298: Tesla Coil

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Tesla Coil
For scientists, this can be the hardest thing about dreams.
Title text: For scientists, this can be the hardest thing about dreams.

Explanation

In the comic, a scientist diligently creates a Tesla coil, a type of electrical appartus sometimes used in experiments. After that, Black Hat magically shoots electricity from his fingertips, and hovers in mid-air. There is simply no apparent explanation for Black Hat's abilities, which means the scientist's work is incomplete at best. The title text indicates this disturbing scenario sometimes occurs in scientists' dreams.

Transcript

[Two figures, one wearing a hat stand near a tesla coil mounted on a table.]

Cueball: I finally finished my Tesla Coil!
[The room is dark; characters appear as faint blue outlines on black background. No hat turns on the Tesla Coil <<click>> and it sparks white static electricity. <<gzzzzzz>>]
Black Hat: Cool, but- Check *this* out
[Lightning shoots out of Hat Man's hands <<gzzzzzz>>]
[The lights are back on]
Cueball: How did you do that?
Black Hat: The world doesn't actually make any sense. Science doesn't work. No one told you because you're so cute when you get into something.
Black Hat: [Floting up the frame] Still, neat toy.
Cueball: [Pointing to Black Hat] Now you're hovering!
Black Hat: I guess you're still not getting this.
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Discussion

I really think that someone should revise the explanation for the tesla coil. 108.162.210.102 17:25, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

Removed the redundant comment in the description about Emperor Palpatine and Superman. I'm fairly sure anyone reading this know or can at least extrapolate levitation and lightning generation. -Pennpenn 108.162.250.162 06:25, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

I wonder if the levitation is a jab at the anti-gravity people who associate Tesla with "electro-gravity". -- Flewk (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Ehh, I wouldn't say that the title text is an indication of the comic being a dream. I think they just meant dreams in general. 8:29 January 11 2023 (PST)