Editing 2944: Magnet Fishing

{{comic
| number    = 2944
| date      = June 10, 2024
| title     = Magnet Fishing
| image     = magnet_fishing_2x.png
| imagesize = 522x356px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = The ten-way tie was judged a ten-way tie, so no one won the grand prize, a rare fishing monopole.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Magnet fishing}} is the act of using a magnet to find ferrometallic objects in a body of water. It can be used to recover specific lost items, help to clear a stretch of water of dumped items and/or simply to see what interesting (perhaps valuable) items can be found. This is reminiscent of magnetic fishing games (such as [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13166/lets-go-fishin "Let's Go Fishing"] and [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172530/go-fishing "Go Fishing"]) where players use fishing rods with small magnets on the ends to "catch" fish. 

A World Magnet Fishing Championship was apparently only held once, because of the contestants' magnets getting stuck together. This resulted in the fishing lines becoming tangled together, or "tied", for a pun on the competition being declared "tied". It also looks like a {{w|Tautology_(language)|tautology}}, though the first "ten-way tie" depicts how the ten lines are 'knotted' together, and the second indicates the equality of the final score. This suggests that nobody 'fished' anything ''other'' than "all the other nine magnets", prior to the inevitable conclusion. 

It's unclear why the World Magnet Fishing Championship has contestants competing simultaneously. Participants go one at a time in a great variety of sporting competitions -- such as diving, figure skating, gymnastics, equestrian -- and the individual performances are graded and compared to determine a winner. If the World Magnet Fishing Championship contestants took turns, it wouldn't have to be cancelled.

The title text states that the competition's prize would have been a "fishing monopole" which could refer to a {{w|fishing rod}}, also called a fishing pole, with only a single rod rather than multiple. Most fishing rods only have a single pole so this would not be considered rare. It could also refer to a magnet fishing rod where the magnet is a {{w|magnetic monopole}} rather than a {{w|magnetic dipole}} like all known magnets. This would certainly be rare since no magnetic monopoles have been found and thus would be a certainly be a valuable prize for a competition. The irony of this is that such a magnet would have alleviated the issue of the magnets attracting while fishing. The currently known laws of physics require that if magnetic monopoles exist, electric charge must be quantized. Electric charge ''is'' quantized which is consistent with (but does not prove) magnetic monopoles existing. Finally, 'pole position' (usually in Motorsport) is awarded to the first place qualifier in a competition. With all competitors coming joint first, this is a 'monopole' result.

==Transcript==
:[Ten people are standing on a bridge connecting the steep banks on either side of a body of water. They have all cast strings with magnets over the edge and are holding on to them. All their magnets have, however, got stuck together and as they are pulling them up they hang in a bunch above the water under the middle of the bridge, with all ten lines going out from the bunch of magnets. The characters from left to right are: Hairbun, a person with white hair, Cueball, Megan, another Cueball, White Hat, another Megan, a guy with spiky hair, Ponytail, and Hairy.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The first, and last, World Magnet Fishing Championship

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Physics]]