Editing 2513: Saturn Hexagon
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==Explanation== | ==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. | ||
− | {{w| | + | Randall proposes an alternate explanation: it is the top of a {{w|Ball_(association_football)|soccer ball}}. Soccer balls are made in the shape of a {{w|truncated icosahedron}}, where faces alternate between regular hexagons and regular pentagons to achieve a more uniform roll. This design was introduced in 1968 as the {{w|Adidas Telstar}}, and is now considered the "traditional" soccer ball. |
− | + | Soccer is the name given in the United States to {{w|association football}}, a game called simply "football" in most of the world. Since a system derived from {{w|Imperial units}} of measurement (inches, feet, miles, pounds, etc.) is used in the United States whereas the SI/metric system (centimetres, metres, kilometres, kilograms, 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 use only Imperial-like measurements and omit metric equivalents, which might annoy non-US users; Randall parodies this by sarcastically and non-seriously apologizing.{{fact}}. | |
− | + | The UK is the birthplace of association football and place of the origin of the term "soccer" — originally to {{w|Names_for_association_football#Background|distinguish it}} from rugby football (sometimes "rugger"), before soccer became the most common form of football. "Football" now means association football in Britain, as with most people on Earth. Other international variations will usually be identified explicitly, as with 'American' football (gridiron, or jocularly "hand-egg"), '{{w|Australian rules football|Aussie Rules}}' football 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, 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 ½ pint); feet-and-inches and stones-plus-pounds are still commonly used for a person's height and weight. (It's worth noting that the American pint is 16 fluid ounces or 473 ml whereas the Imperial pint is 20 fl.oz. or 568 ml.) As a further sop to those who still think better in 'old money' measures (an allusion to how British currency itself was non-decimal in nature until 1971), a weather presenter may add to their metric-based summary to also give temperatures in Fahrenheit and rainfall in inches (though windspeeds will all be in mph, or the {{w|Beaufort scale}} as used in the {{w|Shipping Forecast}}). | |
− | 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. Randall has previously parodied the magic 8-ball in [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball]]. | + | 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. Randall has previously parodied the magic 8-ball in [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball]]. |
==Transcript== | ==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.] | |
− | :The poster | + | |
− | + | 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}} | {{comic discussion}} |