2682: Easy Or Hard - Revision history

Pie Guy: approximate answer for the eiffel tower deflection based on a straight-line distance of ~3400 miles, typical baseball weight of 145 grams, Eiffel Tower mass of 11,000 tonnes

2026-03-03T01:26:02Z

approximate answer for the eiffel tower deflection based on a straight-line distance of ~3400 miles, typical baseball weight of 145 grams, Eiffel Tower mass of 11,000 tonnes

Tromag at 15:46, 3 October 2023

2023-10-03T15:46:16Z

Jkshapiro: /* Explanation */ Consolidate conflicting explanations

2023-08-13T08:29:48Z

‎Explanation: Consolidate conflicting explanations

FaviFake: Fixed broken link (was a redirect)

2023-05-22T12:39:54Z

Fixed broken link (was a redirect)

172.70.162.134: /* Explanation */ Deampersand. Proper name (to match other appearance, also)

2022-11-21T03:11:35Z

‎Explanation: Deampersand. Proper name (to match other appearance, also)

JLZ0kTC5 at 02:01, 21 November 2022

2022-11-21T02:01:37Z

172.71.202.53: /* Explanation */

2022-11-01T17:06:25Z

‎Explanation

Öbc: /* Transcript */ It's complete

2022-10-20T21:33:58Z

‎Transcript: It's complete

172.70.114.183: added source for Tylenol

2022-10-11T15:17:52Z

added source for Tylenol

172.70.230.157: /* Explanation */

2022-10-11T13:53:12Z

‎Explanation

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 |Where was Mars in the sky from Paris on the day the Eiffel Tower opened?||Difficult||Easy||The date of the opening of the tower to the public is well known (May 6, 1889). Since the motions of the planets are predictable, it's clear that calculating the answer should be possible, but it involves enough factors that one might expect it to be very difficult.  However, thanks to the existence of [https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php?no_cookie=1&latitude=48.85&longitude=2.35&timezone=1.00&year=1889&month=5&day=6&hour=9&min=0&PLlimitmag=2&zoom=182&ra=3.78242&dec=20.26465 online tools], which automatically calculate exactly this sort of thing, finding the answer is quite easy. (It was in the constellation of Taurus, and extremely close to where the Sun also was in the sky during that time so probably not easily directly observable). Alternately, to use the tools available at the time, one might check a nautical almanac for 1889, which gives the position of the major planets (and various other celestial bodies) in the sky throughout the year.
 |-
-|How much does the {{w|Eiffel Tower}}'s gravity deflect baseballs in Boston?||Near Impossible||Easy||This problem sounds extremely specific and esoteric, concerning an effect far too small for direct experimentation.  But in theory, it's actually a very simple physics problem.  {{w|Newton's law of universal gravitation|Gravitational acceleration}} is determined entirely by masses and distance, and here even the mass of the baseball can be ignored.  Since the mass of the Eiffel Tower and the geographic details of both the tower in Paris and any given location in Boston (perhaps {{w|Fenway Park}}, a famous baseball stadium) are easy to look up, the calculation is quite simple.
+|How much does the {{w|Eiffel Tower}}'s gravity deflect baseballs in Boston?||Near Impossible||Easy||This problem sounds extremely specific and esoteric, concerning an effect far too small for direct experimentation.  But in theory, it's actually a very simple physics problem.  {{w|Newton's law of universal gravitation|Gravitational acceleration}} is determined entirely by masses and distance, and here even the mass of the baseball can be ignored.  Since the mass of the Eiffel Tower and the geographic details of both the tower in Paris and any given location in Boston (perhaps {{w|Fenway Park}}, a famous baseball stadium) are easy to look up, the calculation is quite simple; a typical baseball would be deflected by ~22 attometers per second of flight time.
 |-
 |How does {{w|general anesthesia}} work?||Easy||Difficult||While biology is always complex, inducing unconsciousness seems relatively simple. In fact, keeping a person unconscious and insensate without causing permanent damage or death is a difficult proposition, requiring a medical specialist. Despite this field being well-established, it might surprise people to know that {{w|Theories of general anaesthetic action|the mechanism of general anesthesia}} is still the subject of research, and recent studies have revealed things that we didn't previously understand.

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 This comic uses a table to compare the perceived difficulty of various questions with how easily they're answered in real life.  [[Randall]] has a long history of comics with similar themes, comparing perceptions to reality.  In this case, both the perception and the reality are divided into three levels of difficulty, giving a total of nine categories.  Accordingly three of the problems listed are effectively as difficult as one would expect, and the remaining six are not. All three of the questions whose answers are "actually pretty easy to find out" relate to the Eiffel Tower, though there's no apparent theme among the other six questions.
-It's likely that this comic was at least partially inspired by writing the books ''[[How To]]'', ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'', and ''[[What If? 2]]'', the latter of which was published just a few weeks before this comic.  These books involve answering very elaborate questions from a scientific point of view. This process likely emphasized that some really strange questions are actually difficult to answer, while some questions that seem simple continue to confound scientific knowledge. ''What if? 2'' mentions the fact that no one understands why static charges separate.
+It's likely that this comic was at least partially inspired by writing the books ''[[How To]]'', ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'', and ''[[What If? 2]]'', the latter of which was published just a few weeks before this comic.  These books involve answering very elaborate questions from a scientific point of view. This process likely emphasized that some really strange questions are actually relatively easy to answer, while some questions that seem simple continue to confound scientific knowledge. ''What if? 2'' mentions the fact that no one understands why static charges separate.
 {| class="wikitable"

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 ! Question !! Perceived Difficulty !! Real Difficulty !! Explanation
 |-
-|How tall is the Eiffel Tower?||Easy||Easy||The height of any structure that can be easily observed can be calculated without much difficulty. The Eiffel Tower was constructed to be the centerpiece of the {{w|1889 World's Fair}}. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest man-made structure on earth, which meant that its height was widely publicized since it was first constructed (312m when constructed, and now 330 meters, or 1083 feet, with the antenna added later on). This number is widely published, and easily confirmed.
+|How tall is the Eiffel Tower?||Easy||Easy||The Eiffel Tower was constructed to be the centerpiece of the {{w|1889 World's Fair}}. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest man-made structure on earth, which meant that its height was widely publicized since it was first constructed (312m when constructed, and now 330 meters, or 1083 feet, with the antenna added later on). This number is widely published, and easily confirmed with trigonometry.
 * albeit with a ±6 inch differential depending on local air temperature; as the Eiffel Tower is built out of cast steel, it expands according to how much heat builds up in the metal, which in turn is derived from the intensity and daily duration of the Sun's energy. It can also be argued that the number given above is due to rounding, and at sub-millimetrical lengths, the tower's exact height is fluctuating constantly as a result of the aforementioned thermal expansion.
 |-

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 This comic uses a table to compare the perceived difficulty of various questions with how easily they're answered in real life.  [[Randall]] has a long history of comics with similar themes, comparing perceptions to reality.  In this case, both the perception and the reality are divided into three levels of difficulty, giving a total of nine categories.  Accordingly three of the problems listed are effectively as difficult as one would expect, and the remaining six are not. All three of the questions whose answers are "actually pretty easy to find out" relate to the Eiffel Tower, though there's no apparent theme among the other six questions.
-It's likely that this comic was at least partially inspired by writing the books ''[[How To|How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems]]'', [[what if|''What if?'', and ''What If? 2'']], the latter of which was published just a few weeks before this comic.  These books involve answering very elaborate questions from a scientific point of view. This process likely emphasized that some really strange questions are actually difficult to answer, while some questions that seem simple continue to confound scientific knowledge. ''What if? 2'' mentions the fact that no one understands why static charges separate.
+It's likely that this comic was at least partially inspired by writing the books ''[[How To]]'', ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'', and ''[[What If? 2]]'', the latter of which was published just a few weeks before this comic.  These books involve answering very elaborate questions from a scientific point of view. This process likely emphasized that some really strange questions are actually difficult to answer, while some questions that seem simple continue to confound scientific knowledge. ''What if? 2'' mentions the fact that no one understands why static charges separate.
 {| class="wikitable"

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 |-
 |How tall is the Eiffel Tower?||Easy||Easy||The height of any structure that can be easily observed can be calculated without much difficulty. The Eiffel Tower was constructed to be the centerpiece of the {{w|1889 World's Fair}}. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest man-made structure on earth, which meant that its height was widely publicized since it was first constructed (312m when constructed, and now 330 meters, or 1083 feet, with the antenna added later on). This number is widely published, and easily confirmed.
-* albeit with a ±6 inch differential depending on local air temperature; as the Eiffel Tower is built out of cast steel, it expands according to how much heat builds up in the metal, which in turn is derived from the intensity & daily duration of the sun's energy. It can also be argued that the number given above is due to rounding, and at sub-millimetrical lengths, the tower's exact height is fluctuating constantly as a result of the aforementioned thermal expansion.
+* albeit with a ±6 inch differential depending on local air temperature; as the Eiffel Tower is built out of cast steel, it expands according to how much heat builds up in the metal, which in turn is derived from the intensity and daily duration of the Sun's energy. It can also be argued that the number given above is due to rounding, and at sub-millimetrical lengths, the tower's exact height is fluctuating constantly as a result of the aforementioned thermal expansion.
 |-
 |Where was Mars in the sky from Paris on the day the Eiffel Tower opened?||Difficult||Easy||The date of the opening of the tower to the public is well known (May 6, 1889). Since the motions of the planets are predictable, it's clear that calculating the answer should be possible, but it involves enough factors that one might expect it to be very difficult.  However, thanks to the existence of [https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php?no_cookie=1&latitude=48.85&longitude=2.35&timezone=1.00&year=1889&month=5&day=6&hour=9&min=0&PLlimitmag=2&zoom=182&ra=3.78242&dec=20.26465 online tools], which automatically calculate exactly this sort of thing, finding the answer is quite easy. (It was in the constellation of Taurus, and extremely close to where the Sun also was in the sky during that time so probably not easily directly observable). Alternately, to use the tools available at the time, one might check a nautical almanac for 1889, which gives the position of the major planets (and various other celestial bodies) in the sky throughout the year.

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:06, 1 November 2022
Line 10:		Line 10:

	==Explanation==		==Explanation==
−	~~{{incomplete\|Created by THE EIFFEL TOWER TAKING A TYLENOL - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}~~
−
	This comic uses a table to compare the perceived difficulty of various questions with how easily they're answered in real life. [[Randall]] has a long history of comics with similar themes, comparing perceptions to reality. In this case, both the perception and the reality are divided into three levels of difficulty, giving a total of nine categories. Accordingly three of the problems listed are effectively as difficult as one would expect, and the remaining six are not. All three of the questions whose answers are "actually pretty easy to find out" relate to the Eiffel Tower, though there's no apparent theme among the other six questions.		This comic uses a table to compare the perceived difficulty of various questions with how easily they're answered in real life. [[Randall]] has a long history of comics with similar themes, comparing perceptions to reality. In this case, both the perception and the reality are divided into three levels of difficulty, giving a total of nine categories. Accordingly three of the problems listed are effectively as difficult as one would expect, and the remaining six are not. All three of the questions whose answers are "actually pretty easy to find out" relate to the Eiffel Tower, though there's no apparent theme among the other six questions.

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 ==Transcript==
 {| class="wikitable"
 |-

@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 |Why does your hair get a static charge when you rub it with a balloon?||Easy||Near Impossible||Inducing a {{w|Static electricity|static charge}} by {{w|Triboelectric effect|rubbing together two materials}} is a method that's been known since ancient times. Since human hair has a marked tendency to develop a positive charge, and the latex commonly used in balloons tends to develop a negative charge, rubbing the two together is a very simple way to create an electric field. This process is so simple that it's used for both party tricks and as a fun demonstration of electrical phenomena. Because of this simplicity, most people would assume that the phenomenon is well understood. So it's surprising that the actual mechanism remains an unsolved problem in physics. This also has previously been mentioned in [[1867: Physics Confession]]. The title text quotes [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360674587_Derivation_of_a_governing_rule_in_triboelectric_charging_and_series_from_thermoelectricity a recent paper] explaining that, as common as this phenomenon is, there's still no theory that can adequately explain what we observe.
 |-
-|How does {{w|Tylenol (brand)|Tylenol}} work?||Difficult||Near Impossible||Tylenol is a brand name for {{w|Paracetamol|paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen}}, a drug commonly sold without prescription for pain relief and fever reduction. This drug has been widely used since 1950, and has been well established as being both effective and safe when used properly. Although one would expect the biological mechanism for any drug to be complicated, most people would assume that a drug that's been widely used and studied for so long to be well-documented.  Surprisingly, however, the precise action still isn't fully understood.
+|How does {{w|Tylenol (brand)|Tylenol}} work?||Difficult||Near Impossible||Tylenol is a brand name for {{w|Paracetamol|paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen}}, a drug commonly sold without prescription for pain relief and fever reduction. This drug has been widely used since 1950, and has been well established as being both effective and safe when used properly. Although one would expect the biological mechanism for any drug to be complicated, most people would assume that a drug that's been widely used and studied for so long to be well-documented.  Surprisingly, however, the precise action still isn't fully understood. [https://medicine.tufts.edu/news-events/news/how-does-acetaminophen-work Tufts University]
 |-
 |How can {{w|Theory of relativity|relativity}} be reconciled with {{w|quantum mechanics}}?||Near Impossible||Near Impossible||This remains one of the {{w|Theory of everything|great unsolved questions}} in physics. The problem sounds almost unsolvable to laypeople, and remains unsolved even to experts in the field.

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 |What time of year did the Cretaceous impact happen?||Near Impossible||Difficult||The "Cretaceous impact" (the {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event}}) happened approximately 66 million years ago. The margins of error on calculating something that ancient are necessarily thousands of years wide at least, so the notion of determining the time of year seems far-fetched. In fact, the problem is a difficult one, but many of the animals killed in the impact were fossilized, and comparing those fossils to modern-day animals at different points in their seasonal growth cycles has led to [https://www.science.org/content/article/springtime-was-season-dinosaurs-died-ancient-fish-fossils-suggest the suggestion that the impact happened in the northern-hemisphere spring.]
 |-
-|Why does your hair get a static charge when you rub it with a balloon?||Easy||Near Impossible||Inducing a {{w|Static electricity|static charge}} by {{w|Triboelectric effect|rubbing together two materials}} is a method that's been known since ancient times. Since human hair has a marked tendency to develop a positive charge, and the latex commonly used in balloons tends to develop a negative charge, rubbing the two together is a very simple way to create an electric field. This process is so simple that it's used for both party tricks and as a fun demonstration of electrical phenomena. Because of this simplicity, most people would assume that the phenomenon is well understood. So it's surprising that the actual mechanism remains an unsolved problem in physics. This also has previously been mentioned in [[1867: Physics Confession]]. The title text quotes [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360674587_Derivation_of_a_governing_rule_in_triboelectric_charging_and_series_from_thermoelectricity a paper] explaining that, as common as this phenomenon is, there's still no theory that can adequately explain what we observe.
+|Why does your hair get a static charge when you rub it with a balloon?||Easy||Near Impossible||Inducing a {{w|Static electricity|static charge}} by {{w|Triboelectric effect|rubbing together two materials}} is a method that's been known since ancient times. Since human hair has a marked tendency to develop a positive charge, and the latex commonly used in balloons tends to develop a negative charge, rubbing the two together is a very simple way to create an electric field. This process is so simple that it's used for both party tricks and as a fun demonstration of electrical phenomena. Because of this simplicity, most people would assume that the phenomenon is well understood. So it's surprising that the actual mechanism remains an unsolved problem in physics. This also has previously been mentioned in [[1867: Physics Confession]]. The title text quotes [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360674587_Derivation_of_a_governing_rule_in_triboelectric_charging_and_series_from_thermoelectricity a recent paper] explaining that, as common as this phenomenon is, there's still no theory that can adequately explain what we observe.
 |-
 |How does {{w|Tylenol (brand)|Tylenol}} work?||Difficult||Near Impossible||Tylenol is a brand name for {{w|Paracetamol|paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen}}, a drug commonly sold without prescription for pain relief and fever reduction. This drug has been widely used since 1950, and has been well established as being both effective and safe when used properly. Although one would expect the biological mechanism for any drug to be complicated, most people would assume that a drug that's been widely used and studied for so long to be well-documented.  Surprisingly, however, the precise action still isn't fully understood.