Talk:1877: Eclipse Science

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 21:13, 16 August 2017 by Kynde (talk | contribs)
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I'm pretty sure his point was actually that in the modern day eclipses are pretty well understood, easy enough to travel to, and provide very little actually unique circumstances, so in reality there is very little scientific value at all. Just a really cool thing to see

162.158.75.10 15:56, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

Yet still there are some aspects of eclipses such as shadow bands which are unexplained. There are some theories, but eclipses are rare enough, plus shadow bands don't occur with every one, so there is no definitive explanation yet.
RChandra (talk) 18:56, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

To me the comic is poking fun at the idea the media (and by extension laypeople in general) perceive eclipses to be of great scientific importance and that scientists are excited about it for that reason. Note how his almost every utterance contains "science". Megan deftly deflects his attempts to put words in her mouth and remains resolute in her stance that eclipses are interesting to everyone on their face value but not necessarily more so to scientists that others. 108.162.216.160 19:35, 16 August 2017 (UTC)Pat

I guess Randall is sad that people outside the band seem to have less interest in the eclipse, like shown in the previous comic, and that they might not wish to travel a few hours to see a once in a life time spectacle, or as he also feared in the last comic, try too late to get there and get stuck in the trafic jam outside the totality zone. Being in the 99.9999% dark part is nothing compared to being inside the zone being able to see the corona (the ring in the sky). Go and see it if you have any chance of doing so! --Kynde (talk) 21:13, 16 August 2017 (UTC)