Talk:2461: 90's Kid Space Program

While searching for popper toys in action, I found a figure in a scientific paper. Not sure if it would belong on this page. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326439672_Dynamics_of_viscoelastic_snap-through#pf2 Pgn674 (talk) 20:15, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

Isn't it also allusion to Kerbal Space Program game? The ship in picture looks similar to game's stock crafts. --162.158.91.249 21:05, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

Possibly? The girders and the capsule look similar, but the green bit looks a little like a Project Orion pusher plate to me. (Or maybe I just like Project Orion too much). 141.101.99.229 21:07, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

Agree on the Kerbal. Note the KSP in "Kid Space Program". I also thought it had a nod towards Project Orion pusher plate. On an unrelated but fun note: Oxford science blog discusses the mathematics that describe jumping popper snap-through: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/science-blog/how-do-jumping-popper-toys-work.

Tomb (talk) 21:40, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

The title text may refer to the way that NASA seems stuck in their ways and not willing to innovate, i.e. living in the past. 162.158.91.249 21:13, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

I agree with the above suggestion that Kerbal Space Program is part of the joke, KSP is to iconic a acronym for Munroe to ignore, plus, he has mentioned it in other strips.

Or even "too iconic an acronym". 198.41.238.106 21:48, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

Is today some sort of special "90's day"? SMBC has a 90s-themed comic as well.Account (talk) 21:26, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

Per http://www.holidays-and-observances.com/may-10.html, it is not. Piano (talk) 22:22, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

I think maybe "90s" is a little off. I had one of these in 1987. 141.101.98.106 08:26, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

I was squinting hard at the original, trying to understand the connection between a diaphragm (a barrier contraception method), kids, and launching into space. Smth about spermatozoids? Resorted to explainxkcd, and learned that it's some kind of "popper"... Oh, well :)

Interesting… I'm a 90s kid, and I've never even heard of these. I had to come here to figure out what I was looking at. NoriMori (talk) 03:00, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

snap! I thought it was a diaphragm too :o) 108.162.249.50 06:05, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

I would have known what it was if it was a photograph. There's no real sense of scale or texture here, I thought it was some kind of weird parachute like kids used in gym class. -172.68.57.75 06:25, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

How effective would this thing actually be?

Obviously it's not going to go to space. But would a popper of this apparent size even be able to fling itself upward at all? Do the mechanics hold up when scaled up that large, or does all the mass and weight of the rubber get in the way? Or something about the physics of how it un-inverts itself? I've seen a few of these things, and they get some impressive height, but they were all pretty small. I found a Youtube video of a guy making some quite large ones (by toy standards), and the amount of height they get seems to go down as the size of the thing goes up.

This isn't the clearest xkcd

So it isn't supposed to be a diaphragm?

172.69.68.167 06:51, 11 May 2021 (UTC)