Talk:3041: Unit Circle - Revision history

172.69.195.200 at 09:42, 24 January 2025

2025-01-24T09:42:32Z

172.70.162.162: Is the mistake to call this unit a unit, or all of the others?

2025-01-24T09:06:54Z

Is the mistake to call this unit a unit, or all of the others?

Trimeta at 01:52, 24 January 2025

2025-01-24T01:52:12Z

172.70.58.6 at 21:43, 23 January 2025

2025-01-23T21:43:38Z

SammyChips at 20:30, 23 January 2025

2025-01-23T20:30:04Z

172.68.245.206 at 20:00, 23 January 2025

2025-01-23T20:00:35Z

Lordpishky: pargigaseconds

2025-01-23T19:20:00Z

pargigaseconds

SammyChips at 18:28, 23 January 2025

2025-01-23T18:28:37Z

Tepples: Cueball's height in units

2025-01-23T18:22:53Z

Cueball's height in units

SammyChips at 17:34, 23 January 2025

2025-01-23T17:34:53Z

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 I'm surprised that this explanation doesn't cover the joke inherent in "dimensional analysts": This is obviously a reference to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_analysis dimensional analysis], the process of cancelling out units in long chains (and the topic of [[3038: Uncanceled Units]]). [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 01:52, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
+:That all goes back to (at least!) [[687: Dimensional Analysis]], and has been covered since several times (I think at least one What If? mentions it), mildly surprised to see that there is not yet a Dimensional Analysis category.
-Specifically, the comic assumes, while many terms of measurements are called units, that there is an actual measurement of length or distance in space which is correctly called one unit.  That's going to cause a little confusion.  Unit also is used to refer to things besides measurements, including a small apartment or business space, and a certain part of a male human body.  I don't think that measurements of that are going to be consistent, particularly if self-reported.  Robert Carnegie [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.162|172.70.162.162]] 09:06, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
+:Though, if there was, I'm not sure I would add this to that. It would cover, in my view, all the cases where unit-type cancellations/uncancellations/recombinings are used for surprising(/blatantly incorrect) purposes, or as a comment on how they ''could/should'' (as per 3038). The dimensional analysts in ''this'' comic aren't changing how length is used (i.e. suddenly using it for for a surprising <length*weight unit>/<weight unit> reduction), and seem to be styled as ultra-practical mathematicians (getting their hands dirty with expeditions to find mythical objects) rather than ultra-theoretic ones (darned be what the real world is like, to experience, they'll imagine the world how [[224: Lisp|they want]] — or even [[505: A Bunch of Rocks|try to make it work that way]], though that probably involves getting one's hands dirty in a ''different'' way). One incarnation of the edit even had them as practically Indianna Joneses (named them as (action-)archeologists, having dug this object up, which I was glad to be changed, as there's little sign it was excavated and not just found in plain sight), which puts me at odds with them being actually called "dimensional analysts" in the aforementioned Dimensional Analysis sense, as they're not messing with the dimensional qualities. They're "arbitrarily de-abitrising" in a completely different way, setting up a single (non-compound) measurement unit in terms of [[2198: Throw#Table of distance units|all other similar units]], under the (mis?)impression that their newly considered one is fundamentally more 'true', not "having fun with unit''s''(-plural)".

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:06, 24 January 2025
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	I'm surprised that this explanation doesn't cover the joke inherent in "dimensional analysts": This is obviously a reference to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_analysis dimensional analysis], the process of cancelling out units in long chains (and the topic of [[3038: Uncanceled Units]]). [[User:Trimeta\|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta\|talk]]) 01:52, 24 January 2025 (UTC)		I'm surprised that this explanation doesn't cover the joke inherent in "dimensional analysts": This is obviously a reference to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_analysis dimensional analysis], the process of cancelling out units in long chains (and the topic of [[3038: Uncanceled Units]]). [[User:Trimeta\|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta\|talk]]) 01:52, 24 January 2025 (UTC)
		+
		+	Specifically, the comic assumes, while many terms of measurements are called units, that there is an actual measurement of length or distance in space which is correctly called one unit. That's going to cause a little confusion. Unit also is used to refer to things besides measurements, including a small apartment or business space, and a certain part of a male human body. I don't think that measurements of that are going to be consistent, particularly if self-reported. Robert Carnegie [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.162\|172.70.162.162]] 09:06, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

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	The only true unit of length is ~1.616*10^(-35) meters. Whether you want that to be the circle's radius or diameter would be a matter of convention, although it might help to point out that the Schwarzchild "radius" of a unit mass is two length units, which makes me think of a diameter instead. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.206\|172.68.245.206]] 20:00, 23 January 2025 (UTC)		The only true unit of length is ~1.616*10^(-35) meters. Whether you want that to be the circle's radius or diameter would be a matter of convention, although it might help to point out that the Schwarzchild "radius" of a unit mass is two length units, which makes me think of a diameter instead. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.206\|172.68.245.206]] 20:00, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
		+
		+	I'm surprised that this explanation doesn't cover the joke inherent in "dimensional analysts": This is obviously a reference to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_analysis dimensional analysis], the process of cancelling out units in long chains (and the topic of [[3038: Uncanceled Units]]). [[User:Trimeta\|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta\|talk]]) 01:52, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

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 Didn't the unit kilogram lose some of it's mass? It may be working if something similar happened to this unit circle. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.117|172.69.214.117]] 15:43, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
 The unit circle has a diameter of 2 units by definition, as a circle's diameter is twice its radius. In this comic, the diameter of the circle is 89 pixels, measured from the center of the outline on one side to the center of the outline on the other side. This implies that at the scale of this scene, the "unit" is 44.5 pixels. Cueball is 201 pixels tall, making him 4.5 "units" tall. Are characters' relative heights consistent enough in ''xkcd'' for this to be meaningful? --[[User:Tepples|Tepples]] ([[User talk:Tepples|talk]]) 18:22, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
 The only true unit of length is ~1.616*10^(-35) meters. Whether you want that to be the circle's radius or diameter would be a matter of convention, although it might help to point out that the Schwarzchild "radius" of a unit mass is two length units, which makes me think of a diameter instead. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.206|172.68.245.206]] 20:00, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

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 I guess the correct wording is that $\pi$ is a trancendent number.  Some irrational numbers e.g. $\sqrt{2}$ can be constructed by compass and ruler. {{unsigned ip|172.68.185.165|07:12, 23 January 2025}}
 :To be more precise, constructable irrational numbers are those that can be obtained through taking square roots, even repeatedly. Transcendental numbers are out, but so are things like cube roots. Note also that the fact that there are no "absolute units" of length is a quirk of Euclidean geometry -- in, say, hyperbolic world, a unit circle like this could actually work. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.213.153|172.68.213.153]] 09:10, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
-::Watch out you don't make that unit circle too big, or the square's vertices might {{w|Ideal_triangle|stretch out to infinity}} and ignite the atmosphere! [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 16:14, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
+::Watch out you don't make that unit circle too big, or the square's vertices might {{w|Ideal_triangle|stretch out to infinity}} and [[809|ignite the atmosphere]]! [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 16:14, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
 Didn't the unit kilogram lose some of it's mass? It may be working if something similar happened to this unit circle. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.117|172.69.214.117]] 15:43, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:00, 23 January 2025
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	The unit circle has a diameter of 2 units by definition, as a circle's diameter is twice its radius. In this comic, the diameter of the circle is 89 pixels, measured from the center of the outline on one side to the center of the outline on the other side. This implies that at the scale of this scene, the "unit" is 44.5 pixels. Cueball is 201 pixels tall, making him 4.5 "units" tall. Are characters' relative heights consistent enough in ''xkcd'' for this to be meaningful? --[[User:Tepples\|Tepples]] ([[User talk:Tepples\|talk]]) 18:22, 23 January 2025 (UTC)		The unit circle has a diameter of 2 units by definition, as a circle's diameter is twice its radius. In this comic, the diameter of the circle is 89 pixels, measured from the center of the outline on one side to the center of the outline on the other side. This implies that at the scale of this scene, the "unit" is 44.5 pixels. Cueball is 201 pixels tall, making him 4.5 "units" tall. Are characters' relative heights consistent enough in ''xkcd'' for this to be meaningful? --[[User:Tepples\|Tepples]] ([[User talk:Tepples\|talk]]) 18:22, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
		+
		+	The only true unit of length is ~1.616*10^(-35) meters. Whether you want that to be the circle's radius or diameter would be a matter of convention, although it might help to point out that the Schwarzchild "radius" of a unit mass is two length units, which makes me think of a diameter instead. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.206\|172.68.245.206]] 20:00, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

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 ::::I told you not to think too hard for that very reason :P  It's actually parsec-nanosecond per year, but in a nod to the recent comics dealing with [[3038|unit cancelation]] and [[3040|making up personal scientific jargon]], I collapsed it into its own unit.  For those who didn't get it, a light-nanosecond is pretty close to a foot, and the "parnsec" is pretty close to a meter. SammyChips 15:50, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
 ::::: You Americans will use anything but the metric system![[Special:Contributions/172.70.58.45|172.70.58.45]] 16:30, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
 :::My Millennium Falcon gets 14 parsecs to the Kessel Run, and that’s the way I likes it! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.34|172.68.186.34]] 06:26, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
 :::I'm going to take all these desires for weird units with a barn-megaparsec of nackle. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.160|172.69.195.160]] 07:00, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:22, 23 January 2025
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	Didn't the unit kilogram lose some of it's mass? It may be working if something similar happened to this unit circle. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.117\|172.69.214.117]] 15:43, 23 January 2025 (UTC)		Didn't the unit kilogram lose some of it's mass? It may be working if something similar happened to this unit circle. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.117\|172.69.214.117]] 15:43, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
		+
		+	The unit circle has a diameter of 2 units by definition, as a circle's diameter is twice its radius. In this comic, the diameter of the circle is 89 pixels, measured from the center of the outline on one side to the center of the outline on the other side. This implies that at the scale of this scene, the "unit" is 44.5 pixels. Cueball is 201 pixels tall, making him 4.5 "units" tall. Are characters' relative heights consistent enough in ''xkcd'' for this to be meaningful? --[[User:Tepples\|Tepples]] ([[User talk:Tepples\|talk]]) 18:22, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

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 ::::I did sign with <code><nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></code>, but the option for treating my signature as plain text was enabled. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 15:57, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
 :::SammyChips, if that is supposed to be Parallax nano-seconds, you should understand that that is probably more like a Giga-Parsec.  The parsec is the distance at which an object appears to move one second of arc when the Earth moves halfway around its orbit.  (though I'm not sure which orientation.) [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 03:34, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
-::::I told you not to think too hard for that very reason :P  It's actually parsec-nanosecond per year, but in a nod to the recent comics dealing with [[3038|unit cancelation] and [[3040|making up personal scientific jargon], I collapsed it into its own unit.  For those who didn't get it, a light-nanosecond is pretty close to a foot, and the "parnsec" is pretty close to a meter. SammyChips 15:50, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
+::::I told you not to think too hard for that very reason :P  It's actually parsec-nanosecond per year, but in a nod to the recent comics dealing with [[3038|unit cancelation]] and [[3040|making up personal scientific jargon]], I collapsed it into its own unit.  For those who didn't get it, a light-nanosecond is pretty close to a foot, and the "parnsec" is pretty close to a meter. SammyChips 15:50, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
 ::::: You Americans will use anything but the metric system![[Special:Contributions/172.70.58.45|172.70.58.45]] 16:30, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
 :::My Millennium Falcon gets 14 parsecs to the Kessel Run, and that’s the way I likes it! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.34|172.68.186.34]] 06:26, 23 January 2025 (UTC)