Talk:2944: Magnet Fishing

Isn't the solution to make the competition like skiing: The participants take turns fishing, instead of all fishing at the same time? And they're judged on how quickly they can "catch" a magnet in the water. Barmar (talk) 15:44, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

This comic made me cackle. My cat is hiding under my bed now. Psychoticpotato (talk) 21:30, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

Title text

I believe the first "ten-way tie" refers to calling the competition a "tie" between ten competitors. It's more common in British English, but can be used as a synonym for game/match/etc. So it's saying "the ten-person match was judged a ten-way draw". -- MightyP (talk) 16:36, 10 June 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It's a pun on tie meaning to knot/tangle the lines, and tie in the sense of competitors finishing equally. 172.70.134.117 18:29, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

As a British Englisher(!) myself, I think "cup tie" (e.g. the final culmination of a knockout competition) tends to be what "breaks the tie" between the two teams that have each reached this stage equally successful against all other opponents. (Also "3rd/4th-place tie", etc.) You don't tend to get N-way competitions called a 'tie' (though, theoretically, a trifurcated bracketing system could bring 27 teams in nine games teams could become nine teams in three games, then three three teams producing the winner, etc).

Tie/tangle and tie/equally-scored is going to be good enough. If Randall had thought of the "cup tie"-type usage, he could have easily made a tripled-pun version with that and the two more obvious versions. 172.70.160.248 21:30, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

The prize is also a bit of wordplay. It refers to a magnetic monopole as already noted, but is also a joke, as a regular fishing pole is technically a "monopole". I've never personally seen a fishing dipole, but I suppose they could exist! -- MightyP (talk) 16:49, 10 June 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Triple pun for some speakers

I found it funny that in Austrian, monopole is "Monopol", and we use the same word for monopole and monopoly! The prize also feels special if you have a monopoly on magnet fishing - without all the others interfering with your magnet like in the comic.

First time ever posting here. Keep up the good spirit! 172.68.50.13 20:45, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

Monopoles

If you did have a magnetic monopole... Would the field lines look a lot like the strings in this comic?

It could in the Arctic ocean with a south monopole! Near the monopole the field lines point inward but far away they point in the direction of Earth's field. There are parts of the Arctic ocean with a 90 degree inclination and the lines are vertical instead of north-to-south. Monopoles also have two advantages: The field drops off inverse-square instead of of inverse-cube, giving the "hook" a longer range. Also, if all contestants have the same kind of monopole they will repel instead of sticking to each-other.

172.70.80.121 00:17, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

If the contestans' monopoles repelled each other, things could get pretty chaotic with so many of them in close proximity. None of the monopoles would be in a stable position, so the fishing lines would tangle up even worse than if they were all dipoles attracted to each other.

141.101.98.56 05:36, 11 June 2024 (UTC)