Difference between revisions of "1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar"

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m (Copy-edited for spelling & clarity)
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:Girl: See how the baking soda and vinegar mix with mud and ice to form deadly flowing lahars?
 
:Girl: See how the baking soda and vinegar mix with mud and ice to form deadly flowing lahars?
  
:[Zoom in on the girls head close to the stream of lave going down the lower part of the volcanos right slope.]
+
:[Zoom in on the girls head close to the stream of lave going down the lower part of the volcano's right slope.]
 
:Girl: You can see the tiny cars trying to flee.  
 
:Girl: You can see the tiny cars trying to flee.  
:Girl: Whoops! Too Slow
+
:Girl: Whoops! Too slow.
  
 
:[Zoom in on Ponytail.]
 
:[Zoom in on Ponytail.]
:Ponytail: Um. This is a bit Grim.
+
:Ponytail: Um. This is a bit grim.
 
:Girl (off panel): Learning!
 
:Girl (off panel): Learning!
  
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:''Rumble''
 
:''Rumble''
  
:[Back to showing all three as before. The gir looks at something in her hand (a watch maby?)]
+
:[Back to showing all three as before. The girl looks at something in her hand (a stopwatch maybe?)]
 
:Girl: And now we're learning that this volcano is an offshoot of a vinegar hotspot rising from deep within the earth.
 
:Girl: And now we're learning that this volcano is an offshoot of a vinegar hotspot rising from deep within the earth.
 
:Girl:  ''Annnd...''
 
:Girl:  ''Annnd...''
  
:[The girls turns away from the table looking right as a loud noice can be heard indicated in white text written in a black areas with wavy texture at the top of this slim frame:]
+
:[The girls turns away from the table looking right as a loud noise can be heard off-panel, depicted in white text on a wavy black bubble:]
 
:''Boooom''  
 
:''Boooom''  
  
Line 59: Line 59:
 
:Girl (off panel): Learning is fun!
 
:Girl (off panel): Learning is fun!
  
:[We see the girl standing close to the table, of which only the right leg can be seen. She holds up a tablet with a graph showing a rising tendency. The other two are both out of the frame.]
+
:[We see the girl standing close to the table, of which only the right leg can be seen. She holds up a tablet with a graph showing a rising trend. The other two are both out of the frame.]
 
:Girl: Sunlight dims. The earth cools. Summer frosts form. Crops die. We check the markets. Grain prices are rising.
 
:Girl: Sunlight dims. The earth cools. Summer frosts form. Crops die. We check the markets. Grain prices are rising.
 
:Megan (off panel): I want to stop learning now.
 
:Megan (off panel): I want to stop learning now.

Revision as of 17:25, 2 December 2015

Baking Soda and Vinegar
Sure, it may not meet science fair standards, but I want credit for getting my baking soda and vinegar mountain added to the Decade Volcanoes list.
Title text: Sure, it may not meet science fair standards, but I want credit for getting my baking soda and vinegar mountain added to the Decade Volcanoes list.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Does it miss something about the reaction although that may not count as "real" science?
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

In popular fiction (and maybe in part in fact) the "Baking Soda and Vinegar" volcano is often a staple image of the science nerd at the science fair (see example here), unless all the science nerds are doing real imaginative science and the student(s) with the volcano exhibit are dragging out the old hackneyed stereotype. It may also be age-dependent, this being something that is relatively advanced science for the lower grades but rather a childish experiment in the hands of older students.

As Ponytail is probably about to point out, the 'volcano' exhibit doesn't (usually) actually demonstrate anything about volcanic activity, it is just simple chemistry - such as you usually conduct in a simple test-tube - dressed up to look more impressive, often with dye or other additives to make the 'lava' look realistic for the model, but unrelated to the geology it supposedly represents.

The girl with hair bun has made a little more of her volcano, however, as it seems to go beyond simple chemistry. The model replicates many of the dangers (aside from the pure lava) of a volcano, and appears to have been given scaled-down vehicles (no visible in the comic) trying (and failing) to escape the dangers of the resultant mud-flows (a.k.a. lahars in professional terminology) being modelled.

Even more, this is not an isolated 'model volcano' but a vinegar-powered representation of a geological 'hot spot', such as with the islands of Hawaii, in which the spot moves with respect to the Earth's crust (or vice-versa) and generates a new volcano some way off. Despite this model being supported on a table, it appears that the 'project' extends some way beyond that and has somehow contrived further eruptions away from the table, the room and probably even the building.

The 'project' seems to be turning into a very thorough model of a much larger geological process (a Supervolcano like the one under Yellowstone) and destined to produce a very real volcanic winter. Where a magma-powered volcano could produce vast clouds of dust, preventing the sun's energy from warming the Earth, in this case it's the airborne salt (probably sodium acetate) from the chemical reaction that appears to be in danger of causing crop failure. There's no mention of the corresponding environmental effects of the vast amounts of carbon dioxide (and/or aqueous carbonic acid) necessarily released in proportion to the ejected salt (presumably itself not left in solution).

It is especially troubling that the child even mentions that her model volcano is an offshoot of a bakingsoda supervolcano. Supervolcanoes are massive volcanoes, far larger than even those on the list of Decade Volcanoes (mentioned in the title text), whose eruption would likely trigger species-level extinction events comparable to the dinosaur extinction. Humanity can only hope the child is exaggerating in her description, but the symptoms witnessed by the adult looking out the window suggest otherwise.

Randall has mentioned supervolcanoes before in 1053: Ten Thousand (title text) and 1159: Countdown, making it a recurring interest of his.

In the title text the student expects extra credit for getting her model volcano added to the Decade Volcanoes list, a list maintained by International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior of the worlds most dangerous volcanoes (currently 16). It is either an absurd notion or a very troubling achievement that a science fair project could achieve the threatlevel posed by the likes of Mount Vesuvius (which destroyed ancient Pompeii in Italy, and threatens modern-day Naples in the same manner), Mount Rainier (whose lahars could potentially destroy parts of Seattle) or Mauna Loa (which threatens all of Hawaii). But at least that means that it was only a "local" volcano event and not a supervolcano event that she created. But considering the scale of her original model volcano, then the eruption of her supervolcano would probably fit with the difference between a normal single volcano eruption and that of one supervolcano! She kept it to scale!

Transcript

[Ponytail is standing behind a small girl with a hair bun who has one hand up. They are looking at a table with a model volcano.]
Girl: My science project is a baking soda and vinegar volcano!
[A larger frame that includes Megan who stands to the right. Ponytail is a little further back and the girl has taken her hand down. The baking soda volcano erupts in a small upwards explosion.]
Ponytail: Why do people make these? It isn't really even a science project. It doesn't teach anything about-
Volcano: Foom!
[Smaller frame again. Ponytail has moved closer to the table, the girl moves around the table to the right, pointing at the volcano while Megan walks closer. The "lava" flows down the volcano on both sides.]
Girl: See how the baking soda and vinegar mix with mud and ice to form deadly flowing lahars?
[Zoom in on the girls head close to the stream of lave going down the lower part of the volcano's right slope.]
Girl: You can see the tiny cars trying to flee.
Girl: Whoops! Too slow.
[Zoom in on Ponytail.]
Ponytail: Um. This is a bit grim.
Girl (off panel): Learning!
[The girls stand to the right of the table looking at the now still volcano. Shaky lines surround a sound effect written over the top of this slim frame:]
Rumble
[Back to showing all three as before. The girl looks at something in her hand (a stopwatch maybe?)]
Girl: And now we're learning that this volcano is an offshoot of a vinegar hotspot rising from deep within the earth.
Girl: Annnd...
[The girls turns away from the table looking right as a loud noise can be heard off-panel, depicted in white text on a wavy black bubble:]
Boooom
[Megan has walked over to a window to the right. It has the blinds drawn down. She opens a hole in the blinds by pulling down in the middle. It is dark outside. The other two are outside the frame to the left.]
Girl (off panel): The baking soda supervolcano erupts, injecting clouds of salt into the stratosphere.
Megan: Why is it getting dark outside?
Girl (off panel): Learning is fun!
[We see the girl standing close to the table, of which only the right leg can be seen. She holds up a tablet with a graph showing a rising trend. The other two are both out of the frame.]
Girl: Sunlight dims. The earth cools. Summer frosts form. Crops die. We check the markets. Grain prices are rising.
Megan (off panel): I want to stop learning now.
Girl: Soon, we all will.


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Discussion

The only experience I have with such a volcano exhibit is from US TV programmes representing the nerds (or the desperate non-nerds with no imagination) at a science-fair in Stateside schools, but I laid down my impressions of the tradition anyway. No embedded links to anything, as yet, as I expect other people will know what needs explaining (or re-writing) better than me. - I was going to go onto Supervolcano territory, but I'm not sure it's supposed to be more than 'regular' increased volcanic activity, outside, albeit through the power of acid/base interaction (thus salt being the equivalent of volcanic dust plumes, no doubt). 162.158.152.227 10:00, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Another trans-Atleantean here, I've expanded on your explanation with some links and the title-text, but your overall draft concurs with my experience of science-fair volcanoes being a stereotypical "easy/lame" project for science fairs 162.158.90.193 11:33, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Humanity should hope that the supervolcano is built in scale, resulting in ONLY Decade Volcanoes level of damage. -- Hkmaly (talk) 13:50, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

According to the title text it is so no worries if you do not live close by or has to fly close to the ash clouds ;-) --Kynde (talk) 16:03, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Isn't the girl the same one as in Feathers[[1]]? 199.27.129.95 23:08, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

I thought Megan was about to say that the mini volcano had nothing to do with the scientific method, which would fill in the holes mentioned by the incomplete box and thus complete the explanation. If anyone else agrees with me, I think we should edit it to say that (I'm too busy right now to do so.)173.245.54.49 23:39, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Agreed; changes made :) --mezimm 108.162.221.89 14:39, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

Can we all agree that this is a young Danish? Zakka (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I personally think shes kinda a black hat type guy who caused unusual things to happen maybe her volcano is like a voodoo doll of sorts for the real earth which now suddenly has such volcanoes because of her. Needforsuv (talk) 11:39, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
No I do not think she is a Danish/Black Hat. But I think she is a recurring character as in 1104: Feathers mentioned above. Similar girls have been used before and after this. Maybe we need a category for her. She is not evil, but when people dismiss her for being a child or not being scientific, she may get mean. Of course this case is quite bad. But had it not been for the comment to begin with maybe she would not have set off her super volcano ;-) --Kynde (talk) 16:10, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
Other girls like this: 1659: Tire Swing, 1352: Cosmologist on a Tire Swing and 1058: Old-Timers.
other xkcd volcano/lava comics

WhiteDragon (talk) 14:14, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Are you suggesting we add a volcano category? 108.162.210.206 01:31, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

I don't think that the model "extends some way beyond [the table]". I think the joke is that it's a small-scale model of an actual, geological baking soda/vinegar volcano, countering Ponytail's implied claim that it isn't based on real geology. --199.27.128.25 01:48, 5 December 2015 (UTC)