Talk:1440: Geese

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 09:11, 29 October 2014 by 108.162.231.215 (talk)
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The explanation should point out that the comic is referring to the common misconception that there is a high chance that a visible star is already dead. The facts are explained but the context is missing. This misconception was also mentioned in a what-if, but I cant find it right now. The Milky Way is 120kly in diameter and most visible stars are much closer. With a lifetime of at least a couple millions of years the probability for a random star being dead is way below 1%. Given that there are 5000 stars visible to the naked eye (under best viewing conditions), this means that statistically there are maybe 5 stars in the entire night sky that are dead already. --108.162.231.215 09:10, 29 October 2014 (UTC)