Editing 2767: Recipe Relativity

{{comic
| number    = 2767
| date      = April 24, 2023
| title     = Recipe Relativity
| image     = recipe_relativity_2x.png
| imagesize = 303x332px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = It says to cut the onions into 1/4" slices, but I'd better correct for length contraction.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an EDITOR MOVING AT 94% OF THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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.

Because there is no time dilatation within the same reference frame, the 35 minutes must have passed on the observer's watch who did not travel at 94% of the light speed.

Randall is likely making fun of 3 related phenomena:
# '''His culinary amateurism''': Randall is making fun of himself by acknowledging it takes him a great deal longer to make a recipe than it apparently should, and then pretending to blame the (inferred) travel at near-lightspeed rather than his own culinary amateurism.
# '''His own pride that this culinary amateurism is better explained by a recipe author moving at 94% of the speed of light''': Randall is pretending to be so cocky that it’s not his skills that are to blame, but the hyperspeed of the recipe author. Finding absurd external reasons for personal shortcomings is funny, and calculating it to two significant digits is funnier.
# '''Online recipes that give optimistic time estimates''': Randall is also poking fun at online recipes that give an idealistically minimum amount of cooking time. The recipe author may assume an ideally (A) equipped kitchen, (B) skilled chef, and (C) chopped and prepared ingredients, such as canned or frozen beans instead of dried black beans which take over an hour to soak and cook.[https://i.ibb.co/sWJR8Vq/Screenshot-2023-04-25-6-28-35-AM.png] Online recipe authors sometimes give optimistic cooking times as a form of marketing. If the given cooking time matched the true average — say, 60 minutes instead of the given 35 minutes — many fewer people would attempt the recipe. But the result is to make the average cook feel like a failure when their cooking time is longer than the recipe’s — or to look for alternative, relativistic explanations.

The title text takes this 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 for the ingredients. In all likelihood, this wouldn't benefit the outcome of the recipe: in the case of the 1/4" onion slices in the title text, Randall would end up with 0.09" onion slices—far too thin for most people's liking.

==Transcript==
:[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:]
:<big>Black bean burrito bowl</big>

:[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.]
:Total time: 35 minutes

:[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.]
:<font color="red">My actual time: 1h 45m</font>
:[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.]
:<font color="red">t=t'/√(1-v<sup>2</sup>/c<sup>2</sup>)</font>
:<font color="red">v=c*√(1-(t'/t)<sup>2</sup>) = c*√(1-(35/105)<sup>2</sup>) = 0.94c</font>

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I think this recipe author is moving past me at 94% of the speed of light.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]