2627: Types of Scopes

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
(Redirected from 2627)
Jump to: navigation, search
Types of Scopes
An x-ray gyroscope is used to determine exactly which toppings they included in the pita.
Title text: An x-ray gyroscope is used to determine exactly which toppings they included in the pita.

Explanation[edit]

Electron microscopes, electron telescopes and radio telescopes are special forms of microscopes and telescopes, respectively. This comic explores what you could do with a hypothetical "electron ___-scope" and "radio ___-scope" for other "regular" items whose name also ends in -scope (namely: periscope, stethoscope, kaleidoscope, gyroscope and horoscope).

The third column with "radio" often plays on different meanings of the word radio: 1) related to radiation and 2) a device for receiving radio communication or broadcasts.

The title text makes a pun on "gyroscope" and a middle-eastern pita wrap called a "gyros", incorrectly taken to be plural by many non-Greek speakers.

Table with scopes[edit]

What the words could mean according to the comic
Word Regular ___ Electron ___ Radio ___
Microscope A laboratory instrument used for magnifying small objects. Really exists: A microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination has a higher resolution than a conventional microscope. Simply a microscope that one would use when repairing a radio.
Telescope An optical instrument used for observing distant objects. Really exists: A type of telescope used to detect electrons and other high-energy particles, such as cosmic rays. Really exists: A directional antenna is used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky.
Periscope Periscopes allow submarine crews to watch what happens above the water surface, without exposing the submarine to enemy observers, or enemy radars. In practice, periscope use is minimized because periscopes are still observable, but to a lesser degree. An electron microscope seemingly mounted on a periscope. Examining enemy boats like a periscope, with the detail of an electron microscope. This would not be useful in combat.[citation needed] In principle, the German navy invented radio periscopes during World War II. The Metox radar detector's early antenna had to be built up after surfacing and dismantled before diving. Later, the fixed Bali antenna could act as a true periscope, in order to detect aircraft and ships that were using radar to hunt submarines.

Radio signals do not propagate well in water, so raising a radio receiver above the water would be necessary for listening to NPR (National Public Radio, a popular public radio network in the United States) or any radio station which is not in the extremely low frequency band.

Stethoscope A medical device for listening to sounds made by a patient's body, for example, the heart. It has a disc-shaped resonator that is placed against the patient's skin. If the resonator is emitting electromagnetic radiation, it could burn the skin due to its close proximity. Normally, the sounds are transmitted to an earpiece that the examiner wears. There are also recording stethoscopes. A radio stethoscope would transmit the sound either directly via radio waves, or send it to a radio station such as NPR where it could then be broadcasted.
Kaleidoscope A optical instrument that uses two or more tilted reflectors to show a regular symmetrical pattern Seemingly a pun of electron "collide"-scope, as electron collisions generate Bremsstrahlung. The scan button on a radio scans through many frequencies, and the radio station changes a lot, depending on the frequency. The rapid change is reminiscent of a normal kaleidoscope.
Gyroscope Gyroscopes are used for inertial navigation, for example. Gyroscopes make stuff point in certain directions by spinning. An Electromagnet uses sometimes-spinning electric fields to induce a magnetic field, moving magnetic stuff and, in some instances, making it point in a certain direction. A phonograph, also called a record player or a turntable, spins a vinyl record to stimulate an electromagnetic needle, which plays music. Such devices are common in radio stations.

In theory, radio waves could be sent around in a triangular pattern, thus replicating the existing ring laser gyroscope.

Horoscope In common usage, predictions or advice is given based on the position of stars and planets. Largely unscientific, it is much closer to a Rorschach Test than person-specific information. Predicting the position of a particle, such as an electron (possibly based on the position of stars and planets). In a funny twist, the exact location of an electron cannot be determined, due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. This seems to be little different from a regular horoscope, but recording the movement and position of the stars and galaxies with a radio telescope instead of a regular telescope.

Transcript[edit]

Content is a table, with column headings "Regular Blank Scope", "Electron Blank Scope", and "Radio Blank Scope". Row headings are "Micro", "Tele", "Peri", "Stetho", "Kaleido", "Gyro", and "Horo".

Regular Microscope
Look at small stuff
Electron Microscope
Look at really small stuff
Radio Microscope
Figure out why your radio broke
Regular Telescope
Look at stuff that's far away
Electron Telescope
Detect cosmic rays
Radio Telescope
Look at distant high-energy stuff
Regular Periscope
Look for enemy ships
Electron Periscope
Examine the hull of an enemy ship for structural flaws
Radio Periscope
Let the crew of your submarine listen to NPR
Regular Stethoscope
Listen to a patient's chest
Electron Stethoscope
Burn a patient's skin
Radio Stethoscope
Play the noises from a patient's chest on NPR
Regular Kaleidoscope
See cool shapes and colors
Electron Kaleidoscope
See cool Bremsstrahlung
Radio Kaleidoscope
Another word for the "Scan" button
Regular Gyroscope
Balance by spinning
Electron Gyroscope
Another word for electromagnet
Radio Gyroscope
Another word for turntable
Regular Horoscope
Get random life advice
Electron Horoscope
Predict a particle's quantum state
Radio Horoscope
Get random life advice from exploding galaxies


comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

Wiki's getting hit pretty hard by the trolls this week... 172.69.134.21 19:02, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

What's with all the vandalism? I know this is the internet, and therefore some vandalism is expected, but YIKES!!! What happened this week? Edit: I don't know who put my message loads, but it wasn't me.SqueakSquawk4 (talk) 19:16, 1 June 2022 (UTC)
AGREed. waht is the lore behind these schizophrenics and doug walker! holy fuck --172.70.34.191 20:07, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

Fixed it. That was annoying 172.70.174.41 22:15, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

Another spammer appears to be adding comments about their anatomy and disparaging the reader's mother in the explanation of the title text. It has been added and removed at least twice now (once by me), around 22:35. Keep an eye out for small, annoying trolls like this one, as the spammers may have realized that bombarding the pages with massive images is not the cleanest way to ensure they get their (infantile) message across. Dextrous Fred (talk) 22:39, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

There has also been someone who has seen a dislike to Davidy and me... For instance he has created some very long user names... Must have taken him some time :-D --Kynde (talk) 14:55, 2 June 2022 (UTC)
Ooh, he doesn't like you, LOL! Wow. NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:45, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

At least the most obnoxious one seems to be gone (or at least on hiatus). 162.158.107.230 03:18, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

Randall apparently thinks NPR is the only radio network. It's the only radio I listen too as well. Barmar (talk) 13:34, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

Electron Stethoscope would be a cool name for an EIT chest imaging device. 162.158.2.215 14:28, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_impedance_tomography -- it uses impedance, which relates to electrons. There is likely something even more analogous for a radio stethescope (near-field coherent sensing equipment uses radio frequencies: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-020-0307-6 ). I'm quite surprised that Randall interprets "radio" as meaning "audio broadcast" rather than "electromagnetic" so much here. Maybe he hasn't been doing much EM stuff. 172.70.114.225 23:46, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

When I first saw the comic title I thought it was going to be about variable scopes in programming. But maybe that would have been too esoteric. Barmar (talk) 15:41, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

I'm thinking there's just so much imagination material already with regard to measurement scopes. Variable scoping is definitely within the content of the webcomic, as far as I know. 172.70.114.225 23:46, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

I was expecting something about sniper scopes (or rifle scopes). Electron sniper scope looks like a thing from Terminator movie. 141.101.105.35 21:10, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

Hey, just what you see, pal... 172.70.85.177 23:05, 2 June 2022 (UTC)
Hello, deadly friend. 172.70.114.225 23:46, 2 June 2022 (UTC)

Maybe add what the constructed scope is in each cell of the table? e.g. the cell for the radio kaleidoscope would have "radio kaleidoscope:" at the beginning? 172.70.175.146 18:00, 3 June 2022 (UTC)Bumpf