Editing 1556: The Sky

{{comic
| number    = 1556
| date      = July 27, 2015
| title     = The Sky
| image     = the_sky.png
| titletext = The other half has some cool shipwrecks, rocks, and snakes, but if you move those out of the way, it also has more sky.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] admire a majestic {{w|sky}} on a beautiful day. 

This is one of the few comics where the scenery is drawn entirely in color, adding to the feeling of awe and natural wonder. The lighting on the {{w|clouds}} and the night sky in the upper corner suggest that this is either at sunset or sunrise, with the {{w|Sun}} on 94 around the horizon outside the left part of the image. The picture is drawn to show the ever changing beauty of the many different stages of the sky, rather than to be 100% realistic, as it would not be possible to see so many stars with the naked eye, as clearly as shown, if the Sun is still illuminating the clouds in front of them; perhaps a few of the {{w|List of brightest stars|brightest stars}}, a handful of [[3063: Planet Definitions|the planets]] and [[2809: Moon|the Moon]], though probably not all in the same convenient patch of sky at the same time. When the Sun {{w|Sunset|sets}} or {{w|Sunrise|rises}}, the light produces many different colors which can often be breathtaking to witness. The pouch shaped cloud formations are called {{w|mammatus clouds}} and are usually associated with the nearing of bad weather.

The comic, however, already starts in a small panel, with uniform sky-colored light blue background, above the large drawing described above. In this image Cueball says to Megan that he likes the sky, and Megan agrees. Megan first elaborates on her feelings in the large image, where the zoom out is so large that they have both become small and insignificant characters in the bottom left corner. They are dwarfed by the sky and cloudscape, with the ground a broad dark band beneath them.

Megan makes a statement about the sky: ''It's one of my favorite halves''. She thus indicates that she has more than one favorite halves. As there are only two halves this thus implies that Megan likes both halves, i.e. she likes everything. Her statement is thus a {{w|Tautology (logic)|tautology}} because it implies that the other half is also a favorite and there are no other segments that would not be among her favorites. There are several xkcd comics about tautology, e.g. [[703: Honor Societies]], [[870: Advertising]] and [[1310: Goldbach Conjectures]]. 

In [[1368: One Of The]] ''one of'' is also used in a similar way as there is really no other that that one in that comic, whereas here there are no other that has not be included. A very similar sentence is also used in the title text of [[1524: Dimensions]] where the sentence, ''I would say time is definitely one of my top three favorite dimensions''. This also makes very little sense as there are four dimensions with time, and the other three are indistinguishable as they are just three randomly chosen but orthogonal directions in space. 

Taken at face value, given that the image depicts half open sky and half clouds, the other half could be taken to mean the clouds covering half of the sky. Or it could be the sky and the dark Earth, the other half beneath their feet. That it is the latter becomes evident in the title text. But, in the title text, Megan continues her comment to state that her other favorite half has some cool objects in it, listing three types of objects: 
*{{w|Shipwrecks}}
*{{w|Rocks}} 
*{{w|Snakes}}
From this it becomes clear that it is not the clouds vs. the sky she's referring to but rather the sky vs. all the things in the 'other' half, on the basis of if you removed all the things in the non-sky half, including the Earth, that half would ''also'' be sky.

However, beyond the blue sky above there is just the dark {{w|night sky}} of {{w|outer space}}. If it were not for the Earth, the blue sky and its clouds would not exist, as it is formed by the air following the gravity and curvature of the Earth. So removing the entire Earth out from below you would remove the possibility of such a sky in ''any'' direction. A more selective removal ''might'' remove just enough planet to see ''some'' sky down in the lower-half, but the logistics of doing that whilst also getting a similarly unobscured view is somewhat unfathomable; even the thickness of the downwards atmosphere would make for significantly different effects, and a daylight sky above would tend to dictate that the sky directly down any hole would ultimately be a night-time sky.

This last part of the title text thus shows that Megan ''may'' be thinking rather of the night sky, and given that there are also stars visible in the top right corner, she could have assumed Cueball also referred to the sky like this rather than the majestic display of clouds and colors. Of course that would be weird, but that's where the comedy occurs because that was unexpected, and it would be typical Megan and/or [[Randall]]. 

If Megan is also interested in astronomy then she could also appreciate a dark and cloudless sky with stars. And by the same logic of the Earth was removed would leave only dark sky (empty space) around her on all sides, this may be considered a suitably satisfactory alternative. It is well know from xkcd that Randall really [[:Category:Astronomy|loves astronomy]] and looking at the night sky and, seen from this perspective, there would still be plenty of sky even if the Earth where removed completely. Though it would mean no clouds or atmospheric colors (or any humans or other lifeforms around to admire those astronomical objects).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are standing looking upward with in a small frame a light blue background.]
:Cueball: I like the sky.
:Megan: Yeah.

:[Zooms out to show a blue evening sky, the sun must be setting to the left and a streak of yellow and orange clouds goes from top left to bottom right. The sky/clouds get darker further to the right and several stars are visible behind the clouds on the indigo blue sky in the top right corner. There are also some gray clouds low over the horizon. Cueball and Megan standing to the far left Below them and the sky from the horizon and down there is a thick a black slab taking up about a sixth of the frame height.]
:Megan: It's one of my favorite halves.

{{comic discussion}}

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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Animals]]