https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=50.14.33.235&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T12:18:41ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1136:_Broken_Mirror&diff=32766Talk:1136: Broken Mirror2013-04-07T22:14:41Z<p>50.14.33.235: Orwell?</p>
<hr />
<div>The lettering on the first word is unusually sloppy. I thought it said "COPS", as in Black Hat was about to be arrested for breaking the mirror, on the TV show Cops. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 11:16, 19 November 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Yep, I read COPS, too. In another vein, is Black-hat getting all religious on us? Cueball, maybe. Beret guy, more likely. But Black-hat seems to be too machiavellian to quote biblical passages, except as a crutch or an "out". (Edit: now that I think about it, it's the latter: the same fate awaits everybody... as in, everybody will cut their feet on the shards.) -- [[Special:Contributions/207.225.239.130|207.225.239.130]] 20:05, 19 November 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Does anyone have an opinion on how Black Hat broke the mirror? If it simply fell from the wall, he would not incur the bad luck. [[User:Jsbqvb|Jsbqvb]] 15:31, 19 November 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: I think his point is that it wouldn't matter; ''there ain't no such thing as bad luck'': the same fate awaits everybody. -- [[Special:Contributions/207.225.239.130|207.225.239.130]] 20:05, 19 November 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Maybe he did it on purpose, just for that soliloquy at the end (I wouldn't put it past him...).--[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 20:59, 19 November 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:: I'd say so. "My fate is a these shards" ... to cause pain and suffering to all he comes in contact with. -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 06:01, 20 November 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Time for some more obvious questions, which I dont get! So, why he decided not to tidy it, but to leave shards like that? [[Special:Contributions/83.166.112.53|83.166.112.53]] 05:44, 21 November 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
What's the significance of the title text? "I am always [something]" rings a faint bell, but I can't place it.<br />
[[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 19:49, 20 November 2012 (UTC)<br />
:It made me think of "We have always been at war with Eastasia" (from Orwell's ''1984'') ...but that probably wasn't what Randall meant to evoke. —[[Special:Contributions/50.14.33.235|50.14.33.235]] 22:14, 7 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Could it be the comic where the title text ends with I AM ALWAYS BREATHING MANUALLY (Skynet, comic 1046) [[Special:Contributions/220.255.1.163|220.255.1.163]] 15:18, 21 November 2012‎ (UTC)</div>50.14.33.235https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1153:_Proof&diff=323671153: Proof2013-04-03T15:49:31Z<p>50.14.33.235: Reworded explanation of Zeno's dichotomy to be more accurate & (hopefully) less confusing</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1153<br />
| date = December 28, 2012<br />
| title = Proof<br />
| image = proof.png<br />
| titletext = The prosecution calls Gottfried Leibniz.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{w|Zeno of Elea}} was an ancient Greek philosopher who devised several apparent paradoxes of motion called {{w|Zeno's paradoxes}}. Here are the two relevant to the comic:<br />
<br />
:'''Arrow paradox:''' At any instant in time, an arrow suspended in mid-air is no different from an arrow in motion. How, then, can motion occur? The lawyer presumably intends to use this argument to prove that his client could not have used the arrow to commit murder.<br />
<br />
:'''Dichotomy paradox:''' Suppose I need to go from point A to point B. First I must walk halfway there: half of the distance between A and B. Then I must walk half the remaining distance, which would bring me to three-quarters of the original distance; then I must again walk half the now-remaining distance to reach a point seven-eighths of the way from point A, and so on. Because I would have to take an infinite number of non-zero steps, I will never reach point B. By the same argument, the lawyer in the cartoon can get closer and closer to the judge's table, but never reach it.<br />
<br />
There are two possible law vs math/logic puns in the comic, on the words "approach" and "proof." "{{w|Approach the bench}}" is a legal term meaning to have a private conversation with the judge; approach in calculus means an infinite process where a function value gets closer and closer to a {{w|Limit (mathematics)|limit}} value, that it never actually reaches (reminiscent of Zeno's paradoxes). "Proof" is also ambiguous with different significations in formal diciplines than in {{w|jurisprudence}}; see {{w|proof (truth)}}.<br />
<br />
{{w|Gottfried Leibniz}} is the co-inventor of {{w|calculus}} (along with Isaac Newton). If Leibniz were to testify in this imaginary trial, he might argue that calculus invalidates Zeno's paradoxes, because a moving object has a different derivative (velocity) than a stationary one, and an {{w|infinite series}} can both have a finite sum, and be completed in finite space and time (assuming that the standard continuous model of {{w|spacetime}} is true, and not a {{w|Quantum spacetime|quantized one}}). However, Zeno is arguably not concerned with actually calculating the correct answer. It remains a question of debate whether a mathematical approach addresses the central points in Zeno's arguments.<br />
<br />
[[994: Advent Calendar]] is also about Zeno.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Zeno: My client couldn't have killed anyone with this arrow, and I can ''prove'' it!<br />
:Judge: I'd like to examine your proof, Zeno. You may approach the bench.<br />
:Zeno: —But never reach it!<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Philosophy]]</div>50.14.33.235https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1155:_Kolmogorov_Directions&diff=32364Talk:1155: Kolmogorov Directions2013-04-03T14:54:22Z<p>50.14.33.235: how'd that happen...?</p>
<hr />
<div>How does Cueball know that? '''[[User:Davidy22|<span title="I want you."><u><font color="purple" size="2px">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><sup><font color="indigo" size="1px">22</font></sup></span>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:17, 2 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I really like the title text on this one. [[Special:Contributions/108.233.253.211|108.233.253.211]] 07:19, 2 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
: It's reminiscent of "What time is it?" "It's time to buy a watch." --[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 12:24, 2 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Although, the GPS doesn't know everything. Mine has led me astray, now and then. Took me to an Ikea which had never been at the address it indicated; took me to a shopping centre and left me to my own devices finding one restaurant in 40 acres of other stuff; took me to someone rural whose street address turned out to be a postal superbox, a couple of miles from my friend's actual home. Of course, usually Cueball is right and the directions-giver is wrong... still, ask.[[Special:Contributions/24.79.11.46|24.79.11.46]] 20:03, 2 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Randall is way too sadistic and double-entendre prone to take this comix at face value, as if only about a math theorum. What if it carries implicit context of Manhattan, and the need to check math logic against practical reality? <br />
<br />
Lexington is one way, southbound. Except midtown where one would hit York Ave/Sutton Place (possibly going backwards on a one way street after the first left, depending on starting point), or in a section of East Harlem with Pleasant Ave, every avenue one passes is a prime numbered one, until hitting FDR Drive, or unless the street cuts off at 3rd Ave. IOW, one would make one turn and dead end at the East River (or 3rd), unless one were in a block where a 2nd left on York or Pleasant led to an infinite loop the other end of which would be back on Lexington passing the starting point. For half the potential starting addresses, one would primarily drive backwards on one way streets. <br />
<br />
Let's hope the directions recipient is walking the 1 to 4 blocks East if that means a Westbound car traffic only street. If in a section with an infinite loop, who's the ideal character to be a victim of Cueball's perverse joke? I have seen a real GPS route away from the destination, where driving across a creek would be required to follow bad GPS routing. [[Special:Contributions/69.161.108.98|69.161.108.98]] 06:34, 3 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I would have thought that Randall meant the town of Lexington, Massachusetts, since he is lives in this area, and there's a Munroe Cemetery. The problem is the lack of highways mentioned, and the definition of number in the sense of highway designation. For instance, if I see a highway designated 2A, I can no longer assume that the highway number is decimal, but does that mean hexadecimal? does that mean I must interpret all highway numbers as hexidecimal, and determine their prime-ness from there? The other problem is the 'named after a president' - Assuming this is restricted to the USA, does this apply only to popular designations, or any name, however long forgotten about? because, looking at the map of Lexington, you will see that there are NO highways named after presidents. Oh, the worries. [[Special:Contributions/76.119.234.207|76.119.234.207]] 18:34, 4 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
*It says "street named for a president", not "highway named for a president". And Lexington, Massachusetts, does have an Adams Street and a Grant Street, as well as a Taft Avenue, a Coolidge Avenue, and possibly others. However, Cueball's directions imply that the street has to be named for the president to qualify, as opposed to being named for someone else with the same last name. (There must be some cities with "Clinton Street"s that were named for Vice President George Clinton, Governor DeWitt Clinton, or someone else other than Bill Clinton.) --[[Special:Contributions/99.141.122.243|99.141.122.243]] 07:09, 5 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Or maybe those *are* directions to a store to buy a GPS... [[Special:Contributions/208.98.237.225|208.98.237.225]] 20:58, 4 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I am sincerely amazed that multiple fans of xkcd, having found this page and wished to participate in the discussion, demonstrated such serious comprehension issues with the simple directions in the comic. (Or maybe their sarcasm sailed over my head? This is the internet, after all...) One (presumably) mis-read the prime-number prohibition as applying to numbered streets instead of highways; the other misinterpreted the exclusion of streets named for presidents as referring to highways. In both cases they spent time considering how the directions given would apply in the real world, and composing their comments here -- where the actual comic and the text transcript are right here on the page! -- without, it seems, realizing their mistakes. This suggests that even the apparently-simple directions in the comic were not sufficiently simple after all... or, perhaps, that humans are worse at directions than we thought. —[[Special:Contributions/50.14.33.235|50.14.33.235]] 14:54, 3 April 2013 (UTC)</div>50.14.33.235