int(@vals);<br />
my ($geo,$arith,$med)=(1); # Only defining $geo, so first *= works correctly!<br />
while (@vals) { my($lo,$hi)=(shift @vals,pop @vals); # $hi may be undef - this is intended!<br />
$arith+=$lo; $geo*=$lo; unless (defined $hi) { $med = $lo; last }<br />
$arith+=$hi; $geo*=$hi; unless (@vals) { ($med)=F($lo,$hi) }<br />
}<br />
return ($arith*$invVals, $geo**$invVals, $med);<br />
}<br />
sub GMDN { my (@vals)=sort @_; my $lim=10**(-5); # Adjust $lim to taste...<br />
return "Error: No vals!" unless @vals; # Catch!<br />
return $vals[0] unless ($vals[$#vals]-$vals[0]) > $lim;<br />
return GMDM(F(@vals));<br />
}<br />
my @test=(1,1,2,3,5);<br />
print "Values: @test\nGeothmetic Meandian: ".GMDN(@test)."\n";<br />
...debugged in my head, so probably fatally flawed but easily fixed/adapted anyway. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.109|141.101.99.109]] 03:04, 11 March 2021 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why so complicated?<br />
perl -e 'use strict; use warnings; sub F { my ($s,$p) = (0,1); my @srt = sort {$a<=>$b} @_; for (@_) { $s += $_; $p *= $_; } return ($s/@_,$p**(1/@_),$srt[$#_/2]); } sub Gmdn { print join(", ",@_=F(@_)),"\n" for 0..20; return @_; } print join(", ",Gmdn(1,1,2,3,5)),"\n";'<br />
(With interim results) SCNR -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 03:18, 11 March 2021 (UTC)<br />
:''I'' can read your version (and I see you do explicit {$a<=>$b}, which indeed ''may'' be necessary in mine for real use, along with additional sanity checks, I will check later) but I wanted to make mine neat, and ''slightly'' tricksy in implementation, but still not quite so entirely obfuscated to the more uninitiated. TIMTOWTDI, etc, so I like your (almost) bare-bones version too. ;)<br />
:(Is 20 cycles enough to converge in sufficiently extreme cases? Won't give "Too deep" error, though, even if it takes at least that long. There's a definite risk that mine might, as written.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.229|141.101.99.229]] 03:45, 11 March 2021 (UTC)<br />
::Given the lack of precision in Randall's example usage, I think 20 cycles ought to be enough for everyone ;-P. I'm trying to prove that the interval's size has to shrink by somewhat close to a factor of 1/2 every cycle, but it's tricky and it's late. If I can assume a factor of 1/2 in the long run, 64 iterations should pin down a 64-bit float.<br />
::I actually didn't try to obfuscate, I was just too lazy to type more ;-). Otherwise I might have left out the "return"s and passing parameters at all. -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 04:21, 11 March 2021 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Side-thought: is GMDN (nowhere near as logical an ETLA contraction of the title term as, say, 'GMMD' or 'GTMD') actually an oblique reference to the GNDNs as popularised/coined by Trek canon? Worth a citation/Trivia? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.97|162.158.158.97]] 04:12, 11 March 2021 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Proof of convergence ==<br />
<br />
Can any of you come up with a mathematical proof that repeated application of F on a set of (say) positive real numbers is guaranteed to converge toward a single real number, i.e. that the GMDN of a set of positive real numbers is well-defined? <br />
<br />
One observation I've made is that if you consider that maximum and minimum numbers in the original set to be x1 and xn (without loss of generality), something we know for sure is that AM(x1, ..., xn), GM(x1, ..., xn) and Median(x1, ..., xn) are all at least x1 and at most xn that is to say...<br />
<br />
x1 <= AM(x1, ..., xn), GM(x1, ..., xn), Median(x1, ..., xn) <= xn<br />
<br />
So range(AM(x1, ..., xn), GM(x1, ..., xn), Median(x1, ..., xn)) is necessarily <= range(x1, ..., xn). <br />
<br />
And given that we know that unless x1, ..., xn are all equal, that x1 < AM(x1, ..., xn) < xn, we have an even stricter result (unless x1, ..., xn are all equal) that is <br />
range(AM(x1, ..., xn), GM(x1, ..., xn), Median(x1, ..., xn)) < range(x1, ..., xn). <br />
<br />
So, it's clear that range(x1, ..., xn) > range(F(x1, ..., xn)) > range(F(F(x1, ..., xn))) > range(F(F(F(x1, ..., xn)))) > ... and it's also clear that all of these ranges are >= 0. There is a result in number theory that says that any infinite sequence of real numbers which monotonically decreases and is bounded from below converges.<br />
<br />
So we know for sure that range(F(F(...F(x1, ..., xn)...))) converges but we still have to show that it converges to 0 to show that the GMDN converges to a single real number.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure how to proceed. Does anyone have any ideas?<br />
<br />
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.135.44|172.69.135.44]] 05:07, 11 March 2021 (UTC) Anirudh Ajith</div>172.69.135.44