Editing 1331: Frequency

| image    = frequency.png

This comic shows a number of common events, arranged in a grid. Each of the events flashes with their average frequency.

For example, statistically a child is born somewhere on the world approximately every 0.24 seconds, or four times per second. Therefore the tile "One birth" blinks about 4 times per second.

The table below lists all the events and their duration / frequency. Some events make reference to other comics.

The title text refers to the {{w|Pitch drop experiment}} which measures the flow of a piece of pitch over many years. At room temperature, tar pitch flows at a very slow rate, taking several years to form a single drop. The title text jokes that Randall tried to include a tile that flashes about once every {{w|decade|ten years}}, but the tiles are all {{w|Animated GIF|animated GIFs}} and the file format does not support animations that long.

!Picture

!Text

!Frequency (per year,<br>N/I = not interesting)

!Explanation

|Heartbeat||0.86||70||32,785,200||

|One birth||0.24||250||131,490,000|| [[746: Birth]]

|One death||0.56||107||56,360,000||

|Someone&nbsp;edits&nbsp;Wikipedia||0.67||90||47,100,000||{{w|Wikipedia}} is an online, freely editable encyclopedia.

|Someone buys a vibrator||2.99||20||10,550,000 || [[600: Android Boyfriend]]

|[[ File:car china.gif ]]

|China builds a car||1.89||32||16,700,000||

|[[ File:car japan.gif ]]

|Japan builds a car||4.01||15||7,870,000||

|[[ File:car germany.gif ]]

|Germany builds a car||5.8||10||5,440,000||

|[[ File:car us.gif ]]

|The US builds a car||6.95||8.6||4,540,000||

|[[ File:car elsewhere.gif ]]

|Someone else builds a car||1.03||58||30,640,000||

|[[ File:kiss.gif ]]

|A&nbsp;European&nbsp;Union&nbsp;resident has their first kiss||5.53||11||5,700,000||

|[[ File:fire dept.gif ]]

|A US fire department puts out a fire||23||2.6||1,370,000||

|[[ File:holeinone.gif ]]

|Someone hits a hole-in-one||180||20 times per hour||175,320||A {{w|hole in one}} is a feat in {{w|golf}} in which the player hits the ball directly from the tee into the cup with one shot.

|[[ File:turnsignal1.gif ]]

|My turn signal blinks||0.94||64||N/I||See below

|[[ File:turnsignal2.gif ]]

|The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks||0.9||67||N/I||This, together with the previous item, forms a reference to [[165: Turn Signals]].

|[[ File:earthquake1.gif ]]

|Earthquake (magnitude 1)||2.43||25||13,000,000|| [[711: Seismograph]]

|[[ File:earthquake2.gif ]]

|Earthquake (magnitude 2)||24.26||2.5||1,300,000|| Review [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22feed%22%3A%221day_all%22%2C%22search%22%3Anull%2C%22sort%22%3A%22largest%22%2C%22basemap%22%3A%22grayscale%22%2C%22autoUpdate%22%3Atrue%2C%22restrictListToMap%22%3Atrue%2C%22timeZone%22%3A%22local%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B-84.47406458459159%2C-25.6640625%5D%2C%5B84.4740645845916%2C425.390625%5D%5D%2C%22overlays%22%3A%7B%22plates%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%7B%22map%22%3Atrue%2C%22list%22%3Atrue%2C%22settings%22%3Atrue%2C%22help%22%3Afalse%7D%7D USGS's Quake Map] for verification.

|[[ File:earthquake3.gif ]]

|Earthquake (magnitude 3)||242.6||15 times per hour||130,000|| [[1037: Umwelt#Earthquake-Blizzard|1037: Umwelt]]

|[[ File:earthquake4.gif ]]

|Earthquake (magnitude 4)||2426||1.5 times per hour||13,000|| [[723: Seismic Waves]]; below this magnitude earthquakes pass by largely unnoticed by Tweeters.[http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/mag_vs_int.php]

|[[ File:parliament toilet.gif ]]

|A member of the UK parliament flushes a toilet||10.06||6||3,140,000||Note that probably during the daytime in Britain such a toilet is flushed 8.5 times per minute, while at night it is flushed only 1 time per minute.

|[[ File:flight.gif ]]

|An airline flight takes off||0.93||65||34,000,000||

|[[ File:book mockingbird.gif ]]

|Someone buys ''To Kill a Mockingbird''||42.05||1.4||750,000||“{{w|To Kill a Mockingbird}}” is a famous novel by {{w|Harper Lee}}.

|[[ File:cat mockingbird.gif ]]

|Someone's pet cat kills a mockingbird||1.82||33||17,340,000||Whereas the previous item references the well-known book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, this one talks about {{w|Mockingbird|mockingbirds}} being literally killed (in this case, by cats). There are 45 million mockingbirds in the world;[http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Mimus_polyglottos/] this means that according to Randall, cats kill 39% of mockingbirds in one year, i.e. in 2.5 years they are able to kill all mockingbirds (excluding the ones that are born in the meantime).  

|[[ File:phoenixshoes.gif ]]

|Someone in Phoenix buys new shoes||1.08||56||29,200,000||Since {{w|Phoenix metropolitan area|metro Phoenix}} has 4,200,000 inhabitants, according to Randall people in Phoenix buy 7 pairs of shoes per capita per year.  

|[[ File:phoenix.gif ]]

|Someone in Phoenix puts on a condom||2.05||29||15,390,000||

|[[ File:keys.gif ]]

|Someone locks their keys in their car||2.43||25||13,000,000||

|[[ File:amelia.gif ]]

|A Sagittarius named Amelia drinks a soda||7.79||7.7||4,000,000||This frequency is taken from the number of persons called {{w|Amelia_(given_name)|Amelia}} ([http://howmanyofme.com/  est. 82,572 people in the U.S.]), the number of persons born under the astrological sign of {{w|Sagittarius (astrology)|Sagittarius}} (~1/12th of the population, i.e. approximately 6881 Amelias in the U.S.) and the frequency of soda (soft drinks) being drunk (216 liters per person per year in the U.S.[http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/foo_sof_dri_con-food-soft-drink-consumption]). According to our figures, 6881 Amelias drink 1,44 million liters of soft drinks per year in the United States alone, which means that Randall's figures only account for American Amelias (drinking 356&nbsp;cc or 12&nbsp;fl.&nbsp;oz. of soda in each drink).

|[[ File:dogbite.gif ]]

|A dog bites someone in the US||7.01||8.6||4,500,000||

|[[ File:bike.gif ]]

|Someone steals a bicycle||24.93||2.4||1,265,000||

|[[ File:eagle.gif ]]

|A bald eagle catches a fish||2.69||22||11,700,000||

|[[ File:bottles.gif ]]

|50,000 plastic bottles are produced||1.27||2.36 million bottles||1.24 trillion||

|[[ File:recycled.gif ]]

|50,000 plastic bottles are recycled||4.64||646,552 bottles||340 billion||27% of the plastic bottles manufactured get [[885: Recycling|recycled]]

|[[ File:meteor.gif ]]

|A bright meteor is visible somewhere||1.15||52||N/I||

|[[ File:oldfaithful.gif ]]

|Old Faithful erupts||5640 (94 minutes)||15 times per day||5,595||{{w|Old Faithful}} is a geyser in {{w|Yellowstone National Park}} in the US, that tends to erupt every 65 or 91 minutes. XKCD's period of 1h&nbsp;34m falls between the [http://geysertimes.org/getGeyserInfo.php?geyserID=2 mean and median of recent Old Faithful eruptions] and corresponds to a [http://geysertimes.org/getSingleEruption.php?id=645135 February 16, 2014 eruption].

|[[ File:shark.gif ]]

|A fishing boat catches a shark||0.83||72||38,000,000|| [[1326: Sharks]]

|[[ File:us cancer.gif ]]

|Someone in the US is diagnosed with cancer||18.99||3.2||1,660,000|| [[881: Probability]]

|[[ File:us cancer death.gif ]]

|Someone in the US dies from cancer||54.34||1.1||580,000|| [[881: Probability]]  

|[[ File:dog.gif ]]

|Someone adopts a dog from a shelter||15.6||3.8||2,000,000||

|[[ File:cat.gif ]]

|Someone adopts a cat from a shelter||21.3||2.8||1,5000,000||

|[[ File:wedding.gif ]]

|Someone gets married||0.75||80||42,000,000||

|[[ File:domain.gif ]]

|Someone registers a domain||0.64||94||49,300,000 ||

|[[ File:house.gif ]]

|Someone in the US buys a house||6.22||9.6||5,000,000||

|[[ File:tattoo.gif ]]

|Someone in the US gets a tattoo||2.06||29||15,300,000||

|[[ File:pulsar.gif ]]

|The star PSR J1748-2446AD rotates 1,000 times||1.4||43,000 rotations||N/I||{{w|PSR J1748-2446ad}} is the fastest spinning {{w|pulsar}} known.

|[[ File:facebook.gif ]]

|Someone lies about their age to sign up for Facebook||4.32||14||600,000 per month||To sign up for Facebook, [https://www.facebook.com/help/210644045634222 the user must claim to be at least 13 years old]. This is a reflection of the U.S. {{w|Children's Online Privacy Protection Act}}.

|[[ File:iphone.gif ]]

|Someone breaks an iPhone screen||0.93||65||34,000,000||

|[[ File:littleleague.gif ]]

|A Little League player strikes out||1.23||49||N/I||{{w|Little League Baseball|Little League}} is a system of local youth baseball and softball competitions. A {{w|strikeout}} is a situation in baseball and softball.

|[[ File:ndsex.gif ]]

|Someone has sex in North Dakota||1.38||43||22,900,000||Since {{w|North Dakota}} has 723,000 inhabitants (ranked the 48th state), and if we estimate the sexually active population as 80% (and if ''someone'' means ''a couple)'' this means that people in North Dakota have sex 79.1 times a year. It is estimated that 3.93% of the world population has sex on a given day;[http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/geographyofsex.htm] Randall's rate for North Dakota is 17.3% which is not low.

|[[ File:bieber.gif ]]

|Justin Bieber gains a follower on Twitter||4.73||13||556,000 per month|| [[802: Online Communities 2#Twitter Region|802: Online Communities 2]]; &nbsp;{{w|Justin Bieber}} is a Canadian pop music singer whose [https://twitter.com/justinbieber Twitter account] is extremely popular

|[[ File:denverpizza.gif ]]

|Someone in Denver orders pizza||1.27||47||2,000,000|| [[778: Scheduling]]

[[Category:Dynamic comics]]