Talk:2854: Date Line

The 'standard' and '2x' sized images had unexpected sizes, so a Trivia section has been automatically generated, and an imagesize parameter has been added (at half size) to render the image consistently with other comics on this website. --TheusafBOT (talk) 22:56, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

I see no evidence of this, so the Trivia section should probably be removed. The comic appears standard sized on XKCD (both in the page and if opening the direct link), and the link in the Trivia also leads to a standard size image. NiceGuy1 (talk) 04:19, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

Is it just me or are these size errors becoming more common? What going wrong in the infra? 172.69.62.90 22:57, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Yeah, and this one came in HUGE. The image size upon loading the comic at xkcd.com was 6642x7838. At first, I thought it was a special comic or an interactive one. But just huge. Orion205 (talk) 00:25, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

added an explanation 172.70.174.61 23:49, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

The IDL might not normally be straight, but when the rocket pulls in it, it will straighten it out. Barmar (talk) 00:54, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

The Kentucky State Police resent the implication about their organizational infrastructure.

I like how this comic came out the same day (in UTC+10) as I am studying Earth geometry including the IDL. Nice little coincidence. OmniDoom (talk) 03:46, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Why's there a missing line of latitude? 172.68.140.145 05:47, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

That is actually a good question. Seems like an error. --Kynde (talk) 08:01, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

I would assume the lines that are shown are intended to be the equator, tropics, and arctic circle (antarctic being hidden out of view), being the most commonly known lines of latitude.172.70.85.151 12:04, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

The latitude lines, the top one is obviously the Arctic Circle. The next goes through the northern part of Africa, making it the Equator. Next would be a Tropic. Where's the northern Tropic? (I always mix up Cancer and Capricorn, I want to go with Cancer). Missing line. NiceGuy1 (talk) 04:19, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

I think it's just the angle. If viewed from the side (instead of diagonally above as in the image), I think they would appear more equidistant. Or maybe they're based on a different projection entirely, that wouldn't be out of character for Randall either. 172.70.46.254 12:08, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

No, the northern Tropic is missing. After Arctic it shows the Equator, there should be a Tropic in between. NiceGuy1 (talk) 04:19, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

Even if the lines were actual physical strings/ropes, they appear to be lying right on the earths surface instead of being suspended in mid air. So how would a rocket accidentally get snagged on one? You'd have to purposefully shove the rocket between the earth and the line before launch. Bischoff (talk) 08:39, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Well, obviously you wouldn't want ships/trains/etc hitting them as they moved longitudes(/latitutudes) or timezones, so they must be held up out of the way by skyhooks. Probably also above plane travel, or we'd see them being snagged quite often...

Noting that I had to caveat the idea of the Russian launch-site, as NASA seems to be the named agency needing to fix the mess. Could of course be 'Hollywood Exceptionalism', regarding who it is who leads saves the world. Or actual expertise such as might have actually helped with the Kursk submarine, in a pinch (except that, geoplitically, currently it'd probably take even longer for Russia to deign to request assistance from the US than 23 years ago).

I also, for brevity, skipped the needless pedantic analysis of typical 'first orbit' trajectories from all current launch sites, worldwide, so as to work out whether any others might encounter such a North Pacific crossing-point at 'first hit' (after which, it's clearly high enough to not snag again). Depending on launch eccentricity, it's feasible from practically any of them, naturally. 172.69.195.51 10:37, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Maybe it was a submarine launched rocket.172.70.86.53 12:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

It's obviously North Korean. Russia disclaims any involvement. 172.71.102.143 08:42, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

I think the "about 2 in the title text references the Windows approximate download times dialogs - GreyFox 172.71.150.133 18:31, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

It's not. They were about to say an absolute time, e.g. "by approximately 12:00" but they realized absolute time is paused so they gave a relative time instead. --NeatNit (talk) 22:39, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

This looks devastating for western Europe and western Africa. --NeatNit (talk) 22:39, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

I just tripped over the 90º24’ line. What is with these new strings? TenGolf MathHacker (talk) 15:12, 15 November 2023 (UTC)