Editing 2513: Saturn Hexagon

{{comic
| number    = 2513
| date      = September 8, 2021
| title     = Saturn Hexagon
| image     = saturn_hexagon.png
| titletext = Sorry, in SI units that's "there's a big football in there."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by CUEBALL'S POLAR HEXAGON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Saturn's Hexagon}} is a cloud formation on Saturn centered on its north pole. Similar to Jupiter's {{w|Great Red Spot}}, Saturn's Hexagon has proven a persistent feature observed by multiple space probes. The cause was not known until recently, when data from the 2006-2009 {{w|Cassini–Huygens}} probe could be analyzed in depth. This finding was widely publicized in popular science media (see for example [https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-think-they-figured-out-how-saturn-s-giant-hexagonal-storm-could-have-formed]) and is related to how currents flow deep within Saturn's atmosphere.

Randall proposes an alternate explanation: it is the top of a {{w|Ball_(association_football)|soccer ball}}. Soccer balls have been made in the shape of a {{w|truncated icosahedron}}, where faces alternate between regular hexagons and regular pentagons to achieve a more uniform roll, since 1968 when the design was introduced as the {{w|Adidas Telstar}}, a design now considered the "traditional" soccer ball.

BSBIT stands for Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology [https://www.acronymfinder.com/Bachelor-of-Science-in-Business-Information-Technology-(BSBIT).html], a relatively new specialization where business majors learn programming techniques [https://vt.edu/academics/majors/business-information-technology.html]. It could be used in the comic to imply that a graduate of this major came up with the soccer ball model listed in the presentation, but more likely BSBIT stands for "Big Soccer Ball In There".

Soccer is the name given in the United States to {{w|association football}}, the form of football practiced in most of the world. Since a system derived from the Imperial system (inches, feet, yards, miles, etc.) is used in the United States whereas the SI/metric system (centimetres, metres, kilometres, etc.) is the system in use in most of the world, "football" is jokingly referred to in the title text as the SI name for "soccer". As much of the Web panders to a significantly US-based audience{{fact}}, many sites may use only Imperial-like measurements and omit metric equivalents, which might cause annoyed international users to respond; Randall parodies this by sarcastically and non-seriously apologizing.{{fact}}. Randall writes for his US-based college-educated community from Massachusetts.

Ironically, the UK is the birthplace of association football, and the origin of the term "soccer" &mdash; originally to {{w|Names_for_association_football#Background|distinguish it}} from rugby football (sometimes "rugger"), before soccer became the most common form of football and is now considered the default code of football for many, though particular regions and contexts may instead give {{w|Comparison_of_rugby_league_and_rugby_union#Naming|Rugby Union or League}} that soubriquet. Other international variations will usually be identified explicitly, as with 'American' football (gridiron, or jocularly "hand-egg"), '{{w|Australian rules football|Aussie Rules}}' (more rarely discussed, without Hollywood levels of cultural exporting) and {{w|Gaelic football}} (outwith its own dedicated celtic 'homelands').

The UK is also a partial hold-out for imperial measures. Officially many everyday measurements must now be primarily given in their metric forms, if not more specifically SI, but in the UK and the US road distances remain signed in miles (though horse racing distances remain in furlongs, and their prizes in guineas), with road-speeds in miles per hour; glasses of brewed alcohol and doorstep milk deliveries are in pints (indeed, it is ''illegal'' in the UK to sell draught beer or cider except as a ⅓ pint or multiple of a half-pint); feet (plus inches) and stones (plus pounds) are still commonly used for a person's height and weight. As a further sop to those who still think better in 'old money' measures (an allusion to how the currency itself was non-metric in nature until 1971), a weather presenter may add to their summary (with the windspeeds in mph, except when in Beaufort scale) the equivalent Fahrenheit temperatures involved, in addition to the more official (i.e. 'new money') Celsius variety, and perhaps also give the inches version of any rainfall mentioned.

Incidentally, the presentation of the truncated-icosahedral 'football', pressing one clear polygonal face up along the upper limit of the planetary sphere, has much in common with the (non-truncated) icosahedron that floats within a {{w|Magic 8-Ball}}, arranged to display just one random triangular face whenever its viewing window is upwards. This may be coincidence, without any obvious attempt to directly reference any of the [https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1404098-safely-endangered popular memes] relating to this.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[Cueball is presenting in front of a poster, which he is pointing at with a stick.]

Cueball: We're proud to announce that our team has finally determined the origin and nature of Saturn's polar hexagon.

[The poster represents Saturn and its ring-system. There is a massive football/soccer ball drawn as if inside the semi-transparent planet, taking up slightly less than half of it by volume. 
One of the ball's hexagons coincides with Saturn's polar hexagon, and is labelled "Hexagon". Other labels are illegible.<br/>
The poster's title is "There's a Big Soccer Ball In There". The rest of the poster is illegible, except for a section heading that reads "BSBIT Model".]

{{comic discussion}}