Talk:1941: Dying Gift

Wikipedia has a list of most Foucault pendulums in the world, if anyone wants to try to guess what museum he worked for :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Foucault_pendulums Hawthorn (talk) 12:11, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

I assumed that his Foucault pendulum was in his own home, rather than in some public place. 141.101.104.143 15:41, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

Yeah, he does say "Main hall" DPS2004'); DROP TABLE users;-- (talk) 17:19, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

Hmmm, I take your point :) I made the assumption that the pendulum is in a museum because I'm most familiar with seeing them in museums (and museums have halls), but the comic doesn't actually say that. It would be unusual for a man to personally own a large hall with a Foucault pendulum, but the title text does suggest that the guy is rich, so it's possible. Hawthorn (talk) 17:33, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

I am working on a fan project related to xkcd and I am hoping to release it on the 2000th comic. How much longer do I have? DPS2004'); DROP TABLE users;-- (talk) 16:33, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

Assuming they come out three times a week as normal, until about the end of May.141.101.76.16 16:46, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

If the comics continue as normal, #2000 would come out on May 30th, 2018. 162.158.62.153 22:49, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

Thanks! DPS2004'); DROP TABLE users;-- (talk) 17:17, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

But why on such an arbitrary number? If you wait until #2048 at least it would be a nice round one :D 172.68.110.40 12:59, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

There is a superstition that the stopping of a clock's pendulum will cause (or will be caused by) the death of the clock's owner. A less superstitious version is that a clock's pendulum must be kept swinging as a token of rememberance. Therefore it is actually quite realistic that a dying person might instruct the inheritor of a pendulum clock to never let it stop. However, Randall turns the situation absurd by replacing the pendulum clock with a Foucault pendulum, not only because of the difficulty of moving the pendulum while it's swinging, but also because there's no such superstition associated with Foucault pendulums (that I could find, at least). 162.158.238.112 17:51, 13 January 2018 (UTC)