30Nov/095
Experiment
by Jeff
Image text: The other two are still lost on the infinite plane of uniform density.
Let's see if we can work through this one. The Black Hat character and a female accomplice knock out a Physics professor and put him in a frictionless vacuum. The professor wakes up and tries to talk but the vacuum prevents him from being able to say anything. In the first two frames of the bottom section, the professor tries to move, but falls down because the vacuum is frictionless as well.
EDIT: Please see the comments below for Rob and Paige's explanations of the comic who are much more attuned to physics jokes than I am. Thanks Rob and Paige!
November 30th, 2009
When Physics professors give problems, or give examples in class, they often assume a frictionless vacuum, so as to ignore forces acting on the experiment other then the forces being studied (air resistance, friction, etc).
When the professor wakes up, there is atmosphere in the room, but black-hat removes the air in the room when the professor wakes up.
The image text refers to another “ideal environment” where the study of waves and particles are often examined without the forces that would act on them.
December 16th, 2009
Thanks!
December 16th, 2009
Your explanation, person who runs this site, does nothing more than restate what happens in the comic, rather than actually explain the content.
It’s like the classic chicken joke: There’s this farmer whose chickens have stopped laying eggs for some reason. He [inexplicably] calls in a physicist [instead of a chicken expert] to help solve his problem. The physicist does some calculations, and finally tells the farmer, “I’ve got a solution! But it’ll only work for spherical chickens in a vacuum.”
Both the joke and the comic are funny because in physics, the problems, formulas, etc, are based on ideal conditions (like Rob said). It doesn’t just refer to physics professors giving problems or examples in class though. There are several jokes involving this phenomena, including one that I don’t feel like typing out about finding the volume of a cow by approximating it as spherical. It’s a common nerd joke that physics problems don’t actually apply to realistic situations, while the engineers are left to sort out the messy real-world applications (you’re welcome).
December 16th, 2009
Thank you!
December 16th, 2009
Thanks Rob and Paige – I’ve edited the explanation to look for your explanations in the comments. I must have been asleep during that part of Physics class.