3231: Lightning - Revision history

RG: removed incomplete notice

2026-05-14T01:17:25Z

removed incomplete notice

Megan: lightning category

2026-04-15T03:38:33Z

lightning category

Amateurautist: /* Transcript */

2026-04-14T16:30:29Z

‎Transcript

82.13.184.33: /* Explanation */

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‎Explanation

2603:800C:1200:596A:B10C:CCAA:E864:EE7B: Move paragraph to talk

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2A02:21B4:9E5B:A600:9DDB:1FD3:5970:9914: /* Explanation */

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‎Explanation

TheusafBOT: Reverted edit 410195 by 156.1.40.35 to 410194

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Reverted edit 410195 by 156.1.40.35 to 410194

156.1.40.35 at 18:38, 13 April 2026

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TheusafBOT: Reverted edit 410193 by 156.1.40.35 to 410191

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Reverted edit 410193 by 156.1.40.35 to 410191

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← Older revision		Revision as of 01:17, 14 May 2026
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	==Explanation==		==Explanation==
−	~~{{incomplete\|This page was created by a GROUNDED BOT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}~~
−
	An {{w\|anti-static wrist strap}} is a device worn by people working with sensitive electronic devices. The strap is connected to a {{w\|Ground (electricity)\|"ground"}}, so any static charge will be neutralized rather than accumulating and discharging to the device, potentially causing damage. Many electrical devices are grounded by conductors in their power cords, protecting the devices (and their users) from electrical faults.		An {{w\|anti-static wrist strap}} is a device worn by people working with sensitive electronic devices. The strap is connected to a {{w\|Ground (electricity)\|"ground"}}, so any static charge will be neutralized rather than accumulating and discharging to the device, potentially causing damage. Many electrical devices are grounded by conductors in their power cords, protecting the devices (and their users) from electrical faults.

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 [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
 [[Category:Science]]
 [[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]

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 ==Transcript==
 {{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
-:[Lightning overhead. Cueball and Ponytail (the latter holding a walking stick) are standing on a hill at night with various shrubbery on it, watching the lightning.]
+:[Most of the panel is black, with Cueball and Ponytail (holding a walking stick) on the side of a hill shown in all white. A bolt of lighting, also all white, is in the sky above them and accompanied by a booming sound.]
-:[In the sky, by the lightning:]
+:[Lightning:]
-:BOOOOM
+:<big>BOOOOM</big>
 :Cueball: Don't worry, I'm wearing an anti-static wrist strap

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:51, 14 April 2026
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	This is further echoed by the title text, in which he thinks that [[Ponytail]] should be safe because he's taller than she is (plus also higher up in the hill in the comic — although she could at some time easily move further up the hill than him, so relative tallness is only part of the issue), and lightning tends to be attracted to the most prominent conductor in its vicinity (e.g., lightning rods that extend above the roof of the building they're protecting). While it is true that Ponytail is less likely to be struck by lighting directly she is by no means safe: If lighting hits the ground a very large current is discharged into the earth, and will spread outwards from the impact point. Since Ponytail (like all humans) has a lower resistance than the ground, this current will travel through her feet and legs upon reaching her. Since Cueball has (by an extension of his own logic) made himself more likely to be struck he has increased the risk for Ponytail even if the grounding would protect him. (Obviously, there are better ways to be protected during a thunderstorm; see the What If on {{What If\|16\|lightning}}.)		This is further echoed by the title text, in which he thinks that [[Ponytail]] should be safe because he's taller than she is (plus also higher up in the hill in the comic — although she could at some time easily move further up the hill than him, so relative tallness is only part of the issue), and lightning tends to be attracted to the most prominent conductor in its vicinity (e.g., lightning rods that extend above the roof of the building they're protecting). While it is true that Ponytail is less likely to be struck by lighting directly she is by no means safe: If lighting hits the ground a very large current is discharged into the earth, and will spread outwards from the impact point. Since Ponytail (like all humans) has a lower resistance than the ground, this current will travel through her feet and legs upon reaching her. Since Cueball has (by an extension of his own logic) made himself more likely to be struck he has increased the risk for Ponytail even if the grounding would protect him. (Obviously, there are better ways to be protected during a thunderstorm; see the What If on {{What If\|16\|lightning}}.)
−

	[[Randall]] also shows [[Cueball]]'s incorrect views on lightning in [[795: Conditional Risk]], in that case confusing statistics.		[[Randall]] also shows [[Cueball]]'s incorrect views on lightning in [[795: Conditional Risk]], in that case confusing statistics.

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:56, 14 April 2026
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	This is further echoed by the title text, in which he thinks that [[Ponytail]] should be safe because he's taller than she is (plus also higher up in the hill in the comic — although she could at some time easily move further up the hill than him, so relative tallness is only part of the issue), and lightning tends to be attracted to the most prominent conductor in its vicinity (e.g., lightning rods that extend above the roof of the building they're protecting). While it is true that Ponytail is less likely to be struck by lighting directly she is by no means safe: If lighting hits the ground a very large current is discharged into the earth, and will spread outwards from the impact point. Since Ponytail (like all humans) has a lower resistance than the ground, this current will travel through her feet and legs upon reaching her. Since Cueball has (by an extension of his own logic) made himself more likely to be struck he has increased the risk for Ponytail even if the grounding would protect him. (Obviously, there are better ways to be protected during a thunderstorm; see the What If on {{What If\|16\|lightning}}.)		This is further echoed by the title text, in which he thinks that [[Ponytail]] should be safe because he's taller than she is (plus also higher up in the hill in the comic — although she could at some time easily move further up the hill than him, so relative tallness is only part of the issue), and lightning tends to be attracted to the most prominent conductor in its vicinity (e.g., lightning rods that extend above the roof of the building they're protecting). While it is true that Ponytail is less likely to be struck by lighting directly she is by no means safe: If lighting hits the ground a very large current is discharged into the earth, and will spread outwards from the impact point. Since Ponytail (like all humans) has a lower resistance than the ground, this current will travel through her feet and legs upon reaching her. Since Cueball has (by an extension of his own logic) made himself more likely to be struck he has increased the risk for Ponytail even if the grounding would protect him. (Obviously, there are better ways to be protected during a thunderstorm; see the What If on {{What If\|16\|lightning}}.)

−	Additionally, merely ''wearing'' such a device has no effect at all if it isn't connected to a handy grounding point, which is unlikely to be the case if you're actively moving around, such as with the two characters here who seem to be hiking during the storm. You'd possibly even need a couple of grounding-wires, always one secured to some suitable 'earthing point' even while the other is being unclipped from where you've just been and reclipped to slightly ahead of where you're going. Close examination of the 'protected' individual shows that there is a loop of some dangling wire going from their wrist to their body. If that's all it does, then it's practically useless. There is some vague possibility, however, that the wire goes down the torso (ideally in an insulated manner, to avoid both electrical and thermal transference in the event of a lightning strike passing through it) and splits to connect down each leg and towards a grounding-plate/spike on the sole of each foot. ''This'' would technically create a dynamic 'always active' form of lightning-rod protection (ignoring the discrepancy between the height of the figure's wrist and the possibility that the higher crown of the head might be struck by lightning more in the first instance) where the act of walking will always create a protective connection to the ground — so long as Cueball does not attempt to run or (even momentarily) make any jumping movements. And it still relies upon an effective lightning-conductor connection that is rated sufficient to carry a strike's charge properly, without creating additional surface effects to the skin/clothing it passes down along. This is one of the rare situations in which wearing a {{w\|tin foil hat}} might actually be of some benefit, assuming that it was connected to ground via a conductor, all sufficiently heavy-duty to carry the current.

	[[Randall]] also shows [[Cueball]]'s incorrect views on lightning in [[795: Conditional Risk]], in that case confusing statistics.		[[Randall]] also shows [[Cueball]]'s incorrect views on lightning in [[795: Conditional Risk]], in that case confusing statistics.

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 He may think that the anti-static device works like a {{w|lightning rod}}, attracting the lightning that would have struck his body, and diverting it away from it. The reason they work is because lightning takes the easiest path. If a tall structure is going to be hit by a lightning strike, it's better to have that strike not go via more resistive materials that can be easily damaged or destroyed. A proper lightning conductor is designed to conduct the large amount of energy of lightning safely to the bottom<!-- and can be repaired/replaced, after an incident, far easier than the structure it may have sacrificially protected, in the case of any strike that *definitely* would have damaged the thing it is protecting... You then have to take your chances from further strikes in the same storm, but you're no worse off than you would have been, in such extreme circumstances, and decent lightning protection should normally be more than capable of taking many strikes between thorough inspections-->, unlike a wrist-strap cable that is only made to leak away much smaller static buildups and could not contain a sudden cloud-to-ground surge of electricity.
-This is further echoed by the title text, in which he thinks that [[Ponytail]] should be safe because he's taller than she is (plus also higher up in the hill in the comic — although she could at some time easily move further up the hill than him, so relative tallness is only part of the issue), and lightning tends to be attracted to the most prominent conductor in its vicinity (e.g., lightning rods that extend above the roof of the building they're protecting). While this is true, it ignores the fact that (by an extension of his own logic) he's made himself more likely to be struck, and potentially severely hurt or killed, by a lightning strike. (Obviously, there are better ways to be protected during a thunderstorm; see the What If on {{What If|16|lightning}}.)
+This is further echoed by the title text, in which he thinks that [[Ponytail]] should be safe because he's taller than she is (plus also higher up in the hill in the comic — although she could at some time easily move further up the hill than him, so relative tallness is only part of the issue), and lightning tends to be attracted to the most prominent conductor in its vicinity (e.g., lightning rods that extend above the roof of the building they're protecting). While it is true that Ponytail is less likely to be struck by lighting directly she is by no means safe: If lighting hits the ground a very large current is discharged into the earth, and will spread outwards from the impact point. Since Ponytail (like all humans) has a lower resistance than the ground, this current will travel through her feet and legs upon reaching her.  Since Cueball has (by an extension of his own logic) made himself more likely to be struck he has increased the risk for Ponytail even if the grounding would protect him. (Obviously, there are better ways to be protected during a thunderstorm; see the What If on {{What If|16|lightning}}.)
 Additionally, merely ''wearing'' such a device has no effect at all if it isn't connected to a handy grounding point, which is unlikely to be the case if you're actively moving around, such as with the two characters here who seem to be hiking during the storm. You'd possibly even need a couple of grounding-wires, always one secured to some suitable 'earthing point' even while the other is being unclipped from where you've just been and reclipped to slightly ahead of where you're going. Close examination of the 'protected' individual shows that there is a loop of some dangling wire going from their wrist to their body. If that's all it does, then it's practically useless. There is some vague possibility, however, that the wire goes down the torso (ideally in an insulated manner, to avoid both electrical and thermal transference in the event of a lightning strike passing through it) and splits to connect down each leg and towards a grounding-plate/spike on the sole of each foot. ''This'' would technically create a dynamic 'always active' form of lightning-rod protection (ignoring the discrepancy between the height of the figure's wrist and the possibility that the higher crown of the head might be struck by lightning more in the first instance) where the act of walking will always create a protective connection to the ground — so long as Cueball does not attempt to run or (even momentarily) make any jumping movements. And it still relies upon an effective lightning-conductor connection that is rated sufficient to carry a strike's charge properly, without creating additional surface effects to the skin/clothing it passes down along. This is one of the rare situations in which wearing a {{w|tin foil hat}} might actually be of some benefit, assuming that it was connected to ground via a conductor, all sufficiently heavy-duty to carry the current.

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 | imagesize = 328x364px
 | noexpand  = true
-| titletext = AITA for injecting my husband with turtle precum? When my husbad came home from his cum tissue eatiting contest he was devistated when his ant sex ring was destroyed and he started crying but when he realized that he wasnt crying blood anymore he started shitting everywhere and when he tasted it he said it didnt taste like turtle precum anymore and he kept complaining to me evern though i was trying to dm minors in discord. So that night when he was sleeping/getting his dick sucked by a random stray cat i started injecting the turtle precum i've been collecting from petting zoos but then my parents came in the furry roleplay 2 girls one cup with me and they said i could be doing better things with my time like trying to remove the 44 pencils stuck inside my vagina, so explain xkcd am i the a hole?.
+| titletext = Maybe you should wear one too? I guess I'm taller than you, so as long as I have one we're fine.
 }}

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-{comic
+{{comic
-| number    = 3129
+| number    = 3231
-| date      = August 15, 2025
+| date      = April 10, 2026
-| title     = Archaeology Research
+| title     = Lightning
-| image     = archaeology_research_2x.png
+| image     = lightning_2x.png
-| imagesize = 381x433px
+| imagesize = 328x364px
 | noexpand  = true
-| titletext = The academic archaeology establishment is suppressing my breakthroughs because of the disruption it would bring to their prepared-core flake-based toolmaking industry.
+| titletext = Maybe you should wear one too? I guess I'm taller than you, so as long as I have one we're fine.
 }}