1622: Henge

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Henge
I've got the Craigslist post ready to go! I wasn't sure what category it should go in, so I listed it as property and put that it has 'good sun exposure.'
Title text: I've got the Craigslist post ready to go! I wasn't sure what category it should go in, so I listed it as property and put that it has 'good sun exposure.'


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Explanation

The Manhattan thing is a reference to Manhattanhenge, the phenomenon that causes the setting sun to align with the east-west streets of the main grid of Manhattan, New York, causing a very special light display. This happens twice a year. Manhattanhenge is itself named after Stonehenge, an ancient monument with several big stones, where the heel stone, and the embanked avenue, are aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice and the opposing sunrise of the summer solstice (thus creating on purpose the effect seen today in Manhattan). Hence the title of the comic.

In this comic Ponytail tells Cueball that One day a year, the sun sets directly between these two trees. However Cueball realizes that the setting sun would line up with almost any two trees on any given day. This is due to the fact that any two trees that are close together with one further north would allow a setting sun to set between them, as the viewer of the sunset would simply need to move themselves to make the alignment work (as opposed to Manhattanhenge, which requires the sun to align with a straight line).

The twist comes when Ponytail and Megan actually attempt to capture the setting sun with a butterfly net, as it is revealed that the sun is actually setting at the point between the two trees rather than behind the trees when viewed from the east side. This is of course not possible in real life; but in the comic's last panel and in the title text the girls continue with their successful though surrealistic plan.

If this was indeed our Sun that they had somehow shrunk and cooled enough to captured with a butterfly net, transfer to a bag and bring it home, this would on xkcd terms be no more strange than many of the strange powers of Beret Guy. If this would indeed happen, then since Earth and the rest of the solar system is now missing its central star there would be a ton of problems for everyone on Earth. So the girls would probably be able to get a lot of money in ransom for releasing the sun... But in the title text it turns out that they are just going to sell the Sun on-line.

Alternatively this is not The Sun, but just a small sun-look alike, maybe a Ball lightning which might actually be able behave like this (but not be captured in a bag).

The title text refers to Craigslist, a web site where the girls plans to offer the sun for sale in hopes of getting rich. Craigslist is a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, items wanted, etc. One of the girls tells that she was uncertain as to under which category she should list a "Sun for sale". But she put it under property (as in real estate). To advertise the "property" she put "that it has 'good sun exposure", a common description of real estate. Being the sun itself, and having lasted already 5 billion years under its own intense radiation, you could phrase it like it has lasted well under sun exposure. On the other hand you could claim that it has never really been exposed to any external sun radiation, as the star light hitting the sun from other suns (stars) is very limited, even over 5 billion years.

The title text is likely a reference to a woman who was stopped by eBay for selling plots of "land" on sun.

Transcript

[Ponytail and Cueball are walking towards two the trees from the left (Cueball has just passed the first tree) and Megan is walking towards them fro the right. Ponytail spreads her arms while talking.]
Ponytail: One day a year, the sun sets directly between these two trees.
Cueball: Oh, cool - like the Manhattan thing.
[Cueball stands alone in a beat panel without a frame.]
[Shining light appears at the top of the frame (below Cueball's text). Cueball is lifting his hand, looking at the girls in front of him while Ponytail walks straight under the light looking up and Megan standing to the right looks up and points at the light.]
Cueball: Wait, isn't that true every day for pretty much any two trees?
Megan: Shh, here it comes!
[Cueball lifts both arms up and look on as Ponytail bending back suddenly holds a butterfly net up towards the "setting" sun that approaches the net while Megan is holding a bag open. Both are looking at the sun.]
Cueball: Wait, what?
Ponytail: OK, got the bag?
Megan: Yup, grab it!
Ponytail: We're gonna be rich!


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Discussion

This "catch the sun in the butterfly net" subplot reminds me of novel by Polish author Kornel Makuszyński (and a children's films based on it) "The Two Who Stole the Moon" --JakubNarebski (talk) 08:43, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

I had to laugh at this part of the explanation, and then remove it: "(In reality, the fact that the net is not melting or burning proves that the sun is nowhere near the net.)" Because in this comic they obviously catch the sun ion a net, as they later (after the catch) has put it on sale on Craiglist as per the title text. But the reason I laughed was that the only problem the writer of this sentence saw was that the sun would be too hot. What about it's size and gravity, if we are talking about the real sun... So yes if it where the real sun it would be a long way away to look this small (150 million km as usual, 8 light minutes). But in this comic it is between the trees and it is very small and cool. Only strange thing is that Beret Guy is not involved as his powers would explain this comic. But then again he would never do it for profit. --Kynde (talk) 09:23, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

I disagree, there's no indication that this scheme actually worked. The Craigslist posting could just as easily have been written in advance, and the Title text could be the next line spoken, before the capture either succeeds or fails. Swordsmith (talk) 16:48, 28 December 2015 (UTC)
If the sun will be cold, it would also be dark. On the other hand, if the sun will have it's real temperature and be small, it would be exploding ... it's hard to remove just one property from Sun. -- Hkmaly (talk) 16:04, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

The "sun exposure" explanation is wrong. It's not about how it holds up under sunlight, it's about how much sunlight it gets. 198.41.235.101 17:21, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

The phrase "any given day" suggests that the two hypothetical trees will align with the sun on any day of the year arbitrarily chosen. A better way to say it would be "...Cueball realizes that the setting sun would line up with almost any two trees on at least one day of the year." (Anonymous user Ben) 108.162.214.239 16:43, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

If the observer is able to move freely, he can always position himself in such a way that the sun will set between the two trees on any give day. The only exception will be if the two trees and the sunset are aligned, i.e. the trees obscure the sun. Sysin (talk) 17:24, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

The line about "getting rich" got me thinking.... Only 5E-10 of the sun is gold [1] but the sun's mass is approx 2E30kg [2], so that's 1E21 kg of gold (about US $35 septillion at today's prices), and that's just one element, there are all sorts of precious metals in the sun's core... Sysin (talk) 17:19, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

^^(about US $35 septillion at today's prices)^^ - yes, but, once you had it (in a lump it'd be over 1% the mass of the Moon or perhaps 300 billion Mt Everests) in your posession and started to sell it, not anywhere near so much at tomorrow's prices... ;) 162.158.152.227 12:48, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

The selling of Sun on craigslist is possibly a refernce to the woman who was selling land on the sun on ebay -- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3112111/What-blazes-Spanish-woman-selling-plots-land-sun-1-sues-eBay-breach-contract-auction-site-closes-down.html 162.158.255.46 17:30, 29 December 2015 (UTC)