Talk:2458: Bubble Wrap

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 09:45, 4 May 2021 by 141.101.98.146 (talk)
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In another 25 years, unpopped bubble wrap will be the only source of pure air left in the world. RAGBRAIvet (talk) 04:42, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

In 25 thousand years, scientists will use bubble wrap to see what the air what like today, in a similar fashion to how we use ice core samples to look at the atmosphere from thousands of years ago. 108.162.249.74 04:54, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

WD-40 is not a lubricant. 172.68.65.244 05:16, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

You're right, but in the time it took for you to post the comment, you could have just fixed it. Bischoff (talk) 07:21, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
Are you sure? Its not lube despite its penetrating powers, I'll concede to that. But why wouldn't it be a lubricant? Its an oil based product, I need more context. 172.69.170.142 07:29, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
You're right, that since it's oil based it can and sometimes is used as a short term lubricant. However it is not advisable to use it (or other penetrating oils) that way. They generally evaporate too quickly to be used long term. You'd have to constantly reapply it to moving parts. Bischoff (talk) 09:27, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

Could the comic be some sort of mocking people who taste all weird stuff from wine? Or basically anyone who has a distinguished taste on [wine, whiskey, tobacco, cheese etc]? Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 08:59, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

I relegated the "sound of popping bubblewrap" out of being the single explicit reason why people like doing it, although obviously different people have different needs (up to and including annoying other people by the noise they create, as perhaps the primary reason to pop the bubbles when given the opportunity), but it's a complex issue. There's various explanations out there, and I know I get more frustrated when I have to try harder to pop 'pop resisting' stuff, even with the same end sound, or can be satisfied with pin-pricking with something sharp to 'doodle' a pop-pattern (and/or flood-fill a methodical 'wasteland' of poppedness) even if it gives nothing more than a faint 'snick'/hiss sound whilst doing it.

...but, no, I've never thought of sniffing it. I suppose I always imagined it was inflated with compressed gasses, like "packaged in a protective atmosphere", for foodstuffs, even though this now sounds ridiculously over-engineered to waste fractionated atmosphere or chemically-evolved gas rather than just blow in (filtered) atmosphere, or even just letting the plastic layers settle down over the original ambient airgap when fusing the 'bubble edges' down between them - however they actually do it.

And then there's the old chestnut about using helium-filled bubble-wrap to reduce/nullify (charged by weight) shipping costs! Note, though, that it's commonly suggested, if you search around, and then commonly refuted by (among other things) the economics of buying enough helium-filled packaging to make any postage-rate change. I suppose you could invest in equipment to split water (powered by solar power) and try infusing it into a standard air-pocket wrapping (could that break even, eventually?), though shipping companies might well consider the Hindenbubblewrap strays outside their standard handling processes so no longer benefits from the sought after lightness-discount. 141.101.98.146 09:45, 4 May 2021 (UTC)