Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!
We have an explanation for all 3248 xkcd comics, and only 68 (2.1%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!

Latest comic

Simple Machines

Title text: It's hard to decide which simple machine system to invest in. DeWalt makes a great lever and inclined plane, but I hear Milwaukee's wheel-and-axles are really good.

Explanation

This is incomplete:
This page was recently purchased from DeWalt, and we're still reading the manual. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

There are a lot of simple tools used to give a mechanical advantage in various things. The 6 most common ones are called simple machines:

Additionally, there are all-in-one tools that are made with multiple features, such as the classic Swiss Army Knife that combines various different forms of blade (which in part act as levers and/or wedges, depending upon use) along with some non-bladed tools (such as the corkscrew, which naturally embodies the same forces as the 'simple screw' itself). This comic combines both ideas, suggesting the existence of an all-in-one instrument with all six simple tools. The tool shown merges them by mounting multiple components (no longer being quite so a 'simple' machine), some of them with multiple purposes depending upon application. For example the lever and the inclined plane are both present via the same core rod.

Having one of these "all-in-one" devices does not mean it does everything you can do with different combinations — the choice of components and how they interact (or don't get in each others' way) is important for the function of a particular device.

There are obvious drawbacks to having this 'all-in-one' tool. The tools all have varying uses, some very different from one other, and you would find it unlikely to find many devices in need of all the tools together in a spot. So such a tool would be largely useless compared to its singular variants. As well as that, the tools come in many different sizes as well, meaning unless it has special adjustable sizes (which could well be impossible, to account for all the different sizes)^{[citation needed]} the tool would be unlikely to be the right size to fit many features! As well as that, though Randall claims he can stop buying simple tools thanks to his all-in-one, in reality you often need more than one of the various tools for projects- particularly screws, of which there can be hundreds in a single project. So a thoroughly useless innovation.

The title text is a joke about battery powered tool ecosystems. Milwaukee Tool and DeWalt are two common American tool companies. The text notes that each company has advantages in certain specific simple machines, which makes deciding which brand to invest in for a whole system of simple machines difficult - presumably because each brand's machines are designed to work together, but would not work across brands. With battery powered tools, the batteries are often interchangeable between tools from a single brand (and are often purchased separately from the tools). Once you buy, say, a drill and batteries from one brand, it is more economical to buy a saw from the same brand, rather than the saw and batteries from a different brand.

Transcript

This is one of 43 incomplete transcripts:
Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[A rod with a square cross-section is shown sloping from top-left to bottom-right. At the bottom-right, it has a wedge tip. At the top-left, it is threaded and has a long nut on it. The nut has an eyelet where a rope is connected. The rope travels taut around a wheel on an axle connected near the wedge-end and then lies loose with a hook on the free end.]

[Caption below comic:]

I can finally stop buying simple machines now that I got an all-in-one tool with all six of them.

Add comment

Create topic (use sparingly)

Refresh

Discussion

Make changes, try things out, or just have fun with the wiki here! Just leave everything above the line alone, please.

This is a test. PoolloverNathan^{[stalk the blue seas]} 20:48, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

A foreign student asked me to help fight against his math teacher. That was unusual. He was in that class for just a couple of weeks. The teacher's phone number was sent to me. The student asked me to spam-call the teacher. 172.71.155.55 22:58, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

here i'm just messing around in html, ignore this

^furhhfghure _{guyrburgryhuyvfr} "rvhru"

interesting way of writing quotations xd

hmmm this one of putting "<p>" in a line break will come in handy for when i want it to start at the same place than the first line

Please beware that <p> on mediawiki also disables automatic paragraph breaks, so you need a closing </p> or you'll break automatic paragraph formatting for the rest of the page. Zmatt (talk) 22:06, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

edit: da hek did that "</div>" come from An user who has no account yet (talk) 14:14, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

hi uh its hard to get here. is this a reference to undocumented feature??? hmm... this is interesting.
108.162.241.216 02:05, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

	Soup

yum yum ^{[citation needed]}

Hiuiedeixgeyceiyedhcdiedcve {{trout}}

This is the leaderboard:

Last 7 days (Top 50)

Rank	Score	Pages	Changes	Username
1	21	17	21	TheusafBOT
2	13	6	19	GSLikesCats307
3	12	7	14	Vaedez
4	12	5	17	Barry Margolin
5	9	5	9	Victoria
6	8	4	9	Daniel Griscom
7	7	5	6	YZ100
8	6	4	5	Ally
9	6	3	5	Ilios2357
10	6	3	5	BunsenH
11	5	3	4	Ninojin3DD
12	5	3	4	Coconut Galaxy
13	4	2	3	Kynde
14	3	1	2	Ralfoide
15	3	1	2	BorQhue del Sol
16	3	1	2	Robin
17	3	3	3	管委会篝火无法解放军“赐额“你去呢管理哦法？
18	3	1	2	Vivian
19	3	3	3	DKMell
20	3	3	3	FaviFake
21	2	2	2	John Hawkinson
22	2	2	2	Turtleidk
23	2	2	2	Fephisto
24	1	1	1	Sean Lee
25	1	1	1	Geoff
26	1	1	1	RegularSizedGuy
27	1	1	1	Chronotix
28	1	1	1	RadiantRainwing
29	1	1	1	Me
30	1	1	1	Linneris
31	1	1	1	Steve Spivey
32	1	1	1	August Fuller
33	1	1	1	chris
34	1	1	1	Utdtutyabthsc
35	1	1	1	Cain In Vain
36	1	1	1	Solid Kalium
37	1	1	1	Martin
38	1	1	1	Elektrizikekswerk
39	1	1	1	Dry Paratroopa
40	1	1	1	1234231587678
41	1	1	1	Paul
42	1	1	1	Kelvin128
43	1	1	1	Chris Daniels
44	1	1	1	DaveX
45	1	1	1	Solomon Ucko
46	1	1	1	Qwertyuiopfromdefly
47	1	1	1	Jarochar
48	1	1	1	SacrifycedStoat
49	1	1	1	SSteve
50	1	1	1	Magtei

<a href=" [AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING][tab] "Cancel the meeting! Our cover is blown."> More testing: hello doesthiswork (yesitdoes) This isn't a good name (talk) 22:44, 28 January 2026 (UTC)

‮hi 164.58.172.158 14:21, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

What is this?????????????????????? King Pando (talk) 04:25, 10 March 2026 (UTC)‭

Hello 107.1.219.44 19:29, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

Add comment

View comic discussion

New here?

Last 30 days (Top 10)

Rank	Score	Pages	Changes	Username
1	124	107	177	DollarStoreBa'al
2	79	69	96	TheusafBOT
3	42	25	98	GSLikesCats307
4	30	23	35	FaviFake
5	29	16	59	Barry Margolin
6	22	19	21	1234231587678
7	21	11	35	Vaedez
8	21	14	25	DKMell
9	20	12	29	Kynde
10	19	11	28	BunsenH

Lots of people contribute to make this wiki a success. Many of the recent contributors above have just joined. You can do it too! Create your account here.

You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at explain xkcd. Feel free to create an account and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for xkcd comics, characters, What If? articles, and everything in between. If it is referenced in an xkcd comic, it should be here.

If you're new to wiki editing, see the explain xkcd:Editor FAQ for a specific guidance to this wiki and the more general help on how to edit wiki pages. There's also a handy wikicode cheatsheet.

Discussion about the wiki itself happens at the Community portal.

You can browse the comics from the list of all comics or by navigating the category tree at Category:Comics.

The incomplete explanations are listed here. Feel free to help out by expanding them!

Rules

Don't be a jerk!

There are a lot of comics that don't have set-in-stone explanations; feel free to put multiple interpretations in the wiki page for each comic.

If you want to talk about a specific comic, use its discussion page.

Please only submit material directly related to xkcd and, of course, only submit material that can legally be posted and freely edited. Off-topic or other inappropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked.

If you need assistance from an admin, post a message to the Admin requests board.