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| Beam Dump |
 Title text: We're adding some industrial flypaper to minimize reflection or scattering of customers who might complain. |
Explanation
This comic relies on the fact that experimental physics uses experiments very differently at the atomic level from how people expect to be treated in an amusement park context. In the comic, Cueball, Megan, and White Hat have apparently hired an accelerator physicist, portrayed as Ponytail, to design a water park. Ponytail has decided that, in the event an emergency stop is activated on a large waterslide, the riders would be diverted to a "beam dump", a large block of graphite which Ponytail believes would safely slow the momentum of the riders. However, unlike in Ponytail's former field of work, the subsequent fate of the visitors should be a major concern, and collisions into heavy solid blocks is a physical health risk.[citation needed]
However, in the context of a particle accelerator, beam dumps are indeed formed of large blocks of graphite, in order to safely slow the unwanted particles without having them release large amounts of energy in a more uncontrolled manner. It could be argued that since this measure is intended for the safety of the operators, and not the particles (customers) it would technically be effective at the original purpose if the blocks are sufficiently large, protecting the operators from high velocity customers โ if not from the lawsuits of any survivors/next-of-kin.
The title text adds to the joke, with the park designers apparently utilizing flypaper to 'minimize reflection or scattering of customers'. After customers strike the graphite, instead of drifting or bouncing away from it, they would now remain stuck to it. The word "industrial", in this context, means "more powerful than the versions usually used at home": "industrial-strength" chemicals are more concentrated than their home versions; "industrial-strength" tools tolerate more and heavier use than those used occasionally by amateurs before breaking or wearing out. Industrial items are generally much more expensive than their regular counterparts, but the extra cost is justified by a decreased need to maintain, repair, or replace them, or by their increased strength allowing the user to consume less of them or to perform tasks impossible with the regular versions. "Industrial flypaper" isn't a real thing, but the name implies that it would, in some way, be better (and more expensive) than regular flypaper. It might be larger, to catch more flies without replacement or to catch larger flies; it might use stronger glue, to catch flies more effectively (or catch stronger flies); it might be reusable in some way. Its use in the beam dump suggests that it's large enough, with strong enough glue, to trap humans, even wet humans.
Transcript
- [Ponytail is standing in front of a diagram on the wall, pointing at it with a pointer. The diagram has a picture of a waterslide and some untelligible text. The waterslide has two paths at the bottom; one returns to the base of the entrance tower, the other goes to a large black block. On the right stand Cueball, Megan, and White Hat facing her.]
- Ponytail: If the emergency stop is activated, any riders on the waterslide will be diverted into the beam dump, a large graphite block which will safely absorb their momentum.
- [Caption below panel:]
- We regretted hiring an accelerator phsycist to design our water park.
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